Gaming, back in the day. Your day.
March 6, 2019 10:10 AM Subscribe
From this twitter thread (“...what has been YOUR happiest gaming memory?”). @Jorden1506 recalls “Getting called out of bed (age of 6) because my mother couldn't get the golden banana in Donkey Kong 64” while @deana_isabel remembers “Being able to kick ass with the fam playing guitar hero band. I'd play guitar, my mom would sing and my sister would play drums!” and @andybrammall replies “Halo ODST - Driving around in a Warthog with my daughter Kathryn on the chaingun on the back”. Also @Paul_ASwift: “Saving the Gobbos on Croc”, @scottnicklin93: “Playing Super Mario 64 while my grandad helped me gain all 120 stars”, and @sennydreadful: “One of my earliest memories is of staying up late watching my mum play Pitfall on what must have been my brother's Atari...”
I remember once finding myself in an arcade with time/money to only play one game while my mom waited. I eventaully chose the big sit-down version of Outrun and I guess it was an off day for me because I wiped out in dramatic fashion repeatedly. My mom had zero knowledge of anything concerning videogames, but she watched me do this and just laughed her ass off.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:27 AM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:27 AM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]
Watching my friend ascend in Nethack with a can opener still stuck to his hand.
posted by poe at 10:41 AM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by poe at 10:41 AM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
Wondering why my ship in the original Carrier Command was sounding a collision alarm despite the fact it was a long way from shore, only to discover it was literally ramming in to the side to the opposition carrier. Destroying said enemy carrier with the laser cannon turret I had used to scope out what was going on, while it was trying to turn around to bring it's cruise missile launcher to bear...
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 10:45 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 10:45 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
1. Dark Souls fight clubs with friends from GameFAQs and Reddit in the days before GamerGate. We all got along and there was no harassment, abuse, or reactionary politics, just co-ed ravioli steppin' and backstabbing the crap out of each other in the Burg all day long. About a year post-GG I happened on one of them on Twitter, a guy from Australia who had always been super nice and thoughtful and positive, and he was retweeting Sargon of Akkad or some shit. Made me very sad.
2. When my dad got me an NES in 1986, there was a brief window of time when we would play 2-player Super Mario Bros all the time and he was better at video games than I was.
2a. That first night with the NES we spent like two hours trying to figure out how the hell The Legend of Zelda was supposed to work. I think he had already gone to bed by the time I figured out you had to get the wooden sword from the cave in the first damn screen. My dad loved Mario but he didn't care much for Zelda.
2b. A related happy memory from this time period is hanging out in a church basement with some older kids who told me all the dark secrets of Zelda and Metroid's endgames, complete with crude drawings of what Ganon looked like. No actual gaming took place, but it felt like I was being inducted into an exclusive club of hidden Nintendo lore and I was beyond stoked.
2c. Honestly, Metroid was kind of an ongoing struggle for me. I'd get to Norfair and I'd get lost and stuck and forget where I wrote down my password and give up on it for months at a time. Then my cousin came to stay for a few days and she casually blew through Kraid and Ridley in, like, the course of one afternoon. I still consider her my coolest cousin.
3. My daughter pretty much taught herself to read by playing Ham-Ham Heartbreak. Every few years she makes me dig the GameBoy stuff out of storage so she can play it again.
I'll stop here, since it's clear now that the real video games were the friends and family we made along the way
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:53 AM on March 6, 2019 [8 favorites]
2. When my dad got me an NES in 1986, there was a brief window of time when we would play 2-player Super Mario Bros all the time and he was better at video games than I was.
2a. That first night with the NES we spent like two hours trying to figure out how the hell The Legend of Zelda was supposed to work. I think he had already gone to bed by the time I figured out you had to get the wooden sword from the cave in the first damn screen. My dad loved Mario but he didn't care much for Zelda.
2b. A related happy memory from this time period is hanging out in a church basement with some older kids who told me all the dark secrets of Zelda and Metroid's endgames, complete with crude drawings of what Ganon looked like. No actual gaming took place, but it felt like I was being inducted into an exclusive club of hidden Nintendo lore and I was beyond stoked.
2c. Honestly, Metroid was kind of an ongoing struggle for me. I'd get to Norfair and I'd get lost and stuck and forget where I wrote down my password and give up on it for months at a time. Then my cousin came to stay for a few days and she casually blew through Kraid and Ridley in, like, the course of one afternoon. I still consider her my coolest cousin.
