For me it has to be back when I was five or six years old (so about 15 years ago) and we got our first family computer. It was one of the old macintosh power pc's. I was instantly hooked, even before I had played any games, I just loved using the computer, I am afraid I cannot really put into words what it was that I connected with, but I definitely connected.
Anyway, to cut a long reminiscing story short, the game for me was the original prince of persia, yes, thats right, the side scrolling genius of that game (not to mention the first time i fell off the screen and landed on some spikes and died!) had me hooked, I spent untold hours on that game trying to escape the evil sultan's dungeon and save the princess. Needless to say I dont think I ever managed to complete the game before the family upgraded the computer to a PC...
I think the first game the really sucked me in was playing Descent on my hottest in the hood at the time AMD DX2-100.it was also my first OC since it was really a DX4-100.lol. Then a friend brought his system over and showed me the magic on multiplayer over null modem cable..i was hooked. I had played Doom and Hexen and Heretic. but being able to move in "360 degrees of freedom"!! That for me was the defining moment. I had grown up with the Atari 2600 went through the Intellivision and Colecovision, even had a Vectrex. but that game. It got me. It was so bad that my friends and i would go to the local community college and sneak into the computer lad..LOL.
I don't think I can point to a single game to be honest, the best I can do is come up with a list of games that got me into different genres in the early days. Had a sega master system 2 before we had a PC, but I can't really say I could remember any of the games without having to think pretty hard.
FPS: Duke Nukem 3d
Tactical strategy: UFO: Enemy Unknown* (X:COM UFO Defense to those in north america)
Real-Time strategy: C&C: Red Alert
Big-stompy-robots: Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries
Hack-and-slash: Diablo
RPG: Baldur's Gate 2/System Shock 2 **
* = Force me to pick one this would be it I guess, though it wasn't the first.
** = So different, but both so full of stat-based goodness ;)
I loved many games before The One. I loved Mechwarrior, Shining Force, Final Fantasy VII, etc. I didn't fall head over heels in love until Ultima Online.
No, the graphics were not earth shattering. No, the connection was not always stable or predictable. No, the cost was not small to play. But I loved the game all the same. I mean, what better than a place where we could all gather and leave the real world behind and enjoy an adventure together. Sometimes it felt like a comedy, sometimes it felt like a horror and sometimes it felt like a drama. I felt the real human connection in that game in a way I couldn't in person. I got to live outside myself in a way a movie or book couldn't let me. I was a social outcast in school(the only real socializing I got at the time) and the game gave a place where everyone was socially equal. No jocks, nerds, etc. It wasn't until later that the dream would die a little(and not untiil other MMOs came out that it practically died). The game became less about having fun and more about gathering and collecting wealth, at first not so much at the cost of others. Then that became the name of the game; screw everyone to get as much as you can. Dominate, make them miserable, win at all costs. That's when my short but passionate love for the game and even people died.
I guess that's why I loved the game and why I still enjoy trying out MMOs. I guess it'll never be the same, but the pursuit of that same feeling of wonder still persists.
I'd say the only game that brings me close to that again is EVE-Online, even though its limitations are pretty obvious and the same things that made UO die for me are there, but I'm older, wiser, and more willing to take the good with the bad.
I feel you Joe. The first game I ever seen on pc which actually lit the spark of passion for games in me was monkey island 2, after that experience I wasn't the same again. I bought my first 486dx pc and dedicated myself to adventure games. At the moment I got a PC a Wii and PS3, I really love action-adventure games, rpgs, some fps with decent storyline (bioshock) and adventures off course.
The thing that you said about gamers, trying to re-live their first experience is absolutely true in my opinion. I grow up to love games with strong storyline and humor above all (fallout anyone?) on the other hand I kinda dislike horror games but I still play them if they're fun.
Wintergames by Epyx on the C64. That was the Vampire that seduced me. My jugular would not recover ever again. Real Life was traded on a daily basis, for my Virtual alter ego after that.
I would start explaining what 'the game' was for me, but Joe's done a pretty decent job at it already.
Doom wasn't the first game I ever played, not by a long shot. My earliest game memories go back to the Commodore 64 (Dizzy!) and the Megadrive (instant loading!!!). Before the PC, my family owned an actually-quite-rare Amiga 1500+ (an A500, with two floppy drives), and I remember such games as Toki, Elf and Street Fighter 2 (whilst my brothers played endless seasons on Manchester United Premier League Champions, where every year you bought a new floppy disk with the updated teams on).
My first brief experience of Doom was the shareware version on a friend's PC. Enough to know the title, but not enough to appreciate the game. A little later when we bought our first 90Mhz Pentium (zzzooom!) it came with a CD of about 300 free and shareware games. Among them was the Doom shareware. And honestly, I've never looked back. I guess Joe's right, every hardcore gamer has the one game against which all others are (always unfavourably) measured. People say no game is flawless, but for everyone there is at least one game that is. For me, it was Doom. There is, to this day, absolutely nothing bad about the game. Nothing, zero, zip. It is, at least in my opinion, perfect.
