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Memorable games from your youth

ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
in Off-Topic
The idea of this thread is to talk about the games that were the most memorable of your youth. Not necessarily your favorite, because your taste change with time, but more those games that left a really lasting impression on you. Feel free to talk about why they left such a strong impression on you...

I'll start with my top 3, from the least to the most important :

3. Dragon Warrior (or Dragon Quest). That's the first RPG I played in my life. Could have been worst, believe me. It's a bit of a stiff game by more modern standard, but that's the very classic tale of the damsel and kingdom in distress because of a big bad dragon. Thus, Dragon Quest. :p I had a lot of trouble with it, because it was pretty darn hard - and also because I couldn't read english very well around 8, 9 years old. That's also the first game that frightened me : after finally managing to get the Green Dragon in the Swamp Cave to sleep, I was hacking at it in the hope that he woudn't wake up. I was so stressed that when I finally beated it, I bursted with joy. Fighting the Axe Knight for the Erdrick's Armor was also nerve-racking. I never managed to finish the game in my youth (I couldn't for the life of me understand where to find the Erdrick's sword), but I did a few years back. Had a blast. It's memorable for me because it's the first RPG I got immersed in.

2. Final Fantasy 4 (2 in US). The classic of classic JRPGs. A well written and engaging story that follows the blueprint a grand and epic tale. There's nothing ground breaking in the game, but everything is just so well executed. I always have the feeling that I'm playing a dramatic opera when I go through this game. It's also still in the timeframe where Final Fantasy games ressembled D&D the most, along with FF1, 3 and 5 : in your team, you can have fighters, monks, clerics, wizards, (spoony) bards, ... Amond them, FF4 is definitively the most mature and well executed of the bunch. After that, the serie deviated from the D&D standard. Still, this game is probably the one that got me totally hooked on RPGs purely based on its strong execution.

1. Chrono Trigger. You can't even imagine how massively enthralled I was with this game. Seriously. The time travelling through 5 different ages (without counting the End of Time), the flashy cartoonish graphics (that still hold up really well today, in my opinion), the dual and triple techs you could unlock with your different party members... The most memorable moment for me was when you arrive in the Kingdom of Zeal. The sheer beauty of the place along with the soundtrack made my imagination fly like crazy (even though it's kind of an horrible place in reality). But I also loved fighting Masa and Mune, climbing through Mt. Woe, invading Magus Castle, ... There's a very strong aesthetic coherence throughout the game as well as a stout execution gameplay wise. I get a little bit of goosebump writing this.

As I said, those are not necessarily my favorite games : the BG saga hold that position, but I played it in my early twenties. Those are however games that marked my sensitivity for as long as I will have a memory to remember them.
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Comments

  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Video games:

    Atari
    Tank Battle
    Pac Man

    Nintendo
    Duck Hunt
    Super Mario Bro Series
    Base Wars
    Tetris
    Mike Tyson's Punch Out
    Ice Hockey

  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    Tank Battle was awesome on Atari. Me and my sister played that game a lot when I was younger. Even with those crappy Atari graphics, I'm pretty sure that this game can be a ton of fun with a few friends and a few beers even nowadays...
  • lefreutlefreut Member Posts: 1,462
    3. Mario 64
    I think it's one of the few games that succeeded their transition from 2D to 3D. And it's an open-world (which was rare back in the days) and the level design is insane.

    2. Rayman
    One of the best 2D platformer. Very nice arts. Cool mechanics. And it's made by french :)

    1. Myst
    A masterpiece. Best adventure puzzle of all time.
  • kcwisekcwise Member Posts: 2,287
    edited December 2017
    Starflight - Exploring the universe, upgrading a ship, training a crew. It was all a lot of fun. But the thing that has stuck with me the most was the climax of the storyline, which I still think about from time to time.

    The Bard's Tale - The first party based CRPG I ever played. My dad and I had a lot of fun with it, and I'll never forget all the mapping with graph paper. Good times.

    Pool of Radiance.- the first of SSI's Forgotten Realms Gold Box series. I must have played it a hundred times with different character class combinations. It was also the first game to ever give me a nightmare. Seems silly now, but the images in the graveyard really creeped me out at that time.
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    Video games:
    The incredible machine - I don't remember any of them now, but I built tons of machines in that game.

    Ocarina of Time - I didn't really play this much until I bought my own N64 a few years back. As a kid I mostly just watched when my friend played. That didn't actually bother me much though since I loved just looking at this world. The 3D graphics of the N64 felt so amazing back then that just looking at it was awesome.

    Escape velocity - Exploring a vast galaxy, turn to piracy and occasionally help the rebels in their fight against the Confederacy. Good times.

