What's your best gaming memory from the past?

[shadefaster]

What's your best memory from gaming in the past? Mine would defiantly be somewhere near the early 2000's where I finally got my hands on an nintendo 64 and got to play some fantastic games for it of the likes of super mario 64 and banjo kazooie. Just playing those games with my brothers watching was an awesome memory.

[miketheratguy]

I have many, many, many great memories from my gaming past, but I'll describe the first and most impactful one that always comes to mind. It's long, but it wasn't then it wouldn't be the special memory that it is.

I bought an Xbox in 2001 specifically to play The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I didn't own a PC but had read about this particular PC game as being a profoundly immersive RPG: The ability to wander around at will and take on hundreds of quests, kill any NPC, loot any dresser, steal any item, even take the forks from every dinner table. A day / night weather system, spell crafting, dozens of individual skills that are raised not by applying experience points but by repeatedly performing the actions governed by those skills. The game promised a level of depth and exploration that I'd never experienced before, and I couldn't wait to play the Xbox conversion that was supposedly going to launch with the console.

Except it didn't. I waited several months only to see the game delayed several times, and eventually it seemed like it was never going to be released. This game was literally the ONLY reason I'd purchased the system, and at one point I put it in the trunk of my car and wound up forgetting that it was even there. Eventually I sold it and moved on.

Cut to late 2002. I met a beautiful, intelligent, shy little geeky girl and we fell in love immediately. Literally day one love at first sight. We spent pretty much all of our waking hours together, until she had to fly off to college only a few weeks later. Debating whether we should maintain the relationship and undergo the frustration of waiting months to see each other again or breaking up and celebrating the brief time that we had, we both decided to keep things going. After she traveled to her college across the country we talked every day, and she even sent me a ticket to fly to see her for Thanksgiving break. When she came home the following summer we excitedly picked the relationship back up as if we'd never been apart, and by the end of the summer she surprised me with an amazing offer: For her second year she was getting a room to herself, so why not come live there with her?

I did, and it was amazing. California was a whole different world from Wisconsin, and I now got to spend every day with my beloved girlfriend. We often took the bus to leave her college and visit the nearby villages and shops, and it was there that I was a bit heartbroken to see that Morrowind had in fact finally been released. I pointed the game out to her, telling her the story of how much I'd wanted to acquire it, and we moved on. A few weeks later my birthday arrived, and I was shocked when my girlfriend opened our door with a big heavy box in her hands. Turns out it was a new (used) Xbox and my very own copy of Morrowind.

I hooked everything up immediately and was taken by the game's atmosphere, graphics and character creation right off the bat. My girlfriend was really intrigued too, but she had to run off to class. While she was gone I putzed around in the game, just being filled with awe at what I was experiencing. Everything I'd read was right: I could travel anywhere, attack anyone, steal anything, and basically just adventure freely and experience the breathtaking vast world of the game however I wanted.

I played the game all day, stopping only when my girlfriend got back so I could grab some food and let her have some time messing with the game. That night, when she went to sleep, I played some more.

And it was there, during that first night, that I realized just how amazing my life was at the time. I was sitting upright on our bed, my back against the wall facing the television, as my girlfriend slept quietly beside me. The tv cast a soft glow on the room, illuminating new and exciting surroundings that I still wasn't quite yet acclimated to. Outside the window was a whole different type of life with different weather, different trees, different places and different people. And here on the television was a game experience like I'd never seen. As I sat there playing it that night I was becoming acutely aware of just how incredible the game world was, and just how much freedom I'd been granted to play in it. I had so many options in front of me, so many characters to talk to and places to go and quests to conquer. I felt myself almost overwhelmed, excited not just for the game in front of me but for the possibilities of the future of gaming. And I felt grateful, thinking that maybe the reason why I hadn't been able to get the game originally was because I'd somehow been destined to have that awesome experience in that particular place, at that particular time, and with that particular person.

