MFGT! - (OVER)

[Psybin]

   It was September of 1999 when I started EverQuest (EQ) for the first time. It was a very strange and emotionally charged time in my life. Shortly after finishing high school I had married my high school sweetheart who was a French foreign exchange student. I was just over 19 and in WAY over my head and my life was falling apart. I was broke with virtually no education, (allegedly) enjoyed stuff that should be legal too much, and married to a passionate yet insane foreign female. The house of cards was crumbling fast and when I was introduced to EQ it was a welcome escape from reality.
   By the time the second expansion, Kunark, was released, we had called it quits and she moved back to France and I moved back home to my Dad's house. To a young shortsighted idiot who forgets there are literally 150 million females in the United States, I was devastated, depressed is an understatement. But alas, I had a lucrative career at a Mitsubishi dealership as a parts attendant (laugh) and I had EQ to go home to. By the time Scars of Velious came out I had moved on to being an internet sales consultant and IT personnel for a low rent Porsche parts/internet sales/restoration place. More escape into EQ and being more or less a loser. Six to eight months later I quit over pay issues and proceeded to spend the next six months living off my savings and my dad's charity. However I look back on this time as one of the best times of my life.    
   I would wake up at 630 am nearly every weekday to a booty call from a beautiful, although not exactly single, female former co-worker. When she left for work I'd go to the gym before my EQ friends logged in, and then literally spend the rest of the day getting blitzed and/or tripping (allegedly, maybe I just made that up for spicy details) and playing EQ. I started a Druid on Rallos Zek (RZ) as stated above in September of 1999. A friend from work told me about the game, got me on the right server, and then escorted me from Faydwer to Antonica at level one to start my leveling toon in the Qeynos area. A game has never felt so big or so real as EQ did in those days. As I leveled up through the ranks of power I started meeting cool people from all over the world. Like most games when you reach the level cap the game really started. And when there is a player vs player (PVP) aspect, there is another whole level of play experience. I was never a player killer (PK) who randomly ganked people. I was in a reputable guild who did end game content. But, there was always strife and drama and guild wars were a regular thing. Back then (level cap 60) druids were a powerful PVP force with the ability to heal, debuff, fast cast nukes, and port all over the world. I would spend all day with a group of killers porting around looking for enemies of the guild and steamrolling mutha fuggas.  Weird as it is, it was exactly what I was doing when 9/11 hit. I was so into the PVP aspect I even spent an entire 15 hour shift holding my own camping jboots just to exploit the code glitch where the instant cast item spells would force your spell gems to immediately refresh allowing you to cast direct damage spells that much faster (druids didn’t need jboots, we have SOW, son!). No game has been as much fun as EQ was back then. I often miss those days, those lost six months of debauchery.
   When Planes of Power dropped I decided I needed to move and joined up with the Gubment, went through various training, moved a few times, but always thought about the days in EQ. in 2011 after I was basically done with all that nonsense I received an email from Sony about a new expansion. I called customer service with my CD numbers and was able to get my account unlocked. With no lack of trepidation I logged in for the first time in almost nine years. My druid was as I left him, in Surefall Glade, level 60 and fully decked in Velious raid gear (level cap was now 90). RZ was no more, the three PVP servers were now combined into just Zek. They kept RZ rules though, and you could only PVP within a four levels up or down. I spent the next few months getting spun up, making new friends, and leveling up (levels and alternate experience points). Once I got in range of the big cats on the server I transferred to Povar (non PVP server), leaving some good friends behind, but wanting to raid again. Plus PVP had become so imbalanced only high damage per second (DPS) classes could truly PVP anymore, that part of EQ was unfortunately dead.
   I made more friends on Povar, ended up getting into a guild that was in the top three. I raided through three expansion packs, ended up being class leader, and genuinely having a good time. I actually made it number one on the server for HP and Mana a couple times. Unfortunately I was just spending too much time on the game and some of the class balancing aspects and poorly coded mercenaries (you could hire a NPC to either tank, heal or DPS) were just wearing me down. I had two raid geared toons, druid and bard, and I could just barely box some named mobs, while other classes could solo them (pet classes). Merc tanks would drop like paper, and healer mercs were just plain retarded. Raiding was fun, getting the first kill on the server multiple times was exhilarating. 60 people all working in unison to accomplish a goal is something I'll probably never experience to that degree in that kind of timeframe ever again.  It was fun, it really was, and I often think about it and how much I'd like to go back, but I have to be busy being an adult. I guess. Just writing this makes me sad/nostalgic.

Edit: Added 2002 screenshot.



And a 2014 Screenshot




And others if you are bored.

More

I spent a lot of time camping old raid mobs, a few screens of those, plus new raid mobs, plus just randomness. I have over 1,000 screenshots from back then and today.


First crit in PVP when they released alternate experience points and criticals.

[Badwrench]

Woah, what a good giveaway topic!  I have been playing video games for most of my life and have way too many good memories to count. 

One of my favorites has to have been my birthday when I was 10.  I had a few of my best friends over for a sleepover and to hang out and play Super Mario Bros (this was 1987 btw).  Ikari Warriors had just come out and my parents surprised me with it that night.  I was so stoked!  We started playing around 8pm and had an awesome time.  We would take turns using the ABBA cheat code to continue on and had a blast trying to get each other stuck behind walls and buildings on the re-spawn.  We got so into it, that the next thing we knew, my mom was knocking on the door to see if we wanted breakfast.  That was my first official all-nighter and would lead to many more. 

Oh man, check out those sweet graphics! 

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="

frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

F-it,  youtube links aren't working for me 

[DanielT]

First when I saw this I thought, damn what story could I tell, I don't play games then I remembered, I did use to game ages ago, really ages ago, and it's a good story too.
It was in 1989, December 22 in the morning. Back then Romania was a communist country ruled by a totalitarian regime. We didn't had computers other than the ones smuggled in the country by foreign students. I had a neighbor who was a math teacher and one of her students brought her a Spectrum Z80, she let me play at that thing for hours.
I remember that morning on December 22, I was on winter holiday and went to her place to play on the Z80, after almost one hour of wait to load the game off a cassette I was ready to go. I was listening to the radio (no TV during the day, we had 2 hours of TV during the evening and that was only propaganda stuff ...). Anyway, the game was loaded I started to play, I was so happy and ready to spend hours on the computer when around 10:00AM on the radio I started to hear people yelling, I thought it was just another radio play about the communist revolution so I ignored it, had better things to do    After a few minutes my parents rushed in to take me home, they told me that the dictator fled and the Revolution started, took me some time to realize what just happened, but the Revolution of December 1989 just started.

How ofter a gaming session is interrupted by a real revolution ) Thought it would be something nice to share 

I would love a BS bro cap, It would be a nice gift for my 35th birthday on April 22 (what were the odds ) )

[rowdy]

Thank you for doing the giveaway, Bro

I don't have any really special gaming memory in particular, as I approach all games equally (once I determine that I like the game).  But there are a few moments that I seem to recollect over others.

I was at a LAN parts about a decade ago, and was first introduced to Red Faction.  I had never seen it before, but seemed to master it immediately and won every game, even against those who had been playing it for months.  I didn't do so well at the other games, as some guys had practiced them for hours, but I was really pleased to have excelled at something that evening.

At the same LAN party we played Unreal Tournament, and this one map had a crane in it which I climbed and basically, with my sniper rifle, shot anyone who got near the top of the building.  We were all in the one room, and I could hear everyone behind me wondering where the sniper was, and who it was.  IIRC no-one found me, but eventually I ran out of ammo and had to climb down.  I never did manage to get back up to that crane.

Then the time I was playing Need for Speed Underground and it was one of the races near the end of the campaign.  I had played it dozens of times and couldn't get it right, going one corner a bit too slow, touching a wall somewhere else, brushing against another car, just for a moment.  At that stage of the game any slightly mishap would mean loss of a closely led first place, and loss of the game, resulting in lack of progression.  For no particular reason (i.e. it was just another run of that track) I raced and got every corner perfectly, gear changes faultlessly, acceleration, deceleration perfect, and won!  It just felt so good getting each stage of the race done just right.

The second time I played the original Half-Life, it felt so sweet at the beginning of the game, before the resonance cascade, where all the scientists are welcoming you to the facility, and it just felt like another day at work at a scientific facility where I was recognised and respected.

Unreal II - spoiler-protected in case someone hasn't played through it and doesn't know what happens near the end ...

More

In Unreal II, right near the end when my ship was blown up and I got to listen to the messages recorded by the various crew members, I think a tear came to my eye.  I don't often get emotional during video games, but that one did raise a tear.  Maybe because the ship seems so much like home, with its motley crew and private spaces, and the back story that gradually becomes clear as the missions progress.

And in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, when you get past the front of the facility and go down the spiral staircase (that is broken at the bottom do you can't climb back up), then go along a short corridor, then turn right and go along a long corridor, all the while a voice is intermittently booming out something in Ukrainian, then there is a "U" shaped bit of corridor where the wall at the bottom of the "U" is broken through and you have to pass that way.  I tried and tried and tried, but just couldn't make it.  I had plenty of health, health packs, anti-rad kits, ammunition and so on, but for some reason I just could not get past that point.  There are bandits behind the wall, and either they shot me or I succumbed to radiation.  At least a dozen times I tried before quitting (almost a rage-quit) and leaving the game for a couple of months.  When I went back to try again, I made it through the first time without really trying.  What went wrong the first dozen times?  No idea.  Maybe the RNG gods were against me for some reason.  After that point the game was fairly easy and I experienced two of the different endings.

[clacktalk]

My most profound moment happened recently, and I feel like it has a lot of ties to the community and bonds I have made through Geekhack. I've been brimming with these thoughts for a while but haven't really done much with them until now. What perfect timing :]


Late this March, I was contacted by my ex-clanmate from the good ole Warcraft 3 days that one of our peers passed away. I was shocked for two reasons. First and foremost, someone that I used to talk to and play games with on the regular, who also happens to be younger than I am, died. I mean, he and I weren't close friends, and we used to always get into petty arguments. But I always saw and treated him as a younger brother. That day went by like a blur, a part of me hoping that all of it was a sick, awkward prank. I can't even begin to express how surreal it all seemed. Looking back, I think the bulk of what I felt after hearing the news was emptiness and grief.

Our clan (consisting of ~15 active members, 5-6 who were local, childhood friends) spent a lot of hours together gaming. We used to talk to each other via TeamSpeak for even longer. A lot of our time would be spent sharing what we did that day, talking about whatever caught our attention, or playing trivia. There was no denying that although we were a mixed, dysfunctional bunch, we were closely knit.

