What's Your Fondest Videogame-Related Memory?

[pandyra]

Most of my fond memories are actually from the Playstation. Our SNES was gone long before I played any of the good titles on it, and when I went to my father's for visitation on the weekends, they only had a Playstation. That's how I got started on video games, actually: I watched my stepbrothers playing the demo disc for the Playstation. Eventually my father took me shopping for video games so we could have something more in our library, and I picked out the first Spyro. I used to skip meals to play it; I feel a little bad for my stepbrothers, I don't think they ever saw the disc, haha. That's my fondest memory from when I was a kid. Playing as a teenager, I'd have to say it's tied between the mall arcade that I played DDR at before it got popular (don't laugh, I used to be able to play it on Heavy!) and playing FFVIII and FFIX at 1 in the morning. My mom wouldn't let me stay up past 11 even as a teen, so whenever I visited my father's I'd stay up as late as I could, playing video games and eating ice cream and Chinese food well into the early hours of the morning. That was the first time I stayed up until 5, was playing IX. I think I got to the third disc before life intervened and I wasn't able to finish it, but it's still one of my favorite Final Fantasys. I'm actually replaying IX and VIII right now. And then there was saving the money to buy my own PS2. I knew it was better than my Playstation, I knew that it was expensive, I knew that I wanted it. So I saved for almost a year to get it. I still remember proudly carrying the slim model out of the store. It was a good feeling. I still have that PS2, though the DVD drive's finally given in. I'm planning to fix it once I have a little more money, because Okami is just begging to be replayed.

Yep, there are a lot of good memories there for me. My stepfather tried to get me to trade him my PS2 for a new PS3, and I wouldn't partly because of the backwards compatibility bullshit and partly because of nostalgia. I'm a little surprised I never named my PS2, thinking about it. I still love that thing.

 

[HeartlessNinny]

(Keep in mind, my father is old school - I had to earn my keep, even when I was young. No free rides.)

My experience was a bit similar as a kid. I got nice presents for my birthday and for Christmas, but if I wanted anything else I had to earn the money myself.

So to get enough for Super Metroid I did yard work all summer. I can't say whether or not it was more satisfying to know I'd earned it... All I know is that it was totally worth it.

 

[Takumaji]

One of my fondest vg memories dates back to the summer of '83 when I visited a school mate of mine who just got a C64. Seeing that thing in action and playing Jumpman Junior was like a revelation, I was excited for weeks and started saving every penny I could lay my hands on. Finally, after a bit of sponsoring by my aunt Ruth, 400 Deutschmarks from my savings account and an incredible amount ass-kissing, I got the dream machine and a datasette on christmas 1984.

There are more great memories from back in the day... my first game of Wonderboy in '86, playing sit-down OutRun at the 'cade, my discovery of SNK games, SF2, the Mega Drive days... too much good stuff to list.

Compared with the old days, my current "vg life" is a joke. Guess it's an age thing or summat.

 

[Ninjatemper]

Another one for me was playing the first Dragon Warrior with my dad. It quickly turned into a race to see who could finish the game first. It must've been a good bonding experience because I still remember that time vividly and look back on it fondly. He won that race and continues to bring it up and rub it in my face to this day. I remember watching him kill the green dragon that guards the princess at level 6 with nothing but a hand axe for a weapon. He cast sleep and the damn thing never woke up. I was never able to do the same.

He never played any more games after that one. He said he had no time and would play them when he retired. I thought it was BS and never really mentioned it after that. He retired as of October 2011 and has ripped through Dragon Warrior 2 and is at the end of Dragon Warrior 3 right now. Guess he meant what he said back then. I get the weirdest nostalgic feeling seeing him play those games now after a 20 year hiatus. I wonder why nostalgia is so damn good.

 

[cannonball]

My fondest video game memory (and also one of my fondest memories in general) was back in the late 90s when I used to play Delta Force online with my Dad. We'd play almost every night with a group of people (some that he worked with, some that we met in game). We just had so much fun together and it is something I think about often when thinking of him since he passed away.

 

[NeoGeoNinja]

Really enjoyed the recollections here so far. I'll admit being a bit envious of the stories where brothers, sisters and fathers were involved in those memories - as I have never had any such individuals to share my early gaming experiences with. That said, I never had a shortage of good friends

My fondest memory is SNES related.

