What is your strongest gaming memory?

[Mr Azar]

That is to say, in terms of nostalgia, which games/events have stuck with you through the years?

For me, it's the first time I played Mega Man 2 on the NES. Me and another cousin would go to a third cousin's basement just to play it (they had the best TV at the time, along with a still very good sound system) on Fridays.

[SoulinEther]

That is to say, in terms of nostalgia, which games/events have stuck with you through the years?

For me, it's the first time I played Mega Man 2 on the NES.

Interesting. For me, so far at least... it was when I was in Egypt playing MM2 in Dr. Wily's area. Every time I would get to the last stage, the power would go out, and I had to restart the whole area from scratch. It happened four times. I don't know why I didn't just wait till the rolling power outages stopped.

I think I shared this story before. But an interesting topic.

[Mr Azar]

Was Mega Man 2 and the NES sold in Egpyt at that time, or was it imported?

[Strike911]

Definitely seeing the horizon of Hyrule Field with the castle in the background for the first time as a kid in 1998 when Ocarina of Time came out. I hadn't seen anything like that before in a video game.

That and the entire experience of Metal Gear Solid 1 on the original PlayStation. Again, the game's style, gameplay, story, and presentation just floored me. It too was something I'd never experienced in a game before either.

Those two games are what I remember being floored by. I remember really loving games in the past back on the NES, Genesis, SNES, and stuff, and even stuff now in the present and recent past, but those two games in particular are the strongest memories I have of gaming.

I hope one day another game will be able to give a strong memory like that. Not since though... been ten years. MGS4's nostalgic presentation of a few moments was fantastic, and an excellent nod to the last 10 years of MGS memories which was VERY nostalgic and a fan's dream come true (some of the levels and scenes were like going back in time ten years ago and revisiting my childhood)... but again, no games have given me an experience that has stayed with me like OOT and MGS1.

Even though I absolutely love games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus to death, there's something about how groundbreaking both MGS1 and OOT were in their time that I long to experience again in a new game.

Here's hoping something new will do the trick, and that I don't have to wait another 10 years to see something that completely floors me again.

[SoulinEther]

Was Mega Man 2 and the NES sold in Egpyt at that time, or was it imported?

Brought it in with us from the US.

I was about 5 when that happened, lol.

Oh and, when I think about it, Ultima Exodus for NES taught me how to read and write (at 4)... so I think it has made a profound impact on my life. "Cure" "heal" and "open" have strong NES-related connotations in my mind.

[linkspast]

(some of the levels and scenes were like going back in time ten years ago and revisiting my childhood)

Like when you go back to shadow moses?

[Sixto]

Toss up between Punch-Out on the NES and Street Fighter II on the SNES.

I remember once in grade school I got sick at school and my father had to pick me up. Some kind of stomach virus or something, I can't remember. My father stopped at a pharmacy for some medicine which happened to be right next to this video rental place. He goes into the pharmacy, comes out, then goes into the video place. Comes back with some medicine, and Punch-Out for NES. I remember as soon as I got home, I played that game the entire day until bed time. And even though the next day I was feeling much better, my father made me stay home from school in case I got sick again. So I played it all day that day as well. It was the first time I ever felt the desire to play a video game that much. The first time I ever enjoyed a video game that much.

And Street Fighter II, well...I guess it was just a monster arcade game that I, along with most of my friends, fell in love with. So when it came out on the SNES it was like a dream come true. We were always trying to coordinate sleepovers on weekends so we could have SFII tournaments and such, each person sticking to one character. Mine was always Ken. Playing SFII was also the first time I really started paying attention to the music in games.

[Atomicfog]

I remember loving Battletoads when I was 6 or 7, but I nor any of my friends ever did get past that f'ing ridiculous racing level -- it had me throwing my controller at the ground. I used to have dreams of what came after that level. I still don't know what is after that level to this day. Maybe I'll find out sometime.

Also, Chrono Trigger, being my first RPG, will always be memorable -- especially since I played new game + on it until the cart battery died and my game was erased. That game was unusually deep for its time.