I'd played hundreds of games before that night, but that was the first time that I really felt completely sucked into another universe. Yet whenever I looked away from the screen, I saw the woman that I loved sleeping next to me. Everything just came together to give me a sense of palpable joy and inner peace that I could never explain. In those moments life just seemed absolutely perfect, and I was filled with a sense that everything was bright and limitless. Thanks to Morrowind, and my wonderful girlfriend who was there to share the experience with me, I'd been struck with the feeling that some of the most amazing experiences of my life were ahead of me.

And they were.

[KHANV1CT]

When I got my PS2. I was the first out of all my friends that got one and it was just so awesome and advanced at the time. I could play DVD movies and amazing games, it was just incredible.

[kitsunebi]

"Mom, can I have a quarter?"

"NO!"

Being more or less penniless as a child, I never really played many arcade games growing up, unless the stars aligned just right and someone hosted a birthday party at an arcade, in which case I would be reluctantly equipped with $5 of quarters. I probably spent more time trying to decide which games deserved my meager fortune than I spent actually playing them.

Never having the money to sink into anything that required lots of practice, I avoided games that might pit me against a more talented player who would destroy me (and my precious quarter) in seconds, so I never did develop a taste for fighting games.

But cooperative games were awesome, especially since there were so few of them available on the NES I had at home. And so it was on one magical birthday-party-day that I and some friends played through the entirety of the first TMNT arcade game in 4-player mode. I've certainly played lots of better games, but perhaps because the arcade experience of standing shoulder to shoulder with a group of friends was such an incredibly rare one for me, that particular day stands out in my memory.

[Areala]

I'm not sure this counts, but it's game-related and until I think of a better one, I'm going to use this one as my 'best' just because I think it's amusing.

My birthday is in October (the 21st, to be precise), and the PS2 launched in North America on October 26th of 2000. I would have outright stabbed a beeyotch for wanted one, but everywhere I checked around where I lived was either taking pre-orders on the lottery system, required a full down-payment of $299.99 to guarantee pick-up, or had sold through their pre-order allotment months ago. The option several of my friends were using was online orders, but they were forking over sometimes as much as $500 to get theirs, and being a poor college student on the cusp of graduation, I wasn't exactly in that tax bracket. I figured it would be months, if not a solid year or more, before there would be enough available at retail that I could just walk into a store and buy one. I was one sad warrior nun.

October 26th, 2000 was a Thursday. I don't know why I remember this, but I do. In any case, we'd run out of something at home (probably laundry soap) and needed to re-supply. The closest store to us was a Target department store, so after class finished up, my girlfriend and I drove over there and I, like I always did, walked over to see what was going on in the Electronics section (Target had awesome sales on PS1 games from time to time if they over-ordered inventory so it was always worth checking).

I walk into Electronics, and what do I see but a massive display of PS2 boxes, probably close to fifty. At first my assumption is they're all empty, just kind of a sales reminder of where the systems will be set up once the store gets them in, that sort of thing. But no, there's a big price sign right next to them advertising them at $299, one to a customer. I walk over, pick up a box, and sure enough, it's the real deal. Gamers everywhere are losing their absolute shit trying to find PS2s at Best Buy, GameStop, Electronics Boutique and the like, paying ungodly sums of money for them, importing them for even more ungodly sums of money, and waiting outside in long-ass lines over the course of several nights to possibly get a system, and here's Target, of all places, with an impossible-to-miss display of them right in the middle of Electronics, and no one around who seems to notice or even care.

I walked back to my girlfriend, she saw the box in my hand, and asked me who I'd knocked unconscious and stolen it from. I took her back over to Electronics and showed her the display, showed her the price, put on my best puppy-dog-eyes face and she agreed that, yes, I could put the PS2 on our credit card.

But it gets better. We go over to the checkout lane in Electronics, and the cashier there is like, "Right now we've got a promotion going on where if you open a Target credit card, you get six months' interest free and 10% off your purchase. Takes about two minutes and you'd save $30."

