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Unread postby icycalm » 21 Feb 2010 15:06

He emailed me this:

Forte Dante wrote:I didn't know where I would post this on your forum, so instead of cluttering [your forum --icy] it I'm emailing you [i.e. cluttering your inbox --icy]. I'm trying to understand what you're explaining about videogames, and I think (dumbed down) it's this: that videogames are important/useful because, in consumerist society, they're the closest we can get (or easiest way) to really experience conflict (as opposed to a harder/better way like fighting a war)?

Let me know if I'm on the right track. Thanks.


Yes moron! What I am "explaining about videogames" when I write, for example, about the Fake HD era, or the arcade culture, or New Games Journalism, is exactly what you described! You are indeed on the right track! However did you manage to find it! You must be very smart!

Banned.
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Unread postby totemsflare » 25 Mar 2010 21:45

Hello, everyone.

I’m not a native English speaker. I started playing with the age of 6. My first memories I have of videogames are from arcade machines like Bubble Bobble, Tetris, Double Dragon and Shinobi. I played a lot of NES, Gameboy and Master System games. During the 90s, I tried every text/graphical adventure game that worked with my i486.

I’m currently at period of my life where I prefer to read about videogame culture than play games – the fact that I’m working practically 24 hours a day doesn’t help.

See you in the forums, then.
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Unread postby ibuprofen » 04 Apr 2010 05:11

I arrived here from the link on ABDN, like many others it seems, but only shortly after discovering ABDN itself. Having read a bit of that, and quite a bit more of this, Insomnia is making more sense to me so here I am.

My first gaming machine was a VIC-20. I remember Chariot Race. That's all.

Then I got a Spectrum 128K. Memories of that include pretty bad games, frequent crashes, and the horrible noise the joystick suction pads made when you moved it too hard and they ripped away from the table surface. And most of my friends had Commodore 64's or Amigas, so it was even more infuriating.

I got some sort of PC after that and spent several weeks trying to make a boot disc that would allow enough of its functions to run, whilst also leaving enough memory to play Doom. I did succeed eventually, and I even got sound.

Atari Lynx. The big original version. Rampage and California Games. Only one other person had one at school, everyone else had Gameboys. Not much cart swapping going on.

Then there was a SNES, Nintendo 64, Playstation, Gamecube, three PS2's (kept selling them and then wanting to play something or other and having to buy another one), and Xbox. From that lot I mainly recall Secret of Mana, Gran Turismo, Goldeneye and GTA 3. And there were PC's throughout. After Doom and Quake the standouts were Little Big Adventure, Magic Carpet, Sim City 2000, Age of Empires, Civ 3, etc.

More recently I just sold a 360, and am regretting it already (I missed Crackdown), and still have a PS3, a DS and an underused Wii. And yesterday, thanks entirely to the review on this website, I bought another original Xbox and ordered both Steel Battalion games and the controller. I had forgotten about Steel Battalion and the review reminded me how much I wanted to play it the first time round.

Over the last few years I had been getting tired of videogames. Having too many consoles and games is unhelpful, as is playing World of Warcraft for any length of time. The sheer pointlessness of that time-wasting exercise is hard to reconcile with actually getting anything constructive done. And for a while the future looked like nothing but MMOG's, motion-controlled everything, and iPhones - none of which appeal to me as gaming experiences whatsoever.

But then I started getting some Japanese games for the DS and PS3 (I'm learning the language, so it seemed useful), and then Civ 5 appeared on the horizon looking great, and now the requisite components of Steel Battalion are in the mail, so it's making more sense again.

And there's this site. So far I've learned about the point of arcades, which I never really understood before, the problem with videogame journalism, which explains why Kotaku's steady drip-feed of nonsense was so mind-numbing yet so addictive, and the terror of Tokyo cockroaches.

Now I'm reading through the Schopenhauer essays and am looking forward to the rest of the reading list because I've tried Nietzche several times before, but not in the right order, so I think this will be helpful.
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Unread postby ActiveAero » 09 Apr 2010 08:51

Hello,

I have been a lurker for several years, mainly just to read icy's articles, but I thought I would finally register to support the site.

I will keep my back story and gaming history brief.

