Whats your fondest video game memory?

[mattpfeil]

I just wanna know what everyones fondest memory of video games is, it doesnt have to be directly related to playing one..just something that resulted via video games.
I know exactly what mine is.
1985 i was 5 or 6 and the family had a 5200 that we all played all the time (mostly my father and my though:P)
Anyways, i was in little leage at the time, and at a game earlier that day i had heard some kids using the F-word...i didnt know what it meant, but it must be cool if i never heard it.
So later that night me and my dad were sitting there playing Pac-man on 5200. My dad had gotten to one of the key levels, and he was doing really well, considering he never read books or learned patters or any of that garbage:P
Well, he had just ate a Mega dot or whatever they are called and the ghosts turned blue, right when he was about to eat one, they turned back and he died...
"FUCK!" i yelled...and my father..with a confused look on his face turned to me and said very quietly "What did you say?"
And i replied "fuck...whats the big deal about that"...
That was followed by a swift smack in the mouth and a "go to your room!"
Anyways, i still think about that moment all the time, i remember it so clearly as far as my memory's from that age are concerned...i dunno
just thought i could share this with you all, cause its kinda a funny story
BTW, my dad didnt like beat me or anything...but he wasnt afraid to gimmie a smack in the mouth when i did something stupid:P

[Raedon]

My greatest video game memory was from the early 90's and centers around Mortal Kombat.

I was doing a year at a community college my first year after high school. Still living at home and all, basically high school grade 13.. anyway.. Mortal Kombat was just released but NONE of the arcades in my home town had it yet but a small 7-11 quick e mart next to the college got it the day it was out. Me and my good bud Wayne were hanging out there between classes playing a SFII and when Mortal Kombat came in we got a full 5 days of game play before anyone in my town saw the game.

Now if your to young to remember Arcades in the early 90's SFII and fighting games in general were BIG time, and S.T.U.N.N. runner was your best 3D. You could play a SNES in a game cabby with f-zero, SMW and tennis still at the time.. I remember that.

So I had mastered one Fatality and all of Raiden's moves. and I walked into the big local arcade at the time, Fast Track Games N Carts, there was a growing line of people at the Mortal Kombat machine that had just arrived a few hours earlier. I stepped up to challange some poor sap at around 6:00pm and turned the game over to some kid at 9:15pm with no one to Test my Might.

Now this was a new game, so the volume was cranked and they did something only the cool games got. There was a monitor put up on top of the cabby.

I dominated the Mortal Kombat that night and killed off every opponent with a Fatality to the delight of the kids around me as FATALITY boomed out over the TIGER-TIGER UPPERCUT of the SFII game no one was at.

I will never forget the faces of the people around me as i knocked opponents off the bridge and down into the pit of spikes. It was a rush and it's my greatest gaming moment

[kevincure]

When I was younger, me and my sister would play some Olympics game on the NES. You had to press A-B-A-B in quick succession for the running level. We eventually figured out to rub your index and middle finger across the two buttons back and forth, moving your forearm. However, this caused wicked blisters.

We would bandaid our fingers every time from then on.

No more injuries.

[biggamer]

My fondest memory is never being able to save a game on the nes . Icant remember which game it was i was playing but I would play the game every day and when it was time to go to school i would just pause it and turn off the tv.eventually after 2 weeks of the nes being on, i finally finished the game . Wish i could remember what game it was.

[ashbourn]

A memory i have when i was real little i just got a NES for x-mas and would play every night with my dad, mom and sister 2 player games and who ever lost go off and another person played next we played super mario bros the most it was just a good memory i have with my family

[Wayne Ryder]

Reading about the 'camera' in Mario World for the N64. Couldn't afford one, knew nobody who had one, found a shop with a unit with the game running and the pads plugged in... And found a mirror.
Wonderful. Pure genius.

[Sylentwulf]

Well, for arcades it was winning either the soul edge, or Tekken 2 tournaments for the state.

But what blew my mind the most.... Was watching Sephiroth drop from the sky and stab Aeris.... Acatully, at the time, that whole game blew my mind, but I don't think I'll EVER feel that stunned silence like that ever again. Probly the ONLY time my jaw has EVER hit the floor!

[The32xMemorial]

In 1982, I had owned a 2600 for about a year, but really wanted to upgrade to a 5200. I asked my parents for one for my birthday, but they didn't seem real thrilled, saying "You have an Atari already."

A few weeks before my birthday, my Mom dragged me to the country to pick blackberries from near the railroad tracks. When we were finished, she open the trunk of the car to throw in some buckets...

There was my brand-new 5200 resting comfortably the trunk.

She slammed the trunk down and said "you didn't see that."

Oh yes I did!