I filled out the paperwork, then asked the guy how on earth they had a display of PS2's taller than I was on launch day. He said he had no idea, they'd set it up that morning just before opening, and just assumed nobody thought about coming in to Target to pick one up. I had to admit, the thought hadn't occurred to me either, and it was only the simple fact that we'd run out of laundry soap that brought us in there that day, but I walked out of that store with a PS2 for which I had paid less than retail price, on day one, and easily paid off within the six-month allotted interest-free period.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for word to get around that the local Target had PS2's just sitting out for sale. I went back that Sunday because I was curious, and they'd all sold out.

Day-one system buying LIKE A BOSS!

*huggles*
Areala

[miketheratguy]

Day-one system buying LIKE A BOSS!

Lol your PS2-buying experience was a lot more straightforward than mine. I had to race home from work, borrow $300 against my next paycheck, then rush to the local Wal-Mart where I spent five hours waiting in line to get my system. Honestly can't say that I regret it though. Standing in line (and sitting, once someone got the bright idea to grab folding chairs from the camping section) with fellow gamers, chatting about the new machine and what games we were most looking forward to, was a fun experience of shared anticipation and community. And once Wal-Mart counted how many systems they had in stock and cut off the line at the limit point (leaving quite a few dejected customers and only a few people left in line behind me) they gave us snacks and vouchers that allowed us to move around and come back for our consoles at midnight.

I waited in line for 11 hours to get the Wii - outdoors in the winter, no less - and I couldn't even care less about the system, I did it to snag one for my girlfriend. Incidentally your PS2 experience reminds me of this: When I told my friend about my 11 hour wait he told me that he simply called local secondary chain Shopko, found out that they had several systems in stock, and drove over to get one. He didn't have to wait because apparently, like your store, everyone just assumed that they'd be sold out and went elsewhere.

[shadefaster]

I have many, many, many great memories from my gaming past, but I'll describe the first and most impactful one that always comes to mind. It's long, but it wasn't then it wouldn't be the special memory that it is.

I bought an Xbox in 2001 specifically to play The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I didn't own a PC but had read about this particular PC game as being a profoundly immersive RPG: The ability to wander around at will and take on hundreds of quests, kill any NPC, loot any dresser, steal any item, even take the forks from every dinner table. A day / night weather system, spell crafting, dozens of individual skills that are raised not by applying experience points but by repeatedly performing the actions governed by those skills. The game promised a level of depth and exploration that I'd never experienced before, and I couldn't wait to play the Xbox conversion that was supposedly going to launch with the console.

Except it didn't. I waited several months only to see the game delayed several times, and eventually it seemed like it was never going to be released. This game was literally the ONLY reason I'd purchased the system, and at one point I put it in the trunk of my car and wound up forgetting that it was even there. Eventually I sold it and moved on.

Cut to late 2002. I met a beautiful, intelligent, shy little geeky girl and we fell in love immediately. Literally day one love at first sight. We spent pretty much all of our waking hours together, until she had to fly off to college only a few weeks later. Debating whether we should maintain the relationship and undergo the frustration of waiting months to see each other again or breaking up and celebrating the brief time that we had, we both decided to keep things going. After she traveled to her college across the country we talked every day, and she even sent me a ticket to fly to see her for Thanksgiving break. When she came home the following summer we excitedly picked the relationship back up as if we'd never been apart, and by the end of the summer she surprised me with an amazing offer: For her second year she was getting a room to herself, so why not come live there with her?

I did, and it was amazing. California was a whole different world from Wisconsin, and I now got to spend every day with my beloved girlfriend. We often took the bus to leave her college and visit the nearby villages and shops, and it was there that I was a bit heartbroken to see that Morrowind had in fact finally been released. I pointed the game out to her, telling her the story of how much I'd wanted to acquire it, and we moved on. A few weeks later my birthday arrived, and I was shocked when my girlfriend opened our door with a big heavy box in her hands. Turns out it was a new (used) Xbox and my very own copy of Morrowind.

I hooked everything up immediately and was taken by the game's atmosphere, graphics and character creation right off the bat. My girlfriend was really intrigued too, but she had to run off to class. While she was gone I putzed around in the game, just being filled with awe at what I was experiencing. Everything I'd read was right: I could travel anywhere, attack anyone, steal anything, and basically just adventure freely and experience the breathtaking vast world of the game however I wanted.

