Quote:
Originally Posted by Filsdepac
Most influential games for me:
Lode Runner
Pitfall
Mario Bros.
Zelda (see avatar)
Contra (up up down down left right left right a b select start)
Oregon Trail
That Olympics game that you needed the pad for (Nintendo)
Monkey Island (where I learned what hemorrhoids are, funny game)
Descent (first experience playing others over internet)
Most hours: Civilization and Starcraft!
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Outside of Civilization, your video game upbringing closely resembles mine.
I remember playing Lode Runner and Pitfall on either the Apple IIgs my grandma had or the Commodore 64 my cousin had.
Mario Bros. was hugely influential as my best friend growing up and I played it every day for about a year, it seemed. We sucked it at (or at least I did), but never tired of stomping on Goomba heads. When his mom made us spaghetti with mushrooms for dinner we'd "grow" in our chairs until she got annoyed and told us to sit down.
My other cousin had Zelda and I spent more time watching his older brother play than I did playing myself. Tough game. I think I'd still have a tough time with it if I played today.
Contra... I think every male under 30 knows that code.
Oregon Trail was one of those games that girls were interested in, too. My wife has fond memories of dying of cholera. I liked shooting the buffalo.
Monkey Island/Space Quest/King's Quest all mush together in my mind. Awesome graphics and PC-speaker sound. What more can you ask for?
A guy in the ward built us a computer (486! With 252 mb of RAM!) when I was 12 or so and introduced me to Descent. Awesome game... I've tried getting it for my laptop, but can't get conversions to run properly. A common lament for most classic games.
And there's Starcraft and Warcraft. I played Warcraft II for countless hours... I remember playing certain levels against the computer that were so tough for me I just built up a killer defense with cannon towers and ballistas and sat back while the computer exhausted its resources bashing its forces against the wall.
Then Starcraft came along and I haven't played WCII since. Just a fantastic game... strategy required at both the micro and macro levels... cloak, high ground, siege tanks, firebats, archons, the zerg... and the balance among the three races was amazing. A good player could beat anyone with any of the races. Unit balance was important, too... in other RTS games like Command and Conquer, the game was always about who could build the most (battlecruisers/blimps/knights) fastest. In Starcraft, there is no dominant unit. 100 siege tanks can be beaten by 400 zerglings. 400 zerglings can be handled by a couple High Templars. High Templars are easily beaten by a couple Queens of Science Vessels. And it goes on and on.
Starcraft is
still played and Koreans hold SC tournaments all the time... broadcast on television.
Ten years after the game was released.
Now that's staying power.
Oh, and then there's World of Warcraft.
I believe Blizzard has taken more of my life than any other single pursuit, outside of sleeping.
Good times with nostalgia.