Kooky gaming habits you had as a kid?

[Austin]

Back when the Wolfenstein 3D shareware episode came out, my cousin and I would drape a blanket over ourselves and the monitor of our KLH, to play in our own "virtual reality" mode. We eventually did this for pretty much any game we played. We thought it'd make us feel like we were actuallly in the game... but looking back, I only remember it ever being hot under the blanket. It's a surprise we never started a fire.

Now, it's your turn: did you have any strange rituals or habits during your childhood gaming sessions? Anything you look back on now and wonder what were you thinking?

[Yago]

Well, in the beginning because of the lack of graphics and music on the Atari 2600, I used to play any racing game with the volume very low, or completely off. Reason being, making my own racing car sounds made the game far more realistic and fun to play. I also made my own shooting sounds while playing combat or Target Fun.

[§ Gideon §]

I used to close my eyes when the fairies in Zelda told me to. I did this every time.

[Gast]

I used to close my eyes when the fairies in Zelda told me to. I did this every time.Dito. Years after that when I finally saw what was going on on the screen I sure as hell was disappointed.

[Slimedog]

The cord on the light gun didn't reach very far, so to make Duck Hunt harder, I used to sit beside the TV and shoot ducks in a mirror on the other side of the room.

[Jumpman Jr.]

I always used to chew my tongue (with my molars... kind of hard to describe unless you try it for yourself). I'd be playing an intense game of Super Mario Bros., when my dad would walk in and laugh is head off on account of how stupid I looked. :embarrassed:

[Slimedog]

I always used to chew my tongue (with my molars... kind of hard to describe unless you try it for yourself). I'd be playing an intense game of Super Mario Bros., when my dad would walk in and laugh is head off on account of how stupid I looked. :embarrassed:

This reminds me of a friend I had. When he got excited about something (playing sports, games, whatever) he would start chewing on the side of his left hand. When it was watching a movie or something, it was rather odd, but when he was running bases with his hand in his mouth I used to just laugh my ass off. Same deal with games. He would get to some new level or boss, stick his hand in his mouth, and get killed because he couldn't move his guy. I actually think games helped him get rid of this habit because he did seem to shake the habit over the years.

[Cmosfm]

My Mom used to say that when I played Super Mario Bros., whenever I made Mario jump, I would bob up in my seat.

LOL

[DogP]

My friend and I used to play Nascar Racing, US Navy Fighters, and Descent with the sheet over the monitor and back of a tall chair, and we wore his dad's motorcycle helmets... Wow, I was a dork :P .

DogP

[DragonMaster Sam]

I always used to chew my tongue (with my molars... kind of hard to describe unless you try it for yourself). I'd be playing an intense game of Super Mario Bros., when my dad would walk in and laugh is head off on account of how stupid I looked. :embarrassed:

Hey, you too? I always used to do that as a kid whenever I was playing a game. My mother was able to make sure to point that out to me.

[Kid Ice]

I used to bite into the rubber on top of the Atari joystick. Got a VCS joystick with bite marks in it? That was me. :)

[9c1lt1]

During racing games I'll still unknowingly lean to the side when making hard tight turns on Project Gotham or Forza Motorsports.

[mills]

Leaning your body with the direction you are turning in racing games.

I used to scratch my nose when games were getting intense. Kinda like:

"This reminds me of a friend I had. When he got excited about something (playing sports, games, whatever) he would start chewing on the side of his left hand. When it was watching a movie or something, it was rather odd, but when he was running bases with his hand in his mouth I used to just laugh my ass off. Same deal with games. He would get to some new level or boss, stick his hand in his mouth, and get killed because he couldn't move his guy. I actually think games helped him get rid of this habit because he did seem to shake the habit over the years."

[unbroken]

My Mom used to say that when I played Super Mario Bros., whenever I made Mario jump, I would bob up in my seat.

LOL


I did this too, but REALLY extreme, everytime I needed to jump or swim I would bob up and down thinking that It might make me jump higher or something.

[Austin]

I used to bite into the rubber on top of the Atari joystick. Got a VCS joystick with bite marks in it? That was me. :)


So THAT's where all of my gnawed-on joysticks came from!

[Kid Ice]

Leaning your body with the direction you are turning in racing games.


I still do this.

[GrandAmChandler]

Heh when I was a kid? Hmm how about NOW.

My friends and I play Mario Kart 64 multiplayer races all the time. Sometimes the sound effects go out for the third or fourth players.

Anyways, if you get a starman, and the music doesn't play, you are required to sing or hum the starman music until the star effect wears off on your character.

Heh.

[boatofcar]

I also used to bite the top of the ol CX40 joystick. My favorite Gemstik still has the top bitten off of it. I could buy a replacement, but you know :)

I used to have a habit of pausing the game right before I was going to die, like in SMB whenever I was falling into a pit I would pause the game. I knew it wouldn't do any good, and it was pretty annoying to me, and it took a while to break.

[studvicious]

I used to have a habit of pausing the game right before I was going to die, like in SMB whenever I was falling into a pit I would pause the game. I knew it wouldn't do any good, and it was pretty annoying to me, and it took a while to break.

Haha.. yeah, I used to do that too. LOL

[Pantechnicon]

I used to have these marathon sessions of Pitfall II on the 2600 while listening over and over again to a song called "Xanadu" by Rush. If you know both the song and Pitfall II then you might be able to see how these two things sort of went together.