I played the game all day, stopping only when my girlfriend got back so I could grab some food and let her have some time messing with the game. That night, when she went to sleep, I played some more.

And it was there, during that first night, that I realized just how amazing my life was at the time. I was sitting upright on our bed, my back against the wall facing the television, as my girlfriend slept quietly beside me. The tv cast a soft glow on the room, illuminating new and exciting surroundings that I still wasn't quite yet acclimated to. Outside the window was a whole different type of life with different weather, different trees, different places and different people. And here on the television was a game experience like I'd never seen. As I sat there playing it that night I was becoming acutely aware of just how incredible the game world was, and just how much freedom I'd been granted to play in it. I had so many options in front of me, so many characters to talk to and places to go and quests to conquer. I felt myself almost overwhelmed, excited not just for the game in front of me but for the possibilities of the future of gaming. And I felt grateful, thinking that maybe the reason why I hadn't been able to get the game originally was because I'd somehow been destined to have that awesome experience in that particular place, at that particular time, and with that particular person.

I'd played hundreds of games before that night, but that was the first time that I really felt completely sucked into another universe. Yet whenever I looked away from the screen, I saw the woman that I loved sleeping next to me. Everything just came together to give me a sense of palpable joy and inner peace that I could never explain. In those moments life just seemed absolutely perfect, and I was filled with a sense that everything was bright and limitless. Thanks to Morrowind, and my wonderful girlfriend who was there to share the experience with me, I'd been struck with the feeling that some of the most amazing experiences of my life were ahead of me.

And they were.

haha, that's awesome, what did you think of California? That's my birth state and the one place I had some my best gaming experiences.

[shadefaster]

"Mom, can I have a quarter?"

"NO!"

I never really played many arcade games growing up, unless the stars aligned just right and someone hosted a birthday party at an arcade

I love how you worded that XD

[miketheratguy]

haha, that's awesome, what did you think of California? That's my birth state and the one place I had some my best gaming experiences.

For the most part I liked it. The first time I was there I met Richard Dreyfuss at the airport and saw the Hollywood sign in the distance during my bus ride into town. The second time that I arrived at LAX I got on the wrong bus and got lost, getting off somewhere in downtown LA at 1 in the morning. I was terrified that I was going to get raped, killed and eaten by street gangs but I took note of the intersection where I nervously awaited the next bus (and the huge skyscraper that was there in front of me as I waited) and later discovered that the corner of Wilshire and Figueroa is kind of like smack in the middle of the high-rise business district.

Even after being there for a few years it was still pretty surreal to see palm trees and cacti everywhere. Awesome being able to look out the window and see mountains. My girlfriend attended a pretty high-end school (Scripps) and the landscaping of the campus was beautiful, lots of gardens and statues and fountains and open-air buildings. We lived right down the street from a botanical garden, which was nice. Many things like Wal-Marts, Mcdonalds and shopping malls felt pretty much just like they do back in Wisconsin, though it was weird getting used to different grocery stores like Vons and Albertsons (both of which we liked). Weather was hit and miss - I generally prefer colder temperatures so it was kind of rough being in the wide open sun, but I remember that there were often really nice cool breezy evenings and nights. Traffic was amusing - it seemed like everyone lost their minds anytime it rained. Lots of wildfires in the area, seemed like they happened not too far from the college every year. Didn't get to meet many people since we lived on campus and didn't have the means to get out much, but I suppose that they weren't much different than back home. Much skimpier clothes on a lot of the ladies. Several people told me that I had a midwestern accent even though I was pretty sure that I sounded exactly like they did.

[shadefaster]

For the most part I liked it. The first time I was there I met Richard Dreyfuss at the airport and saw the Hollywood sign in the distance during my bus ride into town. The second time that I arrived at LAX I got on the wrong bus and got lost, getting off somewhere in downtown LA at 1 in the morning. I was terrified that I was going to get raped, killed and eaten by street gangs but I took note of the intersection where I nervously awaited the next bus (and the huge skyscraper that was there in front of me as I waited) and later discovered that the corner of Wilshire and Figueroa is kind of like smack in the middle of the high-rise business district.