And we all drifted apart seven years ago when college/harder coursework began for a handful of us, which brings me to my second shock. My ex-clanmate, who lives in Missouri and has never met with me in person, texts me this news out of the blue after he found out through facebook. We send a handful of texts to each other every year (mostly around each other's birthdays or when one of us is intoxicated), and in 2015 a passing of a friend reopened our channel of communication. I still need to thank him for contacting me so directly.

And I'm glad that I felt how I did to the news. I consider myself fortunate that I still have these bonds with friends that I've loosely kept in touch with. Without video games (and the internet), these people would have been strangers to me. Video games were our means of bonding and building relationships. I feel as if there are a lot of parallels between my old gaming clan and the Geekhack community. And that makes me fortunate twice over; I never thought I'd find another online community so invested in each other. It's another reason why I am grateful for the people I have become close to and excited at the possibility of getting to know the rest of you better.


All my feelings are out, so this is THE END. Thank you Bro for giving me a platform and such sweet motivation to externalize what I've been feeling for a while. I've definitely been neglecting self-reflection these past couple weeks (mostly because there is so much going on), and this was a great way to relax after hiking all day. Good luck, everybody!

[eetro]

Most memorable?

I'd have say Kirby Superstar for me which was back in 2000 or a little earlier perhaps? so I'm not that old yet but it's been a while, heh.

I grew up with two older siblings but there was quite an age gap between me and them so most of the time I was too young to really experience the same phases as they did (but I'd assume it would be pretty hectic for my parents if I did )). Though even now, I'm pretty grateful that they did experience a lot more than I did and they always managed to pass on the really fun stuff to me as I was growing up after them.

It was a pretty ordinary day so nothing really made this unique it was mostly just two teens humouring a simple kid on a Nintendo SNES playing a co-op game in Kirby Superstar. This was the most fondest memory of mine as it was more of the fact they seemed to genuinely enjoy playing together with me as un-coordinated as I probably was in the game. Which probably would have frustrated my older brother the most haha, but it was nice of them to take the time out of their usual routines. I'm sure my memories were mostly one-sided and a little over glorified as I was quite young but I still enjoy thinking back at it and feel really lucky it happened even in that short time.

Sorry if it's not as exciting or as detailed but I thought I'd give it a go.
Thanks for hosting the giveaway anyway

Good luck to the rest.

[hrinfinity]

Thanks for doing this Bro! Loved reading some of these posts so far . I have two stories to tell.

The first one was probably one of my very first experiences with PC gaming. I think I was in the fourth or fifth grade when our school computer lab got upgraded to iMac G3s. The entire class got hooked on this third person shooter called Nanosaur.  I also was super addicted to this game and really wanted to beat it, except I was super awful at it. I needed something to "give me the edge," so I remember going home one day and logging onto GameFAQs for some tips / tricks.

At this point, this is where I discovered the cheats to the game, including an instant win cheat. So I wrote the cheat codes down on a small slip of paper and brought it with me to class the next day. I punched the cheat code in and kicked back while all of the other kids were amazed that I was the first one to beat the game. I didn't dare tell anyone I cheated my way to the ending.

Unfortunately, the next time I was in the computer lab the teacher had told us that we were all banned from playing Nanosaur ever again because students kept cheating to beat the game. To this day I'm not sure if it was cause I carelessly left my cheat sheet at my desk, someone else saw me punch the cheats in, or if someone else had bothered to look up the codes for the game. Either way, it was one of my most memorable gaming moments, even though it's nothing to be too proud of ).


My second story was my very brief encounter with World of Warcraft. This was during my senior year of high school and my friends and I were already burned out on Ragnarok Online. I always thought WoW would be too hardcore for me and I didn't really have any knowledge about the lore, but I had a friend help me get started.

I genuinely had no clue about the classes or races in the game, but my friend told me just to pick whatever I wanted. So I created a Tauren Shaman and I went on my way. Boy, I was totally unprepared for what happened next. I was hooked immediately. Even though I was just doing simple fetch quests, I was really immersed in the environment. I liked how I could choose my own rewards when I completed quests. I really enjoyed how customizable the UI was and spent some time installing add-ons that my friend had recommended. Then I spent a bunch of time researching skill builds and wondering how long it would take to get my first mount.

My third day of playing I almost played for a full 24 hours. I vividly remember turning in a quest and seeing the sun starting to rise in-game. I looked out my bedroom window and also saw the sunrise...It was super startling how easy I lost track of time. I immediately uninstalled the game the next day, knowing that I had to cut it off before it would completely consume my life. To this day, I don't think there has been a game to capture my attention so intensely.

This story actually has a happier ending though! When I was interviewing for my current job, for some reason WoW came up and I had mentioned to the interviewer my brief stint with WoW and my sunrise story. Turns out he was a huge WoW fanatic and his wife and kids played religiously, so we ended up spending the rest of the interview talking about the game (with my very limited knowledge). Who knew that a video game would help me in my professional career

[Belfong]

Cool contest, Bro!

Took me a while to think of a gaming moment that changed my life. It's not easy to recall one that actually affect one's Real Life. There were many awesome gaming moments but how many of these translated to life changing moment?

For me, it has to be Grand Theft Auto 3. GTA3 blew my mind when I played it on the PC for the first time. Not only was it super realistic in simulating a living city, it gave me a new experience of what it was like driving in America. In Malaysia, we drive on the left side and I was disoriented in GTA3. I ended up stealing a car from the passenger side all the time and ended up driving against traffic, getting honked and crashed into incoming cars.

The ultimate test came during one of the side missions - Donkey Does Dallas. In the spirit of the porn film that the mission title was based on, this mission required you to pick up porn magazines that were dropped along a path across 3 suburbs in the city. There is, of course, a time limit that I have to contend with. What's worse was that the vehicle I was given was a very old van which meant that it was harder to steer and balance especially when negotiating corners.  I've spent hours and many, many failed attempts to try out this mission. And most of my failures due to getting to the correct side of the road. Imagine making hard 90 degrees drift ala "Initial D" style, burning and screeching the tyres, and then failed because I crashed into an incoming truck driven by an old man! Grr.. Wtf!! Shake fists! Curses.. #%*%#!?£¥

After weeks of trying this freaking mission, I've mastered it... or so I thought. I was able to do 80% of the length of the mission quite consistently. As I reached that last 80% of the mission, near the Italian and Chinese side of the town, I realized that these goons hated me due my earlier main missions!! And so, whenever I reached that stretch of road, I faced gangsters appearing and gunning my van - the mission failed always due to burning van.

I don't think the designer of GTA3 thought about how the main mission will affect side missions that were attempted late in the game. Most wikis or walkthroughs do not talk about gangsters attacking you during Donkey Does Dallas.

I tried and tried and one day I was successful! OMG! Fist pumping in the air! Adrenaline at its highest! Both hands shaking, rubberdome keyboard filled with sweats from fingers. I did it! I fraking DID IT!!!! That has to be the most satisfying gaming moment in my life!

Since then I was a pro at driving on the different side of the road in video games and you know what? When I was sent by my company to Dallas for two weeks, I was super confident to drive the rented car in real life. No problemo! That was my first trip to USA and I drove to San Antonio during weekend. I even extended my stay, on my own leaves,  for a week, flew to LA and made a road trip from LA to Vegas, back to LA along the Pacific coast road up to San Francisco! No troubles at the road nor was I ever pulled over by the cop in my 3 weeks stay in the USA.

How's that for video game enabling me to drive in real life in USA?

[YMSNoms]

[It Begins]
The year is 2005, WCG is the mainstage for StarCraft Broodwar Pros from across the
world to test their skills and become the Ultimate Region. Day9 has just beaten PtAk
in the Group stages, and was looking to push his now 2-1 into a Ro16 placement after
losing to sEn early on. In the UK this is a reletively new phenomenon and playing games as a professional was
unheard of. There I was all 14 years of me sat in Escape gaming with Britains best
gamers cheering on the next World Champion. XellOs went out early to a heavy sigh
from people watching. Then fell sEn... CocoA was out...  all eyes on the Russian, Can
Androide really take out Legionnaire?" one fan asked.
Legionaire is now down to the 3rd/4th place match, Androide would now face off
against the Korean (Koreans are OP) fOru Of CJ Entus, a Legend.
Androide Would go on the Lose 2-0 to the Korean titan but he showed very good games
playing some very well constructed TvP.  This was my first run in with Starcraft.


[Mid Way]
The WCG 2005 tournament was the last WCG to be televised at Escape gaming. The Gaming
base as they called it was slowly losing its grip as more and more people brought
high end gaming equipment to play at home.

[Korean Resurgence]

After this I played SC:BW on Kli and ICUP ladders attempting to immitate one of those
special pro moments but I was never good enough, I was always beaten by some up and
coming players. I took a break in 2007 to finish my studying...[SIGH]   
Eventually in early 2008 there was Chatter on the aim chat that Nick "Tasteless" Plott would be casting a English Live stream of one of the First GOMTV Invitational.It was settled we all pitched in about 35£(50$) to rent a Cinema screen at a local cinema and the stage was set, 3 days of watching starcraft it was going to be amazing unless the connection would not hold out but it would surely be fine 256kb broadband is lightning quick we though.
The 2nd Febuary arrived and we all met at burger king just down the road from the Cinema to kick the day off.
About 12:30 the games kicked off with sAviOr V Flash, An LG Logo Flashed on screen
before a Star Invitational Promotional Advert we were hyped for the tournament, The intro was in Korean and our friend Tassles was on hand to tell us what was going on, Then the Korean Gom casters appeared on screen and Tasteless took over, [Had to watch the VOD Memories flooded back] The games were intense.
The Group stage was over Flash, Anytime, Much, Jaedong, Iris, Stork, Sea and Bisu had qualified Nada and Boxer has been knocked out and because of this a few people had left.

Elimination day arrived and we watched game after game of Unbelievable[Hyunbeliable] play!
Flash took the tournament 3-2 over stork and I was hooked, there was just something about the game I was not really sure if it was Tastesless' casting or a level of play I could never hope to achieve.


[The Great Lim Yo Hwan]
2010 Was the year I first stepped foot in South Korea, during a conversation with a friend who had moved out there from Berlin a year earlier I was invited to visit.
Korean Air from Heathrow, Prior to this I had spent some time Learning basic Korean in order to be able to do some stuff while I was there.  It was rumored that SlayerSBoxeR would be playing in the SC2 Open S2 GSL tournament so I had to change my flights so I would not miss out seeing the legend that was boxer.
So 750$ later I was staying until the 30th of october just in time to see the first few rounds of Boxer play.

