View Full Version : Your favorite video game moment?
I was thinking about my favorite out-of-game moment recently. This is something related to gaming, but isn't necessarily something you experienced in a game or while playing a game.
Mine is simply this: Seeing the entire NES set up for the first time at Toys 'R' Us.
I had just had a difficult couple of years -- some medical problems -- and the last time I played video games was during the heydeys of the 2600. Seeing this in that store brought back all kinds of really cool memories and I really, really wanted to experience that again.
What's yours?
diskoboy
10-25-2006, 09:48 PM
I know this may sound weird, but I loved the smell of walking into an arcade - preferrably back in the golden age, and when you could still smoke in most malls.
It always had that cigarette, stale pot smoke (The teens smoking pot in the back rooms - I didn't recognize it until I got older and tried pot for myself), pizza, and ozone smell.
And you always knew if an arcade had your favorite game before you walked in just by listening to the noise before you entered.
God, I miss that. :(
Not at all weird! Very cool, as a matter of fact.
My arcade had that smell, too. Perhaps they all did.
My Favorite Video Game Moment would be Buying my 1st Arcade Game. Its was Mad Planets and I bought it in The early 90s. I still have it and it works when it wants to now. I just remember Lugging it up the stairs, Drinking something strong and playing for hours on end. Mike : )
kirin jensen
10-26-2006, 06:10 PM
Oh, man. Playing Tempest for the first time. You've just finished the first wave and the whole structure just zoooooms at you. Freaky.
Vector graphics games in general and the Vectrx in specific. It's the next game unit I plan to get.
AB Positive
10-26-2006, 06:33 PM
I know this may sound weird, but I loved the smell of walking into an arcade - preferrably back in the golden age, and when you could still smoke in most malls.
It always had that cigarette, stale pot smoke (The teens smoking pot in the back rooms - I didn't recognize it until I got older and tried pot for myself), pizza, and ozone smell.
And you always knew if an arcade had your favorite game before you walked in just by listening to the noise before you entered.
God, I miss that. :(
Although missing the pot smell (the local owner chain smoked though, kinda close) I get very nostalgic about the arcade scene.
Best arcade memory? Can't help but smile when I hear:
"Don't do it brother! That man is... that man is our..."
oh Art of Fighting 2. You have such bad voice acting!
-AB+
Getting the trophy in 'Enduro', and picking up the parcel in 'Super Cobra' (both VCS)
scooterb23
10-26-2006, 07:51 PM
Being about 9-10 years old, and getting all the older kids huddling around me as I ripped the shit out of Discs of Tron. I think I had about 20 people around watching me for nearly half an hour, cheering me on as I nearly tripled the old arcade high score.
That was cool :D
Oh just read that correct: out of game moment....
seeing a display of 150 VCS games in one shop in 1984, with no customers interested in VCS anymore, and I purchased one or two games every week, until I exhausted the shop.
Steven
10-26-2006, 07:58 PM
I know this may sound weird, but I loved the smell of walking into an arcade - preferrably back in the golden age, and when you could still smoke in most malls.
It always had that cigarette, stale pot smoke (The teens smoking pot in the back rooms - I didn't recognize it until I got older and tried pot for myself), pizza, and ozone smell.
And you always knew if an arcade had your favorite game before you walked in just by listening to the noise before you entered.
God, I miss that. :(
Ditto me. Not weird at all my nostalgic friend. I too recall fondly going to Chuck E. Cheese Birthday parties only to be blasted by the aroma of cheese. Then I'd make a head-first dash toward my favorite arcade game the original WORLD HEROES
I have too many favorite memories to post, but many of them include playing games... and then some merely revolves around me and my friends just sitting at the lunch table in grade school discussing the latest hot release.
Innocent, groovy times. And one reason why I returned to SNES this past January... IMO the best games and memories (for me) came with that system.
BydoEmpire
10-26-2006, 08:00 PM
Oooh, this is going to be fun. Here are a couple:
1) When my family got an Inty for Christmas around '82. We all played Poker & Blackjack, Horse Racing and Space Armada together as a family for weeks and weeks. Never had that experience since. Perhaps the Wii will bring that feeling back, who knows...
