Let the games begin! Video games, rather arcade or on a console, have been a bigger part of my childhood than i realized until this contest. It will be my pleasure to talk a walk with you down my memory lane. Until getting things prepared for this post i am pretty sure i have taken the influence video games have had on my life, until now!
Arcade
Some of my first and best memories were of a few birthday parties at ShowBiz Pizza
I didn't realize until reading the link here on the history of the place that Atari co-founder and creator of Pong, which was one of my dad's favorite games, was involved in making Showbiz Pizza successful. This was a place where you could host parties, eat some pizza, and play a lot of video games. Some were the kinds where you win tickets and others were the Arcade games we have all come to know and love. They had a party room with an animatronic band playing music and then the game room for everyone to go have fun. Of course, you had to have tokens though!
ShowBiz Pizza
I had an birthday party in the early '80s when i was a wee little one and i remember getting called up to the front of the animatronic band by the HillBilly Bear Billy Bob for birthday recognition. You can see a picture of him on that link and even back then i knew he wasn't real and that they weren't actually playing the music. Since my parents were musicians i was familiar with guitars and this bear had a banjo. I remember looking at him and knowing he would get angry, looked back at my parents and decided to pluck his banjo string. After doing it i turned back around to my parents and the crowd with a devious grin on my face. There is actually an old family photo of the moment but i couldn't find it so i am putting up one from around the same time in my life when i got busted getting into the guitar case.
Eventually, ShowBiz got bout out and absorbed by Chuck E Cheese's, which is still around today. It's definitely not the same though! At the time, it was pretty much all the same games and they just switched the Bear to a Mouse. There were some great memories made there as well.
Chuck E. Cheese
One birthday i had there, i would guess to be about first grade, my karate instructor Mr. Oberg showed up for my party. Just having him there was an honor. I was one of his favorite students. He ended up giving me my favorite present of them all. I signed up for Tae-Kwon-Do after nagging my dad having seen Karate Kid the movie. I wanted to learn how to do karate and my dad had some martial art experience from his past too. Bruce Lee was one of my dad's heroes. My dad studied Jeet Kune Do as a second-generation student. Anyways, once dad signed me up he ended up joining a week later!
Back to the party, Mr. Oberg got me a handheld video game of Karate Kid. It was extremely similar to the one below but a generation or two earlier. I scavenged the internet to find a picture or link and couldn't find one. They were rare and expensive back then but i would recognize it if i ever saw it in an instant. That was a very special memory for me.
Hand Held GameAtari Era '77
I was born in December of '81 so i just missed out on the '70s. My dad used to go to an arcade and play Pong, Pac-Man, and his favorite Galaga. My dad isn't here with us anymore but he is still the Galaga champion. Every time we were ever at an arcade that would be the one he would look to see if they had. I remember how long he could play on one quarter or token. As a kid i hated waiting!
Galaga Arcade/Atari
At home growing up we had an Atari just like the one below. I had some great memories of playing Atari. My dad used to be amazing at Kaboom. You had to have the wheel controller and a Hamburgalar looing dude would drop lit bombs. You had a flat looking bucket of water and you had to scroll left and right to catch and extinguish the bombs. The longer you went the faster the bombs got dropped. My dad was actually able to beat the game.
Atari
Back when me, my younger sister, and another girl my mom babysat used to have naptime, since i was older, my mom used to let me sneak out the window and go next door to my neighbor's house. Cynthia and Cathey were my older sisters age and they used to have an Atari as well. One of them would open their window and i would crawl in and ask to play their games. In the future when i was the older one i still used to come to their house after they moved out and played Pokemon on one of the later consoles with their nephew. My favorite Atari game was always Frogger and especially Alien Invaders!
Space Invaders Atari
There used to be another local place for video games and birthday parties. This was more of an ice-cream place though! They used to have a million flavors and the name of the place was called Cherries. I remember being at one of my friends birthday parties in Kindergarten and he got a Nintendo Entertainment System with Super Mario Bros. with Duck Hunt included, two controllers, and the gun.
Nintendo Entertainment System Era '85
Eventually, my older brother and sister got an NES from someone for something. I was glad that when we spent weekends together that i was able to play now some at home. We didn't have so many games but all it took was one to have fun for days.
Mario Playing Video Games
Since only some of the games were two-player the wait time was difficult to endure as a youngster. My older brother and sister were a few years older and back then that made a big difference. I remember waiting my turn to play watching them as Mario and Luigi going back and forth figuring out all the secrets and exploring all the levels. The soundtrack still resonates with me today! I remember always being relegated to being Luigi every time i ever got the opportunity to play. Nobody ever wanted to be Luigi.
Luigi Crying - Super Mario Bros Super Show
The thing that used to make things really insufferable was the trick to get all the lives you were allowed to have. My brother figured it out and was skillful enough to be able to get the boost of lives on the first level. My sister didn't take long to follow suit. I still never was able to get it to work for me. It was too risky and i usually died trying.