I found the Teamliquid thread where they translated Lim Yo Hwan's Autobiography and read that to prepare for the games.
The atmosphere was crazy with people shouting and showing Signs for Boxer.
This is easily the best memory I have of Starcraft or any gaming event.

[GenKaan]

Most memorable gaming experience must have been the eye opening gaming called Golden Eye for the n64. Wasnt a serious gamer before that, thought that Zelda, Final Fantasty and Pokemon was the **** and that game where made to be fun. WRONG! Games are made to be broken down, the meta stretched out, the best and most viable tactics abused to fruthes corner of the game. In the end no one want to play me, they all wanted to play Smash like ****ing babies
Moved on to Counter-Strike where I really started playing competitively and it's all because of Golden Eye.
Still remeber trying to speed run the game for the 100th time on 007 and all the bitemarks on my main controller.


Will get my first topre keyboard this week (a Realforce 88ub) and would LOOOVE the topre red gamer set since I will get a red Esc with the keyboard!

PS. da **** is people using Placeholder for?

[Lokomotivet]

Cool giveaway Bro! I'll shoot.

I have tons of memorable video game experiences, I'll go with an odd one.
Sorry for my crap English, also sleep deprived to the max (because UT4 and GTA V happened ).

It was the summer of 2009. I had a fever (the only prescription was more cowbell) and a bunch of friends wanted to spend the night at some internet café, they convinced me to join them after an hour of nagging.
We arrived and the place was literally filled to its maximum capacity, don't forget that it was summer so the smell in there was of the finest basement neckbeard and no air conditioner in the world could stop it.

We go to our seats and started playing Left 4 Dead Versus (4vs4) against each other. I spawned as a Tank and started to rip and tear through the enemy team and the last one alive was a female friend playing as Zoey. Everyone was laughing at the situation, I spiced it up a bit by screaming out "GET BACK TO THE KITCHEN B****!" and as I delivered the last punch in her face the power went out at our section, shutting down all of our computers. We all stood there in awe and one of my friends said "You owned her so hard that the power went out", many lols were had.

I took the responsibility to report it to the café staff and as I stood in the queue to the counter there was this cute little redhead girl. Apparently the power also went out at her section so we started to chat about it, one thing lead to another (https://youtu.be/_LBmUwi6mEo) and that's how I met my first girlfriend.

But most importantly me and my friends got moved into the super secret VIP room because there were no other free and working computers for us so we got to enjoy the rest of the night in a well air conditioned room with free cookies (!!!) and without having to be marinated by the thick neckbeard fragrance.
 
I was so close to miss out on that day, I was really balls deep in the fever but life's too short etc.
Moral of story: You can never be too sick for video games, never.

[Sed8op8]

Summer of 94

The first time I met Rob pig pen from Charlie Brown came to mind. I swear I could almost see the squiggly clouds of dirt suspended and trailing in his wake. I was on my way to the bathroom and i noticed a boy I did not know exiting the girls bathroom. Now in my small private catholic school new people stood out like clear unglazed eyes at a 420 rally (had to sneak that in) and the fact he had a slightly used piece of toilet paper hanging out of the back of his unwashed jordache jeans didn't help. 2 years earlier i had experienced the kind of hazing a new kid with parents that drove a ford fiesta and paid no thought to the torture there daughter might experience dressing her in boys hand me downs at a private school for generally wealthy kids would endure. Seeing this shy kid with crap paper hanging out of his pants struck a cord in me and I decided to take him under my wing.
   Little did i know at the time but Rob was going to have a far reaching impact in my life. As time went on and I got to know rob I realized that although his mom loved him she was never home and for 2 kids feeling quite badass with there parents stolen cigarettes spending time at his house with no supervision seemed like the best thing since sour patch kids to me at the time. Not to mention Rob had some pretty cool stuff including a NES and SNES. As I had taken Rob under my wing at school he figured he would repay the favor and he began my tutelage into video games.
 At first I didn't even play I was quite happy to be his sidekick pointing at rooms he missed, chests he forgot to open etc. we started a gaming ritual which to this very day looks kind of the same. Prepare your gaming area back then we would create sheet and pillow forts around us and the TV, stock up on supplies (pixie sticks sour patch kids big league chew etc anything high in sugar usually made the list)and the biggest step was making sure we would be uninterrupted. There was nothing worse to be forced mid battle to vacuum the room. As me and Rob got older and things started changing gaming kept us close. We both went through some pretty serious trials and tribulations but we made time to game with each other and that helped us through it.
 One of my favorite memories of all time was the first resident evil on play station. It had just come out and we had no clue what we had gotten ourselves into(I don't know about you guys but being young when i first played that game I found it to be pretty freaking scary) it was about 9pm and dark and we finally had the house to ourselves. We had prepared our gaming area..lights off except for the lava lamp going in the corner fan  in the window because It was one of those summer nights where even the absence of the sun does little to affect the heat. The air was thick with it.
 I remember watching the intro of the game where the guys running to the mansion being chased by something and I thought to myself holy shiiiit this is going to be awesome. We started playing and I remember half the terror was trying to get away from the zombies with those horrible dam controls it added an urgency to the game that would be hard to reproduce now. One of the things that sticks out the most is that hallway when the zombie dogs jump through the windows and catch you completely by surprise. I'm not 100% sure but I think I might have piddled myself. We didn't beat the game that night but its a fond memory of mine that I will never forget.
 17 years later me and Rob unfortunately don't talk as much as we used to but that bond we built playing video games is still going strong. We have the type of friendship no matter how long its been we can pick up it seems in the exact place we left off. Over the years I have played everything from racing games to FPS but still nothing can beat those nostalgic RPG years rendered in 8 and 16 bit in my memory forever.

Sorry about the grammar and mechanics guys as my computer is down and I don't have my tablet so I had to use my phone. Good luck everyone and I am really enjoying everyone's stories.

Editing: to try and add paragraphs. And title derp.changed name to pig pen

[Blackehart]

*cries*
*mumbles* stoopid topre people
*grumbles*

[jerue]

I would like to sit here and type out a post about how I don't think video games have influenced my life. But the more I think about it, I can't escape the fact they have...

Sure, there have been significant games/series I've played the absolute crap out of; Need for Speed and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater come to mind. But they're nothing in comparison to these four games.

Guitar Hero: I got into Guitar Hero around the time GH2 came out. The first time I ever played was at a Walmart with a ghetto demo setup (just a PS2 thrown in with some guitar controllers and a LCD TV). Tom Sawyer...very first song ever played. It all went up hill from there. I convinced my younger brother to ask for a Playstation 2 and Guitar Hero 2 bundle for his birthday, since I asked for it last Christmas and never got it. I played the bejeezus out of this game and got pretty good. I would have Guitar Hero get-togethers and I would always play with my friends. My love for Guitar Hero became bad enough that other people were convinced into purchasing their own versions. Eventually I got good enough and discovered a lovely forum called Scorehero. It's the most I've ever been active on a forum, I've almost hit 4K posts there. It was (is) a fantastic community of like-minded people (kind of like Geekhack!). I always wanted to meet people from there IRL, but being young and all hindered that significantly. How times change...

Dance Dance Revolution: This is arguably the most influential game I've ever played because it actually affected my health. I discovered DDR right around when I discovered Guitar Hero (2004-2005 ish) and got really into it after playing non-stop when I went on vacation. It was the summer of my freshman year, and I played enough DDR to drop over 30lbs in just a couple of months. I also got to meet more people in the DDR community...learning all of the traditions of DDR folk and whatnot. Unfortunately DDR culture is mostly dead since arcades themselves have stopped supporting this game. Arcades are kind of alive and well, but everyone wants mobile gaming these days..

Rock Band: Similar to Guitar Hero, but by the time I got into RB I was well versed with Guitar Hero. My favorite part of RB was drumming. I annoyed the living daylight out of everyone in my house, and even my downstairs neighbors when I had drums my first semester of college. Rock Band is also important because I got to actually play with people online, and start bands and whatnot (through ScoreHero). Rock Band has helped me discover a lot of new music - now that's a tool that's simply invaluable. I poured a lot of money into this game...I don't play it anymore (maybe a couple of times a year if I'm lucky), but in the grand scheme of things, it was worth it.

Mario Kart: Specifically Mario Kart Double Dash and 8. Starting with Double Dash, I did manage to bring a Gamecube with me to college. Best decision ever. Being a somewhat shy person living in a dorm, Mario Kart was a fantastic way to meet people. I vividly remember racing in Baby Park completely hammered and everyone in the room just going bezerk whenever they lost or won by .1 seconds. I've received quite a few noise complaints, but it's all worth it as I've made quite a few good friends from events like this. Mario Kart 8 is similar...bringing people together. Pro tip: Most of the dates I've like Mario Kart. If they don't...get a new date! But enough of that...the real fun is in Mario Kart 8 BEERIO KART! I've started holding events every Friday/Saturday. Sure, after 8-12 courses in 20-30 minutes, you're done, but almost everyone is in agreements that we can just watch Netflix or do other stupid stuff. True bonding.

TL;DR: Met lots of people through video games, whether its making friends IRL or on awesome forums. I definitely would not be the same person if it weren't for video games.

Side Note: For those of you reading this on 4/20 and own Skate 3, make sure you download the Danny Way Hawaiian Dream DLC and do nothing else but go down the snake run and do flips. 

Thanks for this giveaway, Bro! Hoping you enjoy this post and I can get my first bros ever! 

[redbanshee]

My most memorable gaming experience: 1995 I was at the local mall in the arcade, this was a small arcade but still had some pretty cool cabinets to play on, including Mortal Kombat 3 that had just came out. There was a big crowd around the MK3 cabinet and this short asian kid around my age was whipping everyone's ass with Cyrax (Cyrax was a new char in MK3). I was watching for about 20 min and it was my turn to try and de-throne this asian kid. I am pretty good at fighting games and defiantly played vs this kid on the MK2 cabinet they had before MK3. We sometimes played for lunch money, and I was feeling saucy, so I put my $5 down on the cabnet and ask if he wants to play for money, he accepts, and puts down his $5. Game on. I am a hardcore Scorpion player, but for some sadistic reason Scorpion was not included in MK3, so I was forced to pick Sub Zero.

Round 1, was a close battle but he took me, Round 2, I get down to 25% life and then make a huge comeback when he walks strait into my freeze move, I take game 2. Game 3, there's probably 10 kids behind us watching this match, a few were the kids I came with and they were cheering me on! Game 3 was a super close battle and was fought very well by both of us, it gets down to the wire and we both have a tiny shred of health left and I take him with a simple jump-in fierce kick. The kid FREAKS the hell out, grabs the money and takes off running. Being teens we obviously gave chase, he was super fast tho and managed to somehow get away from us in the mall (i think he dipped into a store to hide or something). A few days later we see the kid at the arcade again and ask him what the hell, and where is my money? He says: "Im sorry but my family is poor and I could not afford to loose my lunch money, I only get $5 every 2 weeks." Needless to say we all felt bad, but I definitely got that $5 back!