Definitely seeing the horizon of Hyrule Field with the castle in the background for the first time as a kid in 1998 when Ocarina of Time came out. I hadn't seen anything like that before in a video game.

That and the entire experience of Metal Gear Solid 1 on the original PlayStation. Again, the game's style, gameplay, story, and presentation just floored me. It too was something I'd never experienced in a game before either.

Same here. Those games were completely epic when they came out, and they both still hold up pretty well considering their age -- though MGS holds up really well.

Playing SFII was also the first time I really started paying attention to the music in games.

Hah, it was great music. I remember I used to stick my grandpa's giant old tape recorder up to the T.V. speakers while playing Street Fighter II just so I could listen to the music

[The Pezman]

It will always be Sonic zipping through those seizure-inducing Chemical Zone pipe pathways for me.

And Super Mario World. It was probably tied with S3&K as my favorite platformer of the day, because SMW was perhaps twice as long as any other game I'd played to that point.

I also played lots of Super Mario Land and Kirby's Dream Land when I was maybe four on my dad's Gameboy (which quickly became my Gameboy).

[Nitwit]

For me it was the summer Super Mario Bros. 3 came out. First of all, the movie "The Wizard" really hyped that game up because the game hadn't been released yet and it was the ultimate showdown in the movie. Then I got the game in the summer and I ran down to my friend's house and we popped it into the machine and started jumping and Racooning all over the place. He had a homemade Slip 'n' Slide set up in his backyard and as we took turns playing, we'd slide down the plastic sheet, run back up the hill and into the living room to play our level. By the end of the afternoon, their normally light blue carpet was brown with mud and bits of grass was all over the place.

One of the first games I had waited for the release date was Secret of Evermore. I remember I gave my mom some money to go and buy it while I was at school that day and when I got home I blew off my homework to play the game instead.

Centipede on the Atari 2600 was the first time my legs went numb from sitting and playing a game for too long. Actually, it was fortunately one of the last times too.

When my friend bought Metal Gear Solid, I used to jimmy the window to his apartment open and climb in so I could play it while he wasn't around.

Honestly, as I'm sure with most of you, I have way too many intense nostalgic moments associated with video games to list here. That was just a few.

[Darklink42]

My greatest nostalgia moment was playing through Contra 3 with my best friend. We were only 6 or 7 at the time, but we would constantly challenge ourselves to see how far we could get. Didn't know about the Konami code back then, so the farthest we ever got was those two hanging aliens. Used to scare the crap out of me, especially when the giant alien pops through the screen.

There are others to, a couple of them spring to mind. The first time a game really scared me was Resident Evil. Stupid dogs busting through those windows. Swear to god I paused the game and rolled backwards so fast I had no idea why I was standing up. Similarly, Eternal Darkness on the Cube later got me so freaked out I jumped when the actual phone rang.

I remeber Turok, and fighting that stupid T-rex. Wasn't scared of it, but for some reason I kept ass-walking backwards as I fought it, it was like actually having it in my face. Had to pause and scootch forward again and then proceed.

I remember too the first time I beat Time Crisis 2 in the arcades. I suddenly knew what it felt like to beat an arcade game through sheer persistence and lots of quarters. I still can't figure out why people let arcades disappear. There is no console or PC game I've played that can match that level of satisfaction.

And lastly, I remember the first time I played a Soul Calibur game on my own. I have never smashed a controller out of sheer unadultered rage before or since SC3. I don't think I've ver been that pissed about anything in my life. It was the only time I've ever quit playing a game. My thick-headed determination usually has me pressing on until I win, but there was no winning that game and in the end my PS2 controller gave up its life by being brutally smashed to pieces on the carpet padded concrete of my room.

[SoulinEther]

...in the end my PS2 controller gave up its life by being brutally smashed to pieces on the carpet padded concrete of my room.

How poetic.