[Ancient]

My favourite game all-times was/is MKII.
When I bought it for snes i played for more than two weeks in a row without playing any other game :shock: . With a friend of mine I mastered all fatalities and some other moves for every character in the game...
(I still remember all fatalities and spec. moves today)

And after this intense training on the snes.
I had a day in the local arcade. After 30 min. getting used to the joystick i had the hang of it, and pulled fatalities and moves like no problem.
That when people started to challenge me in a 1 on 1 fights.
A little sign on the cabinet said "winner stays, Loser pays"
And people were dying :P to see me lose a fight. (litterly).

I changed characters a lot, pulled fatalaties almost every time.
I was a legendary MKII warrior. 8)

THE END

[Kroogah]

Hmm...the first time I played through SNATCHER was unforgettable. Talk about your slept-on games....I was obsessing over that game for WEEKS afterwards! The story is just...WOW.

[MankeyMan]

I would have to say it was the first time I played Zelda on the N64. I'd been sort of weened off videogames when my parents saw how much i played them, plus they firmly believed TV was bad for you (nonsense), so after my NES broke in 1994, the only sort of video-game fix i got was at friends houses, which wasn't very often.

So, when I got an N64 in 1998, all I could really remember about videogames was that I had loved the first Zelda, and seeing Link in 3D, with all the jumping and slashing was a joy to behold. Then, when I heard the music when you open a new dungeon or secret in the original everything came flooding back to me and I was ecstatic for about a week.

[HeadRusch1]

These were all equally joyous for me

1) The first time I actually managed to make the bus-jump in Ataris STUNT CYCLE (Circa 1979 or so) without crashing...like I always did.

2) The first time I actually managed to land the Lunar Lander in Ataris LUNAR LANDER game on ONE quarter! (Circa 1980)

3) Listening to my buddy yell "commentary" as I played AFTERBURNER at a local bowling alley cocked off my ass.... Every time I'd crash (AFterburner had this long crash sequence where you'd see your plane going down with huge plumes of smoke coming out of it and this loud engine-whine until you exploded on the ground, he'd be yelling out real loud "AAAAAA! I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL!!!" and I'd be pissing my pants laughing)...

[Captain Wrong]

Almost all of them involve the 2600.

1)Making the family late for church because I was racking up a killer score in Space Invaders and my pops didn't pull the plug on me.

2)Hours of Video Pinball with my pops.

3)Pac-Man on the 400, while my best friend at the time had to deal with the crappy 2600 port (haha!)

4)Me and my sister cracking up over the clowns wiggling their feet in the air in Circus Atari when you missed the platform.

5)Trying in vain to solve Swordquest with pops (again.)

6)Chase HQ in the arcade with my best friend in High School Chris. The voice that was supposed to be your partner ("Awww man! Push it harder!") sounded just like our assistant band director. We used to crack up all the time.

[tynstar]

Playing Circus, Super Challenge Baseball and Lock'N' Chase with my grandma on the Atari 2600.

[NE146]

Most definitely playing Space Invaders Part II (cocktail version) at the local carnival and having a crowd gasp as I got that "fifth" life by doing the 255th shot rollover trick. I forgot how I figured it out but I think I was the only person who knew about it (and quite honestly it seemed no one on the net knew about it either until I submitted it to a local easter egg site (RCATT) about a year or two ago). Now it's all over the place of course, but at that time it was pretty neat to do it and have everyone freak out about it.

[FABombjoy]

Toss up:

As a 6 year old standing on a milk crate playing Tron in the arcade, surrounded by college students watching me blow the high scores out of the water.

OR

When I discovered a strange inconsistancy in the initials listed for "High Score" and "1st Place" on Space Harrier for the SMS, and after acting on a hunch, being rewarded with the secret Space Harrier contest screen. I was floored, having not really won any sort of contest in my life. I wrote in to the address, but didn't win anything cool except a letter from some guy from Sega of Japan (telling me to buy a Genesis).

[coleco_chris]

I'd have to say playing Major League Baseball for Intellivision w/ my mom. My parents didn't usually get into playing the games, but she always enjoyed this one. I'm pretty sure she always let me win as well! Since I've got an Intellivision again, we played a couple of months ago-this time I took it easy on her!

[RJ]

Too many to list; here's 3:

One summer on a family vacation at a lake resort my cousin & I discovered the original "Mario Bros." at their office/store. We played it for hours every day all week! They also had Gyruss, the first time I ever saw the arcade version.

In '97 I went to Vegas & visited GameWorks. They had Xevious in the "Classic" area w/ the cabinet encased in old, weathered wood. I played until my buddy got bored & said he was leaving! He went back not long ago to see if my score was still up...

In high school the local arcade gave tokens for good grades: 3/A, 1/B. I often got the 10-token limit, & my friend would be PO'ed as he wasn't as good a student. We'd bike to the mall to see a movie & spend the rest of the afternoon at the arcade.

[sphereman]

My fondest video game memory is when I
first started collecting and thought I had a
large collection until I met Wayne Dunphy
and when he showed me his collection I
felt like a kid in a candy shop. That was
back in 1995. My collection has grown
by leaps and bounds.
Tim 8)

[johnny arcade]

It's pretty sick and kind of twisted, but it's without a doubt.