Extra Life Trick NES
I usually got too excited by the time they died and it was my chance to shine. I would burst out of the opening scene... run like a mad man to hurry and catch up, and then jump to hit the first block which was the mushroom for the big man. I usually slid forward enough to almost always run into the very first Goomba. It was like torture watching this pattern unfold more times than i care to admit. Then another grueling wait time while they beat half the game before my next attempt. Needless to say, these were awesome times!
Contra NES
One game my brother and i enjoyed playing together, once he figured out the code and got me an equalizer, was Contra. It was tough but we group up watching the Awesome Eighties action movies and this game kind of had it all. I used to like the spread gun the most. It was also one of the first games i can recall that had the orientation pointed forward to break from the side-scrolling action.
Contra NES
My friend that got the NES from his birthday party i mentioned before used to have a bunch of cool games. I remember going to his house and spending the night and we would play and play and play. One of my favorites to this day is Ghosts 'n Goblins. I remember how you didn't have much life. Either you had armor or you didn't and if you got hit you died. I recall that being more true to life and realistic. It was one of the first horror-inspired games and growing up my family was real big into horror movies and special effects. The soundtrack to this game was even spooky. I enjoyed the sequel, which he had too, as well.
Ghosts 'n Goblins NES
There were too many games on NES to mention that were part of my childhood favorites. I enjoyed R.C. Pro-Am, ExciteBike,SpyHunter, Skate or Die, Bubble Bobble, Double Dragon, Kung Fu, Zelda, Double Dribble, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and so many more! As time went on and games were flowing out of the factory... there were many hits and many misses as well. My mom never really got into video games except for a few exceptions. Kid Icarus was one game she got really good at. I really enjoyed that game as a kid too. Of course Mega-Man, and Metroid were pretty cool too. It's like the more i stop and think about all this... the more that pops up and comes to mind.
Bubble Bobble NES
I remember a cartoon called Captain N: The Game Master which kind of blended a lot of the Nintendo characters into one story. I always thought it was cool to see the characters come alive. I used to be an avid card collector of all sorts. I collected Garbage Pail Kids, Baseball, Basketball, and Football cards. I remember when they came out with Marvel cards and they also had these cool Dinosaurs Attacks and Mars Attacks made by Topps brand.
Eventually, they did come out with some Nintendo Cards too. Those were some of my favorites to collect. Sometimes, they came with a scratch-off Zelda card game. I don't think i ever won anything though. I still have many of them too.
One of my neighbors was having a garage sale at some point. My dad, knowing how much we all loved to play Nintendo, bought their Power Glove. That was like the Lamborghini of all Nintendo items to have. I remember putting it on and Feeling the Power!
Power Glove NES
I am not sure if it was the reason they had it in the garage sale or just the norm... but that thing really sucked. The fingers didn't work like they were advertised, the controller was hard to use reaching over and only having the left hand to work with. I was severely disappointed. It just sat with all the game stuff looking cool... but that was about all it was good for.
I also remember when the Game Genie came out with all the cheat codes. The Nintendo Power magazine was pretty cool too for codes and updates as well as some sweet posters. I never had a subscription but was able to get my hands on a few editions.
We were fortunate in my family because when my dad was in between jobs at one point around this time he worked at a video rental store. It was before Blockbuster and it was local. We had about 3 or 4 local video rental places in the area where i grew up. Having him work there meant on Friday's we would all get to pick out one video game to bring home and test out for the weekend. That's how we got to know our favorites. I remember Friday the 13th, and Jaws, and many others. It always sucked when you picked out a crappy game.
Super Mario Bros.2 NES
One of my all-time favorite games was Super Mario Bros. 2. It had a totally different style of music and theme. I remember it feeling a bit darker and the enemies were really creative. Jumping and riding on top of enemies was different and scooping them up to toss them was cool. It's still one of my favorites. We used to call Luigi 'Twinkle Toes' because he seemed to float, not as long or well as the Princess, a bit more than the others. I think it was a way to compensate people like me that got relegated to having to select Luigi in part one. The thing i never did care for about it though is that it was only one player.
Super Mario Bros Super Show
I really used to like the Super Mario Bros t.v. show. The old wrestler dude played Mario and the Luigi guy seemed like a real-life version. The cartoons were pretty cool and since Toadstool was always my favorite to be in part 2, it was nice to seem him as a character here. The best part of this cheesy show was that on Fridays they had Zelda in it's own separate cartoon. That alone was worth the week's wait.
The Wizard
I remember the movie the Wizard that was lined up to release around the same time as Super Mario Bros. 3 and they showed at the end of the movie the trick to get the first flute in the game. It showed the kids basically run-away from home, hitchhike to Las Vegas, join a tournament and pretty much cause a lot of trouble along the way. The dad and older brother are on the trail to find the kids and the dad gets cracked out on the Nintendo. Great classic... and it makes you love the 80's all over again!