Not life changing event but very memorable for me, man I miss that arcade.

[3Love]

This is the role from my favourite game called "Dungeon Fighter Online". In china, we also called it "DNF" for short. It is not a mouse game like CS. But it requests high quality of keyboard. This is why I start to touch the keyboard world.
I have played it 6 years ago(Only 6 years history in china, but 8 years in Korea).  You can see I used the "爱" for my user ID, which means "love" in Chinese word. At the first two years of the game, I got many winner from different matchs. After that, I totally changed my ID to "3Love".
It is not just a game for me. It costed a lot of time and money in my teenager life. It is my very precious memories.
BTW Ripe Orange Bronin V1 is one of favourite. But I never get chance to own one. I belive I will start collecting IBM keyboard if I can win one.

ps: Online games are more populor than PSP or XBOX. Because PSP and XBOX are much expensive than computer in china. Most of Chinese prefer play online game than video game. They are more suitable for us.

[internet]

I try remember when I bought my first game, it was on one diskette. The game was named generic, something like World Power. A text game, but at the time I really did not understand what it was. There was so little information back then and it was described as this awesome game in the catalog of the store, so I had really high hopes, and had saved my 5 dollars, which for me was kind of an investment.

The games in the store at the time was in small plastic folders with one diskette in each neatly hanged in a grid on the wall. My view was accompanied by that new cool thing in the background, that Atari robot...

But what I did not know, it would not have graphics at except for a splash screen that showed the globe in CGA monochrome vector style (think astroids).

Of course the game was a totally disappointing experience, being a young child at the time, with terminal text only interface the only thing I managed to to do was starting it up.

That was all... Just my first game buy.

edit: fixing spelling

[slip84]

This one time I stayed up with Halverson all night playing Diablo III waiting for the Clackman to post in the Clackvent thread.

Then he didn't.

I was tired the next day.

[choiboi]

Back when the newest Pokemon version was Crystal, I had a ballin' team that I was destroying some other local kids with.

One day, my cousin was over and he ended up resetting my Crystal version (later told due to jealousy?) and holy hell did I throw a tantrum. I ended up throwing my GBA and shattering it.

I ended up realizing I wasn't even invested that heavily and it's not something I should be stressing about. I wish I learned a lesson, but I still complain over the smallest things. Oh well :^)

[Nai_Calus]

This is awesome, Bro! Thanks for doing this! My story is kind of long, and isn't really one particular experience, but a series of them, but one particular game does emerge from the cloud of them:

-----

It started like many did. My grandparents on my dad's side had a Nintendo. I'd always end up playing Super Mario Bros or Duck Hunt, sometimes SMB 3. My dad played it too and we'd play together. Sadly, dad never could afford to get one, and my mother, while she could, never would. So I ended up playing there until they died, or at school, or at my babysitter's house.

One school had a Nintendo in one of the side rooms, with Duck Hunt, and Super Mario Bros, and even a Disneyland game. Even more exciting than that was the computers various schools had. An old Apple IIc with an exciting 8 color monitor in one, on which many games of Oregon Trail were played. A Macintosh Classic and the glories of Sim City in beautiful black and white. A lab of Apple IIes with Oregon Trail, Odell Lake, and something called Logo Plus that was actually not a game at all, but rather a sort of programming language that controlled a little cursor that would draw as it moved following commands it was given. I 'played' the heck out of that one, loving the ability to draw things on a computer that blew my little 4th grader mind.

A babysitter had a Sega Genesis, and many happy games of Sonic the Hedgehog and Mickey Mouse's Castle of Illusion were played there.

But at home, we never had a console or a computer, until 1997 when my mother finally bought one. It was an HP with a massive 6.4GB of hard drive space, a screaming Pentium MMX 233MHz processor, and a jaw-dropping 32MB of RAM. Wow, did that beat the 486s at my school at the time. And look at this cool CD Drive! Whoa, wait, there's games out there for this? Moooom~!

It was educational, sort of, and an easy enough sell since it was cheap by then, having been out for a couple of years. The screenshots on the box were gorgeous. The concept sounded cool. It was the game that ultimately led me to being here, and to everything I like nowadays.

It was Myst. That cool-as-hell intro. That stark, surreal landscape. Those amazing, brain-teasing puzzles. I got lost. I went looking for help. Hey, AOL has a keyword for this game? Cool, let's check this out! Wow, there's a whole huge community about this game! Chat room? Forums? People? Wow!

Now, I didn't get out much as a kid. My mom was one of those narcissistic types that only cares about herself. I didn't get to go to the mall, or out with friends, or any of the normal teenager stuff, and 14 year old me was lonely and had no one to talk to and there weren't kids in my neighborhood. So this was amazing, talking to people on the computer. I got my help. I got people to talk to. There was a sequel to the game, Riven, and I got that and played it too. I still know the D'ni number system almost 20 years later.

And hey, people who played this liked other things too. I found out about Sailor Moon and watched it on TV and found my way to the newsgroups and alt.fan.sailor-moon, and ultimately to an IRC channel for it. I made friends there too. Some of them I still talk to. I got introduced to emulation via a translation patch for a Japanese Sailor Moon Super Famicon RPG called Sailor Moon: Another Story. It's not exactly a masterpiece, but it was a pretty good game, and it was my first console RPG, and it blew me away just like Myst did. No puzzles, boo, but it had even more story than Myst did. And oh hey, I can play those Nintendo and Genesis games I remember from being a kid? Cool!

Naturally, I got introduced to other things through these friendships. A friend insisted I try the Mega Man and Megaman X series games(I still remember when X3 couldn't be emulated properly yet!), and I loved it. Someone else turned me on to the masterpieces of the SNES RPG era: Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. More of what I'd loved from that first Sailor Moon RPG, but incomprehensibly, amazingly better in every way. That music! That story! Those graphics, just pixels, but so amazingly full of life! These imaginary people who were so compelling! It was great. A friend had an old Playstation they'd replaced with a PS1, and they sent me the old one. Final Fantasy VII, Megaman X4, FFVIII, Dance Dance Revolution's home version via burned CDs I was sent and the swap trick. Someone mentioned Dungeons and Dragons and while I wouldn't play it until much later, that planted that seed.

Then the game that dominated my life for a couple of years. I had a boyfriend at the time. He played a ton of Phantasy Star Online. Way too much of it. OK, fine, I'll try this stupid thing too. Whoa. This is fun. This is really fun. I ended up buying a GameCube entirely for Phantasy Star Online Episode I&II. I failed out of the college I was attending at the time(Not entirely because of PSO, art college was ultimately not for me because nothing bores me more than cut paper and still lifes, also everyone there was unbearably hipsterpretentious) and ended up studying computer networking instead, still playing PSO for years. I had both the dialup and later the broadband adapter for my GC and played online for ages and made lots of great friends. After that it was Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, the PC version of the GC-era game(Which was actually an Xbox PSO port). Then Phantasy Star Universe.

Then I played Dungeons & Dragons. People on the PSO forum I hung out on started an online game. And holy crap this is amazing, it's like those console RPGs but I make everything but the world up while I play! I've played that ever since, and of course that led me to new things as well. What's this Portal thing everyone raves about? Steam? Why do I need that? Oh wow, look at all these other games! (I will never get through my Steam Library. Ever.)

Of course along the way I still had some console going on. Got a PS2 around the time I got my GC. FFX, Guitar Hero, all that stuff. Eventually a PS3, and hello Assassin's Creed II, and from there all the other PS3 games in the series.

But hey, I miss PSO, and PSU, both of them shut down years back, but hey there's this new D&D game coming out and it's online and solo/party-based in instances and it's an action MMO, sounds a lot like PSO actually, let's try this Neverwinter thing out. Oh hey wow, this is fun. But... Umm... Man I wish I had a better keyboard for this, mine kind of sucks. Mechanical keyboards? WTF are those? Oh, hey Fry's, sure, I'll poke these display mode- Ohhhhh. Oh. I get it now. I get it completely now. But so expensive. Wait, there's this cheap Monoprice once? Good reviews? OK, I'll try it out, I wanted browns but blues aren't bad either...

And now there are five mechanical keyboards about my room, I'm typing this on a 31 year old bank keyboard, I know more about keyboards than most people will ever care about, and I'm looking down at a lineup of 10 artisan caps I've got displayed along the top edge of my Model F, of which sadly only two are Bros, and I desperately hope that after the soul-crushing despair of coming up with nothing in the Easter and 4:20 sales that I can somehow stand out from the crowd with my tale of the long string of gaming that led me to here.

It started on consoles, and zigzaged to computers and back to consoles and back to computers, but one game still stands out the most. The one I still love after all these years, the one I still bring out and play at least once a year. Myst. The surrealistic adventure that became, and changed, my world. Without that, I probably never would have arrived where I am.

[Fire Brand]

I shall share what my most important experience was in gaming, it all started around 4 years ago the pc gaming thing was new to me and as such I was using the keyboard that came with the pc :x

I was into minecraft as I had gotten it around a month before and finally realised there was a mulitplayer option, after a little searching I found a nice looking server to join and started my greatest adventure to date, the server was named Madrealms, and the world I entered was Lithia I spawned in a large city with signs guiding my way after going out dodging a few creepers and getting tools I heard off northern bound.

Around a day after I hit a large building known as the monastery after looking around I had seen some gold in what I would say was the altar room, needless to say I took that and ran after getting away with my loot I sold it in and founded a town called treedock, then a day or so later I was visited by the admin asking if I knew anything about the missing gold, and my response was I knew nothing, of cause he already knew it was me from the logs and told me he knew I had no clue you could even do that and said I didn't again, he then said I needed to return the gold or I would be temp banned, stuff just got real as this was my first minecraft server I had joined and I really didn't want to be banned so I gave everything back and more, after that I joined the teamspeak server they host and started chatting with them, turned out they are amazing people and pretty much started playing different games with them then, really love those people still play with them all to this day although not minecraft but really do love them like family.

After that we had a few more adventures such as me accidently selling my town and the server closing to move onto a skylands server which was crazy flying ships in minecraft, and formed a clan but that's another story for another day.

[Air tree]

My first time gaming would be on my old PS2 with, and I played the game "Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick" I was probably around 6-7 years old.

