Your best gaming memories
 

Sorry if this topic has been covered...but:

What are your best memories in video gaming? Some of mine are:[list=1][*]The first time I played Doom. I was a junior in high school, and my friend gave it to me on 2 3.5" disks! It was like nothing I'd ever seen before.[*]Playing WWF Wrestlefest at the arcades in Ocean City, MD. For my money, it's still one of the best wrestling games ever made. [/list=1]

Re: Your best gaming memories
 

Final Fantasy 2: The hint book that came with the game only went to the part of the game where you get the airship. My brother and I played through the night and when we got to this part we were disappointed because we thought the game was going to be over soon. Little did we realize that there was another 3/4 of a game left...

Quake I when the CTF mod came out. The game finally became a team game instead of deathmatches. The grappelling hook was great, being able to swing through rooms and getting access to places you couldn't get to before. CTF and the grappelling hook added another dimension to the game.

Greatest Memory
Playing through Contra on the NES countless times with my cousin, always using the legendary Konami Code. I still remember how we would use up the 30 lives, and start stealing lives from each other, and bickering about "you stole mine, so next game, I get to steal yours!" and crap like that.

2nd Place
Playing through Super Mario Bros. with friends, swapping at each new level. That game never got old for us. On SMB breaks, we would swap over to Duck Hunt, and always shoot at the laughing dog, in hopes it would fall over dead.

Notables
1. First time I saw Sonic the Hedgehog was on its release day. That game at the time was simply amazing - the speed, the level design, etc.

2. Playing DOOM for the first time was horror at its finest. I remember my friends and I tried repeatedly to survive this one area on Level 2, and just couldn't get through it. Once I got the game for myself, I didn't stop playing it(or DOOM II) for a couple years, seriously. It is that damn good.

3. Seeing the game everyone was raving about, "Mortal Kombat", at Putt-Putt. Huge crowd gathered around the machine, I eventually made my way forward, and the first thing I ever saw was Player 1(Scorpion) spear Player 2(Sub-Zero), and hearing "GET OVER HERE!" followed by an uppercut. Player 2 followed up with an ice freeze. The level was The Pit.

4. Playing through Resident Evil 2 for the first time. A friend spent the weekend at my house when I first bought the game, and we played through it until early morning. That game freaked the shizboo out of us, and it still stands as my favorite RE game.

5. Metal Gear Solid - The action, the storyline, the twists at the end, gameplay just like a movie, this is my favorite title of the last few years, and my favorite game on the PSX.


I really miss the old days. :(
At least I have my Konami Code t-shirt, plus the custom Contra shirt I'm making with a few friends.

In chronological order (I'm 25):

Atari 2600: Whooping my dad at Combat at the age of 5

Commodore 64: Going to my friend's house and borrowing and copying all his games. Remember fast hack'em? I recently went on www.C64.com and got some serious nostalgia rush. My favorite games growing up: Skate or Die, Bruce Lee, Sex Cartoons, Ninja, Archon

NES: The first time I played at a kiosk in Venture was Super Mario Bros., and I was just blown away. I still never owned a Nintendo product.

Sega CD: Freshman year in college, I took a week off of classes to beat Lunar. I almost failed out of school because of this game. Friends still refer to it as the infamous lunar week.

Arcade: Sophomore year in high school against fellow DVDTalker Sundog, I pulled off Kano's heart fatality in accident. It was the most amazing thing. All the kids were like, DAAAAAMN!!! I spent all my allowance the next few weeks trying to figure out how the hell I did that.

Arcade: Senior year in high school, I pulled off my greatest run ever: 67 consecutive wins at Mortal Kombat II. I played about 5 guys all trying to take me down, and finally lost because I was so fried.

PSX: The first dog through the window in Resident Evil. Playing in college dorm sophomore year, there were 10 of us in the room with all the lights out and the stereo on loud. We all died of a heart attack. I had the game out a week overdue until I finally beat tyrant. The whole room erupted in cheers at 1 in the morning and we all got written up.

MAME: Building a cabinet this year and getting it up and running. Then having friends over and taking turns at Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition just like the old days.

