Whats Your Fav Xmas Video Game Memory?

[OldSchoolGamer]

MY ANSWER:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OL8fUB-Ahk

My response to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VnGIdfqQnI (http://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F v%3D-VnGIdfqQnI&session_token=23oPZOW32U8dHxPZmGnk0ueFpmR8MTMyMjY0 MjI1NEAxMzIyNTU1ODU0)

Whats Your Fav Xmas Video Game Memory?

[Ludwig]

Getting my GameBoy at age 6 or 7 at christmas isn't probably only my best Christmas+Games memory but probably also one of my best childhood memories overall.

[Colorado Rockies]

Getting a Costco PS1 bundle Christmas morning when I was 10 or 11.
It included a PS1, Extra Controller, Memory Card, Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Twisted Metal 2.

I also got Coolboarders 3 and NFL Blitz as separate presents.

That was probably the happiest I have ever been or ever will be...

[Pedro Lambrini]

Getting my VIC 20 back for Christmas in (I think) 1984. My first computer and my first games machine. I can't tell you how excited I was. Everyone I knew already had a computer and it was so good to finally be in on the 'future'.

I got a few jibes from my Speccy owning friends but I always preferred the VIC colour and sound over the horrible monochrome and beep-boops of Uncle Clive's tat! Mine even had a built in joystick port! Take that!!

Good times. :)

[JSoup]

Getting Super Mario RPG. I had been reading about the game for months, including a great article/mini-guide in the EGM Buyers Guide. And there it was, along with a new controller (which, incidentally, ended up becoming my favorite controller).

[wrk]

Mine would definitely have to be Christmas 1995 when I FINALLY got 007 GoldenEye. I had been hearing from my friends since August about how awesome it was. When I requested it from my parents they played the, "we'll try but you might want to think about other things since every store we've been to is sold out". So, going down the steps Christmas morning I had very low expectations. Then, like Ralphie seeing his Red Ryder, I saw GoldenEye and went bonkers (thanks for not filming me Mom and Dad). My neighbors and I ended up playing for hours on end, every single day until school started again.

[LiquidPolicenaut]

I have a few but none too major:

Dec. 91: I remember my grandma gave us money for Christmas and I bought Actraiser with it. I still remember turning on that game for the first time and being floored by the music..

Dec. 93: Bought Lunar: TSS in Toys R Us. Again, hearing the music for the first time was just pure heaven...

Dec. 99: An ex of mine surprised me with Dracula X for the PC-E. Such happy times :)

[drmay]

Sonic 2 !

[Osaka]

Christmas of 1989, I was 4 years old, and the ONLY thing I wanted was Mega Man 2. I was at my now deceased grandmother's house, and the first present I open from my dad is a Reebok shoebox, and I was delighted at the prospect of new shoes.

I opened the box and nearly fainted when I saw Mega Man 2 tucked inside. I will never forget that memory as long as I live, and still goes down as one of my most fondest childhood memories. Since that year, Mega Man 2 has been my favorite game of all time, and always will be.

[AceAerosmith]

I remember getting the Atari 2600 for Christmas and running downstairs to hook it up to the TV. My folks bought a few games too. I was down there for hours that day and many a day after. Way too much time spent on those stupid games.

[tom]

christmas 84, my wife getting Spike's Peak/Ghost Manor and Sir Lancelot/Robin Hood for me

[jonebone]

Christmas 1996. I asked for a PS1 that year, even though the N64 was brand new and just came out. I had played the PS1 at a friend's house and enjoyed it, and also assumed the N64 would be sold out everywhere for Xmas (and it was).

Low and behold, I got a N64 + Mario that Xmas. I was in amazement / disbelief / shock, all at the same time.

I was mentally prepared for a PS1, so there was a bit of disappointment. But then I also got the newest Mario that I had seen tons of commercials for, so I was excited about it.

I got to hookup my system in the Living Room that day, quite amazing because all of my gaming was previously kept to the bedroom. Must have played Mario for a long time with my dad that day, and I'll never forget those memories.

[j_factor]

Christmas '95, I asked for money/gift certificates from whoever would be willing to do that (which did not include my parents). So I got a couple nice Genesis and SNES games, and a big stack of cash. A few days after Christmas, I headed to the local used game store, armed with my Christmas money, my own money I'd been saving, and my 8-bit consoles and games for trade-in, and walked out with a used Sega Saturn, memory cart, Panzer Dragoon, Fighting Vipers, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop with gun, Rayman, Gex, Solar Eclipse, Astal, Shinobi Legions, Bug!, Daytona USA, Thunderstrike 2, and Mystaria. I spent everything I had, and had a hell of a time thereafter.