It wasn't the best game ever, But I could hardly care at the age I was. Gaming on my ps2 play the evil dead was great, I had a hard time doing any objectives, following the story or anything of that nature, but it was fun, nontheless. It really opened me up to a world where I could just have some fun in a great little world. And a bit later in life, I ended up being a Huge Evil Dead (Film) fan. It's one of my favorite horror film.
So thanks to gaming, it also opened me up to another huge part of my life; Film.

I played Runescape when I was very young also. I spent so much time and effort grinding out skills in that game. I started that game in late 07, so I was pretty damn young then. It was one of my first experiences with gaming. All of it was great, talking to people I'd never meet without it. The social aspect of gaming is one of the best.

At this point in my life. I have been even more engrossed in gaming, all these great creative games coming out. It's a wonderful time.

But truly the best moment in gaming has to be when I played "Thomas was Alone" It truly opened my eyes to the art form of gaming, I didn't think gaming could have that much of a emotional impact as that game did, truth be told, I cried my ass off at the end of that game.


It was a beautiful game through and through. It changed the way I look at gaming and even some philosphical views. That may be a lot for just a Game. It has really sparked my intrest in game development, It's really something great to be able to build such a great peice of art and enjoyment from peices of code and art.

I would like to say thank you, Bro; For holding a great giveaway. I don't expect mine to win due to some much better writing and frankly better storires, but I might as well share.

[effectiveduck]

No way we could hide the bags under our bloodshot eyes, it'd been 24 hours since we'd felt the bliss that is sleep.
Every sense of mine is failing, but now is not the time to quit, our blood sweat and tears have gone into this.
Valiantly, we step out onto the map for the final round, scores are tied.
Everything is on the line, my pride, my honor, my dignity and of course, a piece of my dads porn collection.
Rushing blood, a vein the size of a carrot on my head, this is it.

Game starts, we both rush to meet in head to head combat, I have my trusty AK-47 in hand.
On the other side of the map I see him, I slow down to take a single, accurate shot.
Never has my heart beaten this fast.
Never have I wanted anything more.
And I wiff it, ****, he knows where I am now, It's a fair fight now, never fight fairly, I retreat.

Given the chance he'll put a bullet in my skull, I need to be swift, I need to be quiet, I need to win.
I manage to sneak into position, all that separates us is a wall.
Victory is mine, I can taste it. I charge around the corner, I miss my first shot, but I've caught him off guard, spray is all over the place.
Empty clip on both sides, we're both still standing, i throw my gun in the air to distract him, my knife slides out and I'm ready to end this.

You know it's true what they say, life truly does flash before your eyes, I'd seen everything but it wasn't my time just yet, his deagle is being pulled out ever so slowly.
Over the chaos I hear a very distinct voice yelling "Shut the **** up! It's 5 in the morning!"... "Sorry dad" is all I can muster.
Upon looking back, I'd been taken out, it was all over. What did I have to live for anymore? What was the point in continuing?

Unbearable tears streamed out of my bright red face, as I hear an unsatisfied voice speak.
"Play another round! I want to win properly." Tears immediately stop, it's on!

[VesperSAINT]

So, I spent a good 15 minutes or so roughly brainstorming about my past 20 years or so of gaming experiences in my life and so many things flashed through my mind~

Please press "MORE" for my long introduction:

More

From my earliest memories of playing the original Prince of Persia on PC when I was probably four or five...

For those who played this game... you know that sound... that death music... LOL!!!


Playing Super Mario Bros 2 at my cousins house when I was 6...

Playing as Toad was probably still the most memorable thing for me~ So cute <3


Playing Quake for the first time when I was 11 and falling in love with FPS games!!!

Oh~ this introductory hallway... so memorable~


Installing ZSNES which opened so many doors to so many great classic Super Nintendo RPG games which I was never able to play when I was younger~ Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 3, 4, 5, Tales of Phantasia, Lufia series, and so many more... ZSNES was such a great thing for my childhood~

Look at this magical screen... even now, I love this software~


Playing Diablo 1 at a friend's house... oh man... music of Tristram will never leave my soul... LOL!

Game: "Stay awhile and listen..."
Me: "HELL YEEEE!!!"
Game: "AH FRESH MEAT!!!"
Me: "NOPE NOPE NOPE. I REGRET EVERYTHING"


1998 was a HUGE year for gaming for me. I got my first gaming console, the original Playstation, for Christmas when I was 12 (yes... I actually never owned my own gaming console until I was 12... even though I did have the PC). Many of you know that feeling of receiving a gaming console for Christmas as a child... it is an easily forgotten moment, but if you reflect on it... it was probably still one of the greatest joys you've ever felt in your life. LOL!!!


So many great gaming things happened in 1998...



Oh god... Metal Gear Solid... probably still my favorite game of all time...




Oh the terrors of Resident Evil 2... this game literally gave me nightmares... but I kept coming back for me... the atmosphere of this game was unbeatable at the time... that first Licker encounter... NOPE.gif



Suikoden II ~ Probably the greatest JRPG of all time. No. It is the greatest JRPG of all time.


I was also introduced to this revoluntionary JRPG...

There are so many great moments in this game, but the introduction Mako Reactor scenario is still the most memorable part.

Seriously may be one of the greatest RPG intros ever, if not the greatest.

Confession of a PS fanboy of past:

More

I admit... I had the occasional affair with Zelda Ocarina of Time at K-Mart...

I feel blessed to have been born early enough to have been around to experience these historical games in their prime. They filled my childhood with great memories of happiness and joy. The memories of sitting in my living room with my younger brother playing these action and RPG games, experiencing the story, the music, and atmosphere are truly unforgettable. Even all the trouble, fights, and ass-whoopings we got for playing too much are great memories for me.  However, even with all these great childhood gaming experiences... I didn't have the most "MEMORABLE" video gaming experience until 2006... I believe for most people, their most memorable gaming experiences may be of the enjoyable kind... However, for me, it was of the unpleasant type.

Being the older sibling between me and my brother, I had much of the playtime on the gaming consoles, and my brother was usually left with less time playing, and was for the most part, a spectator. This wasn't really forced, and he was a willing spectator because of his young age and unwillingness to experience difficult challenges in some of the more intense and scary games like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Parasite Eve, etc.  However, his love for  RPG games was unparalleled. Having grown up watching me play so many RPG titles from his toddler age to his early teens, he only chose to play RPG games when it was his turn to play.  Because I was the one who spent majority of the time playing, it makes so much sense that he would cherish his playtime so much... the pains and woes of the younger sibling...
In retrospect... even if he didn't feel that way... I feel like...

Anyhow, after I graduated from high school in 2005 (YES I'M OLD. LEAVE ME ALONE), I moved away from home, and also left behind my gaming consoles and PC to my brother. I can only imagine the freedom he felt was similar to that of how I felt moving out of the house. LOL!

Fast forward about nearly a year, and he has become an intense high school student in an IB program in a very competitive school where  all his peers are at each other's throats for the highest scores...The majority of his classmates, with him included, had the highest GPA's and test scores in the state... freaking Asians, I tell you... Anyhow, I digress. It doesn't help that he had Hyperthyroidism at this time and was always anxious because of his fast heart rate and voracious metabolism. Being the super stressed out student that he was, his only release for stress and enjoyment was from the RPG games he played, and was still in the honeymoon stages with the Playstation 2, after I had given him 100% reign over it since I left.  He was the king on his throne, and he was allowed to do whatever he willed...

Today, I choose to play Final Fantasy XII, and no one can stop me. Not even my older brother...

Come around March/April, Final Fantasy XII had just come out for the PS2, and it's the biggest RPG game of the year. You can bet your ass my brother was on that booty. He would constantly instant message me about the new things that were happening in the game, and how much he was in love with this new game with the new battle system. He was putting in mad hours into this game every weekend and whenever he found time to play after his studies. I could tell how much he was enjoying this game because of the intense storyline filled with political intrigue and MMO-esque battle system. I decided to tell my best friend, who had come to the same college as me, about the game because he also had a PS2. So he goes and buys it and starts playing...  he's also addicted. 
About 3 weeks go by and I'm going home (Tampa) for the weekend, and my best friend is giving me a ride home because I didn't have a car then and he also lives in Tampa. We get to my house, and my friend comes in to greet my parents and brother. Guess what happens... yeah... my brother and my friend are nerding out about FFXII.


My friend throws in his memory card into slot 2 and loads up his game so he can show my brother where he's at, and they're all spazzing out in excitement... it was pretty cringeworthy even for a fellow nerd like me... Anyhow, they're playing my friend's loaded game for a good 30 minutes while oo-ing and ah-ing at every little thing before my friend has to leave to go home. So naturally, my friend saves his game real fast but then... IT HAPPENS...  So, if any of you have played RPG games on the Playstation 1 or 2... when you save a game... you need this thing called a memory card... these memory cards go into these things called a memory slot... and when one saves their game onto their memory cards, the console by default will access the first memory slot to save to it. It will then ask the player if they want to ...( I SWEAR TO GOD, my hands are shaking right now as I type this... ).. . overwrite their previous save file with the current one, which a person will naturally press "YES". If you have played before, you know you just spam the crap out of "X" on your controller to get this tedious process over with as fast as possible... except... my friend's memory card was in slot 2... and my brother's memory card was in slot 1... so my friend overwrote his save file on my brother's save file...


Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong... and unfortunately, in this case, it was true because my brother only had one save file of the game on his memory card... his 70 something hour save file on a story driven RPG game where every character is fully customized with unique skill trees and item sets...

There is this deafening silence for a good 10 seconds, followed by the frantic actions of my brother taking over the controller and rechecking the memory cards, restarting of game, booting up the save screen, booting up the memory card slot to check the saves... only to realize... it's actually gone.  He tried to act cool about it. He was such a champ about it... but even he couldn't hide his sadness and hurt from the situation and eventually just got up and walked to his room... he didn't cry... but we could tell he wanted to... my friend's face on the other hand... you could see how sorry he was but was helpless to do anything... the whole situation was so wrong... so painful... because no one was really at fault, there was no ill-intent in the whole situation... so my brother couldn't get angry at him, and my friend was just so sorry...