3. My daughter pretty much taught herself to read by playing Ham-Ham Heartbreak. Every few years she makes me dig the GameBoy stuff out of storage so she can play it again.
I'll stop here, since it's clear now that the real video games were the friends and family we made along the way
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:53 AM on March 6, 2019 [8 favorites]
Memories:
The first time I ever defeated Borf and rescued Kimmie
Flying home from visiting my grandparents, summer of '79, I found a single video game in the West Palm Beach airport - Warrior, a little-known 2-player vector graphics fighting game - and convinced my grandfather to play it with me over and over until my flight was ready.
Skipping school with my friend Mike and playing Bowling on his Fairchild Channel F.
Playing Star Raiders on my Atari 800.
The first time I shot down a well-known enemy pilot and landed the kill in Air Warrior on GEnie.
posted by hanov3r at 10:54 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
The first time I ever defeated Borf and rescued Kimmie
Flying home from visiting my grandparents, summer of '79, I found a single video game in the West Palm Beach airport - Warrior, a little-known 2-player vector graphics fighting game - and convinced my grandfather to play it with me over and over until my flight was ready.
Skipping school with my friend Mike and playing Bowling on his Fairchild Channel F.
Playing Star Raiders on my Atari 800.
The first time I shot down a well-known enemy pilot and landed the kill in Air Warrior on GEnie.
posted by hanov3r at 10:54 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Maybe I should make a post about words.
posted by Fizz at 10:56 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 10:56 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
A couple come to mind:
Playing Doom for the first time and knowing it was the game I'd always dreamed of playing.
Walking through the side wall holding the invisible "dot", seeing "Created by Warren Robinett" and having my mind blown that there was a secret in a video game.
Walking into my local arcade (Fun & Games in Framingham, MA) and seeing this new game called Marble Madness that was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.
Midway through Half Life realizing I'd seen that guy in the suit a couple of times already.
Also maybe getting to the point in Portal when you figure out that there's a bit more going on than you previously thought.
Portal II was the last video game I played, other than an occasional iPhone game.
posted by bondcliff at 10:56 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
Playing Doom for the first time and knowing it was the game I'd always dreamed of playing.
Walking through the side wall holding the invisible "dot", seeing "Created by Warren Robinett" and having my mind blown that there was a secret in a video game.
Walking into my local arcade (Fun & Games in Framingham, MA) and seeing this new game called Marble Madness that was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.
Midway through Half Life realizing I'd seen that guy in the suit a couple of times already.
Also maybe getting to the point in Portal when you figure out that there's a bit more going on than you previously thought.
Portal II was the last video game I played, other than an occasional iPhone game.
posted by bondcliff at 10:56 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
randomly finding a working Vectrex at a flea market at the absolute peak of my adolescent video game obsession (I was publishing a photocopied zine with a circulation of like 45 other nerds at this point) should probably be on that list, actually
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:57 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:57 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
My happiest gaming memory is beating Mega Man 2 on original NES back in the day. I had stayed up all night with one of my best friends and we had beat all of the various Robot Masters and when we discovered that there was more game, that there was a secret lair of Dr. Wily to battle our way through, we gave each other the biggest high-five of our lives.
My friend went downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed some more pop and some leftover pizza and we re-charged for the rest of the night. We beat the game some point around 4 a.m. and passed out in a haze of happiness and exhaust. It is forever my favorite gaming memory.
posted by Fizz at 11:01 AM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
My friend went downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed some more pop and some leftover pizza and we re-charged for the rest of the night. We beat the game some point around 4 a.m. and passed out in a haze of happiness and exhaust. It is forever my favorite gaming memory.
posted by Fizz at 11:01 AM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
Waking the windfish in Link's awakening. That music will never leave my heart.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:02 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:02 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Playing some kind of B-52 Bomber game on my brother's Atari in 1983. It had a voice gadget (very sophisticated) and when you got bored and decided to bomb home base instead, it would inform you crisply, "That was NOT the target."
[Also I played Oregon Trail in BASIC in 1978. I iz old.]
posted by JanetLand at 11:08 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
[Also I played Oregon Trail in BASIC in 1978. I iz old.]
posted by JanetLand at 11:08 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
I am actually literally addicted to surviv.io, a 2D browser-based PUBG/Battle Royale game (Damn you MeFi), and I don't mean in a fun way. My relationship to that game would check every point on an addiction-compulsion evaluation.
