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Unread postby icycalm » 25 Mar 2008 07:43

One post per person, please. We are mainly interested in your gaming history. This is a forum about games after all, and since that is what we'll be discussing, we'd like to know where each person is coming from, gaming-wise.

As for the rest of your history, it's up to you. Write as little or as much as you feel like writing.

One more thing. Please specify if your native language is not English, so that we know to make appropriate allowances when we read your posts.

As for my own introduction, well... this site is my introduction.
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Unread postby U-Rat » 25 Mar 2008 08:08

Hey everyone!

The Rise of the Legend
My gaming background started when I was six... Tiger Road was the first game I played, in a small arcade in a hotel in Greece.

My parents were not really keen to get me a console because they were afraid that if owned one I'd stop studying and going out (and were probably right). So I spent a lot of time hanging out at my best mate's flat to play the NES, and also in the arcades and on my PC.

My first... my oooown!... my... precious...
My first gaming machine was a 286 8Mhz with 64K of RAM and a 16-colour monitor (no mouse!) I played some arcade conversions on that machine (Fire and Forget 2, Shinobi, Out Run, Wonderboy...), but mainly PC games, point-and-click adventures and flight simulators.

An elegant weapon for a more civilized time...
My first console was a Neo-Geo, and I got a PC Engine Duo soon after that (I was 15). The PC Engine was my absolutely favourite game system of all (and still is).

Struggling in difficult times:
Now I play mainly 2D fighting games, STGs and Super Robot Taisen games.

P.S. English is not my native language.
[*insert here one of those smart-ass quotes you usually find on smart-ass websites*]
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Unread postby walrusdawg » 26 Mar 2008 06:23

Hey, I'm a dude. Native English speaker.

Past gaming history is pretty irrelevant in light of recent happenings but to sum up:

-VCS Breakout Combat NES Mario Contra Zelda SNES Mario Zelda Final Fantasy N64 Mario Zelda PS Final Fantasy PS2 GTA GoW GC Mario Zelda-

Plus some PC AGI, SCI, SCUMM, etc. And I'm just the generic acronym video game douchebag. However...

Late last year (and I'm not gonna lie and say that I'm OG or whatever the hell people say) two events occurred. The first was the release of BioShock. I had been following this game for a while, as it was being touted as the "spiritual successor" (i.e. "we don't own the rights to the first game") to System Shock 2. I really liked both System Shocks so I bought the game. What I got was $50 worth of Pipe Dream punctuated with a semi-competent-to-mediocre FPS. Whatever, many games are not very good. But then a couple reviews come out saying that the game is great, and the shit spreads like wildfire. Pretty soon every single goddamn monkey on the internet is praising this shit like it's the second coming. I was (and am still) disgusted with myself as much as with anyone else.

Around the same time I download MAME for reasons I can't remember. One of the first games I got was Metal Slug, which I had played a few years earlier at a laundromat and remembered as being pretty fun. Then while just downloading random games I stumbled across Dodonpachi.

Playing both those games I realized something shocking.

The buttons I was pressing really meant something in the game.

It was a turning point.
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Unread postby HeavyElectricity » 27 Mar 2008 02:23

Hello, another native English speaker here. When I'm not playing games, I spend my time studying politics at university.

I've been gaming for as long as I can remember. I played my dad's Atari 2600 regularly from a very young age. Unfortunately, my parents divorced a couple of months after my fourth birthday, and my dad took the system with him. I had Sega consoles as a kid, first the Master System and then the Mega Drive, mostly because I was a Sonic fan.

While I loved games like R-Type and Shinobi on my Master System, I always looked forward to holidays as seafront arcades generally had the best games. I also spent a fair bit of time in the local arcade when it was first opened, and eventually managed to go through the single player mode of Virtua Fighter 3tb on one credit (I know, single player isn't really the point of fighting games).

This all changed when I got a PlayStation for Christmas in 1998. My household was a pretty poor one, so it was the first time I really had a current console. I ended up doing odd jobs during the next summer, so that I could afford some new games. I picked up Final Fantasy VII and Gran Turismo, because they were both supposed to be brilliant and good value for money. When I finished FFVII, I remember saying that I probably wouldn't ever play through it again, though at the time I put it down to the length of the game.

I shifted back to skill-based games in 2003 or so. I was coming back around to the arcade style anyway, because of the wealth of good Dreamcast ports available. I was also discovering the internet at the time and found out that new DC games were still being released in Japan, so I ended up importing Border Down. Since then, I've spent my time looking for good games, and reading all manner of articles about games (some great, some terrible).

These days, most of my gaming takes place at my student flat, with my Xbox 360 hooked up to a cheap 14" portable TV via composite. On the bright side, I do have a Hori Fighting Stick EX2 for Virtua Fighter 5, so my hardware doesn't completely let the games down.
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Unread postby eae » 03 Apr 2008 15:31

Hello from Itay, nice site :) All the articles I have read here are very interesting and also seem to reflect my opinions on some subjects. Alex Kierkegaard sounds very arrogant but that's ok, it adds to the entertainment :D

Anyways, I started playing on a Mega Drive, loved games like Contra, Micro Machines, Subterrania, Dynamite Headdy, and the zelda wannabe Soleil aka Ragna Centi. Then acting as a Sega-Nintendo fanb0y I owned a Saturn, a N64, a Dreamcast, and a GameCube. At this point my interest in console games was fading, so I won't even bother listing the games I liked on these systems, with the exception of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

For a couple of years I spent most of my gaming time (and an amount of money I'll never want to calculate) in the arcade near my home playing The King of Fighters (2000 and '98 mainly) against some skilled opponents.

