# The Longest Time Between Starting a Game and Finishing It **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [October 21, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679 "2009-10-21T23:42:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/21 "2009-10-31T00:40:49Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > It’s really annoying, you have to jump from pretty much exactly the right angle. I think that Death Egg Zone in 2 probably qualifies as the most bullshit Sonic level ever. I don’t recall having too much trouble getting _some_ hits in on the Death Egg. My problem was that you had to get 16 hits on Metal Sonic and 16 hits on the Death Egg without taking damage once. The only time I was ever able to beat that level was the time I used a Game Genie cheat to give myself 3 rings to start on that level. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/22 "2009-10-31T01:42:20Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > I don’t recall having too much trouble getting _some_ hits in on the Death Egg. My problem was that you had to get 16 hits on Metal Sonic and 16 hits on the Death Egg without taking damage once. The only time I was ever able to beat that level was the time I used a Game Genie cheat to give myself 3 rings to start on that level. I should mention that I haven’t gotten that far in Sonic 2 in quite a while, so I probably have warped memories of that level. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/23 "2009-10-31T09:43:47Z")
I started playing Quest for Glory I VGA when I was 13. Now English is not my first language, and QFG was my first adventure game, so I got stuck after I did all the exploration parts in the game. At that time I do not have Internet access till I was 16. At that time my game disc was spoiled (you know, the 5.4" floppy) and I have lost the game (I installed it on a 286. It crashed). Fast forward to when Quest for Glory V Dragon Fire was about to come out. At that time I was about 20. This is when Sierra released the Quest for Glory Anthology. Cool, I finally get to finish that game! And this time I have access to the almighty GameFAQ! :d Only when I check the walkthrough did I find out that I was so cloooose to figure it out by myself. I was playing a fighter and couldn’t figure out a way to kill the kobold magic user. (It’s strange but I manage to complete QFG 3 and QFG 4 without external help but was stuck forever on QFG 1. Though I was older when I try the latter games). ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/24 "2009-10-31T17:01:48Z")
> [@Commander\_Keen](#): > > I bought Final Fantasy 7 right after it came out in the US, and before too long made it to the Northern Crater (last area of the game, where you fight Sephiroth). But my friend was playing it at the time too, and I was at his house watching him play when he ended up beating the game. So I watched the ending there and for some reason never finished it myself. I think I still have the save game on a PS1 memory card somewhere, so maybe one of these days I’ll dig it out and give it a shot… I had almost the same thing happen to me. I made it to the final dungeon and was taking a break when a friend wanted to borrow it from me. I decided to let him and he ended up keeping it for months. I had seen another friend beat it so I wasn’t really stoked about seeing the ending. I think it was a couple of years later before I picked it back up, started a new game (despite still having the old one), beat Emerald and Ruby Weapon, and then beat the crap out of Sephiroth. I still have that game saved to this day. I still have saves from Final Fantasy VI and Ys Book I & II on my PS2 and TG-16 from years ago that I swear some day I’m going to go back and beat. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/25 "2009-11-01T20:42:47Z")
Back in college, I made a stupid mistake\* in Pokemon: Fire Red and promptly realized that it had been three hours since I had saved. I was so pissed that it was at least six months before I picked up the cartridge again (and then played from my save to the end.) More recently, on Halloween of last year, I started playing Silent Hill 2. After playing for four or so hours, I stopped and went to bed. For reasons I can’t figure out, I only picked the game up again about a week ago and ended up beating it exactly one year after I started. (This may not count as I restarted from the beginning and played those four hours over, just to make sure it was all fresh in my memory.) \*If you must know, I accidentally stopped my Fearow, one of my main team, from learing Drill Peck, one of its best attacks. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/26 "2009-11-01T22:27:49Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > I’ve got a slow game of Empire:Total War going that I was sure was sooooo old, but I checked and its only been two months. Hell, I’ve got a game of Rome Total War that over 3 years old and I still haven’t finished it. I haven’t even gotten to the civil war yet. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/27 "2009-11-01T22:43:31Z")
A short list: -Star Wars: Empire at War -Seiken Densetsu 3(AKA Secret of Mana 2). -Albion -Company of Heros(The fact the game has an annoying tendency to crash and turn my computer off it making it difficult to finish). -Age of Empires 1 -Spore(if one can finish it. I got to the galatic stage and quit). -Rome:Total War. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/28 "2009-11-03T00:09:59Z")
It took some eight years since I was first stumped by the Haughty Door in the Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy until someone mentioned the tiny secret I had missed. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679/29 "2009-11-06T23:12:29Z")
Ultima 4 Quest of the Avatar for the NES. I got the game in 1990, came THIS close to beating it in 1991 (I was in the final dungeon, my house suffered a power outage and I suffered an erased battery when the power came back). Finally in 2000, 10 years later, I played through the game (on an emulator this time) and beat it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-longest-time-between-starting-a-game-and-finishing-it/514679.md?page=1)