Anyway, I was playing this morning and quickly realized the other three remaining players had banded together, a common practice I personally hate. Zapped all three of those cheating shits in short order and won fair and square. Hopefully by going out on a high note I can leave that goddamn game alone.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:09 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Anyway, I was playing this morning and quickly realized the other three remaining players had banded together, a common practice I personally hate. Zapped all three of those cheating shits in short order and won fair and square. Hopefully by going out on a high note I can leave that goddamn game alone.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:09 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
So many good gaming memories from my youth, but... seriously? Best ever? Watching my son develop the confidence and ability to hold his own against me (or cooperate with me) in games. He went from terrified at the cave sounds in Minecraft to 'Let me kill then dragon this time Dad'. He got seriously competitive in Mario Kart 8 within a few days of play. Breath of the Wild took longer - he watched me play for over a year before he tried it himself, but now he loves it.
I'm just happy that he will have these memories. My parents didn't play games with us, it wasn't their thing. But he'll always be able to fondly recall how he kicked my ass in Smash Bros that one time.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:12 AM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
I'm just happy that he will have these memories. My parents didn't play games with us, it wasn't their thing. But he'll always be able to fondly recall how he kicked my ass in Smash Bros that one time.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:12 AM on March 6, 2019 [6 favorites]
Finally beating the last level of Jumpman on our first PC stand out as my first triumphant victory over a video game.
Lots of good memories since then, but of course once you start gaming with your kids, you start having different sorts of memorable moments. Me previously, on introducing my youngest to Minecraft.
posted by Kabanos at 11:15 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Lots of good memories since then, but of course once you start gaming with your kids, you start having different sorts of memorable moments. Me previously, on introducing my youngest to Minecraft.
posted by Kabanos at 11:15 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Other notable gaming memories:
• finding the submarine in StarTropics which basically opens up the rest of the gameposted by Fizz at 11:17 AM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]
• learning the Konami code so that I could beat contra with 30 extra lives, I don't care that it was cheating, it was the only way I was ever going to see the end
• dying a thousand times at that electrical dam level of TMNT and throwing my controller in rage (I can still hear that beep beep beep countdown timer)
• that one Christmas I received an original GameBoy along with Metroid II
• the very first time I used a 'Fatality' in Mortal Kombat, that I had the dexterity and the recall memory to execute the move-set made me feel very accomplished
Really old: spending a couple of rainy summer days to really figure out the AD&D Treasure of Tarmin game and beat it a few times.
More recent: spending a day entirely focused on playing Diablo II shortly after it came out while my wife spent the day in the next room with my copy of Diablo.
Most recent: getting a Mincraft server running and having about two hours of time where my wife, my two boys, and I played together.
posted by nubs at 11:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
More recent: spending a day entirely focused on playing Diablo II shortly after it came out while my wife spent the day in the next room with my copy of Diablo.
Most recent: getting a Mincraft server running and having about two hours of time where my wife, my two boys, and I played together.
posted by nubs at 11:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
I just have this generalized memory of playing Zork on the Apple II of somebody from church, being completely absorbed and fascinated by this invented world I could do things to. I've had some satisfying game experiences since then, of course, but that was my period of the Computers Unlock Larger Cooler Worlds discovery.
posted by praemunire at 11:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 11:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Best gaming memory: having what seemed like an hours-long out-of-body experience when I broke 4,000,000 points with Robotron 2084. I left my body and became the game. When the game finally ended, I was drenched in sweat and had a small crowd behind me. And it made me late to pick up my mother from work (because I figured I'd just squeeze in a quick game on the way to picking her up).
This ended an obsession with Defender, Galaga, Robotron 2084, and Stargate. I knew every arcade in New Orleans in 1983 and which ones had the best consoles for particular games (tightest paddles for Galaga over at Lakeside Mall, freshest Robotron 2084 at Oakwood Mall, etc.).
After that 4M Robotron game I stopped going to arcades. I felt like I had gotten all of it out of my system. And it felt *great.*
posted by the matching mole at 11:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [10 favorites]
This ended an obsession with Defender, Galaga, Robotron 2084, and Stargate. I knew every arcade in New Orleans in 1983 and which ones had the best consoles for particular games (tightest paddles for Galaga over at Lakeside Mall, freshest Robotron 2084 at Oakwood Mall, etc.).
