miketheratguy

Some good choices in there. Interesting to know that a grocery store gave away a Turbografx. That's one of the most awkward and unlikely pairings that I can think of, lol. What's the story behind Dracula Unleashed?

But unlike eating, your first Xbox game is important!

Yeah it sounds like not a whole lot stands out.

I was reading an EGM review of South Park for the Nintendo 64, (not so) fondly remembering the fact that I somehow chose that as my first game for that console instead of Ocarina of Time. It got me to remembering the first titles that I got for all of my other systems, and wondering what everyone else's were. What sold you on your favorite system? Did you get that favorite game as a birthday or Christmas gift? Were you stuck playing a crappy game on your brand new machine, or were you blissfully enraptured with quality right from the start? I'd like to know! Here's how it went down for me. ATARI 2600: This was a Christmas gift for my sister and I in 1982. While the earliest game that I have photo documentation of playing is Donkey Kong, it was never a high favorite. NES: This was my Christmas gift of 1987, purchased for me because I was frothingly desperate to play Super Mario Bros. Aside from that pack-in game, however, my first NES title was Ghosts 'N Goblins. It was spring or summer of 1988 when my parents decided to let me choose a second game, and I remember picking that one out from the local Sears catalog because I loved the idea of a game full of spooky creatures. Now, had I known how insanely difficult the game was... GAMEBOY: Following a trend, the Gameboy was my Christmas gift of 1989. In addition to Tetris, which I became addicted to like any good gamer, I also received Super Mario Land. GENESIS: I got my first Genesis by trading the motor of our riding lawnmower to a buddy of mine who wanted it to craft a makeshift go-kart. With the system came Altered Beast and Super Thunderblade, plus maybe a third title that I don't remember. The first Genesis game that I actively chose to buy was Sonic - in fact that game was enough to get me to buy a second Genesis, since in the intervening time I'd actually gotten bored with my first one and sold it. SNES: The Super Nintendo was my Christmas gift of 1991, quite possibly my favorite Christmas present of all time. And though it was a tight race between Final Fantasy II and SimCity, it was SimCity that won my vote for second place on the list. Alternating between hours of Super Mario World and SimCity made for one of the happiest holidays that this kid ever had. TURBOGRAFX 16: I bought this from my friend Howard for $75 bucks in late 1994, along with the CD attachment, Ys, and a handful of other well-known games such as Legendary Axe and China Warrior. Along with Ys, my interest in getting the system was for D&D game "Order of the Griffon". SEGA CD: I received this for my birthday in 1995 after deciding that I absolutely NEEDED to own The Secret of Monkey Island. 3DO: Catching this system in 2000 during that short valley between first release and collector market prices, I paid thirty bucks to own it and did so specifically for Wolfenstein 3D. PLAYSTATION: I was given the Playstation for my 18th birthday, the system marking my transition into adulthood. While my first few months with the machine were marked by rentals of Doom, Theme Park, King's Field, Resident Evil and Loaded, I wouldn't actually own any games for it until Christmas a few months later. Those were Road Rash and Theme Park, two of the three games that topped my list (the third was "D", which I didn't really care not to get). NINTENDO 64: I bought this system for Christmas of 1998, along with South Park. Somehow I convinced myself that the game would be an immersive open-world exploration of the South Park universe and not just a crummy, rudimentary 3D shooter with complete linearity and terrible draw distance. I quickly learned my mistake and ran to get Ocarina of Time just days later. SATURN: I bought this system in 2001 or 2002 after being told by Gamespot employees that its version of Mortal Kombat II was arcade-perfect. I was lied to. DREAMCAST: After playing Crazy Taxi at a different Gamestop in the spring of 2000 and becoming wholly addicted to it, I literally decided on a whim to buy both the system and the game after my next shift at work. PLAYSTATION 2: I waited 6 hours in line to receive a PS2 not because I had any great interest in any of the games, but because I knew that the system would be hard to get and I wanted a dvd player. True story. Though I guess the first games that I wound up really enjoying were Tekken Tag Tournament and Dynasty Warriors 2. XBOX: I bought my first Xbox as soon as I possibly could in anxious anticipation of Morrowind. Then the game was delayed, I needed money, and wound up selling the unused Xbox. A year later Morrowind was available so my awesome girlfriend got me the game along with a whole new Xbox. GAMEBOY ADVANCE: Grabbed this from my stint at Gamestop in the fall of 2001, getting Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Final Fight and F-Zero Advance with it. SEGA MASTER SYSTEM: Someone dumped one off at that same Gamespot but we didn't sell them and no one had called dibs so I snatched it up. Don't have any games for it though. GAMECUBE: That same awesome girlfriend randomly bought me a new Gamecube in the summer of 2003 because she knew that I was interested in the free Wind Waker pack-in. She also got me The Twin Snakes. GP32: The Korean "Gamepark 32 BLU+" is a portable emulator of moderate power which I bought for $200 bucks for my birthday in 2005. PSP: The awesome girlfriend, yet again, bought me the PSP for Christmas of 2005 along with my first choice of game, GTA Liberty City Stories. XBOX 360: My girlfriend and I bought the system in the summer of 2006 for Oblivion. Don't get no simpler. GAME GEAR: Found one at a local Goodwill for five bucks in 2008 or so. No games for it. PLAYSTATION 3: I shruggingly bought the PS3 in the summer of 2012 because I had some spare cash and figured that I'd want to play games online with my friend back home sometime. My first game for it was the Ico / Shadow of the Colossus HD collection, one of like three exclusive that I cared to get the system for. PS VITA: My friend bought it (plus Mortal Kombat) from a buddy of his for $35 bucks because the guy no longer wanted it. Then a few months later my friend gave it to me for Christmas because he no longer wanted it. I bought Minecraft and Dynasty Warriors Next within a day or two of getting the system.