One more thing:

Please include your age (or a rough estimate thereof) :). It helps put things into perspective.

I'm 24.

- In 1987, Beating Might and Magic I, which gave an address to send in my score. I did and got a letter signed by the creator of the game, Jon Van Caneghem.

- Sometime around 1985-86, Staying up half of the night playing Gauntlet on the C64, trying to see how many levels the game actually had.

- Discovering a cool trick in the C64 cartridge "Maze Master"... You could change individual letters and numbers in the character save codes, and improve your stats. Most of the time it didn't work and the character died, but each time we found a combination that worked, we would write it down and start altering it some more. We spent weeks messing with those codes, coming up with gos-like characters.

- The huge arcades of the early '80's. They were everywhere!

- The joys of Fast Hack 'Em on the C64.

- My first Atari 2600.

- The first time I got the Galaga no fire trick to work.

Age: 31

Favorite old school memory is first time I saw Ms. Pac-Man. Waited 3 hours for a chance to play it just once.

Favorite high scool memory:
1. The joy when my mom called from KMart to say that she had actually found a copy of SMB2 (this was back when Nintendo was purposely shorting supply to create a frenzy)

2. Knocking out Mike Tyson

3. Tecmo Bowl


Favorite college memories:
1. In a drunken trash talking frenzy, beating my roommate in NHL '94 ten straight times one night, then declaring that if he could do the same to me, I'd give him my Genesis (he never came close)

2. (my all time favorite) Playing Madden 92 or 93 (can't remember) - I'm the Falcons and I'm down by 4 to my roommate who has the ball at my 10 yard line with time running out. Instead of just taking a knee - he's being an a$$ and trying to run up the score. He throws it in the endzone, Deion picks it off and returns it 103 yards for the game winning TD.

3. Playing Madden against Chris Webber at Michigan (I got killed)

Favorite "recent" memory:
1. Reading about the then-unknown original GTA on the web, then finding a copy of the European release at Electronic Boutique. Couldn't believe you could do that stuff in a game.

2. Madden 2001 on PS2 - losing on a last second game-winning TD only to have the play reviewed and overturned. I nearly fell out of my chair - I didn't know that was even a feature.

Bought my first Neo Geo home c art system, 2 joysticks, 2 games, for only $100 back in 1992 (when it was retailing at $600)

I'm 26:

Favorite Console Memories:

Playing "Wizards and Warriors" on my NES for 6 straight hours, only to have my parents blow the power during a renovation of the house.

Beating "Battletoads" and "Super Battletoads." Hardest. Games. Ever....jet ski...shudder

Favorite Arcade Memories:

Playing "Mortal Kombat" in Las Vegas against national Street Fighter champs, only to come home to Sioux City, IA and WIPE THE FLOOR against everyone. I hardly ever lost.

Going to the mall on my moped at 11 am on a Sunday and beating "Street Fighter II - Championship Edition" on 5 bucks with every character (I know, I know, but I never used Zangief, Bison or Vega, so it took me a few continues :D)

Pulling off Sub-Zero's "Freeze Fatality" in "Mortal Kombat II" against a punk at the State Fair. 5 of my friends were watching at the time. Classic...

Footnote:

Whenever "Forbidden Forest" or "Slinky" for the Commodore 64 loaded correctly off the tape drive. I was always SO happy.

Atari 2600 : Playing the then graphic masterpiece,"Pitfall"

Commodore Amiga : Loads of fun with "Leisure Suit Larry 3 and 4"

Sega Genesis : NBA JAM...... "Boomshakalaka!"

Back in college when my girlfriend found a creative use for the new "rumble back" on the N64.

Age 28

Yars Revenge

countless all nighters with Legend of Zelda on original NES the having school the next day...

most recent - Omaha Beach MOHAA

That game has left an imprint on my mind... I find that at least once a week or so, I can't get the music from it out of my head.

It's playing right now. :(

I'm 26.

Atari- Flying an xwing, trying to blow up an AT-AT.