After that 4M Robotron game I stopped going to arcades. I felt like I had gotten all of it out of my system. And it felt *great.*
posted by the matching mole at 11:21 AM on March 6, 2019 [10 favorites]
Finally ascending in nethack (elven priestess) after two decades of on/off play...
posted by jim in austin at 11:23 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by jim in austin at 11:23 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
That time my mom flipped the counter in Stampede, and my brother and I cheered and took photos of the screen for posterity.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:26 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:26 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Best gaming memory: about 1982, on Atari (2600 games?) looking alternately at the screen and my brother's face, and realizing this was an incredibly wasteful use of our time.
posted by Harry Caul at 11:34 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Harry Caul at 11:34 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
I don't have a single memory so much as a span of afternoons and evenings that were peaceable to me. I particularly spent those with Simon's Quest (the first game I beat myself), FF1, Dragon Warrior (which I did not even know was supposed to be "Quest"), The Magic of Scheherazade, SMB2, and of course LoZ. I liked games in which I could find myself left alone.
As a teenager, just before NES nostalgia was marketable, I soothed a broken heart by playing games of Life Force while listening to Pink Floyd's The Wall. (The Life Force soundtrack actually owns, and I would frankly pick it over The Wall on most days.)
posted by Countess Elena at 11:42 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
As a teenager, just before NES nostalgia was marketable, I soothed a broken heart by playing games of Life Force while listening to Pink Floyd's The Wall. (The Life Force soundtrack actually owns, and I would frankly pick it over The Wall on most days.)
posted by Countess Elena at 11:42 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Figuring out the secret room in Riven.
Figuring out what was really going on in Spider and Web.
All kinds of Infocom games.
And of course ascending in NetHack.
posted by dywypi at 11:43 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Figuring out what was really going on in Spider and Web.
All kinds of Infocom games.
And of course ascending in NetHack.
posted by dywypi at 11:43 AM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
-The first time I successfully executed the level 1 trick in Super Mario Bros on NES to get infinite lives.
-Finally defeating the Red monster that lurks in the desert in FFVII
-The time I was the last player left alive on my team in the original Counter-Strike while the other team had only lost one or two. I wiped out the whole other team with hostages in tow.
-Late LATE night death matches with my best friend playing DOOM on dial-up.
-Playing Twisted Metal on PS2 with that same friend (later, when we were both of age) and adding a drinking game where we took a shot of beer every time we got a kill. That would soon turn into "when something dies" as our skills deteriorated. We drank two full cases of beer and 1.5 bottles of vodka and I'm not sure how either of us survived.
posted by VTX at 11:45 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
-Finally defeating the Red monster that lurks in the desert in FFVII
-The time I was the last player left alive on my team in the original Counter-Strike while the other team had only lost one or two. I wiped out the whole other team with hostages in tow.
-Late LATE night death matches with my best friend playing DOOM on dial-up.
-Playing Twisted Metal on PS2 with that same friend (later, when we were both of age) and adding a drinking game where we took a shot of beer every time we got a kill. That would soon turn into "when something dies" as our skills deteriorated. We drank two full cases of beer and 1.5 bottles of vodka and I'm not sure how either of us survived.
posted by VTX at 11:45 AM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Playing D-Generation and Legend with my brother when I was 11 and he was 7. It was the first computer we had in the house or had really ever used at all - we'd split the controls so one of us would fire or hit the spell keys while the other one did movement.
Seeing what a fundamentally kind, decent person he is whenever we play games now over the net and I'm slower and less effective than he is - no trace of the frustration, irritation or impatience that I see in many other people when they play with weaker players, just patience and carefully judged help when it makes a difference.
He's the best.
posted by Otto the Magnificent at 11:48 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
Seeing what a fundamentally kind, decent person he is whenever we play games now over the net and I'm slower and less effective than he is - no trace of the frustration, irritation or impatience that I see in many other people when they play with weaker players, just patience and carefully judged help when it makes a difference.
He's the best.
posted by Otto the Magnificent at 11:48 AM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
Realizing that the bandage on King Hippo's belly button revealed his weakness.
posted by kimberussell at 11:59 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by kimberussell at 11:59 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Getting out of class to play Operation Neptune and Oregon Trail in the school computer lab because they were "educational."
My father, who as far as I knew had no idea who the Beastie Boys were, attempting the vocal part for "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn" in Rock Band one time during the holidays. The game depends mostly on pitch as I recall so by the end of it he was mostly just swearing, but more or less on pitch.
