21 replies to this topic

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

OK I did a tag response to Share a Videogame memory, I instantly thought of several and just had to share because I think this may be the most fun I have had doing a response! Please share yours.

[Algus]

Oh boy

My earliest memory is playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES with my cousin when I was only 3. She must have had a lot of patience with me. We'd play every time I went over to visit them and she'd always do the hundred lives trick in World 3. I guess I was decent because I remember being able to get to World 3 on my own. I also remember watching her beat it a few times. I don't think she or my parents knew that this would start a life-long passion with games lol.

[NightSprinter]

I don't remember the specifics, but I do know I was a toddler (age 2 or 3) for my first memory. Sitting with my brother (who's 7 years older, but people think he and I are maternal twins since we don't look like there's that big an age difference), micro-sized stuffed lion (c'mon, I'm sure all of us had something like that at such an early age) playing the first AD&D on the Intellivision II.

Another was at my hometown's local Putt-Putt Golf and Games (it's now just called "All-American Fun Park"), being scared shitless from the volcano stage of Crossbow as I walked by it (I think I was either clinging to my brother or mom crying..) -.-; Yeah, I was terrified of thunder and thunderstorms when I was little..

Last one for now: always selecting a particular game to play a lot around the Holidays. One year I was playing the hell out of Wizards and Warriors on the NES before going around town to look at lights. Another year, it was Wolfenstein 3D. Yet another year it was Legacy of the Wizard/Dragon Slayer IV: Dralse Family.

[Atari_afternoon]

Kid´s birthdays at my place when we played 2600 games in turns before going out in the woods. Mario Bros, Ms. Pac-Man, Bobby geht nach Hause. Quite a number of my friends had the 2600 in the 80ies. Age was about late elementary school/early "high school" years.
And at another one´s birthday party (boys´ birthday parties, presents and cake first, then video games, then outside for football, capture the flag or minigolf...), sitting around a c64 with datasette loader: Donkey Kong, Blue Max, Teacher Busters.
We must have been loud!
Later my 2600 served to keep my cousins quiet in a similar manner, taking turns and commenting, usually with loud 1980ies pop music on.

Now that I realize it, the way the GBA cartridge /Playstation collection "Activision Anthology" is presented, it was damn realistic! Only the encouraging shouts (and the cake) are missing!

Edited by Atari_afternoon, Sun May 29, 2011 4:25 PM.

[RARusk]

And don't call me Shirley.....

[atarigal]

My earliest video game memory is my father coming into the house carrying the cardboard box that contained a used (but new to us!) Atari 2600 and games. This was around 1980-81 when I was eight or nine. I also remember my brother and I getting up VERY early some days to play all the Atari we wanted, uninterrupted, while our parents were still asleep. In those days, of course, most kids didn't have their own TV sets, so you had to share the TV with your parents! Specifically, I remember Pac-Man sessions with my brother and building up enough free guys that we could take a bathroom break, come back to the game and keep playing.

[NightSprinter]

RARusk, on Sun May 29, 2011 10:15 PM, said:

And don't call me Shirley.....

Was wondering when that was gonna be said.

[PsychoKittyNet]

I have quite a few, I have never been without a game console my whole life, I remember playing Zelda with my dad, playing PAC Man on the 2600, I remember going to circuit city to buy our SNES and when we went to the will call to get it the guy gave us a game boy and my dad had to argue with him. Then I remember going home, waiting in anticipation as my dad hooked it up and being blown away by how much better Super Mario World looked and sounded compared to Mario 3.

[SlowCoder]

When I had my first 2600, we had Hangman. I came in from playing outside and my Mom had me sit in front of it. I played the game and the word was my Dentist's name. Apparently I'd won a "clean mouth" contest, and a $20 gift certificate to a local toy store. Thing is, I'd brushed like heck, about half a tube of toothpaste the night before my appointment. I'm sure my normal dental hygiene wasn't that spectacular at that age.

Another memory was when my mom wrote a simple little BASIC program on our ADAM that asked what we were having for dinner. It would then tell me if I was right or wrong. I was amazed, and was immediately hooked. That little gesture, I'm pretty sure, was the impetus to my programming and IT career. Before that, the ADAM was nothing more than a machine I played Buck Rogers and BeamRider on, and typed school reports.

Other things I remember are things like rolling the score on Asteroids multiple times, and playing at friends' houses.

[Petran79]

I must have been 4-5 years old when i saw the first space invaders arcade. I thought it was something amazing back then.
I loved playing all the arcade classics of the mid-80s.
I felt as if i could control a tv cartoon.
Atari 2600 games were creepier and more claustrophobic than their arcade counterparts. They were the best and most surreal.
They had great covers too.

