Video Games

Why not?

Before I was a racer, a gunner, a fisherman, or a jock, I was a gamer. I grabbed my first, one-button Atari controller somewhere around the age of 3 and I've never looked back. Since then, I don't think there's been a single generation of consoles that I've missed. From Atari to Sega Master System, on to the Genesis, then to PS1 and PS2, before finally finishing up with the last two iterations of Xbox. And, of course, playing every version of Nintendo from NES to now the Wii, and even some Jaguar, Neo Geo, and Turbo Graphix 16 peppered in here or there. Every single phase of my life has included one video game or another.

So why not a thread for it? Great games of the past, great games now, how DLC killed the consoles, games as art, what you're playing, what you'll never play again, whatever you want to talk about; here's a thread for it.

C'mon. I know I'm not the only one here =)

I liked the Zelda games in the old Nintendo and Super Nintendo. I also played some Mario with my sister.

On PC I would pay Roller Coaster Tycoon for hours and hours. Later on the Sims, and even the Sims 2.

Now I waste time with casual games and Candy Crush.

Quote: Nareed

I liked the Zelda games in the old Nintendo and Super Nintendo.

Oh, Zelda. I could wax poetically for hours on just this series.

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past was my intro to RPG's, and the first time a game made me sit there and just say "whoa". They, and I mean all of them, are just so well done. From the story to character progression to sense of accomplishment, they tick all the boxes. And it's widespread, too, to the point that certain parts of the games are now parts of I and my peer's lexicon. To this day, we still use the phrase "Water Temple", often by itself, to describe a task or event that was so brain-breakingly frustrating you wanted to die. "Hey, you ever get that desk assembled?" "Dude...#$%^ing Water Temple", and everyone knows exactly what you mean. That's powerful stuff.

And the music... my god, the music. I am dead serious when I've said that I want the theme played at my funeral. Guys like Koji Kondo deserve every bit of praise and wonder that we give to the likes of Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach...



I get full body chills and eyes full of tears every time. How can you not? It's just so EPIC.

Elite, for the Commodore 64. Probably laughable compared to the games of today, but at the time it really stood out from the rest. It is even more impressive now, considering the whole thing has to fit in about 48k.

Quote: Face

Oh, Zelda. I could wax poetically for hours on just this series.

I played only the first three. Two on NES, one on Super NES. The latter one was the best.

Quote: Dalex64

Elite, for the Commodore 64. Probably laughable compared to the games of today, but at the time it really stood out from the rest. It is even more impressive now, considering the whole thing has to fit in about 48k.

I don't remember it.

A friend did have a Commodore 64 and lots of games. I recall Summer Games, Winter Games, Jumpman, and one of the first "3D" games, Zaxon.

At home I had an Apple ][e with a few games. My favorites were Castle Wolfenstein 2 (you got to kill Hitler!!!) and Lode Runner.

Quote: Dalex64

Elite, for the Commodore 64. Probably laughable compared to the games of today, but at the time it really stood out from the rest. It is even more impressive now, considering the whole thing has to fit in about 48k.

If you can find it, somewhere there's a great description of the crazy algorithms they used to compact down all the variety into a very small data set... each planet was unpacked from one or two bytes using a recursive algorithm to create all the detail.

Quote: Nareed

I played only the first three. Two on NES, one on Super NES. The latter one was the best.

Yup. That was likely "Link to the Past", a legendary game. You should have kept going. They're still cranking out quality Zelda games to this day.

Quote: Nareed

A friend did have a Commodore 64 and lots of games. I recall Summer Games, Winter Games, Jumpman, and one of the first "3D" games, Zaxon.

Summer Games! I used to kill countless hours in the computer lab playing this. Between the javelin throw and the pole vault, I was set for life. It is just about the only thing I remember from all those days in 4th grade =)

Quote: Face

Yup. That was likely "Link to the Past", a legendary game.

There were two "worlds" and you moved between them largely by using a mirror, but I think only from certain places. Some puzzles had to be solved partly in one world and partly in the other.

Quote:

You should have kept going. They're still cranking out quality Zelda games to this day.

My sister had the NES and the Super NES. After that we both stopped playing. I got into PC games about then, too.

The first Zelda, if memory serves, had a gold-colored cartridge, and it was the first such game capable of saving your progress.

Quote:

It is just about the only thing I remember from all those days in 4th grade =)

There was some controversy about how to keep the swimmers underwater longer. I think it was random.

Quote: Nareed

I don't remember it.

A friend did have a Commodore 64 and lots of games. I recall Summer Games, Winter Games, Jumpman, and one of the first "3D" games, Zaxon.

At home I had an Apple ][e with a few games. My favorites were Castle Wolfenstein 2 (you got to kill Hitler!!!) and Lode Runner.

I played a lot of Castle Wolfensein and Decathlon on the Apple in the early 1980's. My first console was the Magnavox Odyssey with the tennis game (I think that was prior to Atari Pong). My last console was the 2600. Once I started programming I lost interest in playing games because I spent so much time writing them.