Hours and hours of Starcraft with high school buddies. Oh the backstabbing.
posted by Wretch729 at 12:01 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
My father, who as far as I knew had no idea who the Beastie Boys were, attempting the vocal part for "No Sleep 'til Brooklyn" in Rock Band one time during the holidays. The game depends mostly on pitch as I recall so by the end of it he was mostly just swearing, but more or less on pitch.
Hours and hours of Starcraft with high school buddies. Oh the backstabbing.
posted by Wretch729 at 12:01 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
The weighted potentiometer on the original Tempest cabinet is the truest and most perfect path to bliss in all of God's creation.
Fight me.
posted by The Bellman at 12:08 PM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]
Fight me.
posted by The Bellman at 12:08 PM on March 6, 2019 [7 favorites]
I grew up begging my parents to go to Arcades, and there was always that one Cool Older Kid who was really good at Mortal Kombat or something. There'd be a bunch of kids lined up to challenge them, placing quarters in a row on the machine to reserve their spot, etc. I couldn't imagine how much time you spent in an arcade to get that good, how much practice it took to get "competitive" like that.
So I was the only kid I knew who had a Sega Saturn, but I really, really liked Darkstalkers. There was a werewolf with nunchucks named John, which I thought was funny, and he could laser dash around, which I thought was cool. I found him kind of meditative to play, zipping around juggling enemies in a laser wake. I'd lose time playing him - just hours gone (it's an ADD thing, turns out.)
So I was in college at some point later when I found a neglected Darkstalkers box in an arcade somewhere and kind of wondered how I stacked up to the AI. Turns out, pretty fucking well. Turns out some kids came up to play and I wailed on them. I remember when the second and third kids put their quarters up to reserve a spot. I remember beating them, it wasn't even hard.
It never happened again. I'm not a competitive person by nature and I'm highly aware that I was an adult flexing on children in a dated video game they didn't know how to play. I didn't care then and I don't care now, the student became the master and it felt great.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:45 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
So I was the only kid I knew who had a Sega Saturn, but I really, really liked Darkstalkers. There was a werewolf with nunchucks named John, which I thought was funny, and he could laser dash around, which I thought was cool. I found him kind of meditative to play, zipping around juggling enemies in a laser wake. I'd lose time playing him - just hours gone (it's an ADD thing, turns out.)
So I was in college at some point later when I found a neglected Darkstalkers box in an arcade somewhere and kind of wondered how I stacked up to the AI. Turns out, pretty fucking well. Turns out some kids came up to play and I wailed on them. I remember when the second and third kids put their quarters up to reserve a spot. I remember beating them, it wasn't even hard.
It never happened again. I'm not a competitive person by nature and I'm highly aware that I was an adult flexing on children in a dated video game they didn't know how to play. I didn't care then and I don't care now, the student became the master and it felt great.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 12:45 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
I have many but here's two. My younger brother was pissing me off about something, I forget what now, so I swapped the execute file for his favourite hockey game with the execute of the game Sopwith. Oh man... so many tears and so much laughter. The other memory I have was my friends and I struggling to finish Ultima 4 or 5. So getting increasingly frustrated with the game I decided to use a programme and see if I could change some details in the save game. What happened was that I gave myself an weapon which would kill anything with a single hit. But we couldn't save the game again because it would lose this weapon. So we just took turns keeping this game on in shifts until we eventually gave up as it got too glitchy. Good times.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:46 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:46 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have so many great memories but I think the absolute best is playing BallBlazer, Boulder Dash and Joust - or whatever we were playing - on my late friend Marwane's Atari 800XL when we were kids. He was such a nice friend and he had such a sweet family.
posted by nicolin at 12:50 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by nicolin at 12:50 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
My high school had 16 networked computers, and we got to play Descent and Descent 2 on them during lunch. Also, since my computer science teacher was the slowest typer who ever lived (he got his start on punch cards so he earned some slack there), some times you could get a game in during class while he was helping someone else.
In college Starsiege Tribes cames out, which was multiplayer and had no copy protection so everyone played it. What seems so incredible today is that since it was everyone's first online internet shooter, we defaulted to the behavior which had the most in common: Little League. People would always say GG after every match, people would get booted for any swearing, teams would self-even if one side was constantly losing. It sounds impossible, but I was there. By the time Tribes 2 came out gaming had become the cess pool it is today.
posted by BeeDo at 12:53 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
In college Starsiege Tribes cames out, which was multiplayer and had no copy protection so everyone played it. What seems so incredible today is that since it was everyone's first online internet shooter, we defaulted to the behavior which had the most in common: Little League. People would always say GG after every match, people would get booted for any swearing, teams would self-even if one side was constantly losing. It sounds impossible, but I was there. By the time Tribes 2 came out gaming had become the cess pool it is today.
posted by BeeDo at 12:53 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
1) Pacman on Atari - not cuz it was good but because our CoCo didnt' have any pacman that we owned. Also Atari 2600 joysticks were better than those float analog sticks we had.