[Sunnyvale]

Christmas of '83 or '84, can't recall which. Man-o-man, call it a crash all you want, but to an 8 year old, it was heaven! I got a stack of games for my 2600, and I only had about 10 or so before that. Highlights were:

Chopper Command
Dark Caverns
Empire Strikes Back
Indiana Jones
Cosmic Ark
Ms Pac Man
River Raid
Turmoil

It was awesome! Every family member's house we went to gave me a cart or 2. I had over 40 by the end of that Christmas, if memory serves. Enough we started using an old makeup chest to hold the carts in. I still use it today to hold my play games :)

[Kevincal]

1989 my first gaming system. NES :)

[BlastProcessing402]

Christmas 89, opening up a package to find Super Mario Land, knowing that meant somewhere under the tree was another package that must have a GameBoy in it.

[treismac]

Christmas 86 or 87 when I received the NES with the Power Pad along with Contra. :)

[Flack]

1995 was the first Christmas I ever spent out of state, away from family, and both I and my family were pretty bummed out about the deal. That year my Dad got me a PlayStation for Christmas. Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider sure helped kill the time those 18 months while I was away from home.

[burn_654]

I forget the exact year but when we got our PSX with Megaman Legends...it was one of those "we're out of gifts! but wait, what's this under the couch?' style moments. Gosh I loved that game. Still do. Easily ranks among my top 10.

[RPG_Fanatic]

Christmas of 1978 we received the Atari 2600 and played the only game that came with it all day, Combat.

[treismac]

Christmas of 1978 we received the Atari 2600 and played the only game that came with it all day, Combat.

I've never understood why some people give Combat a bad rap. I loved the game as a kid.

[Aussie2B]

I honestly don't remember most of my Christmas gaming gifts that well. I never got a home console from my family for Christmas (I only ever got one console from my family period, and that was the N64 for my birthday in '96). I got a few handhelds over the years from my mom, but I think the only one for Christmas was my SP, in 2005 I believe. That was a great haul that year, considering my fiance also got me my PC Engine Duo-RX with a bunch of games that same Christmas.

As for games, I believe I got Super Mario Kart by chance from my dad one year, since my mom told him I liked Mario games. I think I got Ogre Battle 64 and Paper Mario from my mom and dad one year, in 2001 I presume, so that was an awesome duo. I believe Lunar on PlayStation was a Christmas present. If I got a Game Boy game, it was typically in my stocking on Christmas morning (as opposed to opened on Christmas Eve, which my family always did with the presents under the tree). The stocking was kind of like small, "bonus" gifts, so a Game Boy game was pretty fancy and expensive for a stocking present. I remember getting Castlevania Legends and Donkey Kong Land that way. In my adult life, my fiance has given me a lot of awesome gaming stuff (and me him), and Secret Santa on here has always been a blast.

But to pick a favorite Christmas video game memory, it absolutely would go to my grandma, who gave me all three of the Donkey Kong Country games. The first, amazingly, she bought for me at release for no reason at all (other than that she knew I really wanted it), and the following two games I got for Christmas in the years they came out (I believe they always came out in November, so not a long wait). She was an amazing person, and the DKC games always remind me of her kindness, generosity, and how much she wanted to make me happy.

[scaryice]

Mine would definitely have to be Christmas 1995 when I FINALLY got 007 GoldenEye.

1997? Goldeneye was released that year.


Christmas 86 or 87 when I received the NES with the Power Pad along with Contra. :)

1988? Contra wasn't out until then.

[InsaneDavid]

This year! Sending out my Christmas card this year is easily my favorite Christmas video gaming memory. For the last few years I've reverted back to making and printing them myself. Last year's Space Invaders "Holiday Invasion" went over pretty well but I think this one will do even better. Just sent them out yesterday.

Super low resolution and watermarked...
http://www.classicplastic.net/digitalpress/ChristmasCard2011.jpg

It looks great printed. Here's the inside...

"Kris Kringle has 20 minutes to recover 32 gifts lost in the jungle,
The Christmas spirit ensures the locale won't give him much trouble.

The crocodiles are out caroling, spreading cheer as Kris swings overhead,
Even the once fearsome scorpion enjoys a peppermint treat before going to bed.

Proclaiming joy throughout the night, other explorers never had so much fun,
Bringing wishes of Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas to everyone!"