There are some games you play, and there are some games you devour. Even after you've played them to death numerous times you just keep going back, doing different things to them. You don't just play them, you dissect them, take them apart, polish all the bits and put them back together. You read everything you can get your hands on about them, hear everyone's opinion on them, positively obsess over them. Finding a book like the Doom Construction Kit just added fuel to the flames for me. I would say that it was because of that book I am as easy with computers as I am now. It didn't just teach me how to edit Doom, it taught me the entire basics of manipulating computers. The whole foundations of my understanding of how a computer programme works, how the bits fit together, how the computer games grabs the various pieces of media and places them in an engine to render for the user, all that I learnt as an over-eager eight year old totally from playing with Doom. It taught me everything, and absolutely cemented my love of games ever since.
I guess that what separates us hardcore gamers from the casual gamers. They play games, we live them, they become part of our lives and actually have defining effects on our past. The same could probably be said for many people with certain films or certain music, but for us, games aren't just things we play, they're things with live.
I'vbe thought about this thread a good deal since my last post, searching my entire collection of games and how I feel about each one.
I still maintain that Halo brought me into the FPS world, but for flight sims the one that really is the game for me was European Air War for win 95.
what struck me so much about it was that the AI was actually Intelligent, and reacted in some very surprising ways, always leading to challenging and interesting dogfights, no matter how much you stacked the mission creation options in your favor.
I guess I've been lucky enough to have a repeat experience of the game because Wings over Europe was made by exactly the same development team, and using an updated and refined version of the same engine. the only difference is that this time round they released all of their dev tools and have continued to give the community their full support, which has turned it from a decent class WIN 2000 game with a great AI, into something with stunning visuals rivaling FSX with the correct mods applied. (even if the game swells to 30GB+)
Originally Posted by Bauul I guess Joe's right, every hardcore gamer has the one game against which all others are (always unfavourably) measured. People say no game is flawless, but for everyone there is at least one game that is. For me, it was Doom. There is, to this day, absolutely nothing bad about the game. Nothing, zero, zip. It is, at least in my opinion, perfect.
So are we saying that a true hardcore gamer is a fanboy? I've always concidered myself a rather cosmopolitan gamer. I don't think I've ever held a game up to be some kind of holy grail. There have been some absolutely fabulous game engines , game mechanics etc which I use as a reference against other titles of the same genre, but I measured each game on its own merrits. I've been gaming the best part of 23 years now, but maybe I'm no hardcore player then.:?
The game that got me into gaming was the original command & conquer. I went over to a friends house in 4th or 5th grade and we played it. The moment I got home, I went to my mother and we went out and bought it. Maybe it was the cheesy FMV cut scenes, maybe it was the RTS goodness that got me. I don't know. Me and several friends even had a "club" in 5th grade in which we all played C&C. We had excel graphs showing how far each of us was in the GDI & Nod campaigns. I even had a Nod tshirt made. I gobbled up that entire franchise (up to Tiberian Sun anyway, I never did like that game, and I didn't buy the expansion). Red Alert 2 was also amazing. I did try out the recent C&C3, but it didn't hold the same appeal for me as the original games. Neither did C&C Generals.
LOL, so maybe I didn't gobble up the entire series, I liked C&C, covert ops, red alert, counterstrike, aftermath, RA2, and Yuri's revenge. I also owned Sole Survivor, tiberian sun, and renegade. In the end, maybe they overdid it.
Games that kept me coming back (PC games)
C&C, RA, RA2
Total Annihilation (best game ever?)
Roller Coaster Tycoon
StarCraft
Civ2
Sim City 2k
Alpha Centauri
Civ3
MoHAA
CS:S
UT04
HL2
WoW
TF2
My game playing has been waning recently, but I still get a good TF2 bout in every now and again.
EDIT: and some console games:
First console game I ever played was Ocarina of Time. AWESOME.
super smash brothers
mario kart 64
goldeneye (yes! I recently downloaded the Goldeneye Source mod which provided some good entertainment, assholes need to finish it though!)
I never really was a big console gamer, but I did own a GameCube, XBox, and a PS2. I don't have or want any of the new consoles.
Originally Posted by legoman666 up to Tiberian Sun anyway, I never did like that game, and I didn't buy the expansion). Red Alert 2 was also amazing. I did try out the recent C&C3, but it didn't hold the same appeal for me as the original games. Neither did C&C Generals.
As if! i thought tiberian sun was awesome, i loved how every level kind of 'glowed', and units mattered far more than numbers in that game than it did the others, the cost and build limitations were brilliantly implemented. The campaign was far too difficult though. Generals- agreed, it was an insult. Thank god they killed that off and went back to tiberium.