Arcade Era 'to this very day'
For me, the Arcade games is what led to the interest in playing console games at home for the most part. There are so many Arcade games it would take me forever to recall them and list them. One game i don't even know the name to that was one of my first favorites was a Conan-like game where you could get a flaming sword and the adventure music was epic. They used to have it at the grocery store on one end of my street for a while.
My dad always used to give me a quarter or two to play video games while he did his shopping if i were ever with him and we had time. When he would finish he would watch sometimes and i remember wanting to show off for him which usually resulted in me dying faster!
On down on the other side of my street, there was a gas station called L&M. They had like 2 or 3 arcade games there that hardly ever changed. One that i remember loving to play was RoboCop. It was supremely difficult.
RoboCop
One of my favorite memories was this time my dad took me up there with him to get some of his supplies. He was talking to the cashier lady and i kept interrupting to ask for quarters to play RoboCop. He told me he didn't have any, but i know he did. The lady was trying to flirt with my dad i think so she opened the register and gave me a handful of quarters to go play as much as i wanted. I thought i had died and gone to heaven. I think my dad was trying to escape though and now had to talk longer than he was planning to.
RoboCop Arcade
Sega Genesis Era '88
Sega Genesis Console
We got a Sega Genesis one Christmas in the early '90s once the price came down. We used to love a lot of games on there. It was cool to see a lot of the arcade games being able to make it to the console.
Golden Axe Sega Genesis
Golden Axe and Altered Beast were two of my favorite games in the arcade and now on Sega Genesis.
Altered Beast Sega Genesis
Mortal Kombat to me was the better version of Street Fighter 2 although that's like comparing Apples and Bananas. I always thought that Mortal Kombat had piggy-backed it's characters from the movie Big Trouble in Little China. Raiden, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero were like the three storms. Johhny Cage was like Kurt Russel's character Jack. Sonya was like the reporter chick he was crushing on. Lui Kang was like his martial artist friend. Goro and the main boss were like Lo-Pan and the beast monster in the movie. Of course, some creative liberties and changes had to be made.
Mortal Kombat Sega Genesis
My favorite parts were always the bonus rounds.
Mortal Kombat Sega Genesis
As much as i hate to admit it... Alladin was a really good came. It didn't hold a candle to the original Prince of Persia game... but it was super fun none the less.
Alladin Sega Genesis
Gameboy Classic Era '89
Gameboy Classic
I didn't have a Gameboy and after playing a little of the Mario on there and Tetris realized i didn't want one. With things like Sega Genesis and TurboGrafix-16, the portability didn't really make up the difference enough to make it worth the cost for me. I will admit it was revolutionary when it comes to upgrading the hand-held gaming part of the industry.
Tetris Gameboy Classic
TurboGrafix-16 Era '89
Not many people are familiar with the TurboGrafix-16. It was supposed to be revolutionary when it first came out. I got this as a present just for me one Christmas. It was probably the biggest and most expensive gift i ever got. It came with Bonk's Adventure which you can see below. There weren't too many games for it though. You had to buy the games since they weren't available to rent at the video stores. It was really good on graphics and the opportunity was there to be a competitor with Sega Genesis and the upcoming Super Nintendo... but it fell to the wayside. I think it did much better in European and Japanese markets.
Bonk's Adventure TurboGraffix-16
My favorite game on this console was SplatterHouse. It was awesomely gorey and definitely more up my alley. The dude wold walk around exploding alien-demons with a 2x4. I think he could get a machete and a chainsaw at one point if i remember correctly.
SplatterHouse TurboGraffix-16
I never wanted to tell my dad that TurboGrafix-16 was a bust so i kept it's shortcomings to myself. The games cost 2 or 3 times the price of normal video games since they were all imported in. However, one day the guy who owned the card shop down the street next to the grocery store heard i had one. Being the good dad he was asked to buy it from me for his son's birthday. So, i tried to warn him but he wouldn't take no for an answer. He traded me 150 dollars worth in Emmitt Smith rookie cards. Emmitt Smith is still the all-time leading rusher in the American NFL. I still have them all. Dennis also gave me 50 dollars cash which was a bundle back then. I would say my dad made a good investment after all!
Super Nintendo Era '91
Super Nintendo
One of my older sister's boyfriends ended up buying me and my younger sister a Super Nintendo to win over my older sister. I was thankful to him for that. Donkey Kong Country always had a special feel to it like no other game. The soundtrack was incredible. I use to go through the game slowly smashing the ground to try and find all the hidden bananas!
Donkey Kong Country Super Nintendo
At this point many of the same games on Super Nintendo were also available on the Sega Genesis. Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam to name a couple. I generally preferred the controls on Super Nintendo much more but liked the graphics on Genesis better. To each their own i guess. Super Nintendo was a game changer though and i think it like many before it, paved the way for things like DreamCast, Nintendo 64, Playstation, and on down the line.
NBA Jam Super Nintendo
I just realized this post is getting way too long. There was so much more i wanted to share! Me and a buddy back in the NES days made an NFL tournament on TECMO SuperBowl. We played every team vs one another to end up with our own playoffs and eventually a SuperBowl of our own. Later on in Jr. High me and a buddy used to regularly rent anime or get a Sega CD from the video store and get some taco bell and play some pretty weird games on there.
