Revisiting the past

[gdorf]

I've been playing a lot of games from my childhood lately. It started when I downloaded X-com: UFO Defense but since beating that I've moved onto other classics.

Sofar I've found and installed:

X-Com: UFO Defense
Wing Commander I
Duke Nukem (The original side-scroller)
The Oregon Trail :)
Incredible Machines
Warcraft

Most of the games are available from http://www.abandonia.com or from a quick google search.

All the games I've played sofar are still really fun, except maybe warcraft I which is pretty raw in functionality. I think I want to download Warcraft II to really enjoy an oldschool member of the series.

Anyway, what games do you guys remember playing as a child? How long has it been since you've played them? I encourage you to give them another run-through and see how much (and how little) gaming has come in the last 10-20 years.

:)

[Plissken]

The game I most played in my childhood would be Super Mario Bros 3 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. But I can't really revisit them because I still play them on a regular basis. >_>

[Tygore]

Oregon Trail was the peak of edutainment, hands down. I have it on my PC an play it about once a month for pure nostalgia.

[Plissken]

Ah Oregon Trail, That's all I remember about early grade school. We used to play that so much back then.

[Beldaran]

X-Wing and Tie Fighter series where major addictions back in my heyday.

Lots of DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D was played. Quest for Glory, Police Quest, etc.

Those days were awesome.

[Aegix Drakan]

There are a couple games that really make me remember when I was a kid.

the most prominent one is Kirby's dream land 2...

Which died on me a few days ago. The save battery just went KAPUT.

;_;

[MANDRAG GANON]

As far as NES goes I used to play Mario 3 and Zelda 2 the most, though i have fond memories of playing games like Mendel Palace, Super Chinese and Super Sprint at my friends house.

Zelda and Mario also took up most of my SNES years along with FF2.

I acctually play these games fairly often, havent in a short in awhile though I'd have to say I play them almost as often as newer games.

I remember playing the 2d duke nukem back on my old 486. Haha I also used to play Commander Keen, Jill of the Jungle, Hugos house of Horrors, Secret agent and Crystal Caves alot, as well as SUPER ZZT!!! One of my favorite games, I used to spend hours making games in this program.

[King Aquamentus]

Microsoft's MSX computer has a whole lot of games I'm sure some people here remember from the past. I remember playing an MSX version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It looked like a port of the NES game.

[slothman]

...
I remember playing the 2d duke nukem back on my old 486.
Haha I also used to play Commander Keen, Jill of the Jungle, Hugos house of Horrors, Secret agent and Crystal Caves alot, as well as SUPER ZZT!!!
One of my favorite games, I used to spend hours making games in this program.

I liked those games.
The only problem was the sharewareness.
I never did finish most of them.

[DarkDragoonX]

Wizardry, Ultima... Betrayal at Krondor is still the greatest DOS RPG of all time. I also loved Commander Keen, and retain a fondness for Maniac Mansion. Good ol' Prince of Persia also gave me many hours of enjoyment (as well as many hours of utter frustration).

[MottZilla]

Anyway, what games do you guys remember playing as a child? How long has it been since you've played them? I encourage you to give them another run-through and see how much (and how little) gaming has come in the last 10-20 years.

:)

I play the games of my childhood often and still buy the cartridges. :O NES owns all.

[DarkDragoonX]

NES owns all.

Lies! DOS owns all!

[KJAZZ]

Aside from the obvious ones (All NES Mario/Zelda games), I enjoyed Maniac Mansion quite a bit, Oregon Trail and Odell Lake in school :), Tetris, Final Fantasy IV and VI, LttP...

And like most people here, still enjoy those games these days. Although it's been a few months since I've raced across the country to Oregon. :D Last time I did, I made an insane move and forded a 20 foot deep river, killing everyone in my party except myself and 1 Ox. I did manage to make it to the end, but with my single Ox being killed or stolen every 2 in-game months, it took almost a year in-game. Needless to say, I did not make the Top 10. :p

[MottZilla]

Lies! DOS owns all!

DOS has a whole 4 games, NES has over 500 easily. DOS loses.

[Orion]

Ah, I remember elementary school, Oregon Trail, and Number Munchers. You were lucky if you got to use one of the 4-color monitors, otherwise you were just stuck with green.

I also remember when my school got it's first Macintosh. We were told we wouldn't be allowed to use the computer any more if we *gasp* accidentally put something in the trash.

[Warlock]

Ah, I remember elementary school, Oregon Trail, and Number Munchers. You were lucky if you got to use one of the 4-color monitors, otherwise you were just stuck with green.

I also remember when my school got it's first Macintosh. We were told we wouldn't be allowed to use the computer any more if we *gasp* accidentally put something in the trash.

Haha yeah. Schools loved those two games. Stupid Apple IIe computer labs :P And then they always did the typing programs, which sucked because I grew up with a computer, but I didn't type that way, so it was *really* ackward for me. I can type fast, but I can't type fast if I am forced to use the stupid ASDF home row system. I always hated that system.

[Cloral]

???

How do you type then?

[Glenn the Great]

DOS has a whole 4 games, NES has over 500 easily. DOS loses.