2) David Ahl's BASIC programming books and typing in games from magazines.
3) Loading games from Cassettes - including BARREL JUMP! on the coco. And you thought DVD load times were bad.
4) Staying up all night playing Super Mario Brothers on my first time renting an NES and going to church w/Bloodshot eyes.
5) Doom on the high school Novell Netware.
6) happypuppygames.com & Lara Croft download.
7) My friends singing a song about my new Pentium computer and how I "must get dark forces"
8) Pitfall on my friend Brian's atari.
9) SSF II Turbo Championship Edition in the arcade (and the early 80s arcade with my sisters playing centipede, pacman and donkey kong)
posted by symbioid at 12:57 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
2) David Ahl's BASIC programming books and typing in games from magazines.
3) Loading games from Cassettes - including BARREL JUMP! on the coco. And you thought DVD load times were bad.
4) Staying up all night playing Super Mario Brothers on my first time renting an NES and going to church w/Bloodshot eyes.
5) Doom on the high school Novell Netware.
6) happypuppygames.com & Lara Croft download.
7) My friends singing a song about my new Pentium computer and how I "must get dark forces"
8) Pitfall on my friend Brian's atari.
9) SSF II Turbo Championship Edition in the arcade (and the early 80s arcade with my sisters playing centipede, pacman and donkey kong)
posted by symbioid at 12:57 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Seeing the childlike wonder and pure, distilled joy "non-gamers" were reduced to when introduced to Katamari Damacy for the first time. It never got old. Jocks and nerds, businessmen and hippies, people across every spectrum imaginable... all rolled up to make a beautiful star.
posted by Arson Lupine at 1:06 PM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Arson Lupine at 1:06 PM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
Getting a Commodore 64 floppy drive and stacks of pirated software was tops for me (I only had a tape drive previously and couldn't play many games.) I stayed up until 5AM the next day, warming my feet on the C64's power brick.
Also, seeing Paperboy and the vector Star Wars game in the arcade for the first time.
posted by porn in the woods at 1:09 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Also, seeing Paperboy and the vector Star Wars game in the arcade for the first time.
posted by porn in the woods at 1:09 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
I will never forget watching my mom try to play Bart vs the Space Mutants on Nintendo! Such priceless confusion, frustration, and endless dying.
Listening to her try to play the Sims was pretty similar (“Why can’t my lady go through the bathroom door? It’s right there! Oh no, she peed on the floor! What is happening?! Why is she crying?!”).
posted by Maarika at 1:20 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Listening to her try to play the Sims was pretty similar (“Why can’t my lady go through the bathroom door? It’s right there! Oh no, she peed on the floor! What is happening?! Why is she crying?!”).
posted by Maarika at 1:20 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Spending a long summer playing X Wing with one of my friends on his PC (I only had an Amiga at the time). X Wing was a single-player only game, so we took turns, one flying with the joystick, the other acting as "weapons officer" handling the keyboard for sensors, targeting, power management, weapons...
Great fun. We worked through the base game and at least one expansion that summer.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 1:25 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Great fun. We worked through the base game and at least one expansion that summer.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 1:25 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Getting the Glider out of the house and into the tornado (to the tune of "Over the Rainbow").
In Half Life, there's a pause when you reach the Blast Pit and are trying figure out your next move. While you think about it, a Barney (one of the security guards) that's following and a scientist you discovered start talking, not to me, but to each other, like they had lives of their own. Eerie, the first time NPCs start acting like I'm not the Big Damn Hero of the game.
posted by SPrintF at 1:28 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
In Half Life, there's a pause when you reach the Blast Pit and are trying figure out your next move. While you think about it, a Barney (one of the security guards) that's following and a scientist you discovered start talking, not to me, but to each other, like they had lives of their own. Eerie, the first time NPCs start acting like I'm not the Big Damn Hero of the game.
posted by SPrintF at 1:28 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Oh and having a chance to play the Wii with my sister before she died.
posted by symbioid at 1:39 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by symbioid at 1:39 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Finally winning Fool's Errand.
