Old Video Game Memories

[Istanbul]

Those of us who have been into video games for a protracted period of time will all have a variety of ancient memories associated with games that a lot of people these days won't even recall. This thread is intended for the posting of those ancient memories, so that younger players can gawk in awe at some of the crazy stuff we've seen.

I remember Zelda 2 being delayed for a year and a half due to "chip shortages". And then it came out! And we were like, "WOO!" And then we played it! And we were like, "...WHAT?!"

 

[mrm5561]

turning on my new playstation and playing twisted metal for the first time. it seems like forever ago.

 

[Okuu_Fusion]

I remember showing my friend some gaming magazine with an article on Grand Theft Auto 3... I was telling him it was going to be awesome...

I remember him stating, it was going to "suck" and "it will fail", and "save your money"...

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I remember my first Pokemon battle over link cable. I was kicking ass until he got mad and broke the connection. Then my Pokemon had a bunch of glitches going on... FUN TIMES XD

 

[ZiggyE]

Crying my eyes out at the ending of Kingdom Hearts.

 

[MisterShine]

My earliest memories is of getting my ass handed to me by my brother in Mortal Kombat. A year or so later at a friends birthday party (this was like 4th grade), I beat every single other person there in an MK tournament. Killed them all with the same finisher, too. Mmm.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Seeing Sub Zero rip someone's spine out his back with the head attached.

There were 4 of us around the arcade machine and we were all utterly gobsmacked.


Might be hard to imagine it now but at the time these were the best graphics and hardest violence we'd ever seen in a game.

 

[jaketaz]

I was one of those kids whose parents never let them do anything cool. I wasn't allowed to watch TV really, didn't have guns, action figures, or videogames. One Xmas, my grandpa got me the most awesome brand-new system around, a Super Nintendo. I popped in the game that it was packaged with, Super Mario Bros, still one of the best games ever made. It was absolutely amazing. The first time I jumped over the giant Bullet Bill in the first level, or rode Yoshi, or took off with the cape... dude it was so freaking epic. I'll always remember that.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I was one of those kids whose parents never let them do anything cool. I wasn't allowed to watch TV really, didn't have guns, action figures, or videogames. One Xmas, my grandpa got me the most awesome brand-new system around, a Super Nintendo. I popped in the game that it was packaged with, Super Mario Bros, still one of the best games ever made. It was absolutely amazing. The first time I jumped over the giant Bullet Bill in the first level, or rode Yoshi, or took off with the cape... dude it was so freaking epic. I'll always remember that.

Finding secret levels was also a madly satisfying feeling in that game.

 

[Snake Plissken]

My earliest gaming memories don't really even involve me...they involve my parents. We had a Commodore 64 when I was very young and my parents were having a competition with our next door neighbor to see who could beat Ultima first. I fucking love Ultima.

The first time I remember gaming myself was in dirty, dark arcades that my parents used to take me to, and my father would lift me up so I would be able to play Frogger and Pitfall. I loved those days.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I still remember fighting the Nasty Gatekeeper for the first time in Dynamite Headdy. I'd made the mistake of thinking that Heather had betrayed me, but realized my mistake during the previous boss battle. Then, the sudden backdrop reveal.

Then, Heather leaps away, only to be grabbed, and scream "Help me!"

Then, <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnwunBUlPFk>the incredible music, and the gatekeeper appears.

Then, I get <url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnstoppableRage>seriously pissed off. Probably my first genuine emotional response to a game.

 

[David_G]

I'm pretty young, so my earliest memories might not be so impressive. I remember playing GTA 1 and playing Tekken (I don't know which). I also remember using the Map Editor of some games and putting pretty much everything on the map and then playing it.

 

[frozen_scarecrow]

My babysitter hooked up an N64 to our projector and beat Ganon from OoT for us. That inspired us to get one, and the rest is history.

 

[Istanbul]

I still recall the first time I beat Super Metroid. The little baby Metroid that had gotten so huge that I was going to have to put it down, facing off against Mother Brain and trying every trick in my arsenal, being convinced I was gonna die...

And then here comes baby! Go, baby, go! Smack her down! And thanks for the pick-me-up! Now go finish h...

Oh, HELL no. You did NOT just kill the baby Metroid I'd just adopted. It's ON.

I tore into Mother Brain with a vengeance. She couldn't back up far or fast enough.

 

[x434343]

I remember that, for Christmas one year, my family got my sister and I a Nintendo 64, with Diddy Kong Racing and Super Mario 64. Best memory ever: my sister and I coaching our dad on how to defeat the first boss of Mario 64.

 

[Moonpig123]

Earliest gaming memories... Toy Story 2 on PS1. Defeating the evil robot in the attic with the green Super Laser, while my dad cheered encouragement from the sofa behind me.

The Spider-Man game for PS1. Being totally enamoured with being able to web swing all over the place; fast-forward years later and Spider-Man 2 (the one based on the movie, not Spider-Man 2: Wrath of Electro) takes that feeling and elevates it to a whole new level.

Aaaaaah, simpler times.

 

[MrShowerHead]

Red Alert, surrounding your base with tesla coils and watching the enemy army been toasted on the fields....Ahh, the memories.....

 

[Ultraman950]

Not really my earliest, but one of my most-remembered:

Super Mario 64, my sister and I had been playing that game for months, possibly over a year, and we had FINALLY gotten to Bowser's final incarnation. We knew we had to throw him into the bombs on the sides of the arena 3 times (just one is a significant undertaking), and we had a plan.

Then he began stomping and knocking bits of the arena floor away, making it much smaller and blowing our plan all to Hell.

Still, we had hit him twice. Just needed one more. My sister ran Mario around behind Bowser, grabbed his tail, swung him around, and finally took that giant lizard-bastard down for good.

It was one of the few times we didn't try to kill each other.

 

[mythstoorfoot]

Does anyone remember Ecco the Dolphin on the Sega Mega Drive?

Damn, that was an amazing game. :')

 

[barbzilla]

My earliest gaming memory was playing Burger Time on the Intellivision with my dad. When I got the NES the christmas it came out, my dad was on it for 2 days straight playing Duck Hunt (until I discovered I could control the ducks)