[ibook_steve]

I'm in a group called Toastmasters where we deliver speeches and learn communication skills. Today, I was in charge of Table Topics: short impromptu speeches about a given topic. The topic I came up with had to do with the fact that Super Mario Bros. turns 25 this year and Pac-Man turned 30 (I mentioned the Google playable Pac-Man from earlier this year; millions of hours of productivity wasted)! I'm 37 and I relayed my stories about having a pre-Atari 2600 Odyssey-like console that had basically just Pong and a big light rifle and how I played arcade games at the bowling alley when I was in a league as a kid. I have so many fond gaming memories (VCS, Atari 400, Vectrex, NES, SNES, arcade, etc.) and I thought the people in my Toastmasters group would have something similar or at least had hung out with people who played.

Apparently not. One older guy who spoke seemingly hasn't played a single video game in the past 30 years. One girl presented a halfway decent story about SMB3, the only game she's ever played, and another guy talked about his marathon 12 hour Resident Evil 2 session when his wife was out of town.

But I'd love to hear any similar stories from forum members, especially from the distant past (ie late 70's through 90's). My wife just doesn't get gaming making it difficult to talk about or how much it has meant to me over the years (not to mention making it difficult to find time to play).

Bring on the stories if you've got them!

Steve

[sek929]

I started playing on an Atari 2600 at my grandmothers house. She had dozens of games but me and my sister loved Joust which, to this day, is a game that makes absolutely no sense at all.

When I was around 8 or so my best friend at the time had a dad who worked in some aspect of the tech sector. I remember playing games like the original Duke Nukem side-scroller, Commander Keen, and of course Wolfenstein and the Doom series.

See, I never got video game systems. My parents were lower middle class and decided to buy me things like shoes and school supplies in lieu of Mario Brothers. Luckily, I had alot of friends who owned all sorts of systems. A quick rundown of the systems I've played and memorable games...

NES - Mario Brothers 2
Sega master system - Afterburner
Genesis - College Football National Championship
SNES - Super Metroid (my favorite game of all time)
PS1 - FFVII
Atari Jaguar - Don't even remember the games
Virtual Boy - That awful "3D" Wario game
Sega Saturn - Wipeout (actually pretty damn fun)
PS2 - Played way to much GTA III

From then on I started to buy my own systems. The N64 was my first new system. After seeing 007 Goldeneye in action I simply had to have it. The Xbox was next. After seeing Halo CE in action I had to have it.

Games have shaped a large amount of my youth, and I continue to favor them over mostly any other form of entertainment out there. I feel an engrossing game can give far more enjoyment than old-skool media (TV, Movies) and in the end tell a unique story that you yourself participate in.

Over the years I continue to wonder, what would I have thought when I was 8 if I saw what current games do? I was blown away, I mean really blown away even playing SMB3. The way games have matured into blockbuster cinematic experiences that last dozens of hours simply astounds me. Games like Portal, Bioshock, Half Life 2, Fallout 3, Metro 2033 all rely heavily on storytelling and narrative. Sometimes a story and setting are compelling enough to make up for the fact that most of those games are just running around shooting things.

I'm not quite old enough to remember Colecovision and the like, but I was pretty much raised in the infancy of video gaming and am still preset for its adolescence. Games, as an artistic medium, may be scoffed at by some but IMHO they show more originality than anything Hollywood has done in a decade.

[ghporter]

First, Toastmasters is a great way to learn to talk in groups.

I was once addicted to Wolfenstein 3D. I'd play it really, really often, spending hours at it. I even used it as a demo for how "realistic" virtual environments can cause vertigo and motion sickness (computer science program-loved it!).

My wife and I spent lots of "together time" on our separate computers playing Wolfenstein, and for a long time we'd keep our son, who was fairly young when we started playing, from seeing the "gory bits" or even catching us playing at all. Turns out that wasn't a big deal, but he has been a gamer as much as possible ever since.

[andi*pandi]

First experiences. I was allowed to go to Laverdiere's Drug Store while my mom grocery shopped next door; they had a mini-arcade in the back with centipede, pac-man, and ms pacman.

7th grade, signing up to waste recess on one of those text-based games. It took most of recess to load from tape, and then we always got stuck on the parachute puzzle. Don't remember which game it was.

The kids I babysat had donkey kong on coleco. After they got sent to bed I got to play.

My cousin had pong, which was boring.

Then we got Intellivision for Christmas in 8th grade. Tanks, Space invaders, all kinds of goodness. Wasted a lot of time after school on that.

Not much until after college when my roommate got a Sega and we played Sonic and Tails. Then I got an LCIII and struggled to make it run 7th guest and other mac games.

[sek929]

I also remember my other friend getting Myst to run on an old Performa by literally turning off every extension that didn't keep the system going. It still crashed all the time.

[boy8cookie]

The first game I remember playing is Super Mario World on the SNES. I sucked at it. My friend got a Playstation and we spent hours playing Marvel vs Capcom, then we'd go outside and reenact the fights. Shortly thereafter I got my first computer and started playing warcraft 2 and diablo. I wasted hours of my life and nearly failed high school playing Diablo 2. I also remember fondly having time to play Halo: Reach.

[subego]

We had two arcades.

The arcade in the mall was "wholesome". It even had a security guard who did double duty exchanging bills to use in the token machine.

Elevator Action. Tron. Q-Bert (remember the "thunk" it made after you fell?)

They had those out-of-control pinball machines too, desperately trying to compete. The one I remember was 8-Ball Deluxe, or "8-Ball Deee-Lux!" as it would randomly proclaim in a hillbilly drawl. A much more stern hillbilly would admonish you to "stop talkin' and start chalkin'".

Time Flight. Mappy. Gorf ("you are a space ca-det!")

Dragon's Lair... That was special. It always had a crowd gathered around it, both to play, and to try and memorize the moves. People would stack so many tokens it would start blocking the screen. I'd always get killed halfway through the Black Knight.


The other arcade was the less wholesome one. The cesspit of humanity one. Thick smoke. Mullets. Three (count 'em) Pac-Man cabinets, and two Ms. Pac-Mans. Ladies of the evening.

It always felt like evening in an arcade.

Satan's Hollow. Paperboy. Crazy Climber (the bird... it craps on you!)

There was a girl who could play Crazy Climber forever on a single token, cigarette dangling out of her mouth. When the machine finally won (they always did), she put in "XTC". Every high-score on Crazy Climber was "XTC". 

Moon Patrol. Battlezone, Omega Race (who are these SEGA people?)

The only time I was ever grounded was after I went there without telling anyone, and clutching the princely sum of $20. Five hours isn't that long, now is it?  

Sinistar.