Primarily grew up on a small farm in rural Alabama, United States, with a few years spent in smaller cities. My farm town only had a population of about 1,500 people but surprisingly enough there was a small arcade just a few minutes drive from our farm. This arcade was equipped with multiple Neo Geo cabs. Samurai Showdown, Aero Fighters, and World World Heroes occupied the slots most of the time. It also featured the 4 player X-men cabinet and Mortal Kombat along with Adams Family Pin Ball. All in all a pretty amazing little place considering the location.

My favorite home consoles were the NES, Genesis (aka MegaDrive), and the Sega Saturn. Filling the rest of the shelf space was a Sega CDX, Dreamcast, several game n' watches, SNES, N64, Gamecube, PS1, PS2, PS3, Xbox360, Wii, 3D0, and a few hand helds. I also owned a Virtua Fighter 1 cabinet and a Tekken 1 cab wired to run a Double Dragon PCB. I recently sold most of the above as I had become simply a collector who didn't play half of what I owned.

Quick list of some games that I spent a large amount of time playing:

NES Contra
NES Ninja Gaiden
Super Mario Bros 1
Streets of Rage 2
Virtua Fighter 2
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Virtua Cop 2
Solar Eclipse

Extended cutscene that sometimes required a button input to continue:

Snatcher (Sega CD).

As an end note I'm currently in the running for a Tokyo Embassy position with the United States Federal government, with whom I currently work (and by work I mean study Japanese and play on the internet because my job is mind numbingly easy/boring 90% of the time). If I get the position I would be more than willing to do any Japanese arcade related foot work for the site.

And yeah, I lied about being brief.
Last edited by ActiveAero on 21 Apr 2010 08:05, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby Profanatica » 20 Apr 2010 06:38

Native English speaker.

I played mostly JRPGs and action games like the Zelda series until I started becoming bored with these games about three or four years ago. Around that time I discovered STGs via emulation and doujin soft, but never really delved into them until a friend introduced me to your Arcade Culture article. I credit that article with saving my interest in video games.

I was always casually interested in fighting games, but began to take them more seriously a few years ago. I started playing Melty Blood: Act Cadenza on the PC, went to a few tournaments and got the shit kicked out of me. With the release of Melty Blood: Actress Again in a local arcade and then on the PS2 I began to take the game more seriously, although my skill level is still rather low. I also play Blazblue occasionally, and am interested in learning Arcana Heart 3 if I get the chance to regularly play it.

Lastly, I love what you are doing with this site and am extremely grateful for your inspiring me to read Nietzsche and Baudrillard. I have gone through the first half of the Nietzsche list, the Tractatus, and two books by Baudrillard and these are by far the most interesting books I have ever read. I am looking forward to continued study, for once one has read such brilliant writings the mind craves more and will accept nothing less. I feel it is quite similar with this site -- after reading your articles the majority of games criticism seems flaccid and pitiable.
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Unread postby xeo » 31 May 2010 10:06

Hello all,

I'm a native English speaker, despite the best efforts of the British education system. I started gaming in the 1990's, mostly on Western titles. Since then I've expanded my tastes. I've been reading this site for a while now having got fed up with the pap that passes for games journalism.
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Unread postby Daniel » 03 Jul 2010 19:19

I'm a native English speaker.

I began playing mostly JRPGs for a while until I grew sick of them. So I decided to play fighting, strategy and first-person shooting games.

Currently I am playing COD4, Bleach: The Blade of Fate, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and SF4.
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Unread postby the shore » 05 Jul 2010 19:22

Hi everyone!

Unfortunately I don't play games that much at this point in my life because I don't have very much leisure time. I really enjoy reading this site though, especially the theory forum and the philosophical articles.

I grew up playing mostly PC games during the DOS era, a lot of shareware and such. Some of the first great games I played were Civilization and X-COM. Once I got a little older I bought my own Nintendo 64 and, for the first time, really got into console gaming. I received a GameCube shortly thereafter, and eventually wound up with a PS2 as well. These became the two systems that I played the most (aside from the PC), as I extensively explored their awesome libraries.

This latest generation of consoles has been pretty underwhelming for me, and I no longer have a PC. After reading the Arcade Culture article, a lot of things clicked for me. I was able to better understand the feelings of disappointment I had been having, more and more, these past couple years, as each new game seemed to be less challenging and deep than the last.

Now that I know how to actually play arcade games properly, I've been having a blast with stuff like Castle of Shikigami III and R-Type.