[substantial_snake]

I think my favorite memory has to be around 97'-98' (don't remember the exact year) when the family picked up a Playstation for me and my brother. I think they bought Crash Bandicoot 2 with it as well and the hours upon hours of playing that game are ingrained into me. We had had both a master system and genesis before that but I was too young to ever remember getting either console and so they always just seemed to be there forever.

The graphics and sound of the playstation blew me away for what video games could be and it also helped that I could finally be apart of what friends had been bragging about for years at that point. I think its both the memory of that particular christmas along with all of the worlds and ides the playstation opened up to me in the coming years really make this a memorable Video game Christmas.

I really loved that console all through hundred and hundreds of hours of play either watching my brother playing through Final Fantasy VII/VIII and Xenogears and playing myself. Through all of the sessions of Twisted Metal 1,2,3and Vigilante 8 with buddies and long nights playing Spyro with my little sis. Even once we started holding it on its side or upside down or whatever helped the disc run I still loved the thing :D. These along with countless other memories all starting on that christmas.

I actually have no idea what happened to it and now that makes me a bit sad...

[StealthLurker]

Tough to pick one, but two stand out. The first involves receiving and the other giving.

Back when I was a kid it was kinda hard to get games through my parents. They thought it was a waste of money and a distraction from my school work. However, one x-mas...

I was at home watching TV while my parents were out shopping. The phone rang and the maid (we lived overseas where live-in maids isn't a big deal), gave me the phone. It was my dad and he asked if I wanted a SEGA Genesis for x-mas. He was at the store and he said they had just gotten them in. My dad said it came with one game (Altered Beast), but that I could pick three more (oh snap bonus)! He named all the games they had in stock and from that I picked my three. Then he said it only comes with one controller, did I want another? Gee, that's a tough one. Right after I got off the phone, I started jumping up and down, pumping my fist (basically going wild like the n64 kid). The maid thought I was goin' nuts. Even though I already knew what I was getting that year, it was still totally special haha.



During my last two years of college, I finally got my first job ever. Prior to that, I wasn't allowed to work because my parents thought it would... once again interfere with school work. It was a pretty good deal interning at a big software company. It was paying about $25/hr (which was pretty darn good for an intern back then). Well x-mas was coming around and I wanted to get a gift for my little sister. The age difference between us is fairly large, about 10 years apart. At the time, I wasn't interested in gaming anymore but my sister really liked playing my old Super Nintendo. She wanted to get an N64, but my parents said no due to her bad grades. Well, I thought that sucked so I said to myself F' our parents, she's getting an N64. So I bought a system, about 4 games, extra controller and I believe a memory card or something. It was such an utter delight to see her excitement and joy while opening the gift. She then gave me one of the warmest hugs of gratitude ever.

.

[otaku]

my parents bought me my first console and went through quite a bit to get it to-N64 with a copy of mario 64. Lots of good times had by the whole family with that machine. after that pretty much just my bro and I kept gaming but it started something for us.

[Steven]

Man, where to start?

I've had some epic gaming-Christmas memories, particularly with the SNES. In '91 it was F-ZERO and Final Fight vs. spirits, in '92 it was KING OF THE KARTS, in '93 it was FIGHT CLUB and in '94 it was KAREN KOMBAT. Then, just last Christmas, I had an epic multi-player SNES session with my cousins that I'll never forget.

For elaboration on these stories and more, check out:

http://www.rvgfanatic.com/7443/1463299.html

It's my SNES Christmas Memoirs :)

[retroman]

I have two...Getting my Gameboy that year it came out, and getting TMNT2 The Arcade game when it came out on the Nes..It was my fav.. in the arcades and i was and still am a huge TMNT fan.

[Koa Zo]

My parents have always harbored a strong distaste for video-gaming, so there are no winter holiday game-gift memories, except one.

My brother saved up a ton of money from his newspaper route and ordered an Atari 5200 from Sears. I'm not sure if it was a pre-order or what. The memory is vague because I wasn't particularly interested in my brother's affairs.

He and my Dad were in a tizzy about something or other, like my brother was feverish, and my Dad was annoyed. We loaded up the station wagon and went to Sears to get something (of which I did not, or could not understand). The line at the Sears Customer Pick-Up counter was congested, being just a few days before the winter festival of consumption, and I remember being super hot bundled up in my winter clothing.

There was tenseness in the car on the way home. I think my brother was trying to open/unpack that huge box, and my dad was ready to beat our asses.
The next memory I have is of playing Super Breakout, and having to fight for next turn. My life was forever altered.