    Board games:
    The amazeing labyrinth and its successor Master labyrinth - I've always had this strange fascination with labyrinths and these games are really good and fun too. I still own Master labyrinth and just need more people who are willing to play it.
  • ButtercheeseButtercheese Member Posts: 3,766
    What a fun idea for a thread. Here go mine:

    Sam & Max: Hit the Road - The very first game I remember playing without any help from my older brothers that went beyond replaying the first level of Super Mario and Kirby's Dreamland over and over again.

    Icewind Dale - For a time I lived away from the rest of the family at a foster home. My oldest brother would regularly come to hang out and play IWD on my foster dad's PC, while I'd be backseat gaming.

    The Curse of Monkey Island - It looked just like the cartoons on TV, which totally blew my mind. Also I totally fell in love with Guybrush >.>
  • O_BruceO_Bruce Member Posts: 2,790
    In no particular order:

    1. Any kind of 2d platformers, be it Super Mario Bros, Gex, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 etc.

    2. Some 3d platformers, like Gex: Enter the Gecko, Croc: Legend of the Gobbos and so on. But Rayman 2 took the cake there. Even as an adult, I can still appreciate it without nostalgia googles on - partially due to it just being fun to play, partially because of excellent mood the game created.

    3. Little Big Adventure 2. A rather unusual adventure game in interesting setting. Magic, inventory, "use this on that" mechanics, simplisit combat etc. It has quite a charm to it, and despite obviously not being massive open-world game, after years I still discovered something new in it. Wonderful.

    4. Pokemon Silver - vast improvement from previous installments of the series in nearly every way possible. Shamefully, back then I played on emulator, as never once my parents were nic enough to get me gameboy. Well, nowadays I earn my own money, so... Also, the fact that I watched the anime as the kid counts as well. But the game is good to play even now, while my time on trying to watch the original series of the anime I nicknamed "cringefest". For a good reason.

    5. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. That game was brutal when comes to setting, the crapsack world and the difficulty. But there is charm and uniquess to all that. Basically, 2d puzzle platformer with unique setting and mechanics. Beating the game was really hard for me, nowadays not so much.

    6. And finally, Baldur's Gate. But I don't know... It's a guilty pleasure of mine. It's an obscure game nobody here heard of anyways, most certainly not on this forums... I don't know if anyone her can understand it, even if I explain....
  • kcwisekcwise Member Posts: 2,287
    JoenSo said:

    Escape velocity - Exploring a vast galaxy, turn to piracy and occasionally help the rebels in their fight against the Confederacy. Good times.

    I discovered that one on a lab computer at college. Like NWN there were quite a few fan-made mods available for it. The good old days of Shareware!
  • FardragonFardragon Member Posts: 4,511
    One I played a lot in my teens: Talisman (board game).
  • SkatanSkatan Member, Moderator Posts: 5,352
    Doom 2: Best FPS ever. Best multiplayer experience with friends (mostly my older brother and his friends) playing our own maps, 4 friends on LAN. Hours and hours of fragging until the counter had reset to 0 over and over again. Playing would stop only when mom would yell that dinner was ready.

    Diablo 2: Kinda same as the above, but playing online instead. Poured in a lot of hours but I was kinda late and only started to play when the expansion was relased, but on the other hand, after that I kept on playing on and off for well over 10 years.

    Counter-strike: Best team FPS ever made, all categories. Nothing can ever surpass the impact CS had on team FPS games. It will forever be the cradle for competitive team FPS gaming and it was the first game where I was actually kind of good, for real. Played with many friends.

    Rome: Total war: Best strategy game ever made, all categories. Battles have never been made so well as in this game and all the sequels have unfortunately skewered into another direction. Still play it from time to time. A lot of great mods as well.

    Honorable mentions, all great games but not "life-changing" great:
    * HoMM 2/3 (PC)
    * Bionic Commando (NES)
    * Cruise for a corpse (Amiga)
    * Dune 2 (Amiga/PC)

  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    @Nimran You just made me think about Final Fantasy Tactics, which I played A LOT when I was younger. It is a fantastic game with a well developped story, even if it becomes stupidly easy toward the end. I think it's my favorite PS1 game.

    A few years back, I played and finished the FFT 1.3 difficulty mod. It is indeed a difficulty mod, I can tell you that. It's because of it that I got hooked on difficulty mods. Nice memories...
  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    We got an Intellivision when I was in high school; the sports games were good for the time, so baseball, basketball, football, hockey, auto racing, and even golf were great fun.
  • profanitywarningprofanitywarning Member Posts: 294
    Defender of the Crown (C64)
    Centurio! Defender of Rome (PC, possibly Amiga, not sure)
  • SquireSquire Member Posts: 511
    edited December 2017
    Desert Strike - an isometric helicopter shoot-em-up where you have to destroy mission targets, rescue MIA soldiers, refuel/re-arm yourself with a winch, and all of this in an Apache, which is an atatck helicopter not designed for carrying people or cargo. XD It was awesome.