Originally Posted by legoman666 up to Tiberian Sun anyway, I never did like that game, and I didn't buy the expansion). Red Alert 2 was also amazing. I did try out the recent C&C3, but it didn't hold the same appeal for me as the original games. Neither did C&C Generals.
As if! i thought tiberian sun was awesome, i loved how every level kind of 'glowed', and units mattered far more than numbers in that game than it did the others, the cost and build limitations were brilliantly implemented. The campaign was far too difficult though. Generals- agreed, it was an insult. Thank god they killed that off and went back to tiberium.
I don't think it was a bad game, it just didn't have that special something that C&C and RA had.
My father kicked me out when I turned 17 and we haven't spoken since, almost ten years ago.
I have only two good memories of my father: one is watching Star Trek, X-Files, and Babylon 5 with him in my teens.
The other is Super Mario Bros when I was 7.
My father never spent any money on anything besides his car, so I was shocked when he brought home the NES. We played Super Mario Bros for months trying to beat it. We would get to World 9 and that one really long jump and we couldn't figure out how to get past it. Finally, one day my dad figures it out. If you hold "B" while running, Mario jumps further! Who knew? I had a hand-me-down Atari 2600 for a couple years and my dad had a Commodore 64, but Mario was the first real "platformer". So this was new. Best of all, though my dad figured out the B-jump when I wasn't home, he stopped and waited till I got home before going further and beating it. That was really cool of him. I have fond memories of playing Super Mario Bros with my father and that is the game that got me hooked. I've had every Nintendo system since, except the Gamecube, and the platformer genre is still my favorite. But somehow none of them are ever as satisfying as the months I spent with my father trying to beat Super Mario Bros on the NES.
I still like to break out SMB now and again. Side note: I got my fiance a DS for Christmas with New Super Mario Bros. I love it! Nostalgic, but it brings the nostalgia into the present. Very cool.
Im going with AoE on PC and goldeneye on N64. Many hours went down the proverbial toilet to those two games. Goldeneye especially seeing as it was my introduction to multiplayer FPS goodness. Who didnt love slappers only one hit kill games? Or strategically placing your mines in doorways ?( Im not a camper no matter what anyone says :) )
As some before me have already mentioned, I played numerous games, mostly on the Master System, and PC (too young for Atari's etc!) I do remember playing Alex Kidd, Sonic and the olympics '92 frequently - and when we visited our cousins in the valleys, they were all into their computer games, so we played stuff like James Pond, NBA, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, Quake, Zool, Descent etc.....
I am not a "hardcore" gamer, I play to unwind, or if I get bored. I have precious little amounts of time to myself - far less of that is spent gaming...
But the game that got me hooked was Unreal Tournament. I took great delight in learning all the shortcuts, and going to LAN parties, and I'd get blasted to smithereens - 1. because I wasn't used to competitive gaming, 2. I wasn't used to playing against people, I only had bots to kill, and 3. I sucked. But I still enjoyed myself.
Once again, great article Joe, a truly thought-provoking read.
While I've undoubtedly spent more time playing the game Diablo II then any other, I don't consider it an especially good game, just an addictive one. Like popcorn. But the thousands of hours spent mean I can play it in my head. Useful when particularly bored. I'm not kidding.
Reading over the previous posts, most of the games talked about were influential and important for me too. But one stands out as having been missed: Marathon 2: Durandal. I loved the Dooms, but Marathon 2 was an experience of a different calibre entirely, a story of action, depth and complexity played out before my eyes on my father's work Mac.
I started out gaming on the venerable Amiga 500, but probably due to my young age, none of the games of that era had a lasting impression. The playstation came along, and the original Tomb Raider grabbed me. I was young and in love with Lara. I havn't played Aniversary yet, but I think I'm going to relive some very fond memories (mammeries?) very soon. But the Playstation era's true gem was Final Fantasy VII. Nothing comes close. I still can't believe even Square pulled off a game so perfect. Someone should have been given a nobel prize for that one. I cried tears of pure happiness and sadness (yes at the same time) when Aeris was killed, simply for the shear beauty of the moment, with her bouncing materia striking the opening chords of the music. I'm getting emotional all over thinking about that.
I was going to follow that up with spouting the joys of the Baldur's Gate, AoE, and HoMM series, but I just seemed to have talked myself out of it. Final Fantasy VII was superior. I'm still playing the BG's and such, as opposed to FFVII, but that's probably because I no longer have a PSX. ****.. I just put the piano version of the FFVII soundtrack on and I have tears in my eyes. I guess we just found my gaming grail.
Thanks for the article Joe, rarely would I sign up to a forum to reply to a column.
well, supposedly FFVII is having a remastered version released for the PS3, which will probably leap off the shelves faster than you can shout "Save 1 for me!!!"
First game that really got me hooked was Heroes of Might and Magic II, I started playing in about 1998, at my friends grandmas house. We used to go over there every day after school, would play for a few hours. After a while we invited my brother over, he got hooked and ended up buying it. My younger brother got into too, and eventually 3 of the neighbours got into it just by playing at my place. I now own every HOMM game released, including the horrible HOMMIV.
