Games That Had a Big Impact on Your Childhood That Other TNL'ers Didn't Play

[dave is ok]

Halo 3

[NeoZeedeater]

My parents couldn't afford to buy me every game I wanted as a child and encouraged me to go be active. I have no idea how the fuck some of you played so many games as kids. I have my fair share but holy shit at some of you really digging into those libraries.

I actually spent most of my childhood outdoors and my parents were low income but I somehow managed to play a ton of games because I pirated a ton of computers games, arcade games were everywhere in the first half of the '80s, and I knew kids with a variety of different systems. So it was kind of by fluke.

[D_N_G]

Halo 3

[Brisco Bold]

My parents couldn't afford to buy me every game I wanted as a child and encouraged me to go be active. I have no idea how the fuck some of you played so many games as kids. I have my fair share but holy shit at some of you really digging into those libraries.

I remember the year after the SNES came out, one of my friends received the system and 25 fucking games fir a Christmas gift.

By contrast, I got a NES after this.While everyone was rocking the Genesises and the SNES's, I was playing good old JJ & Jeff on the TG-16. I don't care that it was a shit game, it was fucking weird and I loved every minute of it. I used to go home and practice my Street Fighter moves on my NES controller. When I finally got my SNES, I only had two games: Fatal Fury and Street Fighter 2. I borrowed games a lot, which kept me sane. But SF was really all I needed.

So, I guess, on topic, that game would be JJ & Jeff.

[dave is ok]

That picture proves I have better taste than everybody

[Chux]

It also proves gays play on heroic.

[dog$]

I have no idea what compelled my Dad to get an Intellivision. If anyone else I knew had a pre-NES system, it was a 2600. It doesn't seem like anyone else here really brings the system up very often, either.

I'll mention these two games, for starters.
Auto Racing

This game wasn't so much about auto racing as something like Pole Position as it was something like a weaponless two-player RC Pro Am. The main way the game is enjoyed is to play with someone else and try to ram the other car into the obstacles so that you win. Auto Racing sessions quickly devolve into the players trying to joust each other off of the road instead of actually getting laps completed on the track. When I would play this game on single player, what blew my mind was that all five of the courses were on one gigantic map, along with other hidden roads between the buildings. I remember spending time trying to hunt down the hidden tracks to see where they would lead, invariably hitting something, then having to start the journey over again after being forced to restart somewhere miles away.

Space Hawk

To my eight year old mind, this honestly felt like space exploring. I thought it was great how it seemed like your little jetpack guy was isolated and alone in the black endless abyss of space and it was up to you to navigate around it all for the sake of survival. It was exiting to play a game long enough for new enemies (like comets and small hawks) to suddenly appear and sometimes disappear when you first crossed the point threshold. I also liked being able to build up a head of steam and actively hunting down the hawks, or making adjustments in inertia just right so that I could tail behind a hawk and shoot bubbles as fast as they were made for easy point milking.

[Brisco Bold]

Besides the obvious console mainstays, I was always on the ol' Packard Bell playing shareware versions of Apogee and id games.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows was a big one. I found it full version on 3.5" diskette at Babbage's! It's a vertical shooter for people that like to level things up. Your plane starts fairly weak, but eventually you get so damn powerful you can decimate everything from seven directions.



Commander Keen was another favorite. Episode 4: Goodbye Galaxy was my favorite. Classic platformer with goofy characters. I've gone on about it plenty of times before.





Last but not least is Halloween Harry, later renamed to Alien Carnage. Pretty violent for its time! Best thing about it now, though, is it's free! Link and fun history lesson here.

Jeez! Wow, the good old days! I loved those games.

My fear, especially with the 486 dx2 Packard Bell, was playing those shady shareware titles that temporarily fooled your computer into thinking it had less RAM than it did.

[Chux]

Jeez! Wow, the good old days! I loved those games.

My fear, especially with the 486 dx2 Packard Bell, was playing those shady shareware titles that temporarily fooled your computer into thinking it had less RAM than it did.

Those fucking terminate and stay resident programs. We had a 486sx. Shit was gross, but it could play up to Quake.

[NeoZeedeater]

I have no idea what compelled my Dad to get an Intellivision. If anyone else I knew had a pre-NES system, it was a 2600. It doesn't seem like anyone else here really brings the system up very often, either.

It's a shame now ignored this system has become. It had some of deepest console games on the market, experiences that didn't have proper equivalents on Atari.