Okay that's all!
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Unread postby sand » 29 Jul 2010 22:07

Hello,

I'm sand. I play many games, though I can only claim an advanced understanding of some types of strategy game, first-person shooters, and fighting games. Presently I play lots of side-scrolling platformers, though my lack of ability in this genre has become woefully apparent with last night's undertaking, Sunsoft's Batman.

On thinking about my gaming history, a single title bears mentioning: the much lampooned Super Smash Bros. Melee. This game made concrete my then burgeoning competitive mindset. With this game I payed my dues as a casual fagot from whom one could hear vacuous rationalizations (I would have said "aesthetic justifications") for having the loser's mentality, not playing to win.

But then competitive Melee exposed the heights of attention required to succeed, heights of attention difficult to achieve and even harder to maintain. While playing I was single minded, willful and at the same time always observant. It was honest play and it was more fun than anything that came before.

The joy of play was matched once, when I found a website whose author understood what I knew and more. I wrote with reverence about an idea which now seems to be self-evident after reading Alex's essays. The best thought I ever had is joined by dozens of others gleaned from Insomnia's essays.

That's awesome. Thank you icycalm.
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Unread postby Icemael » 11 Aug 2010 00:32

Hi.

I'm not a native English speaker. My earliest gaming memories involve Super Mario Land, Qix, Skate or Die: Bad 'N Rad and Mega Man II for the Game Boy. Though I did own a Playstation and played a number of N64, Gamecube and Xbox games, I remained chiefly a handheld gamer until the beginning of the current generation, when I decided it was time to get more serious about console gaming.
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Unread postby Tminusfun » 24 Oct 2010 09:07

I'm a 21 year-old white Canadian male.

My earliest gaming memory is playing Pac-Man on my Commodore 64 at age four. I was given my first NES when I was seven, my Playstation when I was nine, and PS2 at age 14.

Currently I have an NES, SNES, Wii, Sega Genesis, all Sony consoles, all Nintendo handhelds, and a Neo Geo Pocket Color.

I mostly play my NES, SNES, and PS. My favorite games are Metroid, Metroid 2, Super Metroid, Civillization II, Advance Wars, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Advance Wars 2, ActRaiser, Demon's Crest, Crash Team Racing, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, and RollerCoaster Tycoon.
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Unread postby icycalm » 24 Oct 2010 19:02

Just want to let you know that whoever mentions Civ II as a favorite is a poser who most probably hasn't even played any of the games. (See here.)

No need to reply. Just letting you know that you've been spotted as a poser and that posing in this forum is strictly forbidden. Next time you are gone.
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Unread postby Tminusfun » 24 Oct 2010 20:15

icycalm wrote:Just want to let you know that whoever mentions Civ II as a favorite is a poser who most probably hasn't even played any of the games. (See here.)

No need to reply. Just letting you know that you've been spotted as a poser and that posing in this forum is strictly forbidden. Next time you are gone.


Honestly, the only other Civilization games I've played were Civilization Revolution on the DS, and the SNES Version of the first game. Civilization II may be inferior to III or IV, but it's the best one I've played.

I'm getting Civilization V this week, and I expect it to blow the other games out of the water.


[User banned 1) for replying even though I told him not to, 2) for dumpquoting, and 3) for being a 21-year-old who just miraculously happened to have played the ancient Civ II, became a huge fan of it, but somehow managed to avoid touching all its sequels which actually came out while he was playing the ancient etc. etc. etc., the posers simply never give up their tiresome charade. --icy]
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Unread postby Panzer Oceania » 28 Oct 2010 04:45

Greetings Gentlemen,

I was born in the third world country of Papua New Guinea in 1988 to missionary parents from the United States, and as such, my primary language is English.

My first memory of gaming of any kind was on my family's old DOS computer with an amber monochrome CRT Monitor. This was in 1992-1993, when I was ages 4 and 5. Here is an idea of what it looked like:

Image

The only game I really played for any length of time was Prince of Persia, in glorious orange and black in perpetual slow motion. My older brothers Nate and Josh also had a few other titles: Alley Cat, Formula One Grand Prix, California Games, Barbarian, a Frogger Clone, and a Flight Simulator I can't recall the name of.

