Anyone else have trouble remembering if you've played something before?

[kitsunebi]

So I'm reading through a blog as they cover Crystalis for the NES and although I'm pretty sure I've beaten it in the past, the blog's coverage isn't ringing any bells, nor do any of the screenshots evoke any memories.  Was I mistaken?  Maybe I never played it after all?

Luckily, I keep lists (for this very reason.)  After checking my list, it turns out that I DID beat Crystalis back in 2005, though I can't for the life of me remember a thing about it.

Does this ever happen to anyone else?  

Hell, sometimes even my lists aren't good enough, like the time I played a translated rom of a Japanese exclusive Dragon Quest clone all the way through to completion, then realized I'd already beaten it years earlier when I went to add it to my list of completed games only to find that it was already on there.

Either I'm going senile early, or some of these games just aren't that memorable...

[Sivilius]

Several months ago I went through the NA Release lists for the Dreamcast, N64, & PS1 trying to remember which games I previously owned back in the day. I could remember most of them, but there were a few I genuine wasn't sure if I had or hadn't, particularly in the sports category.

A few I thought I owned but couldn't remember playing them, which was a bit odd.

[kitsunebi]

40 minutes ago, Sivilius said:

A few I thought I owned but couldn't remember playing them, which was a bit odd.

Good lord, if you think that's odd, what must you think of me?  I may have played the bejeezus out of every game I had as a kid, but once I had a job and could afford to buy my own games, I bought games at a much higher rate than I could find the time to play them.  I stopped buying games altogether over 10 years ago, but at that time, I definitely owned more games that I'd never played than games that I had played.  So if I have trouble remembering what unplayed games I own, that's understandable.

[DPsx7]

Sorta. I usually know 'if' I've played a certain game. My problem is I play so dang many that I don't often recall much about the story. Because some games sit for months before I play them (I wait for sales), it's happened more than once where I'll buy stuff during a B2G1 or something then come home and realize I had one of 'em already.

[Data]

10 hours ago, kitsunebi77 said:

So I'm reading through a blog as they cover Crystalis for the NES and although I'm pretty sure I've beaten it in the past, the blog's coverage isn't ringing any bells, nor do any of the screenshots evoke any memories.  Was I mistaken?  Maybe I never played it after all?

Luckily, I keep lists (for this very reason.)  After checking my list, it turns out that I DID beat Crystalis back in 2005, though I can't for the life of me remember a thing about it.

Does this ever happen to anyone else?  

Hell, sometimes even my lists aren't good enough, like the time I played a translated rom of a Japanese exclusive Dragon Quest clone all the way through to completion, then realized I'd already beaten it years earlier when I went to add it to my list of completed games only to find that it was already on there.

Either I'm going senile early, or some of these games just aren't that memorable...

 

If you've played as many games as I imagine you have then it doesn't surprise me that you don't recall a flashing 8 bit tile game you beat 13 years ago.  If you read an F.A.Q and blew through the game in three hours,  the likelihood of forgetting detail would only increase it seams.  I say this because I have had a similar experience.  I have seen so many movies aprox. 1500-2000 and I probably wouldn't be able to describe half of them although when I do watch one again it takes about 10 to 20 minutes of watching before something will trigger a memory that I have seen this.  This is also the same time I expect to be engaged with the plot instead, shutting it off in protest.

[Sivilius]

Playing games or watching movies vs. having memorable experiences doing it is a common thing. I've personally owned over 50 sports games and played many, many more. But the number of sports games I remember well is probably less than 10. But that probably speaks more to the genre itself than my overall enjoyment playing them at the time.

[kitsunebi]

Time spent doing something repetitively does seem to be a factor.  I remember every terrible game I owned as a kid, simply because I had to play them over and over for lack of ability to buy new games.  But I have very few memories of most of the games I played using emulators as an adult, since thanks to save states, progress through a game was swift and steady, and the need to start over at the beginning of a level (or the entire game) countless times is eliminated.

Likewise with movies, if you only see it once, you're bound to forget it with time, but even a terrible movie seen multiple times has a better chance of living on in memory.

[AlidarJarok]

I know I sure do. The one games I think I used to own but don't really remember is Jurassic Park Rampage Edition. I swear that I did but when I see let's plays of I am really not sure. A few things look familiar, but nothing really jogs my memory.

[MisterXiado]

Youtube makes it difficult to remember, as watching somebody play a game plays a bit of havoc with your memory of whether it was you playing or not.

[thepalalias]

I was thinking back to games I played in the late 80s or early 90s with my cousins and started making a list of them just to try and see if I could place all of them.

One of the ones that took a while was "It Came From the Desert" for the Amiga. I couldn't remember the name but when I happened across it in an Amiga video compilation I thought "I wonder..." and went to watch some LP videos. About 30 minutes later I was sure that was the one.