Gaming Memories

[Rendclaw 0]

Baseball Stars was the shit.

 

But my memories....

 

When I was 6 years old and living in the hood, going to this little pinball place and hanging out with the owner and his son... playing when I could, bumming quarters when I couldn't.... another store had that Atari Baseball, Night Driver (the sit-down version), and a baseball pinball game....

 

Discovering the mall when I was 7, I think... pinball machines, video games.... spending my 5 dollars... 4.25 went to games, .70 to bus fare to and from the mall.... spending the majority of my time there....

 

When Bridgeport had full-fledged arcades... Spanky's and Wizard's... fucking dozens of machines.... my allowance and Christmas money going right into those machines.....

 

One of my biggest memories is the day I almost beat Karate Champ in 85. All of the kids that hung out at this bowling alley gathered around the machine and were cheering for me... but I freaked out and got beat... and I never got close to that fight again, even in emulation.

 

When my mother bought me a black and white TV and an Atari 2600 back in 1979... I had so much fun with that, especially with my stepfather's son playing cutthroat Space Invaders... my brother and I beating the hell out of each other on Mattel Baseball, which beat the fuck out of Atari Realsports....

 

Getting a Commodore 64 in 1987 and driving my mother crazy using the modem all the time... going over friend's houses and copying games and having massive gaming tournaments...

 

Getting a job at a Nintendo store in 1991, just when the SNES broke out, and beating the shit out of my co-workers at Super Tennis..

 

Living with a person who was more into video games than I ever was, and going to arcades and beating the crap out of each other and everyone else at various incarnations of Street Fighter....

 

Hell I could go on and on and on.... I just picked the ones that came to mind immediately...

[Guest InuYasha]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's about as cheap as you can get. That's what I really dislike about the newer versions of the Street Fighter games, especially Street Fighter III. When it comes to cheap-shit, Bison can't even hold a candle to Gil. The characters people tended to gravitate to were the cheap characters: Cyclops and Cammy in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, for example.

 

 

Besides Gill, who is a boss, what is cheap in SF III 3rd Strike?

In my experience, Yun. He's like Fei Long and Cammy had a bastard child.

[Anya 0]

Genei Jin! I haven't played that game since DR came out. Best 2D fighter ever though. If I was going to play something other than Tekken it'd be that again.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

I was such an obsessed 5-year old that, after playing my SNES nonstop since 92, I named my first dog Yoshi.

 

And being that age, I was also obsessed with TMNT, so Turtles in Time probably got the most playing time out of any SNES game I had. The music in that game ruled.

 

When one of my friends got Wrestlemania 2000 for N64, we stayed up all night playing 40-man pinfall/submission battle royals as lower-carders, usually Steve Blackman, Meanie, or Mideon.

 

Resident Evil Code: Veronica, since that was the first RE I actually beat by myself.

 

Getting Playstation in Christmas of 95 or 96, and wowing my entire family with the CGI intro of Tekken.

 

Back when I used to reserve games, I remember getting so pissed because Die Hard Trilogy for Playstation was constantly delayed. It was almost worth it when I finally got it, except you needed a gun for Die Hard 2 or else it was practically unplayable.

 

Breaking my good Dual Shock controller out of frustration because of the insanely cheap CPU in tag matches in ECW Hardcore Revolution.

 

The game I've probably beaten the most has to be Zelda: Link's Awakening. It was such an enormous game with so much to do (Secret Seashells, the trade game, stealing from the shop, Ocarina) that I loved every second.

 

Being unable to put Super Mario 64 down when I first played it in a Target kiosk in 96.

 

Building up my Dreamcast collection in 99 en route to its becoming my sentimental favorite system.

[Narcoleptic Jumper 0]

Back when I used to reserve games, I remember getting so pissed because Die Hard Trilogy for Playstation was constantly delayed. It was almost worth it when I finally got it, except you needed a gun for Die Hard 2 or else it was practically unplayable.

 

well once you figured that out, that was when you buy a friggin' lightgun, like I did. that game ruled.

 

I suppose my fondest memory was the whole hype machine and buildup and constant delays of WWF Attitude. that game was like some far off holy grail for me, I wanted it so badly. then I finally got it and it came on the very same day in the very same shipment as my lime green iMac that my dad finally bought for me. that was an awesome day. and I loved the game and played the shit out of it, even though most people hated it. in retrospect that whole game engine was terrible but oh well. fond memories...