Nes and master system games were great too. Unfortunately i had experienced some amiga games with amazing music and haunting graphics in the late 80s so i knew there was something better at that time.
Even the worse amiga games made more impression than the best nes games (atari was forgotten).

I felt in love with the amiga music and graphics of bubble bobble, shinobi, duck tales,wonder boy in monster land, new zealand story, something the arcades lacked and nes music could not reach. Also was enchanted with indiana jones adventure, without having seen the film.
Horror games were something unheard of, so i was terrified with the fun elvira rpg game and music. Also strategy and simulation games were not the nes strong points.
Unfortunately never owned an amiga. Would have made me a better and more patient gamer.

When cdrom games appeared a few years later gaming reached the next stage, but something was lost along the way. We watched in awe a demo of Lost Eden. Then i never looked back till i found nes emulation.

[Seob]

I must have been 4, around 1978 or so that i first played pong on my dads pong clone. Then there was a big gap in my video game history. We didn't have much money so the little we got went to my lego collection. By the time i was 10/11 i played at friends on they're c64 and msx, consoles where a luxury a lot of europeans couldn't afford. So when they bought a 'gaming' device, it normally be a home computer because it could be used for 'education'. When i was around 13 or so we bought a schneider cpc464, because a classmate had one. Exchanged a few games, but most of the time i was entering non working code from a magazine.
After that it went pretty fast. A few years later we bought or first pc, a Philips 286-12.5Mhz. That was also the first pc that got upgraded, first with a diy covox soundcable, followed by a adlib compatible sound card, later with a vga display card, a second hdd, and more ram.
The first console i bought was in 1994 a sega game gear. The first home console i bought was a playstation 1 original model. Al that time i was more into pc gaming.

Edited by Seob, Mon May 30, 2011 3:29 PM.

[CartridgeGameGeeks]

the firat game i started playing was alex kidd in mirical world for the master system, great game even to this day

[Rex Dart]

My earliest memories are of playing the Donkey Kong cabinet at Sears while my dad waited for the auto repair people to bring the Volvo around, and playing Mr Do! and pinball at Mr Gatti's pizza. I had to be about three years old. I could play pinball for ages on a single credit... man, I was better at nearly every sort of game when I was younger

[keilbaca]

My earliest is when my dad got an Atari 2600, and introduced me to it. We played combat together... I must have been 4 or 5. It didn't last long, because my mom yelled at my dad for playing it with me.

My most memorable early memory is when I was about 12 or so. I was in a local bar, only place with pinball machines in the area. My game was Whirlwind. I nailed the full cellar bonus, with a score upwards of 70 mil. It was pretty epic...

[ilovethevectrex]

my earliest memeory was some educational game where you had to conect 2 electric sircuts while avoiding electric beams. i think i was 2 yrs old. this was in the year 2000. (im 13 yrs old, but dont worry, i collect alot of old games + i dont own any modern consoles besides the ds lite

[ilovethevectrex]

atarigal, on Mon May 30, 2011 5:14 AM, said:

My earliest video game memory is my father coming into the house carrying the cardboard box that contained a used (but new to us!) Atari 2600 and games. This was around 1980-81 when I was eight or nine. I also remember my brother and I getting up VERY early some days to play all the Atari we wanted, uninterrupted, while our parents were still asleep. In those days, of course, most kids didn't have their own TV sets, so you had to share the TV with your parents! Specifically, I remember Pac-Man sessions with my brother and building up enough free guys that we could take a bathroom break, come back to the game and keep playing.

im 13 i dont have my own tv. but i do have THE VECTREX in my room and i play it ALOT so im ok with that

[ilovethevectrex]

i liked the video

[save2600]

Pretty cool memories OSRG'er!

In the spirit of your last memory here (the rich uncle story), I'll share an oddly coincidental one with 'ya. To preface, we always had plenty growing up. Not rich by any stretch but we had real arcade games all throughout the 70's/80's and an Atari 2600 around for our home console video entertainment starting in the early 80's. Two of my best friends, who lived blocks away, had Intellivision's and a third growing up, had a massive 2600 collection. Between the luxury of having real arcade machines constantly coming and going and the INTV and 2600 stuff, we were pretty content with what we had or had access to. Back in those days, it was nothing to walk or jog over to a friends' home and play their stuff. Everyone shared that way and we were all excited to have like-minded buddies. Anyway, one Christmas, my uncle who wasn't rich either (had a great job and still lived at home) but seemed to spend his money a little differently than us, bought his daughter a Colecovision one year - NOT just for the video game system really, but mostly for the free Cabbage Patch doll that came with it! lol

*That* Christmas was a ton of fun because Christmas Eve, we'd spend it over at my Grandmothers where all the aunts/uncles/cousins would convene to celebrate. My uncle for whatever reason, also bought the VCS adapter and a bunch of other games to go with the Colecovision set. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun trying out all that stuff. A cousin had given me Super Challenge Football for the 2600 that year, so it was nice to be able to pop that in and play too. I didn't know anyone else at the time who had a Colecovision. Just my uncle, who kept it out for a couple of years for all of us to play when we'd visit.

