Buying Games Like It's 1989

I remember the process of buying games when I was a kid. I would get birthday/Christmas/babysitting/lawn mowing money and head to Toys R Us or Babbage's to get a new games. There was no internet to hype games months or even years before their release. At the most, there were a few magazines of varying quality (EGM, GamePro, Nintendo Power, etc.) On the surface, buying games seemed like a complete crap shoot. I'd spend a fair amount of time in the store, examining the screen shots on the back of the box, reading the description, and comparing the prices. That was research, or as close I got to it.

The amazing part is that I firmly believe that my success rate of picking games I genuinely enjoyed was higher back then than it is today. I remember taking flyers on games such as Blaster Master, Life Force, Cobra Triangle, Final Fantasy, Shadow Dancer, and ThunderForce III. Heck, even the lesser picks, like Fester's Quest and Sword of Vermillion, provided hours of fun.

Today, I am so influenced by hype, despite trying to avoid it, that I wind up buying many "next big things" only to be disappointed. For every Uncharted that meets and exceeds expectations, there are seemingly two or three Lost Planets that I try to convince myself I am enjoying, when I know quite the contrary is true. Admittedly, there are external factors, such as raised expectations, shortened attention span due to more buying power, and a better understanding of who develops what.

Perhaps this is simply a real life playing out of the loss of innocence archetype. Maybe it's just the inevitable missing of the "good old days".

I'm sure many of you can relate. Perhaps this is true as well:

"The good old day weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."

It was easier to like a not so great game back then because if we bought it we were gonna have to play that shit for a few months until we could get something else. Games don't mean shit anymore because we have SO MANY at our disposal.

The increase of information sources is a good thing, but the internet makes objectivity and avoiding spoilers a pain in the ass.

Most of the time, the speed at which hype dissipates after a game's release is directly proportional to its quality. The "next big thing" reveals its true nature soon enough.

I very rarely buy new releases. They're too expensive and there hasn't been enough time for the spread of trustworthy information. This means having to wait, which is tough sometimes, but it ends up being the right decision - at least for me.

I was super-hyped for the release of FEAR Files, but I decided to wait for opinions to filter down. I'm glad I did, because I'm definitely waiting for a price drop.

And to be honest, despite the overdrive hype machine, there have been very few earth-shattering titles this generation.

Certainly we were all less discriminating as kids, though.

In 1989 I pretty much bought any Sega Master System game I could find that I didn't own already. Somehow I did know when there was something really special. I remember Phantasy Star costing a lot more than other games at the flea market (which I think meant it was $10. No more than $15) and having to borrow a few dollars from my father to get it because I somehow knew, even having never played an RPG before, that this game was something special that I had to have.

By 1989 I had a pretty good idea of what to buy. I read mags for reviews (and knew to avoid trash like Nintendo Power), had a lot of people I could borrow NES and SMS games from, pirating Commodore games was still commonplace in my high school, rental places were nearby, Compucentre let me try any game I wanted on the new TG16 and Genesis systems.

There were a few games I bought from looking at the box but for me that was more in the early-mid '80s than the late '80s.

Today the hype factor is amplified but I think I'm cautious enough to not let it get to me too much.

The way I figured out if a game was worth owning was by standing outside Babbages in the Annapolis Mall and watching those two TVs they had on a loop showing game footage.

That or asking around the arcade.

Typing the word "arcade" made me all nostalgic. Kids today really don't know what they're missing.

I knew what to buy and I still ended up with Astyanax instead of Contra or Sunsoft Batman. I read a glowing preview in EGM (or was it Gamepro?) and passed an Astyanax machine at the mall arcade on the way to the store and somehow got it in my head that this was going to be the next big thing and I bought the (completely different) NES version sight unseen.

But I also bought Destiny of An Emperor having never seen or heard of it before solely on the basis of the box making it look cool, and I loved the shit out of that game. It practically changed my life. So I guess these things balance out.

I got burned by NES Astyanax, too (although at least I got it used for fairly cheap). The arcade version is actually pretty good.

I got some shit ass side scrolling shooter that started with a C once instead of Cobra Triangle. I was pissed off for, like, 5 months.

Anyone played Cobra Triangle recently? Is it still awesome?

One thing I do know is that I have not had more fun with games than this half of this year.

I bought a lot of shitty games back then, I seemed to get the winners on Christmas and birthdays. Going by the back of a box led me down some bad buying decisions.

I remember having to make a very specific list of games for my mom and dad so that I wouldn't end up with crap games. I would highlight games I wanted in my Nintendo Power. Man, I remember the wonderful day each month when I would get the new issue. I would read that shit and pour over the pages for HOURS. They knew how to hype up a game until I thought I would explode if I didn't get it.

The age dynamic is interesting. Josh and I are almost exactly the same age and have very similar memories. NeoZeedeater is a bit older and was making different types of decisions by then. I believe animegirl is younger, so she would have likely had less access to money and would have to be more selective.

Buy Contra 4. Totally serious. First game in five years I've had no problems with. I'll be playing it next month and still loving it.

edit-o-rama:

I remember mowing yards for games. Saved up enough to buy Ghostbusters for the NES, $50 bucks or so?, was totally stoked opening that awesome Ghostbusters logo-on-black box on the drive home and reading the manual, imagining how awesome it was going to be...