NES- getting into the negative world in Super Mario Bros.
- Contra- the first time I ever punched in a code.
- Mike Tyson's Punch-out- Still can't beat him :)

PSX- Beating Crash Bandicoot. Played it for days on end getting all the stupid apples.
- rabbit77 indtroducing me to Bust-a-move2. We played that game all night despite a rather rocking party going on around us (with quite a few hotties).

SPY

And you call yourself a Bothan... Shouldn't it be a snow speeder? :)

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/goblincat/photos/a2.jpg

I'm 35.

Playing Space Invaders on my 2600 so much that I started having extreme difficulty reading books.

Blisters on my thumbs.

Mattel Electronics Football. (And I never even liked football)

Blowing all of my paper route money on Dragon's Lair.

Seeing Space Duel and Tempest for the first time (color vector graphics !?!?!?!? Awesome!)

Killer marathon sessions of Rogue in my dorm room.

Flight Simulator and that pesky stall sound.

Wolfenstein 3d on my old 286 and using the "goobers" cheats.

Doom

Duke Nuke'em 3d and my first modem dialup deathmatch!

UT and my first internet online gaming experiences. HEADSHOT!

Tribes2, farming some flag D turrets, looking up to see 2 Havocs full of juggs incoming, mortars already inbound. 'Sigh'

I'm 25
In no particular order:

Playing Decathalon and World Games on the PC back in the day when all you had to do was jam on two keys as fast as possible. Cliff diving in World Games was tough!

Test Drive on the Commodore 64 with it's stupid long load times

Sniper Wolf's death in Metal Gear Solid

Booting up Blue Lightning for the first time on my Atari Lynx. Damn that had a nice screen. Also playing Slime World with 6 players and California games with 4. Lynxing up games was awesome.

Getting a Stunt gold medal on Pipe Dreams in SSX for PS2

Mass maul sessions in College with Tekken3 on the PS1. I used Hworang and Yoshimitsu generally. You weren't allowed to use Gon or Dr. B, and man did I hate Law and Paul.

Playing Mario Kart on N64 on my dorm's big screen TV till 3AM. Toad was the ultimate character.

Im almost 23 and here are just a few. Im sure there are more

Commadore-My first comp game playing. CARMEN SANDIAGO

Aracade-Beating double dragon three straight times in a row at the same party :-) Yes it was a very boring pizza party when i was in 4th grade

Arcade-Winning a MK tourney at a mall. There were like 50 people there playing and i was also the youngest playing and i beat them all. Damn i love Raiden :-)

NES-Recieving Dragon Warrior free for subscibing to Nes power magazine. I didnt even know i was going to get it. Then i was hooked on it so much i played until i beat the darn thing

N64-The all day bondathon GoldenEye and World is Not enough multi player extravaganza. 4 guys , 4 controllers, 1 system.

Dreamcast-The All Night 6 people Quake 3 arena tourney. Boy was that a lot of frags


PC- WHen i had AOL a long time ago there was this free Mech game where you have to take over areas . When you did they turned your teams color. My team took over the entire map and held it for 5 hours straight. Yes 5 hours straight :-) It was a boring rainy day

Heavy Barrell - A local pizza palor had this game and I would play a lot. I was playing it the day the '89 earthquake hit and ended up losing my quarter.

Mario Kart: SNES - The Battle Modes, I was always koopa, my friend was always toad.

Wu Tang Clan: Shaolin Style - I would always get my ass whooped in a 3way against my friends. I took a day and learned tons of moves. A week or so later, I whipped out my "madcats" and whooped ass. You should've seen the expression on their faces. :D

24.

My greatest moment would be went I beat one of the very best Warcraft 2 players ever, 3 league matches in a row.

Most fun would be when myself and a friend use to regularly stay up till 4 trying to beat some of the old console rpgs, stuff like Ys, Ultima 4, Rings of Power, Phantasy Star.

Other good memories would be EA's classic "EA Hockey" on the genesis, no one could touch me on that game :).
Also the Sonic 2 - 2 player battle mode, same as above :).

Chris

Asteroids on Atari
Phantasy Star on Sega Master System

then on PC:

Zork 3
Bards Tale
Ultima 3 and 4
Command & Conquer

After awhile they added the little plastic guards around the top part of the buttons so you could only use your fingers and couldn't slam the machine with your entire hand......