Eventually, my friend left... with his memory card, and I tried to get my brother's mind off the whole thing for the rest of the night, while trying to look up a different game for him... time went by, and my brother got over it, and he even attempted to play it again on two difference occasions. The second time he tried playing it, it was like half a year later and he played one sitting but stopped. The third time, he got about half way through, but then stopped again... a champion, I tell you.
What have I learned from this experience? Too much. Too much, I tell you. Ever since then, I've become a game save hoarder and a data/media hoarder. I. BACK. UP. EVERYTHING. Ever since that moment, I have gotten into a habit of saving and backing up every possible game save file, and I also back up too much media files on my PC also on multiple hard drives... because I fear that pain. The pain of losing the memories and joys. It has benefitted me~ I saved my PS3 game save files on a thumb drive (at least the ones that allow it), and my PS3 died on me twice, so it gave me relief... I saved my PS2 RPG games on multiple memory cards, and even found a way to save them on my PC... I even went and backed up my Playstation 1 RPG save files on my PC... how? It's complicated but I found a way... Most of the time, these actions are useless and wasted time... but if I remember back to that day... the pain... the indescribable heartbreak on my brother's face... I just do it... to be safe... to be able to sleep peacefully at night.


SORRY~ I DIDN'T PROOF READ HAD NO TIME!!!

[Michael]

Submissions are over. Thanks for participating, guys. Will announce winners tomorrow

[rowdy]

Good luck everyone

[YoungMichael88]

So, I spent a good 15 minutes or so roughly brainstorming about my past 20 years or so of gaming experiences in my life and so many things flashed through my mind~

Please press "MORE" for my long introduction:

More

From my earliest memories of playing the original Prince of Persia on PC when I was probably four or five...

For those who played this game... you know that sound... that death music... LOL!!!

Show Image

Playing Super Mario Bros 2 at my cousins house when I was 6...

Playing as Toad was probably still the most memorable thing for me~ So cute <3

Show Image

Playing Quake for the first time when I was 11 and falling in love with FPS games!!!

Oh~ this introductory hallway... so memorable~

Show Image

Installing ZSNES which opened so many doors to so many great classic Super Nintendo RPG games which I was never able to play when I was younger~ Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 3, 4, 5, Tales of Phantasia, Lufia series, and so many more... ZSNES was such a great thing for my childhood~

Look at this magical screen... even now, I love this software~

Show Image

Playing Diablo 1 at a friend's house... oh man... music of Tristram will never leave my soul... LOL!

Game: "Stay awhile and listen..."
Me: "HELL YEEEE!!!"
Game: "AH FRESH MEAT!!!"
Me: "NOPE NOPE NOPE. I REGRET EVERYTHING"

Show Image

1998 was a HUGE year for gaming for me. I got my first gaming console, the original Playstation, for Christmas when I was 12 (yes... I actually never owned my own gaming console until I was 12... even though I did have the PC). Many of you know that feeling of receiving a gaming console for Christmas as a child... it is an easily forgotten moment, but if you reflect on it... it was probably still one of the greatest joys you've ever felt in your life. LOL!!!

Show Image

So many great gaming things happened in 1998...

Show Image

Show Image

Oh god... Metal Gear Solid... probably still my favorite game of all time...

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Oh the terrors of Resident Evil 2... this game literally gave me nightmares... but I kept coming back for me... the atmosphere of this game was unbeatable at the time... that first Licker encounter... NOPE.gif

Show Image

Show Image

Suikoden II ~ Probably the greatest JRPG of all time. No. It is the greatest JRPG of all time.

Show Image

I was also introduced to this revoluntionary JRPG...

Show Image

There are so many great moments in this game, but the introduction Mako Reactor scenario is still the most memorable part.

Seriously may be one of the greatest RPG intros ever, if not the greatest.

Confession of a PS fanboy of past:

More

I admit... I had the occasional affair with Zelda Ocarina of Time at K-Mart...

Show Image

I feel blessed to have been born early enough to have been around to experience these historical games in their prime. They filled my childhood with great memories of happiness and joy. The memories of sitting in my living room with my younger brother playing these action and RPG games, experiencing the story, the music, and atmosphere are truly unforgettable. Even all the trouble, fights, and ass-whoopings we got for playing too much are great memories for me.  However, even with all these great childhood gaming experiences... I didn't have the most "MEMORABLE" video gaming experience until 2006... I believe for most people, their most memorable gaming experiences may be of the enjoyable kind... However, for me, it was of the unpleasant type.

Being the older sibling between me and my brother, I had much of the playtime on the gaming consoles, and my brother was usually left with less time playing, and was for the most part, a spectator. This wasn't really forced, and he was a willing spectator because of his young age and unwillingness to experience difficult challenges in some of the more intense and scary games like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Parasite Eve, etc.  However, his love for  RPG games was unparalleled. Having grown up watching me play so many RPG titles from his toddler age to his early teens, he only chose to play RPG games when it was his turn to play.  Because I was the one who spent majority of the time playing, it makes so much sense that he would cherish his playtime so much... the pains and woes of the younger sibling...
In retrospect... even if he didn't feel that way... I feel like...

Show Image

Anyhow, after I graduated from high school in 2005 (YES I'M OLD. LEAVE ME ALONE), I moved away from home, and also left behind my gaming consoles and PC to my brother. I can only imagine the freedom he felt was similar to that of how I felt moving out of the house. LOL!

Show Image

Fast forward about nearly a year, and he has become an intense high school student in an IB program in a very competitive school where  all his peers are at each other's throats for the highest scores...The majority of his classmates, with him included, had the highest GPA's and test scores in the state... freaking Asians, I tell you... Anyhow, I digress. It doesn't help that he had Hyperthyroidism at this time and was always anxious because of his fast heart rate and voracious metabolism. Being the super stressed out student that he was, his only release for stress and enjoyment was from the RPG games he played, and was still in the honeymoon stages with the Playstation 2, after I had given him 100% reign over it since I left.  He was the king on his throne, and he was allowed to do whatever he willed...

Today, I choose to play Final Fantasy XII, and no one can stop me. Not even my older brother...

Show Image

Come around March/April, Final Fantasy XII had just come out for the PS2, and it's the biggest RPG game of the year. You can bet your ass my brother was on that booty. He would constantly instant message me about the new things that were happening in the game, and how much he was in love with this new game with the new battle system. He was putting in mad hours into this game every weekend and whenever he found time to play after his studies. I could tell how much he was enjoying this game because of the intense storyline filled with political intrigue and MMO-esque battle system. I decided to tell my best friend, who had come to the same college as me, about the game because he also had a PS2. So he goes and buys it and starts playing...  he's also addicted. 
About 3 weeks go by and I'm going home (Tampa) for the weekend, and my best friend is giving me a ride home because I didn't have a car then and he also lives in Tampa. We get to my house, and my friend comes in to greet my parents and brother. Guess what happens... yeah... my brother and my friend are nerding out about FFXII.

Show Image

My friend throws in his memory card into slot 2 and loads up his game so he can show my brother where he's at, and they're all spazzing out in excitement... it was pretty cringeworthy even for a fellow nerd like me... Anyhow, they're playing my friend's loaded game for a good 30 minutes while oo-ing and ah-ing at every little thing before my friend has to leave to go home. So naturally, my friend saves his game real fast but then... IT HAPPENS...  So, if any of you have played RPG games on the Playstation 1 or 2... when you save a game... you need this thing called a memory card... these memory cards go into these things called a memory slot... and when one saves their game onto their memory cards, the console by default will access the first memory slot to save to it. It will then ask the player if they want to ...( I SWEAR TO GOD, my hands are shaking right now as I type this... ).. . overwrite their previous save file with the current one, which a person will naturally press "YES". If you have played before, you know you just spam the crap out of "X" on your controller to get this tedious process over with as fast as possible... except... my friend's memory card was in slot 2... and my brother's memory card was in slot 1... so my friend overwrote his save file on my brother's save file...

Show Image

Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong... and unfortunately, in this case, it was true because my brother only had one save file of the game on his memory card... his 70 something hour save file on a story driven RPG game where every character is fully customized with unique skill trees and item sets...

Show Image

There is this deafening silence for a good 10 seconds, followed by the frantic actions of my brother taking over the controller and rechecking the memory cards, restarting of game, booting up the save screen, booting up the memory card slot to check the saves... only to realize... it's actually gone.  He tried to act cool about it. He was such a champ about it... but even he couldn't hide his sadness and hurt from the situation and eventually just got up and walked to his room... he didn't cry... but we could tell he wanted to... my friend's face on the other hand... you could see how sorry he was but was helpless to do anything... the whole situation was so wrong... so painful... because no one was really at fault, there was no ill-intent in the whole situation... so my brother couldn't get angry at him, and my friend was just so sorry...

Show Image

Eventually, my friend left... with his memory card, and I tried to get my brother's mind off the whole thing for the rest of the night, while trying to look up a different game for him... time went by, and my brother got over it, and he even attempted to play it again on two difference occasions. The second time he tried playing it, it was like half a year later and he played one sitting but stopped. The third time, he got about half way through, but then stopped again... a champion, I tell you.
What have I learned from this experience? Too much. Too much, I tell you. Ever since then, I've become a game save hoarder and a data/media hoarder. I. BACK. UP. EVERYTHING. Ever since that moment, I have gotten into a habit of saving and backing up every possible game save file, and I also back up too much media files on my PC also on multiple hard drives... because I fear that pain. The pain of losing the memories and joys. It has benefitted me~ I saved my PS3 game save files on a thumb drive (at least the ones that allow it), and my PS3 died on me twice, so it gave me relief... I saved my PS2 RPG games on multiple memory cards, and even found a way to save them on my PC... I even went and backed up my Playstation 1 RPG save files on my PC... how? It's complicated but I found a way... Most of the time, these actions are useless and wasted time... but if I remember back to that day... the pain... the indescribable heartbreak on my brother's face... I just do it... to be safe... to be able to sleep peacefully at night.


SORRY~ I DIDN'T PROOF READ :( HAD NO TIME!!!

This is absolutely a TLDR situation. The effort alone deserves some kind of prize! Just not mine OK?

[VesperSAINT]

Good luck everyone

Good luck to you too <3

This is absolutely a TLDR situation. The effort alone deserves some kind of prize! Just not mine OK?

Hehehe~ I actually typed this with an hour and some minutes left before deadline... I wasn't even able to proofread and edit it because I submitted it with 3 minutes to spare, and then went back to edit/modify my spacing, before saving with like 9 seconds to spare... LOLOL!!! I had to rush the ending so bad... I haven't even bothered reading over it because I'm so embarrassed by the rushed ending...

Good luck to you too  <3<3<3 I hope you don't win "mine" either!!! HUE!

You just reminded me I have to go back and read everyone else's!!!

[clacktalk]

Good luck everyone

Good luck to you too <3

This is absolutely a TLDR situation. The effort alone deserves some kind of prize! Just not mine OK?