Huh? Thousands of games were made for DOS, including many, many classics like Commander Keen, DOOM, Ultima Underworld, Wing Commander, Wolfenstein 3D, Crystal Caves, the original Duke Nukem, etc. You aren't thinking of Windows games like Minesweeper and Solitaire are you? Because those aren't DOS games. Those are Windows Forms turned into games.


Anyway, as for my childhood gaming experiences.....

The first game I ever played was Frogger on my dad's TI-99/4a. This was an old Texas Instruments home computer from 1981, that actually used cartridges for its games. I had a shot at this game perhaps before I was even 1 year old. When I was little, I lived in New Jersey until I turned 5. In those New Jersey days, from my earliest memories on, I spent almost all of my time in the basement of our old house, watching and helping my dad with early computers and electronics. This included old memories of being in a small dark room in the basement littered with cables, wires, electric components and all kinds of broken devices, playing Frogger.

Some time when I was 1 year old, back in either 85 or 86, my Dad won an NES with Mario 1/Duck Hunt from a raffle at Ethicon where he worked. I remember when he brought it home, and I had no idea what it was that was being set up. My dad, his dad, and I sat down and played Mario 1 that evening. On that day, I personally discovered the 1-2 warp pipes all by myself. I remember my granddad telling me that I should get down off the top of the level or I might get stuck. I made it to world 4-1 that day. My dad didn't make it past world 1, but my granddad was in one of those dark stages in world 6.

For the rest of my New Jersey days, I played Mario 2, Zelda 1, Donkey Kong Jr., and Rad Racer.

Soon after I moved to Georgia at the age of 5, I discovered I could rent games, and that opened me up to a world of all the other games for NES, then later SNES.

I was also really big into DOS games at the time, as DOS was where it was. I was a huge fanatic of Commander Keen. I probably drew many hundred Commander Keen related drawings in my elementary school days.

I also played all of the DOS classics that I mentioned up at the top of my post.

I was also of course really big into Final Fantasy 4 and Link to the Past.

I also loved Sonic the Hedgehog.

[MottZilla]

Huh? Thousands of games were made for DOS, including many, many classics like Commander Keen, DOOM, Ultima Underworld, Wing Commander, Wolfenstein 3D, Crystal Caves, the original Duke Nukem, etc. You aren't thinking of Windows games like Minesweeper and Solitaire are you? Because those aren't DOS games. Those are Windows Forms turned into games.


DOS games I've played that I consider to be good:

Descent
Descent II
Doom
Doom II
WarCraft
WarCraft II

I didn't play a whole lot of DOS games, but either way nothing can compare to the volume of games produced for the Nintendo 8-bit system.

[Dechipher]

Legend of Kyrandia!!

[Darth Marsden]

I was playing that a couple of weeks ago, actually. Got totally lost in the cavern and just lost the will to play. :( First time I've played the first one, actually, though I did used to own the second one (Hand of Fate) when I was younger - it was part of a four-pack with Lands of Lore (which I never finished, though I suspect I would totally own it nowadays), IndyCar racing and some other game which I can't remember. Good stuff.

In my youth I remember playing Mega Drive (sorry - Genesis) games, mostly, especially Sonic games. I never could beat the end game boss of Sonic 3, though now I could pretty much do it with one hand tied behind my back. Also I remember bugging my Uncle, who was staying with us for some reason, to play Prince of Persia on his laptop. God, that was years ago. Hell, I've so advanced I started to made a mod for PoP about a year ago - never finished it. Replayed that recently, and was shocked at how poor some of the level design was. What was I thinking?

Other PC games I remember from my youth - the Descent, Doom and Heretic demos (all from a cover disc - I didn't like Descent, but forced myself to play it because it was all I had, dammit), and Albion, which was a freebie. Odd story behind that one. My father worked at WHSmiths as a manager back then - you can tell this is going back because he hasn't worked there for years - and one day we were meeting him there after work when there was a parcel just lying there. Didn't have a name on it or anything, and inside was a fully boxed version of Albion. Well, I asked if I could have it, and Dad said yes. SO I got me a free game. When we moved sometime later, we lost it, which was a shame. I picked it up again about a year ago though, and it's every bit as fun as I remember.

Also, I'll tell you what's really fun: listening to soundtracks from childhood games. I recently tracked down the OST for Streets of Rage II, and the memories just came flooding back. Give it a go with your own classic games - you'll feel like a kid all over again.

[King Aquamentus]

that's a good point on DOS. I prefer Duke Nukem 2 to Duke Nukem 1. something about the gun you have is more fun. Also, I don't much relish seeing duke in pinkish purple.

Other than that, Maniac Mansion. I haven't played any of the Monkey Island games or Day of the Tentacle, sadly.

[Orion]

I didn't play a whole lot of DOS games, but either way nothing can compare to the volume of games produced for the Nintendo 8-bit system.

True, but how many games in that NES library were actually *good* games (though the same could be said for DOS). How many of those weren't ports of already-existing arcade games?

At least I didn't have to blow on my floppy floppies to get them to work. Though getting them to stay in the drive was always fun. A lot like trying to close an over-stuffed suitcase, actually. It was a race to get the lever down before the floppy popped back out...