You probably know the rest if you've played it.

It pretty much convinced me to read up on games first in EGM and then GameFan after that. GameFan then convinced me not to buy magazines. :D

I remember buying games that way, most at Toys R Us. But the best games were either recommended by friends or brought over to my house as a rental. Ghosts N Goblins was recommended by a friend who liked D&D. MegaMan was brought over by a friend who was renting it.

Apparently EGM came out in 1989. I didn't catch the first issue or two, but I was there near the beginning. I remember seeing an issue on the stand and realizing I'd found something very special. So at least at that point, I was reading the review scores and they affected my purchases.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

The age dynamic is interesting. Josh and I are almost exactly the same age and have very similar memories. NeoZeedeater is a bit older and was making different types of decisions by then. I believe animegirl is younger, so she would have likely had less access to money and would have to be more selective.

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I'm younger, but my experience was different because I shopped exclusively second-hand. I don't think I bought a game new at a game store before like... Vectorman, I think. edit: Maybe Skitchin'. It was mid-Genesis-era, anyway.

So I could get games for like $5, sometimes relatively new ones. I had more games than any kid I knew. NES and it's new games that you could buy at stores? That was the sucker's bet.

I don't think I knew you could buy used games until well into the Super NES phase of things. I did most of my early new-game playing with friends or rentals from this awesome video store / pizza place in south Florida.

I do remember not being able to play the original Contra at home because my mom thought it had something to do with Iran-Contra. Super C? No problem. :D

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Originally Posted by Josh

Anyone played Cobra Triangle recently? Is it still awesome?

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Yes. I played it a few months ago, and its still awesome :) It beats out "Captain Skyhawk"...

I think this thread has done nothing but convince me to trade my copy of "Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicle" for "Contra 4." I've been spending my last five "gaming hours" trying to convince myself that I like RE: UC, but I just can't get into it. There is no use wasting my time trying to like a game when I could be playing one that I'll probably just flat out enjoy :)

I still have the about the same ratio for picking up turds as I did in 89, but now there's the ten day return policy.

There was this chain of large drug stores called Phar-Mor around here when I was a kid and they had a NES & VHS rental section in the back. You could get games for 5 days at $0.50 a pop. I tried out almost every game before I bought them with just a few exceptions (Dragon Warrior, Castlevania & Mario sequels).

I remember they day that the local video rental place ("Talk of the Town") started renting games. It was like the greatest day of my life. Got to play so many games because of that. That was right around the time Genesis came out.

A lot of the games I wound up with in the Atari/NES days I enjoyed at the time but in hindsight probably shouldn't have (Star Voyager, Linking Logic, Jaws, etc.) I think not having a choice but to play whatever I got forced me to find enjoyment in less than perfect games.

I played the hell out of Jaws, convinced you could arrow the shark to death.

I still can't believe Westone of all developers made a game as weak as Jaws.

I didn't know Westone made Jaws. That game sucked. I remember we had a high score competition, and the winner was just they guy who had the patience to play it for 4 hours straight.

I blinded buy Megaman, Zanac and many Konami NES games, and they were awesome. But then, I bought a few stinkers like Deadly Tower, Legacy of the Wizard, and Friday The 13th, and that wasn't so good. It is hit or miss, I think I rely mostly on the publisher to determine if a game is good.

There was a really good mail order magazine called "Computer Games Entertainment" and it had really good reviews (and deals too since you can order games from them directly for great prices).

This thread just made me think of Dynowarz. Damn it.

I took whatever garbage I could find up until about the Saturn era. There were always standout NES/Genesis titles that I wound up with, but I also rented and borrowed a lot of crap.

Lots of renting back then. I rarely actually got games outside of birthdays/christmas.

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Originally Posted by magnifiedplaid

I think this thread has done nothing but convince me to trade my copy of "Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicle" for "Contra 4." I've been spending my last five "gaming hours" trying to convince myself that I like RE: UC, but I just can't get into it. There is no use wasting my time trying to like a game when I could be playing one that I'll probably just flat out enjoy :)

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Your complaining about RE:UC has kept me from opening my copy for a week now. I think I'm just going to return it. I was going to pick up Mario & Sonic because the g/f would play it, but the word on that is mixed too. I still haven't bought Prime 3; for some reason I'm just not compelled to spend $50 on it. I need to try Mass Effect and see if I like it.

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Originally Posted by Tain

I took whatever garbage I could find up until about the Saturn era. There were always standout NES/Genesis titles that I wound up with, but I also rented and borrowed a lot of crap.

Lots of renting back then. I rarely actually got games outside of birthdays/christmas.

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Yeah, in the Genesis days it got a little harder for me to buy games for nothing, since people actually wanted Genesis games (whereas people couldn't unload their SMS stuff fast enough). I still bought used games, but I also had to rent a lot. The sad side effect is that I ended up not owning a lot of great games that I managed to beat on a rental. I'd regret that later.

Back then you would play the games, whether they were fun or not. The amount of time I wasted on shitty Sinclair Spectrum games... It boggles the mind!

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

I still can't believe Westone of all developers made a game as weak as Jaws.

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Blasphemy! Jaws is one of the Best Worst Games of all time.

Back on topic.