Growing up, I had one of those more well-to-do friends than I, who had the latest and greatest land in his stocking every Xmas. These acquisitions would usually prove to be my test run demo units for my planned future Xmas/Birthday purchases... up until he got an Amiga of course. That sh*t was waaay out of 'our' price range.

Anyway, one Xmas, he ended up with a SNES and (of course) Street Fighter II. At the time, 'Street Fighter' - in general - meant f*ck all to me. Never heard of it. Just being honest. He gushed about playing it in the arcades on one of his many holidays away (family parks mainly, like Butlins, Center Parcs etc) and about how amazing it was.

Yeah, He wasn't wrong. It was amazing. I would say a solid year of gaming was poured into that game. However, to keep his edge on me, he NEVER told me any of the special moves. It was customary I suppose, back then, to hoard such 'secret' knowledge. I got by, by spying peripherally towards the controller when we played through 1P games - although, the Dragon Punch input eluded me for some time

Needless to say, eventually, we worshipped this game... which leads me nicely onto: my FONDEST childhood memory

Receiving the Street Fighter II Turbo SNES box set for my Birthday present - whichever year that came out! So, not only did I get a SNES, but I also got a better version of the game I'd been addicted too for the last year+

I think mid-air hurricane kicks and the ability to finally use Sagat and his merciless HK made me jizz a little - even as a young child...

 

[GohanX]

Where to start? I can't think of one single memory, but here are a few highlights:

Getting Super Mario 3 at Christmas. If you were a NES kid then, you understand.

Getting the Super NES at Christmas after launch, after begging and pleading with my parents, while not really expecting my parents to be able to afford it. This memory is tainted by the fact that some ass nugget stole it when we were in the middle of moving a few months later

Getting a Neo Geo AES with the first two Samurai Shodown games back in 2001. I never thought I would have one, and I never thought I would play SS2 outside of emulation again, and here is the real deal!

 

[Takumaji]

I want to add that not all of my fond vg memories date back to 2000 bc or something... I love to remember the magical days back in 2005 when RE4 came out and I lived through one of the most intense video gaming phases ever. That's why RE4 still is more than just a game for me.

 

[fenikso]

Getting an NES from my Grandma not too long after it came out.

Purchasing my Game Gear from Walmart with money earned from my first job. God I love that little system.

Purchasing a Turbo with nine games from a pawn shop (also with money from my first job) for $60. Those were the days.

Beating Mario World to completion (all 96 levels/secret exits).

Playing Super GnG for the first time and being completely blown away by both the graphics and the sound (to this day the music for the 5th level, the ice mountain, is some of my favorite music in any video game ever)

 

[cdamm]

wow this is a great thread. I wanted to add another.

back when i was 10 my pop used to live in texas (which is pretty far from Ny where i grew up). Because of the distance my brother and i didnt get to see him as we wanted during most of the year. However we spent entire summers there while we were off of school.

While my little brother slept, my pop used to wake me up at like 2:00 am to have long nes sessions with me. Just me and him and the nes plugged into an enormous 48" mitsubishi console rear projection screen (god that thing was huge back then!). We played everything.

Nowadays we play gran turismo 4 over psn which helps bridge the distance from jersey to chicago. Its nice to see him still gaming a bit (even if its mostly racing).

 

[terry.330]

I have several awesome impression leaving game memories.

1.) Getting and NES set for Christmas in 88 or 89. I had never really played a video game before and being 6 and getting that and playing Mario Bros. for the first time blew my mind. My Dad hooked it up to a crappy TV in my room and the entire family was in there. Including my sister and her boyfriend.

They were so impressed by it that my Mom bought them a set too within a couple of day.

So getting the NES was awesome but my sister was about 15 years older than me and she used to babysit me on the weekends sometimes. Her boyfriend worked at a supermarket that had a game rental section and he used to buy ex-rental games all the time. So whenever I got to go over to their apartment their was always a stack of new games to play.

Soda, pizza and games I'd never even heard of all weekend. Little kids heaven.

2.) Begging my parents for a SNES for Christmas the year it came out. Being absolutely positive that I'd get on but got a Gameboy with Metroid 2 instead.