Even after being there for a few years it was still pretty surreal to see palm trees and cacti everywhere. Awesome being able to look out the window and see mountains. My girlfriend attended a pretty high-end school (Scripps) and the landscaping of the campus was beautiful, lots of gardens and statues and fountains and open-air buildings. We lived right down the street from a botanical garden, which was nice. Many things like Wal-Marts, Mcdonalds and shopping malls felt pretty much just like they do back in Wisconsin, though it was weird getting used to different grocery stores like Vons and Albertsons (both of which we liked). Weather was hit and miss - I generally prefer colder temperatures so it was kind of rough being in the wide open sun, but I remember that there were often really nice cool breezy evenings and nights. Traffic was amusing - it seemed like everyone lost their minds anytime it rained. Lots of wildfires in the area, seemed like they happened not too far from the college every year. Didn't get to meet many people since we lived on campus and didn't have the means to get out much, but I suppose that they weren't much different than back home. Much skimpier clothes on a lot of the ladies. Several people told me that I had a midwestern accent even though I was pretty sure that I sounded exactly like they did.

Yea, the part of California I lived in was basically a desert with a lot dry heat, I love the heat though, my health seems to strive in those kinda of conditions rather then dry cold or hot humidity. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself for the most part, it's a state that has a lot going on around you and a lot of things to do.

[twiztor]

here's Target, of all places

i worked at Target for about 5 years, nearly all of which was spent in the Electronics dept. there were numerous times that the "buzz" was that a specfic system/game/accessory was unavailable EVERYWHERE, nobody could find any, and i'd be sitting with 10 of them on the shelf or behind the counter, just thinking "come on!"

i could go into detail, but Target likes to PRETEND they have an electronics dept. sure, they carry games, and movies, and cds, but they don't really act like an electronics store. they don't go out of their way to get cutting edge stuff (tvs/stereos/etc), they normally don't have brand new working demos, they give their salespeople little training, stuff like that. they just get the products in that they think will sell and let it sit on the shelf.

[twiztor]

back on topic, all of my favorite video game memories involve gaming with someone else.

when i was a kid, my younger brother and I never really got along. we'd argue, wrestle, fight, everything. Except when we were playing NES. we'd take turns, give advice, figure out puzzles together. i haven't talked to him in probably 3 years now (not that we had a falling out- he moved away and we just don't talk) but when i look back on those old days it just kinda amazes me. such good times.

when i was a teenager, me & my friends would sit around playing n64 for HOURS UPON HOURS. WCW/NWO Revenge, Goldeneye, Mortal Kombat, Gauntlet Legends, you name it. deep into the night or all the way until dawn. frozen pizzas and mountain dew were all the fuel we needed. i'd give anything to get my friends together and do this on a regular basis again.

[marktrade]

The first time I saw Virtua Fighter 2 was a religious experience.

Really, it was at a church festival. They set up an arcade right inside the lobby of the church. Someone must have complained because they never did that again. Mortal Kombat and pinball machines with rock music and other works of the devil in god's own house! It was all so beautiful, but Virtua Fighter 2 looked like it came from heaven itself. How was it even possible for a game to look like that? 3D, flawless and perfect 60 FPS, vibrant colors, 3D backgrounds even, wind, even one of the stages tilted and dipped into water because it was on a moving boat, underneath bridges, shadows, the camera flew around, zoomed in on the fighter's faces. It literally added a new dimension to a genre I already loved. It was transcendent.

I didn't have a chance to play it that day because there were so many people there I couldn't even get close to it. I just awkwardly looked at it from the across the room. It was like that feeling when you encounter an extremely beautiful woman and you're torn inside by total awe and the thought "be cool, don't stare, you creep," like the game might know that I was looking at it and decide that I was unworthy.

