Retro Gaming: Fond memories...

[socynicalsohip]

Time for us elder XKCDers to geek out/feel old.... I pose the question what fond memories of retro gaming do you have?
I'll set the ball rolling:

-Getting a callous from the skating stage California Games on the Master System.
-Spending several hours modifying our playstations with springs and blue tack to allow us to play a Duke Nukem 3d link game with only one disk.
- Having photocopied manuals to defeat the copy protection on floppy based PC games.
- The unforgettable sound of someone making a Duke3d level on a PC *Tapping the Spacebar like a maniac*

There's a few to get started with.

[segmentation fault]

constantly blowing into NES cartridges.
seeing the movie "the wizard" and wanting super mario bros 3 so fucking hard.
speaking of duke nukem: playing that and doom 2 over a modem

[Endless Mike]

DRM meaning having to turn to page 23, sentence 5, word 8 of the manual.

[el_loco_avs]

-Getting my ass kicked by Police Quest due to not being very good at english as an 10 year old.

-Finishing Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis as a 13 year old with much improved english skills.

-jaw dropping after seeing Doom for the first time at a friend.



-beating the shit out of the MSX keyboard while playing Hyper Olympics and all the variations on it

[Coin]

Playing with the old Atari ST: Bomb Jack, Buggy Boy, Ikari Warriors, Cosmic Pirates (What a sound track!), Carrier Command, Ninja Mission, Outrun, Space Harrier, Terrys Big Adventure...
I can't remember any more titles at the moment but there were oh so many. My only sadness is that it won't hold together for ever so I'd better enjoy it before it breaks.

[Pizzashark]

constantly blowing into NES cartridges.

There's a shirt in one of the online stores that has one on the front with the words "Blow Me". I'm gonna get one when I get some spare cash lying around.

I remember playing Descent for the first time and giving my friend motion sickness. Six degrees of freedom ftw?

[segmentation fault]

playing enough of doom 2 or wolfenstein gave me motion sickness. it happened with all the old school first person shooters. the worst i have ever felt it was with rise of the triad. i had to lay down after 5 minutes of playing.

[el_loco_avs]

playing enough of doom 2 or wolfenstein gave me motion sickness. it happened with all the old school first person shooters. the worst i have ever felt it was with rise of the triad. i had to lay down after 5 minutes of playing.

Ludicrous Gibs!!

[Pizzashark]

Descent gave just about everyone motion sickness, because it was basically playing a space sim in claustrophobic hallways. I was oddly immune, but just about everyone else I knew wasn't.

[el_loco_avs]

Descent gave just about everyone motion sickness, because it was basically playing a space sim in claustrophobic hallways. I was oddly immune, but just about everyone else I knew wasn't.

I didn't have much trouble with that one. Only the boat thingy in HL2 left me with a slight case of it.

Awesome game though. Played the shit out of the demo back then.

[Levi]

I kept crashing into the walls while playing Descent. For some unknown reason, I was using the arrow keys to aim so it was really hard to shoot anything.

[ACU-LP]

Playing Dune II on an old Acorn computer running on RiskOs systems.

[Pizzashark]

I kept crashing into the walls while playing Descent. For some unknown reason, I was using the arrow keys to aim so it was really hard to shoot anything.

You were using the keyboard to aim instead of the mouse? o.O

Heh, brings me back to the time before I knew about WASD/ESDF. I think I was still using the arrow keys to move back then. Ahh, memories...

[Minstrel]

Sitting around the PC playing hotseat Warlords II and III with my college roomates was one of the best.

Or getting banned from Neverwinter Nights for using a hack program with another college friend, when NWN was an online game on AOL.

I have a soft spot too for my old C64/128 games, like the early Ultima series (I - VI), Phantasie, etc, and the countless hours I spent on them.

And of course Zork. I'm still trying to beat that bugger.

[benbw]

I'm a little too young for really retro memories, but playing battle mode on Super Mario Kart with a bunch of friends was about as fun as it got.

[Flesh_Of_The_Fallen_Angel]

I'm not old at all. But, in primary school, we had ladybird* on floppy disk. It rocked so much. It's pretty much pac man, but with a bug thingie instead of a yellow head thing. I really wish that I had have grabbed all those floppy disks when the school closed down. I have a pack of empty floppy disks lieing around somewhere. I should really use them for something. Or keep them as they are, and sell them later as an antique or something. That would be wicked.

*At least, I think that's what it was called.

[Xanthir]

Fuckin' Dino Park Tycoon. *Hell* yeah.

