Your First Memorable Experience With a Videogame

[The Doctor]

So, I've been reflecting on the past recently, whipping out my N64 and going through my childhood, and it got me thinking: What is your first truly memorable experience with or in a videogame?

This isn't an "Earliest Videogame Memory" thread, True, this could be the first time you ever played a game, but in my case it's not.

I was no stranger to video games. I used to play my friend's Sega Genesis (Mega Drive) and SNES, and I had a GameBoy and Game Gear. However, my most memorable video game experience was when my brother got a Nintendo 64. More specifically, it was Super Mario 64.

Maybe that's a cliched or obvious answer, but back in ye olden daes, I was blown away. Never before had I been able to wander around with such freedom. Playing on the "big TV", soaking in the vibrant colors and general fun of the game...it was a new and powerful experience that kick-started my lifelong love affair with videogames. True, before I had LIKED them, but now I truly LOVED them.

Also ranking up there were playing Sonic and Knuckles for the first time. The game had speed, ingenuity, and fun. However it just isn't the same as Super Mario 64. I also think I played Super Mario 64 before Sonic and Knuckles, so yeah.

Anyway, what about you? How did that experience change you?

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Old School in the HOUUUSSSSEEEEE!

The Konami Kode. The first time I successfully keyed in "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START" at the beginning of Contra and saw 30 lives, I may as well have been a real life participant in Ocean's 11. Now, all of a sudden, I am unstoppable.

The Big Thing at the end of Stage 1. My first night with Contra I reached the "boss" at the end, that giant base entrace wall that had to be shot out. I killed the snipers, destoyed the gun turrets, and - had no clue that to beat it I had to shoot the red dot. My mom figured it out.

20 minutes dodging the charge. Playing Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, I reached Bald Bull. He sprang back and charge at me, and since I had no clue what was happening, my ass went down. I got up, he did it again. I tried to duck, and I went down and lost. I faced him again, and this time, I dodged. Fucker sprang back again and charged again. So I dodged. FOR TWENTY MINUTES! Finally, I got sick of dodging and just swang. Caught him square in the gut, down went fat boy. Never lost to him again.

Beating Tyson. Like Cena said on Raw. Tough as hell, but when you do it, for a 9 year old, you may as well have just beaten the real Tyson.

Just getting SMB2. I had the magazine guide before the game, so I knew the game inside out. I just needed it. It was my Easter present from the Grandparents. Best day ever.

The Red Ring. I wrote to Nintendo Power imploring them to tell me where the Red Ring was in Legend of Zelda. "In the 9th labyrinth" they tell me. Yes, schmuck-o, I know that. So I wrote back - WHERE in the 9th labyrinth. So they actually shipped me the entire, full color viewbook and walkthrough. NO SHIT. 15 minutes later, Gannon was toast.

The Shadow. Playing Adventures of Link, I could never seem to get past the first two areas. One day, I sat down, focused and determined to make some progress. That day, I went all the way to The Shadow, and he kicked my ass. I still have never beaten the game.

 

[D-Man]

Wow... I'm gonna blow all of your minds and simultaneously date myself by saying this, but my first experience with video games was on a... <gulp>... COLECOVISION gaming console.

The name of the game was Venture.

Yes, it quite possibly could have been the worst game ever created... but somehow it hooked me in. Basically, you were a smiley face with a bow & arrow attached to your head and you had to run around a dungeon collecting treasures and killing enemies. Something about this game wouldn't allow me to put it down and it was one of the most difficult games that I had ever played... even to this day.

 

[Super Hans]

my earliest memory was sonic the original 1,i had the mega drive,i used to play this game every day once i completed it,i was then transfixed on what i think was a very underrated game.Michael Jackson.Moonwalker.it was the fuckin nuts!

 

[Blade]

Christmas 1994... Or 95, my memory of dates isn't that great. But I remember that Christmas Day very well. Me and my brother opened up a shiny new SNES. My brother was marking out like the crazy 8 year old he was, but I wasn't sure what the big deal was. Until that day, I'd never played a video game before. Yes, this isn't only my first memorable experience with games, it was my first experience with games ever.

So yeah, we set that bad boy up and slotted in the Mario All-Stars Cartridge... Ahh, cartridges. Flicked it on, found the right channel and I picked up the controller for the moment that would change my life forever. I played the first level of Super Mario World and I was just blown away. My tiny little 3 or 4 year old brain was trying to figure out how jumping over stuff as a fat red guy somehow managed to be awesome, but awesome it certainly was. I always remember that christmas better than any christmas from my childhood.

