What are your most fond videogame memories? [Growing up or in the past]

Spectrum
Alien8

yep i'm old

I played a few games as a kid that I really enjoyed. I don't know if anyone remembers the old Apogee games? Commander Keen, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Monster Bash, etc?

My favorite was Monster Bash. It was about a boy named Johnny Dash who discovers that his dog has been stolen by a Dracula-esque figure named Count Chuck who plans on turning all of the world's pets into zombies. Armed with only a sling shot which fires a variety of projectiles depending on the power-up, Johnny has to fight his way through the Count's minions, featuring all of the classical horror elements we know and love, and rescue every pet before defeating Count Chuck and reclaiming his lost dog. The game does leave itself open for another installment, ignoring the fact that the original comes in three parts, but I don't think Frank Maddin or Gerald Lindsly have bothered to make another one.

I first played the game when I was a child. I loved it then, and I still love it many years later. The side-scrolling simplicity melded with the creative variety of characters and settings and topped off with an interactive experience that cleverly ties all of the elements together without complicating the gameplay makes for a challenging yet childishly amusing session of intense brawls between the Transylvanian menagerie and the brave Mr. Dash. It gets steadily more difficult and puzzling as you progress, never predictable and thoroughly engaging. It will always be one of my favorite and most nostalgia-intense video games. Unfortunately, playing it requires DOSBox or a similar emulator, given that the game was designed for a much older system.

www.classicdosgames.com...

The link takes you to a flash version of the game. My goodness, but just listening to the sound effects makes me smile. And whaddaya know? Maybe history does repeat itself! While Googling the information, I discovered that Apogee was reformed into today's 3D Realms, whose games I currently enjoy. Guess I didn't fall that far behind after all.

But yeah. Speaking as a man who drools over computer stations and video games the way other men drool over car engines and football, Monster Bash will always be my childhood sweetheart.

Two words...

Yars Revenge.

I put WAY too many quarters into Asteroids when it first came out. Sucked quarters up for hours -week - months. Beer too. little black&white ship shooting and busting apart pixel-blocks of space-rocks. hated that little ufo that always hit you on the first or second shot. Dang! MORE QUARTERS! MORE BEER!

Then Defender grabbed me (ooohh-aahhh, color!) those little screaming humans plucked from the air was awesome.

Third biggest for about EIGHT YEARS, was playing Star Wars Battlefront, on PC Multi-player online. Still drag it our once in a awhile.

p.s. - in the early PC days, got my trigger finger wet on "Duke Nuke-Em", and "DOOM". Classic, shoot-em up, boys!

Turok 2 on N64

Ahhhhhh.......I used to play with my kids when they were rug rats. Best time.

The music, the story line, huuuuge maps, and of course KA weapons.

Of course who can not mention Duke Nukem. Totally obligatory.

Where to begin... Until recently, I was an avid, and somewhat addicted, video game collector, so pinpointing a single game or platform would be ludicrous! To give you all an idea, heres a quick list of consoles...

Atari 2600, NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega Drive II, Sega Mega CD II, PSX, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360.

And handhelds...

Atari Lynx II, Sega Game Gear, Gameboy, Gamboy Pocket, Gameboy Colour, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Advance SP, DS, DS Lite, 3DS, PSP.

And I've probably forgotten a few in there. Wow, that's 26 units all up...

In fact, my TV currently has a NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii U, PS2, and Xbox 360 all hooked up to it. I've had to unfortunately sell most of my collection to get by in recent times however.

But, in regards to favourite games... Dark Castle is probably one of my earliest memories, along with Lode Runner (both on my Apple II), but when it comes to console, Mortal Kombat III, Link to the Past, and Banjo Kazooie (along with the classic Atari games like pacman, space invaders, asteroids, and so on). How I miss the days of gaming til the early morn. *nostalgic sigh*

reply to post by AfterInfinity


3D Realms? Weren't they the developers of Duke Nuke'em?

reply to post by Outrageo


I haven't played Star Wars Battlefront, but I heard it was an awesome game.