Bonus fun was the fact that everyone that used a particular computer shared the (limited) save game space, so you created strategies to ensure that you save survived. YOu couldn't just save over every slot, because that takes too long *and* would invoke retribution. Instead, you just tried to recognize which sets of save games went together, and only save over one or two from each group. That way you didn't piss anyone off, but were likely to survive until next time.

PS: Raptors are dicks.

[Meowgan]

-Making my brother do the elephant's graveyard level on The Lion King on our Sega Megadrive. It scared me so much. I could finish the rest of the game, just not that.
-The "Seeeee-gah" sound.
-My mother deciding that there is a special place in hell for people who write the music for Sonic. Sonic was so cool back then.
-Not being able to beat that guy in Prince of Persia. You know, right near the start. The guy with the sword.
-256 colours. Which still looks great.
-When everything was grey, pink and aqua on a black background.
-Closing doors on top of aliens in Duke Nukem 3d. So gross.
-Typing "cockadoodledoo" on Heretic. (A DOOM clone)
-Speaking of cheats: "it's a good day to die" and "glittering prizes"
-When you could fit 1000 shareware games on 2 cds. And run it on anything.
-Doing a wheelie on Magic Pockets.
-Making people do the bicycle kick on Mortal Kombat.
-Everyone refusing to play Street Fighter with me because I always won by button mashing.
-Harddrive beeps.

My retro memories aren't so retro.

[TaintedDeity]

Ah, I remember playing Gauntlet on the Atari ST in the living room as a child.
Gauntlet and Street Fighter II were totally awesome.

Oh, then there was playing Doom as a child, I can still remember being excited at DoomII being new.
I also still remember the cheats

[teamcorndog]

I remember trying so hard to wake up earlier than my sister on the weekends so I could play Sega first. I usually failed, but luckily she got way too emotional over games sometimes and would stomp away in anger, leaving the glorious Sega to me.

Sega games used to seem seriously impossible to beat, which was awesome. I could spend a whole month playing a game which I can now beat in like 20 minutes.

Also, on a slightly less retro note (barely), in high school me and my friends rented Mario Party 3 every weekend and played it for hours and hours. We're probably the only people who actually used the "50 turns" option. Man, we were nerds. and it was AWESOME.

[Minstrel]

Ohhh, I forgot one.

Using a utility called Game Wizard on old DOS games. It let you freeze the game and bring up the Game Wizard interface. You could then search through RAM for either specific values, or trends. So by changing them in the game (dying once, or firing some ammo, etc), and then searching a few more times, you could isolate exactly where a game stored a value, like your HP, location, etc. And then change it, or freeze it at a certain value.

We ended up with all sorts of fun cheats, like creating characters in the old SSI gold box AD&D games that were multiclassed in every playable (and a couple non playable, maybe incomplete but were left in there) class in the game. And figuring out where location values were stored in Hexen, so we could float around rooms, or up to unreachable ledges.

[InstinctSage]

-I never got motion sickness from Descent, but I never found it to be as amazing as everyone else did at the time. *shrug*
- Loved the 'Seeehga' sound (Thanks for the reminder, Meowgan!)
- Playing Defender of the Crown for months yet never seeming to be able to win. I'd make a mad dash for Gloucester and try my darndest to defend it, but I'd eventually get pushed back every time. I went back and beat the game first try years later, but I can't remember what I was doing that was so sucky. I could win most of the mini games involved in it.
- Playing Spy vs Spy on the C64 and trapping everything in every room I went into.
- Having a buggy version of Paratrooper wherein the image of your bullets firing was about 2 inches left of where the bullets actually were. made that game a lot harder.
- Having a version of Pacman that ran at about 2fps. The ghosts tended to rely on the tactic of waiting till you die of boredom. (Actually, that wasn't a fond memory and I've never been a big fan of PacMan ever since)
- Dig dug!

[JayDee]

I have a bunch of fond NES memories. Playing Mario games (and of the three) with friends and showing each other where the secrets were. Playing 'co-operative' games like Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, or Bubble Bobble. I remember actually co-operating to get through Bartman meets Radioactive Man, one of us playing, the other drawing up maps of that stupid underground city place.

I remember using the game genie, and finishing Super Mario Bros. using moon gravity and space jump cheats, and jumping over entire levels. Over the flag, too, for a laugh. And playing Zelda II (my first Zelda, and I still have a soft spot for it) with 'Swap SHEILD spell for THUNDER spell" on, only to realise that it made the game freeze when you kill the giant angel thing (before fighting Shadow Link.)

