VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => Classic Video Games => Topic started by: bikingjahuty on August 27, 2016, 12:01:12 pm
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What is that time period that you have the fondest memories of gaming? When you think back to that time, you are instantly swept up in how awesome it was to be a gamer back then and puts a huge smile on your face. You can list a specific generation of gaming as well if one in particular really makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside :p
For me it is sort of a large swath of time. From 1996 until 2002 I was a very avid gamer and remember playing so many classics on the most of the 5th and 6th gen consoles. If I had to narrow it down a little further, specifically 1998 through 2001 was the greatest 3 year of my life to be a gamer; we got classics like Ocarina of Time, Shenmue, Gran Turismo 3, Sonic Adventure, Super Smash Bros, Perfect Dark...I could go on and on. I played all of the mentioned games extensively, and there are easy another dozen or so I sunk serious time into. I was also fortunate enough to have my top three consoles of all time during this time, all which were supported by their creators. Those would be the N64, Dreamcast and PS2. I get massive feels when thinking about this time as a gamer.
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I get the most heart-melties when thinking about the PlayStation era and the cornucopia of quality RPGs. After Final Fantasy VII, things just continued to get better and better for me. Hours upon hours were sunk into Star Ocean 2, Threads of Fate, Legend of Mana, Vagrant Story, SaGa Frontier, Valkyrie Profile, SaGa Frontier 2, Final Fantasy Tactics.
And the list goes on and on and on.
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6th Gen
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N64 and PS1 era with a dab of the early Xbox era in particular because of all the Halo LAN parties me and my friends did. Like every single weekend when Halo released lol
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PS1 era for me as well. First console I owned and some of my fondest memories. My favourite game is Final Fantasy VIII mostly because of my memories playing it at the time. That game's content was beyond anything my little 4 year-old brain could comprehend and I loved it all the same.
Close runner up would be the following gen, I was still a kid when that rolled over, albeit an older one. I remember refusing to accept that the PS2 was better than the PS1 when it first came out. Heheh.
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NES-SNES era, but I'm old.
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The possibilities and mystery of what might get localised or just released in general in that era seemed just as interesting. The cancelled games as well is also damn mysterious for anyone who's digged into that subject much.
For example some crazy bastards in south america from toytec were working on tomb raider for the Sega Genesis in 3D. After they finished Duke Nukem 3d which most considered impossible (Sega were even mind blown by this). they went bankrupt a few years later.
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Super Nintendo era, followed by Sega Saturn. Those two systems I spent most of my childhood playing. Started with NES and spent many hours playing rented. But I have the most best memories playing SNES growing up. I decided I wanted Saturn over Nintendo 64 or PlayStation and really loved that system (still do). Eventually early PlayStation for the most nostalgic.
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Probably the late 90's -early 00's for several core reasons:
1) Getting together with friends for massive gaming parties. We'd either be all gathered around a N64 playing games like Smash Bros., Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, and Mario Party or bring all of our PCs together for a full on LAN party with games like Starcraft, GTA II, Delta Force, or Rise of Nations.
Granted, me and my buddies still do game nights, but we've drifted more to card & board games, so a round of Catan is more likely than a round of Halo (though we do always set some time aside to play some of the genuinely terrible titles in my collection.
2) The lack of responsibility. Back then, as a kid, I could just sink hundreds of hours into my games, without a general care in the world. My core time sinks were probably Smash Bros., Civilization II, TIE Fighter, Starcraft, and Pokemon. Nowadays, as an adult with a full time job, progression through my backlog goes very slowly.
3) Piracy. Back in middle school, I was made aware of emulators and ROMs. All of a sudden, I had the entire NES and SNES library at my fingertips, and I made use of it, basically trying every game I could, just because I could. This broadened my gaming horizons so much as I was encountering gems I would've missed otherwise on my kid budget of 4-5 games per year (plus Blockbuster rentals). I've long since gone legit, as once I got a job, I enjoyed buying the games more (especially as I could see them on my shelves), with the only downside being that my purchasing speed has greatly outstripped my playing speed.
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1990-1997 for me. Computer games, early internet era, gaming magazines, Demos... OMG DEMOS! Remember them? ;D
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For me it would be the period from 1993 through about 1999. The later portion of the SNES, the birth of the 32-bit era, the N64 and to a lesser degree the PS1, and of course the launch of the Dreamcast is about where my fondest of gaming memories end.
I'll always remember being a kid and playing Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island, Super Off Road, Super Punch Out, and more. We would take our SNES with us about anywhere we went. My grandma's basement, my uncle's room (when he still lived at his parents), on vacation trips. Takes me right back to being a kid when I think of it. I remember being so hyped for the N64, and spending days and weeks with nearly every game I ever got my hands on for it. The multi-player fun that was had year after year, with Mario Party, Goldeneye, Bomberman 64, and others. Later on discovering the wonders of the overlooked (for me) PS1, and being blown away by my friend's Sega Dreamcast, and having parents cool enough to run out and buy me one on the spot with Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi, and then experiencing Shenmue for the first time. Indeed, those were the days for me.