Games are addictive, but at least they're not as bad as alcohol and drugs, no matter wat Little Jackie T says
Originally Posted by Bauul I guess Joe's right, every hardcore gamer has the one game against which all others are (always unfavourably) measured. People say no game is flawless, but for everyone there is at least one game that is. For me, it was Doom. There is, to this day, absolutely nothing bad about the game. Nothing, zero, zip. It is, at least in my opinion, perfect.
So are we saying that a true hardcore gamer is a fanboy? I've always concidered myself a rather cosmopolitan gamer. I don't think I've ever held a game up to be some kind of holy grail. There have been some absolutely fabulous game engines , game mechanics etc which I use as a reference against other titles of the same genre, but I measured each game on its own merrits. I've been gaming the best part of 23 years now, but maybe I'm no hardcore player then.:?
Obviously from a purely objective point of view no game is perfect, what I meant was every gamer I know at any rate has one particluar game they hold above all the others. That doesn't make them fanboys, as they understand that that game is only that perfect for them, other people won't see in it what they do. The places these games hold in our hearts is far more about the circumstances in which we played them than the games themselves. Everyone has rosy memories of family Christmases because they were so important to our childhood, regardless of actually how much fun they were. What I meant is that for many people there are certain games that dispite their flaws, despite the lack of universal appeal, despite not actually being perfect, are perfect for them. Obviously you can't compare one game to another across genres and the such like, but you can compare how a game makes you feel, deep inside, and on that front there will always be one game that had more of an impact on your personally than any other, without a doubt.
I've been thinking about it and I can't think what it is that keeps me coming back time and again to gaming.
I've been an avid gamer for over 20 years now, starting with my C64 back in the day.
The games I always played on that were Paperboy, Turrican, Last Ninja series, Ghosts and Goblins etc.
Those were the single player games that I remember right now off the top of my head, there were countless more.
For the games like Paperboy and G&G, I think it was the urge to get further than you did last time that kept me going.
Last Ninja type games were attractive for the puzzles I think.
Multiplayer was always way more fun though. Bubble Bobble and Gauntlet were awesome to play with friends.
Not sure WHY they were such fun though.
Why do we enjoy doing anything?
After the C64 was the Mega Drive and the best game for it IMO was Desert Strike.
Or maybe Speedball 2.
I think the reason Desert Strike was so fun was a semi-open game structure.
Sure you had to get the radar sites before the power station before the airfields etc but it didn't force you to do them right away.
You could float about the whole map and shoot random enemy jeeps, find extra lives, find the power-winch etc.
Also having to balance that with not getting caught short with low fuel miles away from the nearest supply was fun.
Again, I can't say WHY it was fun, it just was.
Next up PC, and games like Terror from the Deep, Transport Tycoon, Tie Fighter, Duke Nukem, Command & Conquer etc.
Transport Tycoon was my first PC LAN game experience (well, null modem not LAN) and it was excellent fun.
I remember my mate at the time and I would head round to his on Friday afternoon with my PC, hook it to his, bring in a tea-maker, jug of milk, TV to watch Top Gear and massive bags of broken biscuits and go at it for almost 48 hours straight!
That's got to be some sort of addiction to be doing that but if its something you enjoy, and you're not hurting anyone, why not?
Duke Nukem was also a regular LAN game for me (proper LAN this time with good ol' NE2000 compatible coax NICs) and we used to get about 5-6 of us together with our machines (486es at the time, mine pwned cos it was the only one with a PCI gfx card, the rest had ISA :D) for deathmatches.
The fun there was beating your friends, same as its fun to compete against them in squash/football/tennis etc.
C&C was the same, to see who was the best general (or usually, who was the sneakiest).
I think the reason games are so much fun is that they're a challenge.
Can you beat your last score, can you beat the AI, can you beat your mates??
This makes me think games are a sport.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wiki Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors.
Yes, they're not physical (until the Wii came out anyway :D) but they are still "an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively".
IMO, we enjoy games in the same way, and for the same reasons that we enjoy sports. I get the same good feeling after pwning some n00bs in CS as I do after thrashing someone at squash.
In fact I enjoy it more in some ways, as I don't need to shower after every game and don't have aching muscles the next few days! :D
Originally Posted by Bluephoenix well, supposedly FFVII is having a remastered version released for the PS3, which will probably leap off the shelves faster than you can shout "Save 1 for me!!!"
To say I'm very excited would be an understatement. I hope that rumor's right :D
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhenomRed First game that really got me hooked was Heroes of Might and Magic II, I started playing in about 1998, at my friends grandmas house. We used to go over there every day after school, would play for a few hours.
