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[digitalpress]

Greets, gamers!

Every book we've published since 1996 has had a LORE section: These are fan-submitted tales of their gaming explots and experiences. In the past, these stories were limited to the most vintage of systems, with the most recent being the Nintendo NES.

For 2004's Advance Guide, the stories apply to any of the systems contained therein, or the era from 1989 to present. See the book order page for the systems included.

Your story can be as long or as short as you wish. What we're looking for is that feeling that "we are there". Share your favorite moment (or moments) with us! The day you plugged in your Genesis for the first time. The time your Game Boy saved your life. The incredible finds of Laseractive and PC Engine games. The Neo-Geo game that changed the way you see video games.

These should be REAL LIFE experiences. There are some ancient (but still relevant) examples that we've used at this link:
http://www.digitpress.com/archives/arc00069.htm
Or you could just look back at your Collector's Guides of old.

Be a part of the book. Share your story with us!

[TRM]

I'm not much of a writer, so here goes nothing. Sometimes I believe that I possess limited psychic abilities. When I say limited, I mean limited. A few years ago my parents were going to the mall. They had asked me if I wanted to come, and I was like "Sure." I mean, they had a Babbages game store and I wasn't doing anything that night anyway.

Anyway, the mall we went to was about half an hour away from where we live. On the way to the mall, I was just zoning out while staring out the window. Trees and houses whipped past the van on both sides. Suddenly a strong, vivid image of a Tengen Tetris cartridge was seen in my mind. This was one of those games that I had wanted, though I was not in a big hurry to get due to limited income and so forth.

Once we arrived at the mall, my brother and I headed down to Babbages. While looking through the games, my brother shouts out "Tetris!" while he holds up a black cartridge. A strange sensation crossed over me and I felt like I was going to faint. My brother hands me the game (he doesn't care about collecting rare stuff) and I bought it for $7 and some change. I guess my vision game true.

[RetroYoungen]

When I was growing up, I was basically babysat by my NES and the family console TV. It was a bit amusing that I grew up this way, as neither of my parents ever got into playing them with me (Tetris was an exception). They pushed me to do well in school, however, and when I did I was rewarded. A dollar for an A and fifty cents for a B. That is until I made it to third grade.

I was never a very good student, but I enjoyed third grade, and I worked hard to do well. And one report card that year made all the work worth while: a perfect report card. And when my dad saw it he was so proud that right then and there we drove the 20 miles to the nearest Good Guys (back when they sold games and such). I remember it so well, the two of us walking in and walking straight to the video game section. And up there on the shelf was what I had longed for: a Game Boy.

My dad took it off the shelf, looked at me with my gigantic goofy smile tattooed on my face, and asked me "Is this what you want?". I nodded my head as fast as I could. Then he looked to the guy behind the counter and they rang it up. I played that thing forever and a day, and beat the game that came with it (Super Mario World 2: Six Golden Coins) over and over again.

I still have that old Game Boy, and it's still in pretty good condition, when you ignore the stickers, the remains of other stickers, marker marks, scratches on the screen, weakened buttons, and I don't know what else, but it still works, and I still play it. It was my first system that was really mine, and I didn't have to share it with my sister or my cousins. I've still got the game, too; the only problem is that I think I might STILL be missing some little extra in there. Now I have to go beat Wario again...

[gamegirl79]

Wow...can it really be? A 16 bit Nintendo system!!!! I frantically told myself over and over.

The mere thoughts were music to my ears as I eagerly read my newest issue of Nintendo Power announcing the Super NES. How can Mario look any more cool than he did in Super Mario Bros. 3? Wait....who's this? Yoshi? An egg-eating dinosaur that accompanies Mario in his brand new adventure. Brilliant! I was so excited I could barely contain myself. It wasn't a question of if I would experience the Super NES, it was when.

I was 12 years old in late 1991 and the agony of waiting for my very own Super NES was getting more brutal by the day. Shortly after thanksgiving that year I was in Wal-Mart with my mom and back in the electronics section there it sat - the display model Super NES with Super Mario World screaming my name. I picked up the controller and looked at all the additional buttons. X, Y, L, and R. Would I ever be able to get used to this after the simplicity of the NES? Easily. Could I handle the power that was a 3.5 mhz processor and 256 onscreen colors? Definitely. Thirty seconds after playing the first level of Super Mario World, I decided it was my new favorite game. I was in video game heaven.

Finally, Christmas came. I woke up that morning and saw the big rectangular box wrapped in festive paper. That was my Super NES, I just knew it. I opened it and ran to my room to hook it up. Of course, I had to daisy chain the new RF switch off of my NES one, because that sure wasn't going anywhere.

I don't remember what else I got for Christmas that year. All I remember is my new Nintendo console, Final Fight, and Super Mario World. That's all that matters anyway though, right?

[stargate]

The year was 1988, I was a freshman in college, living in the dorms. Luckily, the kid across the hall was a partier and a gamer and we became fast friends. His nickname was Swez. He had a pretty cool set up, with a Nintendo running through a 19” tv, a kick ass stereo, a fridge, plenty of chairs, and a good selection of games.

Soon enough there were about 6 or 7 of us who would congregate in Swez’ dorm room on a daily basis to hang out, drink beers, listen to tunes, and (most importantly) play video games. It was usually between and after classes during the weekdays and just about any and every time of the day or night on the weekend. I am not exaggerating when I say there were some nights when we would simply not stop playing at all, at least not until the sun came up. Then we would stumble back to our rooms in sort of a zombified state and pass out.

It’s hard to explain the amount of energy and excitement in that room. Some of the favorites at the time were Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Super Mario Bros., Arkanoid, and Contra, but Castlevania always seemed to bring out the most yelling and shouting of them all.

Normally the scene would look something like this……. 5 grown men sitting around another grown man, music pumping in the background, all intently watching him play this video game for hours on end, screaming and shouting at every move, swearing violently at each untimely death, jumping out of our chairs with every victory. We all had one man with which to go as far as we could. Once that man died, the controller would be handed off to the next gamer in line.

I remember one time my friend Sully was playing. I took a break from the action to grab a quick shower. Next thing I know, three of my friends come running into the bathroom yelling “Sully got to Frankenstein, come quick !!” I bolted out of the shower, soaken wet, and ran down the hall in my towel just in time to witness the dreaded Frankenstein monster perish under Sully’s mighty whip. You would have thought Sully just won the lottery. We were all chanting his name and high five-ing him. I’m surprised we didn’t carry him around campus on our shoulders.

In retrospect, it was just a lot of fun and in many ways it represented a simpler time in my life. Looking back, it seems like ages ago, which I suppose it was. I am 34 years old now and I haven’t seen many of those guys in close to 15 years. I still fire up the old NES now and then and play all those great games. Once in awhile I like to close my eyes and pretend I’m sitting back in Swez’ old dorm room, hanging out and playing, without a care in the world.

[stargate]

I just realized my story above is not relevant to this post because the NES is not included in the time frame requested. However, seeing as I do not know how to delete my post and the fact that I took a while to write it, I am going to leave it as is. My apologies.....

[Captain Wrong]

Urr guys...the standard procedure is to start your story in a new topic rather than putting it in the announcement topic.

[Dire 51]

Okay, I'll give you a story - new topic coming up!

[digitalpress]

Urr guys...the standard procedure is to start your story in a new topic rather than putting it in the announcement topic.

GAH. My bad!

Yes, start a new topic with your story. This thread was meant to be rules and questions about the rules. I'm going to lock it - if those of you who have already entered a story would be so kind as to cut and paste into a new thread I'd be most obliged (and somewhat exonerated)