The Grand Prix game was virtually unplayable on our computer, so we would often bring our games to our Uncle's house to play on a full color monitor at full speed on his faster DOS PC. Other times it would be at our Grandfather's house on his Windows 3.1 PC. On occasion we saw other computer games at friends houses including DOS ports of Pacman, Space Invaders, Centipede, and Choplifter.

My oldest brother Nate was exposed to console gaming via a friend's Famicom with the following titles: Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and DuckTales. At one point we heard of a man in town that had a MegaDrive and Mega CD but we were never permitted the opportunity to try it out.

It was because of this exposure that we purchased a Nintendo Entertainment System (FC) at a Pawn Shop upon returning to the United States in the Summer of '93. Two games came with the system, the Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt Game Pak, and Super Mario Bros. 3. In addition, we picked up the NES Zapper (Beam Gun), NES Advantage (ASCII Stick Turbo), and NES Power Glove (PAX Power Glove).

It was already late Summer of '93 and my brothers had already beaten the Super Mario games. I, at age 5, on the other hand was still learning the fundamentals, such as holding the controller still, not looking at the buttons, running and jumping with a decent level of coordination, etc. That holiday we discovered the Super Nintendo (SFC) . For Christmas we pooled our funds to get one with two controllers, Super Mario World, and a free Super Mario Collection Game Pak that was mailed to us several weeks later. Josh also picked up a Gameboy with Tetris.

In the Summer of '94 Nate purchased a Super Scope with Yoshi's Safari, we rented many games along the way but it's mostly a blur in my memory. In September Josh was given Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins for his Birthday.

The next purchase was when Nate picked up his Sega Genesis with two controllers and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for his Birthday in November of '94. I remember playing Turtles in Time in the Arcades that Thanksgiving with 4 players, my dad, my brothers, and myself. A month later Josh and I split the cost to get Donkey Kong Country for Christmas and Nate picked up Sonic and Knuckles.

In the Summer of '95 Nate and Josh got a job for a potato farmer and bought Super Mario Kart, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic the Hedgehog, the Super Star Wars Trilogy, Disney's The Lion King and Aladdin (the Genesis Shiny version, not the SFC Capcom one) and Star Fox. I remember seeing the Virtual Boy in stores demoing Red Alarm and finding it quite strange. I recall borrowed Mickey's Magical Quest and Aero the Acrobat from friends for long periods of time. Capcom's Quest left an impression on me, and I was delighted years later when I found out there were two sequels.

During Holiday '95 Nate and Josh bought Donkey Kong Country 2 while Josh and I got Yoshi's Island along with a a Super Famicom controller clone. At this point Nate had been saving for the Saturn for over 6 months and still had a ways to go. I remember seeing Tekken on demo in stores and Josh being interested but Nate scoffing at it compared to what he had seen of Virtua Fighter 2.

Right before school got out in Summer of '96 Nate picked up his Saturn, right when many of his friends were buying the cheaper Sony PlayStation. We then drove to the West Coast before returning to New Guinea. At that point Nate picked up BUG! for the Saturn, I got Astal: Shining Crystal Legend for the Saturn, and Josh and I got Super Mario RPG. It was at that point we flew back to New Guinea with our "fleet" of consoles as well as a new Windows 95 PC with the Zodiac Game Pack demo disk.

Holiday '96 Josh picked up Donkey Kong Country 3 for Nate. Summer of '97 I received Vectorman for my Birthday, Nate got the N64 with Super Mario 64. Nate's old friend also got us a bootleg copy of Quake for our PC, and lent us several great games like Tetris Attack, Super Metroid, Secret of Evermore, Loony Tunes B-Ball, Turtles in Time, A Link to the Past, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct,Lylat Wars (PAL Star Fox 64), The Legend of Zelda: The Triforce of the Gods, and Stunt Race FX.

Spring '98 began with the arrival of Mario Kart 64 and 3 additional controllers, followed by Wave Race 64. Somewhere during that time Nate burned out the Nintendo 64 Power Adapter by plugging it into 240 Volt power, and his Saturn mysteriously died not long after. For Christmas '98 then we got him a Saturn Model 2 with a proper Japanese style controller, NiGHTS: Into Dreams demo, Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG, Sonic 3D Blast, and Sonic R.

Over that year I also borrowed and played several other titles, notably The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, Metroid, a Super Gameboy with The Legend of Zelda: The Dreaming Island, and Contra: Hard Corps.