I also started playing on emulators, and I could for the first time enjoy Majora's Mask, which I consider my absolutely favorite console game.

Then I went into competitive netgaming, and spent the last 4 years playing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, which pretty much killed my life, absorbing thousands of game hours.

But I also own a Wii and love the wiimote. :D It got me interested in console gaming again, an I'm considering buying a PS3 too, just to look at some pretty graphics (my PC is outdated and won't run recent games decently).
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Unread postby Molloy » 14 Apr 2008 16:35

Was on holidays at the age or four or so and my hotel had a broken Qix machine that was giving free credits. Played that for a few hours and from that point on I spent most of my time hunting out any arcade machine I could get my hands on. Got a Commodore 64 at the age of six. Brother used to come home from school with a load of copied tapes every week and we'd spend hours trawling through all of them seeing which ones were worth playing.

The Commodore eventually broke somehow, parents replaced it with an Atari 2600. It was rather disappointing and dated at this stage but lots of kids I knew had one so I ended up swapping lots of games and getting quite a lot of use out of it. Continued to spend all my time downtown socializing in the arcades. Most of the other kids were about fifteen or so but my parents were fairly hands off so I spent most of my time in smokey pool dens playing Shinobi, Golden Axe, Black Tiger and many other stone cold classics. Hunted out classmates with NESes and Master Systems. My older brother told the parents to get a Mega Drive at launch. Wonderful idea. To this day it's my favourite system. There were several video rental stores near me so while I didn't get money to buy a game very frequently I rented one every week for years. Ended up playing and often completing anything I could get my hands on. Even RPGs! That's the great thing about 16-bit RPGs: they're often only 8 or 10 hours long.

Continued to spend huge amounts of free time in the arcade. Got hopelessly addicted to Street Fighter II. They held tournaments in my arcade. Cost a pound to play and the winner got 20 quid. There was an asian kid who always won, but I often got second place with Chunners scoring me the 10 quid runner up spot.

About 1994 or so all the arcades started closing down because they couldn't afford all those new driving and shooting games. I really miss all the buddies I made through those places. It was cool to have a social circle that was twice your age, offering you cigars and talking about birds. Nowadays none of my friends are into games so I really miss the social aspect.

Later got a PSOne, PC, played a lot of multiplayer FPS and RTS. Total Annihilation is my favourite game along with SSF2T. Then got a Dreamcast, PS2 and GameCube. Haven't jumped into the next gen quite yet; I've never been a huge early adopter. Once there's a big library of cheap second hand games and the hardware comes down in cost I'll be all over it. Looking forward to playing all those cool indie arcade games on XBLA.
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Unread postby ashn0d » 12 May 2008 13:35

Hi there.

I'm a Portuguese guy living in Spain. Although my first experience with videogames was on a Mega Drive my parents gave me with a six-game cartridge when I was about six years old, the first time I got really into them was when Diablo 2 came out -- that was my first addiction and my first true love in videogaming. After that I became a regular PC player, my time being spent mostly on StarCraft and UT'99.

At the age of sixteen I bought my first console (my parents never were very fond of buying me videogames), a GameCube with Zelda: Wind Waker. I played many games on it but the ones I enjoyed the most were Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the aforementioned Wind Waker, Soul Calibur 2 and Pikmin. After a couple of years I traded the Cube for a PS2 (Nintendo's home consoles post-SNES were always a failure in Portugal) and last year I traded the PS2 for an Xbox 360.

Right now, my gaming time is spent in XBLA titles, MAME and some homebrewed PC games.
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Unread postby torch » 08 Jun 2008 03:42

Hello, I'm from South Florida. Saying this never does any good for what others think about me, but I am 15 years old. What I can remember of my history started with Super Mario Land on the Pocket, and I've played primarily on handhelds ever since. Outside of Game Boy games, I played the old Sonic games with my uncle for a hours a day.

My first mistake was playing Final Fantasy VII and thinking "Hey, this game is pretty cool." After that, I went nuts over the other JRPGs, relentlessly playing them and all of the Final Fantasy games, praising the hell out of every single one, and trying to appear different from the others by saying things like "FFV is better than FFVII!" I held many opinions on games that I look back on and feel terrible about.

After looking for something better than the mainstream sites and forums to discuss and read about games, I found largeprimenumbers, then insertcredit, then UK Resistance, then insomnia.ac. I've grown an attachment to bullet hell shooters and puzzle games (Puyo Puyo's my favorite), and have been trying to improve my skills. I want to develop a better taste for games, and pay more attention to their mechanics than I have in the past.

Also, reading icycalm's work has made me more interested in philosophy. Right now, I'm reading Aristotle's Poetics.

It feels like I'm starting anew. Right now, I'm playing Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary and Progear no Arashi.
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Unread postby JT » 29 Jun 2008 01:19

The first console I owned was a Sega Master System. The Master System had some quality games, but I found going to arcades to be a lot more enjoying. The problem was I didn't live near any arcades, so I instead frequented them in my travels. I remember when Street Fighter II was a mainstay in arcades - I would sometimes see people who refused to continue, instead opting to run down the timer and restart.

