Video Game Memories

[Vanillaphant]

I thought it might be fun to have a thread which is not so much about video games themselves but about memories of playing them when you were younger. After all, when people talk excitedly about old/retro games, I tend to think it's as much about the nostalgia and the memories the games evoke as anything.

A personal example would be of playing a game called Broken Sword on the Playstation with my then best friend (I guess we would have been about 10 at the time). For anybody who doesn't know, Broken Sword was a point-and-click adventure/detective-type game. Which I suppose would make it a somewhat unsual choice; not the most exciting, fun-packed game ever! lol Not that I thought about it in these terms at the time, but I think what made it so enjoyable was the fact that we were working together as a team to get through the game; working stuff out together, offering suggestions to each other, getting excited about the next plot development... (I wasn't a complete nerd when I was a kid, honest to God! lol) It was the bonding element, in other words.

So yeah... That kinda thing, I suppose.

Anyone?

 

[sonnymadler]

GTA Vice City

Yeah you're probably thinking obvious popular choice. But what makes Vice City memorable and still enjoyable for me to this day (I'm currently playing it on my tablet ) is, being a naive impressionable kid, it took me years to get into the series. I remember GTA3 literally scared me due to its violent nature and dark tone, so it took me years to finish that one. Vice City was different. I was approaching senior school grades when I finally picked this game up. And immediately I found it to be substantially more enjoyable than GTA3. Because it was brighter, livelier, the 80s setting and music were way more fun. And the main character talked for a change, not some mute who was dead inside.

Not only did I fall in love with the 80s, but the game also introduced me to Miami Vice. Yeah, a millennial like me digging up an old 80s cop show on the internet. But where I originate from, to me it felt like a whole new world of cool. I suddenly started taking care of my looks, my style, the clothes I wore more than I ever bothered before. Granted, I basically ripped off the 80s bright pastel suit and t-shirt look and probably quite looked ridiculous wearing it to school with longer hair LOL, but I stood out from the rest of the school with my more rebellious look, because I was sick and tired of wearing the school uniform. And at least it led to developing a keener eye for what and how to wear.

So as mindless as video games may be, GTA Vice City will always have a special place in my heart.

 

[BeautifullyBNT]

We used to have a bunch of friends over to play Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter 2 tournaments. I always sucked, but the atmosphere with all my buddies was awesome!

 

[happydarwin]

Mario Party, the first iteration. Wanna ruin 3 friendships at the same time? Sure, just play Mario Party on the N64 with 3 of your friends and say goodbye to years of history in the span of 45 turns. To be fair though, it still is an amazing game. Just remembering pulling one of the controller cords out just as an adversary was about to win...priceless.

HappyD

 

[Bugman]

I didn't grow up with video games and never had much interest in them to be honest. My younger brother had the home version of Pong and If I was around, which wasn't often, I'd play a few games with him.

Fast forward to Houston, the early 1980's. One night I wandered into a little café on North Shepherd Dr., a place like one might have found wandering the streets of Paris, except there was a Pac-Man game in one corner. Out of curiosity I dropped a coin in and was figuring things out when the waitress came by to take my order.

She looked strikingly like a young Audrey Hepburn and coupled with her French accent I was quite taken with her. I became something of a regular there, and sometimes, when things were slow we would compete for high score. I never found the courage to ask her out, and one night I found out she had moved on to another job. Never saw her again but it's a nice memory.

 

[Tenebrae]

She looked strikingly like a young Audrey Hepburn and coupled with her French accent I was quite taken with her. I became something of a regular there, and sometimes, when things were slow we would compete for high score. I never found the courage to ask her out, and one night I found out she had moved on to another job. Never saw her again but it's a nice memory.

That sounds an awful lot like my mother! Are you certain you did not ask her out? Hopefully you're not gonna go all Darth Vader on me, are you?

Just kidding, she never went to Houston. But "Audrey Hepburn with a French accent": yep, that'd be her! And I was born in the 80's

Great thread! I am an avid gamer; in fact I may spend too much time playing. I have so many good video game memories that it'd take forever to list them all. But some of my favorites are:

1) When I was 5-7 years old, my dad (the real one, lol) used to take me skiing in winter. After spending an afternoon doing that, we would go to a bar and play Mortal Kombat or Golden Axe together before eating. Lovely memory...

2) Cooperation on Streets of Rage, with friends or family. It felt almost to good as a kid to have each other's back like those action heroes of our favorite movies. Same for Halo.

3) That "wow!" moment when a good story in a game blows your mind away or moves you to tears. I think the first moment I felt that was playing Metal Gear Solid for the first time at 13 years old, but there have been many more ever since.

If I can think of any more I will add them~

 

[Flatfoot]

Gosh, this'll be hard to narrow down!

I remember the first time getting through Contra, doing co-op with my best friend at the time, using the 30-lives code (The game would be nearly impossible without it! ).