Metroid 2 blew my mind and was the first game that made me realize that games could really be epic adventures. The sense of solitude, atmosphere, eerie SFX and the exploration really came together to make something special for me.

3.) The summer after 9th grade I worked for my Dad for a few weeks and earned more than some pocket change. When I cashed that check I ordered a Home Cart system with FFS, Super Spy, Magician Lord, Baseball Stars, WH2J and Top Players Golf from one of those stores that used to advertise in the back of EGM and Gamepro for like $300.

I missed the delivery from UPS and one of my friends was so hyped that I was actually getting a Neo that we skipped school that friday and he drove me out to the UPS hub and we picked it up.

Spent 3 days straight playing FFS and getting high.

A couple other times come close to those memories but those 3 are the best.

 

[Zenimus]

During the summers of '88-'96 when school was out, it was all about going over to friends houses for pool parties, Nerf and Super Soaker wars, tons of pizza, and NES all-nighters. Those times were the best!

Though one of the best memories has to be in early 1994. My parents had a booth selling at a doll & toy show at a mall somewhere in NorCal. In this mall was an out-of-business department store called Gottschalks. I got inside this mostly empty store (don't remember how, that memory got wiped out by what happened next). I was a video game obsessed 10-year-old, so I went over to where the video game section was. Nothing except trash around. Then, I found an old stock room filled with bags and old boxes. I was imagining how cool it would've been to find something full of video games, so you can imagine my excitement when actually did find a tall box with Nintendo's logo on it.

To me, it was like finding a treasure chest! Instead of video games like I was hoping though, inside I found a 1993 Holiday Nintendo Demonstrator's Kit. It had all kinds of materials for someone who would be advertising Nintendo's wares for the Christmas 1993. A ledger with a VHS training tape, a Zelda Link to the Past silk ad banner, a Nintendo Demonstrator poster, Nintendo hat, demonstrator vest, 3 Players Guides (Mario Paint, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Mario All Stars), a Mario mug, Nintendo pens, 2 or 3 Nintendo flasher buttons, a blank certificate for a "Official Demonstrator"...

I took just about everything. I still have most of it too, though as a kid I never appreciated them for the rare things they were and didn't take very good care of them.

But the memory of actually finding that box and nearly wetting my pants as I tore it open was pretty awesome.

 

[FAT$TACKS]

Well the first time I saw and got to play Pac Man. It was at the local Grocery store. I was pretty well hooked on video games at that point. Aside from that being a kid and playing centipede and thinking I was good at it.

From the nes days, having only 2 games for a long while I got really good at legend of zelda. I could beat both quests without loosing a life and never getting the wooden sword.

Listening to some guy complain at mortal kombat about having a bad low kick button and thats why I beat him. Then trading sides, beating him only using low kick and then going through and beating the whole game only using low kick.

Playing tekken with some custom made leather pants on I had to look like pants from one of the characters and then having some guy come up to play me who had a tattoo of that character. I was humbled by his greatness.

I used to run the local arcade for a few in the 90's.

Though in more recent years I went to an xmas party and all the kids were playing some street fighter game on the xbox. With many years experience with good ol Ken I just took over and beat the snot out of all those teenagers. I was like I've been playing this longer than you've been alive.

man I need to get a life.

 

[Kazuki Dash]

80s:
- Riding my bike to the local pizzeria to play Double Dragon
- Renting NES games from the local video store for $3

90s:
- Seeing Kuroko pop up as a challenger in SS2 for the 1st time and realizing my ass was soon to be toast
- Everyone waiting to try out the newest revision to the MKII board (since the darn thing was released incomplete at first and went through like 3 versions)
- Watching a crowd's WTF reaction the first time anyone saw an Ultra Combo pulled off in Killer Instinct
- Seeing the cabinet for X-Men vs Street Fighter waiting to be put into a gameroom and thinking "What the hell...is this legit?!"

The golden era of arcade fighting games was a good time to be young.