I didn't buy many games but, like Josh posted, I played the hell out of the ones I did own. I was that kid who spent half of his childhood in the pink puff room waiting for the pink tail and trying to get all the worthless call spells in FFIV. And when the SNES games sometimes cost $70 (which is a helluva lot of lawns btw) who could afford to buy more than a few a year?

Oddly enough, when I did start having enough money to buy games when I wanted I splurged on a SegaCD. That may have been the first time I bought games and didn't play them. Maybe because the sucked ass (Nighttrap anyone) or because I started finding other things to do with my time. This is a trend that, unfortunately, continues today. Hell, I still haven't finished Halo3 or GoW yet =/

I was a big renter in '89. My video place (Movie World) had pretty much everything EXCEPT for Genesis stuff, so I had to rely on EGM and buy genesis games blindly based on EGM. Usually it was ok, just sometimes it wasn't. I was obsessed alot more then than I am now. I played relentlessly then and bought alot of stuff. I did lots of grass cutting for my gaming habit.

I'd say the biggest turd I ever bought blindly was probably Storm Lord because I thought it'd be like Ghouls and Ghosts(how wrong I was)

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Originally Posted by Rumpy

I remember they day that the local video rental place ("Talk of the Town") started renting games.

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Talk of the Town in cherry hill?

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

I'm younger, but my experience was different because I shopped exclusively second-hand. I don't think I bought a game new at a game store before like... Vectorman, I think. edit: Maybe Skitchin'. It was mid-Genesis-era, anyway.

So I could get games for like $5, sometimes relatively new ones. I had more games than any kid I knew. NES and it's new games that you could buy at stores? That was the sucker's bet.

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That's actually awesome. I remember getting an SMS in a trade for some basketball cards. I wanted one because everyone else had an NES, and I wanted to be an asshole. So much has changed...

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Originally Posted by Six

Oddly enough, when I did start having enough money to buy games when I wanted I splurged on a SegaCD. That may have been the first time I bought games and didn't play them. Maybe because the sucked ass (Nighttrap anyone) or because I started finding other things to do with my time. This is a trend that, unfortunately, continues today. Hell, I still haven't finished Halo3 or GoW yet =/

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If I remember correctly, the Sega CD came out about 5 months after I turned 16, so I had my first real job. Each store in St. Louis got three, and they were all sold out, except a Kay Bee that had its shipment get misrouted. I was standing in the store waiting for the box to arive and paid with 16 crisp $20 bills. I honestly never regretted that for a minute.

I remember taking my first check from working at my uncle's horse farm and buying Double Dragon II for the NES, man that game ruled!

I spent my bar mitzvah money on a 32X when it first came out. That wasn't a smart move. Never did get another 32/64bit system. I just heard "You already got a 32X." Good thing I had a nice computer.

I played Double Dragon 2 on NES every day after school for months. I couldn't get enough of that helicopter level.

Wow. I was in college by the time 32-bit hit. My dorm room was the place to be, since I had a Jag, Neo CD, Saturn, PS1, and N64. Mario Kart 64 probably got the most multiplayer play time.

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

I spent my bar mitzvah money on a 32X when it first came out. That wasn't a smart move. Never did get another 32/64bit system. I just heard "You already got a 32X." Good thing I had a nice computer.

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I begged for months to get a 32X for Christmas, probably more than for any other gift ever. I spent that Christmas playing Afterburner (which ruled) and that hideous sci-fi themed fighting game. The next year I did have a lot of fun with the 32X (Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, BC Racers) but in the end I was so pissed off that Sega dropped it (after insisting it was the real deal) that I skipped Saturn entirely. I started to get urges for Saturn pretty bad, but I held out until Mario 64 showed up in the local Toys R Us kiosk and blew my fucking mind.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

The age dynamic is interesting. Josh and I are almost exactly the same age and have very similar memories. NeoZeedeater is a bit older and was making different types of decisions by then. I believe animegirl is younger, so she would have likely had less access to money and would have to be more selective.

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chalk me into the 28 crowd as well. i pretty much agree with what Josh already said. normally we had to EARN our games (at least i did) any way we would and sometimes that mant begging mom for extra money. it was very rare for me to get more than 3 NEW games a year and this mant once i bought it i HAD to play the hell out of it. usually if it was a bad game that ended up meaning i would find way to break it (figuratively, not literally) and would play it for hours upon hours doing so.

at the same time now i agree with Yoshi in that i am much more fickle and tend to look at games under a microscope now. it's almost like i go out of my way to find reasons for a game to not be fun. we started the family on the 2600 but what i remember the most is being one of three kids in my class that had a Master System and i had a lot of friends that had TONS of NES games. when we'd get together everybody would talk about the latest NES game while i sat and watched them play. it wasn't until my one buddy played Punch Out and Jaws religiously that i got an NES. i was never as good at Punch Out as he was but at least then we could borrow games and my grandma was the one who would rent m a game every week.

sometimes now i actively tend to stay away from the internet for game related purposes. it will be much easier since all have now is my new PC and a Modded [x].

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Wow. I was in college by the time 32-bit hit. My dorm room was the place to be, since I had a Jag, Neo CD, Saturn, PS1, and N64. Mario Kart 64 probably got the most multiplayer play time.

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haha, same here. i had to be the only person on campus with a modded Saturn. EVERYbody came in to play the 4-meg fighters.