[Linkjing Donuts]

Bug! on sega saturn

virtua on on sega saturn

virtual fighter and virtual fighter kids on sega saturn

DAYTOOOONAAAAAAAAAAAA usa on sega saturn

[Atomicfog]

DAYTOOOONAAAAAAAAAAAA usa on sega saturn

Haha, yes. That theme song cannot be unforgotten.

[Bleck]

And lastly, I remember the first time I played a Soul Calibur game on my own. I have never smashed a controller out of sheer unadultered rage before or since SC3. I don't think I've ever been that pissed about anything in my life.

this right here

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

Man... There are too many to mention here, and as many here they all involved the SNES or the N64.

I guess the single biggest video game memory I have is beating my older brother at ANYTHING for the first time in my life, which was Super Street Fighter 2. We had a gang of his friends and mine over, and I was about 6 or 7 at the time. So he's playing as Ken or Dhalsim or somethin', and I'm playing as Guile. I must have spammed the hell out of the jump, low strong roundhouse along with the flash kick, 'cause I cleaned his clock out, publicly. Sure, it doesn't seem like much now, but at the time, for a 6 year old to beat his 13 year old brother at ANYTHING was huge.

Another big memory would be pulling off my first fatality ever in a Mortal Kombat game. Once again, 6 or 7 years old, went to the bowling alley that had a MK2 cabinet with a gang of my bro's friends, I used Reptile, won the match, and against everyone's expectations, ripped his head off. Go me!

I guess another big memory would be in Rebel Assault 2 for the PC in which I did a perfect run of that level where you fly a Tie Fighter through a canyon in training without hitting a single wall, and while that sounds like nothing, keep in mind that pretty much the entire right side of my body is fucked up and has nowhere near as much dexterity or stability as my left(seriously, it's like I have another person there) and at the time, I didn't know that you could map controls for lefties, so I used the damn joystick with my right hand and made it even with the jeering of people around me(again my bro's friends ). It was great.

The rest of my memories usually involved me watching my sis go through Mario 2 in it's entirety, playing games with my older sibs(my sister had road rage playing Mario Kart 64), and playing a Super Nintendo for the first time in my life and being totally blown away by everything about it. Graphics, sound, games like Castlevania 4, Mario World, the Star Wars games, Zelda, etc.

[The Dennis]

Probably the Christmas break me and my brother got the N64. It had been out long enough that we got like 10 games for it, it snowed a lot that break so we got out of school even longer, we had a lot of friends over a lot of the time, and we never had a Playstation so that was our first experience with good 3-D graphics, so everything was completely epic.

[JH Sounds]

also

http://mariothx.ytmnd.com/flash.html

[MisterBiggler]

I was about 8 or 9, and me and some friends were staying over at a mutual friend's place, which was awesome me because I lived pretty far away from all my buddies, plus we all loved video games and planned to play them all night. Anyway, we were playing Secret of Mana, picking up where our friend got to on his own, and together we got to the part in the Mana Forest where you go through a gauntlet of bosses, including one snake monster. We knew it was weak against Sylph, so we're sitting there trying to chain magic attacks with the girl and sprite and mash away at it with the hero, but we ended up dying two or three times, which frustrated me and a few others, but my friend (whose house we were staying at) insisted the game was cheating, and tried to go it again alone after the rest of us decided to take a break. We didn't think about this at the time, but we were probably a few levels too weak.

After failing a fourth time, my friend flies into this insane rage and begins shouting curse word after curse word at the snake, which caused the rest of us to burst into laughter; I probably had tears going down my cheeks. His mother hears the commotion and after asking what the cause of it was, our friend yells back at her that the snake was cheating, carrying on about how it wasn't fair, and that the chain attacks didn't work. I'm very certain she didn't understand any of this, and the fact that he was attempting to explain it to his mom made us laugh even harder. He became even more enraged after hearing us laugh so much at his expense that he began to attack us with a terribly weak flurry of punches (most of us were bigger/stronger than him) which nearly caused us all to die that night of laughter.

