Non-recent games you have lasting memories of.

The Game Room
21

I second Planescape: Torment, along with Baldur’s Gate. The sequel was arguably ythe better game, but it was never quite as unique or special; I attribute this to Bioware’s influence. They are oddly generic. The original bore more resemblance to Fallout, having a lot more freedom to explore just for fun. It’s something Bioware games are not known for, and the sequels did not have it at all. I loved that about Baldur’s Gate - I could just go right off and kill the gnolls, or not, or do it when I wanted to.

On a less pleasant note, Temple of Elemental Evil.

This game had so much potential, but it was sloppy, sloppy, sloppy all the way through. The levels were hard to see, often being done in the same dull colors all the way through (amazingly, reddish-brown stonework blends in nicely with itself. You could go down stairs only to get stuck because, for no reason, the game popped you out past a secret door and you didn’t see the doo, or the stairs were weirdly hidden around a corner, or something. Fighting the monsters was an excercise in slow nuisances, as the game did not handle the characters well. Controls were sluggish. All the stupid village had no good map key so you had to try and remember where all 50 fricking houses were to navigate there. Playing evil was pointless as you got worse rewards. NPC hirelings were overpriced and took way too much treasure, and could sell everything including all the goodies you equiped them with to fight the monsters.

So much potential, so little success.

And last, and definitely least, Pool of Radiance: Return to Myth Drannor.

Basically, take al the problems above, magnify them ten times over, and add a horrifically bad implementation of the d20 rules, fights which took 30-45 minutes to complete solely because the monsters walked… slowly… over to you, and an uninstaller which uninstalled your hard drive.

22

A Mind Forever Voyaging-There’s one moment in the game:

30 years in the future, when your son, now an officer in the Church, denounces your wife and she’s taken away to her death

that I still remember clearly.

Another was King of Dragon Pass…it’s not the best game out there, but it seems to draw you into the world in a way that most games don’t.

23

Ah yes, the adventures of Perry Simm.

Still one of the most amazing pieces of interactive fiction ever written, and one of the best overall games ever.

24

I loved Morrowind and the Baldur’s Gate games, but didn’t think them old enough to mention.

Populous, the classic “God game” was great fun, and I miss playing it. There was a sequel, many years later but it wasn’t as good I think.

25

I got Final Fantasy III and the Nirvana Unplugged CD for Christmas one year. To this day, every time I hear a song from that album, I associate it with the big tower with the crazy Kefka followers. I hated the music from that part of the game (and died repeatedly while attempting it) so I would mute the TV and play the CD on repeat instead.

26

The other day my girlfriend & I were reminiscing about Day of The Tentacle, which we both played and loved many years ago…it’s been a good 5 years since I’ve played it but between the two of us we managed to piece pretty much the whole story together…pretty sure we’re gonna sit down for a run through.

other classic memories.
Super Mario Bros - my family got our NES in 1988, and I remember my brother telling me that the goal of the game was to get to the castle. Once you beat the game, you would get to play another game which was underground…a couple days later (hey, it was my first time videogaming…nobody is THAT good at the beginning!), I made it to the tree stage, and gave the family the news, and when I got home from school, my mom announced that once you beat the tree stage, they actually let you play INSIDE the castle. The funny thing about these memories is that within 5 minutes, I could get up to and past that point that we were so excited about.

Double Dribble - this was the game my dad played once he thought we were all in bed. Had some crappy 8 bit voice acting, as well as a truncated Star Spangled Banner.

Mega Man 2 - to this date, the game I know the best and have beaten in every single way possible (about 64 combinations)…my friends and I actually have recordings of us playing the game, with all kinds of in-jokes…we had a memorized script of lines we would recite at the right moments.

The Legend of Zelda - “go up…no go right…no, go into that cave” is my brother’s opening line the first time I booted up that game. I’m glad I chose the cave to go into. This game stuck around for about a year before I finally beat it. I did manage to find level 7 (under the lake…the most asked question in the history of the Nintendo Gameplay Hotline) on my own, but had a ton of trouble getting through level 8 (Darknuts everywhere)…I would always go to level 2 for fun (lots of snakes = lots of money) and then gamble it away. The game was also taken away from me for the summer when my mom heard me explaining to a friend to not get the Bible, because the Bible is bad! Which seriously, it was!