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

I made like 60 CAW for WWF Attitude. I still play it on occasion.

 

Remember the Road to Wrestlemania in WM 2000. I could never win the Rumble after going through season mode. I created DDP and he made it to number 29 and then there was Jeff Jarrett. I charged my Attitude bar and tried Diamond Cutting him. He kept avoiding me. Finally he punched me and I countered with the Cutter and I eliminated Jarrett.

 

At the end of the season, I did the same thing to HBK (or was it Taker) in cage and won the game.

 

I beat the Marvel vs. Capcom games (X-Men vs. SF, etc) on one quarter. Not that impressive. However I did beat Killer Instinct 2 and Tekken Tag on one quarter and I think that's a little more impressive.

[Jer 0]

I <3 scrubs calling stuff cheap in fighting games. How is it cheap to keep punishing people for being stupid and repetitive? Maybe Ced's friend should *gasp* stop jumping in?

 

Recently my favorite memories have been when new fighting games showed up at the arcade, particularly Tekken 4, Soul Calibur 2 and Tekken 5. There's just nothing quite like an excited community sinking their teeth into a new fighter. It's even better when there's a time release for new characters like there was in Tekken 4; every Monday the whole little community is there gathered to try out the new characters. And when there's something to play for, like the card system in Tekken 5, it's even better.

 

That's why it's so sad to see arcades around me dying en masse. Five Maryland arcades had T5:DR three months ago, now three of them are closed. It sucks that we're starting to lose that arcade fighting game community that I loved so much.

[Anya 0]

Yes yes.....the time release was great. Especially in a game like T5 where most of them were people we hadn't seen since Tag.

 

One of the best parts about a new game or update is how everyone can whine about their main being toned down. I love the dramatic first impressions where everyone is freaking out, especially for a character like Julia who's community has been all bitter since Tag.

 

The card system is the best thing introduced in a long time. I just wish Julia had better items. Enough with the generic indian stuff. I also like having a win record. Even though mine is pretty bad now and I'll never get past the Dans.

 

This year since I started traveling to play Tekken I've had more memories and fun than any other game ever. Nothing comes close.

[Jericholic82 0]

Back when I used to reserve games, I remember getting so pissed because Die Hard Trilogy for Playstation was constantly delayed. It was almost worth it when I finally got it, except you needed a gun for Die Hard 2 or else it was practically unplayable.

 

well once you figured that out, that was when you buy a friggin' lightgun, like I did. that game ruled.

 

I suppose my fondest memory was the whole hype machine and buildup and constant delays of WWF Attitude. that game was like some far off holy grail for me, I wanted it so badly. then I finally got it and it came on the very same day in the very same shipment as my lime green iMac that my dad finally bought for me. that was an awesome day. and I loved the game and played the shit out of it, even though most people hated it. in retrospect that whole game engine was terrible but oh well. fond memories...

right, the attitude constant delay thing pissee me off. then it came out later on the n64,, another mad time. finally it came out and I rented it. Was amazed at the entrances, and the fact that the real theme music was in the game instead of in MIDI form.

the year prior the warzone hype had got me. I was waiting for it most of late 97 and firts part of 1998, finally got it for xmas 98 and was underwhelmed

 

I wanted a n64 for xmas 97 after seeing the commercial for wcw vs nwo, I had playe dthe system at my cousins house that year but that game sold it on me

 

the revenge hype got me too. read previews online for months untill I finally got to rent it on halloween day 1998, spent all day inside playing it, even at night, only halloween where I really didnt do anything and stayed in. rented it numerous times afterwards untill I finally saved enough to buy it in Feb 1999

(actually it was 2/13/99, I know this cuz the next day was valentines day and the wwf ppv valentines day massacre)

 

 

 

I remember being excited for wcw mayhem when they revealed it would have backstage fighting, rented it and

was not too impressed. recently bought it used at eb games for like 1.50 for the hell of it and its even worse then I remember.