Haha, I still dig out HoMM2 for a romp around Broken Alliance. That map should have been remade in every sequel. Green+Wizard for teh win!
oh wow there are so many. the legend of zelda from the NES.
most of my game playing started before I was in kindergarden i wasnt allowed to play by myself and couldnt be trusted around the nintendo (i would take it apart, oh dont worry i opened it up anyway) so i waited every day till my sister got home to play those games. but sadly ive never been a console fan and i still find it hard to play alot of games on them.
what really got me hooked on gaming and more importantly, PC gaming was Mechwarrior 2. not mechwarr1 that was on the SNES. that game was absoulte crud. i loved the options the game had. its graphics were really good for the time it had excellent voice acting. it was all around a awesome game of course ive played Doom/quake and i got the shareware kit that came with our brand new pentium 100.
I also loved heretic and later hexen. those games were always quite fun to me.
ive never been into the starcraft/warcraft games. and to this day all of my LAN buddies love those games and i just cant. as good as the gameplay is and as good as the storyline may be i just dont find it intersting to me. The RTS is a touchy thing for because of the micro management way most of them go.
There was one that I fell in love with ever since I saw it on the cover of a gaming mag. Homeworld to me that is the End all of RTS's the build system the storyline, the graphics, multiplayer, and the controls it was all there. it was one of the games i could sit and play without ever picking up the manual or even playing the tutorial. the game was in depth to the extreme. an exiled race trying to get back to their home planet which they dont even remember. i would sit up in my room reading the manual on the ship types, the lore and the different races and tribes of the exiled race. i loved every bit of it. what really hooked me was the multiplayer. the tatics you could use were endless flank, top, bottom, warp, gravwell bomb, Carrier kamakazi, and mind field baiting it was endless. there was also the fact that once you lost your mothership it was over. im not trying to bolster Homeworld up to a higher podium but for me. thats what it was "RTS perfection"
what really hurts is that no one will play me. every friend i know pretty much knows my obession for it and cant stand losing a few matches to make me happy (i had a 5 foot tidan destroyer poster in my room till i was 17)
Max Payne too many things to count Deff my fav 3rd person
Diablo 1 and 2 are deff my favs for Top down.
FPS is easily The UT series (particually 2004) its cut and dry too "heres some guns, go kill people." (gotta love that)
systemshock was something different and I loved it to death... if only i could find my install for it.
MMO i have a softspot for Eve, ive been with it since 2003 but i keep find myself quiting and then starting back, then quiting again.
as it has been said alot WOW does indeed put all the best elements into one game gotta hand it to blizz.
And on a side note: I always shot more bison/buffalo then i could carry if i needed 200 lbs i shot 1000 lbs. i still cant beat that game... my whole party keeps dying. buncha slackers i have for a family huh?
Hmmm, I've had to think about it, and even though I've spent years playing on an Atari2600 and a Commodore16, the game that hooked me was on our first PC:
Space Quest
Only series i've ever finished without cheats or walkthroughs...just weeks of busting my head till I came up with a solution.
Later (and earlier) adventures like Larry or Kings Quest had you running around a gazillion places, never knowing what to take, beeing pretty much unsolvable without a walkthrough. For some reason Monkey Island never made it to my computer
Later I turned to shooters (Wolfenstein, Doom3D) ,RTS (Dune II, C&C) and the now dead Spacesims (Freespace, Star/Freelancer, EVE-Online)
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ReplyAnyway, to cut a long reminiscing story short, the game for me was the original prince of persia, yes, thats right, the side scrolling genius of that game (not to mention the first time i fell off the screen and landed on some spikes and died!) had me hooked, I spent untold hours on that game trying to escape the evil sultan's dungeon and save the princess. Needless to say I dont think I ever managed to complete the game before the family upgraded the computer to a PC...
Nuff said
FPS: Duke Nukem 3d
Tactical strategy: UFO: Enemy Unknown* (X:COM UFO Defense to those in north america)
Real-Time strategy: C&C: Red Alert
Big-stompy-robots: Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries
Hack-and-slash: Diablo
RPG: Baldur's Gate 2/System Shock 2 **
* = Force me to pick one this would be it I guess, though it wasn't the first.
** = So different, but both so full of stat-based goodness ;)
No, the graphics were not earth shattering. No, the connection was not always stable or predictable. No, the cost was not small to play. But I loved the game all the same. I mean, what better than a place where we could all gather and leave the real world behind and enjoy an adventure together. Sometimes it felt like a comedy, sometimes it felt like a horror and sometimes it felt like a drama. I felt the real human connection in that game in a way I couldn't in person. I got to live outside myself in a way a movie or book couldn't let me. I was a social outcast in school(the only real socializing I got at the time) and the game gave a place where everyone was socially equal. No jocks, nerds, etc. It wasn't until later that the dream would die a little(and not untiil other MMOs came out that it practically died). The game became less about having fun and more about gathering and collecting wealth, at first not so much at the cost of others. Then that became the name of the game; screw everyone to get as much as you can. Dominate, make them miserable, win at all costs. That's when my short but passionate love for the game and even people died.