[Shadic]

And playing Zelda II (my first Zelda, and I still have a soft spot for it) with 'Swap SHEILD spell for THUNDER spell" on, only to realise that it made the game freeze when you kill the giant angel thing (before fighting Shadow Link.)

That'd be Thunderbird. I love that game. My first Zelda as well.

I'm only 19, but I watched The Wizard, and I loved it.

[bigglesworth]

Does Pac-Mania on the family's Acorn count as sufficiently retro?

[ACU-LP]

Was that the one that was in psuedo 3-d where you bounced all over the place?

[bigglesworth]

It was just Pac-Man but in isometric.

[ACU-LP]

I think that's the one; you bounced up and down stairs etc.
Hmm, now you've got me wanting to play it.
*goes off to another room and turns on Acorn Computer*

[bigglesworth]

You still have your Acorn!

[Gojoe]

I have a few.

Saving up money for a game-genie for the NES. Then going to Walden's book store, with a pen and paper to copy the cheat codes for it.

Beating Mario 2

Not ever beating Mario 3 (Until i bought it on my wii, and totally kicked it's ass)

Epic Duckhunt show downs (My brothers and I every Sat morning would play one round of duckhunt each, whoever got the highest score/furthest, got to play first)

Sneaking games of Super Mario Bros on the SNES when we were not supposed to...

Getting caught playing Super Mario Bros when we were not supposed to...

[ACU-LP]

You still have your Acorn!

Yup. It is well traveled as well; it has been from England to Australia, back to England and is currently in Australia. It is older than me. It has a six-stacker cd drive attached and can technically access the internet (though I don't think the OS or browser is supported). It has about half a million games on it including Dune II (my favourite). It starts up in under ten seconds(!).
Funny thing is, it still works perfectly. My only qualm with it is that it doesn't have enough memory to run the music for Dune II (but it can run the rest of the sound fx).

[InstinctSage]

The other issue is being able to decipher the voice fx.
Wormsign!
Enemy approaching.. from the North!

Actually, it was fairly easily comprehended. Syndicate was terrible though, not until I played Syndicate Wars did I realise it said "Selected" when you clicked on them. It always sounded like "Sour cream"

[JayDee]

Dune II is one of my earliest memories of file sharing - there was a set of disks* that went all around the school. Although all I can really remember of the game itself is the last level.

*3.25 inch disks. Sometimes I miss them, but then I remember how bloody unreliable they were.

[InstinctSage]

They were 3.5 inch!
Nowhere near as frustrating as 5.25 inch though. All the unreliability, half the space! Woe be to anyone who spans their zips.

[JayDee]

I knew that...

I remember I had a couple of games that came with both five and a quarter and three and a half (I only messed up 'cause I tried to write it as a number) inch disks. Must've been from when the three and a half inch disks first came out, because in both cases there were fewer of the bigger disks.

[Izawwlgood]

I'm surprised, but I guess I shouldn't be... Hasn't been mentioned:
-Think Quick!
-The Incredible Machine
-Wrath of the Gods
-Crusader No Remorse
-X-Com TFTD

[Xeio]

-Bubble Bobble, nuff said
-When mech games actually let you customize, rather than pick from 5 models and strap a few types of weapon to them (Oh Starsiege/Heavy Gear/Earthsiege how I miss you)
-When graphics weren't everything

-The Incredible Machine

The hours I lost to that game...

[Meowgan]

-The Incredible Machine

A few months ago we played TIM at uni. Teehee. My friends found a similar game online (A flash thing. Not cool) and Michael says "Hey, that's just like TIM!" Then there were 4 of us crammed around one laptop, all shouting suggestions. Engineering students are awesome.

Another one for you:
-Playing games level-by-level or life-by-life.

[JayDee]

-Playing games level-by-level or life-by-life.

Yeah, most of my gaming memories revolve around making single played games into co-op experiences. I think I even wrote an essay or two about that in High School.

Man, I miss the days where being able to get a level further than anyone else was something that could impact greatly on ones social status.

[InstinctSage]

Xeio, I find the lack of Mechwarrior in that list disturbing (Not that the others aren't also entirely awesome).

Last year we broke out the SNES and beat Castlevania X and Megaman 9 going life by life. Castlevania X was much easier, but imho much more enjoyable. We were attempting to speedrun them, which for our skill level really only meant trying to pull the sweetest moves to evade guys. I'd forgotten all about the double jump backflip in Castlevania X, but it became the source of some truly awesome shortcuts.

I miss those old platformers.