 

I never bought attitude, after renting it a bunch, I wound up with wm 2000 for my b-day (december before xmas)

1999. I had been hyped for it as well seeing as thq and aki were making it and I had enjoyed their wcw games.

 

I thought it was cool that it had titan tron videos even if they were just picture slides moving fast and not great quality. I made tons of caw of real and fake people. then I got a gameshark and had fun with diff codes for it. but I stupidly decided to delete everything a few years later so I could do season mode over again without all the secrets unlocked

 

ecw HR was exciting at first untill I could realize it was just attitude with ecw guys in it. I did rent it once in july 2000 and unlocked everfything thru season mode, and there the data sat on my memory card untill this year when I got the game used for like 1.49.

 

no mercy was a game i waited from begin of 2000 when I was still a senior in high school and we saw videos of it online in computer class at school. followed it all the way thru online was really excited about the diff backstage areas and new wrestlers. finally came out, and I was in my first year of college by then. my friend got it before me and then picked me up after school so I could buy it at eb games. I LOVED THAT GAME, untill the infamous glitch hit me a few months later. tons of cool gameshark codes for that as well. My favs being ladder in regular match (essa rios moonsault off top of ladder for the pin, looks great on replays), and climb cheat where you can climb in midair llike going up the ladder infinitely up to the ceiling

 

now its hard to play considering I'm not used to it after playing the wwe games on ps2

 

 

coincidentally I wanted a ps2 over xbox for xmas 2002, mostly due to Smackdown: Shut your mouth commercials and previews showing the season mode and cool entrances and backstage areas

[Special K 0]

My friends and I played the shit out of the Guilty Gear series. One of the most often fights we had was Chipp (me) v Potemkin.

 

It's an insanely fun match, with Chipp flying around the screen like a spaz and doing huge comboes, then he gets caught in one Potemkin Buster, boom. Half of his life gone!

 

Also, for some reason, though I was only average at the game, I ruled with Faust. I think it's because I got into the spirit of the character and just played as randomly as possible. swimming, growing flowers out of my head, just being a general goof. I love that character.

[Black Lushus 0]

Faust is fun!

 

Potemkin was a pain in the ass to play as.

 

if it wasn't for the fact that the storylines are so ridiculously retarded, I'd love Guilty Gear just a bit more.

[treble 0]

-My friend who lived across the street had an NES, so I wanted one, but got a 2600 instead. I can't really blame my parents, though, for not wanting to spend $200 or whatever on something I might have lost interest in. Having to play the Atari on an old black & white TV most of the time, sucked, though.

 

-Finally getting an NES towards the end of it's lifespan. Not too many memories of it, mostly just playing the Mario games a bit and some obscure games like McKids.

 

-My great aunt dying and leaving my brothers and I each $1000. We each took $100 and put it towards a Genesis and a few games (Cyborg Justice and Royal Rumble).

 

-My brothers and I trying to scrounge up enough cash to get Sonic 3. We were digging through the couch, and I think my parents might have thrown in a few bucks, too.

 

-Getting Sonic & Knuckles for Christmas and almost beating it locked on with Sonic 2 that night. I got to the end, but then we had to eat so I had to turn it off. I didn't know the level select code at the time so I never got back to the end until I got the Sonic Mega Collection Plus for PS2 last year.

[AndrewTS 0]

We each took $100 and put it towards a Genesis and a few games (Cyborg Justice and Royal Rumble).

 

Cyborg Justice had some amazing character graphics and animation. Shame the levels were so frustrating (yay, missile attacks from off the screen that are near-impossible to dodge!).

[treble 0]

Yeah, I never got too far in that game. Still have it lying around somewhere and pop it in from time to time.

[AndrewTS 0]

Who made it? Just a Sega in-house thing?

 

There seemed to be a lot of Genesis games that seemed to really hide the developers. Typically, it seems if you weren't Sonic Team, you might not even get a credit in the manual or on the box.

[Guest BOOT]

I remember the day I got my first ever console. God knows how long I saved up for it, I was 10(ish) at the time and only got a small amount of pocket money. I searched town with my Mum for good deals, finally coming across a bundle in Dixon’s which included the SNES console, with Mario All Stars, Mario Kart and Mario World for one hundred pounds. I was devastated when I was told they were sold out.

 

However, just a few days later I came home from school and probably squealed with delight when I found the bundle waiting for me on my bed, along with a note from my Mum telling me not to cry if I couldn’t set it up. Silly woman, she wouldn’t have had a clue and my little brain coped without any problems. Much Mario bliss ensued.

