The top 5 games that defined your childhood

[+GoldenWheels]

Trying to hit a title from each era of my gaming heyday....

 

1. Joust

2. Final Fantasy

3.Super Mario World

4.The AKI/Asmik wrestling series on N64

5. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2) (ok I was 23 when this came out but my then girlfriend/now wife will tell you I was still at least partly a child at the time. Probably my all time favorite game, period).

[Arkhan]

Might and Magic: World of Xeen

The entire ultima series because I played the whole damn thing in one marathon over the course of a summer so I count it as one game.

Kid Icarus

Super Mario Bros 2

Contra III: The Alien Wars

 

I have one more: Bonk's Adventure.

 

So, I have 6 games. Sue me.

[+Cafeman]

Heh, "childhood" doesn't apply so much to me, since I was probably 11 or 12 when I saw my first real videogame and 13 when I got the 2600 (which had been out a while by then). So my answers are 1980 and earlier:

 

1.and 2. coin-op Asteroids and Space Invaders. Awesome, awesome games that would be in the front of a K-mart or back of the deli store. There were no arcades yet, not that I knew of.

 

3. Shark Attack or Shark Hunt - at Conneaut Lake Park along with Ski-ball, dime peep-shows, and other redemption games in the 70's.

 

4. Merlin. Was that Mattel? I can't remember. Red hand-held with 6 built-in 'games' like tic-tac-toe and other puzzles. Looked like a big phone with push-button LED's where the phone buttons would be. I remember playing that all winter one year.

 

5. there was a wall-hanging baseball game at a local pizza place. You'd time your swing to get to base/runs/outs.

[Arkhan]

Heh, "childhood" doesn't apply so much to me, since I was probably 11 or 12 when I saw my first real videogame and 13 when I got the 2600 (which had been out a while by then). So my answers are 1980 and earlier:

 

Is this because you're older?

 

I was always a bit curious how people felt about that, having witnessed video games coming to existence at an age in which they're coherent.

 

Half the games I like were old news by the time I stopped pissing the bed!

 

They've always existed for me.

 

What did people do before video games!?

[goldenegg]

Pong - Coleco Telstar

Donkey Kong - Colecovision

Conan - Apple II

Super Mario Bros - NES

Altered Beast - Genesis

[Ransom]

1. I Am
    
   
2. So Sick
    
   
3. Of Meaningless
    
   
4. And Arbitrary
    
   
5. Numbered Lists
   

 

Beats the heck out of another SystemA vs. SystemB thread.

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600 Jungle Hunt

Atari 2600 Phoenix

Commodore 64 Wonder Boy

Commodore 64 Space Taxi

Commodore 64 Bruce Lee

 

There are countless other games, I guess... but these are the ones that came to my mind first when I thought about "games you played the shit out of back then".

 

I would have added "Monkey Island - all of them with no exception", but I discovered these pretty late in my gaming career. Technically, I wasn't really a child anymore anyway when MI 1 came out.

Edited February 11, 2013 by karokoenig

[+Cafeman]

Is this because you're older?

 

I was always a bit curious how people felt about that, having witnessed video games coming to existence at an age in which they're coherent. ...

 

Well YES, and I'd bet many of the AA forum-goers are similarly now 40+ years old. I will tell you what I've told my (game-loving) 2 boys - you just can't imagine how *exciting* it all was around 1980-83. Shopping malls were thriving and many would have 2 or even 3 arcades! And when you'd enter an arcade, there would be 30,40,50 machines. And every time you went, there'd be at least 2 new games that you never heard of. These were the days of Tempest, Centipede, Ms Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and DKjr, Track and Field, Star Wars Arcade, Q*bert, Defender, Robotron, Popeye ... the list goes on forever.

 

What did people do before video games!?

 

Before I got my first Atari, as far as 'indoor activities' are concerned, personally I would read - novelizations of films (Star Wars for example) and comic books and magazines. I regularly sat at the table to draw. I'd read and listen to music. We still had TV too , remember - but no VCR's yet. And when I was a kid I'd play with toys - Star Wars, MIcronauts, Metal Men, Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars & sets, Super-hero action figures, etc. We would play cards and board games more often that we do now. I didn't mention Pong since I never liked it much - but we had Pong too.