I like how much we've said "fuck" in this thread. True story: I actually sent a private message to a high-ranking member a few weeks ago asking whether it was okay to swear on this site. How's that for being considerate of the rules? I hope that when I post filthy (yet powerfully alluring) nude photos of myself in random threads with absolutely zero provocation you all remember this earlier effort to be a law-abiding citizen.

I'm afraid that, for better or worse, the majority of my impressions of FFVII were formed the first time that I played it. I threw myself into the game, like I did with all Final Fantasy titles up to that point, and found myself oddly detached from it. It didn't feel anything like the previous games in the series, including even the Gameboy titles. It was epic in scope and definitely felt like a Final Fantasy game, it just felt worse in almost every respect. I didn't feel much of a sense of accomplishment when I finished it, nothing really resembling the feeling of satisfaction and joy at having gone through what should have been a deeply rewarding journey. By the time I was done I couldn't care less about the vast majority of the characters, was completely underwhelmed by the ending and no less confused about the plot, and had no particularly strong feelings about any of what I'd experienced (with the exception of Aeris' death). I could only remember a couple of pieces from the soundtrack and had no great urge to start back over and play the game a second time. In short, while I did enjoy playing through Final Fantasy VII and don't regret having done so, it didn't leave any great impression on me. When it was finished I turned off the Playstation and thought "That's it? Huh. It was good I guess". The only bearing that the internet had on my opinion was the shock and confusion I felt at seeing how feverishly the game had been (and continues to be) embraced by an obsessive, doe-eyed and reverent gaming public - seemingly consisting primarily of kids who'd never been exposed to an RPG before. It saddens me to think that the exaggerated reputation that I feel the game earned came not from an objective appraisal of its quality but rather the ignorance of many of its supporters. Everyone's free to love the game, of course. To each their own. I just have a hard time reconciling the quantity of the adoration with the demonstrable quality of the game. Why are a million idiots screaming? Because they're idiots. That's what they do. I honestly recall seeing no gameplay footage in any of the commercials that I was exposed to. Not one second of it. I would never claim that NONE of them showed any, but if they did then I certainly didn't see them. What I did see was crap like this, and I saw it constantly. FMV cutscenes? Oh you betcha! Here's all the exploding, flashing, motorcycle riding FMV cutscenes anyone could ask for and more. Shit, the game might as well have been titled "IT'S PURTY SO BUY IT". Gameplay? Not even the fleetest hint of it.

Ahhh, yes. Issue 115 of Electronic Gaming Monthly. This issue has a rather special place in ol' Rat Guy's heart, for at the beginning of August 2002 I was reading it at the lakeside marina of my hometown - just passing the time on a beautiful afternoon - and mere hours later fell head over heels in love with a woman I randomly stumbled into and would go on to share five wonderful years of my life with. Good times, good times. The best of times, really. I still have my copy of this one. Actually I have two, since my cousin had lent me his. But it will still be cool to have a digital copy.

I haven't used my psp tv cable in forever so I can't be absolutely certain but I believe that you're right, it is in fact a component cable. Then again I think that the system can use a composite cable as well. I don't really remember what the deal was, other than knowing that I was only able to use the cable that I did because my system was hacked. But yeah, excellent system. A hacked psp and a hefty memory stick means a portable gaming device that's storing a dozen psp games and hundreds of NES, SNES and Genesis games. Even some arcade titles. As for FF7, I bought it the week it was released and played it through to completion. At the time I enjoyed it, it's a good game. The only reason that I look back on it as overrated is because of the crummy characters, the hot mess of a plot, the bad dialogue, the underwhelming soundtrack, the lame non-ending, the smaller party size, the characters' lack of any real practical uniqueness, the overuse of corny designations and acronyms, the dearth of noteworthy character development for all but a handful of the cast, the glut of gimmicky minigames, the hyperbolic ad campaign, the overzealous fan worship, the masturbatory frenzy over the boring antagonist, the fact that the game has gotten half a dozen spinoffs and a profoundly awful CGI movie, Square's desire to include a spiky-haired androgynous emo in virtually every successive game, the popular belief that FF7 is somehow not only the best game in the series but also one of the absolute best games ever made... This. And by "so prominently featured" you mean "featured this and literally nothing else". It's funny that just a few years later people bitched and made it an industry controversy when Call of Duty 2 pulled essentially the same trick..