When I got older, there was Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, co-op fighting games, and then eventually RPGs (We were such geeks, we played RPGs TOGETHER, and we had rules that you couldn't give the characters stupid names, because we took the stories seriously, and even narrated the dialogue! ).

I also spent a lot of time on PC adventure games in the 90s--mostly Sierra games (Just about any game with 'Quest' in the title! ). Those were mostly personal, but I got friends to play them, and I remember phone calls back and forth, helping each other solve confusing puzzles (back before GameFAQs was a thing!).

Nowadays, I would love to enjoy a good RPG that I could immerse myself in, but as I've gotten older, grown-up commitments kinda prevent total immersion. I still game, but my tastes have gotten very particular in that I need a game that has an interesting enough story to keep me engaged, but not too long that I'll give up playing. Lately, my favorite game franchise has been Capcom's Phoenix Wright series. Since about October, I've been binging my way through each of those games. The stories are fun and absurd, and the game can be saved at nearly any moment, making them ideal for taking breaks.

 

[Laughingbound]

Halo 3.

The memories I've had on that game will never compare to anything else gaming-wise. I spent every day on that game from September 2007 until Reach came out and I'm not ashamed one bit. My friends and I were obsessed with it and that game is the sole reason I'm still a gamer to this day. I actually have a Halo sleeve planned out with my local tattoo artist, I'm just waiting for a couple more paychecks and I'll have it!

The story? Beautiful. Outmatched. I love every second of that campaign and say it word for word when I play.
The multiplayer? Maybe not industry-changing, but definitely a classic, and absolutely memorable experience!

Honestly I should've never started writing this post, I feel like I could write about Halo forever.

 

[Sensualswitch10]

Epic RBI baseball matches and tournaments, Double dribble basketball, Double dragon, Contra, Metroid, Mike Tysons Punch out, Wizards and Warriors, Kung fu, Legend of Zelda, the original Final Fantasy, Shadowgate... ahhh! So many memories with friends and relatives! I always wanted to do the COTUT (for those who weren't RBI baseball fanatics it's the "Championship of the Universe Tournament" that some guy organized many years ago. All my best video game memories are from good old 8 bit Nintendo entertainment system, the original NES!

 

[BlasterMaster]

Video game memories? Yup, I've got several, mostly from classic video games. Like when the main villain from Final Fantasy VI (aka Kefka) poisons and kills everyone in an enemy fortress (men, women, children, even his own soldiers) and then we see Cyan (a knight in said fortress) nearly go insane with rage over seeing his dead wife and son. Then later on your party boards a train that ferries the dead to the afterlife only to get off and then Cyan sees his dead wife and son as the train goes off and you can only stand there with him in silence and share in his grief.

There's also the scene in Super Nintendo's Super Metroid where you (as Samus Aran) have finally made it to the Mother Brain and you think you've finished it off only for it to rise up as a colossal monstrosity and near kill you. Then there's the fight with Draclau in Final Fantasy Tactics. Your lead to believe it'll be a piece of cake only for him to take out one of the Zodiac Stones (aka Auracite) and transform into a freaking demon (the entire fight takes place inside a cathedral during a thunder storm so it's pretty cool). So, yeah, I have a great deal of fond memories when it comes to classic video games but then again, I grew up on those. ^_^

 

[Johnny lea]

First time I opened and played Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time. There was something magical about that game from the soundtrack, story and mythology of the universe created. It was also the heaviest N64 or Nintendo cartridge I can remember holding, which made me think it would be an amazing game.

That and GTA: San Andreas; used to play that at least once a year at one point.

 

[BritishSteel]

I was a huge video games fan as a kid! Albeit only on Sony consoles

Here are some of my best memories.

> Getting my first PlayStation for Christmas in 1997 and thinking at the time that Rapid Racer, Bubsy 3D and Casper were the greatest games ever.

> Playing Cool Boarders 2 and Destruction Derby, both absolute classics.

> Jumping, gliding and breathing fire on Spyro the Dragon. A truly brilliant platformer.

> Using cheat codes to make the games easier and way more fun!

> Getting the latest issue of Official PlayStation magazine every month and reading it from cover to cover!

> GTA Vice City and every single thing about it, not least the soundtrack! I still think that Tommy Vercetti was the greatest GTA protagonist.

> Playing Gran Turismo 4 and becoming a total petrolhead in the process.

They're just a few of my video game memories, but I have so many more.

 

[Barbershopman]

Video games in the arcade that I poured the most quarters into (yes, I'm that old) were Karate Champ, Time Pilot, and a game called Cyberball which is a futuristic football game played by robots.

Barbershopman

 

[Vanillaphant]

Some great replies!