As mystifying as that the idea of not continuing was, I came to adopt it when I finally moved near an arcade. A few top players on Shoryuken.com played at this arcade and while I never reached their levels of skill, I had some fun matches there. It was awful when the arcade closed down - a bunch of quality players had no place to play.

These days I'm playing Gamecube games. I'm still waiting for Gamecube component video cables to get cheap because I'm not interested in buying a Wii at this time.
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Unread postby Doctor Fugue » 01 Jul 2008 12:39

I have been playing games since the late 1980s -- mainly in arcades and on Sega platforms. I took some time off games when 3D became popular and arcades became scarce. I have since relaxed my position that 3D is an unworkable mess, due in no small part to Ninja Gaiden. I still enjoy practicing arcade skills above all else. In particular, I favour 2D shooters, 2D fighters, and racing games.

As for my existence outside of gaming, I am a concert pianist, I teach music privately, and I write about music.
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Unread postby Chris B » 05 Jul 2008 12:52

I think it was in 1988 that I played my first videogame at the age of four. Albeit only a cheap LCD game named 'Soccer' (basically a clone of the Game & Watch game 'Fire'), the simple reaction test occupied me for hours.

There never were any arcades in the small town I lived in.

My older brother got an Amiga 500 when I was eight and we had some good times back then (my favourite game was Shufflepuck's Cafe, an updated version of PONG). It was not until 1993 that I got my own system, a Game Boy. I fondly remember the cutscene at the beach in Link's Awakening as the first and last time a videogame almost brought me to tears.

I continued getting Nintendo systems (SNES, N64) until I played Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid at a friend's house, which made me buy a PS1 shortly thereafter.

A Windows PC in 2000 opened up the internet and the wonderful world of emulation for me. After browsing the web and getting to know more about other systems I started buying used consoles (Mega Drive, Saturn, PC-Engine, Virtual Boy, PS2, Dreamcast).

The discovery of Final Match Tennis on NEC's little machine started my love for this niche sports genre and caused the development of a particular interest in all things PONG.

Nowadays I'm probably reading more about games than actually playing them. Getting into design and development has since been a hobby of mine (I'm working on a game-related project at the moment).

I'm not a native english speaker (I'm German).
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Unread postby Marble » 08 Jul 2008 04:10

Hey, Australian guy here.

My introduction to video games would've been in the early-mid ninties (I'm 16) with either Shufflepuck Cafe (On a black and white Macintosh!) or the Sonic games on my friends SEGA Megadrive. The system that I eventually ended up getting was a SNES, though. I mainly had platformers for it. Later I got a Game Boy, almost entirely for the Pokemon games (which I can't stand to play any more).

Later I got a 64, a system I have some fond memories of, but don't really like playing much today. I really liked Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but I would spend all my time just exploring the over world, I think that was my first real taste of really being immersed in a game's world. I also had a Playstation, but no games that were too note worthy. I was pretty happy when I found a SEGA Megadrive at a Cash Converters for $25.

And then there's nothing worth saying until 2003 when I got a PS2 for the Grand Theft Auto games... and then I wasn't really playing games too much until 2005 when I broke my arm and starting playing them more. I started using ebay and visiting shops lots and improved upon my SNES and Megadrive library, and got a Gamecube as well as stuff I had missed out on, Saturn, SMS, NES, Dreamcast.

I feel that I've pretty much seen all I want to see in terms of 8-bit so I might get rid of that stuff soonish. I had fun with my Saturn but I never really put heaps of money into it to get the rarer, less arcadey games, so I'm selling that. My Dreamcast and Gamecube are still going strong, though. I haven't moved on to the current gen systems because there's a few more cube games I want.

As for taste in games, I'm open to just about anything. At the end of last year, I left school, and became a lot happier, and I guess I realised that I often looked at video games as a pathetic escape from reality, which isn't so much the case any more and I think that has changed my tastes a bit. I do still enjoy a lot of the games I played as a child, though. My favourite game ever is probably Shenmue, because it has the most detailed and immersive game world I've ever experienced. The way I see it, it's hard for a video game environment to have as much detail as a real place, so if a game can make me want to explore it rather then explore around where I live, then it has a lot going for it.

A couple of other random favourites would be Super Mario World, Sonic Adventure, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker... yeah that'll do, but three games doesn't really reflect my tastes. :p If I hear about a really weird game I usually try and play it just to satisfy my curiosity (Like P.N.03 and Killer7, the latter being really awesome).

I also really like Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting, Street Fighter 3: 2nd Impact (Yeah, I was pretty into 2D fighters at one point, I was learning all the strategies and everything... but my two favourite fighters don't have much of a community on a global scale, let alone my city, so it was kind of boring learning to get good just to double perfect a few of my friends all the time).

... Well that was a lot longer then I expected it to be.
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Unread postby Sejez » 19 Aug 2008 18:19

Hello I am a Norwegian Finn (finnish citizen but I live in Norway)

My first game console was a when my parents got me a NES & Super Mario Bros 3 back when it was a new game (were 5 or 6). I played that game to death back then. I played most of the games that are considered classics by the public and quite a few underappriciated gems before I got my next console.

The next console I got was a Megadrive (known as Genesis ) that I got quite late in its lifecycle (I think it was about a year before the N64 arrived).And I had a unhealthy obsession with all things that had Sonic the Hedgehog in it for quite a time.

Then the first pc arrived in our household (about 1998 I think) and I was introduced to quality Fps and Rts games.