I guess that's why I loved the game and why I still enjoy trying out MMOs. I guess it'll never be the same, but the pursuit of that same feeling of wonder still persists.
I'd say the only game that brings me close to that again is EVE-Online, even though its limitations are pretty obvious and the same things that made UO die for me are there, but I'm older, wiser, and more willing to take the good with the bad.
The thing that you said about gamers, trying to re-live their first experience is absolutely true in my opinion. I grow up to love games with strong storyline and humor above all (fallout anyone?) on the other hand I kinda dislike horror games but I still play them if they're fun.
Doom wasn't the first game I ever played, not by a long shot. My earliest game memories go back to the Commodore 64 (Dizzy!) and the Megadrive (instant loading!!!). Before the PC, my family owned an actually-quite-rare Amiga 1500+ (an A500, with two floppy drives), and I remember such games as Toki, Elf and Street Fighter 2 (whilst my brothers played endless seasons on Manchester United Premier League Champions, where every year you bought a new floppy disk with the updated teams on).
My first brief experience of Doom was the shareware version on a friend's PC. Enough to know the title, but not enough to appreciate the game. A little later when we bought our first 90Mhz Pentium (zzzooom!) it came with a CD of about 300 free and shareware games. Among them was the Doom shareware. And honestly, I've never looked back. I guess Joe's right, every hardcore gamer has the one game against which all others are (always unfavourably) measured. People say no game is flawless, but for everyone there is at least one game that is. For me, it was Doom. There is, to this day, absolutely nothing bad about the game. Nothing, zero, zip. It is, at least in my opinion, perfect.
There are some games you play, and there are some games you devour. Even after you've played them to death numerous times you just keep going back, doing different things to them. You don't just play them, you dissect them, take them apart, polish all the bits and put them back together. You read everything you can get your hands on about them, hear everyone's opinion on them, positively obsess over them. Finding a book like the Doom Construction Kit just added fuel to the flames for me. I would say that it was because of that book I am as easy with computers as I am now. It didn't just teach me how to edit Doom, it taught me the entire basics of manipulating computers. The whole foundations of my understanding of how a computer programme works, how the bits fit together, how the computer games grabs the various pieces of media and places them in an engine to render for the user, all that I learnt as an over-eager eight year old totally from playing with Doom. It taught me everything, and absolutely cemented my love of games ever since.
I guess that what separates us hardcore gamers from the casual gamers. They play games, we live them, they become part of our lives and actually have defining effects on our past. The same could probably be said for many people with certain films or certain music, but for us, games aren't just things we play, they're things with live.
I still maintain that Halo brought me into the FPS world, but for flight sims the one that really is the game for me was European Air War for win 95.
what struck me so much about it was that the AI was actually Intelligent, and reacted in some very surprising ways, always leading to challenging and interesting dogfights, no matter how much you stacked the mission creation options in your favor.
I guess I've been lucky enough to have a repeat experience of the game because Wings over Europe was made by exactly the same development team, and using an updated and refined version of the same engine. the only difference is that this time round they released all of their dev tools and have continued to give the community their full support, which has turned it from a decent class WIN 2000 game with a great AI, into something with stunning visuals rivaling FSX with the correct mods applied. (even if the game swells to 30GB+)
LOL, so maybe I didn't gobble up the entire series, I liked C&C, covert ops, red alert, counterstrike, aftermath, RA2, and Yuri's revenge. I also owned Sole Survivor, tiberian sun, and renegade. In the end, maybe they overdid it.
Games that kept me coming back (PC games)
C&C, RA, RA2
Total Annihilation (best game ever?)
Roller Coaster Tycoon
StarCraft
Civ2
Sim City 2k
Alpha Centauri
Civ3
MoHAA
CS:S
UT04
HL2
WoW
TF2
My game playing has been waning recently, but I still get a good TF2 bout in every now and again.
EDIT: and some console games:
First console game I ever played was Ocarina of Time. AWESOME.
super smash brothers
mario kart 64
goldeneye (yes! I recently downloaded the Goldeneye Source mod which provided some good entertainment, assholes need to finish it though!)
I never really was a big console gamer, but I did own a GameCube, XBox, and a PS2. I don't have or want any of the new consoles.
As if! i thought tiberian sun was awesome, i loved how every level kind of 'glowed', and units mattered far more than numbers in that game than it did the others, the cost and build limitations were brilliantly implemented. The campaign was far too difficult though. Generals- agreed, it was an insult. Thank god they killed that off and went back to tiberium.
I don't think it was a bad game, it just didn't have that special something that C&C and RA had.
I have only two good memories of my father: one is watching Star Trek, X-Files, and Babylon 5 with him in my teens.
The other is Super Mario Bros when I was 7.