Only one friend had an Odyssey 2 system. I don't remember much about it, 'cept playing K.C. Munchkin which seemed pretty cool at the time. By the mid 80's though, most of us "retired" our old consoles as we focused on computer gaming, stereo equipment, cars and eventually girls.

Edited by save2600, Tue Dec 13, 2011 2:29 PM.

[Cynicaster]

I don’t know why this particular memory popped in my head when I saw this thread, but here goes. When I was 12 years old, in 6^th grade, I was extremely determined to finally beat Mike Tyson on NES Punch Out. When I first got to Tyson, like everybody else I got completely schooled, and almost dismissed it as “too hard to bother”. But then, after I got the hang of the patterns and cues in Tyson’s style, I knocked him down for the first time. When that happened, I knew it would just take a bit of persistence to beat him outright.

My older brother and I were kind of in an unspoken “race” to see who could beat Tyson first.

On a June evening in 1989, I was finally successful. The victory was sweet—both over Tyson, and, of course, my brother—but unfortunately I was alone in my basement when it happened, with nobody to vouch for the achievement, and worse, nobody to brag to. On any other night, I would have simply bragged to my brother, but he wasn’t home because it was the night of his grade 8 graduation and he was out celebrating with friends.

Thinking back, beating Tyson probably isn’t much to brag about. I’ve been meaning to play that game again to see how long it takes me to reclaim my title, but I haven’t played it on original hardware in almost 20 years, so maybe it’s tougher than I remember. I’ve tried it on emulation but I found a bit of a lag in the controls, which made it pretty much unplayable (I lost to Great Tiger… pfft.).

[DemonoidTentacle]

My memory is quite recent, maybe 6 months ago.

My niece (7yrs old) has the attention span of a goldfish. She can't sit for anymore than a few minutes either watching a movie, and playing a game she normally doesn't even last that (seems to be the iPod Touch generation).

Anyway, she was visiting my house and she wanted to play a videogame. My NES was set up so I just popped in Legend of Zelda, knowing that she'd last a minute before she got bored and I'd continue playing. So it starts up and I begin a new game for her. She finds herself standing in the screen with 3 exits, and a cave entrance. She asks me "Where do I go?" to which I reply "Wherever you want.".

This look came on her face, a mesmerised look. She entered the cave and got the sword. She was so excited, like she really achieved something. She exited the cave and just went exploring. She even found the first dungeon. For twenty minutes she sat there in front of the TV, focused on the game. She had to stop cause she had to go home. As she was walking out the door she turned to me and said "Is that what real adventures are like?" and I replied "Yeah, they are."

[chuckwalla]

Here's just a few......

Getting a (used) Atari 2600 from a local dealer (in his home), having to decide over about a dozen or so carts that were included with it, coming home, (my Dad) setting it up, and playing Donkey Kong all afternoon (then River Raid and Starmaster the next day!).

--------------------------------------------------

Seeing and playing that new ColecoVision system at my spoiled cousins house (he got EVERY game released with the system too!) and just staring at those arcade-like graphics all afternoon. It just blew me away and that's why it's one of my favorite systems to play and collect for till today.

--------------------------------------------------

Buying my first new system in Dec. '92 - the Sega Genesis Model 1 with Sonic The Hedgehog, for $129.99 at the Electronic Boutique. I was so excited about it and i've kept that system mint in the box ever since.

[NightSprinter]

Here's one that proves how much I like a fun and playable game: One day back in the mid-90s I was playing Donkey Kong on my classic Game Boy almost non-stop to finish the game. After finally beating Kong at the end, I hear a loud "POP!". Turns out I played so much I overheated and blew the batteries. Not caring about my save progress I darted to the garbage can and dumped them immediately. That was the start of the big part of the obsession. Later after picking up my Dreamcast and three fighting games (SFA3, MvC2, and Capcom Vs. SNK), I began finding myself up until 5am or so trying to unlock things. That has still kept going up through today.