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Thread: Gamestruck4- A Concept Too Big For NiTwit-ters

  1. #21
    Early arcade games made up a lot of my love for gaming. Around here in north nj we used to have 4-5 arcades, plus cabinets in convenience stores, restaurants....all over the damn place. Amusement parks, the jersey shore too especially. Games like 1942, Arkanoid, Robotron, Ms. Pac Man, Centipede, then the beat 'em ups, then the music games....a lot of it came from hanging around arcades a lot. I also owned a NES at 5, so lots of those early games as well.

    I remember exactly where I was when I saw my first Dragon's Lair cab. It was in Wildwood.

    This is also why I like pinball, and like games where you are trying to extend playtime by playing well, or doing high score runs on shooters or stuff like that. It used to be playing better would stretch your party tokens or allowance or whatever.

    Shining Force was probably my first true tactics game that I owned, but I did watch my uncle play through Military Madness.

    I loved Ninja Gaiden a lot too. It was hard but when you executed it looked awesome.
    Last edited by Cowutopia; 26 Apr 2018 at 01:00 AM.
    Pete DeBoer's Tie
    There are no rules, only consequences.

  2. Balance patches and season passes have ruined fighting games. I completely agree that they're not allowed to develop organically anymore.
    Quote Originally Posted by Razor Ramon View Post
    I don't even the rage I mean )#@($@IU_+FJ$(U#()IRFK)_#
    Quote Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name View Post
    I'm sure whatever Yeller wrote is fascinating!

  3. Quote Originally Posted by Cowutopia View Post
    Early arcade games made up a lot of my love for gaming. Around here in north nj we used to have 4-5 arcades, plus cabinets in convenience stores, restaurants....all over the damn place. Amusement parks, the jersey shore too especially. Games like 1942, Arkanoid, Robotron, Ms. Pac Man, Centipede, then the beat 'em ups, then the music games....a lot of it came from hanging around arcades a lot. I also owned a NES at 5, so lots of those early games as well.

    I remember exactly where I was when I saw my first Dragon's Lair cab. It was in Wildwood.
    That's my story as well. I remember seeing Dragon's Lair at an Aladdin's Castle in the Missoula Montana mall. I was in band, and we would visit Missoula every year.


    My 1st video arcade game was Kee Games Tank. I played it at the local roller rink around the time I was in 4th grade. I was playing Pinball, Pool and shooting galleries at the roller rink and bowling alley before I played my 1st arcade video game at the roller rink and Sprint 2 at the bowling alley.


    Space Invaders: The 1st time I saw it I was floored. I'd played a ton of those black and white arcade games, but even though Space Invaders was also black and white, Midway's (Taitos) cabinet made great use of a mirrored image with colored strips to bring the visuals to life. It was a ground breaking game for the arcades, and the real 1st hit after Pong. I just walked into the bowling alley arcade area expecting to see the usual pinball machine, and there was this beautiful cabinet with really cool art on the side of it. I almost didn't know what to do with it at the time, because it was unlike anything I'd seen before it. I was in 5th grade at the time, and we didn't get out Atari VCS until Christmas at the end of that year.

    Galaxian: I used to think that Bally/Midway were really stealing the show back then. 1st I play Space Invaders and then they follow it up with Galaxian. It pretty much made my interest in Space Invaders disappear pretty quickly. The amazing color graphics, the cool sound effects and the neat little intro music made the game an instant success. Little did I know that it was Namco who made this game, and licensed it to Bally/Midway.

    Pac-Man: Here's that company Bally, bringing out another awesome game. The space at my local bowling alley that once had Galaxian in it, was now occupied by this strange game with ghosts, a yellow thing eating dots inside of a maze and this really catchy opening tune. I had contracted Pac-Man fever, just like the rest of the country. I even had Pac-Man mugs that I and my brother got from McDonald's. It was one of my favorites for a really long time, until Ms. Pac-Man replaced it. I even bought the often dissed Pac-Man on the 2600 with my own money and liked it despite how poor it was compared to the arcade game.

    Donkey Kong: Who was this company called Nintendo? Where did they come from? I asked myself. Just look at that cool intro, and listen to that catchy music. I had never seen an arcade game like this. I was hooked on Donkey Kong and it was always the 1st game I gravitated too, even a year after its release. It was the reason I wanted a Colecovision and it would be one of the games that made me want a C64. Nintendo would follow it up with DK Jr., Popeye and Punchout!!! I was really impressed with this little company that came out of nowhere.