Then a GBC,some PCs and a NDSs later I have been trough games of most genres. I used to play a lot of JRPGs and even MMORPGs for a period too, not that I'm ashamed of it at all (the JRPGs were quite fun for some time, but I think the time I have spent on MMORPGs has been a complete waste of time).
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Unread postby CowHerd » 25 Aug 2008 23:08

Hi, I'm from England.

My earliest memory of videogames is sitting at the keyboard of an Acorn Electron, and playing 'Barbarian' against my older brother. I remember being thrilled (as a 5 year-old) by the hilariously over-powered move that allowed you to decapitate your opponent.

My family later got a BBC (my Dad was a teacher and got it from his school), followed by a SNES in the early '90s. Since then I've owned a Gameboy, Playstation, N64, Gameboy Advance, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Gamecube, DS, Xbox 360, Wii, and a couple of PCs.

Phew.

Some of my favourite games? UFO: Enemy Unknown, Civilization (II was the one I sank most time into), Tie Fighter, Secret of Mana (with three players), Advance Wars, Shenmue, Super Monkey Ball, Crackdown and Mario Galaxy.

But lists are boring and often misleading. I found this place through a recommendation on the 'Be Excellent to Each Other' forum, and enjoyed (even if I didn't always agree with) Alex Keirkegaard's articles in the 'Basics' section. His slightly arrogant but bold opinions remind me a little of Stuart Campbell, who I think has been one of the best games journalists of the past 20 years or so.

Anyhow, I generally lurk on forums (hence the witty pun of my username), but I thought I should at least sign up to register my approval of the site.

Cheers
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Unread postby Volteccer_Jack » 06 Sep 2008 18:05

Hey, native English speaker here.

My first memory is of a chocolate chip cookie. My second memory is of playing the first zone of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. So you can probably guess my favorite game. That's right, Super Metroid.

I had a Genesis and an Atari throughout my early childhood. Then came a PSX, and an obsession with 3D platformers.

Later on, I discovered emulation, and via some old-school games, rediscovered truly great gaming. It was Gradius III that really did it; the game beat me so bad I had no choice to respect that shit. Still can't beat the second stage consistently.

Lately I've been into Contra-esque stuff, in the aftermath of the release of Contra 4, the best game I've played in years.

I was led here when I stumbled upon your wonderful article on arcade culture and never continuing. As a bit of an armchair movie critic, I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover a video game writer who was, I guess the word would be "professional", about it.
"You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life." ~Winston Churchill
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Unread postby raphael » 07 Sep 2008 02:01

I am a native french speaker, so not really good with english.

Born in 1974.

The first videogames I saw and played were actually called electronic games. It's almost impossible to find the name of the first game I seriously played. I am not even sure it had a brand and a name. The first commonly known ones I played are Nintendo's Game & Watch; my number one beeing the dual screen Donkey Kong.

I was exposed to Colecovision (the first platformer I recall is "Smurf Rescue") and Atari 2600. But my first owned console was a Videopac (also known as Odyssey 2). The thing had not much merit, except it had a keyboard and a cartridge that permitted to try yourself at elementary programmation. Then I definitely needed a computer: at that time the ultimate videogame was programming.

My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 6128. It was good, and it lasted long. Thanks to it, I learned CP/M, Basic, pixel art and hexadecimal, I made a few crappy games, and had the privilege to play some great games. I must here name a few of them for they should be remembered.

- Elite (David Braben and Ian Bell)
- Head Over Heels (Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond)
- The Sentinel (Geoff Crammond)
- Boulder Dash
- Spindizzy
- some primitive fighting games (Way of the exploding fist, International Karate plus, Yie ar kung fu ... Well, yeah, they suck compared to later games in the genre, but they are part of videogame history)

I also played a bunch of arcade games. Some of my favorites at that time (in random order):
- R-type
- Space Harrier
- Out Run
- After Burner
- Ghost'n'Goblins
- Arkanoid
- Bombjack
- Ikari Warriors
- Renegade (western adaptation of Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun)
- Double Dragon
- Final Fight
- Slap Fight
- Operation Wolf
- Contra
- Tetris
- Street Fighter II The World Warrior
- S.T.U.N. Runner
- Hard Drivin
... too many of them after all. I'd better stop here.

Later on I got a PC and learned x86 assembler. Cracking was a great game then. I enjoyed commercial games too. From that era I have fond memories of:
- Doom (maybe my all-time favorite)
- Elite 2: Frontier (oops, maybe not)
- Descent
- Syndicate
- Civilisation
- Populous
- Ultima Underworld II
- Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix
- Tie Fighter
- Bomberman
- Battle Isle
- Dune
- Dune 2
- Stunts
- Alone in the Dark
- Space Hulk
- Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels
... and many more

My second console (after the antique Videopac) was a Playstation. I must mention:
- Wipeout 2097 (aka Wipeout XL)
- Tobal 2
- Silent Hill
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Metal Gear Solid
- Tenchu
- R-type delta
- PaRappa The Rapper
- Vib Ribbon
- Bushido Blade (totaly broken, but still ... )
Et caetera.

Later, I bought a PS2 and stopped playing on PC (except for Halo and Prey). From there on, I start playing less than before.

