Video Game Memories

General and high profile video game topics.
User avatar
VideoGameCritic
Site Admin
Posts: 18106
Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Video Game Memories

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 21st, 2018, 10:47 am

I got the idea for this thread from Hershie's Monday Night Football review in the Now Playing section.

It's funny how I tend to attach memories to my games. Especially for many games of my younger years I can tell you the exact circumstances surrounding them (where I bought it, who I was playing it with, etc). I can't remember what I did last week but I remember what games I was playing in 1982.

For example, I remember getting Phoenix for the Atari 2600. It was during summer vacation (1982 or 1983) and I had seen an ad for it (probably in the newspaper since I can't think if of any other way) and it was $36 which was pretty steep. Still, I loved this game from playing it at the Westview bowling alley so I had to have it. Anyway I broke my piggybank and somehow scraped together $36 in cash (barely - I don't think I had enough to cover the tax). I remember asking my mom if she's drive me to the local Toys R Us (Catonsville MD) and astonished when she said "maybe". Normally she'd give me a hard time for throwing around that much money but not this time. Later on that day she drove me there and I bought it. It was one of the first 2600 games to come in those shiny silver boxes with the red stripe. I played it on the TV in the basement and I was pleased with it.

Anybody else have some video game memories to share? Even if they seem trivial or silly don't hesitate to post.

User avatar
Rev
Posts: 1487
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:31 pm

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby Rev » October 21st, 2018, 11:11 am

The year that I had my first job (was 14) and I had been saving up for months to buy the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox. My friend and I had been looking at gamespot.com all summer, looking at pictures of the release games like Luigi's Mansion and was super excited for the consoles to be released. Well, turns out I had to work (and still didn't have a car yet) on the day the Gamecube was launched. I had told my mom about it and was upset but went to work anyway. When I got home my mom had waited in line (not like her at all) to pick up the console right when it was released. Was one of the coolest things that I remember because it was so out of character for her to do something like that, especially since she never really got my enthusiasm for video games.

Herschie
Posts: 1183
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:44 pm

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby Herschie » October 22nd, 2018, 6:01 am

Haha, I seem to include all my memories in my reviews. I feel as if they make them pop a bit more by relating them to something that could have happened to any of us.

Helps I wasn't a very bright kid.

Verm3
Posts: 247
Joined: April 23rd, 2015, 8:41 am

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby Verm3 » October 22nd, 2018, 10:05 am

I remember my dad giving me Toshinden 4 on the first day of the summer holidays to play during :)

The game actually came out a little bit before the summer holidays IIRC, but he told me it had been delayed, presumably so it wouldn't interfere with my school work.
Last edited by Verm3 on October 23rd, 2018, 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

CaptainCruch
Posts: 662
Joined: July 17th, 2015, 11:26 am

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby CaptainCruch » October 22nd, 2018, 11:19 am

As a little kid, I had to get glasses. For some (unknown) reason I thought that was terrible. I remember playing Mega Turrican (Genesis) and how much the melancholic tune of the first stage reflected my mood back then (Like 20-25 years ago or something). (Is that obscure enough?)

I also miss the days when I'd play video games with my brother everyday (when out of school or in the weekends), first co-op for many years (Bubble Bobble and Double Dragon on the Sega Master System, later Streets of Rage 2 on the Sega Genesis). Later, we competed in Sega Worldwide Soccer and Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighters MegaMix (all on Saturn). I think I'll never get as much enjoyment out of games as back then, when playing with my brother, together in front of the screen. Nowadays I mostly play alone. I have fun too, but I always feel a little something special is missing.

User avatar
VideoGameCritic
Site Admin
Posts: 18106
Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby VideoGameCritic » October 22nd, 2018, 6:19 pm

Rev's GameCube story reminded me of when I got one. You have to remember that when the GameCube came out in Sept 2001 it was a hot time in the industry. I already had a PS2, which I acquired after sleeping overnight outside a Best Buy. I was able to land an Xbox (and Halo) at CompUSA after calling around town. Even my beloved Dreamcast was still going strong. I asked my wife to pick up a GameCube for me, and basically gave her a little shopping list of games, controllers, cords, etc.

So I come home from work and it's all sitting right there on the kitchen table! It was probably the easiest system acquisition ever. Apparently there wasn't a rabid demand for the system at the time.

User avatar
scotland
Posts: 2561
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:33 pm

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby scotland » October 23rd, 2018, 8:55 am

CaptainCruch wrote:I also miss the days when I'd play video games with my brother everyday... I think I'll never get as much enjoyment out of games as back then, when playing with my brother, together in front of the screen. Nowadays I mostly play alone. I have fun too, but I always feel a little something special is missing.


This aspect of gaming as bonding, as social engagement is one of those things we bring up now and again. Being in the same room, taking a pizza break or something then getting back to gaming, can be strong memories.

Oddly, one of the things I've experienced with mobile games is getting partway back to that. One person has a game on their phone, and we pass it back and forth taking turns, or trying to beat a level. Its not the same, but its still gaming together.

User avatar
scotland
Posts: 2561
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:33 pm

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby scotland » October 23rd, 2018, 9:03 am

I was thinking of the first game I stayed up possibly all night playing. I think it was Elite, played on my Commodore C64.

If you don't know Elite, it was originally for the BBC Micro and Acorn computers, but got ported everywhere. It was the first game I played with 3D graphics - made from wire frame ships and space stations and such. Gameplay was mostly a graphic version of earlier text space trading games. You buy commodity A here, sell it there for a profit and buy commodity B there, etc. There are other options like mining to make money. You use money to upgrade your ship, especially the docking computer.

Sitting there, listening to The Blue Danube playing while docking, warping from star to star, was mesmerizing. Playing the dark quite space traveling game during the night seems so natural.

However, I don't think I've played it in years.

CharlieR
Posts: 429
Joined: April 23rd, 2016, 8:04 am

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby CharlieR » October 24th, 2018, 9:04 am

Most of my memories revolve around the Gamecube. My cousins and I would have battles in Mario kart: Double Dash. We would always race on Baby Park, and I would always win. We always go with that one, because it’s the only one they really have a chance to beat me in, because it’s so short.

The game we always play when we get together is Kirby Air Ride. We usually play the City Trial or the stadium events like Destruction Derby. We have been playing it for years, but just this past summer we beat a challenge that was pretty tough, which was get 10 KO’s on level 2 of Destruction Derby. It’s tough to do in single player, as the karts constantly accelerate, but we figured out we could do it in multiplayer, and we would just hold the A button on three controllers while my cousin gets all the kills. My other cousin beat the giant King Dedede stadium battle, which unlocked aty random after a round of City Trial.

A really awesome multiplayer game for the Gamecube we played is Rayman Arena. I got this game for 2 dollars and thought it would be a Mario Party clone, but it has two main modes: Race and Battle. Race is like an obstacle course race, and Battle has a few levels, one of which has a mode where you freeze each other chasing after orbs.

TheBlondeGamePunk3
Posts: 85
Joined: March 1st, 2017, 10:39 am

Re: Video Game Memories

Postby TheBlondeGamePunk3 » October 24th, 2018, 11:25 am

1996, 2 years old.. Playing N64 with Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64.. Also playing on my SNES Chuck Rock, PC with Quake, DooM, DooM II, and Witchaven, and my gameboy? Tetris.

But 1999 is important to me because I met what I consider to be the greatest Nintendo 64 game ever:Donkey Kong 64, I met it? At the Toys R Us in Dothan and got that game with a special guide and a T-shirt (which I no longer have)


Return to “Video Games General”