We eventually simmered down and beat the boss, but not without mocking our friend every step of the way. He and I are still very good friends to this day, and I still laugh at him for this. The first time I played Earthbound and got to the point where "Ness realizes the power within him" was awesome, as well as the first time I went to an arcade (and got to play SF2), but that is the winner by far.

We had a gang of his friends and mine over

You from Los Angeles by any chance?

[Toadofsky]

There are just so many of these for me.

When Super Mario World came out, I had just graduated from 1st grade, and my parents bought me a Super Nintendo (thus began my gaming), and Super Mario World came with it. I remember trying to get good at it, which was progress. I remember my dad beat it for me, I was so nervous watching him fight Bowser.

In fact, I think my mom has my very first drawing. Which was the Super Mario World characters. It's almost faded out, but my mom has it somewhere stored safe.

My other fond memories were of Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2. DKC 1 came out, and me, and my dad, were just floored by the graphics, there wasn't anything like it. And one of my friends growing up with me, had it. We'd take turns playing it, as well as laughing along the way.

DKC 2 came out, and we'd go through it together as well. Man those games were so hard for us to beat. I remember showing him SMW 2: Yoshi's Island when I rented it too.

N64. When my aunt told me and my dad about the new Mario game that came out for it. I asked my dad if we could go see it, so off we went. And I vividly remember like 12 N64's sitting there, and everyone playing it. Every game was Mario 64. And I remember playing it for the first time. Holding the N64 controller, and tilting it around when I'd control Mario. Such an awesome time.

Gamecube. Playing the demo of Luigi's Mansion, and Rouge Squadron at Toys R Us. The Death Star Trench, was just incredible.

XBox, sitting and playing a small portion of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath next to my sick brother in law. He was in the hospital for a hernia removal, but developed a blood clot in his lung. It was taken care of, and all the while, we'd play Soul Calibur 3, watch the Two Towers extended cut, and play one or two games.

For this generation, it would have to be playing the Wii for the first time. I played Excite Truck, and was just blown away by it. I bought the game eventually, and it's still pretty cool in my book.

Another memory would have to be bringing the Wii home for the first time. I was so excited, and my Brother in law and my sister came over to play it too. They too enjoyed it.

[Lovely Peach]

There are several major ones for me.

First is the time I finished Super Mario Bros 2 - it was the first game I ever completed. I think I was in 3rd grade at the time. I remember the whole family gathering around to watch me fight Wart (just before getting to him, I remember calling one of my best friends and letting her hear the scary boss room music over the phone). I even wrote about finishing the game in my diary.

Shortly after that, whenever I'd go over to my friends' houses, their dads and little brothers always wanted me to finish Mario 2 (or later, Mario 3) so they could see the endings.

But my fondest gaming-related memory happened when I was in 5th grade. It was right after the SNES came out. My parents couldn't get one for me for Christmas, so in January or February they rented a system for me to play, just for 3 days. Unfortunately, since it was in high demand, they could only get it during the week rather than the weekend. So the first day, I played Super Mario World a bit after school. Not nearly enough time to play.

But then on the 2nd day, my dad was driving me and my sister to school (it was on the way to work for him) and when he pulled up to the curb, the head teacher was standing out front. He flagged down the car and told us that a water main had burst under the school. They were going to send the rest of the kids home at 10am on buses, but since my dad had driven us in, we could go home right away.

I spent the entire day (only taking breaks for lunch and dinner at my mom's insistence) playing Super Mario World, making it all the way to Chocolate Island (world 6). I have never played a game so much in one sitting before. Great memories.

More recently, it was the midnight release of the Wii. I dressed up as Link to go get the system and took a bunch of photos. I'd never gotten a game system when it was first released before. So exciting (even though I had to wait til Christmas to play it).

[DJ Mighty]

The first game that prob gave me this effect was Chrono Trigger and illusion of Gia. I just started getting into RPGs and Chrono Trigger was the first Turn Based RPG i got into. I remember staying home from school playing it and didnt know you had to take the two pieces of the Masamune to Melchoir. I went into the prehistoric era and battled my way up the peak thinking thats where i had to go. Then i kept trying to fight lavos who kept killing me. I finally figured it out and continued the game but my characters were so strong from fighting so much that i blew through Magus castle like it was nothing. Illusion of Gia will always be one of the first games that just drew me in. I loved everything about that game.

