Round 3: What is your fondest gaming memory of all?

[gf78]

Since we are on a roll with favorite console and first console you purchased yourself, I have to ask.  What is your fondest gaming memory.  Either a game you love(d), getting a present, whatever it was that is your fondest memory.

Mine was Christmas Eve 1987.  We were going to my Grandparents for the entire night till late.  My mom's side is Italian and boy, do they love to eat their meat & cheese and drink!  So naturally, it was going to be a long night and I was a young man that couldn't really partake or even understand why all the adults were acting goofy.  So early that morning while my parents were cooking, they let me open a present.  I unwrapped none other than Castlevania II Simon's Quest for the NES.  This was actually my first Castlevania experience (but I quickly picked up the original through the Sears catalog after bugging the piss out of my parents) and I completely fell in love.  Wandering the Transylvanian countryside as a cursed Simon, imagine my surprise when the time turned to night and enemies doubled in "strength" or really, took twice as many hits with the whip to kill.  This game was RPG-lite with whip upgrades, etc.  For me, it was magical like Legend of Zelda, only more aesthetically pleasing and with cooler enemies (to me anyway).  I always found vampires, werewolves and the like fascinating and growing up, I had those big 12" Universal Monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein and Wolfman dolls/figures.  I played that bad boy till my fingers blistered and I was drug from the house to go to my grandparents.  I sat there the entire time for what seemed like an eternity, just itching to go home and play again.  I didn't care about anything else.  No other present(s) would matter.  This was the greatest.  Game.  Ever.   

[fighterpilot562]

Getting N64 for Christmas. I still own it, though, sadly, it no longer works.... had to buy a replacement.

[amauriel]

A few years ago, 4CR did a contest about a memorable moment with a new game. I won and had my story turned into a comic. Rather than retype it, here's the comic: http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/2012/08/28/life-in-the-analog-ages-contest-winner-comic-strip/

Enjoy!

[Warmsignal]

Hmm... can't really pick just one. I'm not good at "best" type questions. I can't simply rank things that I am fond of. Such questions make me feel like I imagine some parents might if you ask them which of their children do they love the most.

Perhaps watching my brother play SMB2 on old console TV we had way back in the day... maybe getting Super Punch Out for my B-day one year, countless hours spent playing FaceBall 2000 and Gradius III... or the summers spent playing co-op Duke Nukem 64 and GoldeEye with friends and family. Honorable mention dates back about six years prior when I first got back in to all of this and started collecting and really discovering so many games and consoles and going out to flea markets, at the same point picking up my DSi with Rhythm Heaven and just having so much enthusiasm for the DS among other consoles. Good times.

[doafan]

That should be the Christmas of 1992, my mom gave me as a gift the cartridge of Mega Man 5 for the Nes and that was one of the best moments in my gaming life, why ?, cause at those moments my dad wasn't with us so my mom had to work cleaning houses, selling food and doing all her best to maintain us, at that time the game was expensive keep in mind if was released in the same month, even with that she managed to bought me a complete copy, was so excited when she allowed me to open my present before midnight but the best part is that I was able to finish it before the next morning, her expression was epic when I told her that the game was completed but even after this she still continue to giving me games as presents, for example she gave me the Mega Man 5 for the Game Boy, the Street Fighter IV and the last one the Marvel vs Capcom 3 cause she knows I loved Capcom when I was a kiddo, gotta love my mom 

[bikingjahuty]

Most of my most fond gaming memories involve getting games/consoles on Christmas. It is really a toss up between Christmas 2000 when I got my PS2 despite expecting not to due to the extremely high demand for them at that time, or Christmas 1996 when I got my Nintendo 64 (which I still have to this day) and Super Mario 64.

[betelgeuse]

Probably gonna go with playing The Legend of Zelda with my brother and cousin at my grandmas house. She set up this ~13" tv on the kitchen table so we could all play and she could still watch her soaps in the living room.
My aunt bought it for him after seeing the commercial countless times (which way to go? Zelda? Zelda!!!). We burned every bush, pushed every rock and bombed every wall in that game. There was just nothing else like it at the time. Kinda cool we each got our own save file too.

[spac316]

During Christmas of 92, My folks made a treasure hunt around the house for my brother and I. They placed clues on post cards leading us around our home until finally we end up in the laundry den with the gift and it was a Sega Genesis with Sonic and Sonic 2!