I remember many friends used to only come over to play the games on our consoles at times. I would be lying if i said i hadn't done the same thing every now and again. I don't think it was with ill will or intentional... games can just be so captivating.
Super Mario World
I will leave you all with a few parting thoughts. There was an Italian restaurant down the street from my house called Angelo's. It's still there and pretty famous for it's Lasagna. In the entry where you wait to be seated, they used to have a tabletop Ms. Pacman. We would all play that and it's a memory i will never forget.
My dad was really good at Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. One time, in High School, my dad, me and my best friend went on a camping trip. Well, it was in these cabins so not really camping. We were all a little lifted and went in the middle of the night to have a Ms. Pac-Man tournament. They had by the pool which was closed for the season a couple of Arcade games. One was Joust, and the other Ms. Pacman. So, we were all playing and taking our turns.
At one point in my turn which was going on and on... there was a glitch in the game and i went right through one of the ghosts. It tripped us all out. I had already had the top score but it kept getting faster and faster. I went through another ghost in the same turn later on. After i finally lost and we had been there for a long time we went back to the cabin. My dad finally admitted that i was the new Pac-Man champ of the family.
Pacman
Anyone that knew my dad would know he didn't concede his titles often. That Pac-Man memory is one i still cherish, look back on and laugh. When i ever speak to my friend we still make mention of that night. Video games apparently have been an incredible part of my best childhood and young adulthood memories. Thank you for taking the time to read all this and i hope it's jogged your memory as well.
I am thankful for this contest helping me remember some of the best times of my life! It's never too late to start making new memories either! But for now...
"GAME OVER MAN, GAME OVER"
Game Over Man, Game Over
So many memories there. I was just reminiscing with some colleagues, tonight, about the old Commodore 64 games. I remember an interstate trip and we stayed with some family friends who had Salamander. Early mornings, late nights. Cutting edge.
I think that gif is R-Type... that was an awesome game. Another gem that i had ALMOST forgotten! I am glad you got to rewind the clock with the colleagues but more glad you had some great memories of trips, late nights, and those early mornings. I remember when i couldn't wait to get up to play some more and get first dibs on the stations! hahahah Good times!
Why don't let's this memories come again and buy an brand new Commodore here ?
https://www.fun-academy.fr/
wow how many stories and how interesting to read each one of them. It has also brought back many memories, more than we can write here. I loved reading you
Thanks, Vicky for the time you took to read and comment! I appreciate that you had so many memories come back because of it.
You made me remember all my life. I loved especially Aladin. Nice moments to remember. Thanks. :)
I am super happy that you were able to go back and recall your own life through my story! Thanks for taking the time to read it and to comment. Alladin was a great game and had a cool feel to the gameplay, graphics, and the soundtrack. Don't stop remembering those nicer moments from the past and never stop making new ones in the future!
Man soooo many memories came flooding back reading your post. Chuck y cheese. Oh man i remember bring terrified of that animatronic band. They creeped me out for sone reason. But i loved the games there.
I agree with contra the spread was the best. King of the guns.
For mortal combat im pretty sure in interviews that raiden was inspired by the three storms. By the way big trouble in little china is still the greatest movie ever made.
Then you dug extra deep into probably all of our collective memories and brought up the mario brothers tv show. I remember staring at that show for a good year or two of my childhood. Along with tailspin and ducktails.
Super Nintendo. I was a Nintendo fanboy as a kid. My buddy a sega fanboy. I remember memorizing all the stats and facts about the super Nintendo and why it was superior to the Sega. And I'd scoff at the sega boys who obviously didn't know any better.
I found something in common with you. I suspect we have a lot in common actually but your martial arts back ground. I too was inspired g the karate kid and jumped in martial arts around the same age. Stuck with me for a good part of my life.
Beautifully written post and the amount of nostalgia and memories that came flooding back brought a massive smile to my face.
Dude, thanks for the thoughtful and expressive comment. Yeah, this whole contest got me like a kid all over again. I didn't forget all these things but took them more or less for granted. I knew i was a nerd and now i can tell how much! hahahha
I think a lot of kids got into karate over that movie. I sometimes wish we could go back to those good 'ol days! I wouldn't trade so many of those long nights for anything. I didn't even fully go into the next wave of games starting with PS1 and all that. Bond Golden Eye was fun and so many many more!
I am glad this helped you, and hopefully others, to remember some of these kinds of memories. The good times. We got an emulator when i was in Sweden and i played a lot of Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden. I really liked on Shinobi the round where you throw the Chinese Stars. Hope you have a great day/night bro. I am sure we will catch up more. =)
Right on Castle. Your emulator. Which was is? I used to have a raspberry pi. But i gave it yo a special young boy. His favourite game was UN squadron. Side scroller where you fly a fighter jet. Classic arcade style but stupid hard.