It wasn't until a year or two later that I was finally able to play it on a trip to Six Flags. I saw it in an arcade there along with its sequel, Virtua Fighter 3, which I had read about in Next Generation. That was a massive machine and expensive (a dollar per credit in 1996). Meanwhile VF2 was waiting for me for 25 cents a credit with settings modified so that each round was best of nine fights. Possibly the greatest bang for my gaming buck ever. She was so beautiful.

I played for what felt like hours. It was my first time so I wasn't very skilled. I couldn't even get past the third round, Pai. She's what you might call a "casual filter." If you don't know anything about the game, you can probably get to her, but not past her. So that day was mostly spent losing to Pai over and over. I still think she is such an impressive character, with her hand-twisting counters and the fearsome way she yells during her PPPK combo. So much energy seeming to come out of nowhere.

There may never be a time like VF2's introduction again. The Model 2 arcade board on which it was based only came into Sega's hands after the cold war ended and Yu Suzuki went to Lockheed and asked for an exclusive discount on their flight sim technology. Incredible stuff. The intersection of great software design, defense department hardware design, and a chance to redefine a genre. When else could that ever happen?

[RobertDuncan]

There's basically there aspects of gaming I like from the 80s-90s. First would be the nes era of gaming and everything that came out of that including:cerals,commercials,TV shows,game magazines and merchandise in the form of toys,books etc boy was that fun it really made unpacking present special and kept your imagination actually entertain. Next would be the playstation era of gaming because it mimic the nes era by reintroducing gamers and new gamers to new ips,along with merchandise etc etc and boy reading game magazine when psone came out was sure a treat. Lastly the era of arcade was so special everything about the scene was cool, heck I remember seeing ppl enjoy playing with each other in person except for heated fights that mk and street fighter would cause lol and hey even coverage of those games on mags made it pretty fun to read and look at the artwork.

Runner up of course Sega which made some sexy consoles and introduce the world to some memorable games like sonic and golden axe.

[PhoenixVanguard]

Getting out of Midgar in Final Fantasy VII and realizing I had only explored one city in a whole world.

I knew this when I bought the game, but as I was playing it, I became so absorbed and impressed I almost forgot there was a whole world to explore. Being the first RPG I ever played added to the impact, as I had never played a game before that what was absolutely packed with content.

[wtc1973]

Many great memories spending the night at a friends who had a NES before me in '87. We would stay up late into the night working on Zelda, Rygar, or whatever game was giving us a challenge.

I enjoyed the act of walking to the store to see what games were in to. I grew up in a really small town and we had two places to rent games: Western Auto and a very small videostore. They both were good with getting at least one new NES game every month. I always wondered if that would be the week a new release came in.

[kitsunebi]

Many great memories spending the night at a friends who had a NES before me in '87. We would stay up late into the night working on Zelda, Rygar, or whatever game was giving us a challenge.

I stayed overnight at a friends house once watching him play through all three Ninja Gaiden games in a row. It was fun at first, but after so many hours of watching somebody replay the same level yet again...I feel like I had to have more endurance just to sit there than he had to have to actually play the things. But hey, he did it. I never could beat a Ninja Gaiden game until the advent of emulators with save states.

Edited February 25, 2016 by kitsunebi77

[wtc1973]

Ninja Gaiden games are a real challenge for sure. I think they are some of the best on the NES. I remember getting really far once on NG1 and the screen freezing. Now when I play the game it'll be the SNES version. I've never beaten them. I don't think my reflexes are as good as they use to be either although I still remember the patterns on the first one.

[jdoll]

fondest memories are of multiplayer-

n64 games all day long between swimming and eating ice cream with friends. playing halo online or burnout 3 on xbox live. all good times

[nutznboltz2003]

For me, one of my fondest gaming memories was ordering Nintendo Power when you could get a free copy of Dragon Warrior with your subscription. I had played that game at my cousins and absolutely loved it and wanted to own it. My folks weren't happy about me "wasting" my paper route money on a magazine, but it was the best decision I had made

[urko948]

Back when I was a kid and my family would all play games like Mario Party. Good times

[formisc1]

my favourite gaming memory is actually reading Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine back in the 90s. I can't wait for each copy of the magazine to arrive in my mailbox each month..

 

good times they were