What's Your Fondest Videogame-Related Memory?

[SonGohan]

The most awkward moment I ever had playing a video game was when I was with my filipino friend I used to hustle people with. Anyway, this was 1993, I think, and we were taking this huge black guy for 20 bucks in Art of Fighting. On one of our last sets, we both pick Robert, and since I'm 2p, I have the different color scheme. I nudge my buddy who is standing next to me, and I say, "hey, check it out, I'm the filipino Robert." Without skipping a beat, the big black dude turned to me and said "you would like some color to your skin." I had nothing to say; I wasn't a good shit-talker back then. I couldn't tell a joke, either, but we took that guy's money and bought Kriss Kross's CD (which was in the same store, we were in a little arcade section which was on the side of the BX).

When that guy saw what we bought with the money we won, he then started telling us how we have shit taste in music, and know nothing about rap. He kept calling it "kiddie popcorn music" (or something similar, I can't remember exactly what he said). I remember not even wanting to be around the guy whenever I saw him, even if it meant not taking his money.

 

[SonGohan]

Another awkward moment was a couple years ago, I found my old SF buddy on Facebook. I was so excited that I sent him a message and a friend request, and he totally ignored me. I checked his about me section, and his wall, and apparently he's super homophobic. I started putting two-and-two together, and realized he probably ignored me because when we were kids we would compare penis size and brag about getting pubes. He's probably ashamed of that now or something.

 

[G-sample]

Great thread. Lots of good reads in here. I think my fondest moment or one of mine would be playing Mario bros on the NES and sucking so bad at it. I remember one of my cousins always bailing me out in the swiming levels because I always thought it was the hardest thing ever. The fish and squid gave me so much troulbe. Lol. I even had this weird habit of leaning with the direction I was taking Mario to. Id be booking it to the flag and Id just a be a leaning toward it. Yea.. Good memories.

 

[HeartlessNinny]

Another awkward moment was a couple years ago, I found my old SF buddy on Facebook. I was so excited that I sent him a message and a friend request, and he totally ignored me. I checked his about me section, and his wall, and apparently he's super homophobic. I started putting two-and-two together, and realized he probably ignored me because when we were kids we would compare penis size and brag about getting pubes. He's probably ashamed of that now or something.

This post got a legit lol out of me.

 

[ForeverSublime]

I like a lot of these stories because they don't sound self centered - even when you guys are talking about taking other people's money.

My "most satisfying" moment is in Osman/Cannon Dancer. I had thought of a way to subtract one hit from my killing efficiency, but because of a damage calculation glitch my idea didn't work. When I realized I wasn't missing my hit but there was actually a glitch I felt I had wasted a lot of my time practicing this move and initially that was very frustrating. A couple weeks later as I was trying to put the one hit behind me, it came to me in the back of my head that I could use a couple exploits I was already aware of to overcome the damage calculation glitch, and go even further to make something that was impossible appear possible to the viewer - like a magic trick. It turned out the glitch was only in the Japanese version of the game, so if I had been playing the US version this all would have never have occurred to me. I was lucky to have put up with the initial frustration of the glitch, because that added an additional discovery. I made a video of some of my gameplay and sent it to Isuke, and he was kind enough to respond.

Gaiapolis, this is my "fondest gaming memory": I played this for several years before one work-night at one in the morning I found a secret level. I called my buddy Andres, who introduced me to the game; woke him up and told him about the discovery. He was dazed and confused as to why I was calling him in the middle of the night, but that changed to disbelief and excitement. I walked him through how to get the secret level and we ended up playing the game and chatting over the phone for a couple hours. At the time, I only had the Japanese version of the game so initially I had no idea what changed in the story and what exactly happened, but Andres had the US version of game so he was able to fill in those details over the phone. If this weren't absurd enough, this was at a time when you rotated your tube TV on its side to play a vertical game. We were grown men but absolutely shameless for our joy of gaming that night. My avatar is the golden bird you pick up to enter secret level.

 

[Tyranix95]

Great thread. Some arcade for now.

1. Playing some 4 Player D&D/2 with my buddies. All I can say is: They were really F'n good at this game.

2. One night, kicking all my buddy's butts in SF2:CE. Nobody knows exactly what happend that night--if the planets and the stars were aligned, if the moon was full, if I was just getting lucky, or if I was just that damn good--but, one thing is for sure: That night I was UNBEATABLE!

3. Playing FFS on a 2 Slot Red cab when a good buddy came up to me and said:
Dude, we gotta go NOW!" "KOF '94 just came out (at the arcade)!" "You gotta play this."