We were gifted a raspberry pi. It had a bunch of old classic Nintendo games on it and a few Super Nintendo ones as well. We spent a lot of time playing that during the Winter when it was very cold. Super cool that you gave yours to a special young boy. I bet he really appreciated it. Paying it forward!
Yeah he made good use of it. At first the controller was pretty weird for him as he was used to playing rogue legacy on pc. So a mock Super Nintendo controller took him some getting used yo. His favourite game besides un squadron was zombies ate my neighbors. He loved that game.
Id give anything to be playing next to him on the couch again.
This was such an epic post. It was like reliving my childhood again. We had so many similar things growing up, from karate instructors, to Chuck E Cheese parties, to the Turbo Graphix 16. You started a bit earlier than I did with the Atari and my dad was never into games. It was also my brothers that were the main gamers that I looked up to as a youngster. Man, the swag part really took me back too. There is too much awesomeness in this post to even comment on.
Man thanks! Hopefully this post is the GIFt that keeps on giving. hahahaha It was super cathartic to write too. I remember making my dad come and see UFC when we got it on a black friday and showing him how far games had come. He thought it was a real fight and didn't realize me and my buddy were duking it out on the game. Hahahaha i miss that old man. He was into Atari and the og arcade games but would never get down with more than one button and a joystick. Good thing too cause he probably would have whipped my ass in that too.
I am glad that this post was able to get your mind back into that old place and remembering things lost but not completely forgotten. Oh to be young again! We can always stay young if we hang on to those old memories. This was a blast to inspire community engagement and really add a lot of value to everybody participating and/or curating. Great initiative bro. Thanks for the love too... from one old school gamer to another.
I knew it would be a great post coming from you, but I didn't expect it to be perfect. I'm a little younger, from a more current time and yet it reminded me of my past. The first console I had in my hands was a pirate nintendo, I will talk about it later in my post, but that little console that was super cheap and could be obtained almost anywhere, made me spend incredible moments. Reading your post made me remember things that were very hidden in my head. I have already read several posts that transport me back to when I was a child.Good job dude!
Since i know how much of a gamer you are, i am looking forward to reading your post. I am super stoked that this post of mine brought some of those memories from the back up to the front again. This has been a tough year for most and any respite from the conditions around us by drawing from good things within us is a healthy thing to do. This whole contest has been a boost for morale in my opinion. Just hearing/reading about the joy games have been in people's growth and development and how many cherished memories are associated has been pretty epic. Thanks for your kind words little brother!
Bravo Sir!
This post is probably the best post I have ever seen in the Hive Gaming section...
You really did take us on an incredibly comprehensive trip video game down memory lane.
It seems you are a man after my own heart ,we share many of the same memories from many of the same games.I am born in 1983 so your a couple of years older than me but we were alive in the same video game eras...
I especially liked this....
"I always thought that Mortal Kombat had piggy-backed it's characters from the movie Big Trouble in Little China. Raiden, Scorpion, and Sub-Zero were like the three storms. Johhny Cage was like Kurt Russel's character Jack. Sonya was like the reporter chick he was crushing on. Lui Kang was like his martial artist friend. Goro and the main boss were like Lo-Pan and the beast monster in the movie. Of course, some creative liberties and changes had to be made."
A couple of years ago I made a 10 minute long film for a green/blue screen contest.I had some Mortal Kombat themed green screen stuff I wanted play with and I wanted the film to be an 80s nostalgia fest so I used footage from Robocop and Big Trouble in Little China.
You inspired me to post my little 80s Nostalgia fest movie again.You can find the post here that explains how this all came about and linked the Dtube link here if you feel like watching it.Hold on to your funny bone but be warned its a bit rude :)
https://hive.blog/hive-174578/@jubei333/80s-nostalgia-fest-original-short-film-roboc-ck-vs-cthulhu-and-the-5-mystical-ninjas-episode-1-origins-a-hive-exclusive-series
I also love Splatter House , I did a Retro Replay/Arcade Memories a few months ago ,I've never made it passed the poltergeist boss on Stage 2...
https://hive.blog/hive-140217/@jubei333/retro-replay-challenge-splatterhouse-who-wants-to-win-some-hive-dollars
Wow, thank you! I am pretty new to the gaming community and this is my first post there. I am sure there has been some great content created being that so many here at HIVE are gamers... or grew up gaming. So, that means a lot to hear.
I am glad that my memory lane helped you remember avenues of your own walk down that old road. I was born in December so most of my friends were about your age. It was a great time to be born! I listened to the soundtrack for Big Trouble in Little China when making some of this post. hahahhaa
I just checked out some of that video. Nice Enter The Dragon theme music overdubbed on the BTLC portion. Jubei is one of my favorite characters of all time from Ninja Scroll too... so you must be a man after my own heart as well.