Memories
 

I'm 25

Atari 2600:

Picking off passes the easy way with Football (by running past the QB only to reappear in the secondary)

The shrill sound heard on potential homerun ball in Baseball

Catching the end of the video game crash and being able to find tons of different cartridges in the bargain bins at Kay-Bee toys (Unfortunately E.T. was one of them)

Solaris: The last decent 2600 game

286 IBM Compatible Computer with EGA graphics:

Countless hours flying missions in Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain (Later on, I was so mad when I could barely run the sequel: Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe)

King's Quest V (All we had was a 5.25 drive so I had to send in the 3.5 disks in the mail and they sent back like 20 5.25 back to me) It's too bad adventure games suck now

Endless hours of Civilization (Let's go Nuke 'em!) and Simcity (I Hate traffic!)

A multitude of great shareware games

Playing season after season of Earl Weaver baseball (with CGA graphics!

Nintendo 64

Taking back the machine after a few weeks of buying it at launch time (too few decent games out at first) and feeling good about it

Playstation:

My GF (and wife now) taking Thanksgiving break at college to finish Metal Gear Solid

Playstation 2:

Playing a game of Madden with Keenan McCardell (of the NFL) at E3. I returned a fumble for a TD in the short 5 minute game. I was connect to a SOCOM style headset and was in his ear the whole game after that

Playing Metriod in damn near 10 hour shifts during the X-mas school break, beating it and find out Samus was a girl :eek:

The rush of beating SMB 3 wearing the hammer suit looking like a total badass.

Being soooo pissed off about having a SNES when Mortal Kombat came out that I did odd jobs all around the neighborhood for two months and bought a Sega so I could play the "real deal"

Playing Goldeneye in the mall and that immediatly lead to me getting my first credit card just so I could charge a N64 four controllers and Goldeneye. Which then lead to allnight "Bond Fires" till 7:30 in the morning knowing that me and my friends all had 8:00 classes. But 6 floor write ups, 1 failed class and three friends for life I am STILL THE BOND CHAMP!!!! :D

I'm 20.

NES. That ship with a million Bullet Bills in SMB3 at the end. Just
ridiculous back in the day.

Saving up my money when I was 8 for an ungodly amount of time to buy a GameBoy. Metroid II made it all worthwhile.

Street Fighter 2 just floored me. I was so proud of being able to beat people twice my age at the arcade. I loved going to Target just so I could play for free. This is why I got my SNES for Christmas of '92, I had to chip in (lousy parents), but it was so worth it. Later, I got so pissed trying to beat it with Dhalsim on Level 8 that I broke the cartridge and had to play with just the circuit board.

Mario 64. When I got this for Christmas of '96 I spent 3 days in my room. I just couldn't believe how good that game was.

FFVII. I was a friend's house and a few of us had stayed up all night while I was trying to beat Emerald Weapon on my save. We were giddy when I finally did at 2:20 in the morning.

I'm 34

Beating my Dad at "Pong"

Arcade: Finally defeating my older cousin in Asteroids and Space Invaders in the same day.

Atari: the day I thought graphics couldn't get any better on a console when I played Centipede. My Dad making a Ball to mount on the top of the joysticks like the arcade games.

Odyssey2: Playing countless hours of KC Munchkin

Intellivision: I knocked over a glass of Mountain Dew on the console while playing B-17 Bomber with Intellivoice no less. I cried for hours!

Colecovision: Playing Donkey Kong and Burger Time all night long.

NES: 1) Taking a date out to eat and a movie and then stopping by Toyr-R-Us and buying the NES. The best part wasn't playing the game system, it was my date was so impressed that she let me score!! (If ya know what I mean ;)
2) Beating LINK.

SNES: Super Metroid and finding out Samus was a chick.

N64 and PS1: Playing the first video games with my 2 year old daughter Amie.

Xbox: Amie beating me at DOA3.

So there is my gaming life in a nutshell. What started with me beating my Dad at Pong has just began with my Daughter beating me. Time sure does fly.