GTA Vice City

Yeah you're probably thinking obvious popular choice. But what makes Vice City memorable and still enjoyable for me to this day (I'm currently playing it on my tablet ) is, being a naive impressionable kid, it took me years to get into the series. I remember GTA3 literally scared me due to its violent nature and dark tone, so it took me years to finish that one. Vice City was different. I was approaching senior school grades when I finally picked this game up. And immediately I found it to be substantially more enjoyable than GTA3. Because it was brighter, livelier, the 80s setting and music were way more fun. And the main character talked for a change, not some mute who was dead inside.

Not only did I fall in love with the 80s, but the game also introduced me to Miami Vice. Yeah, a millennial like me digging up an old 80s cop show on the internet. But where I originate from, to me it felt like a whole new world of cool. I suddenly started taking care of my looks, my style, the clothes I wore more than I ever bothered before. Granted, I basically ripped off the 80s bright pastel suit and t-shirt look and probably quite looked ridiculous wearing it to school with longer hair LOL, but I stood out from the rest of the school with my more rebellious look, because I was sick and tired of wearing the school uniform. And at least it led to developing a keener eye for what and how to wear.

So as mindless as video games may be, GTA Vice City will always have a special place in my heart.

I liked GTA3 (and San Andreas, which was the last GTA game I was into), but like you, I thought there was something pretty special about Vice City. There was an air of frivolity about the game, which was obviously a conscious attempt to reflect the decade in which it was set. Very seductive!

Love the fact that you expressed rebellion as a teenager with a pastel suit! lol

Fast forward to Houston, the early 1980's. One night I wandered into a little café on North Shepherd Dr., a place like one might have found wandering the streets of Paris, except there was a Pac-Man game in one corner. Out of curiosity I dropped a coin in and was figuring things out when the waitress came by to take my order.

She looked strikingly like a young Audrey Hepburn and coupled with her French accent I was quite taken with her. I became something of a regular there, and sometimes, when things were slow we would compete for high score. I never found the courage to ask her out, and one night I found out she had moved on to another job. Never saw her again but it's a nice memory.

Who'd have thought a game of Pac-Man could be so romantic! lol I was kinda hoping you'd say, "And I asked her out and we got married and have been together ever since..." But I guess that was asking a bit much lol. Great story though!

Video game memories? Yup, I've got several, mostly from classic video games. Like when the main villain from Final Fantasy VI (aka Kefka) poisons and kills everyone in an enemy fortress (men, women, children, even his own soldiers) and then we see Cyan (a knight in said fortress) nearly go insane with rage over seeing his dead wife and son. Then later on your party boards a train that ferries the dead to the afterlife only to get off and then Cyan sees his dead wife and son as the train goes off and you can only stand there with him in silence and share in his grief.

I feel ya. I have memories of a similar tone from playing World Of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse And Donald Duck on the Sega Mega Drive. Lot of fucked up shit going down in that game, let me tell ya! Just kidding, obviously.

I never got into Final Fantasy - even though a couple of my closest friends were kind of obsessed by it lol. I didn't realize the storylines were so bleak, though. Sounds vaguely harrowing, to be honest! For a kid, anyway.

 

[Bugman]

That sounds an awful lot like my mother! Are you certain you did not ask her out? Hopefully you're not gonna go all Darth Vader on me, are you?

Don't worry Luke, I am not your father.

Some great replies!

Who'd have thought a game of Pac-Man could be so romantic! lol I was kinda hoping you'd say, "And I asked her out and we got married and have been together ever since..." But I guess that was asking a bit much lol. Great story thou

Only in my dreams.

 

[Sodahead]

I always preferred playing outside but we did have an NES growing up. Super Mario and Gunsmoke were my favorites. I also liked a lot of the arcade games from the 80's and 90's. I recall going to the roller rink with my older brother and his friends. When I would take a break from skating I would play NBA Jamz and Donkey Kong while eating Icies. Good times!

 

[duderino84]

Wow, this one has tons of memories.

My family was always big on this one N64 game "Bust a move 2" (sometimes referred to as "puzzle bobble")...we've always had these moments where we'd get pissed. I remember for instance the rage incidents that would come up with "it's the glitch!" because they didn't like that part of the game's multiplayer was if you connect three of a like color and there's unrelated colors connected, they not only drop off into the other player's screen, but double in quantity.

I remember playing the original grand theft auto on PC and installing mods for the first time and being amazed that someone put together a mod to change the sprites of the vehicles, but most notably changed the speeds so that a simple tap of a key sent a car flying at what seemed like 100mph. Kinda makes you wonder what happened to Rockstar when they released GTA V (I mean yea, it's good, the single player, but I've heard the multi is a mess)

Carmageddon was a fun game too.

Anybody play "Starship Titanic"? Interesting point and click game.

I remember when Super Mario 64 it impressed a lot of people.

Does building a PC count? I remember when I did that...opened my eyes.