This thread is for you to share the treasured memories that often spring to mind. Anything that brings a smile to your face will probably bring one to ours I'll kick this bad boy off.
Something that I remember fondly, and something that in truth I will never forget, was attending ECTS 98. I went on behalf of a little gaming website called Battle-Zone Gaming Network, and Activision kindly set me press passes to report on the show. At thirteen, it was quite something I can tell you.
Mistake #1: Forgetting your camera. Mistake #2: Spilling hot chocolate on your press pass. D'oh! Still, I got to play the likes of Extreme-G 2 and Ocarina of Time before most of the British public, and that's darn cool. I took home a ton of free crap, rare demo discs and so forth. And the Colin McRae Rally simulator was quite fun, although it gave me a serious headache.
What disturbs me the most, even to this day, is how pushy and nasty some of the journalists were. We all wanted to play Ocarina, but there wasn't much of an orderly queue. It was every journalist for himself. Yucky.
Anyway, that probably stands as one of my most vivid gaming memories. What are yours?