Draven,

I'm originally from Sioux City as well, I would not be surprised if we ran into each other or even played each other at the mall. :)

I'm 27.

Explaining to my peers at school that my Magnavox Oddessey was NOT an Atari.

Running from school as a 2nd grader to play Yars' Revenge on my babysitter's Atari.

Getting the whole complete NES including light gun and dumb robot before they were popular with the general public. (My mom got one at a consumer electronics show. They showed up on WalMart shelves about 6 months later.)

Playing Ms. PacMan vs. my Dad and having evenly matched battles.

Playing USA Basketball on the Sega Genesis with my friends over winter break.

Being the first on my college campus to get NBA JAM for the Genesis.

Completing the Genesis tri-fecta. (Genesis, 32x, SegaCD)

Having NHL '94 tournaments with my closest friends and almost killing each other over them.

Getting a SNES for my then-girlfriend, now-wife so she could play Zelda and Dr. Mario.

Playing Resident Evil for the first time on my HT system.

Playing through Tomb Raider with a room full of friends watching, not b/c I was so good, but the game was so cool at the time.

Almost getting fired from a job for playing Tomb Raider at work.

"Nights" for the Saturn.

Intelligent Qube for the Playstation.

Final Fantasy 7

Finally getting a PS2 after I finished college. (made a promise to myself that I wouldn't play any more games until I finished school.)

Starting a SOCOM clan and meeting so many cool people that have the same interests as me.

And the best all time gaming memory for me is:

Meeting a girl who didn't mind me playing for hours on end, and will actually play games with me! (then marrying her)

Ok, I thought that I only had a couple, but after reading through the thread, I needed to add a few more items:

I am 26

Calling my grandma to give my new high score in the ongoing family River Raid (Atari 2600) tournament, only to have it beaten a day or so later!

Beating SMB for NES for the first time. On the same note, watching my mom play as she would swing the controller around like it would make Mario jump higher on the poles at the end of the levels.

Getting Tetris for my mom for X-Mas and starting an all new family tournament!

Spending about $20 on Heavy Barrel in the Nickel Arcade at the Colorado Bell in Laughlin with my friend.

Staying up all night with my friend to beat the Zelda game for SNES (Only took us 1 day to beat,) and having his mom call mine to complain that by staying up all night he got sick. (It was my first all-nighter)

Playing games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark for hours, even though I knew I would get sick by doing so. Playing until that point where I was in a hot sweat and getting ready to hurl! I was pissed when I started getting motion sickness with FPSs, but I didn't care at all.

Getting, and beating every Carmageddon game as they came out, when hardly anyone else knew about them. Once my friend got someone's head resting on his hood, and actually got a screenshot of it! (I don't have the screenshot anymore unfortunately.)

This wasn't really mine, but I got to tag along: My friend was the best Top Skater player in CA! He came in 3rd against the guy from Seattle and the guy from Vegas, but we still got to attend the Grand Opening of the Ontario, CA Gameworks with a free concert by one of my alltime favorite bands, Save Ferris. We also go free food, and more importantly free games all night. Then we got to go to the MTV Beach house for a LifeBeat Party. Then we got another free party at Gameworks where we must have eaten over $200 worth of food, and about 6 hours of free games!

More recently, countless all nighters with my friend taking turns at GTA3 for PS2, and finally realizing that our laptops could hook up via infrared ports and spending countless all nighters playing Warcraft III.

-CM-

Dude, I was 7.

Age:8

Beating TMNT the Arcade game at 7-11 with 5 bucks...TURTLE POWER!

Age 9:

Getting an NES for my b-day, this is where it all began.

Age 10:

Beating SMB 2 with my friends watching, they said the game was "too hard" :lol:

Age 11:

Beating SMB 3 the first night I got it w/ no warp whistles. even though I found all of them.


Age 14:

Placing 5th in Blockbuster Video's first annual video game championships.

Age 16:

Holding MK II(SNES) tournaments in my room w/ my neighborhood friends, man they got ugly. On the same note a friend of mine got SF for his Genesis proclaiming he would beat me so bad I'd never want to play him again....2 hours later he left my house mad that I owned him with the entire roster. :lol:

Age 19:

Buying my first Playstation over Christmas break w/ Resident Evil Director's Cut, and beating it seven days later.