A few console games I liked till today:
- Deus Ex (PS2 port of the PC game, which I hadn't the opportunity to play)
- Space Channel Five Part 2
- Ikaruga
- P.N. 03
- Devil May Cry
- Klonoa 2
- Gradius V
- Project Zero 2: Crimsom Butterfly
- WRC II Extreme
- Soulcalibur II
- Zone Of The Enders 2 Anubis (too bad the scenario is so intrusive)
- Shinobi (PS2)
- Halo
- GTA III
- R-type Final

Finally, this all never turned me away from arcades. And I guess I played almost every real famous arcade game ever available in Europe (not like it's a big feat). There really are too many I'd like to mention. I just give up here.

My favorite arcade games today are definitely danmaku shooting games. I mostly play Cave, Raizing and Takumi. Battle Garegga, Mars Matrix, Ketsui and Pink Sweets... Oh yeah !

But my life really doesn't revolve around videogames. Most of my time is spent working in video and cinema or surfing snow and asphalt, if I am not practicing my Kung Fu.
Last edited by raphael on 10 May 2009 16:53, edited 11 times in total.
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Unread postby heavymetalme » 08 Sep 2008 15:58

Hi. I'm Kevin. I like STGs, platformers and 2D fighters. I usually post on Racketboy, but decided to venture elsewhere as well.
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Unread postby Cpt. Coin-op » 22 Sep 2008 18:26

Native English speaker from Houston, TX, USA.

I spent the first 11 years of my life devoted entirely to my NES--mostly the old Mario games, Contra, etc.--and moved on to getting an N64, PS2, all of that stuff. (The most recent acquisition is my little brother's Wii, which I told him to hold out on because it looked like it had a pretty spotty lineup, and of course he buys it for Brawl. Go figure.)

In all of my 19 years of playing games, I have stayed devoted to the NES and old (good) arcade games (most of which are your Metal Slug/Ikari Warriors/lightgun shooters/shmups fare). Unfortunately, both of my NES consoles (one was the old "box" kind, the other was that bizarrely shaped "new-type" console*) recently kicked the bucket, despite my best attempts to keep them in working condition. At least I managed to 1cc Contra sometime before they died.

As far as recent endeavors go, I'm playing Melty Blood: Act Cadenza (and nearby competition is FAR too difficult to come by; netplay isn't quite the same) and am desperately trying to improve at the Touhou series, which I was introduced to by a friend.

Run-and-guns are my standard fare (I have managed to 1cc Metal Slug 1, 3, 5, and 6), with RPGs coming in second. I'm trying to improve at fighting games, and I ashamedly suck at shmups (my best shmup is Sispri Gauntlet, if that gives anyone an idea).

EDIT: Fuck me; it was called the NES 2 (the top-loader deck), and looking back I'd have to say it was the best investment I ever made.
Last edited by Cpt. Coin-op on 17 Dec 2008 08:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Unread postby ViewtifulZFO » 24 Sep 2008 03:52

English speaker from New Hampshire, United States.

I've been playing video games for almost my entire life. I started watching NES games my brother played, but I really became enamored with them around the time of the SNES. There were SO many games I adored from that era and so many memories that I don't think I'll ever stop playing video games.

Of course, that does not stop me from being critical of games from that era (my glasses are not rose colored from nostalgia) but it still got me into video games in the first place. Secret of Mana, flawed as it is, holds a special place in my memory as quite a game, especially in cooperative play.

I recently became disillusioned with the status of modern games, and have ventured to find complicated, accessible games like Guilty Gear and bullet hell shooters. I just don't have the time for these excessively long, yet unrewarding experiences that require next to no skill to complete or compete. I want to feel like I accomplished something, and there's nothing quite like the thrill of making it through a bullet pattern successfully or destroying an opponent in a fighting game. Thanks to this site, I've discovered far more options and even imported a JP PS2 just to play all the Cave ports. I have no income at the moment, so that was the best option; I don't think I'm dedicated enough to go for PCBs, though; my grasp of technology is limited in that respect.

I generally like anything that is not sports related when it comes to video games, and I've basically tried all the genres out. I'd say fighters and shooters seem to be my favorites at the moment. I did play shooters incorrectly, but I've been attempting to play for score and failing horribly (but I suppose that's part of the fun). My tastes switch around rapidly, but I think fighters remain my favorite.
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Unread postby Duke of the Bump » 04 Oct 2008 02:42

Hi all. My first game console was the NES, although I first played games on the TI-99 and the TRS-80 Color Computer. I like every type of game except for sports and racing. I look forward to interacting with the most intelligent community of gamers online (you guys.)
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Unread postby Magnum Apex » 24 Oct 2008 01:03

Hello everyone,

I'll start off with the language prerequisite. While I was born in the United States of America, I grew up in Venezuela, so English is my second language. However, I've been living in the United States for seven years now, so you're welcome to berate my English if isn't up to par with your standards.

Now that I'm done with my introduction, let's move on to the topic of this thread. Prepare for a long journey, or to be put to sleep.


Carlos. Meet Videogame.

My first memory of playing a videogame was when I got the Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas at the age of 6 (or 5, as I'm not 100% sure). The console came with the videogame Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet. It should come as no surprise that I was mesmerized by the entertainment value of Mario's adventure, and as some say, "I've been hooked ever since."

Before the Super Nintendo Entertainment System came along, I would play numerous games on the NES that would shape my interests for years to come. I was a big fan of beat-em-up games like the Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, as well as River City Ransom, Ninja Gaiden and Shadow of the Ninja. While I also played the Nintendo Trinity of Zelda, Metroid and Mario games, it was only the plumber's platforming adventures that captured my interest for any significant amount of time. I also played many games on the system thanks to the joy of renting, back when I could only keep the game for a couple of days before returning it.