 

[Renmauzo]

The first time I played Chrono Trigger, it was a Sunday afternoon in the fall. I made it to 600 A.D and was already spellbound by the game. As I was making my way through the forest after going through the portal from the fairgrounds, I was in awe of the graphical splendor that made up the scenery. Something about the autumn colours, the stream, the music...it all mirrored the scene outside my bay windows. I wrapped my self in a blanket on the couch, got a hot chocolate, and just found myself feeling completely immersed in the experience.
Chrono Trigger is already a magical game, but that day, it all just felt perfect, like when someone talks about curling up on a rainy/snowy afternoon with a good book. It was also my first SNES game; I couldn't afford any games when I was younger (I worked to help out the family), so when I finally saved enough from what was left of my paychecks, I found the last copy in town and made it my first SNES game. Maybe that made it all the sweeter, I don't know, what I do know is that that Sunday afternoon was the most magical gaming moment I've ever had.

 

[Arcademan]

Let's turn back the clock waaaaaay back to between 1980 and 1985...clearly the best of the best for me when it came to video games and the arcades. These stand out the most:

1. Being a regular and becoming 'chummy' with the owner, tech and others at the arcade I always went to, which led to my first job working in an arcade circa 1980.

2. Entering a statwide tournament where you had to compete against other players from other arcades. In 5 minutes score as high as you can on 'Defender', 'Joust' and 'Sinistar'. Not only did I win on Sinistar, I was the only player to stay on the entire 5 minutes. I won a Tri-Zone Pinball machine for my efforts.

3. A local arcade offered a $100 reward for scoring a million on Sinistar. Game went over a year without anyone doing it. A month after the reward was pulled, I scored the first million ever on the game. Owner ended up giving me $50 though he didn't have to. I thought it was a cool gesture.

4. With my bosses at Mesa Golfland looking on as officials, I got my highest score ever on a factory-set '1943: The Battle of Midway' game and had it submitted to Twin Galaxies. Some of the guys there called me and I talked them through how I accomplished the score. To this date, it still stands as the top American score on their Intergalactic Scoreboard (along with another old fav of mine: Ninja Warriors).

I have lots of memories but those stand out the most...oh yeah, I remember when I finally finshed the laservideo game 'Space Ace' and then days later, got the highest possible score to it.

 

[Moon Jump]

Now that she's gone, playing Atari 2600 with my mom. She loved Breakout and Ms. Pac-Man. She never got the hang of the NES with it's two buttons and when I tried to show her the GameBoy she told me she couldn't see it without her glasses and never really touched it. She used to take me to the pizza parlor that had arcade games and hold me up to play them after we went food shopping. I would throw fits in the store if she didn't give me quarters, then again I was only 5.

I'll also never forget getting my NES in 85' for Christmas. I remember seeing the one commercial (I posted it) and screaming, MOM!!! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!!! I even had the add from the newspaper that I cut up and would sleep with it under my pillow till I finally got it. My brother and I still could never figure out how the hell to get ROB to work. With or without the visor he never worked. Also, playing games with my brother too was nice. Now he's just a douchenozzle.

My dad also surprised the hell out of me too when I was a kid. I was in full swing Mario 3 hype. The only problem was all of the stores were sold out. I'd beg every weekend to go to Toys R Us, Playworld and KB and they didn't have it. What I didn't know was my dad was going to stores after work looking for the game. So one night we're eating dinner and he comes in and just as he's about to sit down to take his jacket off to eat, he puts his hand into his jacket and whips out a copy of Mario 3. I nearly choked on my dinner and hugged him, finished up dinner in record time and ran upstairs and got to 4-3 and had to go to sleep.

I also have a lot of good moments with my Dad. He's the one that got me into Pinball. We'd go to the SpacePlex and play the hell out of Data East Star Wars and Back to The Future.

More recently going to FunSpot for the first time has to be on the list. It's like stepping back in time with the decor, music and the atmosphere. It just feels like you're in the 1980's again. You just get a rush when you walk through the door and sitting right smack dab in front of you over 400 games just waiting for you to plunk some tokens in. Can't wait till I get there tomorrow night!

Also, going to the PAPA Fatality in Pittsburgh was awesome too. 450 pinball machines? Yes please! I keep trying to get my dad to come with me for the next tournament so we can enter a split flipper tournament.

 

[RAZO]

The one great memory that is stuck in my head till this day was back in 91 when my parents bought me my first video game at babbage's for my bday, Double Dragon III. Back in those days my parents couldn't afford to buy me games on a monthly basis. It was Bdays' and Christmas only. I was 8 years old at the time. Happiest kid in the world.