My father never spent any money on anything besides his car, so I was shocked when he brought home the NES. We played Super Mario Bros for months trying to beat it. We would get to World 9 and that one really long jump and we couldn't figure out how to get past it. Finally, one day my dad figures it out. If you hold "B" while running, Mario jumps further! Who knew? I had a hand-me-down Atari 2600 for a couple years and my dad had a Commodore 64, but Mario was the first real "platformer". So this was new. Best of all, though my dad figured out the B-jump when I wasn't home, he stopped and waited till I got home before going further and beating it. That was really cool of him. I have fond memories of playing Super Mario Bros with my father and that is the game that got me hooked. I've had every Nintendo system since, except the Gamecube, and the platformer genre is still my favorite. But somehow none of them are ever as satisfying as the months I spent with my father trying to beat Super Mario Bros on the NES.
I still like to break out SMB now and again. Side note: I got my fiance a DS for Christmas with New Super Mario Bros. I love it! Nostalgic, but it brings the nostalgia into the present. Very cool.
As some before me have already mentioned, I played numerous games, mostly on the Master System, and PC (too young for Atari's etc!) I do remember playing Alex Kidd, Sonic and the olympics '92 frequently - and when we visited our cousins in the valleys, they were all into their computer games, so we played stuff like James Pond, NBA, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, Quake, Zool, Descent etc.....
I am not a "hardcore" gamer, I play to unwind, or if I get bored. I have precious little amounts of time to myself - far less of that is spent gaming...
But the game that got me hooked was Unreal Tournament. I took great delight in learning all the shortcuts, and going to LAN parties, and I'd get blasted to smithereens - 1. because I wasn't used to competitive gaming, 2. I wasn't used to playing against people, I only had bots to kill, and 3. I sucked. But I still enjoyed myself.
Once again, great article Joe, a truly thought-provoking read.
Joe
Reading over the previous posts, most of the games talked about were influential and important for me too. But one stands out as having been missed: Marathon 2: Durandal. I loved the Dooms, but Marathon 2 was an experience of a different calibre entirely, a story of action, depth and complexity played out before my eyes on my father's work Mac.
I started out gaming on the venerable Amiga 500, but probably due to my young age, none of the games of that era had a lasting impression. The playstation came along, and the original Tomb Raider grabbed me. I was young and in love with Lara. I havn't played Aniversary yet, but I think I'm going to relive some very fond memories (mammeries?) very soon. But the Playstation era's true gem was Final Fantasy VII. Nothing comes close. I still can't believe even Square pulled off a game so perfect. Someone should have been given a nobel prize for that one. I cried tears of pure happiness and sadness (yes at the same time) when Aeris was killed, simply for the shear beauty of the moment, with her bouncing materia striking the opening chords of the music. I'm getting emotional all over thinking about that.
I was going to follow that up with spouting the joys of the Baldur's Gate, AoE, and HoMM series, but I just seemed to have talked myself out of it. Final Fantasy VII was superior. I'm still playing the BG's and such, as opposed to FFVII, but that's probably because I no longer have a PSX. ****.. I just put the piano version of the FFVII soundtrack on and I have tears in my eyes. I guess we just found my gaming grail.
Thanks for the article Joe, rarely would I sign up to a forum to reply to a column.
Games are addictive, but at least they're not as bad as alcohol and drugs, no matter wat Little Jackie T says
Obviously from a purely objective point of view no game is perfect, what I meant was every gamer I know at any rate has one particluar game they hold above all the others. That doesn't make them fanboys, as they understand that that game is only that perfect for them, other people won't see in it what they do. The places these games hold in our hearts is far more about the circumstances in which we played them than the games themselves. Everyone has rosy memories of family Christmases because they were so important to our childhood, regardless of actually how much fun they were. What I meant is that for many people there are certain games that dispite their flaws, despite the lack of universal appeal, despite not actually being perfect, are perfect for them. Obviously you can't compare one game to another across genres and the such like, but you can compare how a game makes you feel, deep inside, and on that front there will always be one game that had more of an impact on your personally than any other, without a doubt.
I've been an avid gamer for over 20 years now, starting with my C64 back in the day.
The games I always played on that were Paperboy, Turrican, Last Ninja series, Ghosts and Goblins etc.
Those were the single player games that I remember right now off the top of my head, there were countless more.
For the games like Paperboy and G&G, I think it was the urge to get further than you did last time that kept me going.
Last Ninja type games were attractive for the puzzles I think.
Multiplayer was always way more fun though.
Bubble Bobble and Gauntlet were awesome to play with friends.
Not sure WHY they were such fun though.
Why do we enjoy doing anything?
After the C64 was the Mega Drive and the best game for it IMO was Desert Strike.
Or maybe Speedball 2.
I think the reason Desert Strike was so fun was a semi-open game structure.
Sure you had to get the radar sites before the power station before the airfields etc but it didn't force you to do them right away.
You could float about the whole map and shoot random enemy jeeps, find extra lives, find the power-winch etc.