Incidentally, this was in the days before either CD's or pause buttons on consoles, so every time I wanted listen to "Xanadu" again I'd have to get to "safe" spot in the game, rewind my cassette, and resume play.

Pretty good bit fun for a kid with no social life whatsoever.

[Slimedog]

I used to have these marathon sessions of Pitfall II on the 2600 while listening over and over again to a song called "Xanadu" by Rush. If you know both the song and Pitfall II then you might be able to see how these two things sort of went together.

Incidentally, this was in the days before either CD's or pause buttons on consoles, so every time I wanted listen to "Xanadu" again I'd have to get to "safe" spot in the game, rewind my cassette, and resume play.

Pretty good bit fun for a kid with no social life whatsoever.

Too bad "Xanadu" wasn't on the Activision Anthology soundtrack.

[Saabmeister]

I used to bite into the rubber on top of the Atari joystick. Got a VCS joystick with bite marks in it? That was me. :)

I've been wondering who did that. When I bought a few VCS sticks at a thrift, both of them had teeth marks in it and I thought that it was the damndest thing.

I also would do the sheet and helmet thing when I was playing a flight sim.

[CrimsonNugget]

I used to tilt the controller while playing Super Mario Bros. every so often.

[Policenaut]

I used to put Iron Maiden music while playing shmups. Songs like Aces High, The Trooper or any other while playing Raiden, or Gaiares, or Thunderforce III made me go immersed in the game. Bruce Dickinson rules!! :band: \^_^/

[Daria]

My friend Lauren and I used to "make Mario dance" in SMB3 while singing some made up chorus of "Do the Mario". It looked like he was having spasms but we called it dancing.

I also used to unscrew the knob from the advantage stick and roll it around in my mouth.

[PDorr3]

I used to make believe I was a character in a game and act out lyrics. I would make up my own stories and narrate them and talk out loud made up lines.

I remember this most from some longbox game on PSX that was like an extreme sports game.

[boatofcar]

Not only did my friend and I do play by play to Tecmo Super Bowl, but we also did pre- and post-game interviews, which we asked his mom to tape. I need to dig those out sometime.... LOL

[sealboy6]

Probably my weirdest video game habit was when I would play Final Fantasy Anthology with my brother on the PS, and when we would play FFV, we would take two beanie bay dragons and put them on top of the tv. One was named Final. The other was named Fantasy.

[Lord Contaminous]

Whenever I double jumped on the game "Jumping Flash" I used to actually lift my head up.

And yeah I still lean in the direction I'm steering at when playing driving games.

[SoulBlazer]

It started as a kid, but to this day, I ALWAYS read out the text on the screen for a game unless it has a voice over. :)

[Avatard]

I would have to talk to every bat I saw in FF1.

Kee kee...

[Kejoriv]

I use to write my name with a sharpie on all my games :angry:

[Slimedog]

I use to write my name with a sharpie on all my games :angry:

So your the one...

[boatofcar]

I keep thinking of these! Back in the day, particularly in role playing games where you'd hear the same music over and over and over, I'd make up lyrics for the music. I particularly remember singing my own words to the town and battle music to Final Fantasy on the NES. Anybody else do this?

[§ Gideon §]

I used to close my eyes when the fairies in Zelda told me to. I did this every time.Dito. Years after that when I finally saw what was going on on the screen I sure as hell was disappointed.
Haha. So you were expecting fairy boobs too? LOL

[WiseSalesman]

I keep thinking of these! Back in the day, particularly in role playing games where you'd hear the same music over and over and over, I'd make up lyrics for the music. I particularly remember singing my own words to the town and battle music to Final Fantasy on the NES. Anybody else do this?

No, but I do distinctly recall singing along to the boss battle music during Secret of Mana. But I don't think I made up lyrics...
BAAAA BAAA ba ba baaaaa!

[GameSlaveGaz]

I did the typical leaning and bobbing with the character, also if I was doing a particularly long jump, I'd lift the controller and move it in the direction of the jump, like it'd actually help.
Also, in Pokémon, I always press the B button with every jiggle of the pokéball until the pokémon is either caught or breaks free. Not that it actually helps, but it makes me feel like I'm at least making an effort and not just leaving it up to chance.
When I first had my Genesis, I would make up lyrics about the levels to the background music for every level of Sonic 2. I don't do this anymore. I wish I remembered some of my old lyrics. LOL.
Once in a while I click rapidly on trigger/shoulder buttons on controllers that have them.
And for some reason...I HAVE to play NES, Genesis, SNES or DC sitting on the floor, but I can play all my other systems sitting on the bed (PS2, GC, XB, Saturn, and N64) *shrugs* That one I still can't figure out, or stop doing

[starchildskiss78]

The only thing that comes to mind that I did regularly was kill the music volume and play my own music! (Also, on The Duel: Test Drive 2 for the Genesis my cousin and I would take turns "driving" on a "road trip.")

[SlayerOfFurbies]

nothing really to special.... i used to play games on my C64 with a colecovision controller

[Psyleid]

I used to have a habit of pausing the game right before I was going to die, like in SMB whenever I was falling into a pit I would pause the game. I knew it wouldn't do any good, and it was pretty annoying to me, and it took a while to break.

I still do that... My friends give me crap for it... My click-out-before-death reflex is ungodly I suppose.