Playing system libraries chronologically... anybody else doing it ?

[WCP]

Is anybody else compelled to play games from a certain systems library in chronological order ?


This has been something that has been going on with me recently. For whatever reason, I just got on this kick of picking a specific system, and then just concentrating on the games in the order in which they were released. Started off doing that with the Sega Genesis, and pretty much got through all the 1989 games. Started in on the early 1990 games, but now I've switched over to the Super Nintendo.

Just started up with the Super Nintendo, but just have been limiting myself to Mario World, Pilotwings, F-Zero and Gradius III. I need to play some Sim City of course.


At the same time that I start playing games chronologically, I've also started looking for all my gaming magazines that were around from say August 1991 to like March 1992. I try to read the previews and reviews and such, and get as much flavor for the era as possible. I've really been enjoying this. Not sure which system I'm going to get into next, but I have a feeling that the Sega CD could be the system.

[Edmond Dantes]

I only really like doing this within the context of a series--IE playing Gran Turismo 1 before GT2, playing Galaxian before Galaga, playing Armored Core before Project Phantasma, etc.

But just for a library in general, I never really saw much of a point.

[Rickstilwell1]

It's like the Chrontendo series. It's fun to do that sometimes. Sometimes I prefer limiting it to genre though since I do have favorite genres.

Lately I've been thinking more about the rough chronological order in which I received all my childhood games. I have a pretty good memory for most of them, or at least know when I had them by.

[WCP]

Well, for me, it's gives me the launch flavor again. I'm an old guy (43). I was 20 years old when the Super Nintendo launched. I bought it at launch. By playing the games in the chronological order, along with looking at issues of EGM from August 1991 and September 1991, etc, etc... it just takes me right back in time. The memories come right back to me, and I can vividly remember how much I enjoyed playing Super Mario World and Pilotwings and F-Zero. I loved the bee-jezus out of those 3 games. All 3 super, super early games.

I was lucky to rent Gradius III, instead of buying it. I never played Sim City originally. It seemed like the kind of game I would never be interested in.


But playing these games Chronologically, I have to force myself to try Sim City. It will be an interesting experience. I remember the SNES games of September well. There will some strong releases in September. I was spending some serious money those two months, let me tell you. I was lucky I was living with my grandmother and could save on rent, while going to college and working part time. I had to save my pennies and make smart decisions on which games to pick up.

Still, with the SNES, I was pretty much all-in, spending money like crazy those first few months. I didn't buy Gradius III or Sim City, but I bought Super R-Type the second it showed up at Toys R Us. A few other September games I also purchased were Super Bases Loaded, Final Fight and U.N. Squadron. U.N. Squadron was the shit, let me tell you. I loved the heck out of that game. I really liked the beginning of Super R-Type, and loved the sound on a cranking stereo. People were pissed about Final Fight being single player, but I was cool with it. (Whenever I play 2 player beat-em ups, I typically finish the game that sitting, and it's like I"m wasting my money rushing through it). The first time I play a beat-em up, I prefer to go through the game single player, and finish the entire game that way, before ever playing 2 players (yeah, I know... I'm weird)

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

There's no rhyme or reason to the order I play games in, whatever I feel like playing, despite genre, system, era, etc. I'm in the middle of Jet Set Radio Future on Xbox and Mario Kart Super Circuit on GBA. Then I'll be digging into the Yoshi puzzle games on NES. And try to progress more in Rayman Legends. No worries, just fun stuff. There's great stuff to play on every system, every genre, every gen, etc. I love platformers, especially, tho.

Plus I have friends over to dig into my 600 plus game collection, so I'm always pulling out random stuff. They tend to be obsessed with Smash Bros and Pokemon.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I don't nessesarily play games in any specific order, but I keep my criticisms of games in check based on when they were released.

For example, I'll let a launch title or early game get away with things that I would never let a later release get away with based on the fact that the developer would be new to the system and hadn't yet developed the refinement skills later games would have.

For example, even on limited platforms like the PS2, I'm much more willing to forgive PS2 launch titles and early games of flaws than games released after around 2005.

[WCP]

For example, I'll let a launch title or early game get away with things that I would never let a later release get away with based on the fact that the developer would be new to the system and hadn't yet developed the refinement skills later games would have.

Yeah, normally it takes awhile for a developer to get the feel for how to program for a specific piece of kit. It's amazing if you think about the earliest USA SNES games. Nintendo had a LOT of huge games come, right at the very beginning.



August 1991

Super Mario World - One of the best video games of all-time, not really much argument...

Pilotwings - Most think of this as a "tech demo" for the SNES, but I think it's much more than that. It still has that Nintendo magic in certain spots. I think it still holds up, even today. Sure, it's not one of the 20 best SNES games, but it isn't a piece of crap either.

F-Zero - Possibly one of the best single player racing games ever ? Best music ever ? F-Zero was absolutely magical to me when I remember playing it in 1991. The zooming down intro to the races blew my mind. When your ship blew up, and had that huge bass noise, that was some next-level stuff. I had my SNES connected to a stereo system, even back then, and that bass boom, when your ship explodes scared the beejezus out of me.