2) When I got to go to the arcade as a kid - Fantasy Isle in downtown Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The first floor of the building was a D&D shop, and up a rickety, spiral wraught-iron staircase was the arcade. The walls were molded with something to look like a cave. It was awesome - Frenzy, Venture, Tempest, Frogger, Gyruss - all the classics. They also had $1/hour freeplay occasionally. The arcade in the mall was okay, but Fantasy Isle had atmosphere - I loved that place.
3) In junior high I used to skip lunch hour to go to the computer lab to work on programming Apple ][ games. I made a bunch of arcade games and text adventures. Having that complete freedom of creation was amazing. All those hours with Applesoft Basic and assembler eventually led to my career (and me getting my own Apple 2c in high school). ;)
4) Me and a lot of my friends in college really got into SF2 on the SNES. We played that, Mutant League Football and Mario Kart so much. SO fun, so many tight matches in all those games. Haven't had that much multiplayer fun since (the substances probably helped ^^).
5) I kind of fell out of gaming during the 32-bit era (although the n64 got a lot of multiplayer hours, and I really dug the RE games on ps1). But I got back into gaming BIG time when the DC came out. One of my favorite gaming memories is playing PSO online with a couple of friends all across the country. It really brought back memories of those multiplayer games from my youth, except one friend was in LA, one was in a Chicago suburb, etc. I love that game to death.
SegaAges
10-27-2006, 04:30 AM
For mine, it had to be in the 8th grade.
People were now starting to recognize me as a gamer even though I was not even trying to pull it off.
For my birthday, we went to Family Fun Center, which was and still is a massive arcade here in Omaha. Me and some of my friend played 4 player cyber cycles (i had to check on klov for the name), and I beat them. I can't explain why, but I had beaten my friends at games many, many times before that, but that time felt that much better, and sweeter.
I still can't get that moment out of my head.
Pantechnicon
10-27-2006, 09:52 AM
For now, I'm going to say it was getting my 2nd Atari 2600 in 1994. I hadn't laid hands on one for six years prior to that and had pined for one the whole time. Hooking it up to the 13" TV in my little bachelor apartment made for a very happy day.
For my birthday, we went to Family Fun Center, which was and still is a massive arcade here in Omaha....
I go past that one whenever I make the pilgrimage to the Gamers store on Dodge street, but I've never stopped in. Do they have any pre-1985 cabs in in decent shape? You're probably too young to remember Gizmo's over at Westroads Mall. That was my stomping grounds circa 1981. That was a classic arcade if ever there was one.
walrusmonger
10-27-2006, 10:01 AM
My favorite moment was Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast.
This game sums up how awesome the system was.
1. Free to play
2. 550+ hours spent on it
3. Free internet services (DC community searched for them)
Spent so many nights, from the ages of 15 to 16, playing that game.
Although it's not the highest quality game ever made, nor my favorite, it's by far the most addictive console game I've ever played.
Anyway, the moment aspect of it:
Waiting for the game to be released after playing the demo on the Sonic Adventure 2 disc (buying the game for the demo), waiting at the store, RUNNING home, setting it up, getting engrossed for hours and hours.
Not since then has a game held me like that, hopefully the new PSU does so, but now I have no free time with a job and school.
The_Kodiak65
10-27-2006, 10:08 AM
i remember when we first got the NES in my house.....i was maybe 3, and i remember playing SMB3, beating it before anyone else in my house....i also remember my uncle coming up as soon as we got Startropics, and just sitting around, playing that til we beat it.....it took us forever, but we eventually beat it....good times
Venturin
10-28-2006, 03:39 PM
I don't know if this is the top favorite of mine but a true highlight of my gaming years was when I discovered Strategy RPG's.
Back when I was more poor than I am now I rented Vandal Hearts for the PS1. I had never played anything like it, and I became so engrossed that I did not return the game until I finished it.. Which cost me about 4 days or so of late fees.