Great posts guys, always fun to read about other ppls past experiences =)

reply to post by ZikhaN


Pacman
ms pacman,
Pacman jr(atari)(First games I played on my mom's atari)
PitFall(atari)
Centipede(atari)
Space Invaders(atari)
Missile Command(atari)
Popeye(atari)
Frogger(atari)
Superman(atari)
Donkey kong(atari)
Mortal Kombat 2(genesis)
Ultimate Mortal kombat 3(snes)
Ninja Turtles(nes)
Turtles in Time(snes)
Duke Nukem 64,time to kill
Banjo Kazooie
Legend of Zelda(nes)
LoZ link to the past
LoZ Ocarina of Time(one of greatest games of all time)
LoZ Majora's Mask
Diddy kong racing(my brother tried to beat this game. it can be VERY hard)
Out of this World(snes)
Super Mario Bros series(I grew up on these games)
Super Mario World series
Donkey Kong Kountry games with my brother was awesome.
Metal Slug 1,2, 3(arcade)(one of best games of all time)
Rocky Rodent(snes underrated game for super nintendo).
Sonic 1,2,3,S&K(good times)
Rocket Knight
Zombies Ate my Neighbors
Unloaded(psx)
Spyro 1
Gex(psx)
Final Fantasy 6,7,8,9,Tactics
Star Ocean(psx)
Turok 1,2,3
StarFox64
SmashBros(n64)
Smash Bros. Melee(gcn)
Metal Gear(nes)
Star Tropics 1,2(very underrated game)
Metal Gear Solid 1,2
Street Fighter Alpha 1(snes) 2,3 (VERY fun with friends)
Contra 3 (snes), Super Mario Bros.(nes) and Smash Bros 64(n64) was good times.
Rainbow Six games(psx)
Street Fighter 2 games(classics, never gets old with good compitetion)
StreetFighter 3 series(parry parry parry)
Bloody Roar 1,2,3(all good games I played with by brother)
Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore(ps2)(fun game)
Spawn(DC)
Perfect Dark64
007 golden eye 64(one of the best games of all time), over a friends house for dreamcast was cool.
Super Mario Kart(VERY hard if you don't know what your doing)
Mario kart 64
Phantasy Star 3
Nightmare Creatures 1
Unreal Tournament
Xenogears(psx) (one of the best rpg's of all time AWESOME game)
Streets of Rage 2(genesis)
Legend of Mana(psx)
Super Double dragon(snes)
Battletoads series
Breath of Fire 1,2,3,4
Tetris Attack
Resident Evil 1,2,3,4
Castlevania64
SSX 1,Tricky,3(great snowboarding sim)
Street Fighter EX 1,2,3

Had a great time playing console games with my brother.

Super Street Fighter 2, John Madden football, Mortal Kombat 2, NBA jams(i think it was called that).

These are the ones I played the most. NES and general arcade.

Some older games like pac-man and donkey kong for arcade.

Lots of computer games like MS flight simulator, LS links, quake 2, imperialism 2, etc.

Played lots of stuff in the past. I still enjoy them and use DosBox for some.



(just to get the juices flowing a little)

I used to love Monkey Island and Prince of Persia on the PC as a kid haha, but my heart lies with the SNES. I still have mine from 1996, we actually tried to set it up last night, but no amount of blowing into the cartridges and machine could get it to work properly (and much more pixelated on a 55" than the old 68cm!) But my favourites on there was Mario Kart, Mario World, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Donkey Kong, ahhh the memories, so many blisters and fighting with my older cousins for a turn! ;p

So many memories...

Being a child of the 70's I grew up playing endless hours of Tank Pong, Asteroids, Space Invaders on my Atari 2600.

Then progressed through the ZX Spectrum 48, the 128, the 128+ and all the great games, then the Atari ST with one game called Hunter sticking out especially. Then onto consoles...

BUT the most enduring gaming memories of ALL time have to come from Ultima Online... Ah, the adventures, the endless hours of howling with laughter, crying with frustration, burning for revenge!



I joined up in 1997 when it was launched and I'm still playing now from time to time.

But oh, the stories...

I vidily remember the 1st time I loaded it and being struck with awe that this was a "real" living world with living people playing. Very first memory? Laughing with astonishment when I found out you could actually get wood from cutting a tree..(and by that I mean lumber *wink*) haha, simple but amazing back then.