It was hard to find material on SplatterHouse. I couldn't get the gifs to work when i found them like you did in your post. I beat the game on TurboGrafix-16 and it was one of the saddest days of my life. The remake of it looks pretty good and true to the original. I will have to finish checking out your post of the movie you made. Looks crude, but interestingly funny. Thanks for the heads up! hahahha
a journey through the golden years of consoles
So very true! From the start up to PS1. I didn't even get to talk much about P.C. games or the Next Generation of consoles. Sometimes, less is more! =)
Lol! looks like you are older than mi! I have the chance to play on an attari (dont remember the model, i was to young) and also remember having one, but i was really very little to have much memories about that... My first memory about gaming is an old joystick with a Stick and just 2 blue buttoms, but thats all what my childes brain can remember...
What i trully remember is Wolf3d, doom, and prehistorik 2!
Great post! Nice to read! Looks like you put a lot in it!
Yes, i only knew the Atari model because i recognized what it looked like. I didn't get to get to the part where i was in high school. I used to live with my best friend and I played a lot of Wolfenstein, Doom, Duke Nukem, and Quake on his P.C. Those were some of the most fun games i played since the advancements of what the controls could do. The first person modality was a game-changer Literally.
Thanks for taking the time to read the post and share some of your experience here in the comments.
Duke Nukem 3D its just a jewell, so advanced to his time... Only Carmageddon can reach that godlike level of nonsense violence in a safe enviroment
A lot of those games are behind these times but way ahead of their own! =) So many little things to appreciate about those games. They really set the mood and it was pretty intense!
Im not playing much these days, i want to focus on other areas, but i always keep my Overwatch Up-To Date just in case...
At least 2 or 3 hours x week, games are an effective and fast way to move your atention, when you are stressed or stuck in some job...
And well i have a decent pc (because i ♥ tech) so playing is always an option
I don't play much these days either. My emulator is back in Sweden. I settle for playing Dungeon Adventure on Alexa while i make and eat dinner! hahahha
Forgot to mention that @steemmonsters is a great game to play at the background of everything, short unnatended battles, and also a chance of earn something
You got me with CONTRA and NBA JAM really!
It reminds me of this era ... Life was simpler and gaming made the heart beat faster.
I loved playing NBA Jam! It was awesome in the arcade. I loved Shaq breaking the glass in real life and then the game incorporating that was amazing. The wild dunks and who could forget, 'He's on FIRE!' I didn't like how they left Shaq out of the game and the big question will always remain.... why no Jordan?! Probably licensing and money deals for them all. I remember we used to play NBA Jam on Super Nintendo and then switch to Genesis to get our Mortal Kombat on! Good times! hahaha
Oh yeah, Contra. Spent countless hours with it on my NES many years ago :D
Me too! I tried to practice when my brother was gone so i wouldn't slow him down! hahaha Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read and comment!
Wow extraordinario lo que esplayaste en este post, me trae muchos y lindos recuerdos, gracias por compartir.
Gracias por tomarse el tiempo para leer mi publicación. Estoy feliz de que te haya dado algo de alegría recordar tus buenos recuerdos de cómo los juegos jugaron un papel en tu vida.
La verdad que si amisgo, muchas gracias, saludos.
Nice to see you up the top of trending :)
I was surprised myself! It's like a great achievement for me to be honest. Do you have any video game memories? I have a newer more profound respect for your abilities to reach out to your comments and give responses. Factoring in your busy life and your content prolificacy .... it's quite amazing bro!
The first game I ever played was literally Pong - I was maybe 5 or so and it was on this green thing with messy cables and two paddles with wheels. Got it as a hand me down from family friends. I don't remember the name of the unit.
The first real computer games I played were on a friend's c64 and years later I had an Amiga 500 upgraded to a meg. I didn'treally get a "proper computer" however until I was 16 or 17.
I actually didn't play many games until finally going online at around 19 years old - then I didn't stop playing games for a few years ;D
Thanks for taking the time to come back and fill in some details on your gaming memories! I always liked Pong. One of my favorites was a variant of Pong called BreakOut. You had the bar at the bottom and bounced the ball up to the top to try and collapse the top and each color made a different tone. Hand Me Downs are great! Being a younger brother of two older siblings... i was a great benefactor of many hand-me downs! hahaha
I bet the games were super good by the time you got rolling!
oh yeah - replying to comments can take a little effort ;)
Congratulations! Your awesome post was curated by our team and featured in our Gaming Curation Report. Keep up the great work and game on!
Thank you so much! That's quite the honor and it's much appreciated. I am gonna have to make a part two for this post now! =)
The whole story of your post (which is quite fun, haha!) is very interesting, @castleberry.
I remember playing most of the games you mentioned and I also have great memories with them. Contra is a classic one!
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I am glad you were entertained and resonated with some of the story. Contra was classic. Most of us have that code memorized.... just not on call as well as it used to be! hahaha
Having lived part of the Atari and NES era, it has been a good time for me too. In my country there weren't many places with arcade machines, these came in the 90's but at the time I enjoyed going to the stores to play. I loved reading your article, I got more good memories.