Gradius III - Konami could almost do no wrong on the SNES. Unfortunately, Gradius III wasn't their most shining moment on the SNES. Still decent though

Sim City - haven't played it yet, but people have always raved about the SNES version.



September 1991

Super R-Type - Amazing stereo sound. Gave your speakers a work out. Sure, slowdown was there, but it was necessary to have a chance at survival. Not bad for a launch game.

Final Fight - Complaints about no two player mode were abundant, but I was perfectly happy with the single player mode personally. Not arcade perfect, but I was impressed as hell nonetheless.

U.N. Squadron - Possibly one of the finest shooters on the Super Nintendo, period. The game can be quite hard at times, but man... talk about a great launch game. To get this strong of a game, this early in the life of the SNES....



November 1991

Actraiser - This game was a huge surprise to the launch crowd. We had no idea what we in store for with this game. Now has classic status.. Kinda snuck up on people at launch. The magazines knew it was good, but the general public at large didn't know what Actraiser was all about and it was a pleasant surprise.

Final Fantasy 2 - I'm not the JRPG guy, but I can appreciate how good this game was. I actually rented it and played it for a bit.

Super Ghouls and Ghosts - Ok, this one was really special. Unbelievably hard, but every time you died, you knew it was your fault. This is one that you pretty much had to learn the levels inside and out, and master the levels to finally get through them. I've still only been halfway thru this game so far. This game was how I really experienced this franchise. I had a Genesis, but never played the Genesis version. I never really played the arcade version very much. So, getting it on the SNES was my first real taste of it, and I was pretty much madly in love with it, from the very beginning. Amazing sound, amazing visuals. Has some slow down, but again, it's one of those cases where you can kinda use the slowdown to actually give yourself a chance to survive the difficulty. One other thing about this game, I think it's probably like a top 10 SNES game overall, and I don't think it gets anywhere near that kind of respect, which is unfortunate.



December 1991

Super Castlevania IV - Man, this was easily one of my all-time favorite SNES games. Might be on the easy side, but I still love it. Stage 3-2 is absolutely phenomenal both visually and with the audio.




Nintendo had a very strong launch for the SNES, so it's a joy to go back and play all of these games. Of course, I do have to kind of force myself to play a few crappy games. Hal Hole in One Golf is pretty lame. So is Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball. But, I like to play every game, even if only for a couple of hours. Just gives me an appreciation for the flavor at the time.

[The Adventurer]

Lately I've been thinking more about the rough chronological order in which I received all my childhood games. I have a pretty good memory for most of them, or at least know when I had them by.

Last Fall I actually took the time to try and suss out a rough timeline of all the games I got during my childhood. Using a combination of release dates and rough estimates I came up with this... EDIT: I apparently put official release dates in quotes next to each game for reference)

Christmas 1989
-------------------------
NES + Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt (Nov.88)
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle (Aug.89)
Adventures of Dino Riki (Sept.89)
Back to the Future (Sept.89)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (June.89)
Pinball (Oct.85)


Birthday June 1990
-----------------
Gameboy + Tetris (Jul.89)
Super Mario Land (Jul.89)
Batman (Apr.90)
Qix (May.90)


Christmas 1990
-----------------
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Feb.90)
Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers (Jun.90)


Birthday June 1991
-----------------

Christmas 1991
-----------------
American Gladiators (Oct.91)
Where's Waldo (Sept.91)


Birthday June 1992?
-----------------
Mega Man 4 (Jan.92)


Christmas 1992?
-----------------
Super Mario Land 2 (Nov.92)
Kirby's Dream Land (Aug.92)


Birthday June 1993
-----------------
Mega Man 5 (Dec. 92)


Christmas 1993
-----------------
Jurassic Park (Jun.93)
Mega Man II (Feb.92)


Birthday June 1994?
-----------------
Mega Man 6 (Mar.94)
Wario Land (Feb.94)
Kirby's Pinball Land (Mar.94)

Christmas 1994
-----------------


Birthday June 1995
----------------
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (May.95)


Christmas 1995
----------------
Donkey Kong Land (July.95)


Birthday June 1996
----------------
Kirby's Block Ball (May.96)


Christmas 1996
---------------
Nintendo 64 (Sept.96)
Pilotwings 64 (Spet.96)
Killer Instinct Gold (Nov.96)


Birthday June 1997
---------------
Super Mario Kart 64 (Feb.97)
Super Mario 64 (Sept.96)
Blast Corps. (Feb.97)


Christmas 1997
------------------
Goldeneye 007 (Aug.97)
Aero Fighters Assault (Aug.97)


Birthday June 1999
--------------
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nov.98)