Playing Super Off Road with my big brother.
Winning, losing, and overusing ninja rope with buddies in Worms 2.
The entire experience of Uncharted 4.
And waking up early on weekends with my husband and playing absolutely anything together.
posted by heatvision at 1:40 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Playing Super Off Road with my big brother.
Winning, losing, and overusing ninja rope with buddies in Worms 2.
The entire experience of Uncharted 4.
And waking up early on weekends with my husband and playing absolutely anything together.
posted by heatvision at 1:40 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Playing Parsec and Munchman with my dad on the TI-99/4a.
Playing Alley Cat and King's Quest on an amber-screened luggable XT while home with the chicken pox.
Playing Sierra adventure games with my mom, as we tried to figure out all the puzzles in the pre-internet era.
Staying up way too late way too often in university playing Civilization when I should have been studying or doing assignments.
Scorched Earth parties at my apartment in university.
posted by fimbulvetr at 1:53 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Playing Alley Cat and King's Quest on an amber-screened luggable XT while home with the chicken pox.
Playing Sierra adventure games with my mom, as we tried to figure out all the puzzles in the pre-internet era.
Staying up way too late way too often in university playing Civilization when I should have been studying or doing assignments.
Scorched Earth parties at my apartment in university.
posted by fimbulvetr at 1:53 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Looking up, a little fuzzy-eyed, from a long game of Civilization II while at university, trying to figure out why the sky outside my window looked a bit weird. Realized that would be the sun rising, that it was ~4:30am, and that I'd been playing without noticing the time since about 9pm the night before. Saved the game, stood up, went to the bathroom, then collapsed into bed for a few hours before having to get up later that morning - thankfully it was a Saturday...
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 2:18 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 2:18 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Finally beating Ultima 4 after what seemed like an eternity but was actually a couple of months.
posted by Sphinx at 2:27 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Sphinx at 2:27 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
Probably beating God Hand on hard. I think I died something like 800 times... but it was worth it! Side kick your arse into the milky way!
The first time I loaded up Ultima 4 on the secondhand C64 I'd just got for Christmas. Such a vast, mysterious world to explore... (I still haven't finished it)
Getting to the bottom of the catacombs in Dark Souls while woefully underprepared and realising that the only way out was the way I got in.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 2:32 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
The first time I loaded up Ultima 4 on the secondhand C64 I'd just got for Christmas. Such a vast, mysterious world to explore... (I still haven't finished it)
Getting to the bottom of the catacombs in Dark Souls while woefully underprepared and realising that the only way out was the way I got in.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 2:32 PM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
Out of all the wonderful gaming memories I have, my favorites involve playing console RPGs with my kids every right after dinner. The best part of that was the seriously snarky storylines we invented for the overly earnest characters. Good times, truly.
posted by Silverstone at 2:34 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Silverstone at 2:34 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
The first time I won Oregon Trail (grade school, exact year uncertain), I saved the printout from the teletype as a souvenir. I'm talking about the original version of the game, played over a connection to a university mainframe - not that newfangled Apple II program I hear people reminisce about.
I kept that printout in my nightstand until I graduated from college and moved out of my parents' house for good.
I wish I still had it...
posted by cheshyre at 3:52 PM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
I kept that printout in my nightstand until I graduated from college and moved out of my parents' house for good.
I wish I still had it...
posted by cheshyre at 3:52 PM on March 6, 2019 [4 favorites]
Happiest... Getting kicked off of Quake III servers because they thought I was cheating. I had been playing mostly insta-gib and had the Low Ping Bastard internet connection, had been playing off and on during $WORK and was just pretty decent at the twitch bang bit.
A close second is that way back in the day there was a freeware game on the Amiga that was an implementation of sorts of the tabletop-ish BattleTech fighting mechas on a hex grid sort of thing. The creator sorta promised an eventual shareware release with a factory to build your own mechs and such. I got smart and just hex dumped the mech files on fan-fold paper and figured out the structure. Queue mech with 0-255 range and 255 damage and 0 recharge and 0 heat and 0 weight and jump jets with 255 fuel and 255 armour everywhere and then I got bored.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:45 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
A close second is that way back in the day there was a freeware game on the Amiga that was an implementation of sorts of the tabletop-ish BattleTech fighting mechas on a hex grid sort of thing. The creator sorta promised an eventual shareware release with a factory to build your own mechs and such. I got smart and just hex dumped the mech files on fan-fold paper and figured out the structure. Queue mech with 0-255 range and 255 damage and 0 recharge and 0 heat and 0 weight and jump jets with 255 fuel and 255 armour everywhere and then I got bored.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:45 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
I remember playing Hunt the Wumpus at the Lawrence Hall of Science in the 1970s. Nothing quickens the blood like seeing the phrase "I smell a wumpus" type itself on a piece of paper (not even a screen at the time).