Thanks Jose! I am glad to help bring back some old good memories. Videos games and arcades have had their ups and downs here in Texas and the States in general. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a big city that had a few different places that hosted parties and had a lot of video games as the attraction. I may talk about them in another post. I only mentioned the 3 here... but even the grocery store was a good place while your parent or parents shopped to get your game on! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read and comment! =)
This is a very beautiful post! You can tell how much love you have for gaming in each of these stories.
Also, I completely relate to that part about Mario. I too was the kid that waited until one of your family members died in the game to start playing only to die shortly after.
I guess it grew our patience and helped us be more strategic once our turn came about.... Eventually! Thanks for the kind words. Sorry you had the similar wait time as me! hahahhaa
Great memories down video game lane.
Nostalgia brings back those awesome, heart felt feelings
Thanks for taking the time to stroll down there with me! Nostalgia only gets better the older we get! I appreciate your time reading and commenting!
So many f...g memories! Can't even describe! Thanks for reminding me about history.
Never forget who we are and where we came from! Every time i comment or the more i was writing the more memories and history kept coming to mind! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and be reminded! hahaha
This brings back so many childhood memories! Especially CONTRA, Aladdin, and Bonk's! 😁
It's funny, i have already met more people from this post (2) that played TurboGrafix-16 than i met in real life! hahahaha There was only one guy i knew who was much older from one of the city swimming pools. He traded me Vigilante or Bonk's for SplatterHouse. Once you beat the games.... you kind of played them out, so we were both kind of relieved to be able to swap. Super happy to bring back some childhood memories with you.
Awesome.... I built all my own games on the Commodore 64. Sold them out of my basement. Made millions.
That's super cool! I had to just read up a bit on the Commodore 64 because i have heard of it but wondered why i never played it. Sounds like it was primarily in Europe. You must have been ahead of your time in the software end from the sounds of it! =)
We are in Canada and my dad refused to buy us an Atari.... he was programming on some Hewlett-Packard Super Computer at work and wanted his kids learning how to write our own games in Machine language on the Commodore 64... so my brothers and I wrote all our own games.... we sold our games on cassette and made a fortune.
Sounds like your dad was Wise and Smart at the same time! What was your favorite game you made? Was it difficult back then? Super Cool!
We made the Red Baron.... got the code at the back of a PC now magazine ...
But modified to make it better,... I always programmed the sprites for graphics and the music.
la mejor infancia de la vida con el playstation 1 y con crash
I didn't end up playing Crash until way later after it came out.... and still thought it was good! =)
Wao is surprising how with this post I can take a trip back in time and a true retrospective of the best games and their times, thanks for this.
Thanks for taking time to check it out! I will be doing a part 2 soon.... because there are still so many games that came to mind that i didn't get to share... or else this post would have been going on forever! hahahha
So many eras you've been through! For me who was born in 1999, I have not seen as many consoles or as many changes in the gaming industry as you, however if I felt identified with the Mortal Kombat hahaha, I came to play the Mortal Kombat 1 and 3, but never touched Mortal Kombat 2, excellent memories friend :) hopefully bring a second part at some point.
Thank you buddy! I will be doing a follow-up or two because the more i wrote the more memories kept popping up. The more of the other gaming posts for the contest i read the more that came to mind also. I didn't realize this post was so long until i was about 70% in and had to cut it short. Yeah, Mortal Kombat was awesome. It was a great game to play in the Arcade for it's time. One of the most realisitic looking games that had some of the best finishes, and still does to this day. The movie came out too and it was not too bad for it's time if you liked karate kind of movies. I kind of dropped off on Mortal Kombat once they had a run button and the combos became all kind of preset. I did like Killer Instinct though which was one mentioned in another post. Thanks for the encouragement Franz!
Thanks to remind my old memories. Really that was awesome time when we were crazy to play video games. Thanks again for your nice article.
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment! Yes, i do miss those late nights staying up and getting snacks and a whole lot of gaming in for the weekend! I even miss the early mornings where you could get a head start on everyone else while they were sleeping! hahaha
Greeting friend @Castleberry, what a pleasant walk through a lot of game you walked through almost all the time of the 80's, my favorite console is the super nintendo excellent games that you named in your publication.
Thanks for sharing your memories !
Thanks for strolling with me back through the '80s! hahaha I too loved Super Nintendo very much. That's when the games started to get a bit more interesting. We spent countless hours playing Mario Kart! I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. =)
I practically played with you, there is no doubt that you had a childhood and youth where games were part of your growth. You were growing up with games. It is wonderful that you have such pleasant memories and above all the amount of games that you had the opportunity to know. Really grateful for allowing him to also play with you while reading your memories.
It is extraordinary all the good influence he has received during all those years of playing.
Hoping that you will invite us to play again in your next stories. Thank you again for sharing those memory jewels. A hug from a distance and to take care of yourself in these times where the only one who doesn't play is the covid-19.
Thank you very much! Hugs to you too! Your post was good too. Thank you for sharing your experience and i appreciate you taking time to immerse yourself in this post. It gives me joy to have others share the experience with me. I didn't consider how fortunate i have been with all the access and abundance. It will be my pleasure to share more in a future gaming posts.