Spring '99 brought The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the cost shared between Nate and I, as Josh had gotten more into buying music, clothing, etc.

Nate graduated for High School that summer and we flew back to the United States. He was already saving for a Dreamcast, and we all were going through a bit of culture shock and were happy to see the latest and greatest again. I remember seeing Power Stone, Hydro Thunder, 18 Wheeler, Virtua Fighter 3, Sega Rally 2, Soul Calibur, and Sonic Adventure either on display in an Arcade or Dreamcast in stores.

Those were good days, I remember Nate had a subscription to the Official Dreamcast Magazine. That was the beginning of true gaming education for me. It was the first time we had a new demo disk every month, and the first time I was allowed to use the Internet and started looking around for gaming news. I remember discovering emulators such as NESticle, Genecyst, ZSNES, Snes9x, etc. Being an 11 year old, I naturally read sites such as http://IGN.com, or gaming sites like the long abandoned http://chocobo.keytech.com . I also remember http://Sega.com (before it sucked) being great back in the day and I learned a lot from that.

I'll never forget the 6th issue of the Official Dreamcast Magazine that included a fighting game feature that parodied the movie Fight Club. It really inspired me to learn more about games and how they worked, etc.

At that time, the end of '99 into Y2K I bought Sonic Adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Mask of Majora, Super Smash Bros, and Eternal Arcadia (I nearly bought Grandia 2, after playing it years later I'm glad I got Skies). Nate had gone off to college and left me with his original Dreamcast. He came back with a copy of Quake III Arena, Phantasy Star Online with a demo for Sonic Adventure 2, and a few other demo discs. I also remember renting Shenmue, and Mario Story at that time

I also forgot to mention that back in New Guinea I had gotten into RTSs at the age of 9 and 10. I remember playing Warcraft II, Red Alert, Command and Conquer Gold, Warcraft, 7 Kingdoms and eventually Starcraft.

So when we had come back to the United States I wasn't just looking at console games but also PC games. I remember picking up Command and Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and then later Red Alert 2.

Our family then left Nate in the United States and went back to New Guinea. Right after we got back I was given Sonic Adventure 2 for my Birthday in Summer of 2000. It was from then on that I'd order games online and have them shipped to Nate, who would then ship them overseas to me. I remember picking up Westwood Studios' Nox and Epic Games' Unreal Tournament, but we never really upgraded our PC after that so I mostly played PC games at my friends house. I remember discovering UFO: Enemy Unknown, and Total Annihilation at a friends house and being completely blown away.

Soon after was the first time I had played a pen and paper RPG a friend of mine had written himself using Lego pieces as avatars. It actually grew to be pretty complex and years later when I finally played a few traditional pen and paper RPGs I was pretty underwhelmed. The same friend also introduced me to Deus Ex, Fallout, and Arcanum: of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, some of the best games I've ever played. He also showed me System Shock, and Starsiege: Tribes.

Back at my house I was surviving on the Dreamcast games I had but was trying to save for a new system. I was torn between the Xbox and the GameCube. Most of my friends wanted Xboxs and Halo. I was more interested in the Xbox as a successor to the Dreamcast with most of the Dreamcast sequels such as Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Shenmue 2, Crazy Taxi 3, etc. as well as new titles like Gun Valkyrie.

Ultimately though I could only buy one system and my love for Nintendo franchises won out. I had a pretty poor choice of titles I had shipped over with the system, including Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II which I chose, Starfox Adventures which I had a choice out of 3 that were on discount ( I could have instead gotten Metroid Prime or Biohazard 0. In hindsight I still think my choices where pretty limited), and SSX Tricky (which I did not choose but came free with the system)

I did soon after, however pick up some excellent titles, including Super Smash Bros. DX, The Legend of Zelda: Baton of Wind, Soul Calibur II, Viewtiful Joe, and finally in January 2005, my first online preorder, Biohazard 4.

