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.
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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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
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
Yes. I played it a few months ago, and its still awesome :) It beats out "Captain Skyhawk"...Quote:
Originally Posted by Josh
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).