 

[Leafy]

I remember it was Christmas day and I walk downstairs and found my new Gameboy Color. That green handheld is what got me hooked on video games. The combination of the sheer awesomeness of the Gameboy and the amazing game that is Pokemon Gold.

That day I got Tomb Raider, Mario, and Gold. Mario and Raider were okay but Pokemon is the game that never let me drop that Gameboy. I played that game over and over again, trying to beat my last time and it was fun ever time. I still hold Gold as my favorite game ever.

 

[Scotty]

Easy, it was either when I beat Super Mario Brothers for the NES or when I beat Donkey Kong on Super Nintendo. Both of those days changed my life as a game enthusiast. I remember playing those games all day every day and when I finally beat them I bragged about that for weeks.

 

[lghikas]

OOO wow talk about a trip down memory lane, the first thing I really remember would be playing Sega, although I have no idea what it was called just that it was some adapter that the games would change every 2 weeks or so. I used to wake up earlier on days there would be new games and check some of them out before I would get ready to go to school. As for some of the games I really only remember....Earthworm Jim??? some Zombie game, wait no that was for the NES, A Bear game and Echo the Dolphin???.

Then of course we had the Messiah of all football games in my opinion TECMO Super Bowl. Where Bo Jackson is pretty much Judge Jury and Executioner if you are a Raider fans. Or maybe Randal...uhhh I mean Eagles QB or maybe the HOFer Joe Montana. The on the other side of the ball you had LT who is really the only one who could catch Bo, although I disagree. And the Ball Hawking Rod Woodson.

Then another game that where big for me was Final Fantasy although I don't remember much playing the originals games as much as I do remember playing Mystic Quest a game that still haunts me today because I played it so much and yet to beat it.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I have so many amazing memories with video games.... I'll share both my first memory of video games and as well as my most memorable one.

My earliest memory of video games (and quite possibly my earliest memory of all) goes all the way back to before I could even talk. My family was visiting friends of my parents'. My older sister and I went up into their attic and she started playing Mario Bros 1 on their NES. Then my sister handed me an NES controller saying "Here, I'll be Mario, YOU be Luigi". That had to have been around 22 years ago, and I've lost most of the memory after that, but it's one of my oldest memories.

Fast forward to 1991. I rented and played Final Fantasy 4 (then known as FF2 on the SNES.... and the game that my sig's pic is from) and it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how the game worked at first because I didn't quite understand the genre yet. (I was only 5 at the time) At first I thought that I was Cecil and I had to defeat all the monsters before Kain did lol.... but I figured out how the game worked after a few minutes of playing around and my love for RPG's was officially born. It was the first game I remember not being able to ever stop playing. I always had to get my guys up to the next level, always had to beat the next boss, see what the next place looked like, and really liked all the music in the game. Then I was upset that I had to bring the game back to the store, I wanted to keep playing! Every day at recess I would be re-enacting cool scenes from the game with friends. Then a few months later I finally got my own copy and invited a friend to stay overnight that night. We were up ALL NIGHT playing FF4, I kid you not, non-stop. It was awesome, and to this day that is still one of my most treasured memories.

Ironically enough, a similar scenario ended up happening in 1997 when FF7 came out. A couple of guys from school and I got together that weekend to see my friend's new copy of FF7.... We played Goldeneye on the 64 that night too, ended up alternating between the two games and stayed up all night playing them. Both went on to become part of my list of all-time favorite video games. That weekend was another one of my favorite memories. History basically repeated itself from what happened in the FF4 memory, which added to the awesomeness.

 

[One Punch Doug Crashin]

This is gonna go back a few years. GREAT THREAD DOC!

The earliest memory I ever had playing a video game was at age 5 in New York Presbyterian hospital. I was in the hospital for my second Open Heart surgery to insert a Shunt. After the surgery the nurses would take me to the entertainment room where they had a TV and a "gasp* NES and the first ever Super Mario game. I wasn't very good at it but the older kids that were there helped me out. Fun times I even got a Little Tykes car that my aunt bought me as a gift to wheel around the floor.

 

[Mr. TM]

I would have to say it was at the dentist office when I was a wee thing. Smart move by the dentist, he had an Atari for his patients to play with before their check ups. I would save the word of impeding asteroids, then he would save my teeth of plaque. It was a team play really.