The sense of achievement when I got my first horse, my first boat, my first house!! I remeber the first monster I killed... a lizardman that invaded the towns from time to time, chased me round most of Britain before I killed him on the bridge! Loot!! Gold!! All mine haha!

I remember the first guy to PK me, I actually remember the characters name and I still hunting him down for revenge! LOL (A running joke with my mates) His name was Krig and he offered me money to move furniture to his house as he was over weight.. of course as soon as I got to his house he paralysed me and killed me.

I remember a friend and I use to go PK'ing ourselves, I have a character called Dani Filth who was a stealther, armed with a deadly poisonous kriss.. who I actually managed to sneak into a guild meeting, past 20 or so other players and killed the leader giving a speech (real life players) and managed to escape before anyone even realised what had happened... I could hardly see through the tears of laughter!

Aww man, so many great stories and memories.

reply to post by EarthCitizen07


Ooo I also play Super Street Fighter IV Started on PS3, play on PC nowadays.

We should play together some time ^^ (I play Cody)

reply to post by Mister_Bit


Star 4 Nostalgia.

I have a soft spot for UO. Was my first MMO and my first Ultima game, which I dont know if is good or bad since there was no hype to live up to. I remember joining a guild, they were a friendly bunch, werent the most brave. Why you ask? I just remember being told to run a lot, and one time I stayed and fought, and almost won, we had a conversation as we fought it out with swords, he said something to the likes of "you would've won had they not ran", I said "yeah I know". So instead of running theyd finally stay but they still kinda sucked, guild house got deleted in a patch, they disbanded, I started on a new server.

Starting off pking, and found out I was actually pretty good at it. Amazing what a bag of Deadly Poisoned daggers can do in the right hands. Or just tame some Wyverns haha. Good Times

When I first started it was brutal all the exploits.


Remember the Abyss server that was fun because everyone was pking?

Even the test server had some cool faction type battles going on.


oohh yeah

and then I hung out with Shadowclan

ZikhaN
reply to post by EarthCitizen07

 

Ooo I also play Super Street Fighter IV

Started on PS3, play on PC nowadays.

We should play together some time ^^ (I play Cody)

edit on 29-9-2013 by ZikhaN because: (no reason given)

Actually I play super street fighter 2 on DosBox. Downloaded it from some website years ago.

The super street fighter 4 video I simply used because it was the best one I could find in a hurry, that wasnt played by beginers.

reply to post by bkaust


A few tricks: Use a pencil eraser or a cotton tip and 99% alcohol to carefully clean the contacts on the cartridges. If its the slot that's dirty, you can try using a damp cartridge (with the alcohol only) and insert/remove several times. A safer method would be to use a credit card or something similar along with a fine cloth, in and out, not side to side. In both cases, a can of compressed air will clear away any remaining dust or dirt. A last ditch effort would be to replace the cartridge connector entirely, at a cost of around $30, but that might not be worth your time.

Scaleru
reply to post by bkaust

 

A few tricks: Use a pencil eraser or a cotton tip and 99% alcohol to carefully clean the contacts on the cartridges. If its the slot that's dirty, you can try using a damp cartridge (with the alcohol only) and insert/remove several times. A safer method would be to use a credit card or something similar along with a fine cloth, in and out, not side to side. In both cases, a can of compressed air will clear away any remaining dust or dirt. A last ditch effort would be to replace the cartridge connector entirely, at a cost of around $30, but that might not be worth your time.

thank you! I'll start with the card and cloth trick, I was so disappointed, they all started, but for example, with mario, it'd get to the opening where they're all talking and the lights are out, then it'd go on, but the start part wouldn't load :/, so I'll definitely try your tips!

reply to post by bkaust


Least invasive would be the pencil eraser if you have one. It can work wonders!