Enter Arcades and 2D Fighting

At some point during my NES-playing days, I discovered the immense joy of arcade gaming. Arcades were a Prolific Fountain of Fun, delivering all the entertainment of most of the games I played at home with ten times the visual quality. Graphics were very important to me back then. Anything that looked prettier would immediately catch my attention. Thankfully, one of those things was Street Fighter II.

Street Fighter IIi introduced me to the Wonderful World of Fighting Videogames. I became hugely addicted to SFII. I memorized every single character's entire moveset. Whenever I was sitting alone in front of my TV, I would pick "Versus," and practice every character's moves. I would press every button in the controller, and try every motion of the d-pad on every character, when standing, crouching and jumping. I would stand on my feet, and physically emulate each move as much as I could. Thus, I learned the immense joy of discovering new moves on my own. A joy the great Internet, and growing up, have taken away from me.

My love for arcade gaming continued incessantly until somewhere around the introduction of the PlayStation. Before then, just like with the Street Fighter series, a similar love grew towards the Mortal Kombat franchise. Memorizing every special move, fatality and friendship was a mission I was happy to accomplish. Other games I liked to play ranged from the excellent Capcom fighting games based on Marvel characters (starting with X-Men), to Street Fighter: The Movie (yes, an unappreciated gem) and Killer Instinct. The latter planted the seeds for my desire to "make" these videogames I was so into. Back then, my childish understanding of the medium involved using a computer to make "awesome looking characters" that have "all these awesome moves," and that I would go to Japan to make it happen. You know, because "only the Japanese make videogames."


16-bit Consoles

At the same time, I played many action-oriented games on the SNES, a system I find to be the best right alongside the PlayStation and PlayStation 2. From great arcade ports like Mortal Kombat II and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time to obscure games like Power Moves and Pit Fighter, the SNES stood as a great system to indulge my interests in action games. However, unlike several people I know, my SNES memories have nothing to do with RPGs outside of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. This fact may be due to my inability to speak the English language at the time, as understanding the language used in an RPG is crucial to enjoying the game. At some point after owning an SNES, my parents bought me a Sega Genesis. I didn't use the system as much as Nintendo's machine, but I did enjoy it for a multitude of titles, such as Aladdin, X-Men, Captain America and The Avengers, Golden Axe, Tiny Toon Adventures and the Sonic series. I played several other games on the system as well, but most of them at friends' houses.


PC Gaming - When it felt special

During that time I also got into PC gaming, although the order of what games I was introduced to first is fuzzy, so please bear with me. While I tried games like Sim City and Mario Is Missing, I quickly lost interest in those type of games. Instead, I found the immense joy of CDs packed with over "600 games." It was fascinating to transition away from the diskette. Looking back, they're very cheap games, but at the time the variety and unique titles packed in a single disk was impressive. This is where my love for adventure games grew. I discovered a series of games called Hugo's House of Horrors, and I was impressed by the ability to type in whatever I wanted and see if Hugo would react to it. I liked how, whenever I cursed, he'd get angry at me. At the time I only knew some English words, but thankfully that was all I needed to move along the story. Other notable adventure games I played were The Dig and Beavis and Butt-head in Virtual Stupidity, with several other budget-looking ones which names I forget. Thanks to the multiple-game CDs, I discovered several action games, from obscure titles to Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II. I also played random "games" like Spider-Man Cartoon Maker, which allowed the Player to create their own episode of the Spider-Man cartoon from the 90's by using a wealth of available art assets. I remember really liking it at the time.

Then I played Wolfestein 3-D, followed by Doom and Quake, and ending with the completely awesome Duke Nukem 3D. I won't get into the details here, as I'd probably sound like a broken record reciting how much those games meant to me, but let's just say the DN:3D was the highest point of my PC gaming hobby. I slowly started to drift away from PCs when Sony released the PlayStation, and with it opened my eyes to the potential of videogames as a medium that can stimulate a wide range of emotions on the Player.


The defining moment in My Videogame-Playing History

When the Sony PlayStation was announced, I was immediately interested in it. At the time I still had love for the arcades, and promises of console ports of some of my favorite arcade games of the time, such as Mortal Kombat 3 and WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game made me really want the new console. It also helped, I'm not ashamed to admit, that it was from Sony. I can't remember at what point the company got its claws on me. The event probably took place somewhere in between my parents having a big, cool Sony Trinity TV and my having a smaller, shitty Panasonic TV.

At any rate, back when "bits" meant "better" in terms of consoles, I wasn't persuaded by the 64-bit superpowers of the upcoming Nintendo 64. Yes, I wanted that too, but I wanted a PS more. The Sega Saturn was also interesting (any console was), but I still wanted a PS more. Then, on one Christmas, I finally got my wish. I was the proud owner a PlayStation, with the two games I mentioned earlier, as well as a PlayStation Picks disc, which included demos of Battle Arena Toshinden, Jumping Flash and Wipeout.

If you think this post is already long, you should see how far I can go by just talking about the Sony PlayStation. I won't go into that much detail, but if you've read this far, thank you. I won't go into excruciating depth about my reunion with RPGs thanks to the fantastic Final Fantasy VII, which introduced me and kept me as a fan of the genre (like many others); or about how Bushido Blade stripped fighting games to its essence to deliver the closest thing a videogame running on a 32-bit system can get to a simulation of sword fighting; or how comic-book-based videogames took their first major step with Neversoft's Spider-Man in providing a sense of "I AM the superhero;" or how Mega Man was brought back successfully in action/adventure/RPG hybrid form that still begs for a trilogy as Mega Man Legends 3.