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the SNES to PS1 era. My best friend and I were still playing the older systems well into the PS1/N64/Saturn Eara. Lots of hours on countless games and systems swapped between us. The Sega Dreamcast was also a very fondly remembered time.
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the era with these guys, in order, Nes, Sega Megadrive, PC 90s, SNES, PS1, PC early 2000s, and, yes, really, Wii.
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Probably the period from '83 to the SNES.
I loved my Atari 2600 and my Game & Watches, and my dad would bring me to the local mall arcade on the weekends, where I became so good at Ms Pac Man and Q*Bert he only had to give me one or two quarters. Arcade games were everywhere; our local Mexican restaurant had Mr. Do in the waiting room, and we knew the waitress at our favorite family restaurant so well she would exchange a kiss for a quarter to play Ms Pac Man in their lobby.
Then I discovered the NES, Game Boy, Genesis, and SNES. My parents got me a SNES for Christmas 1991, but they didn't know I would take it out to play it before Christmas ;D
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1993
It was then a gentle waning of enthusiasm until the Dreamcast and arcades finally took their last breath. I still play a lot. But it is mainly stuff from that era along with the Blizzard trinity of Warcraft, starcraft and Diablo.
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Early 80s Atari/Magnavox Odyessey2 at home and Arcade machines everywhere. Hours spent in front of the living room television playing games with the whole family. Using butter knives to attach the RF switch box to a little 8" B&W TV in the kitchen. Begging and borrowing quarters every time I passed an arcade machine which could be anywhere from a full fledged arcade to a diner, convenience store or even somewhere mundane like a dry cleaner or tire store, they were virtually as plentiful as slot machines in Vegas. Cartoons of popular games on TV, songs about them on the radio, if you were not there I doubt you can conceive the impact video games had on popular culture 1978 to about 1984.
Runner up would be the late 80s/early 90s when I had my NES and my friends and I traded games, rented games, and can neither confirm or deny copying a floppy or two. This period was fun but I got my NES shortly before the SNES came along and ruined the fun. I had my Atari for a decade before getting the NES, no way I could replace it a mere 2 years later, Nintendo must have thought we were made of money or something. I ditched consoles for several years after this, besides that I had a PC and access to BBSs by then so who needed Nintendo? I eventually got over it but that soured me on console gaming for a long time and is what makes the NES era less nostalgic than it should be.
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1987-1988
I got my NES for Christmas in '87 but I'd been playing my friends NES's and Play Choice Ten in arcades so I was well versed in all things Nintendo by the time I got it. I spent all of 1988 obsessed with gaming and trading, borrowing and renting games to play as many as I could since I couldn't afford to buy many myself and there are only so many Christmas's and birthdays in a year. I even put Super Mario Bros 2 on layaway at the local Wal Mart to ensure I would own a copy by the end of the summer of '88.
Classic NES games out during this period:
Zelda 1 & 2
SMB 1 & 2
Metroid
Mike Tyson's Punch Out
Castlevania 1 & 2
Contra
Kid Icarus
Tecmo Bowl
Duck Hunt
Pro Wrestling
Mega Man 1 & 2
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Early 80s Atari/Magnavox Odyessey2 at home and Arcade machines everywhere. Hours spent in front of the living room television playing games with the whole family. Using butter knives to attach the RF switch box to a little 8" B&W TV in the kitchen. Begging and borrowing quarters every time I passed an arcade machine which could be anywhere from a full fledged arcade to a diner, convenience store or even somewhere mundane like a dry cleaner or tire store, they were virtually as plentiful as slot machines in Vegas. Cartoons of popular games on TV, songs about them on the radio, if you were not there I doubt you can conceive the impact video games had on popular culture 1978 to about 1984.
Runner up would be the late 80s/early 90s when I had my NES and my friends and I traded games, rented games, and can neither confirm or deny copying a floppy or two. This period was fun but I got my NES shortly before the SNES came along and ruined the fun. I had my Atari for a decade before getting the NES, no way I could replace it a mere 2 years later, Nintendo must have thought we were made of money or something. I ditched consoles for several years after this, besides that I had a PC and access to BBSs by then so who needed Nintendo? I eventually got over it but that soured me on console gaming for a long time and is what makes the NES era less nostalgic than it should be.
This is a period of gaming that I wish I was around for. I've owned an atari 2600 twice, but never when the Atari 2600 was active. I was born in 1986. Thus, I never really got on with the the Atari consoles. However, it has some of the best arcade games. I would really liked to have more nostalgia for "Have you played Atari today?" Atari has some of the best history. Corporate Atari is mind-blowing. The book "Chasing the Beam" is great. The blog "All in Color for a Quarter" is one of the best things on the internet. Also, I highly suggest anyone to listen to the Owen Rubin episodes of the podcast Arcade Outsiders.
But alas, it's tough to have nostalgia for stuff you were either too young or not alive during. But that is where respect takes over I guess.