Fondest Video Game Memories

[wyatt8]

I'm not sure why I'm feeling so nostalgic about this tonight but I can remember a couple of events in my life that involved video games that are so clear to me that it seems like they could have happened yesterday. Personally, these are some of the moments that really affected me and explain my love for video games today.

As a 5-year-old I can recall going to the babysitter while my mother was at work. It was the summer of 1980. I wasn't in school so I had to be under the supervision of the daycare provider. A neighbor next door had an Intellivision and a lot of games and he would let us come over and play. It was the first time I had ever played a video game on any console. Pitfall was the first game I can remember playing there and I was totally in love with it. As a little kid I was so hyper I can remember literally jumping from my sitting position on the couch every time I jumped over a log or jumped to a vine in the game. We also played Swords and Serpents which was a sweet 2-player RPG type game. While we were there we caught this TV show where people played arcade games for prizes....I can't remember the name of the show, does anyone remember it?

This was my first taste of video games and I loved it. Over the next year or so I also played some Atari 2600 at my cousins' house and that was really fun too but not quite as good as the Intellivision. Eventually my parents bought me the Atari 2600, probably in 1981 or 1982 with Pac-Man as the pack-in game. Although I liked the Atari I remember being somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that most games never ended. Vanguard, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders were all great but they just kept going. The only game that I owned and remember having and end was Riddle of the Sphinx which was pretty sweet by the way. I beat it so many times that I started to do what could only be classified as "speed runs" today. The Atari just left me wanting more.

Then in 1986 the NES was released and that was the moment where I was hooked. I can remember my friend inviting me over to his house to stay overnight. He was telling me about this video game system called Nintendo. I didn't know anything about it but he RENTED the system and got 3 games with it. I very clearly remember getting Commando, 1942 and Super Mario Bros. We stayed up all night playing the NES taking turns playing SMB and thinking "man, this game is tough!". We would go on to beat Commando that night. I fell asleep in the car on the way home the next morning, I hadn't slept a wink.

Later in High School me and 2 friends would spend every Friday and Saturday night in the basement switching off between playing NES (usually Tecmo Super Bowl or Baseball Stars) and the Commodore 64. That was always a ton of fun since you could play a season in Tecmo and when you were done with your game you could go play one of about 500 games for the C64. Pretty much the only one I ever touched was Pirates! which was an unbelievable game at that time.

I'd go on to purchase my own NES (Power Set) eventually and later I owned a Sega Genesis, Turbografx, PS1 and so on.

In 2001, me and a friend started a website dedicated to classic video games and in August of 2006 I opened a retail store specializing in used video games.

It's funny because a few months ago I was shopping at my local Target and I ran into my friend who introduced me to the NES. I was telling him how he was partially responsible for my love of video games that he was a big part of the reason I opened my store.

So, here I am today. Still playing games and now I sell them for a living. I feel very fortunate that I have a passion for video games and that I am able to share it with people on a daily basis. Whenever someone buys Commando or 1942 I always mention that it's one of the first NES games I ever played. It's just cool to be able to talk to people about the games they played and grew up with.

Does anyone else have any similar experiences? I'd like to hear them.

Thanks!

Wyatt

[studvicious]

Great story! Best of luck with your store.

[Blitzwing256]

how on earth do you beat riddles of the sphinx? I remeber getting it without instructions and liking it .but never being able to figure out what to do or how I did anything I did do (if that makes sense)

[Shrooin]

I basically have fond memories of each time I played a console for the first time when I was a kid. The first console I played was the Atari which we had from as far back as I can remember. In my first year of school (around 1990) I remember just getting in the car and hearing that my mum has just purchased Mario Bros for the 2600. We only had around 12 other atari games before that but that was like nothing I ever played before. I was totally hooked, could play 2 player simulataneous mode for hours without tiring of it. I remember being hooked on a lot of our 2600 games.

I can't remember the second console I played but I think it was the Master System. In year 1 I had a freind and his dad had a SMS and SMD setup. I got my first taste of SEGA at his house. Some of the games I remember playing back then were Wonderboy, Ghost house (card), Ghost Busters, Sonic, Columns, Quakshot, Shinobi, Alien Storm.

my mum bought the SNES 1 years later (1992) when it was newly out here. Got it with pack-in game Super Mario World and was completely amazed at the 16 bit graphics even though I played the mega drive. I think my parents were pretty impressed too because they got a lot of cartridges for it, after SMW a couple of the earliest games I played was Legend of Zelda and Secret of Mana. Not long after my parent sold all the carts which they were constantly swapping for a copier device with a lot of disks, keeping the SMW cart.

I could go for ages but to cut it short the next consoles, not counting handhelds, I played (i think) - NES, C64, BBC, Saturn, 3D0, Mega CD, PSX, N64 then it goes downhill from there, fond memories stop.

[PentiumMMX]

Mine would be beating Wizpig in Diddy Kong Racing.

It all started after I finished the last track in Future Fun Land, and I moved onto the final race against Wizpig. I just couldn't beat him, until one night sometime in 2000.

My sister and mom where shopping, and my dad was checking stuff online, so I got to play some DKR. Because I had every other track beaten, I went straght to Wizpig using Pipsy (My main). After many tries, I developed a stratagy: Massive speed boost close to the starting line!

I put this into use. For the first lap, I saved up 2 Red Balloons to get the Hummershot Missile, and then fired at Wizpig, slowing him down so I can pass. Then I would try to get 3 Blue Balloons to get the Triple Speed Boost, and used it in the cave before the starting line. I'd repeat the boosting each lap (And use some firepower when needed), and after much struggling, I finally beat Wizpig!

It was the first game I'd beaten, and after unlocking everything and beating Adventure 2, I moved onto other games, like Zelda: Link's Awakening, but that's another story...

[hbkprm]

the fondest memory is completing metroid prime

[mr.soul]

The thing with my video game memories is that up until I was 10 I never had a TV console. I remember getting a black Gameboy pocket in first grade and it was amazing, and all I had unless I went to a friend's. My parents had something against consoles that hooked up to the TV for some reason.

Back when I had Windows 3.1, I would play Wolfenstein, Dangerous Dave and Duke Nukem. Those games were amazing. I remember my dad having hacks of Wolfenstein where you shoot Beavis and Butthead and Barney. I wish I still had those.

I remember playing Mario 64 at my one friend's house and every time I would go over he would let me play the red and white carpet slide levels.

Most of my memories are of the PlayStation though. The first time I played one, my friend brought it over and we played 2Xtreme. I was amazed at how easy it was to hook up and wondered why my parents didn't want me to have one. A year or two later they did, and I got all of the awesome games, Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal 2, all the Crash Bandicoots, Final Fantasy 8, etc. I think the Crash Bandicoot series is still probably my favorite to this day. It's a shame it's not Naughty Dog's any more.