Games I Know I Had Between 1989 and 2010 (NES)
------------------------------------------------
Adventures of Dino Riki (Christmas 89)
Back to the Future (Christmas 89) X
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Christmas 89)
Pinball (Christmas 89)
Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle (Christmas 89) X
Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt (Chirstmas 89)
Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers (Birthday 1990)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Christmas 1990?)
Mega Man 4 (Birthday 1992)
Mega Man 5 (Christmas 1992)
Mega Man 6 (Birthday 1994?)
American Gladiators (Christmas 1991) *
Where's Waldo (Christmas 1991) X
Jurasic Park (Birthday 1993) *
Super Mario Bros. 2 (after NES life span. 95 or 96)
The Legend of Zelda (after NES life span. 95 or 96)
Punch-Out!! (after NES life span. 95 or 96)
Ultima: Exodus (after NES life span. 95 or 96) *
Metal Gear (Bought in Garage Sale in late 90s)
Othello (Bought in Garage Sale in late 90s) *
Metroid (Bought in Garage Sale in late 90s)
Joust (Bought in Garage Sale in late 90s) *
Bionic Commando (Bought in Garage Sale in late 90s)

X Given away with another NES to a friend of the family
*traded in for store credit at a used game shop in 2012. Just before I got heavy into retro collecting. Stupid.

Games I know I Had between 1990 and 2001 (Gameboy)
---------------------------------
Tetris (Birthday 90)
Super Mario Land (Birthday 90)
Qix (Birthday 90)
Batman (Birthday 90)
Super Mario Land 2 (Christmas 92)*
Wario Land (Birthday 95)
Kirby's Dream Land (Christmas 92)
Mega Man II (Christmas 93?) X
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (Christmas 95)*
Kirby's Pinball Land (Birthday 94?)
Kirby's Block Ball (Christmas 96?)
Donkey Kong Land (Christmas 95?)
Pokemon Blue (sometime in 99?!)
Spider-Man 2 (traded Mega Man 2 for. Stupid)
Mortal Kombat II (trade my copy of Mega Man 2 for. Stupid.)
*stupidly sold in a Garage Sale around 2000

N64 Games I know I had between 1996 and Present
--------------------------------------------------
Pilotwings 64
Killer Instinct Gold
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Blast Corps
Goldeneye 007
Aero Fighters Assault
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Body Harvest (clearance post N64 lifespan)
Conker's Bad Fur Day (clearance post N64 lifestan)
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (bought used EB Games, post N64 lifespan)

[WCP]

Did you ever rent any games ?


I'd like to make a list like yours, with all the games I've owned originally, but I also rented quite a bit, and sometimes my memory will get the two mixed up.


Also, back in the good ole days, you could actually return games. I think Electronic Boutique had a 7 day policy. You could buy a brand new game, and take it back within the first 7 days, and exchange it for something else. There was certainly a limit to how many times you could do the exchange.

I might have actually purchased Gradius III at Electronics Boutique, and then taken it back and exchanged it for something else. I only did this for games that just didn't click with me. I know some people would actually finish the game super fast, and then just exchange it for another game. I usually took my time with games, so I was only returning them if they just kinda sucked or didn't vibe with me.

[JSoup]

I only really like doing this within the context of a series--IE playing Gran Turismo 1 before GT2, playing Galaxian before Galaga, playing Armored Core before Project Phantasma, etc.

This. I don't like playing series out of order. I've yet to start .hack//G.U. or even watch Roots due to a lack of a working copy of Quarantine.
Mass Effect was the one exception, as I was handed a copy of ME2 and my local game stores didn't have ME1 on hand that day.

Lately I've been thinking more about the rough chronological order in which I received all my childhood games. I have a pretty good memory for most of them, or at least know when I had them by.

I'm reminded again of a collectors personal page I saw a few years back that I didn't have the sense to bookmark. The guy had been keeping a hand written journal of all his gaming purchases (complete with receipts, where applicable) and crunched the numbers along the way. Like, Mario 64 would have notes along the lines of 30th game bought overall, 2nd game bought for the N64, 20th platformer purchased overall, 1st platformer purchased for the N64, 3rd platformer beaten overall, etc, etc. with the price listed at the end and a break down on all gaming expenditures for the week, month, year and decade.

Way over the top for most collectors, but still pretty interesting to poke through. Kinda made me want to try and compile a similar list.

[The Adventurer]

Did you ever rent any games ?

Oh yeah. But I know all the games I owned (I still own most of them *hugs Mega Man 5 & 6*). My memories of those rentals is a bit vaguer as I had them for a lot less time. I know I rented Super Mario 3 before I owned it, Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout once, Bomberman once.... Uh... Yeah my memory is much spottier there.

[JSoup]

It would probably depend on how many games you've rented, if you can even fully recall that. I can remember most of my rentals, but not really the play order.

[Rickstilwell1]

I never rented any games but I did borrow them from friends and relatives or play them at their houses. Most of my games will be nowhere near the release dates of them as I often got games used (especially NES during the Genesis/SNES era). I had no problem getting the slightly older games though because I had just as much fun with 8-bit stuff as I did with 16-bit and up.