However, I will talk a little more about Metal Gear Solid.

I won't make claims about its political views, or how many checks does it get right from the Correct Way To Tell A Story Checklist. Metal Gear Solid is not My Most Important Videogame because of its views or "mature" themes, but because the whole of everything it did resulted in a videogame that touched me, grabbed me, and made me care more than any other game I had ever played. With all my gaming experience in consoles, arcades and PC, I had never been more humbled than when I played MGS. I was fascinated by my ability to sneak around without being detected, knowing full well that while the game may encourage me to sneak, I am not forced to. I can be a silent assassin that snaps every soldier's neck on my path to Metal Gear, or the Rambo that shoots his way past everything, or the professional that doesn't kill unless he has to. These characters, talking to me in their 2D spires, are more alive and real than the millions of NPCs and heroes I've met in the past. The boss battles were intense and felt personal. I wasn't trying to get to the "next level." I was trying to beat the living shit out of psychopath that carelessly manipulated my companion into attacking me, violating her thoughts; I was a man fighting a battle of honor against someone that, at any other time, would've been a friend I greatly respected. I was man tortured with thirst for revenge. I was also many other things while playing MGS, but these statements aren't meant to make something out of nothing. I didn't sit back and try to sensationalize the effects of the game as I was playing. No, these were feelings that the game brought out of me that I did not expect, and feelings like these were ones that were felt again in most occasions from playing subsequent entries in the series. MGS opened my eyes to the potential of videogames as a strong inducer of emotion and deep thought. Videogames have the power to positively motivate people outside the realm of videogames, be it by emoting a hunger and thirst for knowledge, or a directive to improve one self in all possible directions.

But I digress. I'll try my best to wrap it up.


Videogames After Metal Gear Solid

I eventually purchased an N64 about a year after the system came out, and was treated to very few, but very memorable game experiences. Super Mario 64 was one of the few games that really made me stare at it and think, "Wow, I can't wait to find out how that plays like." The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time instantly became one of my favorite games ever, and the reason I ever cared about Zelda at all. Both Goldeneye and Perfect Dark brought back the excitement I had playing PC FPS games, along with an objective system that made shooting bad guys only part of the fun.

The next generation of consoles arrived, and with it, a brief exposure to an excellent arcade port of Marvel vs. Capcom, an enjoyable 3D Sonic game, Resident Evil: Code Veronica and one of my favorite games, Shenmue. However, with the incoming release of the PlayStation 2, my Dreamcast was all but forgotten. I got the PS2 shortly after launch, and SSX was addictive enough to keep me playing until Zone of the Enders, the excellent Final Fantasy X, Devil May Cry, Onimusha, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Grand Theft Auto III came out. The latter was the next big "wow" moment I rarely felt from videogames, as playing the game made me feel like Truman Burbank in The Truman Show. Someone must have been picking at my brain as I was growing up. They found what one videogame I'd like to see be made, and made it for me. One where the Player could "go anywhere" and "do anything" in a living, breathing, modern city. Shenmue gave me a taste of this dream of mine, but GTAIII gave me the fucking genie bottle.

I'm sorry. I was wrong. I'm fairly certain my text would be longer if I were to talk about the PS2 and all my game experiences on it. The system has too many games I really like, and too many games on it I still want to play. Okami was the evolution and revolution people tired of Zelda games needed. God of War brought out of me the same feeling of explosive masculinity and "machismo" that only a movie like Gladiator was able to replicate. Shadow of Destiny was a reminder that the adventure genre wasn't dead, and that it could continue to live on in consoles. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat: Deception successfully came out of the pits of dead franchises Tomb Raider had long fallen into, and succeeded in bringing it remade for the newest generation, something Street Fighter IV is just now doing. MGS3 took us back to an entirely different setting from other MGS games and forced us to use game-interrupting menus regularly, and still managed to be the Best Game On PlayStation 2. The End is the best boss battle ever. I should probably stop now.

Despite loving my PS2, I couldn't ignore the GameCube or Xbox. I got my GCN when Super Mario Sunshine came out, and was shocked at how little I cared for it when I started playing it. How, unlike every other major Mario platformer, this one didn't do anything short of amaze me? A disappointment by any significant measure. And while The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was a step up from the disappointing Majora's Mask (oh, yes), I began to realize Nintendo's time as the developer of genre-defining games was over. Thankfully, Retro Studios' Metroid Prime carried the torch, and became the game that made me care about Samus (I missed Super Metroid while growing up, but I played it later). Third parties stepped up with two different, amazing horror games with Eternal Darkness and Resident Evil 4. ED has yet to be surpassed as the ultimate horror game, although I haven't played Dead Space to confirm that. RE4 was more of an excellent action game with horror in it. Still, there wasn't much else to be impressed about from the GameCube.