During those years I got pretty into emulation, mostly Super Famicom Japanese turn-based strategy games, but really anything that was recommended to me that I could get my hands on I would try. I began to build my own little library and game history compiled from different sources and would hand it out to my friends at school on CDs to check out at home. I often would read news and new articles on

http://rpgone.emuxhaven.net/ -- a video game translation group site
http://agtp.romhack.net/ -- ditto
http://dejap.eludevisibility.org/ -- ditto
http://www.fantasyanime.com/ -- a video game news site
http://fusoya.eludevisibility.org/ -- a video game developer tool site
http://www.neillcorlett.com/ -- a music plugin site with articles and translations
http://www.pbernert.com/ -- a playstation plugin libary
http://www.caitsith2.net/ -- a video game music library
http://www.zophar.net/ -- An emulator, music, SRAM, etc. library, news site, and forum
http://snesmusic.org/v2/ -- a video game music library
http://www.htloz.net/ -- a Zelda specific fan site
http://www.racketboy.com/ a Sega enthusiast store, news site, and Trading and Discussion forum

In New Guinea we still had to connect to the Internet via 56k dial-up modem, but in spite of that I started to get interested into MAME, and larger ROM downloads. This cost me a lot with my parents, but being a teenager I could afford it by doing odd jobs for people around the neighborhood (being a foreigner, I couldn't get a real job).

I also tried to branch out a bit and broaden my horizons by ordering Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and SSX On Tour. Soon after my family and I returned to the United States the Summer after my 11th Grade year. At that time we passed through Singapore and Japan and I got to go to an arcade in Narita Japan before we completed the final leg of our journey and it was a pretty incredible experience.

I remember seeing House of the Dead 4 cabs, King of Fighters, Tekken, Taiko Master (4 I believe), GuitarFreaks and DrumMania V2, Beatmania, and many more which I can't remember. This was a particularly interesting experience because I saw the DS Lite, and Guitar games before they really became super popular in the United States.

I knew that the heart of gaming was in Japan from reading up on Nintendo and Sega, and from all the fan translated Super Famicom games I played, but actually being in Japan cemented that reality for me.

In the first few months I was back in the United States I didn't have many friends. This led to me spending more time on Arcade research, as well as participating on some forums. Forums I used to lurk on from week to week I now posted several times a day, like

http://romhacking.net -- a miscellaneous hacking library, news site, and forum
http://board.zsnes.com/phpBB3/ -- An emulator developer forum

I also started to visit

http://assemblergames.com -- a video game collector's Trading and Discussion forum
http://acmlm.kafuka.org/board/ -- a hacking forum (before it went to shit)
http://smwcentral.net/ -- a Super Mario World specific hacking forum
http://mamedev.com -- a MAME development and news site
http://www.shmups.com/ -- An STG discussion forum
http://forum.metroid2002.com/ -- a Metroid forum
http://forums.grandbell.net/ -- a Fire Emblem forum
http://www.smashboards.com/ -- a Super Smash Bros. forum
http://www.neo-geo.com/ -- a Neo Geo Trading and Discussion forum
http://ocremix.org/ -- a video game re-mix library and news site
http://www.zreomusic.com/ -- a Zelda re-mix library site
http://www.sonic-cult.org/index2.php -- a Sonic, Sega, and other news site
http://www.sonicretro.org/ -- a Sonic fan, and hacking site
http://board.byuu.org -- a Super Famicom emulation development forum

and a few others.

I got really into the ROM hacking scene, though I never did any work myself. In recent years I've discovered:

http://shoryuken.com/forum/ -- a FTG news site and forum
http://sdtekken.com/ -- a FTG news and information site
http://virtuafighter.com/ -- a Virtua Fighter news site and forum
http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/ -- An arcade Trading and Discussion forum
http://gamesx.com/ -- a console and PC enhancement site and forum
http://nfggames.com/games/ -- a game news site and forum
http://nfgcontrols.com/ -- a controller specific news site and forum
http://vgm.hcs64.com/ -- a video game music library and forum
http://arc-nova.org/ -- a video game music library
http://tasvideos.org/ -- a tool assisted speedrun library, news site, and forum

and now this site.

Since we've grown my my brother Josh is no longer anything than a casual gamer, if that. Nate, while he still keeps up with game news doesn't seem to play much of anything anymore. More over, He doesn't seem to have any interest to dig deeper into games like I'm trying to pursue arcade gaming etc. No, he's content with just the regular game news. His interests now lie more in computer software, and film than games these days.

You can find the shorter version of growing up with games from his perspective which touches mostly on Sonic, Sega, the Genesis, Saturn and Dreamcast here.