Prob the most recent, which isnt really recent but Shadow Hearts 2. That was prob the last game i can remember that drew me in emotionally. though i have played good games since then, nothing has drawn me in like that. maybe im just getting old.

[Native Jovian]

Man, everyone else is talking about when they're like six or seven. My best memories come from when I was fourteen.

I wasn't really a gamer when I was younger. Yeah, I had an NES and SNES and N64, but it wasn't really a big part of my life. I remember talking about Ocarina of Time with my friends in middle school or playing Golden Axe on my buddy's Genesis in elementary school, but it was a way to pass the time when other forms of entertainment were unavailable, not a thing to be done for its own sake

When I was 13 I moved from Florida to Connecticut. My new house had a basement, which was a new thing to me, as any basement in Florida would instantly fill with water. It wasn't finished, but we spent some time cleaning it up and reorganizing all the crap down there, and threw in an old couch, some rugs, and the old entertainment center that didn't fit in our new living room. We also put all our various video game systems down there.

So for the first time I had a nice, quite, comfortable place where I could play video games without having to lie on the floor (because the couch was too far away for the controller cords to reach) or get kicked out every ten minutes so someone could watch TV, or be distracted by conversations going on around me, or anything. It was basically the perfect place for gaming. At some point my older brother had picked up a used Playstation, and so, like a good little brother, I used it for myself constantly.

Holy crap. PS1 RPGs. So many good ones. Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX. Chrono Cross. Xenogears. Legend of Dragoon. Final Fantasy Anthologies, Chronologies and Origins, eventually. This was in 2000/2001, well after the initial FFVII wave (but I'd already gotten it for PC -- ha!), but just in time for FFIX and Chrono Cross. Lots and lots of good times. That basement was awesome; cool in the summer, because it was underground, but warm in the winter, because we had a wood stove down there to help keep our heating costs down, and nice and quiet all year round. I can't remember how many days I'd come home from school and have the house to myself, go downstairs and light a fire in the stove, then sit down and play games with my dog on the couch next to me. Nor were PS1 RPGs exclusively what I played. Lots of N64 titles too. Harvest Moon 64. Majora's Mask. Banjo-Kazooie. Great times.

The one image that captures all of that for me is the PS1 bootup sequence. The dark screen bringing up the PS1 logo, with the very distinctive sound effect breaking the silence... and then the screen moving into the Squaresoft logo. Goddamn. I threw Final Fantasy Chronologies into my PS2 the other day to play Chrono Trigger again and I got that little sequence unexpectedly. Practically sent shivers down my spine.

[TheHands]

Playing Gunstar Heroes on Genesis and getting to the final phase of the Red Barron for the first time. I thought it was the coolest thing ever to beat the shit out of Hitler wearing red. Played all day, for at least a good six hours until I could finally get there. I miss being young.

[SwordBreaker]

Wow...so many strong nostalgic memories to mention here.

One of my favorites was playing Zelda for the first time. My cousin's uncle was a huge fan of the NES, especially with series like Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Warrior. Used to watch him play all of these back in the day (I was 7 years old I think), but my mind couldn't comprehend FF and DW 'cause they seemed to complex and boring to me. One day, he wanted me to chip in and play so he begged me to help him pass some areas in Zelda II. I've been hooked on Zelda ever since. Each game in the series has its own nostalgic moment to me, but Zelda II had the most "history" with me since it's the only one I never got to finish until recently. I was able to get to the final Palace with my uncle cheering me on, and that was it for me. A few years later I tried to play it again, but couldn't finish it. Many years later, the GameCube collector's edition comes out and I try to finish that...but can't. Finally, the GBA version was released a few years back...and that was when I FINALLY beat the game. I still consider it the hardest one in the series, and it's so fucking satisfying to finally beat the game.