A friend invited me over to play-brag Wolfenstein 3D at me, around its release. It was a hot day, and everybody's windows were open as I rode over to his suburb. As I turned the corner to his street, I heard the shouting in German.
Window blinds twitched and neighbors stared as I approached, giving me a creepy Children of the Corn vibes. (Classic horror movie featuring murderously xenophobic villagers).
His parent smiled and waved me back to his room without getting up from their TV-facing couch. Another level of noise subsumed me as I approached his door - there was a boom-box playing music in his room.
The room was remarkably messy even for a teen, and smelled of old food and unwashed dude. He didn't care, he was in the Zone. I hadn't even dropped my backpack when he was talking about The Level he was on fast enough to generate foam in the corner of his mouth. My friend had The Hype, bad. In the geek parlance of the times, he was Larval for Wolfenstein.
Some people might find that creepy, but I saw his smile, and so I went with it. We had chicken nuggets and soda. Nazis died. Good times.
And he stopped being that way soon afterwards. Maybe it just burned itself out. Maybe.
I like to think he just needed somebody to share with, somebody who could understand his process. I've been listening to excited people ever since.

And yeah, I always play with headphones. "ACHTUNG!" baby. Achtung.