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

Talk of the Town in cherry hill?

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No, pretty sure they were a chain though.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

If I remember correctly, the Sega CD came out about 5 months after I turned 16, so I had my first real job. Each store in St. Louis got three, and they were all sold out, except a Kay Bee that had its shipment get misrouted. I was standing in the store waiting for the box to arive and paid with 16 crisp $20 bills. I honestly never regretted that for a minute.

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Holy shit, the Sega CD cost that much when it came out? I got the second version for christmas, it came with sewer shark (I played the shit out of that game). Don't remember how much it was at that time. I remember debating over buying a FMV fighting game (can't remember the name of it) and Eternal Champions CD. I'm pissed to this day that I didn't buy EC. The other game sucked donkey dick.

Yep. It was $300. Missouri tax was 6%, so it was $318.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

If I remember correctly, the Sega CD came out about 5 months after I turned 16, so I had my first real job. Each store in St. Louis got three, and they were all sold out, except a Kay Bee that had its shipment get misrouted. I was standing in the store waiting for the box to arive and paid with 16 crisp $20 bills. I honestly never regretted that for a minute.

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aside from the pretty bad pack-in games (that i was forced to play until i bought Willy Beamish) i never regretted it either. then of course, when Lunar came out i was in heaven.

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Originally Posted by Timber

There was this chain of large drug stores called Phar-Mor around here when I was a kid and they had a NES & VHS rental section in the back. You could get games for 5 days at $0.50 a pop. I tried out almost every game before I bought them with just a few exceptions (Dragon Warrior, Castlevania & Mario sequels).

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Phar-Mor was awesome. I rented tons of games and remember it was the only place with Gameboy carts to rent. I rented the hell out of the first two Final Fatnasy Legends, as well as Final Fantasy Adventure. I rented Mystic Quest until i nearly beat it. I don't remember renting anything that wasn't Final Fantasy, besides some helicopter shooter for SNES that my mom rented for me when i asked for Legend of Mystical Ninja. How she could mix the two up is beyond me.

I remember they had the Tengen Tetris on the shelves for what seemed like years. It might have stayed up there with its prohibitive $60 price tag until the store closed. That was long before "L@@K! R@RE!" meant anything at all.

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But then, I bought a few stinkers like Deadly Tower, Legacy of the Wizard, and Friday The 13th, and that wasn't so good.

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I remember my friend and i liked Deadly Tower. We really didn't know any better back then. and kept renting it. after a while we stopped, because i think we quietly realized that it was bad.
Legacy of the Wizard was something i'd seen in a hint book and really really wanted to play. I want to believe that it's really a great game.

It was really really rare that i got a game of my own. I remember when it came down to Star Tropics and Bart vs. Space Mutants. Thank god that Walmart only had Star Tropics. The worst thing i ever owned back then was Mappy Land, and for some reason my brother and i couldn't stop playing it.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

I remember mowing yards for games. Saved up enough to buy Ghostbusters for the NES, $50 bucks or so?, was totally stoked opening that awesome Ghostbusters logo-on-black box on the drive home and reading the manual, imagining how awesome it was going to be...

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I remember reading the manual on the drive home too. Now with in-game tutorials I never read the manual. Shit, back in the day, the manual was the only story background you had about the game.

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Originally Posted by Timber

There was this chain of large drug stores called Phar-Mor around here when I was a kid and they had a NES & VHS rental section in the back. You could get games for 5 days at $0.50 a pop. I tried out almost every game before I bought them with just a few exceptions (Dragon Warrior, Castlevania & Mario sequels).

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Word. Phar-Mor was how I did my NES gaming. Also, my folks basically forbid me from paying $40 or more dollars for any game but my dad would always find stores that had games on clearance for 10-20 bones so my brothers and I racked up a nice stack of cartridges.

I did buy some really shitty C-64 games.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

I played the hell out of Jaws, convinced you could arrow the shark to death.

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You can't?

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Wow. I was in college by the time 32-bit hit. My dorm room was the place to be, since I had a Jag, Neo CD, Saturn, PS1, and N64. Mario Kart 64 probably got the most multiplayer play time.

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I had a N64. We rocked Mario Kart and WCW something or other. The one with the boxer.

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Originally Posted by Dyne

normally we had to EARN our games

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I went straight from nes to n64 because of this.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Wow. I was in college by the time 32-bit hit. My dorm room was the place to be, since I had a Jag, Neo CD, Saturn, PS1, and N64. Mario Kart 64 probably got the most multiplayer play time.

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Uh yeah, nerd.....;)


We had a NES and Super Tecmo Bowl, I put around 500 hours into that game...

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Originally Posted by Josh

You can't?

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Not on "Level 1" power, hell no.

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In college, we had discovered a thing called "MAME". And it was good.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

Not on "Level 1" power, hell no.

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I wasted so much of my life.

Yeah true, kill yourself pls.

Then I can't shatter the sky with me seed D:

We'll scrape DNA , go ahead and do it.

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Originally Posted by Josh

I wasted so much of my life.

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IBTN. Holy crap, so many weekends trying to beat that.

Hey what was that side scroller where if you went in the wrong room you fell on the floor in front of some big ass dragon and turned into a frog and got your shit dealt with?

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Originally Posted by Yellerdog

IBTN. Holy crap, so many weekends trying to beat that.