Super Mario Brothers.
I was in a children's shelter in '86 and being a child who always clung to his mommy, I was all alone for 6 months, scared and afraid of everything, having no idea where my mother was or why I was in a children's shelter. One day our care take came home early and under his arm was a brand new NES. I was so perplexed by the 8-bit machine that all my fears disappeared and instantly I was hooked, it took 3 days, but I finally beat the first level, LOL. To this day, Gaming is my prime passion. When I think back about those days, I figured that at that age and absolute fear of being alone, coupled with the fact that my mother may not come back, I some how became attached to this one game, it challenged me, nurtured me with entertainment and ultimately it was what kept me busy and my mind off the fact that mother wasn't there.
--
Sonic 2 and 3 for Sega Genesis.
I would spend hours on Sonic 3, after you entered that cheat code, you could add coins and then turn into Super Sonic, I loved every bit of it, I would fight the final boss with that cheat, producing lifts and coins and various others things, the cheat allowed you too add anything to the game, kind of like forge in Halo 3 and 4.
My parents would go to Mexico for cheap medicine and I was old enough finally to stay home, with 20 bucks for a pizza and soda, I would have the best time at home alone, playing Sega Genesis all day.
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Final Fantasy 7.
This was a time in my life with my parents up and decided to move to another school district as I was a sophomore in HS, I was totally out of my element, with no friends, a racist inspired school and just plain unmotivated to want to start making new friends. My brother made some friends and one day came home with a Playstation, one of his friends loaned it too use and the game that came with it was FF7.
Playing FF7 for the first time immediately hooked me, I was sucked into 3D environment and huge levels of the game, the pain an loss and depth of the story and huge customize base. Everyday I came home from school and every weekend, I would play every single ounce of the levels, I would leave no stone unturned. Needless to say, my parents eventually packed up 6 months later and I ended back at my home district. I still played the hell out of FF7 though!.
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Halo: Combat Evolved.
Interesting since the game came out while I was still in HS, but graduated 6 months later in '02, I still remember after walking across the stage, I thought nothing of it, but as the ceremony winded down and we walked to the car and started driving off, I looked at the parking lot of the various cars of my fellow HS classmates, it suddenly hit my like a brick wall, I had known most of these people since Elementary school, although we were not best friends or anything, we all knew who we were, from elementary, Middle to HS, these people were part of my life on a daily basis and now all of a sudden I was never going to see the majority of them again, it was kind of depressing when you really think about it.
Later that night while eating out for my graduation dinner, I decided to walk next door to a "EB games" and picked up a copy of Halo, I scoffed at it at first, but bought it seeing that it was a used copy for only 20 bucks.
I got home, put the game in and 12 hours later, unmoved, no sleep, I was addicted. My whole life literally changed with that game, I almost got fired from work because I came in late.
Halo had my in its claws and ever since I played every single aspect of the game, every level was explored, every glitch exploited, every challenger destroyed, the story played over and over again.
Eventually it lead to Halo 2, standing in long lines at midnight release, the same with Halo 3 and every other Halo game that came out.
12 years later, I have played every single Halo game there is, I have read every single Halo novel, short story and fan inspired stories. I have participated in Halo tournaments, squashed every challenger and won cash and prizes, ranked the top 25 players in the world at one point. I can say with absolute arrogance that nobody on ATS has the skill to take me on. I have explored every single niche involved with Halo.
I am a Halo fanatic, obsessed and addicted.
--
Great thread OP, star and flag!

I had my first NES when I was 5, a month or 2 later, we got Zelda 1.

It really was amazing, I finished it that same year.

The first I ever game I really anticipated was Megaman 2, mainly because of those damn Nintendo power magazines!

Guardian Legend, a must try classic
Battletoads, try finishing that with no saving hah
Contra, hey hey, no 30 lives!
Willow, Great challenging zelda clone based on the 80's movie
Dragon Warrior, 3 pages script but 80 hours of grinding!
Shadowgate, A really nice point and click adventure game
Excite Bike, Make your own courses!
Faxanadu, Good slightly obscure game
Rygar, Quite a challenge
Life force, Pew pew!
Metroid , that one scared me, I really had to face my fears to finish it back then.
Rad Racer, that can give you sores fingers
River City Ransom, sooo much fun 2 player mode

Pitfall on the Atari 2600.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland on the Apple 2e.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on the Atari Lynx.

Any Atari ST game (I had a whole lot), same goes for any Amiga game.

Gran Turismo on the first Playstation.

Wing Commander on PC.

Fable on the original Xbox (I played it about 20 times through, currently collect anything to do with Fable) and the other 2 Fable games on Xbox360.

Manhunt 2 on Sony PSP.