4. Driving around town all morning looking for a SF2:CE cab. to play (on launch day) and finding a full (completely packed house) everywhere we went. Finally found a not so packed SF2:CE machine at a bowling alley. ad to wait 30" just to bet beat by a cheap ass BISON.

5. A buddy showing me PRISON LOCK.

6. Meeting my buddy at the local arcade only to find another buddy already there, kicking ass, in front of a full house, on the new game--STREET FIGHTER II. Only the second time I had ever seen a machine covered in quarters (the first was GAUNTLET).

7. Every year, my grade school would host a Harvest Festaval (Carnival). And, as part of the fun and games, they would open the school's huge garage and hire an OP to pack it full of every type of cab you can imagine and run 'em from 10 AM to 11 PM for the entire weekend. Everyone in the school showed up and brought thier friends. it was so much fun playing arcade games with everyone.

 

[complexz]

many years ago (2001 or 2002) I entered one of my first few CVS2 tourneys, I was just getting into it then and was on the lower end skill wise in the scene. I don't know what it was but I was just in the zone that day, I didn't place that well in the end but my matches were huge hits with the crowd and I had the room erupting in yelling at least 3 or 4 times. I distinctly remember ending a close match with K groove kim by doing a air to air JD into air super and the whole place blew up.... it's not that impressive and I definitely sucked at the game...but since the game was still pretty fresh and in that atmosphere, I felt like such a bad ass.

Adding to that feeling I also placed second in a alpha 3 tourney beating most of my friends who were favorite to win.

I have shitty anxiety and almost always choke in tourneys, so this memory definitely stands out in otherwise mostly disappointed bitter tourney memories.

 

[Takumaji]

Another one.

When SF2' came out on Mega Drive, I rushed to the shops at release day to pick it up, then invited some friends around and we played the game for several hours. At the end of the evening, only my buddy Alex was still there, battle raged on between my Guile and his Ken. During one of my win-streaks, he got mad and called me a one-trick pony (he often fell for my simple sonic booms/fb traps), then I said to him that it doesn't need stupid tricks to beat him, my feet would be enough.

So I selected Chun-Li, put the pad on the ground, removed my socks and got ready for the round. Alex stared at me with an incredulous look on his face and yelled: "If you beat me with your feet I'll never play SF again!". The round starts, he openly jumps towards me, I start mashing buttons with the big toe of my right foot while holding the d-pad to the left with the right foot, later on I even managed to do some jumping head stomps...

...in short, I beat my buddy (albeit very closely) who threw his pad on the floor and left the place without a further word.

Thankfully, Alex never acted on his words, on the next day, we were happily playing the game again.

 

[TonK]

These are really cool stories.

Moar.

 

[Steve]

Nothing beats the magic of video games and Christmas time

Great stuff, guys. Nothing like a classic retro gaming-related thread in Neo-Geo.com Unrelated.

My greatest gaming memory? Gosh, how do I pick just one? Well, the following is taken from my "Christmas Memoirs" article I posted on my website January 2011. Read on...

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DECEMBER 1992

BRIGHTLAND MALL: a childhood classic and now relic... *sniff*

My mom and I used to go shopping all the time. I always hit the same ole five stores: Suncoast, Kay Bee Toys, Walden Books, some times Sam Goody, and of course, the classic SOFTWARE ETC.

Now rarely did she buy me anything, but it was fun enough thumbing through books, EGM mags and drooling at the various awesome action figures.

That little blond kid was me just a year or two ago...

Being December and all, Santa was there on hand. Taking pictures, kissing babies and shaking little hands. At nine and a half years old now, I was too old for that stuff, but not old enough to not still believe in the magic of Christmas, as hokey as that may sound to the rest of us. So instead of sitting on Santa's lap, I sat back from afar and admired what had been, and what once was

My mom came over and asked if I wanted to meet the mall Santa, but I told her I was too old. She looked at the kids rushing up to Santa just twenty feet away from us, lost in her thoughts. Somewhere in her aging face I saw her loosen up, as if she suddenly missed the days when I was that young and scampering around. Perhaps it was the right kind of Christmas magic I'd need for what was about to transpire...