It felt like the developers had designed a game Just For Me! It was so perfectly suited to what appeals to me in gaming. I will always have a special place in my heart for Vandal Hearts.
BTW, this is my first post here, having been a lurker for months. I enjoy the discussions very much.
MrRoboto19XX
10-28-2006, 08:42 PM
We were never a rich family, even though I was an only child. Needless to say when I wanted an SNES I had to pay for half of it. For what seemed like ages I saved my money, putting whatever I had in the same spot, not really counting it.
My favorite moment is the day my parents told me I had enough to buy at last my often dreampt of super nintendo. I was ecstatic, and the day is almost fresh in my mind to this day.
Things are a really big deal when youre 7.
My second favorite moment would have to be seeing Donkey Kong Country in Sears for the first time, it was incredible!
ROBOTNIK666
10-29-2006, 08:03 PM
Playing the cockpit After Burner for the first time. I'll never forget the feeling of the machine tilting around to simulate a real aircraft.
Fighter17
10-29-2006, 09:21 PM
Seeing Aero Fighters 2 for the first time in a pizza shop when I was five.
Playing Sonic the Hedgehog for the first time when I was five as well.
alec006
10-29-2006, 10:11 PM
Favorate Moment,easy,playing my first video game, on a 19 inch 1987 magnavox RF in tv,with the Sega Genesis and Sonic 2 Poped In,Man it was so long ago,12 years,ill never forget it,Both the Genesis and Game still to this day work very well ^^
YoshiM
10-29-2006, 11:00 PM
Probably my most favorite gaming moment was going to a particular K-mart Midnight (or was it Moonlight) Madness sale. It was around mid to late '83 or early '84 in Las Vegas. There was a type of raffle going on and one of the prizes was an Atari VCS. Well, my family didn't have a lot of money but we wanted to check out the sales. If memory serves my parents found a raffle ticket, unused, on the ground so they scooped it up. What the heck, right?
So we shopped, listened to the winners being called for various items. Toward the end of the sale we were hanging out in the eatery section and I was dog tired. The Atari was the last item for raffle. The announcer rattled off the number and my Dad looked at the ticket. He did a double take and then took of sprinting, waving his hand in the air like an idiot. I was so zonked I had no idea what was going on until I saw him lugging the Atari VCS box back towards the eatery.
There's other good memories but this probably stands out the most in my mind.
Cambot
10-29-2006, 11:06 PM
I think it had to be Christmas 1987. I had been asking for the NES from my mom. She kept asking me what this video game system thing was called and I kept repeating "The Nintendo Entertainment System" (I was that much of a nerd). When the day came, I just remember ripping a strip of the wrapping paper off of the box, revealing part the picture of the deck and the letters "NINTEN"
I had the ColecoVision a few years before that, but something in me sparked that day. I'm almost 30 and it hasn't gone out yet.
M15fit
10-30-2006, 12:36 AM
I'll never forget going into the arcade in my early teens and seeing "Dragons lair" in action, I wasted my pocket money for weeks until i finished it. I was amazed that it was running as a cartoon/video game, amazing stuff!
Discovering space invaders at Town hall station Sydney, It was school holdays, i couldnt even reach the joystick but was assisted by my dad. He regrets that day as it was probably what triggered my video game addiction
These moments will probably stay with me forever
theshizzle3000
10-30-2006, 08:44 PM
I remember seeing the triple play 2000 commercial for the first time the one with Sammy Sosa and thinking that the graphics were so realistic and the worst part now is that the games are so much better. I just thought that it would be awesome to play a game where the characters looked just like they were in the game. That was my great no video game moment.
Jumpman Jr.
10-30-2006, 09:09 PM
Well, mine happens to actually be from an actual video game, and not an occurance that happened in my real life that was video game related.
The first time I played through Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Sheik took off her mask to reveal who she actually was, I was completely blown away.
To this day, when I think of it, it still tickles me in ways that can only be matched by those of the hands of Kid Ice.