Hehehe~ I actually typed this with an hour and some minutes left before deadline... I wasn't even able to proofread and edit it because I submitted it with 3 minutes to spare, and then went back to edit/modify my spacing, before saving with like 9 seconds to spare... LOLOL!!! I had to rush the ending so bad... I haven't even bothered reading over it because I'm so embarrassed by the rushed ending...

Good luck to you too  <3<3<3 I hope you don't win "mine" either!!! HUE!

You just reminded me I have to go back and read everyone else's!!!

yo even getting it done is an accomplishments. ten points to gryffindor

[VesperSAINT]

yo even getting it done is an accomplishments. ten points to gryffindor

thanks, bae <3

[Sed8op8]

So, I spent a good 15 minutes or so roughly brainstorming about my past 20 years or so of gaming experiences in my life and so many things flashed through my mind~

Please press "MORE" for my long introduction:

More

From my earliest memories of playing the original Prince of Persia on PC when I was probably four or five...

For those who played this game... you know that sound... that death music... LOL!!!

Show Image

Playing Super Mario Bros 2 at my cousins house when I was 6...

Playing as Toad was probably still the most memorable thing for me~ So cute <3

Show Image

Playing Quake for the first time when I was 11 and falling in love with FPS games!!!

Oh~ this introductory hallway... so memorable~

Show Image

Installing ZSNES which opened so many doors to so many great classic Super Nintendo RPG games which I was never able to play when I was younger~ Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 3, 4, 5, Tales of Phantasia, Lufia series, and so many more... ZSNES was such a great thing for my childhood~

Look at this magical screen... even now, I love this software~

Show Image

Playing Diablo 1 at a friend's house... oh man... music of Tristram will never leave my soul... LOL!

Game: "Stay awhile and listen..."
Me: "HELL YEEEE!!!"
Game: "AH FRESH MEAT!!!"
Me: "NOPE NOPE NOPE. I REGRET EVERYTHING"

Show Image

1998 was a HUGE year for gaming for me. I got my first gaming console, the original Playstation, for Christmas when I was 12 (yes... I actually never owned my own gaming console until I was 12... even though I did have the PC). Many of you know that feeling of receiving a gaming console for Christmas as a child... it is an easily forgotten moment, but if you reflect on it... it was probably still one of the greatest joys you've ever felt in your life. LOL!!!

Show Image

So many great gaming things happened in 1998...

Show Image

Show Image

Oh god... Metal Gear Solid... probably still my favorite game of all time...

Show Image

Show Image

Show Image

Oh the terrors of Resident Evil 2... this game literally gave me nightmares... but I kept coming back for me... the atmosphere of this game was unbeatable at the time... that first Licker encounter... NOPE.gif

Show Image

Show Image

Suikoden II ~ Probably the greatest JRPG of all time. No. It is the greatest JRPG of all time.

Show Image

I was also introduced to this revoluntionary JRPG...

Show Image

There are so many great moments in this game, but the introduction Mako Reactor scenario is still the most memorable part.

Seriously may be one of the greatest RPG intros ever, if not the greatest.

Confession of a PS fanboy of past:

More

I admit... I had the occasional affair with Zelda Ocarina of Time at K-Mart...

Show Image

I feel blessed to have been born early enough to have been around to experience these historical games in their prime. They filled my childhood with great memories of happiness and joy. The memories of sitting in my living room with my younger brother playing these action and RPG games, experiencing the story, the music, and atmosphere are truly unforgettable. Even all the trouble, fights, and ass-whoopings we got for playing too much are great memories for me.  However, even with all these great childhood gaming experiences... I didn't have the most "MEMORABLE" video gaming experience until 2006... I believe for most people, their most memorable gaming experiences may be of the enjoyable kind... However, for me, it was of the unpleasant type.

Being the older sibling between me and my brother, I had much of the playtime on the gaming consoles, and my brother was usually left with less time playing, and was for the most part, a spectator. This wasn't really forced, and he was a willing spectator because of his young age and unwillingness to experience difficult challenges in some of the more intense and scary games like Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Parasite Eve, etc.  However, his love for  RPG games was unparalleled. Having grown up watching me play so many RPG titles from his toddler age to his early teens, he only chose to play RPG games when it was his turn to play.  Because I was the one who spent majority of the time playing, it makes so much sense that he would cherish his playtime so much... the pains and woes of the younger sibling...
In retrospect... even if he didn't feel that way... I feel like...

Show Image

Anyhow, after I graduated from high school in 2005 (YES I'M OLD. LEAVE ME ALONE), I moved away from home, and also left behind my gaming consoles and PC to my brother. I can only imagine the freedom he felt was similar to that of how I felt moving out of the house. LOL!

Show Image

Fast forward about nearly a year, and he has become an intense high school student in an IB program in a very competitive school where  all his peers are at each other's throats for the highest scores...The majority of his classmates, with him included, had the highest GPA's and test scores in the state... freaking Asians, I tell you... Anyhow, I digress. It doesn't help that he had Hyperthyroidism at this time and was always anxious because of his fast heart rate and voracious metabolism. Being the super stressed out student that he was, his only release for stress and enjoyment was from the RPG games he played, and was still in the honeymoon stages with the Playstation 2, after I had given him 100% reign over it since I left.  He was the king on his throne, and he was allowed to do whatever he willed...

Today, I choose to play Final Fantasy XII, and no one can stop me. Not even my older brother...

Show Image

Come around March/April, Final Fantasy XII had just come out for the PS2, and it's the biggest RPG game of the year. You can bet your ass my brother was on that booty. He would constantly instant message me about the new things that were happening in the game, and how much he was in love with this new game with the new battle system. He was putting in mad hours into this game every weekend and whenever he found time to play after his studies. I could tell how much he was enjoying this game because of the intense storyline filled with political intrigue and MMO-esque battle system. I decided to tell my best friend, who had come to the same college as me, about the game because he also had a PS2. So he goes and buys it and starts playing...  he's also addicted. 
About 3 weeks go by and I'm going home (Tampa) for the weekend, and my best friend is giving me a ride home because I didn't have a car then and he also lives in Tampa. We get to my house, and my friend comes in to greet my parents and brother. Guess what happens... yeah... my brother and my friend are nerding out about FFXII.

Show Image

My friend throws in his memory card into slot 2 and loads up his game so he can show my brother where he's at, and they're all spazzing out in excitement... it was pretty cringeworthy even for a fellow nerd like me... Anyhow, they're playing my friend's loaded game for a good 30 minutes while oo-ing and ah-ing at every little thing before my friend has to leave to go home. So naturally, my friend saves his game real fast but then... IT HAPPENS...  So, if any of you have played RPG games on the Playstation 1 or 2... when you save a game... you need this thing called a memory card... these memory cards go into these things called a memory slot... and when one saves their game onto their memory cards, the console by default will access the first memory slot to save to it. It will then ask the player if they want to ...( I SWEAR TO GOD, my hands are shaking right now as I type this... ).. . overwrite their previous save file with the current one, which a person will naturally press "YES". If you have played before, you know you just spam the crap out of "X" on your controller to get this tedious process over with as fast as possible... except... my friend's memory card was in slot 2... and my brother's memory card was in slot 1... so my friend overwrote his save file on my brother's save file...

Show Image

Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong... and unfortunately, in this case, it was true because my brother only had one save file of the game on his memory card... his 70 something hour save file on a story driven RPG game where every character is fully customized with unique skill trees and item sets...

Show Image

There is this deafening silence for a good 10 seconds, followed by the frantic actions of my brother taking over the controller and rechecking the memory cards, restarting of game, booting up the save screen, booting up the memory card slot to check the saves... only to realize... it's actually gone.  He tried to act cool about it. He was such a champ about it... but even he couldn't hide his sadness and hurt from the situation and eventually just got up and walked to his room... he didn't cry... but we could tell he wanted to... my friend's face on the other hand... you could see how sorry he was but was helpless to do anything... the whole situation was so wrong... so painful... because no one was really at fault, there was no ill-intent in the whole situation... so my brother couldn't get angry at him, and my friend was just so sorry...

Show Image

Eventually, my friend left... with his memory card, and I tried to get my brother's mind off the whole thing for the rest of the night, while trying to look up a different game for him... time went by, and my brother got over it, and he even attempted to play it again on two difference occasions. The second time he tried playing it, it was like half a year later and he played one sitting but stopped. The third time, he got about half way through, but then stopped again... a champion, I tell you.
What have I learned from this experience? Too much. Too much, I tell you. Ever since then, I've become a game save hoarder and a data/media hoarder. I. BACK. UP. EVERYTHING. Ever since that moment, I have gotten into a habit of saving and backing up every possible game save file, and I also back up too much media files on my PC also on multiple hard drives... because I fear that pain. The pain of losing the memories and joys. It has benefitted me~ I saved my PS3 game save files on a thumb drive (at least the ones that allow it), and my PS3 died on me twice, so it gave me relief... I saved my PS2 RPG games on multiple memory cards, and even found a way to save them on my PC... I even went and backed up my Playstation 1 RPG save files on my PC... how? It's complicated but I found a way... Most of the time, these actions are useless and wasted time... but if I remember back to that day... the pain... the indescribable heartbreak on my brother's face... I just do it... to be safe... to be able to sleep peacefully at night.


SORRY~ I DIDN'T PROOF READ :( HAD NO TIME!!!

Oh man I loved this Vesper it brought back so many meories of my own the NES Game Rygar,faxanadu,the original final fantasy and then final fantasy 2,3 on Snes, god every early square soft game(wow I forgot final fantasy7 looked like that ruby and emerald weapon anyone<3) ,Lufia 1 and 2,Breath of fire series,Dragon Quest, California games. Metroid series,excite bike,rad racer,Zelda series,metal gear solid,mega man,Elder Scrolls oh God the list goes on and on haha . I wish I hadn't chose to write and submit mine on my phone but it was the only free time I had before the end of contest. Thanks everyone for the great reads and good luck!!!!!

[YoungMichael88]

The Diablo 1 part I found particularly nostalgic. Me and by brother would tie up the phone line with dial up for hours and argue so much over who's turn it was that my parents scheduled hour long sessions for each of us. Those were the days.

[baldgye]

TIL that me and Vesper are about the same age.

Also this **** has gotten me to finally start writing up my story and feelings about racing a 'srs' online racing league that I joined and spent the best part of a year competing in...

[Joey Quinn]

I invested way too many hours in some dumb games as a kid, totally worth it but they were some dumb games.

[Belfong]

I saw Prince of Persia! In colour! When I played PoP, it was just green screen. I'm old!!!

[CPTBadAss]

****ing hell VesperSAINT. Why'd you have to go and remind me of all those miserable moments when you watch people accidentally nuke their games.