Edited February 11, 2013 by Cafeman

[Xtincthed]

But should we laugh at your (Game Boy) games, I mean Game Boy........

 

1: Major Matt Mason

2: Mattel Hot Wheels

3: Mattel Tingmaker (with oven)

4: Drum kit

4: Home Pong (home video games arrived when I was almost grown up)

 

haha sure you can laugh about it.. it will only hurt my feelings!

[Arkhan]

I assume there was alot of D&D going on.

 

and now everyone just plays WoW instead

[BydoEmpire]

And when I was a kid I'd play with toys - Star Wars, MIcronauts

Micronauts were AWESOME. My brother and I played with those all the time. They were great.

[DemonoidTentacle]

Oh man, Little Big Adventure 2. Damn good memories.

[cimerians]

Since I'm an old bastage:

 

Childhood Part 1:

Pac-Man

Donkey Kong

Adventure

Ultima Series

 

 

Childhood Part 2:

Super Mario Brothers\World

Tecmo Bowl

Tysons Punchout

Super Castlvania

Street Fighter II

 

Childhood Part 3:

Ultima series again

AD&D Goldbox games

Doom

Resident Evil

Final Fantasy VII

 

 

The best years for me were the golden years, something like 81'-83' when games were EVERYWERE.

Down the street at a bowling alley. All the shopping malls. Candy stores. Retail stores and even a bakery where I lived had arcade machines.

 

What an amazing time.

Edited February 13, 2013 by cimerians

[BydoEmpire]

Heh, "childhood" doesn't apply so much to me, since I was probably 11 or 12 when I saw my first real videogame and 13 when I got the 2600

I think of my "childhood" as anything under 18. =) Lately I've been finding myself referring to college age kids as, well, kids... even if they're 20. Not really fair...

[Arkhan]

I refer to everyone as dude. Even girls.

 

and even newborns and crap.

 

[AtariLeaf]

I refer to everyone as dude. Even girls.

 

and even newborns and crap.

 

 

I refer to newborns as "Lil' Asskicker"

[AtariLeaf]

Ok, finally got around to getting a video response up:

 

[+nanochess]

These are some games I remember from my childhood and were very fun (at least for me)

 

1. Donkey Kong.

2. Congo Bongo.

3. Burger Time.

4. Space Invaders.

5. King Quest.

[BydoEmpire]

I refer to newborns as "Lil' Asskicker"

Aka "where all your money and free time will be going for the next 20+ years."

 

I can't seem to edit my list, but while I played the crap out of Kid Icarus - it was one of the few games I could just continually loop - I should probably swap that with Super Mario Brothers. I bought my NES with my own money and SMB blew me away. I remember telling my grandfather "look, it's just like you're playing a cartoon!" It really felt like a new type of game to me and even though I loved my 2600 & Inty, the NES felt like a whole new world. Largely due to SMB.

Edited February 13, 2013 by BydoEmpire

[AtariLeaf]

Aka "where all your money and free time will be going for the next 20+ years."

 

 

Its a Walking Dead reference

[Austin]

In no particular order..

 

- Super Mario Bros. series (the original through Mario World)

- Mega Man series (the original through the first Mega Man X)

- Castlevania series (pretty much all of them)

- A toss-up between the Zelda and Ninja Gaiden games

- Wolfenstein 3D/DOOM (albeit I was more of a teenager when I finally got to own these)

[kadrocker]

1. Double Dragon 2 nes

2. Bionic Commando nes

3. Maniac Mansion c64

4. Kangaroo Atari 2600

5. Jumpman c64

[Torr]

Here they are in chronological order. I am counting teen years in with childhood here, since I didn't really become a video game nut until I was 9 or 10.