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Fag

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Originally Posted by Josh

I have nine penises.

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isn't that penii?

what?

Biff has malfunctioned.

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Originally Posted by Josh

what?

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Cocks!


perfectly acceptable according to item 1 on the

http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...i&defid=814602


URBAN DICTIONARY!!

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Originally Posted by Josh

Hey what was that side scroller where if you went in the wrong room you fell on the floor in front of some big ass dragon and turned into a frog and got your shit dealt with?

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http://sydlexia.com/imagesandstuff/nes100/ironsword.png

Iron Sword?

God I hated that game.

Put some time into this one summer.

http://flashgamesite.com/uploads/thumb/Startropics.gif

With or without the manual? I remember renting it for a weekend and getting to that particular point.

I was also really lucky that my Mom was into games during the NES days. I would come home from school sometimes to find her playing a brand new game she bought earlier in the morning. If it wasn't for her I'd have never played Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy.

We also had something like 100 Atari games since she was buying them from the time the system came out.

My experience is pretty similar to Yoshi and Josh. When the Nes came out, my oldest brother still lived at home and had a well paying job, which meant we got a new game every week quite awhile. I also remember stores like Sears had a very liberal return policy, meaning all you had to do was bring the game back with a receipt and you could exchange it for something else, no questions asked. I don't remember how much time you had to do it, but it must have been awhile, cuz we abused the shit out of that. If a game sucked it went back. If we beat it within a day or week, it went back.

I didn't start actively reading game magazines til april 92, when I got both Game Players and Gamepro from a mall. I found out(back then) that BLockbuster got Gamepro every month, so soon after that I became that guy in school people looked to for game recommendations or advice. I still wasnt old enough to work, so my friend's and I had to go to the dreaded pawn shops to get new games. Fuckers got on our nerves even back then, as one of them had a habit of playing the damn games you were going to trade in and saying it sucked and wouldn't take it.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Wow. I was in college by the time 32-bit hit. My dorm room was the place to be, since I had a Jag, Neo CD, Saturn, PS1, and N64. Mario Kart 64 probably got the most multiplayer play time.

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I wasn't into the N64 in college, but I did get dragged into the Mario Kart and Goldeneye sessions. One shady dude kept trying to squeeze Diddy Kong Racing and Starfox 64 into the rotation but we were having none of that.

I actually buy less games today than I have in the past. Now I inspect each game like it's up for Spartan citizenship. I had to earn my games as a kid, too, but I used baseball card and comic book gains to fund a lot of my purchases so I actually had a nice sized library of NES, Genesis and SNES games back in the day.

Yes. Sports cards were a major factor for me as well. In fact, they funded my Genesis itself.

I was "fortunate" enough to have a father that wanted to buy my love and bought me almost every game that came out for a particular system I owned. At the time I was never really influenced by other outlets or voices of what I played.

For the most part I feel today I am making more informed decisions on my game purchases. Seeing as how I am paying for it myself.

Game buying for me was pretty much the same as you older folks, except I started with the SNES (I got the Super Mario World bundle for Christmas back in 1992).

Since I only got like two or three games a year, I played the shit out of every game I had. Of the games I owned, Nolan Ryan Baseball, NBA Live '95, and Battletoads vs. Double Dragon were probably my most played titles. I rented a lot of games back then (usually got one every other weekend at Blockbuster, and later on Hollywood video), and I mostly played sports games and side-scrollers.

I used to go to to grocery store whenever I could to read magazines like Gamepro to keep up on what was coming out. I remember one Christmas my mom finally got me a subscription to Gamepro, and I was in heaven (this was back when Gamepro was decent, mind you). I think I finally canceled my subscription sometime during the N64 era.

Things all started to change sometime during the N64 era, when I started buying used games at Babbages (it was a sad day when I found out they had morphed into Electronic Boutique, and eventually, EB Games). For a while, I started buying tons of games since they were cheap and I had a lot of disposable income, but now that I have school to pay for, I usually only buy a few games and end up playing them forever (Gears of War, Guitar Hero, et al.)

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Originally Posted by Josh

You can't?
I had a N64. We rocked Mario Kart and WCW something or other. The one with the boxer.

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That was WCW vs. NWO: World Tour. The boxer was called Joe Bruiser, I think. Man, he was a huge bitch in 4 player games. Good times though.

The N64 was such an awesome multiplayer system. A lot of my best gaming memories come from playing games on that system with a room full of people.

Almost everything I played around that time was rented. That lasted up until SF2 came out, when I then proceeded to camp out at 7-11 practically 3 or 4 hours a day until the SNES version was released at which point it really got ridiculous. I didn't really start buying my own games until I got into PC games around 92, but some of the best games ever were released on that between 92-98 so I didn't have to buy much more than a game a year.

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Originally Posted by Biff-chan

God I hated that game.

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I don't know if I played Iron Sword, but I loved Wizards and Warriors. It deserves a current gen sequel.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

I remember the process of buying games when I was a kid. I would get birthday/Christmas/babysitting/lawn mowing money and head to Toys R Us or Babbage's to get a new games. There was no internet to hype games months or even years before their release. At the most, there were a few magazines of varying quality (EGM, GamePro, Nintendo Power, etc.) On the surface, buying games seemed like a complete crap shoot. I'd spend a fair amount of time in the store, examining the screen shots on the back of the box, reading the description, and comparing the prices. That was research, or as close I got to it.