Final Fantasy - one of my lowest points in NES history was when I was trying OVER AND OVER to get through the Sea Shrine, but would get my ass handed to me by the ghosts. After dying about the 5th time, I threw the controller at the NES, which loosened the cartridge and caused a reset, erasing my saved game. I managed to get BACK to the Sea Shrine (and this time with a much better party) by that same time the next day.

Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar - one of the strangest concept RPGs. You need to become a super nice/brave/honest guy…which is not an easy task. I spent like all summer playing this crazy game (Nintendo Power did an extremely helpful review of it)…and got to the VERY END of the last dungeon only to lose yet another saved game to a power outage. That crazy NES and it’s faulty hardware…

Zelda: A Link to the Past - my biggest memory of this game was waking up to a snowday in 1993, and deciding to beat the game in one sitting. It was the first serious speed run (unless you count the 20 minutes of Shadowgate I could do) I ever attempted, and finished the game in about 3 hours. I think this is where I really became a hardcore gamer.

Final Fantasy 2 (aka FF4) - another of my ultimate games. I managed to beat the game in as little as 8 hours (thanks to a trick in the Giant of Babel with an alarm that keeps calling dragons which can be killed with the Weak spell, which builds up all of the exp that you miss by running from other random battles) and just when I thought I knew every little secret in the game (including the pink puffs), I get online access and find out about a ton of Game Genie codes which allow me to sequence break, opening up all new kinds of possibilites. This is when I stopped using Game Genie to cheat, but started using it to open up new potentials. This was also the game that got me on the Nintendo Power Players list, as I sent in a photo of the end of the game, about 12 days after it came out.
I could go on and on forever, but these are my big memories.

27

The first **Super Mario ** game. We (my siblings and my dad) played that baby so much that over 20 years later I can fire it up and still hit almost all the jumps in the first level dead perfect to arrive at the warp zone within a few seconds from a standing start. I have yet to get a date based on that little party trick, though. :smiley:

King’s Quest 5. That was probably the first ‘real’ computer game I’d ever owned.

Rogue. My sister and I couldn’t figure out how to get past the first few levels without dying for years. Then, in college, I discovered rec.arts.roguelike.nethack and got to meet Rodney and ascend for the very first time. I want to do this again someday, but with a clean record (I used backsaves to restart when I died. FORGIVE ME! grovel).

Bubble Bobble. I loved that game, and snagged it for Wii when I found out it was available. Unfortunately it didn’t hold up to the test of time. snif

Planescape Torment. I still have my game, which you will pry from my cold, dead fingers and even then, I’ll come back and slice ya, ya berk. It’s the best game I’ve ever played thanks to an amazing, immersive storyline. First time through I played as a goody two shoes. Second time through I tried playing as a madman. Just as awesome. bliss

Street Fighter. Played Blanka and Guile the most.

BBS door games: **Legend of the Red Dragon ** and Trade Wars 2002. Many a happy after school hour was spent talking up Seth Able or hitting the Eridani trade run.

One door game that I loved but never found too many others to play with was Operation Overkill II, a post-apocalyptic wasteland where you went out to play Mad Max. I don’t know if anyone’s heard of that one – it never was as popular as the previous two.

28

How few seconds? Surely you have to go to the second level first before you can get to a warp zone, no?

29

I don’t need memories - I still play Archon, Castle Wolfenstein, Taipan, Renegade Interceptor, Short Circuit etc. when the mood strikes me.

30

thinks You’re right, it’s the second level where the warp zone is. I’ll have to see if I can grab Super Mario for the Wii (VC is rather neat that way) and replay to time myself if that’s the case.

An excuse? Whassat? :wink:

31

Thank you! You just saved me 15 minutes of typing, lol. I’m guessing you’re mid-to-late 20’s too?

32

Oh, and I noticed no one’s mentioned and Civ games. Between Civ II/III and the Sim series, I developed some pretty twisted megalomaniacal tendencies through those.

Building up a successful city/civilization was fun and informational. However, smiting artificial people w/ hurricanes/invasions/godzilla was oh so much fun as well. Especially if you saved right before you triggered the full wrath of god (which was you!). :slight_smile:

33

Yup 24 :smiley: Yourself? Stick around. The board needs more younger people IMO.