My next would be my parents playing with the NEW before I could play with it. I used to love the game Adventures of Lolo, as did my mom, so I watched that before I could play it.

 

[Agent_Bond34]

My first experience with a game goes back to the days of NES in the mid-80s when I was about 5 or 6, I forget how old.

I remember popping in the SMB/Duck Hunt game and having a blast with it, even though I struggled with it at first.

Then of course, there were also games later that generation such as TMNT, SMB2, SMB3, etc.

Good times.

 

[ABMorales787]

I've mentioned my first many times in other threads, so I'll move on to #2.

Back in '97 the N64 was blazing trails through the gaming world. It featured a huge array of multi-player games and my and my family took full notice. Every month my grandmother and her son would come down from San Juan (2 1/2 from my house). We'd all meet at her sister's house and spend the whole day there. While the adults were drinking and talking, us kids (about 10 of us) were in the living room, playing all sorts of games. Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Snowboard Kids, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Super Smash Bros., Goldeneye. Yup, name it and it was there. It easily goes down as one of my biggest gaming experience as well as a big part of my youth.

 

[Kayoh]

My most memorable experience is also my first experience. I was a late bloomer, apparently - I wasn't exposed to the idea that I could actually have my very own video games until I was 8 or 9 years old. Up until then I had only played games on my step father's super nintendo, and I guess I thought it was something that only adults could actually own. LOL!

I remember it, though, because the first video game I ever got my hands on was Pokemon Red (I also got Blue on the same day - christmas of '98). I turned it on and could not figure out how to get out of my house. HAH! There wasn't a door! Just a door mat that I tried walking ON, but not THROUGH. Man...I was soooooooooooooo angry at that game for the first 10-15 minutes until I figured out how to walk through the door.

lmao...good times.

 

[bigmo]

My first experience of a game was when I was 5. I believe my mum bought me a N64. However this was not just any N64 but one with 15 games, a printer and a transfer pack so I could play pokemon yellow on a TV. Moreover my cousins would bring there controllers over to my house on the weekend and we would play super smash bros. all night long.

 

[MasterShakeIz4Real]

Easily, the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. That game, is the game I'm known for. When i first played it, I was pretty bad at it, but then after awhile, I started getting ahead of everyone I knew that had it. It took me... 4-5 months to beat it. But I was the first to beat it out of my school/friends/anyone that I knew. I just remember being so captivated by the story, like nothing about it was bad to me. It was just 10/10 to me.

Years later when master Quest was released on Gamecube, I got to relive that moment. Except the game was harder. That took me a week to beat... now, I can beat Master Quest in a weekend...

How the Ocarina of Time changed me? Puzzles are no longer difficult, battles are never hard, and the gaming experience can only be maxed out by the story. Meaning if the story sucks, the game sucks and before Ocarina; that never mattered. So yeah, Ocarina of Time (And Majora's Mask btw ^__^)

 

[Mitch Henessey]

My first memorable experience with a video game has to be when I defeated the Emperor Palpatine on Return Of The Jedi for Super Nintendo. As a kid I was so excited to get this game because I was and still am a huge fan of Star Wars. Beating Darth Vader wasn't too hard, but the Emperor was a real test. Even after I beat him, trying to escape the Death Star as it was exploding was almost harder. After a couple of weeks, I managed to beat these two missions, and I was very relieved.

 

[Tastycles]

My earliest memory is probably playing on Donkey Kong 3 on the NES, or my dad getting oil on the NES controller, but my earliest memorable experience is playing on Donkey Kong Country 2 on New Years Eve. It must have been when I was about 7 or 8, and it was the first time I'd stayed up after midnight. It was my birthday, and I remember playing on it with my eyes keep closing. Nothing to sensational, just a nice memory, as it is one of the few I have of my birthday when my mother was around.

 

[Slowdude]

Back in 99 - 00 I use to just play Crash Bandicoot, Crash Team Racing all day long. I loved that game so much it was the only game (Back then) that I ever managed to finish 100%. I loved that game so much. Man I wish i still had it, I really need to get myself a copy of E-Bay or something one day. I don't remember why I don't have it now, what ever. Man I loved that game.

 

[Барбоса]

I can remember playing Mario Brothers on the NES but my most memorable early memory of gaming was finally beating the Germans in World Cup Football on the NES. Slide tackling and shoulder charging past the German midfield and then timing the use of my limited number of super strikes (A+B together at the same time) to be able to outlast my opponents.