The Xbox was the place to play online games, and also multiplatform titles. Beyond Good & Evil married several game-play systems from different games, yet its high concept felt entirely unique and endearing. Thank the Gods of Gaming (whoever they are) for green-lighting a sequel after abysmal sales of the original. The system was also home to Shenmue II, and it was fine by me since I've never gotten in the practice of importing games to get the original DC version from Japan. If Shadow of Destiny was a beacon of light in the dark room of console adventure games, Indigo Prophecy was the light at the end of the tunnel... as long as you ignore the latter parts of the game. I never became a fan of the Halo effect, but I was hugely addicted to the online multiplayer of 2 and 3. It always bothered me that game journalists and gamers put the campaign mode of Halo games on such a high pedestal (Halo 3's was great, though). Did everyone forget about Goldeneye or Perfect Dark? Not even Perfect Dark Zero was able to bring back what made GE and PD so fun. Anyway, if there's one Xbox game that grabbed me by the balls and made me his bitch, it was Ninja Gaiden (sorry, John Romero). It may be masochism that made me finish the entire game, and then finish it the next day a second time in just 14 hours because I had forgotten to register for the online tournament. Those were "good" times. NG, along with Jade Empire and KOTOR, are the best memories I have from Microsoft's first console.

Now I find myself in the new generation, still playing games as I have before, although now I do it for two reasons: Fun and research. As someone who has "made his dream come true" and "joined the industry," I find myself with little time to play games and pursue all other interests and responsibilities I have. I bought each one of the three systems at their respective launch dates, and I'm happy to say only my 360 had to be taken back for a brush up after two years of quality service. The PlayStation 3 is a workhorse, and the Wii rests a little too much in my living room.


Random Facts

I came here from Action Button Dot Net, although I'm not a regular visitor of that website. Someone else from a forum I visit, with glowing eyes, pointed us to abdn as the gospel of game reviews. Their articles posing as game reviews are interesting to read, even if many are flawed (don't get me started on the whole "Naomi can't cook eggs" bullshit).

When I came here though, I found some interesting articles that are quite different from the articles I read on games, be it from the consumer or professional media. I'm interested in exploring this site further, as well as some of the philosophical works that the webmaster seems to be so fond of, and see for myself if there's anything useful there that isn't pointless theory, something which many people outside the industry looking in seem to be full of: A bunch of information that is useless in making a game that actually needs to be shipped. Hopefully this time it will be different. After all, our industry is far from perfect, and there is much ground to explore. I'm happy to see people so passionate about gaming, that they're willing to expand the field in the best way they can, whatever that may be.

Of course, hardly all the knowledge I seek is for the purpose of game development, but I'm attracted to this site because it seems to attempt to break down videogames as we know them by the use of philosophical works, which interests me. I haven't read a lot on this site, so my assessment could be mistaken. I'll see.
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Magnum Apex
 
Joined: 21 Oct 2008 19:23
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Unread postby Gnarf » 21 Nov 2008 01:14

I suppose I should get around to mentioning that my mother language is not English, now that I've posted something.

So hello. I like to play games.

Growing up, I've played PC games mostly. Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, and random shareware games. Later I've been into RPGs and TBSes. And, uh, currently I'm playing DOOM. Also trying to get into arcade games, since I've been missing out on that (and since I'm more able to make sense of them after becoming aware of the 1CC rule).

That was vague.
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Joined: 27 Aug 2008 18:31

Unread postby rob dot » 23 Nov 2008 11:05

Not the other Rob around here, hence dot. I like reading opposing viewpoints and serious game reviews which is why I like insomnia.ac. I mainly don't like to replay video games except a few favorites such as any Takumi or Psikyo game. Recently I bought an XBOX 360 and became obsessed with Halo 3. I feel like new 2D shooters are dull and arena shooters are more exciting (first-person and flat view).
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Joined: 20 Nov 2008 11:06

Unread postby RolandDeschain » 24 Nov 2008 20:02

I've played a lot of games from the 16-bit era, a decent amount from the 32 and 64 bit eras, and relatively few from the 128 bit era. That's not because of any conscious choice or arrogance, but rather personal changing interests.

Nowadays, I mainly play 2D and 3D fighting games, 2D beat em' ups, vertical and horizontal shoot em' ups, and Castlevanias.

I used to play a lot of racing games back in the day, mostly of the realistic, simulator variety.
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Joined: 24 Nov 2008 18:50

Unread postby Chardo » 10 Dec 2008 07:32

Yo

First things first, English is not my mother language.

well then, I grew up in Chihuahua mexico, and I started with nes games, classic ones like contra and megaman.

for all my childhood I was just a casual gamer who just played games as a short time killer.

around the age of 13 I discovered the world of arcades when I saw a big group of 18-20 old years screaming and excited all over a Kof98 arcade, it was something I had never really seen and changed my point of view on games for all my life, I always thought videogames where just entertainment home machines that should be played alone for a kid like I was at that time.

so I started going to arcades alone (probably the first thing I started to do by going out of my house alone) and played Garou, Marvel vs Capcom, Metal slug and other games by myself, after some years I started getting more friends with similar tastes.

I ended up developing a taste for competitive games, I love games like starcraft, Blaz blue and Arcana hearts, mostly 2D fighters, I dont really like games like soul calibur.

Right now Im about 21, but Im currently studying programming to develop my own games, My dream is to create my own competitive battle system.

as crazy as that sounds, its pretty much the only thing I find myself doing since I lack talent and interest on any other kind of job. my few hobbies are: reading reviews and discussions on the internet, watching movies/anime and obviously, playing competitive games, preferably with real life people and not on the internet.
Greetings from Mexico
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Chardo
 
Joined: 10 Dec 2008 06:58
Location: Chihuahua, Chi. Mexico

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