Nate's Thoughts

Since I bought my Gamecube, I've acquired a PS2 Slim with boot disk, Wii, PSP, Xbox 360 Slim, and hopefully soon to be a DSi XL and PS3 Slim. I also have a Naomi 1 board, Hikaru, Choplifter, Soul Edge, Soul Calibur, and CPS2 Board. I'd like to pick up a G-Net and Neo Geo soon. We shall see.

I'd also like to eventually get an MSX2, Amiga, PC-88, X68000, BeBox, Apple2, and a Mac. but who knows how long that would take. Then there are handhelds... so much to do and so little time. In any case I need to play games more and build my skill level, I would like to perform a few modifications on my existing consoles though, get a few more monitors, maybe a projector and some professional video capture equipment. An XRGB3 might be nice also but I prefer to run my games on as native a format as possible, such as a 15khz RGB CRT display (I have two as of now).

About 6 months ago I got a Sega Mark III with Doki Doki Penguin, Wonder Boy, Zippy Race, and Girl's Garden and it really broadened my appreciation for older titles. I've had a Famicom Twin for awhile but only a few days ago got one with a working disk drive and was really impressed by Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally, truly a precursor to Super Mario Kart. I'd like to eventually get an original Pong, Atari 2600, and work my way on up.

Probably some of the most memorable games in my past have been Super Mario Bros. 3, Evermore, Mickey's Magical Quest, Astal: Shining Crystal Legend, Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG, Final Fantasy V, Starcraft, Deus Ex, Arcanum of Steamworks & Magick Obscura, Mario Story, Smash Bros. DX, Eternal Arcadia etc.

In the last year I've become a collector of many arcade sticks, PCBs, home theater equipment, 15khz CRTs, video game consoles etc.

I found this site 2 days ago and liked the kind of content I found here and saw that you're already affiliated with some of the other sites that I frequent so it seemed like a natural fit. Glad to be here.
Panzer Oceania
 
Joined: 27 Oct 2010 10:30
Location: Salem, OR

Unread postby icycalm » 28 Oct 2010 21:40

Sounds like a good kid. Too bad I had to ban him because a good one-third of his paragraphs did not end with a period, which meant I had to add them, thus wasting a couple of minutes of my day.
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icycalm
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Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby duckman » 01 Nov 2010 05:15

Hi guys! The name's Colten. I'm an 18 year-old guy from the Midwest.

My first gaming experience was playing my uncle's SNES in '97. A year later I got a Game Boy Color for my birthday and a Playstation for Christmas. Since then I've also owned a PS2, Xbox (original and 360), Wii, 2 GBAs, 2 DSes, and about 3 PCs.

Currently I'm playing a lot of STGs (Giga Wing, Cave titles, Touhou, etc.)

I'm also studying a bit of semiotics, and I plan to write a few essays on that. (I'm also, of course, reading plenty of Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, and Baudrillard.)
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duckman
 
Joined: 30 Jun 2010 03:44

Unread postby ghost4 » 15 Nov 2010 13:30

I've been playing video games for about twenty years. My earliest systems were the Commodore 64, the Amiga 500 and the NES. Since then I've owned various consoles and PCs, and play first/third person shooters and so-called RPGs for the most part. I have played some arcade games, but that was a long time ago. I preferred the light gun shooters.

English is not my native language, but I am fluent.
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ghost4
 
Joined: 14 Nov 2010 12:35

Unread postby seth » 22 Nov 2010 13:15

Hello. Native English speaker.

My name is Seth and I have been playing video games for about as long as I can remember (which admittedly isn't a terribly long time). Born in '89 and grew up playing mostly NES and Genesis, but it wasn't until my household got a PlayStation in '98 or so that I took a greater interest in video games. As for countless other kids, Final Fantasy VII is probably what did it.

Anyway, I continued in this trend and my 2000s were mostly defined by the PlayStation 2. I own a PS3 now, but honestly don't play it that often, especially since I bought a stand alone Blu-ray player. The Wii receives most of my gaming time, and overall the past couple of years have been primarily devoted to exploring Nintendo's extensive library that I missed out on. Within the next year or so I plan on doing a similar excursion with Microsoft's two consoles since my experiences with each have been pretty limited.

I also enjoy writing game reviews and do so fairly often. Sometime soon I'll have a look over what I consider the better ones, make sure they're up to Insomnia's standards, and post them on the site.
seth
 
Joined: 05 Nov 2010 19:59

Unread postby icycalm » 23 Nov 2010 23:21

What's funny about this guy, among other things, is that he assumed he was CAPABLE of bringing his reviews up to "Insomnia standards".

