The first time you went hardcore

[Michael Hirst]

Okay so many of us, myself included have been playing games for a very long time but I also remember that for quite some time the games I was playing were easy and if they got hard I just quit them.

That is until Lion King on the Mega Drive/Genesis that game was really damn hard but I felt compelled by it and with some great support from my dad (telling me to keep trying) I just snapped into hardcore mode, I was driven to win that game and it was the first time I had ever gone hardcore on winning something instead of giving up.

I'm interested to know if any otehr escapists had similar experiences early in their gaming life. A time when you just knew you had to step up your game in order to win.

Semi-related: I think it was a great thing my dad did, even though it was just on a videogame and it was all being done for fun he taught me the importance of perserverence and to keep trying when something is hard instead of quitting otherwise you'll never be satisfied.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

First time?

Rome: Total War.

I wouldn't put that game down, I couldn't stop retrying and spending long hours trying to master it and this was still back when I was 12 and really only beginning to realise how involved I could get in games and how much time I could invest in them.

Good times.

 

[Drakmeire]

I don't think I can recall the first time. I guess earliest I can recall would be playing Punch-Out on the NES and going into a trance to defeat Bald Bull.

 

[Michael Hirst]

I don't think I can recall the first time. I guess earliest I can recall would be playing Punch-Out on the NES and going into a trance to defeat Bald Bull.

I've had the trance before, that's some weird stuff but yeah there's just definitive moments when you've got to keep trying your ass off until you can overcome the game. As a child that was one of the most valuable lessons learnt from gaming, the lesson to keep trying hard, all while having so much fun.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Starfox on the SNES. Kicked my ass until I stopped trying to just avoid enemies and actually aimed. Took me forever to get past Venom but eventually I did it. It became easier, I eventually beat course 2. Course 3 kicks my ass to this day.

[sub][sub]Sector Z... *shakes fist*[/sub][/sub]

 

[DracoSuave]

Yar's Revenge, once you got enough of a high score that there's no neutral zone and the Qotile fires every five seconds.

 

[Lunar Templar]

that i can clearly remember?

Mega Man X

up all night trying to beat it, by up all night i watched dad go to work and i was still at it

 

[Dethenger]

It was probably a LoZ game, but the earliest game I can remember being hard for me was Bomberman 64. Fuck yeah.

 

[krazykidd]

Talking about sheer determination? Well then for me it was diablo2 hardcore mode classic . About a month after i started playing diablo 2 i started playing hardcore mode . For those who don't know ( read:living under a rock ) hardcore mode is basically ehrn your character dies he doesn't respawn , you lose your character and all his items. At first i was dying at lvl 10-20 fairly often ( i didn't cheat nor get rushed ) so it was frustrating , then i got progressively better . After i got my first character to lvl 80 without dying ( twas a barbarian if memory serves ) i felt awsome.

 

[krazykidd]

Starfox on the SNES. Kicked my ass until I stopped trying to just avoid enemies and actually aimed. Took me forever to get past Venom but eventually I did it. It became easier, I eventually beat course 2. Course 3 kicks my ass to this day.

[sub][sub]Sector Z... *shakes fist*[/sub][/sub]

Aw man, thanks for that nostalgic kick in the pants , i loved that game as a kid, i wish i could replay it . Tell me if i remember this correctly , when you start on hard is the starting world's sky red instead of blue?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Starfox on the SNES. Kicked my ass until I stopped trying to just avoid enemies and actually aimed. Took me forever to get past Venom but eventually I did it. It became easier, I eventually beat course 2. Course 3 kicks my ass to this day.

[sub][sub]Sector Z... *shakes fist*[/sub][/sub]

Aw man, thanks for that nostalgic kick in the pants , i loved that game as a kid, i wish i could replay it . Tell me if i remember this correctly , when you start on hard is the starting world's sky red instead of blue?

Indeed it is. And you get to fight someone other than the rock crusher in the second level :O

 

[Beat14]

When I played css :/ I was to naive to realise just how "cool" I really was at the time.

 

[DarthSka]

Pokemon Red when I was five. I played the hell out of that thing hour after hour after hour no matter where I was, outside of school of course...............what? Pokemon is totally hardcore.

 

[mb16]

well i think i started out quite "hardcore", the first games i played were:
halflife (+opposing forces)
I-WAR ("realistic" space sim)
POD (racing game)
Comanche (realistic helicopter sim)
F22 Lightning (realistic jet sim)

after that i became a bit more casual playing on a mario/sonic/F-Zero on the gameboy

then i started back on the PC with "AGE of Mythology"

i have been gaming for 14 years (im 20)

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

The first game I really got into was Paper Mario. I have many embarrassing stories involving that game, but I was still, like, eight or something when I got it, so most of them are just due to childish ignorance and irresponsibility. But yeah, I played that game like a boss. And by like a boss I mean terribly. Very, very terribly. But a lot.

 

[ElPatron]

Probably Toy Story or Tarzan for gameboy.

F22 Lightning (realistic jet sim)

Gah! I had F-22 Lighting 3! It also had a demo for F-16 Fighting Falcon and a MiG-29 sim.

I also loved Tachyon: The Fringe! It was from Novalogic too, and it was a "space flight sim". It was sort of a FreeSpace 2 clone.

 

[Dango]

First time?

Rome: Total War.

I wouldn't put that game down, I couldn't stop retrying and spending long hours trying to master it and this was still back when I was 12 and really only beginning to realise how involved I could get in games and how much time I could invest in them.

Good times.

This, only I was 11 at the time.

 

[AugustFall]

Black and White I guess. Then Guild Wars.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

Not sure what the first time was but I do remember going into some kind of hardcore trance in dodging 250 lightning bolts in FFX.