Age 20:

Meeting my best friend and rival Jackskeleton. Not since I was younger had I felt the need to keep playing against someone so competitive, and skilled. He truly makes me train all the harder. Then after much training the both of us owning half the campus at the college's arcade at Soul Calibur:D.

Age 21:

Beating five people in a row with Dan in Street Fighter Alpha 3 rotfl.

Im 20 right now, and ive been into video games since i was three. I faintly remember playing some atari 2600, but it the addiction didnt start until....

my first distinct memory of playing video games, was christmas the year that the NES came out. Man! I dont think i stopped staring at the tv all day. Anyone know by chance how much they retailed for when they first came out? Was it anything like a PS2 deal where people paid $$$$$$$ for them? I always wondered this....

Getting mike tysons punch out, and a week later being able to beat the last two guys without getting hit once...

beating double dragon with $1.50

Playing in a MKII tournament every weekend, i think i won 6 out of 11 tournaments, and i placed in all of them.

getting a N64 for christmas, and playing mario 64 for three days strait.

getting my first paycheck for right around $150, and blowing it on a playstation and resident evil.

Theres more, but i have to go to bed :)

I remember getting Goldeneye for the first time in 99 and then a few days later sleeping over my cousins house and playing the game until the early morning, going to sleep, and playing some more the next couple days.

During Easter time of this year I brought over Perfect Dark to my cousin's and we played atleast 10 hours of the game.

Last summer, a couple days after Twisted Metal Black came out me and my cousin beat co-op twice in one all nighter and then the following morning/afternoon.

The first time I played Goldeneye and the hype that I felt as Perfect Dark was releasing.

Buying my Sega Saturn back in 97 and renting and playing Nights for the first time that night.

Driving the cycles in Vice City for the first time.

The hype for me surrounding WWF Warzone in 98 only to be pretty disappointed by the game.

I'm 25

Getting MY first system, an NES, when it first came out. And being so mad at my dad for getting the 20.00 warranty cause it meant I owed him 20.00 more.

Watching my friend snap his NES controller in half while playing some game I barely recall. 1942 might be it.

Playing Duck Hunt....or should I say watching dad play Duck Hunt till his eyes would get all red and swollen. He really loved that game.

Getting my PS and then staying up playing so long that I passed out control in hand. Being WAY late for work the next day wasn't such a good memory.

Beating any FF game is a great memory for me.

Talkng my wife into letting me get a PS2 bundle even if I knew I'd rarely play the GT3 that was in the pack.

Hearing the worst song ever made playing during THPS3.

Hooking up my network adapter and going online.

Buying an XBOX just cause it seems like the next logical step in the gaming process. :D And then seeing the power this thing really has.

Going LIVE and being impressed ALL OVER AGAIN!

And I'm waiting on Splinter Cell to be given to me as an Xmas gift and after playing the demo I know playing the real game will be a great gaming memory.

I'm 21

I have a few things to add to my list:

- Getting my NES of course
- Placing in the Top 10 in the first Blockbuster Video Games Championship at my local store(at the time, the only store around)
- in the following years championship, placing first in my area. They told me I was likely to make it to the next round, then they told me a while later that I wasn't able to go because some fool scored slightly higher than I did on Sonic 3. I was heartbroken :(, but I did have free game rentals for a year :).

I wouldn't be surprised. If you ever got your ass handed to you by Sub Zero :D (or handed me mine with Scorpion...I hate that ******)

I believe that they were either $100 or $200... The latter I think.

I have to add one more thing to my list, and I can't believe that I forgot it.

Having an ongoing tournament with the Clay Pigeon shooter in Duck Hunt with a family friend and the day that he moved to Michigan, he left a note that I found after school that said something to the effect of "I am still the Clay Pigeon King!" or something to that effect. I still have that note... man that was a long time ago.

-CM-

kicking major arse with sakura in street fighter games. gets people everytime. :)

Jack...
 

heres to ya buddy!

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-zero