The amazing part is that I firmly believe that my success rate of picking games I genuinely enjoyed was higher back then than it is today. I remember taking flyers on games such as Blaster Master, Life Force, Cobra Triangle, Final Fantasy, Shadow Dancer, and ThunderForce III. Heck, even the lesser picks, like Fester's Quest and Sword of Vermillion, provided hours of fun.

Today, I am so influenced by hype, despite trying to avoid it, that I wind up buying many "next big things" only to be disappointed. For every Uncharted that meets and exceeds expectations, there are seemingly two or three Lost Planets that I try to convince myself I am enjoying, when I know quite the contrary is true. Admittedly, there are external factors, such as raised expectations, shortened attention span due to more buying power, and a better understanding of who develops what.

Perhaps this is simply a real life playing out of the loss of innocence archetype. Maybe it's just the inevitable missing of the "good old days".

I'm sure many of you can relate. Perhaps this is true as well:

"The good old day weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."

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I was nodding my head the whole time reading this. Most, if not all of the games I loved growing up (NES games like Ninja Gaiden, Punch-out!!, RC Pro-Am, and yes, Jaws) were bought by my mother when I was a kid. I remember waking up many a Christmas morning and finding these games under the tree that I'd never heard of, yet were spectacular. The fact that my mother, a barely English speaking immigrant could walk into a KB-Toys or a Playworld and randomly buy these games boggles my mind today. I couldn't imagine the type of utter crap I'd be playing right now if I was a small kid and she was just a mom trying to buy her child a game in 2007. As I got older I also did the whole reading the back of the game box and weighing my decision on purely that and the box art. The satisfaction of buying something on a whim and having it turn out to be awesome (Metal Gear Solid for PS1 is the last game I remember) is definitely a memory I miss.

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Originally Posted by RoleTroll

I don't know if I played Iron Sword, but I loved Wizards and Warriors. It deserves a current gen sequel.

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Oh sweet peppermint Jesus yes. Or at least an updated Xbox Live release.:(

I remember when SF2 finally came out for Genesis; I couldn't afford to buy it so I rented it 3 weekends in a row. I played SF2 at friend's houses on SNES constantly and played shitty Genesis imitators like Deadly Moves. I tracked the Genesis version's progress from the original awful-looking Champion Edition port in EGM to the reworked Special Champion Edition. Finally, when I saw the Genesis box on the shelf, it was sheer joy. It was probably unhealthy how obsessed with SF2 I was.

IronSword fucking sucked. It was okay until the last level, and then it totally ruined my life. I think it was the first game I gave up on.

Also, I still regret picking Batman over Crystalis one birthday.

What's wrong with Batman? It was like a bizarre Ninja Gaiden sequel with good music.

Batman's music always sticks in my head after i play it.

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

One thing I do know is that I have not had more fun with games than this half of this year.

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You are in the minority ... or maybe the rest of us are? o.o

I for one hate modern gaming with its emphasis on "experience". Get that Hollywood (or Tokyo) crap out of here. I just want to play a game.

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Originally Posted by Tsubaki

I for one hate modern gaming with its emphasis on "experience". Get that Hollywood (or Tokyo) crap out of here. I just want to play a game.

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I utterly believe this news. I usually skip through cinemas only to find out there's not much "game" left to be had.

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Originally Posted by SpoDaddy

I remember when SF2 finally came out for Genesis; I couldn't afford to buy it so I rented it 3 weekends in a row. I played SF2 at friend's houses on SNES constantly and played shitty Genesis imitators like Deadly Moves. I tracked the Genesis version's progress from the original awful-looking Champion Edition port in EGM to the reworked Special Champion Edition. Finally, when I saw the Genesis box on the shelf, it was sheer joy. It was probably unhealthy how obsessed with SF2 I was.

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I was in the same camp as you, man. That game was 80 bucks when it came out and it was worth every penny. I remeber breaking the bank with that game and two 6 button controllers . My friends had the SNES version, and while it looked and sounded better, when it came for us to sit down and seriously play, it was The Special Championship Edition ! :) Such great memories !

I am 31, we had a 2600 when I was a kid, I remember getting it sometime in 82-83. We made due with what few games my parents would afford, and I waited for birthdays or christmas for my new ones. We bought Pac-man, it was the first time I was ever disapointed in a 2600 game.

But then, 1983 happened, and $.99 2600 games where all over the place, I went nuts. At one time I had something like 150 2600 games, and I would say maybe 20 of them got any real playtime, the rest where all crap.

When the NES started to become popular, I ended up with a C64, and pretty much had access to hundreds of pirated C64 games. I didn't get an NES until sometime around 1989 or so..

So I found my good games by volume, I just didn't pay for a lot of it.

Yoshi: I only read the first post, but with all the goddamn hype I agree that it's much easier to fall into the trap, and wind up playing a game you convince yourself you like when you're really not enjoying it at all.

Hence: DEMOS. Demos are fucking on point. They made me realize that while The Darkness would bore me, Stuntman: Ignition would have to be a purchase.

Every single goddamn game should come with a demo, and if it doesn't I generally try to find a kiosk where I can try it, or a friend who has it before I throw down my cash.