Also having to balance that with not getting caught short with low fuel miles away from the nearest supply was fun.
Again, I can't say WHY it was fun, it just was.
Next up PC, and games like Terror from the Deep, Transport Tycoon, Tie Fighter, Duke Nukem, Command & Conquer etc.
Transport Tycoon was my first PC LAN game experience (well, null modem not LAN) and it was excellent fun.
I remember my mate at the time and I would head round to his on Friday afternoon with my PC, hook it to his, bring in a tea-maker, jug of milk, TV to watch Top Gear and massive bags of broken biscuits and go at it for almost 48 hours straight!
That's got to be some sort of addiction to be doing that but if its something you enjoy, and you're not hurting anyone, why not?
Duke Nukem was also a regular LAN game for me (proper LAN this time with good ol' NE2000 compatible coax NICs) and we used to get about 5-6 of us together with our machines (486es at the time, mine pwned cos it was the only one with a PCI gfx card, the rest had ISA :D) for deathmatches.
The fun there was beating your friends, same as its fun to compete against them in squash/football/tennis etc.
C&C was the same, to see who was the best general (or usually, who was the sneakiest).
I think the reason games are so much fun is that they're a challenge.
Can you beat your last score, can you beat the AI, can you beat your mates??
This makes me think games are a sport.
IMO, we enjoy games in the same way, and for the same reasons that we enjoy sports.
I get the same good feeling after pwning some n00bs in CS as I do after thrashing someone at squash.
In fact I enjoy it more in some ways, as I don't need to shower after every game and don't have aching muscles the next few days! :D
To say I'm very excited would be an understatement. I hope that rumor's right :D
Haha, I still dig out HoMM2 for a romp around Broken Alliance. That map should have been remade in every sequel. Green+Wizard for teh win!
most of my game playing started before I was in kindergarden i wasnt allowed to play by myself and couldnt be trusted around the nintendo (i would take it apart, oh dont worry i opened it up anyway) so i waited every day till my sister got home to play those games. but sadly ive never been a console fan and i still find it hard to play alot of games on them.
what really got me hooked on gaming and more importantly, PC gaming was Mechwarrior 2. not mechwarr1 that was on the SNES. that game was absoulte crud. i loved the options the game had. its graphics were really good for the time it had excellent voice acting. it was all around a awesome game of course ive played Doom/quake and i got the shareware kit that came with our brand new pentium 100.
I also loved heretic and later hexen. those games were always quite fun to me.
ive never been into the starcraft/warcraft games. and to this day all of my LAN buddies love those games and i just cant. as good as the gameplay is and as good as the storyline may be i just dont find it intersting to me. The RTS is a touchy thing for because of the micro management way most of them go.
There was one that I fell in love with ever since I saw it on the cover of a gaming mag.
Homeworld to me that is the End all of RTS's the build system the storyline, the graphics, multiplayer, and the controls it was all there. it was one of the games i could sit and play without ever picking up the manual or even playing the tutorial. the game was in depth to the extreme. an exiled race trying to get back to their home planet which they dont even remember. i would sit up in my room reading the manual on the ship types, the lore and the different races and tribes of the exiled race. i loved every bit of it. what really hooked me was the multiplayer. the tatics you could use were endless flank, top, bottom, warp, gravwell bomb, Carrier kamakazi, and mind field baiting it was endless. there was also the fact that once you lost your mothership it was over. im not trying to bolster Homeworld up to a higher podium but for me. thats what it was "RTS perfection"
what really hurts is that no one will play me. every friend i know pretty much knows my obession for it and cant stand losing a few matches to make me happy (i had a 5 foot tidan destroyer poster in my room till i was 17)
Max Payne too many things to count Deff my fav 3rd person
Diablo 1 and 2 are deff my favs for Top down.
FPS is easily The UT series (particually 2004) its cut and dry too "heres some guns, go kill people." (gotta love that)
systemshock was something different and I loved it to death... if only i could find my install for it.
MMO i have a softspot for Eve, ive been with it since 2003 but i keep find myself quiting and then starting back, then quiting again.
as it has been said alot WOW does indeed put all the best elements into one game gotta hand it to blizz.
And on a side note: I always shot more bison/buffalo then i could carry if i needed 200 lbs i shot 1000 lbs. i still cant beat that game... my whole party keeps dying. buncha slackers i have for a family huh?
"you die of scurvy."
Space Quest
Only series i've ever finished without cheats or walkthroughs...just weeks of busting my head till I came up with a solution.
Later (and earlier) adventures like Larry or Kings Quest had you running around a gazillion places, never knowing what to take, beeing pretty much unsolvable without a walkthrough.
For some reason Monkey Island never made it to my computer
Later I turned to shooters (Wolfenstein, Doom3D) ,RTS (Dune II, C&C) and the now dead Spacesims (Freespace, Star/Freelancer, EVE-Online)
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