    Centipede: I don't know if I'd ever put Centipede on the top of my all-time favorite arcade games, but I will say that it is probably my most played arcade game of all-time. This was Atari at its best. The gameplay was simple, the graphics weren't amazing for their time, but the combination of the trackball, the cool sound effects and the pace of the game going from zero to 100mph during each wave kept the game very interesting. I still play this game several times a year. Maybe it is my favorite?

    Zaxxon: This was the 1st SEGA arcade game that made me take notice of the company. I'd played played Monaco GP and really liked it, but it often frustrated me. Zaxxon with it's overhead 3/4 view of a 3D playing field was unlike anything in the arcades at the time. It was difficult and I often died in the space section between the areas, but I always came back for more. I really wanted a home port, and it was not until I played it on my friend's Colecovision, that I got to play it at home. I'd later get to play the far superior version on the C64.

    Star Wars: I about shat myself the 1st time I saw the sit down arcade cabinet of the vector based Star Wars at Aladdin's Castle. Everyone was lining up to play that game and I believe it was the 1st time I'd ever seen colored vector graphics. Hearing the voices of Ben and Darth Vader, along with Luke saying he's lost R2 brought the total Star Wars experience within your hands. It was so cool to play.


    C64: This brings me to the C64. I enjoyed playing games like Phantasie and Skyfox on a friend's C64, but it was when he brought out a disk full of old arcade classics like Dig-Dug, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Defender, Moon Patrol and Time Pilot, that I knew I had to have that computer. The VCS had its moments, but beyond the occasional Space Invaders or Missile Command, I'd always felt that it had a lot of poor versions of my arcade favorites. The C64 made it feel like I was in the arcade, and I honestly thought that the ports were near arcade perfect. It wouldn't be until stuff like Namco Museum and Atari Classics came out for the PlayStation, that I'd realized just how accurate a home port of the arcade games could be.
    Last edited by gamevet; 27 Apr 2018 at 01:09 AM.

  4. #24
    I thought the same thing about Bally/Midway back then. It wasn't obvious they were licensing Japanese games so it made them seem like a developer powerhouse.

  5. That's a nerd tick I've had to work to get over. I'd hear customers attribute games to publishers and I'd have to interject with "Well, [insert publisher here] just published the title, [insert developer here] is the company that actually made it." Then I'd get a blank stare and maybe "oh, yeah..." and I could see them mentally rolling their eyes at me SO HARD.

    I still catch myself doing it now and then, but not like I used to.

  6. #26
    You must have to constantly stop yourself from saying stuff working in that business with so many annoying customers.

    Back in the day some kid asked me what the hell I was doing when I was going around the arcade and reading the fine print on each machine to memorize the company names and copyright years. I think I have mostly avoided acting gaming nerdy in public since then.
    Last edited by NeoZeedeater; 28 Apr 2018 at 09:51 AM.

  7. I like expanding on this. My post: https://twitter.com/guildlibrary/sta...36138471854081

    Chrono Trigger
    Graphics, music, story, engagement... this game had it all for me. The fantasy environment with time travel and sci-fi elements were the icing on the cake. Honestly, with how well thought-out the story was, it could have looked & sounded horrible and still been great. My wife never played it as a kid so I made her. I gave her no info about the story and got to see someone else experience all of the awesome plot twists - Marle unwittingly playing the video from the Day of Lavos, finding out that Magus didn't create it, the death of the game's main character and it being entirely optional to try getting him back, finding out that Magus was trying to get revenge on Lavos... so good.

    Curse of Monkey Island
    I liked the first two but something about the jokes and the challenges of this one really do it for me. The drawings really add to it and, I think, capture the essence of the series purposely (along with the chickens). The seafaring rhyming challenge portion midway through is one of the best things in a video game, and I'll often load this up in ScummVM just to play that portion over again. Voice acting is great, music is fun, and laughs abound.

    Heroes of Might & Magic III
    Another situation where the earlier games were great, but this one is the pinnacle. 3DO took the time to balance things out and were really responsive with the patches after the fact. The expansions added to my enjoyment of the game. My buddies and I would play all night. I have a VM with this loaded in there so I can play some classic maps still - even though I could easily get a remastered version on Steam or iPad.