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Originally Posted by Wildkat

But then, 1983 happened, and $.99 2600 games where all over the place, I went nuts. At one time I had something like 150 2600 games, and I would say maybe 20 of them got any real playtime, the rest where all crap.

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Oddly enough, they still cost .99 each. I ran across a pile of used Atari 2600 games today. Tempting, but I want to dig out the box to see what I already own first.

I've been using demos as a good judge, but I have certainly been buying more games this year than in the past five. Partly for multiplayer fun either online or with the gf and the other part just because I find one for a really good deal.

It was horrible having to depend on holidays and parents for my gaming needs. My dad was pretty good about this, and he bought my consoles from the Colecovision up until the Genesis. My friends and I made up for the lack of funds by each choosing a different game and then swapping when we beat them. That way everyone got to play everything but only had to buy one game.

I remember coming home one day from school and seeing a post office slip for a package. Not knowing what it was, I walked down to the PO and was amazed to open a box my father had sent and find The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. 2. Not having any money for games sucked back then, and we used to wait for HOURS at the local video store for someone to return a particular game.

Hell, I remember putting ESWAT on lay away and coming back to find a copy of Castle of Illusion on the shelf next to it. I went home desperate, and stole the money from my mom to buy both! I got whalluped good for that, but Mickey and ESWAT took the pain away. :)

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

I remember the process of buying games when I was a kid. I would get birthday/Christmas/babysitting/lawn mowing money and head to Toys R Us or Babbage's to get a new games. There was no internet to hype games months or even years before their release. At the most, there were a few magazines of varying quality (EGM, GamePro, Nintendo Power, etc.) On the surface, buying games seemed like a complete crap shoot. I'd spend a fair amount of time in the store, examining the screen shots on the back of the box, reading the description, and comparing the prices. That was research, or as close I got to it.

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Hell yes! Buying a game back then was a total toss of the dice. I got burned a few times too, like when I saw that great screen shot of Fantasia for the Genesis and it turned out to be a turd. Jewel Master got me too, but there were some great buys, like Monster World IV and Ys Book I & II.

My dad finally broke down and bought an NES in 1988. I was 6. We would rent a game every two months or so, and many times I'd rent the same game (Megaman 3 and Iron Tank were rented about 12 times each). For the longest time all we owned was the game that came with the system, Tetris, Kung Fu, and Excitebike. Never once bought a game, but on my 9th birthday my grandparents handed me Zelda 2 while I was playing the first and I was the happiest kid ever.
It wasn't until we got an SNES 6 years later that I actually bought my own game, and I started with FF3 (or 6, whatever). After that, I honestly didn't buy a game until I got a modded PS1 off a freind and found Xenogears at a local mom n pop shop brand new for $39.99. I loved the cover and the thought of mech battles and played the shit out of that game. still one of my all time favs.
Now I work at a game store. I spend more money on fucking video games than I ever thought I would.
Many I enjoy. Some I buy because I read a good review. Some I buy because they look fun. Some I buy because of nastalgia. Some I buy to try and make me justify a system.
Basically I should just stop buying games. I used to finish every one, now I don't finish 95% of the games I buy.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

http://sydlexia.com/imagesandstuff/nes100/ironsword.png

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I seem to think the sprites were bigger. And did you turn into a frog in Iron Sword if you fucked up somehow?

The videogame crash obviously sucked long-term but it was a cool time to be a young gamer.

I would go to the mall with $5-$10 and come home with two or three brand new 2600 games.

$3 Activision and Imagic 2600 titles ruled.

When I was a kid I didn't have enough money to buy but I rented hardcore, my parents would always pay for rentals, but if I wanted to buy games throughout the year I had to save up money from doing jobs. (I never really got an allowance, but my parents would pay me for work, and I found stuff to do around the neighborhood, like dog-sit.)

For the holidays though, everyone knew to get me games, and I have to say my parents were really great about it, even though they hated that I played them they knew I loved them. My mom was aces on tracking down Goldeneye when it first came out.

I only bought a few games by looking at the back of boxes, I still had a try-before-you-buy mentality back then, and by 8th grade I was reading gaming media regularly. I had a lot of friends that were into games as a kid...many friends I had exclusively because of the shit they owned...we'd all get together and share our games. I played through Mario 64 the first time alternating stars with my neighbor.

As I have said before, I wasn't much of a console gamer back when I was young. My parents had a C64 and later an Amiga. Piracy was rampant on those platforms, so I played many more games than I actually purchased.

Consoles were something lusted after. I got a NES but never did get many games for it during its lifetime. I do remember what felt like the best birthday ever, though: Contra. I had seen it at a cousin's place, rented Super C multiple times (as the local video store didn't have Contra), and wanted it more than anything. And I got it. That was so awesome.

The few games I did buy back then were carefully made decisions. I would only buy a game after renting it multiple times, or if I had played a prequel or sequel and loved it. I bought Mega Man 4 after only having played Mega Man 3, for instance.

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Originally Posted by Josh

I got some shit ass side scrolling shooter that started with a C once instead of Cobra Triangle. I was pissed off for, like, 5 months.

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Captain America
Captain Planet (lol)
Captain Skyhawk
Conflict
Cybernoid

Probably one of those. Haven't played any of them in an eon but they may fit the bill.