There it was, in big and bold blue letters. I always made it a point to hit up SOFTWARE ETC. every time we visited the mall, but of course I could only DREAM of my mom complying to buy me a video game. Still, like a moth to flame, those bold blue letters always sucked me in. I stood there that evening in sheer awe of the endless shelves of SNES goodies, games in which I could only dream of owning. And then, there it was. High on one shelf I saw it, like a beacon of light. KING OF THE MONSTERS for the Super Nintendo! I nearly had an accident in my pants, recalling to myself how it was just ONE year ago that I'd beaten the arcade and thought to myself, "Man, I can't wait for this to come home!" And now, it finally has. Only one problem, of course. How can I convince Mom to buy it? Standing there, staring at the pristine shiny King of the Monsters box, my mind raced through everything I could think of in order to weigh the odds in my favor.

I didn't have very long to think...

"C'mon honey, we gotta go back home now," my mom interrupted my train of thought.

"WAIT!"

"What is it?"

The box sat there high on the shelf like a beacon of light

"That..." I pointed to the King of the Monsters box sitting on the top shelf. "I want that."

OK, so much for poetic language and convincing arguments.

My mom then gave me the look. Uh oh. This task was going to be about as easy as Quantum Physics...

"Honey, that's fifty-five dollars," she started.

"No, it's fifty-four ninety-nine!" I quickly countered. HA! I had her -- ahhh, the bliss of being nine...

"Well actually with tax it's about sixty," she corrected.

Well DAMN. Talk about a plan backfiring!

And then, out of nowhere, it hit me. My trump card. I explained to her how it was my favorite game, how I HAD to have it, and how much joy it would bring Kevin and me. And that if she bought it, it would be my Christmas gift AND my Birthday's as well! Yes, I wanted it BAD

My mom grabbed the box and examined it. "Hey, isn't this the game you played all night last year at Chuck E. Cheese's? Is this the same one?"


***FLASHBACK TO DECEMBER 1991***

More than an hour and 25+ quarters later, Rocky rose to the top!

I'll never forget December of '91. My parents took my brother and I to our favorite place, Chuck E. Cheese's, to celebrate the end of the year. Now my mother in particular was rather strict and whatnot, so these rare opportunities where she allowed us to binge on our desires were not taken for granted! They ordered two large pizzas and got Kevin and me 50 tokens! I knew where I was gonna be for the rest of that night... on the King of the Monsters cab determined to beat it! It was ONE EPIC NIGHT!


***BACK TO DECEMBER 1992***


I nodded furiously and watched as my mom bit her lower lip, contemplating what to do. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she took the game to the counter. I stood there as they swiped her credit card, and I just couldn't believe it. It was the first video game she ever bought for me. Outside I could hear the chattering of youngsters and the HO-HO-HO's of the Mall Santa. The magic of Christmas is still very much alive and well, I told myself with a hearty grin. My bro and I played King of the Monsters as soon as I got home. It turned out to be a ho-hum translation...

Downtown Christmas was a tradition in my family growing up

But the funny thing is, even as a kid I knew it was a butchered port, and that the game was average at best, but somehow, I still loved it. It still played like the arcade game, the cities were still fun to trash, and it was still King of the Monsters in my living room. A couple days after my mom bought the game, I was playing it one night with my brother when she urged us to turn the game off so we could drive downtown to see the fancy Christmas lights. It was a basic tradition in my family that every Yuletide we do so. Again, it's funny, I knew the port wasn't very good, but I still couldn't help but love it in a strange way. I loved the lights, but that year my parents had to pry me away from my Super Nintendo. I guess as my brother and I got older and older, the more my mom fought to keep certain traditions alive. Like the night she bought me the game, how she urged me to go sit on Santa's lap. I guess that's something I'll find out for myself one of these days...

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Just one of my many fond (Christmas) gaming memories I've had over the years. The rest of the article can be scoped here:

http://www.rvgfanatic.com/7443/1463299.html

 

[Spike Spiegel]

With my brother on a trip to the local Pizza Hut and seeing the brand new 4P Konami X-Men that had just been put on route. putting in the quarter and the opening narration of "In the 21st century.." Being 6 and 7 at the time and firing that game up, we lost our minds Didn't realize how repetitive it was at the time. damn that game was fun..

This story reminds me one of my many stories. I was just starting high school, and I decided "fuck this video game crap, I'm in HIGH SCHOOL now!" So, got rid of my game systems, and what not. I was with this girl, and we went mini golfing. So, we go inside the building, and they have an ass kicker arcade. It's there that I saw X-men (only four player!). I about shit my fucking pants. At first, it was so awesome that I wasn't sure it even was a video game. My god, I thought to myself that if this is what video games were going to become, then I was back on board!