    Oblivion
    Sheogorath. The main storyline is great. Some of the DLC was decent. The expansion with Sheogorath, though, was phenomenal. Sometimes I play this with severely hindered characters on really high difficulty just because of the story. Sometimes I just wander because of the graphics and the ambient effects. Other times I take advantage of the open-endedness and do all the side quests. I still think there are things I've missed. Combat is great, music is great. All of Elder Scrolls is awesome - and I came really close to making this Morrowind, instead.

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name View Post
    That's a nerd tick I've had to work to get over. I'd hear customers attribute games to publishers and I'd have to interject with "Well, [insert publisher here] just published the title, [insert developer here] is the company that actually made it." Then I'd get a blank stare and maybe "oh, yeah..." and I could see them mentally rolling their eyes at me SO HARD.

    I still catch myself doing it now and then, but not like I used to.
    Nothing wrong with that! At least get the developer right.

    I'd quote the entire dev team for each game if I could. I wish I was more autistic.

  9. This is a great thread!

    Excitebike/Kung Fu (NES)
    We didn't have many games for the first several years of owning our first Nintendo, but Excitebike and Kung Fu were the two early games (to go along with Mario and Tetris) that I played more than anything. Excitebike felt so goddamn good when you were going over jumps and learning how to maintain speed, and it allowed me to fuck with my siblings by racing with them and then clipping their front wheel with my back wheel and making them crash! Oh man that was so cool, and never got old. Kung Fu did get a little old, if I recall it only had a small handful of "stages", and once you got the hang of them they were not terribly difficult. But I still must have played through it a hundred times over a year or two. Punching and kicking dudes in their faces and shins was pretty great, and fighting Mr X and finding Silvia felt like big tasks worthy of bragging. We eventually got Zelda and Megaman 3 which I enjoyed more, but these were the first two games I surely put over 100 hours into.

    Final Fantasy 3 (SNES)
    The first game for the system that was actually mine and not a shared game with my siblings, and the first Final Fantasy game I'd really played (I struggled briefly with the first game when renting it years before and never went back). The first thing that jumped out at me was how cool it looked and the MUSIC. The first time I heard the music as the mechs walk in front of the credits to Narshe, I ran and got my tape player and recorded it to listen to over and over. Then there was the great characters, the fun battles, the crazy cool Espers and Magicite, and the big dangerous world with shit to explore everywhere. I was hooked. First game I bought a strategy guide for as well, since I wanted to find every little secret and had heard there was stuff I'd never find. I've since beaten it several times on the original hardware and other systems that got ports, and it was one of the first Steam games I bought when I got this computer.

    Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
    This game had me hyped for its release like nothing else I'd ever experienced. After getting the VHS tape from Nintendo detailing some behind the scenes stuff about the game and it's incredible graphics, I was practically frothing at the mouth to try it. We were getting an addition put on our house so there was lots of construction in the living room where the game systems usually were. Everything had been haphazardly tossed into a different room that was now completely filled with shit. We found a way to hook up the TV and climbed on top of everything to get a view and then went to town on this game. We (siblings and friends who came over) beat the game a couple times in the first few weeks and just kept going back. For a long time I was obsessed with drawing the characters and environments from the game, to the point where when I was allowed to draw on the walls of my room it was one of the first things I did. I even commissioned a friend's mom who was a much better artist to do a Donkey and Diddy mashup for me. Also the music in this game was so friggin good.

    Dark Souls (X360)
    Demon's started me off on this series, and while I do love it, the first Dark Souls was unmatched in it's feels and in making me a diehard fan. I remember going to a Gamestop for the midnight release and being the only person there for the game, and thinking that was pretty cool. Then I got it home and proceeded to fall in love. The way everything looked, the atmosphere, the enemies and equipment, the sounds and music, and the freaking incredible level design all left me completely awed. Everything just clicked, and the overall experience was both exhausting and exhilarating, punishing and rewarding. Every new area was met with audible "Wow!"s and every new enemy was terrifying. Every level increase felt significant and every piece of equipment felt justifiable and usable. The way the lore had to be sought out instead of just fed to you was refreshing. And getting all the achievements felt like the biggest gaming accomplishment ever, and is something I still look bad fondly on. Needless to say, I cannot fucking wait for May 25th. Not because I get presents the next day, but because Dark Souls Remastered comes out and it'll be slightly different than it was all those years ago and I'm hoping to find a little more of that magic. Less than a month!

  10. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Mzo View Post
    I wish I was more autistic.
    With great autism comes great responsibility.

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