Going back a bit, my first system was an Atari 5200 back in 1983 or 1984. Which means my parents got it all on clearance, but they did get like 15-20 games for us. I was only 4 or 5 but it was a nice introduction to most of the classics. Was also the reason I made it a point to get every 5200 game when I started collecting (something I just finished a few weeks ago). Still can't believe my dad ordered 2 new controllers from Best Electronics and yet we passed on Bounty Bob, a decision which would have saved my wife and I $220.

Like Frog and Cow, I was a rental kid. My mom would pick me up from school every day and we'd stop at Awesome Video II (there was no AV I as far as I could tell) and I would rent a game or two a week. I probably rented a third of the NES library during my time. It's amazing how your tastes change, as some games I really enjoyed (Robo Demons!) turned out to really suck when I got it later on when I was in college (Robo Demons!). I remember when the game area in the store got so big, that they moved all the porno out of the adult room into the basement and put all the games in there. It was sure weird at first, let me tell you.

I continued to rent Genesis and SNES as time went on, but in a slightly lower capacity as Blockbusters started to pop up everywhere around here. I remember renting a Genesis with Toe Jam & Earl and Kid Chameleon and then asking for it for Christmas. Years later, my behind-the-times ass would rent a PS1 from the same place with Tomba and MGS1.

As far as buying games, it was pretty much restricted to birthdays and Christmas, with random surprises from my parents periodically or if a big-title-if-you're-a-kid came out like Simpsons or TMNT. I do remember waiting patiently for my dad to come home on a daily basis with TMNT1 for the NES until it finally came out.

Another fond memory was going to TRU with my mom on one birthday and getting to pick 2 games out. I can only remember the massive wall of game cards as there was so much to choose from. Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle and Monster Party were the choices. I sucked at Crazy Castle but still liked it and played it a lot, but Monster Party freaked me the hell out. That game is pretty messed up. I will never forget the BOK BOK BOK sound of the kid form of the main character's bat as he attacked and the, uh... fried boss.

There was also a chain electronics store that started with a D and had a green logo/banner. Mostly electronics stuff but a diverse system selection. The only place I knew that sold a Neo Geo. They all died off in 1993-1994. I do remember getting SF2 for $80 there as well as Bart's Nightmare.

I bought into the hype machine early on but as I got a job in high school, I started to develop a hype machine defense, which is why I thankfully passed completely on Weaponlord even after reading the Gamepro main story on it. Coincidentally, the paper on that issue smelled horrifically bad. I still don't know why.

I typically got systems right when they came out, greatly helped by the releases from Nintendo being on or around my September birthday. I got the SNES the same day as my late friend Sean (our birthdays 10 days apart). We both got SMW and he got Populous and I got something else which for some reason I can't think of. There were only four games out at the time that we knew of (SMW, Pilotwings, Populous and game X), which may have not been the only ones with our narrow young view.

I did end up getting the Sega CD for Christmas where I experienced Monkey Island 1 for the first time as well as Night Trap which freaked me the hell out for some reason.

Then of course, in college when I had a lot more disposable income, I brought all my NES stuff to school and realized, hey, Funcoland has this stuff on the super shits cheap. I had already a decent amount (125 or so, from games back in the day and a few AOL deals when I was in high school). Why not track down all those rental games from back in the day and actually OWN them? A decision which put me on the path to where I am today.

Yoshi, great idea for a thread. Now I'm all super nostalgic. Damn you!

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Originally Posted by portnoyd

There were only four games out at the time that we knew of (SMW, Pilotwings, Populous and game X),

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UN Squadron? Sim City? Gradius III? I remember those being the only other games at WalMart.

F-Zero? I remember having that at launch.

I bought Simcity and Fzero shortly after I bought the system. I had alot of fun with both of those.

F-Zero is one of those rare games that i like a lot more now than back then.

It's so good. I can't even look at the N64 rev anymore, but that Super NES version, man.

This is a great thread.

Gets me all nostalgic. Takes me back when Holiday breaks from school meant non-stop gaming. And, for me, the best part about the school day ending was running home and powering on that NES/SNES/Genesis/what have you. That or trading tips with the rest of your dorky buddies in school, or in the same locker, if you both happened to be shoved into the same one.

It's funny, people will bitch about paying $60 for a game nowadays. But back in the day I was shelling out some SERIOUS money for a game like Phantasy Star IV. I forgot how much I paid for that, maybe like $80, but $80 when you're a 12 year old is like $500 to a 24 year old. And I didn't have a problem with that then, totally worth it, and I don't mind paying $60 for a game today 'cause no game is ever going to FEEL as expensive as they did as a kid.

I would friggin' slave away all summer helping folks blacktop their driveways/mow lawns/trim trees...I think I have a good enough knowledge of yard work to open up my own landscaping company if i wanted to. Point being, when I worked three months to buy a game and that game was bad - THAT SUCKED. I was devastated. But if the game was good....ZOMG....what a sweet freakin' pay off that was. Games always seemed better to me back then, but it's probably because I had to work so much harder for them and then if it was good - OMG was it worth all the hard work gettin it. I'd play it to death.

It's funny to think back on how much work I had to do to get enough cash to buy a game, and how much it SUCKED at the time...but looking back now it's a really good memory.

F-Zero GX blows them both away.