Like the time my friend accidentally stole a knife in front one of the main story NPCs in Morrowind and forgot to save. So each time he reloaded from the built in check point, all we saw was the NPC charging him and killing him with one strike. He lost like 30 hours of gameplay and character building.

Or the time my friend forgot to save in Splinter Cell after playing for like 8 hours. He tried to hack a computer but it was a decoy and blew up.

[VesperSAINT]

Oh man I loved this Vesper it brought back so many meories of my own the NES Game Rygar,faxanadu,the original final fantasy and then final fantasy 2,3 on Snes, god every early square soft game(wow I forgot final fantasy7 looked like that ruby and emerald weapon anyone<3) ,Lufia 1 and 2,Breath of fire series,Dragon Quest, California games. Metroid series,excite bike,rad racer,Zelda series,metal gear solid,mega man,Elder Scrolls oh God the list goes on and on haha . I wish I hadn't chose to write and submit mine on my phone but it was the only free time I had before the end of contest. Thanks everyone for the great reads and good luck!!!!!

Yeah!!! Those games you listed are all so great. The Super Nintendo and Playstation 1 had the best RPG games ever. The Playstation 2 comes close, but can't beat those titles on SNES and PSX! The list is unending... I could write a couple thousand word essay on them... seriously.

I'm glad you were able to nostalgia though <3

The Diablo 1 part I found particularly nostalgic. Me and by brother would tie up the phone line with dial up for hours and argue so much over who's turn it was that my parents scheduled hour long sessions for each of us. Those were the days.

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

TIL that me and Vesper are about the same age.

Also this **** has gotten me to finally start writing up my story and feelings about racing a 'srs' online racing league that I joined and spent the best part of a year competing in...

I knew there was a reason you and I clicked so well <3<3<3

I saw Prince of Persia! In colour! When I played PoP, it was just green screen. I'm old!!!

HAHAHAHA!!! You are old!

JK~ Love you <3

****ing hell VesperSAINT. Why'd you have to go and remind me of all those miserable moments when you watch people accidentally nuke their games.

Like the time my friend accidentally stole a knife in front one of the main story NPCs in Morrowind and forgot to save. So each time he reloaded from the built in check point, all we saw was the NPC charging him and killing him with one strike. He lost like 30 hours of gameplay and character building.

Or the time my friend forgot to save in Splinter Cell after playing for like 8 hours. He tried to hack a computer but it was a decoy and blew up.

HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! That was the whole point of my story!!! It's why it was so memorable for me... a real lesson learned... even to this day...

OMG... I feel sorry for your friend, dood. REAL EMPATHY HERE... 30-70 hours doesn't sound like too much these days but back then... we took our RPG games serious!!! Just thinking about losing a save file before finishing the game... I wouldn't wish that upon even my worse enemies...

HAHAHAHAAHAH!!! The Splinter Cell one is hilarious though HUEHUEHUE... reminds me of when I was going for the Big Boss titles in Metal Gear Solid 4... baldgye knows what I'm talking about it...

[CPTBadAss]

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

* CPTBadAss sniffles

It's like we had the same childhood. Brood War and Diablo 1 and Lord of Destruction on Dial up <3

[VesperSAINT]

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

* CPTBadAss sniffles

It's like we had the same childhood. Brood War and Diablo 1 and Lord of Destruction on Dial up <3

There there, Anson ~ <3 *Vesper back hugs CPT

I didn't really get to play Diablo 1 too much on dial-up, but man... Brood War on dial-up was... too good. I didn't get to play Lord of Destruction until a lil' bit after it came out, but never got too into it. Yes yes, I know... it was a legendary game... but during that time... I was already too sucked into Counter-Strike You know how that turned out... 16 years has gone by... I'm still playing the series...

[baldgye]

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

* CPTBadAss sniffles

It's like we had the same childhood. Brood War and Diablo 1 and Lord of Destruction on Dial up <3

while I wouldn't trade my childhood of Doom over ipx for anything... I wish I grew up with broodwar...

[VesperSAINT]

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

* CPTBadAss sniffles

It's like we had the same childhood. Brood War and Diablo 1 and Lord of Destruction on Dial up <3

while I wouldn't trade my childhood of Doom over ipx for anything... I wish I grew up with broodwar...

Quake. I used to be obsessed with that game...

But when it came to multiplayer~ Brood War and Counter-Strike was where it was at

I recently replayed Doom 1 and 2. Still great even to this day.

[Sed8op8]

*cries*
*mumbles* stoopid topre people
*grumbles*

don't forget Buckling spring people Blacke  Max from Phosphorglow has my SSK and each time I pics of his work my excitement grows.

[JPG]

Anyone had the fun to enjoy free 33.6 dialup with banners (well with something to hide the banner for sure)?

[baldgye]

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

* CPTBadAss sniffles

It's like we had the same childhood. Brood War and Diablo 1 and Lord of Destruction on Dial up <3

while I wouldn't trade my childhood of Doom over ipx for anything... I wish I grew up with broodwar...

Quake. I used to be obsessed with that game...

But when it came to multiplayer~ Brood War and Counter-Strike was where it was at

I recently replayed Doom 1 and 2. Still great even to this day.

Quake 2 for me, but mp didn't get real for me until CS:S... played that on dialup b/c HELL YEAH BOIS and was awesome, could only play after 7 tho because thats when the internet was free

[atlas3686]

Awesome, we can comment on these great stories now! I am going to have to go back and read my favourites again. Good luck everyone!

Joey Quinn: Loved your story reminds me quite a bit of my early childhood, I also didn't get a console until quite a bit later and even when I did games were very limited/expensive (SEGA master system with alex the kid built in - damn that was a tough game ). So I also spent a lot of time persuading my parents to allow me to stay with friends so I could play games.

Nubs: Your story about America's Army made me think of the TF2 community I play with here in SA, great bunch of people who I have gotten to know pretty well over the years. It makes such a difference to play a game with a community of people you actually like.

Madhais: I had a similar experience, my dad finally cracked after much pressure from me and bought himself a siemens laptop (pentium 1 - 8mb ram). Getting to use it was a whole new argument though

Belfong: I love that GTA taught you to drive on the other side of the road, we also drive on the left here so it's something I think has helped me as well on the few occasions I've gotten to drive in a country that drives on the other side. I remember when I got the demo for GTA (1), it was a timed demo instead of some other limitation so I remember spending so much time trying to get as far in the city as I could before the demo timer ran out. It was such a great game and so different for the time.

[GenKaan]

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

* CPTBadAss sniffles

It's like we had the same childhood. Brood War and Diablo 1 and Lord of Destruction on Dial up <3

while I wouldn't trade my childhood of Doom over ipx for anything... I wish I grew up with broodwar...

Quake. I used to be obsessed with that game...

But when it came to multiplayer~ Brood War and Counter-Strike was where it was at

I recently replayed Doom 1 and 2. Still great even to this day.

Quake 2 for me, but mp didn't get real for me until CS:S... played that on dialup b/c HELL YEAH BOIS and was awesome, could only play after 7 tho because thats when the internet was free

Thought at first RPG was my thing but after Golden Eye I knew I was a FPS junky. Liked Quake a lot, liked Unreal Tournament as well but they felt too random. After I got into counter-strike a lifelong borderline obsession with FPS has consumed me

Grew up on a farm so internet wasn't an option. So I took every chance to pack my stuff up and move to friends places and lan parties. Won my first offline tournament when I was like 13 and got my first sponsor at 17, but real life kicked in around when I finished school and the team split up due to.. real... life :,(

[Sed8op8]

BRO, I TOTALLY GET YOU. Having Asian parents, my brother and I always had assigned time slots, but I always ended up playing more because my bro would end up screwing up, and he'd let me take over. But yeah... I remember playing on Brood War on dial-up, and my mom would complain about the phone calls not coming in, so we'd end up only being able to play at night

Diablo 1 was such an atmospheric game... music of Tristram, the dungeon music, the monster sounds... even the obnoxious attack contact sound... screw it~ Youtubing Tristram Village song right now!!! LOL!!!

* CPTBadAss sniffles

It's like we had the same childhood. Brood War and Diablo 1 and Lord of Destruction on Dial up <3

while I wouldn't trade my childhood of Doom over ipx for anything... I wish I grew up with broodwar...

Quake. I used to be obsessed with that game...

But when it came to multiplayer~ Brood War and Counter-Strike was where it was at

I recently replayed Doom 1 and 2. Still great even to this day.

Quake 2 for me, but mp didn't get real for me until CS:S... played that on dialup b/c HELL YEAH BOIS and was awesome, could only play after 7 tho because thats when the internet was free

Thought at first RPG was my thing but after Golden Eye I knew I was a FPS junky. Liked Quake a lot, liked Unreal Tournament as well but they felt too random. After I got into counter-strike a lifelong borderline obsession with FPS has consumed me

Grew up on a farm so internet wasn't an option. So I took every chance to pack my stuff up and move to friends places and lan parties. Won my first offline tournament when I was like 13 and got my first sponsor at 17, but real life kicked in around when I finished school and the team split up due to.. real... life :,(

For me the 2 FPS games that really turned me on to the genre were Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Advanced war Fighter 2 and of course counter strike. My gaming today is more varied though I LOVE Sandbox games Elder Scrolls from Morrowind to Skyrim, Fallout, Grand theft Auto (just bought GTA V for PC ), Borderlands, Was really into WoW from Vanilla to Cataclysm and have been kind of feeling the urge to start playing again. I returned my Gigabyte G1 970 due to some problems and have about $400 in Newegg credit but I have been waiting for AMD to drop there new cards for what seems like forever now. I have all these new games and things I need to finish on my main PC so I'm tempted to just say screw it and get another 970 8( I have waited this long I must resist the urge. I just went over some of my favorites and these stories bring back so many memories lol Seeing 8-16bit games now makes me giggle as I remember thinking the SNES had the sickest graphics. Great work guys and good luck everyone! 

[3Love]

Where is the winner list?

[robotox]

Man, if we're just talking about what games we loved as kids in general, there are so, so many.  All the NES Marios, my cousin and I played hours of Battletoads every Sunday when we got together at my grandma's house.  The trading and collecting and battling of the original Pokemon games.  I played Tetris, Metroid II, and Super Mario Land 2 over and over and over again on my second-hand Gameboy.  I got a Genesis with Sonic 2 for Christmas one year and played the absolute hell out of it.  All the Final Fantasy games, particularly 7, 8, and 9.  Quake, both 1 and 2, and Unreal.  Resident Evil 2, Jet Moto, etc.  I loved the two Metroid games for Gameboy Advance.  All the Mariokart games.  I could go on forever.

[nubbinator]

Where is the winner list?