 

[Xian Xi]

1987, I turned 10 years old and went with a friend to a local arcade. They just got a dedicated Street Fighter cab with punch pads. It took a lot of playing to learn all the moves but everyone was having fun challenging one another. I wish I had that cab, the punch pads made it more fun.

 

[NeoGeoNinja]

The one great memory that is stuck in my head till this day was back in 91 when my parents bought me my first video game at babbage's for my bday, Double Dragon III. Back in those days my parents couldn't afford to buy me games on a monthly basis. It was Bdays' and Christmas only. I was 8 years old at the time. Happiest kid in the world.

WAS THIS FOR THE NES?...

Just wondering? For all it's flaws and it's ability to be 609% worse than NES DDII, I always loved that game (NES DDIII) as a kid. Probably because I could play as a Ninja. Egypt theme ftw.

And, considering DDIII on the NES wasn't all that great, it was still much better than any other DDIII imo - even inc. the arcade version!!!

 

[gum_drops]

Playing Double Dragon 2 when it came out with my dad on saturday mornings. He isn't much into video games but he really got into it. Took us a while but he finally beat it on the harder difficulty setting.

 

[Colorado Rockie]

Defeating Sniper Wolf in MGS and then the watching the cutscene afterwards

 

[RAZO]

WAS THIS FOR THE NES?...

Just wondering? For all it's flaws and it's ability to be 609% worse than NES DDII, I always loved that game (NES DDIII) as a kid. Probably because I could play as a Ninja. Egypt theme ftw.

And, considering DDIII on the NES wasn't all that great, it was still much better than any other DDIII imo - even inc. the arcade version!!!

Yes, the nes version. At the time I did not know what the game was going to be like. I think it came out a few of days after my bday. I was such a fan of DD I II, that I had to have DD III. I love Double Dragon III, even if it is super hard and I'll never beat it, lol.

 

[SouthtownKid]

1. Back in 1990, one of my roommates had some kind of Atari computer and a version of Mario Bros. on a floppy disk. And the three of us at that apartment plus anyone visiting drank beer and played it as a versus game where you ignore killing animals and getting coins, and just tried to kill each other most nights, all night, sometimes until morning. We used to get a lot of noise complaints from the neighbors and I remember the manager banging on our door at 4am once. She was fucking furious.

The closest I've ever had to that amount of fun with a video game was all-night sessions of Fatal Fury Special on AES with a different roommate in 1994. And third place would be FFS again, playing in Japanese arcades all day long on 1 or 2 coins as person after person fell to my Jubei. I had so little money with me on that trip, so it helped a lot that I could stretch 100 yen over so many empty hours waiting for my girlfriend to get off work.

Fourth place would probably be playing the first Biohazard for the first time. What an experience that was. Different than any video game experience before it.

 

[evil wasabi]

Back in 1993, I had gotten into Samurai Shodown. You probably already know this story. I mean, I am sure I have told it before. The arcade at the mall had SamSho. I didn't have money back then. I was 15, and any time I could make money, my parents made me use it on my own books. Eh, life was boring like that. I learned to stop reporting income early on. Anyhow, so without money, I would take what change I could find from my parents. I guess that's kind of sleazy. Not so proud of that. But it's not like kids really have options if parents aren't willing to help them work. Personally, I wanted to make money badly, but it wasn't an option, since I should be studying instead of working. Whatever. I really doubt they cared about missing spare change, and you reap what you sow, so fuck it. The mall arcade was a few miles out. I had a skateboard, but it was stuck in the sewer drain so I had to walk. Didn't have a bike. Figured they were gay. So I walked to the mall. Walked everywhere. Took me about 40 minutes to get there usually. Sometimes I would try to take the bus and mooch a free ride. Didn't always work, but that's kind of straying, like this whole story. ANYHOW.

So my memory is that I went to to the mall to play Sam Sho. And there was this girl that would come in, who was Korean and a little older than me. She would always use Nakoruru. Her name was Jeanie Park/Kim/Lee whatever. She was legitimately cute. I only played against her a few times. But yeah, I really enjoyed those moments. I wasn't as good back then as I am now, so she would win against me. If she played me now she'd probably never want a rematch.