 

A few years later I remember getting severally shouted at for not coming down for dinner because I was busy playing Yoshi’s island. My Dad took the cartridge away from me for the rest of the night. I cried.

 

I also remember how great I felt, and how much fun I had, playing Mario64 in Toys R Us 2 weeks before the N64 was released (in Europe). I practically had to be dragged away from the machine.

 

I never owned a Playstation, and before I got my PS2 (mainly for the Pro Evo games) I’d only played a little bit of Tekken on my friend’s system. He had owned in every possible sense of the word every Tekken game, and I had been shit at them. However, in Jin and Tekken 3 I found a character and game that I could enjoy. One night we ended up playing 101 fights of Jin VS Jin straight. It ended up 66-33 to my friend, with 2 draws. I was beaten 2 to 1, but considering my lack of Tekken playing and his veteran status, I’m still proud of this achievement. Of course it helped that he was Jin also, the only character I came close to having intimate knowledge of, but still. I wasn’t destroyed. Boo yeah.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

A few years later I remember getting severally shouted at for not coming down for dinner because I was busy playing Yoshi’s island. My Dad took the cartridge away from me for the rest of the night. I cried.

 

 

That reminds me of Baby Mario's crying when you got hit in that game. Jesus that was the worst thing ever.

[Red Baron 0]

The numerous matches from No Mercy on N64 were awesome. Also in NHL 96 for the SNES whipping every team by at least seven goals.

[Guest BOOT]

Playing Goldeneye at my friends house and finally beating Control on Secret Agent to unlock Aztec. It was sweet. Then starting the level and getting shot to buggery within seconds of walking out of the alcove. My friend and I took it in turns to beat the level, and we were so happy when we did it. I remember bouncing on his bed as he proclaimed our greatness, whilst speculating that we were probably the first kids in school to get this far. My God, Goldeneye was truly amazing...and we were such muppets.

[Guest InuYasha]

A few years later I remember getting severally shouted at for not coming down for dinner because I was busy playing Yoshi’s island. My Dad took the cartridge away from me for the rest of the night. I cried.

 

 

That reminds me of Baby Mario's crying when you got hit in that game. Jesus that was the worst thing ever.

If you used the Game Genie to have infinite Stars that scream only got worse.

[The Metal Maniac 0]

Figuring out Crash Man's exact pattern in Mega Man 2, thus making him the first boss I beat in the game. I was overjoyed.

 

Finally beating Peacekeepers, with a german suplex the length of the screen. Me and my buddy both went nuts for that one.

 

This one is recent, but my buddy gave me a piledriver outside the ring in Fire Pro D that not only CRITICAL~!ed me, but broke the game. Seriously. We had to burn a new copy, cuz that one did not work anymore.

 

Beating TMNT II, with NO ONE ELSE in the house to see as proof. I was pissed. I never beat it again.

[Jericholic82 0]

Figuring out Crash Man's exact pattern in Mega Man 2, thus making him the first boss I beat in the game. I was overjoyed.

 

Finally beating Peacekeepers, with a german suplex the length of the screen. Me and my buddy both went nuts for that one.

 

This one is recent, but my buddy gave me a piledriver outside the ring in Fire Pro D that not only CRITICAL~!ed me, but broke the game. Seriously. We had to burn a new copy, cuz that one did not work anymore.

 

Beating TMNT II, with NO ONE ELSE in the house to see as proof. I was pissed. I never beat it again.

I remember when I finally beat TMNT 2. I actually beat it afew more times after. Man I wish I still had it

[Black Lushus 0]

TMNT 2 wasn't that much of a struggle...all you had to do was constantly do the special attack (press A+B) and you were good to go.

 

Battletoads...there's a game I never beat, even with a Game Genie...the farthest I got was the part where you had to scale that rotating tower and I kept falling off.

[Star Ocean 3 0]

Snowboard Kids for N64 was the first video game I played in the nude. It was a liberating experience unlike any other I had had up to that point. Of course, I was still quite young, and couldn't quite control myself as I would have liked back then, but blood rushing aside, it only could have enhanced my gaming pleasure.

[Guest Askewniverse]

- Hitting 10 consecutive home runs in Home Run Contest in Great Baseball.