34
  1. I was a diablo freak in college. I lived w/ 3 other guys, and we shared a 2400 baud connection to EarthLink. >< I only had access to internet mainly at night, so I’d be playing Diablo from like 11pm until 5-6 in the morning w/ my one cool roommate. We’d work in shifts, one watches whatever late-night crap was on TV while the other would play and occassionally announce a cool new item something dropped.

Alas, with a 2400 connection, we didn’t collect jack $hit during the 8 player diablo runs. We should’ve joined a clan. :frowning:

35

PacMan/Ms PacMan will always be my alltime fav game.

Asheron’s Call 2 was my very first MMORPG, and on a PVP server to boot. I was a big baby when I started out, and would get so upset whenever I was ganked. But I learned & learned fast how to love your allies and love your enemies even more. =) I tried very hard to remain neutral, even when I was being ganked (but dangitto-h-e-double-toothpicks, making up for XP after dying was a pain in the arse). I was disappointed it shut down only a couple months after releasing the extension pack. Yeah, ok, i was pissed off, I admit it.

36

Planescape Torment: the best computer RPG with the best story, ever. I don’t think this will ever be beaten.

Baldur’s Gate I and II: great games with a compelling story and a total package that seems not to have been repeated in all these years.
Master of Orion II: still the best 4X space game ever.

X-Com: pure liquid awesome, still hasn’t been topped by any squad based strategic game.

Alpha Centauri: Civilization on speed, with evil mind control worms.
Star Control I and II: excellent fun in a space combat game. The non must become juffo wup.

Space Quest and Quest for Glory Games: the golden age of adventure games
Tie Fighter: a space combat sim that was only beaten by two games ever, which would be…

Freespace I and II: they are, simply, perfect. No space combat sim has ever done it better, then, or now.

Deus Ex: the greatest FPS ever. Wide ranging gameplay that allowed for multiple solutions to any problem, plus a kick ass story.

Homeworld and Cataclysm: awesome tactical space combat games, Homeworld II didn’t quite measure up.

I’m probably missing a few… but those are the ones that stand out in my memory.

37

2400 baud? And you’re only 26? How on Earth did you not have cable or DSL? Or at least a 56.6k connection?!

38

I had a 14k modem… but unfortunately Williamsport PA was a mostly redneck town, with a nice college dropped in one part. Alas, the phone lines were crap there around 2000-2001 :frowning:

39

My memories:

Legend of Zelda: My friend gave me this in 1987, not too long after it came out IIRC. I spent the entire summer playing it. To this day, the little sound that the game makes when you find something nifty (anyone who’s ever played a Zelda game knows the one I mean) gives me a little happy thrill.

Temple of Apshai: This was a very old, “graphical” RPG (if a bunch of huge pixels that very vaguely resembled monsters, rooms, and treasures counted as “graphical.” I think I played it on our TRS-80 when I was a kid. By today’s standards it’s beyond primitive, but back then it was pretty neat.

Lunar: The Silver Star: The original for Sega CD. Loved the theme music, loved the art style, loved the humor. Oh, and loved Ghaleon. Probably too much. :slight_smile:

Pac-Man: For Atari 2600. This was the first console video game cartridge I ever owned. It’s amazing what we thought was sophisticated back in those days.

Super Mario Bros.: For the original NES. My SO (now my spouse) gave me an NES system in 1986, and this was one of the first games I got for it. “Holy crap, this is the same game I can play in the arcade, and it’s right here in my room!” :slight_smile:

Star Rider: This was an arcade game in the early '80s, one of the original laserdisc games. It was amazing. By the standards of the time, the graphics were beautiful, and I spent far, far too many quarters on it during my sophomore and junior years in college. :slight_smile:

Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time: Don’t really have too many memories of the game itself–never finished it. But I still remember (and love) the little song that plays inside the windmill. It’s in waltz time, very minor key and melancholy. I wish there was a recording of it somewhere.

Frogger: When I was a teenager, the Safeway store up the street had a Frogger console, and I used to go up there when I was bored and play it. I got pretty good at it, too–it was one of the few arcade games that I could consistently get the high score on.

40

There are a ton, but one that is sticking in my head at the moment is Gauntlet. I spent hours and untold numbers of quarters on that game. “Wizard needs food…badly!” “Shots do not hurt other players, yet.” Damn, I loved that game.