# Video Games that kept you up all night! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 10, 2002, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259 "2002-08-10T07:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/61 "2003-01-07T05:04:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Green Bean \* > \*\*Nethack. > > Zoinks, I’m tempted to start it up right now. Squidwina the Valkyrie, here I come… \*\* Sigh, NetHack the insomnia killer. I still haven’t beaten it after all these years (and I used to have a copy of NetHack 1.0.0!) I’ve just spent the last two hours on Civ III. Man, this is killing the time I’m supposed to be spending on revising my dissertation. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/62 "2003-01-07T06:01:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > About _Diablo_ – so many people seem to like this. It bores me to tears-- (I’ve only gotten past a couple of “quests” though-- does it get better? I’m I playing it wrong?) It’s installed right now, but it just seems like a lot of “click everything then moves, then go back to town and get healed.” Sadly (and I learned this one the hard way), no, it doesn’t get better. Certainly no different. I know this game was very popular, but if you don’t like it now, you won’t like it after 10 or 12 more levels that are essentially the same. As for games that kept me up - _Escape Velocity_ (the original) for nearly every hour of the day for four days straight one winter break. I also remember a game on the Mac, I think it was called _cconq_, though I may be confusing it with _xconq_. Doesn’t matter, I’ve played them both until the light came through the blinds. _System Shock_ (haven’t played the second one yet), _Command & Conquer_, _Wizardry Gold_ (aka Wizardry 8 I think), and _Red Storm Rising_ kept me up close to all night. And several Infocom games, especially _Zork_ (1,2,3) and _The Lurking Horror_ kept me awake at nights thinking about them, even if I wasn’t playing them. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/63 "2003-01-07T06:39:41Z")
Thanks, **panamajack**. I wasn’t sure if I just hadn’t got to the part that grabbed everyone yet. I guess it’s just not my thing. You’ve saved me a lot of clicking, and a bit of disappointment. Talking of games that kept you up when you weren’t playing them, I think that I solved a third of the puzzles in _The Seventh Guest_ in bed, while trying to get to sleep. Somehow they got easier when you removed the graphic interface and just thought of them as pure puzzle. ---
**Author:** ![Joesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a5b964/32.png) [@Joesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joesus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/64 "2003-01-07T07:23:04Z")
**Alphagene** The answer was of course to clog the sink with toilet paper, turn on the faucet to create a small flood. Then press the call button. When the stewardess heads to the bathroom, you pop the egg in the micro… i should have stopped long ago, but man i used to love that game. Where else could you smack a two-headed squirrel with a loaf of stale bread? ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/65 "2003-01-07T07:46:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\*On the Amiga: > > Fairie Tale Adventure [snip]…they don’t make 'em like that any more. > \*\* Ah, the village of Tambry. I remember it well. And how you could tell when enemies were near because the floppy disk would whir. Why, I’ll bet I could even fire up the old Amiga 1000 right now and it would still work. I never had the heart to throw it away. I’ll never have that kind of free time on my hands again, though. Hey, **Fenris** , have you tried _Morrowind_? ---
**Author:** ![Vanyel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@Vanyel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vanyel)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/66 "2003-01-07T07:48:05Z")
All the _Final Fantasy_ games, Xenogears (until disc 2 refused to load, and now my memory card isn’t working right, so I’ll have to start over at the beginning), I’ve actually nodded off while playing these games, and usually decaide that that means I should go to bed :o 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/67 "2003-01-07T08:25:07Z")
I’ve actually spent an entire 20-hour session playing _SimCity 3000_. Yikes! And then there was the time I played all the way through _Diablo_ in one night; that had me up until 4 AM at least. More recently, it’s been _Morrowind_ and _Suikoden III_. But there are plenty of others that I’ve lost at least one night’s worth of sleep to. Every time a _Sims_ expansion pack gets released, I lose at least one night (and then don’t touch the game again for a few months). Maybe I should try a different hobby… ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/68 "2003-01-07T08:41:30Z")
Morrowind! Oh christ… I took a week off work to play that game, loved every minute of it. 20 Hour days for seven days, easy. CivII. No interest in 3 from what I’ve heard about it. 2 is fine for me. NES: Blaster Master, Final Fantasy 1, 2, 3—especially 3. SNES: Super Metroid. PS1: Castlevania SOTN. Silent Hill (though sometimes not by choice). RE 2. GC: Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros Melee. XBox: BtVS, Morrowind, Silent Hill 2 PS2: FFX Finally, the game that has consumed the most of my time, Dune2000. ---
**Author:** ![High\_Priestess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ee7513/32.png) [@High\_Priestess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/High_Priestess)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/69 "2003-01-07T09:10:38Z")
Strangely enough, though I love and adore RPGs, the only one I really stayed up nights for was FFX because it was more like watching an absolutely stunningly gorgeous CG movie that I had a part in controlling. Rather… survival horror games keep me up all night. Not from fear, mind you, the only game of this genre that’s managed to creep me out was Silent Hill; but I think the gameplay and puzzles keep me glued. Oh, and Counter-strike. ;p ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/70 "2003-01-07T12:10:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jpeg Jones \* > **I’ll never have that kind of free time on my hands again, though.** Heh. I feel _exactly_ the same way! Hey, **Fenris** , have you tried _Morrowind_? \*\* [/QUOTE] Yup! Though I got bored with the fact that A) My destiny as the grand savior/hero reborn seems to be to run menial errands for lazy morons and B) the lazy morons always want something on the opposite side of the island. Luckily there’s a mod for a teleport ring and a mod that makes the Boots of Blinding speed useful. No more plodding across the landscape for me! 😃 Fenris ---
**Author:** ![buckgully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb9ed0/32.png) [@buckgully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buckgully)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/71 "2003-01-07T18:13:37Z")
Bolo on the mac. It’s this amazingly simple top-down tank game with a focus on network multiplayer. I can think of several times when we’d sit down for a game around 7 pm and wind up playing well past sunrise. Usually what would happen was the island we’d fight on would take so much damage that there wouldn’t be any dry land left to build on. Marathon replaced Bolo as our computers got more powerful. We’d frequently have games that lasted all night. Oh, and Lazerblast for the Atari 2600, but not because it was a good game. It was so mind-numbingly easy that we decided one afternoon to flip the score. However, 9 hours into our lazerblast marathon, we realized that every time thought we were going to flip it it just added on another digit, and that every time it added a digit it was going to take that much longer to flip it, and we wisely decided that we didn’t want to play for 90+ hours and stopped. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/72 "2003-01-07T20:09:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SolGrundy \* > \*\* > More recently, it’s been _Morrowind_ and _Suikoden III_. But there are plenty of others that I’ve lost at least one night’s worth of sleep to. Every time a _Sims_ expansion pack gets released, I lose at least one night (and then don’t touch the game again for a few months). > > Maybe I should try a different hobby… \*\* _Suikoden III_ kept me up just last night. I’ve completed Hugo’s Chapter 1 and Geddoe’s Chapter 1 and right now I’m playing Thomas. I still have no idea why Chris has been acting like a jerk and I really want to know. But I’m having a grand old time getting people into the castle. Almost 15 hours and I still haven’t finished Chapter 1. Don’t these people know that _The Sims_ is coming out on PS2 next week? ---
**Author:** ![Edwardina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/73 "2003-01-07T21:09:25Z")
Zelda: Ocarina of Time Diablo and Diablo II Civilization I and II (haven’t played III yet) Sam and Max Outpost Zork (a graphics-based version, can’t remember the subtitle) Alpha Centauri There’s probably more. Unfortunately, it seems that if I find a game worth playing at all, I’ll probably be up all night with it at least once. I have poor impulse control. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/74 "2003-01-07T22:39:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smoothio \* > \*\*… It was then that we ralized why we didnt have girlfreinds. \*\* And yet you waited 2 1/2 years to post here for the first time 🙂 As for keeping me up, Dungeons of Daggorath and P51 Mustang on the CoCo 2, Doom and Soldier of Fortune on PC, and Halo on the XBox. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/75 "2003-01-08T04:52:27Z")
I have too many games… so I’ve been up for a week. Now I’m playing Metroid Prime, Metroid Fusion, Zelda: A Link to the Past on GBA. I started to play Eternal Darkness again. I want to beat that poop 3 times so I can see the REAL finale. It’s a tad diff each of the 3 times. I pre ordered Zelda on GC. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/76 "2003-01-08T04:52:27Z")
I have too many games… so I’ve been up for a week. Now I’m playing Metroid Prime, Metroid Fusion, Zelda: A Link to the Past on GBA. I started to play Eternal Darkness again. I want to beat that poop 3 times so I can see the REAL finale. It’s a tad diff each of the 3 times. I pre ordered Zelda on GC. ---
**Author:** ![Jurhael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/77 "2003-01-08T05:26:35Z")
SolGrundy: “More recently, it’s been Morrowind and Suikoden III.” Suikoden 3 has kept me up late, but not all night. I’d stay up until around 4AM. Trion: Wait awhile. 😃 As for me, I’ve been at the Final Battle for quite awhile. I just haven’t played in a couple weeks. It’s a habit that I tend to have in RPGs when at a Last Battle. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/78 "2003-01-08T08:20:50Z")
any of the games in the Heroes of Might & Magic and the Civilization games have kept me up to the point where I didn’t even notice it was 7AM already until it was WAAAYY too late. ---
**Author:** ![Firebat023](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a4c791/32.png) [@Firebat023](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Firebat023)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/79 "2003-01-08T13:32:11Z")
Not counting all-nighter lan parties: Deus Ex Thief And FF6 and 7. Now…regarding thief: I have never, ever, played a game that scared me as much as this one did. Especially when I’m up late at night, no sleep, wired on chai and coffee, crouching behind a pillar in the haunted cathedral, thinking I see a Hammerite…and watching him turn around and see nothing but a grinning skull where his face is supposed to be. No other game has ever been that scary to me. Not Thief 2, not Half Life, not Doom. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259/80 "2003-01-08T13:33:04Z")
Myst (the original. I never really played the other 2) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/video-games-that-kept-you-up-all-night/123259.md?page=3)