    Gunship 2000 - an attack helicopter simulator by Microprose, you had to complete randomly generated missions in a Gulf War setting, rise through the ranks, and gain AI wingmen in the process, in true combat flight simulator style... yeah, I used to love flying games!

    X-Wing - one of the better Star Wars games, which had you piloting X-wings, Y-wings, and A-wings, in true simulator style (or as "simulator" as you can get flying fictional space ships!). Again, randomly generated missions and AI wingmen, X-wing and its follow-up TIE Fighter gave a truly immersive Star Wars experience.

    Lemmings - who can forget this classic? You had to guide a bunch of green haired blue clothed lemmings across treacherous landscapes by assigning roles to them, and ensure that they walk blindly and mindlessly into the exit, and not to their doom, usually to the tune of 8 bit classical music.

    Choplifter - truly showing my age now, this ancient helicopter game needs no introduction! You fly across a landscape rescuing people, and avoiding tanks and jets hell bent on shooting you down three times - you always had three lives in those games. Three was the magic number, and the number of the counting was three... ;)

    Road Rash - bikers racing along country roads trying to knock each other off their bikes (sometimes using weapons), avoiding oncoming traffic, and using prize money to buy better bikes as you go to higher leagues and longer races... some of the riders would appear on loading screens to give you warnings, insults, or advice... (I used to have a cyber-crush on Natasha... seriously!)

    Midwinter - this was a strange game... such a great idea but it was soooo hard to play! Limited by old technology, you had to lead a resistance against an evil overlord trying to take over your island, and you had to do it by gathering people to your side (some of them could only be persuaded by certain people), and you got around by skiing, driving snow-vehicles, taking cable-cars, and hang-gliding off mountains, between settlements where you'd find food, equipment, and other resistance members, and you had to kill enemy vehicles with grenades and a sniper rifle (yes you read that right!), but luckily they only came one at a time. Rumours grew of a remake that was on the cards, but that seems to have stagnated now... shame really, as I'd love to play a similar game with newer technology.

    I could go on... as an ex-owner of an Apple 2, Atari ST 520, Amiga 1200, and various 80x86 PCs, I've seen it all.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Oh man, I remember the Strike games on the genesis. One of the few game series my dad REALLY got into.
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,651
    When I was just old enough to read I recall watching my mother play through Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 8 and just being fascinated by what was going on. Those were the first RPG's I ended up beating.

    But my favorite and most memorable ones are all tactical rpg's- Disgaea 1/2, Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together, and Final Fantasy Tactics are the big three.
  • ArctodusArctodus Member Posts: 992
    Those are awesome @Zaghoul ! This thread don't have to be exclusively about video games, now that I think about it.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Oh man. I grew up in the suburbs, but I definitely got Tarzan Vine time at my Grandmothers.
  • tbone1tbone1 Member Posts: 1,985
    Well, if you want memorable *games* from my youth, there was a junior high basketball game where one player whipped my butt. He later started at Purdue for four years.

    It’s a bit of a family tradition. In my dad’s first high school game, he had to guard Oscar Robertson. And my mom’s father seperated a shoulder trying to tackle Bronko Nagursky.
  • JoenSoJoenSo Member Posts: 910
    edited December 2017
    A friend and I had a game when we walked home from school where we would create a story together where we had one character each. No wonder I loved Baldur's gate and other RPG's when I discovered them a few years later.

    As for video games, Sonic 1 and 2 as @ThacoBell mentioned. Damn, those games are good and frustrating. Especially Sonic 2 has a great soundtrack too. So good that another friend and I invented the game "Which Sonic track am I humming?". Like pictionary with sound. We were close to 25 when inventing this game though, so maybe not a memorable game from my youth. Dat Mystic Cave Zone track though.
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,174
    edited December 2017
    One or two old Spectrum games come to
    mind... most of the rest won't hold up...

    Chaos: The Battle of Wizards. It took me far too long to follow Mr. Gollop on to his later work in X-Com.

    Mined Out

    Far superior to minesweeper. Being chased by a giant ant through a minefield. Don't even try to rescue those damsels... Near perfect.
  • PibaroPibaro Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 2,989
    RPG's (apart from the BG series, IWD series and Planescape Torment)

    1) Fantasy empires


    2) Champions of krynn


    3) Mystic Quest for gameboy (also known as Final Fantasy Adventure)


    Non RPG's

    1) Tetris for gameboy (I was obsessed with this game until I managed to complete the 2 almost impossible levels of the game 2 - level 19 high 4 and level 17 high 5. I knew I could never do better than that)

    2) Diablo 2 (My first real experience with multiplayer)

    3) Raid over Moscow for C64

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