I didn't watch those old gaming shows so I'd never heard of her until I saw that picture. I looked her up and though she seems to go through some different phases, yeah, she's a cutie.

LOL just noticed Adam Sessler on page 42. That's not Morgan Webb next to him but she's got the cute geek girl thing going on nonetheless!

About which part, that FFIV on the psp is great, that FFVI is the objective best, or that FFVII is obscenely overrated? I have to confess that I never even went through all of the other stories on the PSP release, for me it was addicting enough just to jump back into FFIV (and such a good version of it to boot). I can't remember the name of the cable but yeah, there's a plug that can connect the PSP directly to a tv with composite hookups. I don't know if that cable works on all models though - if I recall correctly they worked on my slim model because I hacked it and downloaded a program that overruled Sony's stupid restrictions against the cable.

You made that name up. And yes, it WOULD have been funny. If it was a war game then Mao's artwork would have looked something like this piece of shit. Francis Mao sucks so hard. Needs more airbrushing.

Final Fantasy IV was amazing on the PSP. The graphics and sound were dazzlingly crisp. It was like rediscovering the game all over again, and since it's my favorite in the series that only made things that much better. The extras, the option to switch between new and original versions of the music...it was a great, great release. Why they never did the same with Final Fantasy VI - my other favorite and the objective best - I'll never know. I'd happily scoop up a remake of FFVI faster than any urge to go back through the obscenely overrated FFVII could ever take hold, that's for sure.

Lol well I wouldn't know, I didn't read PC mags when I was a kid. It would make sense though.

I'm wondering if the clean layouts of the PC-centric mags have something to do with the customer base. Back in the day it seemed that PC gaming was a hobby enjoyed mostly by older players whereas stuff like EGM was read by predominantly console gamers who traditionally skewed younger. The aesthetic of old computer magazines appeared to be - from what I've seen - more "mature".

No one wants to hear your griping. Now give me some money.

Yes! The hits just keep on coming! Thank you guys!

If I found myself trapped in a room with a clone of myself, I wouldn't question it or try to find a way out. I'd immediately engage it in mortal combat. The two of us would be locked in a deadly game of fisticuffs, a true test of one's skills in the realm of physical engagement. For every move my identical adversary would have a counter; for every tactic my equal would have a strategy. A blow would land here, a shot would land there. I imagine a rugged and manly brawl the likes of which would put the alley fight in They Live to shame. A stalemate would be achieved for apparent perpetuity until at last, a lucky combination of attacks would down my deft doppleganger. Taking the opportunity to capitalize I would leap upon him quickly, by this point too habituated with the abstract notion of battling my twin to hesitate landing solid punches to his face. The blood would spill and the consciousness would fade, and before long my mortal enemy would be defeated. At this point, to undo the cosmic paradox of two versions of myself running rampant through the universe, I would behead my true foe and burn his body as both an acknowledgement of the finality of my victory and a gesture of my respect for my warrior match. ...Then I would fuck it.

I think so. The magazine just looks so clean and tidy, much easier on the eyes than some of the garish EGM stuff that I'm so used to. As you said, it looks like something that would be fun just to browse through. Thanks Mark!

Wow, I downloaded Darklands for the first time ever only JUST last night. And a Monkey Island 2 preview? Nice. I can't relate to the majority of the content of this magazine since I didn't have a PC as a kid. Still, there's a lot of interesting stuff on display here and the magazine has a really clean, organized, layout that I really like. Very classy.

Awesome, this is one that I barely even remember, other than thinking that it was good. Gonna be fun to go back through this one. It's amazing to me that in the span of just a couple of months there have been like a dozen gaps filled in the EGM roster. Maybe even more. What was once a frustratingly scattershot magazine to track down is rapidly shaping into a single, solid whole. You guys rock.

EGM would get my vote. Though the GC era (end of 2001 and onward) is nearing the point at which the magazine began to change for the worse, in my opinion.

GO!!! GET TO THE VEGETABLE CHOPPA!!!!

I have to admit, I'm curious. Doubly so considering the tantalizing way that they make you wonder which of the Xbox games will be classics and which ones will be duds.