 

- Finally beating Clubber Lang in Rocky for Sega Master System.

 

- Beating Double Dragon for SMS in 2-player mode with my best friend, only to find out that we had to fight each other.

 

- Finally beating Mandara in Shinobi for SMS.

 

- Using the steel chair for the first time in Pro Wrestling for SMS. The Great Maskmen were my favorite team.

 

- Finally beating Stage 6-2 in Ninja Gaiden.

 

- Ashtar stabbing Irene in the back in Ninja Gaiden II. Irene's blood dripping from the sword was pretty violent stuff at the time.

 

- Winning the Monster Cup in Mutant League Hockey via forfeit. At the beginning of the 3rd period, I was down 4 goals. Instead of trying to score more goals, I started killing more members of the other team.

[Guest DRH 502]

I still remember the first time I played Fire Pro...for GBA. That shit was fucking sick then, and its sick now. I never got to play it on any other system cause i'm not into gaming enough to buy the system. I don't even own a GBA, just the Emulator. Super Mario World Japan is my favorite GBA game though, it slightly differs from the American version in that you can use the Luigi who does the jumping kicking legs gimmick so you can kinda levitate. Good stuff. Blue Yoshis own all.

[Jericholic82 0]

TMNT 2 wasn't that much of a struggle...all you had to do was constantly do the special attack (press A+B) and you were good to go.

 

Battletoads...there's a game I never beat, even with a Game Genie...the farthest I got was the part where you had to scale that rotating tower and I kept falling off.

yea Battletoads was hard as hell

[AndrewTS 0]

I was surprised to find out that Jurassic Park on Genesis has still held up really well. Played it over friend's yesterday, and ended up playing through most of the game.

 

The raptor's game is more fun than Grant's, though. The raptor has an insane vertical leap--like, almost two full screens, *and* he can grab onto ledges, do a regular jump on enemies to kill them, eat little dinos, and rip you apart with a short range pounce and claw melee attack.

 

Also played Castlevania Bloodlines--an incredibly underrated entry in the series. Like Super Castlevania, it's much easier than the NES games (and has adjustable difficulty; on the easy setting most of the game is a breeze). I was pressing Anya to try it easy--and she was worried about the difficulty. On easy, it's like SotN easy almost, with my first death coming on stage 3 thanks to a damn merman's cheap shot. Lecarde rocks, too, with the spear having great range and allowing him to vault to higher ledges.

 

We played cooperative Golden Ax. Beat the game, too. Regular attack sucks, jumping attack owns nearly all. Liked the fire-breathing lizards, but the game isn't nearly as good as Final Fight, and isn't even close to SoR2.

 

X-Men is hard but surprisingly very good. Jean rescues you from those annoying instant-death pits, there's levels where you actually travel into the background for hidden items, and the graphics and control are really good.

 

My friend did have a bit of a problem, though, because when he dug out his old Genesis so we could play the games, his regular controller didn't work. I was fine because I had brought over my faithful 6 button...but he had to resort to...the Turbo Touch 360. What a piece of crap that thing was. Well, despite bad/inaccurate dpad controls and a spongy C button, we made due.

 

Oh, Treasure sucks now. Making Gunstar Super Heroes 1-player ruined it. The original kills it in like a million different ways. Naturally, we did 2P coop on that.

 

I'd began a new game of Castlevania Aria of Sorrow. I was trying to speed through the game, leveling up as little as possible--and I was doing really well until I hit the brick wall that was Death. Thankfully, a Giant Ghost Soul, plenty of positions and mind ups later, I finally beat the SOB, and at Level 26 too. Then knocked off Legion at level 28. However, it takes more *patience* than anything else. Oh crap tho--I have to fight Balore soon...

 

Contra Speed Run- not tool assisted either, unless you count spread gun : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbPO6Kj10e4

[Anya 0]

When I am done with SOTN I might try Castlevania III and Bloodlines.

[Special K 0]

Just thought of impossible mission for the C64. That game WAS impossible. The voice acting was the best.

 

"Stay a while. STAY FOREVERRR!" when you start up the game.

 

And if you fall down a pit, there's a hilariously long scream. Like about 4 seconds.

 

Bruce Lee was probably my most loved C64 game, though.