I am thankful and grateful for all of the positive influences and wonderful memories along the way throughout the years! I also appreciate your kind words. =) I never played Commandos but i did see the movie...
Damn... you have some awesome gaming memories.
We didn't have a gaming device at that moment but even then I've played Contra especially in my aunt's place.
Their place was too far from our place and I used to visit them with my grandma and it seemed I used to visit them only to play this game.
And I was a big fan of Mortal Kombat. We didn't have a computer back then so I used to visit another aunt's place who lived near us to play this game.
Seems like Contra and Mortal Kombat will be a couple of the best of all time for most players. I remember a few adults like that where i don't really remember much other than that they had some video games over there. Once i heard that.... i never minded my parents going to do boring grown-up things as long as i could just play some games. I am looking forward to sharing some more memories and experiences around games. I didn't realize i had so many, or that others would value what i had to share!
I was such a buff I subscribed to Nintendo Power. Some of these games preceded my day, but I enjoyed DK Country like nothin' else, if only for the music. I wasn't the completion freak I am today, so I never beat the game, but enjoyed the levels I managed to clear! I think you touched on something I mentioned similarly, the people you play with make all the difference. I never really played games with my parents, but it really connected myself and the friends I have today.
Look at you all fancy with your Nintendo Power subscription! hahahaha j/k Yes, the music on DK Country was amazing for the time. I couldn't agree with you more about the people you play with. It can make or break the experience. I think back on some of the people i suffered through just to get some gaming in.... or at the arcade where you don't have a choice. Games kind of acted as a bridge that united all demographics for better and worse at times.
Wow... Great article my friend...You had a great childhood i think...You played nearly all games...And so you collected a lot of story to write...Have a great day...
Thanks, I hope you have a great day/night too! If i could have, at the time, i probably would have played them ALL! I did enjoy childhood with all of it's ups and downs. Video games were definitely a big part of the UPS and on a few occasions created some of the downs by the drama that can occur when competition is involved. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on the post!
Wow! So many fun memories. I loved your pictures as a child in a battle position.
I loved reading your article!
Thank you so much! That picture was taken before i joined karate. My dad said it was a perfect stance that i didn't actually get taught until much later! I really enjoyed making this post and look forward to sharing some more very soon. Super glad you enjoyed this one!
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Epicas aventuras jugando videojuegos, muy buen post bro, me da mucha nostalgia esta iniciativa tengo tiempo ya sin sentarme con calma a jugar videojuegos, Saludos.
Sí, sí, yo también. Tan nostálgico como soy ... ha pasado mucho tiempo desde que tuve el tiempo o las herramientas para sentarme y jugar un buen juego. No me di cuenta de cuántos buenos recuerdos tenía guardados en mi mente. Gracias por tomarse el tiempo para leer y comentar. ¡Con suerte, ambos podremos jugar a algunos videojuegos pronto!
Can this post be my time machine please?
(Was anyone else obsessed with Perfect Dark on N64?)
Yes, hahaha it can! With a couple of sequels perhaps. I didn't play that game so i am not too familiar with it.
Thanks for taking time to read the post and comment! =)
Your photo with the guitar case was a perfect touch to the rush of nostalgia that came with your game memories and write-up! Thank you for sharing all these. Got to know you through @glecerioberto's entry. There's still time 'til the end of this challenge but I think the objective was already met! People are engaging!
Yeah, since i couldn't find the photo of me plucking the string... this photo was almost the same! I appreciate you taking the time to read this and engage. I am glad Gleceriobero also participated. This community challenge has been quite successful and it has also brought a lot of joy in reminding people of some of their best memories. Mission Complete
Why don't let's this memories come again and buy an brand new Commodore on https://www.fun-academy.fr/ ?
Thanks for the follow and the kind words. I wanted to continue but it would have made peoples eyes bleed to read that much and given a few blisters on the scrolling fingers! hahahhaa Thanks for taking the time to check it out!
That's one of the best comments so far! Thanks for the kind words, Truly! No matter how the competition turns out... i feel we have all won already just from sharing in the experiences. These memories have been cathartic to write about and great to hear it invoke similar ones in others. I'm definitely going to have to make a part two for this one. Thanks for taking the time to comment on and read the post!
I had way more than i expected that i ran out of room to share. The more i shared the more that came rushing back in. I think i may have to make a second and or third post to really truly finish the expression. I am so glad that you remembered games you though was lost recall on! Video games were much more interactive in the escape they provided compared to books! I never minded reading video game text and always tried to emmerse myself in whatever world the game was presenting! Thanks for taking the time to comment and read this nostalgic post!
This is my favorite GIF file now. Thanks for sharing. I can still read half of Hiragana and Katakana because of Japanese RPGs to this day. Video games made reading more exciting for me too.
Right! I didn't even get to discuss playing Final Fantasy 4 or 5. I never minded reading the games... and i hated it when people pushed the buttons and just skipped the story! =)