Circa late 80's or '90 (I was in elementary school) I was over at my best bud's house, his Dad was going through a divorce & they lived at Grandpa and Grandma's. Anyway, they had this cool rec-room area set up in the basement, with pretty much all the cool stuff and a NES with like 80 games (which is a totally ungodly amount for a freakin' 10 year old kid to have). Anyway, the point is that us and all of our friends were always over there jammin' out the games. I forget what we were exactly playing, but it was something on the NES, and everybody over there was really into it. My best bud Dave's little brother was trying to get our attention real bad. He was pretty much unsuccessful, so he must have figured to try something drastic. Anyway, Dave had a semi furnished basement which had a toilet. The toilet was just kind of concealed by this half-wall thing enough for privacy, but it was basically exposed if you really wanted to see what somebody was doing. Anyhow, Dave's little brother is standing across the basment, probably almost 10 ft. away from this toilet. He whips it out, and starts to attempt to take a piss into the shitter. Somebody caught this, and starts yelling, "LOOK! LOOK AT WHAT HE'S DOING!!!" Well this successfully got everyone's attention. Needless to say, a piss of that distance in pretty much not humanly possible so like 97% of it goes all over the floor. We're all laughing so hard that Gramps decided to come down stairs, and see what the commotion is all about. Well he sees what had happened and kicks us all out.

AND that tale actually made it into the ClassicGaming.com mail-bag!... as well as one other by your's truly. If you want to check it out, go look at mailbag 190, or is it 191?, and look for the very last letter by John Martynski. Me.

[punkoffgirl]

I have a lot of terrific memories about my family playing the 2600. I can't even rightly remember if we got it for the family as a birthday/Christmas gift, or if my dad just decided to buy one & bring it home out of the blue, but it got a LOT of play.
Star Wars, Frogs and Flies, Freeway, Star Master, Jungle Hunt... Those are the title names that jump out at me upon first thought. We played until we wore the rubber grip off the joysticks, and my dad upgraded us to the newer versions with the suction cups on the bottom (very handy for me especially.. I was always one of those players who had to LEAN left to actually get my character to move left )
And then someone's birthday would come around, or one of us would merit some kind of special reward (with five kids, it was fairly often for one of the two to occur!), and dad would ask us if we wanted to take a ride. Into town, to the furniture/appliance dealership, and down the stairs to what I remember in my mind as a 2600 mecca. I'm sure there were other games there, but it was still a year or so away from me discovering anything else existed (the day I met the Coleco at my best friend's house..), so to me at that time, nothing else DID exist. We'd get to pick out a new game to take home.
Strangely enough, I don't think ANY of our decisions were based on any information about the actual games themselves.. I don't remember asking anyone if they'd played game x, or reading about any other games. Box art, screen shots, and awesomeness of title were how we made our choices . That being said, to this day I'm still pretty surprised we never had a copy of ET at our house, considering how much we loved the movie. Maybe someone was looking out for us
Oh and... I call next turn.

[GENESISNES]

I remember playing my babysitters Sega Genesis 24/7. I must have beaten Streets of Rage with my friends Nick and Blake about 100 times. Also, she had road rash, and NBA Jam. We couldnt play sonic, because it we must have played it too much, and one day, it just didnt work. she recently gave me all of her old video games, and for some reason sonic worked. weird....

[Mr. NEStalgia]

My fondest memories of video gaming had to be the Christmas I got a SNES. Me and my sister used to play Super Mario World for hours together...you know, when at was at the age where we don't get on each others nerves after 5 seconds. :lol:

-=Mr. NEStalgia

[geekgirl101]

My fondest memories where when me and my friend Stella were buying Dizzy games at WHSmith in Manchester. She bought Bubble Dizzy for the C64 and I got myself Kwik Snax for the Spectrum. I remember adoring the collectors card of Grand Dizzy that came with it. I later drew pictures of Dizzy from all the games and I gave a couple to her for keeps (I still have the ones I kept here and will be uploading the scanned images to the Dizzy site soon.) I'll never forget having a magazine advert for Dizzy's Excellent Adventures pinned up above my bed, and the numerous Michael Jackson posters surrounding it. :P

[Atar1G1rl]

One of my fondest memories will always be the time my brother Chris, my dad, and I stopped in at Utotem or MajikMarket (some kwik-e-mart type store) and laid our eyes upon a Pac-Man machine for the very first time. I was just a little one at that time, but I remember how much time we wasted there because nobody would read the "instructions" and my dad kept trying to have Pac-Man eat the ghosts before eating the power pill! hehehe Didn't take him too long to figure it out, though. We took turns, but my brother Chris picked it up really quickly and I think my Dad and I ended up just watching him play for the longest time.

There were many others, but that memory comes to mind quite often because we had so much fun. :turn-l: