Nostalgic video games!

[Ridecks]

I am an old gamer now...I am 25 years old. Time has gone by rather fast!!! Let's discuss some of the most nostalgic video games. I started playing video games back on 1993, my cousin had a SNES and I remember we'd play for hours on end, a little later my parents bought me my very own SNES and I remember opening it and Killer Instinct came bundled with it.

Just hearing the song causes me to go back to those days and relive them for a little while...what about you?

[T-6000]

Heh, in a couple of weeks I'll be 32. Looking back at when I first became a PC Gamer (back at 1995) and seeing where I am now sure puts things in perspective. And it makes me feel......old. Ever since I was 10 I started playing video games (my first video game was an SNES) but I think my true calling has always been the PC.

I remember my first PC game was the first Descent. Back at 1995, mom had gotten an IBM aptiva (Pentium 100, 8 Megabytes of memory, and 1 gig harddrive) that came with some game demos. Most didn't interest me, except for one and that was the demo for Descent. My brother and I went through that demo alone for months before we begged our parents to order the game as a Christmas gift. A pity that the game was so much in demand that Interplay actually ran out of stock and had to back order the damn thing. So we ended up getting our copy in the middle of January 1996. The following year we had heard of Descent 2 (or rather saw TV ads of the game) and we had our parents get that for Christmas. Ironically, we were so infatuated with the Descent series that we practially overlooked other game franchises such as the Doom series, Heretic, both Hexen games, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior. We played through those other games around 1998 but our first (and most nostalgic) franchise was the Descent games. Or rather, the first 2.

Descent 3 never grabbed be. The story was uninteresting, the level designs were bland, and the game overall had more of a goofy feeling than a dark and serious feel to it. The missile that generated a temporary black hole was sure awesome, though! All in all, I wouldn't really mind seeing another Descent game but unfortunately the Descent IP sort of....well.....noone knows who really owns the Descent IP. And it also doesn't seem like anyone is interested in doing anything with the IP.

Last year someone was working on a UDK project that would be a remake of the original Descent. But I haven't heard anything about it lately.

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Ridecks

I am an old gamer now...I am 25 years old. Time has gone by rather fast!!! Let's discuss some of the most nostalgic video games. I started playing video games back on 1993, my cousin had a SNES and I remember we'd play for hours on end, a little later my parents bought me my very own SNES and I remember opening it and Killer Instinct came bundled with it.

Just hearing the song causes me to go back to those days and relive them for a little while...what about you?

You are what? I'm in my early 30s and I don't even consider myself an old gamer. You ever played Atari's pacman?
What's SNES? You ever played anything on 8-bit consoles?

Well, one of the longest nostalgic games I ever played was Sonic 1 on the first Sega, with 40x3 stages. It takes like 5 hours of straight game play to complete the game with 3 lives (excluding the 1-ups you can get in-game) and you can't save. I can remember dying a million times in the labyrinth stage due to a lack of air

(And yes, I know about the code for skipping stages)

One thing I like about the old nostalgic games is the 'secrets' you need to uncover to conquer a supposedly 'Kuso' game (=crappy game in which you die easily). And due to the lack of internet access last time, you need to depend on those 'urban rumors' from friends and through the grapevine.

[kuroishinigami]

Never played Atari, but I've played Famicom, mostly Mario and Duck Hunt I still remember the damn dog laughing at me

[kenjiharima]

Simpsons Arcade. Remembered 1990's beat the game with Homer alone in the last stage and pretty much every beat 'em games are nostalgic to me.

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by larethian

You are what? I'm in my early 30s and I don't even consider myself an old gamer.

Yeah. If one becomes an old gamer at the age of 25, then many of us here are probably ancient gamers by default.

As for feeling nostalgic about games, none come closer than the old atari games. Asteroids being among the firsts I tried (it came with the console).

[synaesthetic]

My first real gaming memories are from my first real computer, the Amiga 500.

Ah, all those awesome old Gold Box AD&D games... I spent so many hours playing them.

Also Marble Madness!

[kenjiharima]

80's gamers are in their 30's like me

[larethian]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

My first real gaming memories are from my first real computer, the Amiga 500.

Ah, all those awesome old Gold Box AD&D games... I spent so many hours playing them.

Also Marble Madness!

Those were fun! Dragonlance series: Death Knights of Krynn, anyone? It also has some 'kuso' rooms when my entire party can get wiped out by Death Knights because of their aura of fear
I still have them, in fact, last time I checked some years ago, they run well in DosBox

[Joyce_Steele]

I remember when I was 5 I used to play Buzzy Airport Adventure, which is more like an interactive picture dictionary than a game but it was fun even in today's standards. It was already old back then, Windows 98 was in its end of its life cycle.

After that I played Final Fantasy 7 and 8 in my PS1 though my all-time favorite is actually 9. Why not Nintendo? In Southeast Asia the exposure to Nintendo games are rather limited except for famicom clones Polystation and such. It only got mainstream here after the introduction of Wii, which is rather late for the region.

[Hemisphere]

Lufia 2. Good old Lufia 2.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Ultima...Lolz. First ever RPG I played.

[Edge Meltdown]

25 y/o is not that old imo for a gamer. I'd say we're just getting started.

Captain Commando... First coop beat-up arcade I ever played and probably my favorite.
Golden Axe. Favorite console game.
FF-VI through X. Favorite RPG of all time.

[Endless Soul]

As a pre-teen/young teenager growing up in the halcyon days of the early 80s, my friends and I would ride over to The Starcruiser Arcade on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena. Even the entrance to the place was awesome. If any of you have ridden Space Mountain at Disneyland, the entrance to the arcade looked exactly like that. The maze-like corridor was decorated pipes and panels to look like the inside of a spaceship, complete with "windows" looking out into a star field with another spaceship floating nearby.

Once you got into the main game room, the only lights were the black lights which lit up glow-in-the-dark planets in various places, and stars on the ceiling. The only other lighting came from the hundreds of games themselves. These were the days when Pac-Man, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Star Castle, Missile Command, Centipede, etc. ruled the game floors.

The Starcruiser was very atmospheric and really immersed you. Even though I had an Atari 2600 and Intellivision at home, so many hours of my youth and allowance money were spent there. I've been to many other arcades, but none of them come even close to the atmosphere and the feel of escapism that The Starcruiser brought.

Sadly, The Starcruiser Arcade closed in the mid 80s. The last time I saw the location it was a copy/print shop. The place still haunts my dreams.

Endless "Arcadist" Soul

[Ledgem]

I recently looked into emulation to play some of the old NES, SNES, and Gameboy games from my childhood. Being able to do that is pretty amazing. The funny thing about it is that I recognize so many titles that I had read about in Nintendo Power and other gaming magazines or that I saw in video game stores; many of these were games that I never had the chance to play but wanted to so badly. I could play them now, but these days all that I'm interested in is playing what I played when I was younger. I don't think I could have foreseen this outcome as a child

[Snuffle]

Originally Posted by larethian

You are what? I'm in my early 30s and I don't even consider myself an old gamer. You ever played Atari's pacman?
What's SNES? You ever played anything on 8-bit consoles?

One thing I like about the old nostalgic games is the 'secrets' you need to uncover to conquer a supposedly 'Kuso' game (=crappy game in which you die easily). And due to the lack of internet access last time, you need to depend on those 'urban rumors' from friends and through the grapevine.

Lol at all the comments regarding being an old gamer. It's true though, mid 20's is not considered old (or too old) to be a gamer.

I remember back then I called up a "game secrets hotline" (don't remember what it was called) to find out where the red ring was in the NES Zelda game.

Me: Hi, I would like to know where the red ring in Zelda is.
Operator: In the final dungeon
Me: Yes I know that, but where in the final dungeon?
Operator: .......
Me: Okay never mind, bye!

I found it funny that the guy didn't know, but eventually I found it after a lot of exploring. I still remember to this day that it's at the top-right corner of the map in a hidden room, such fun memories. True story btw.

[Infinite Zenith]

Did someone say nostalgia? I have Tetris and Super Mario Land for the original GameBoy. Yes, the old monochrome screen one powered by AA batteries. I've been playing those games since I could stand, and once asked my relatives if "Bulletproof Software" meant I'd be able to shoot the cartridge and have the game come out unscathed...good times

[larethian]

Originally Posted by Edge Meltdown

25 y/o is not that old imo for a gamer. I'd say we're just getting started.

Captain Commando... First coop beat-up arcade I ever played and probably my favorite.
Golden Axe. Favorite console game.
FF-VI through X. Favorite RPG of all time.

Mmm, Captain Commando. Could only solo it with Mack using 1 token. Almost managed it with Baby once though. And you can play Golden Axe on iPhone now


Speaking of cartridges, I can remember the days of blowing into them whenever the game doesn't boot

[kuroishinigami]

Blowing is fir super famicom/Snes wasn't it? I remembered doing that too to my dragon ball game

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by larethian

Speaking of cartridges, I can remember the days of blowing into them whenever the game doesn't boot

Originally Posted by kuroishinigami

Blowing is fir super famicom/Snes wasn't it? I remembered doing that too to my dragon ball game

That was actually known as "The Nintendo Blowjob", one of those things that most NES owners did with their games back then.