Arcade games - I would tag along when my mom went to Safeway and play whatever was by the door; Pac-Mac, Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Tempest were my favorites.
The ASUC at UC Berkeley used to have a bowling alley and arcade in the basement and I spent a fair amount of time there in between classes instead of studying; future spouse took bowling as a PE class and remains pretty good at it.
My trusty Apple II+ is still at my mom's house; next time I visit, I need to dig it out and see what's on the floppies.
These days, it's great fun to get stomped by my kid when we play Super Smash Bros together.
posted by mogget at 7:16 PM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]
Arcade games - I would tag along when my mom went to Safeway and play whatever was by the door; Pac-Mac, Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Tempest were my favorites.
The ASUC at UC Berkeley used to have a bowling alley and arcade in the basement and I spent a fair amount of time there in between classes instead of studying; future spouse took bowling as a PE class and remains pretty good at it.
My trusty Apple II+ is still at my mom's house; next time I visit, I need to dig it out and see what's on the floppies.
These days, it's great fun to get stomped by my kid when we play Super Smash Bros together.
posted by mogget at 7:16 PM on March 6, 2019 [5 favorites]
My grandmother used to just kick my ass at Pong but Pitfall made her swear and throw the joystick.
posted by palomar at 7:57 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by palomar at 7:57 PM on March 6, 2019 [2 favorites]
I remember playing Hunt the Wumpus...
Hunt the Wumpus and Space Invaders on my uncle's TI/99 were my first gaming experiences (we had a TV Pong clone earlier than that but I never played it much); I was never a big gamer, but when my dad got a job out-of-state in the late 80s, and we all drove to a hotel in Montana to look for a house and get registered for school and all that, there was a Yie Ar Kung Fu cabinet in the hotel game room that my brother and I probably put fifty bucks in, one begged dollar at a time from my mom's purse to shut us up, during that trip.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:56 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
Hunt the Wumpus and Space Invaders on my uncle's TI/99 were my first gaming experiences (we had a TV Pong clone earlier than that but I never played it much); I was never a big gamer, but when my dad got a job out-of-state in the late 80s, and we all drove to a hotel in Montana to look for a house and get registered for school and all that, there was a Yie Ar Kung Fu cabinet in the hotel game room that my brother and I probably put fifty bucks in, one begged dollar at a time from my mom's purse to shut us up, during that trip.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:56 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
Performing my first "Shuttle to Carrier" landing in F/A-18 Interceptor on the Amiga, after being challenged to do so by my brother - engine out landing from 40000ft (the max that the sim would let you fly), somewhere over the San Francisco Bay area, to an aircraft carrier just off the Golden Gate bridge.
Performing my first "Shuttle" landing on a sim/game at the Houston Space Center, 20+ years later, while a friend watched over my shoulder saying things like "Aren't you supposed to follow the boxes? Are you supposed to come over the fence line at that speed? Don't you need your gear down to land?" [I ended up dropping the gear about 10ft above the deck, having come screaming over the fence at 250+kts]
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 10:03 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
Performing my first "Shuttle" landing on a sim/game at the Houston Space Center, 20+ years later, while a friend watched over my shoulder saying things like "Aren't you supposed to follow the boxes? Are you supposed to come over the fence line at that speed? Don't you need your gear down to land?" [I ended up dropping the gear about 10ft above the deck, having come screaming over the fence at 250+kts]
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 10:03 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
Completing Wizball on the C=64.
The golf club scene in Bioshock.
Watching my partner learn how to play Fallout 4 - her first game ever - and seeing how it calmed her dark days.
posted by Gamecat at 2:27 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
The golf club scene in Bioshock.
Watching my partner learn how to play Fallout 4 - her first game ever - and seeing how it calmed her dark days.
posted by Gamecat at 2:27 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
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"No no no... why??? Not this time I'm ... argh! THE ROCKET LAUNCHER ISN'T FAIR."
We moved on to Halo which he soundly kicked my ass at, until we played on two different systems and he couldn't screen peek anymore.
posted by jzb at 10:24 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]