And the game that got him into videogames was FFVII lol.
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icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby BrianDawkins » 24 Nov 2010 03:36

I'm a native English speaker from Philadelphia.

I've liked strategy games for a long time: the C&C, Warcraft, Starcraft, Civilization, Heroes of Might and Magic, and Baldur's Gate series. I started gaming on the NES with Metroid, Ghosts 'n Goblins, and The Legend of Zelda. I used to like JRPGs -- the SNES Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Evermore -- but I have rarely enjoyed playing a JRPG since I was 14 or so.

I'm currently playing Starcraft 2, Fallout 2, and a little HL 2.

The essays, reviews, and linked readings on this site are great. Thanks.
BrianDawkins
 
Joined: 20 May 2010 17:57
Location: Boston, USA

Unread postby Elzair » 29 Nov 2010 20:43

I am Elzair, a native English speaker from Georgia (i.e. the US state). I started playing games on the NES and have been mostly active since. Prior to 2000 I mostly played on consoles: the Sega Genesis/CD, the Nintendo 64, and the Sony Playstation 1 & 2. After that, I have mostly played computer games. My favorite genre would probably be the so-called "western RPGs", but I play and like many other games in other genres. I am currently making my way through Fallout: New Vegas and the entire Ultima series (I am near the end of the Black Gate).
Elzair
 
Joined: 26 Dec 2009 18:02

Unread postby immersedreality(old) » 30 Nov 2010 00:08

Hello, all. I am a native English speaker from the great American state of Ohio. I am an aspiring filmmaker but have recently found myself spending much more of my time playing video games than watching movies. I am an expert on cinema but still just a hungry student when it comes to electronic gaming, and this website is easily the most reliable and informative source for gaming and game theory I've ever come across.

Some of my favorite games include Half-Life 2, Deus Ex, Demon's Souls, God Hand, Resident Evil (both the original and the remake), Super Mario 64, the Dragon Quest series, Devil May Cry, Another World, Super Metroid, Day of the Tentacle, the Monkey Island series, Metal Gear Solid 2, Tetris, and the Ace Attorney series.
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immersedreality(old)
 
Joined: 17 May 2010 20:00
Location: U.S.A.

Unread postby Torgo » 02 Dec 2010 15:55

Hi, I'm 21 and my first memories of gaming was when I was a child watching my older brother play Super Nintendo. I've always enjoyed just reading about and watching video games, perhaps this is mainly because I was quite awful at them. I remember as a 6 year old Button Mashing like a mad man trying to beat Mortal Kombat 3. To this day I'll often just wuss out on harder games and start on Normal Mode. I'll view video of Doujin Games like the Touhou Project and I just cringe at how difficult they look.

My favorite game directors are Shinji Mikami and Hideki Kamiya. Viewtiful Joe, God Hand, Bayonetta, and Vanquish; these games are just stellar. I think they hit the right balance as they're difficult but forgiving. Beyond their games and the other mainstream Japanese Companies I really don't play many games from Japan. My favorite Western Companies are Valve, id Software, and Blizzard. I'm playing a lot of Starcraft 2 right now.


[Banned for arbitrarily capitalizing random nouns. Also, lol at "difficult but forgiving" comment. --icy]
Torgo
 
Joined: 02 Dec 2010 04:25
Location: Los Angeles

Unread postby Silverhawk » 14 Dec 2010 16:30

And thus, I enter the lion's den...

My name is Silverhawk. I'm a native English speaker. The Genesis was my gateway into gaming, with its most memorable game being Vectorman. Nowadays, I spend my time playing various STGs, mainly for the challenge they provide.

Other than that, Ace Combat is a favorite franchise of mine, though I've yet to get through the PS1-era titles.
Silverhawk
 
Joined: 14 Dec 2010 03:30

Unread postby plus » 23 Dec 2010 07:54

Hello, I'm a native English speaker.

Some games I've enjoyed are: BIT.TRIP CORE, Advance Wars, Rhythm Heaven, Super Ghouls'n Ghosts, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, and Viewtiful Joe.
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plus
 
Joined: 22 Dec 2010 07:00
Location: Oakland, California

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