And yeah Warlock, those typing lessons were crap. I learned to type by sitting in chat rooms, not by typing ASDF. ADSF. FASD. AFDS. etc...

[War Lord]

There are a shit ton of good NES games.

Contrary to popular belief, blowing did nothing. Cartridges blinking either meant that your connector in the NES was bad, or you had dirty contacts on the cartridge itself. Your saliva from blowing can actually damage the contacts.

I'm currently playing through Secret of Evermore. While not terribly old, I don't remember anything key so it's like a whole new game again. A whole new awesome game.

Reading this makes me want to play through the Ultima Series, but only through 8. 9 was trash.

[MottZilla]

Blowing on the NES games and then it working was primarily related to you inserting the cartridge in a slightly different and betetr position or possibly the friction of it going in and out moved some dust/dirt away from the contacts that were making poor contact. And actually I rarely ever had much problem with my NES not playing games the first try.

Great games for NES include Zelda, Zelda 2, Metroid, Super Mario 1, 2, 3, Lost Levels, Excite Bike, Final Fantasy, Mega Man 1,2,3,4,5,6, Chip n' Dale 1,2, Shadow of the Ninja, Ninja Gaiden 1,2,3, Kirby's Adventure, and that's just a few off the top of my head. NES pwnz all.

[Darth Marsden]

I haven't played any of the Monkey Island games or Day of the Tentacle, sadly.
You're barely even worth the effort to do this, and yet you oh so deserve it.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g79/hazelanimenut/magicfail7sv.png

[Dechipher]

I was playing that a couple of weeks ago, actually. Got totally lost in the cavern and just lost the will to play. :( First time I've played the first one, actually, though I did used to own the second one (Hand of Fate) when I was younger - it was part of a four-pack with Lands of Lore (which I never finished, though I suspect I would totally own it nowadays), IndyCar racing and some other game which I can't remember. Good stuff.

In my youth I remember playing Mega Drive (sorry - Genesis) games, mostly, especially Sonic games. I never could beat the end game boss of Sonic 3, though now I could pretty much do it with one hand tied behind my back. Also I remember bugging my Uncle, who was staying with us for some reason, to play Prince of Persia on his laptop. God, that was years ago. Hell, I've so advanced I started to made a mod for PoP about a year ago - never finished it. Replayed that recently, and was shocked at how poor some of the level design was. What was I thinking?

Other PC games I remember from my youth - the Descent, Doom and Heretic demos (all from a cover disc - I didn't like Descent, but forced myself to play it because it was all I had, dammit), and Albion, which was a freebie. Odd story behind that one. My father worked at WHSmiths as a manager back then - you can tell this is going back because he hasn't worked there for years - and one day we were meeting him there after work when there was a parcel just lying there. Didn't have a name on it or anything, and inside was a fully boxed version of Albion. Well, I asked if I could have it, and Dad said yes. SO I got me a free game. When we moved sometime later, we lost it, which was a shame. I picked it up again about a year ago though, and it's every bit as fun as I remember.

Also, I'll tell you what's really fun: listening to soundtracks from childhood games. I recently tracked down the OST for Streets of Rage II, and the memories just came flooding back. Give it a go with your own classic games - you'll feel like a kid all over again.

There's a system I figured out to beating the caverns. All you do is take like 6 berries when you get to a bush. Then you put one next to the door you're about to leave. Then in that room you put a berry where you just came from, and a berry where you're about to go. The next room you put a berry where you came from and a berry where you're about to go, and then in the next room, you put a berry where you came from, SAVE, and then put a berry where you're about to go. At that point, they'll burn up, and if it's a bush, you're safe, and if not then you die, but go right back to where you were, so you can try other ways out of that room. If none of them are good, then just follow your berries back and try a different path.

[DarkDragoonX]

The NES certainly had a stranglehold on action games and platformers, but for great RPG and adventure gaming goodness, DOS was the place to be.

[Darth Marsden]

There's a system I figured out to beating the caverns. All you do is take like 6 berries when you get to a bush. Then you put one next to the door you're about to leave. Then in that room you put a berry where you just came from, and a berry where you're about to go. The next room you put a berry where you came from and a berry where you're about to go, and then in the next room, you put a berry where you came from, SAVE, and then put a berry where you're about to go. At that point, they'll burn up, and if it's a bush, you're safe, and if not then you die, but go right back to where you were, so you can try other ways out of that room. If none of them are good, then just follow your berries back and try a different path.
Yeah, I've figured that out as well. Still got totally lost though. And when I get lost, I get bored. And when I get bored, I do something else.

...I'd totally go back to it though if I had a map.

[mrz84]

I played any game that seemsed interesting to me. Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, Metroid, and the list goes on really. :kitty:

[Dechipher]

Yeah, I've figured that out as well. Still got totally lost though. And when I get lost, I get bored. And when I get bored, I do something else.

...I'd totally go back to it though if I had a map.

The first time I played it I was a lot younger and I didn't do that and I got trapped in the Emerald room. Some FAQ's have maps, though most are drawn in ASCII, but if you can deal with that you're good.