 

1. Alex Kidd in Miracle World

I was 9. My friend owned it and I would borrow it SOOO often. Eventually when we were teens he sold to me. Classic SMS title for good reasons, shouldn't have to explain why I loved it so much. I remember getting up at 6am (2 hours before school) just to play this game.

 

2. T2: The Arcade Game

I was 11. First game I ever played in an arcade that used a gun. I loved that rattling hunk of plastic. But damn it was hard. Even though I never even cleared the first level I loved playing this game, but about $2 was all I was willing to dump into any single machine, had to sample other greats like X-Men & Simpsons. Then I got the Menacer for the Genesis which advertised on the box a port of the arcade T2 game that could played with this very gun. A few months later I had it and that game got played to DEATH. I can remember beating hit, hitting reset and beating it again, more than once. Unfortunately since the Menacer is jittery as hell I ended up playing it with the Control Pad mostly.

 

3. Mortal Kombat (original trilogy)

I was 12. I had never heard of the arcade game, but I had just starting reading GamePro, my first issue was July '93, and the Sept '93 issue was all about Mortal Kombat. I poured over reviews and strategy guides and this game had to be mine. X-Mas of '93 I got it. I loved it. X-Mas of '94 I got MKII. Better in EVERY way. By the time MK3 rolled around I was more into PC gaming and bought very few Genesis games, but my friend had it and while it was good and we played the hell out of it too, it was no MKII. I was the only person in my group of friends who bought video game magazines and strategy guides, and since I would never let anyone borrow my books for fear of damage/destruction/etc... I remember transcribing special moves, fatalities, cheat codes, etc... for all my friends on pen and paper, and not just words, I would make them look like their own strategy guides, columns, sections, little pictures drawn in. I occasionally got to play MK arcade machines later on, the ferry boat that takes you from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia used to have arcades in them. One time I actually beat the MKII arcade version and it was an awesome feeling. I remember dying so many times on Kintaro I just gave up, but of course their was a line of other kids to play so they just kept continuing were I left off, and no one else could beat him either. When everyone finally gave up, I couldn't let the timer count away and reset the game, I HAD to try one more time. and I beat him! Then Shao Kahn was relatively easy in comparison. I remember all the SFII vs MK feuds. I was always on MK's side.

 

4. Doom

I was 13. This game needs no introduction. Long story short, it was just awesome. All I had was PC Speaker sound, but after playing at a friends house who had a sound card I knew I needed one too. We only had the shareware versions, but eventually I got a pirated full version copy from a friend. I remember when I first got the internet in '95 the first thing I looked up (after www.playboy.com, what a surprised when it worked!) were Doom WADS and a level editor. I remember DEU was supposed to be 'the best' but I always found DCK to be the better program. Me and my buddy spent a whole summer just drawing maps and then creating levels with DCK. Good times indeed. I wish I still had those old maps

 

5. Command & Conquer

I was 14. I remember getting the Demo for this on a PC Gamer demo CD. I loved it. It was like Warcaft, but a million times better. The FMV, the music, the gameplay. And this was just the demo, GDI only with just 3 missions and 2 songs. I finally got the full game and the expansion pack too when it came out. Me and a Buddy played the hell outta that game for hours almost every night. He was NOD and I was GDI and we were in a race to see who could beat the game first. I burned out my first CD-ROM drive playing that game. I remember when we would take turns and therefor have to change discs, when taking out the disc it was almost too hot to hold at times. Then it started to smoke a little. Turns out one of the diodes burst into flame or something cause when I took it apart (as I had to with everything) there was a blacker than black scorch mark and the diode in the middle of it all just crumbled when I touched it.

 

 

And these are all games I still love playing repeatedly to this day.

I have T2 set up in MAME on my computer and my nephew loves it.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Torr

[godslabrat]

This is... remarkably easy. I had a decent collection, but there are some games that I played into the ground.

 

1) Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

2) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (NES)

3) Tetris (Gameboy)

4) Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)

5) Maniac Mansion (NES)

[xDragonWarrior]

Super Mario Bros.3

Dr.mario

Mario's Time machine

Spyro year of the dragon

and Muppet race mania/Crash team racing