[psydswipe]

Mine is a bit of a repeat memory. Growing up in the hills of a small town in Connecticut I rarely went to an arcade, but my parents had a timeshare in Laconia, New Hampshire. Laconia happens to be the home of the Funspot arcade (as seen in the documentary King of Kong) and I'd always look forward to that almost annual vacation just to go to Funspot. I haven't been back in more than 20 years so other than what I saw in the King of Kong, I can't really say how much different it is today. I do remember the original though: walk in the front door and the counter was on the left, directly in front of the door were the crane games, behind them were the bathrooms, and to the right was one giant room of arcade games. I'd bring my report card with me and get free tokens based on how good my grades were. A few times when we vacationed we'd arrive to see Funspot closed due to renovations which of course would ruin my vacation  :'(

They kept adding onto the place over the 10 or so years we visited and eventually it became two floors, and they added a bowling alley. I remember playing the original Star Wars arcade game there among others, and they have great collection of pinball. I'd play plenty of the skill games like Skee-Ball too to win tickets so I could get prizes. Sure, the prizes were mostly plastic trinkets and such but it was still fun to peruse the large collection of stuff, and I still have some of the items I got with my tickets (a Coca-Cola plastic mug, a tall Funspot cup, and a deck of Funspot playing cards). I'd enjoy the miniature golf course as well which they recently took down to build an indoor course with. I follow them on Facebook so I get to see a bit of what's going on there. Hopefully I will be able to get back there at least once more in my lifetime. Unfortunately, despite my father always carrying a camera, I can't find any pictures from our visits to Funspot. Although it's rare to see him playing video games I think he actually played games (likely pinball) while we were there and thus was too preoccupied to take pictures. 

[Oheao]

I was playing Final Fantasy X with my friend and brother, but my friend had to go home to do something, so we just paused the game. However, listening to the Besaid music was just so calming, I just listened to it for a long time, waiting for him to come back. I think that this was when FFX truly became my favourite game.

[kashell]

I have way too many fond memories when it comes to gaming:

*Landing my first AAA on a hard song in DDR
*Beating the PS2 Shinobi on the hardest difficulty
*Earning the platinum trophy in Star Ocean 4
*Completing the bestiary in 3D Dot Game Heroes
*Speed running both Mega Man 3 and Mega Man X4

The list goes on and on. And on. XD

[devancowan]

I would have to say mine is playing FF9 numerous times. As a kid I didn't have many games so I playing the shit out of FF9. I remember my younger brother saving over my file when I was on disk 4/4 and having to start over. I ended up losing one of the disks and scratching all the others (I blame this on my younger brother). Next I got it on the PSPgo/PSN and almost beat it again! But still haven't..
6 months ago I just purchased a brand new copy of it for the ps1 and have yet to play it..
One day I will finish that game!

[soera]

Mine is none other than NWC 1990. I waited weeks for it to happen but when it finally arrived, I took it in like a sponge. It was in one of the biggest buildings Ive ever been in and it was packed full of stuff. Half of the entire building was this massive 2-3 lines of nothing but NES consoles/homemade kiosks with every imaginable game on them. The front half of the building was capped off with the tournament area. There was a big stage with a huge screen in the back, a podium with a system and in front of the podium was 6 other systems. Around each side of the stage was the try out area. I recall my time on the stage. The announcer would have different systems projected onto the huge screen in the back and would give commentary on everything going on. (NWC itself was 50 coins in SMB, 1 lap in Rad Racer, then the rest of the time to get as many points in Tetris as possible. Points in SMB were x1, points in Rad Racer were x10 I think and points in Tetris were x25). I got to Tetris and not too long after, my personal system was projected onto the back screen. I was slamming lines left and right not even bothering with the Tetris. The announcer commented saying stuff like "Aww poor guy doesnt know what he is doing not going for the Tetris" and what not. When the dust settled, I won. I wanted to slap that announcer in the face and be like "Who doesnt know what he is doing now?"

Another shining moment at NWC for me was the offer to be a Nintendo Gameplay counselor. Was offered the opportunity to go to Japan for 6-8 weeks and study Nintendo school (didnt even realize there was a place) and then a position as one of the counselors at Redmond Washington. It liberated all that I had put all my efforts into but sadly my parents were unwilling to move our family or let me move there on my own so the dream job of every game player went down the toilet. I always wonder what would have happened had I been able to go.

[wartoy]

Driving to Childworld (toystore) to buy zelda I was so excited I opened the game in the parking lot to check it out then raced home and it was awesome. Its the first game I remember buying with my own money.

[tpugmire]

There are two that come to mind.

1. The first time that we (a bunch of friends) beat Metroid. It was at a friends house for his birthday. A bunch of guys spent the night at his house, and we were up pretty much all night taking turns. The following Monday at school, word had gotten out that we were the first ones that anyone knew to actually beat it, and we were celebrities for a week!  Nobody believed us that Samus was a girl though. The game had only been out for maybe a month at that point, so it was kind of a big deal at the time.

2.  Like Soera, I also competed in the NWC, although I didn't make it nearly as far. I was pretty good at SMB, but I had never played Rad Racer, and I'm still not very good at Tetris. I didn't make it past the first round, but it was still fun. I remember seeing people playing games that weren't released at the time. Gremlins 2 and Megaman 3 (I think), and the NES Powerpad stand out in my mind.