The Random Thread of Random Randomness

Interesting in-depth look on the barriers that exist in games for those that rarely play them. I've pretty much played games ever since I was born

 

I started with computer gaming when I was 6 or so. My dad bought an Apple II+ computer and let us play with it. Yes, I'm old. Got an original NES when it came out though. Loved that.

 

Yep, me too. I don’t even know what type of Apple it was, but it had 5 1/2 inch (I think) floppy disk drive. We played the s**t out of that.

Remember “Duck Hunt” on the NES? I even remember getting the first Mario game...

 

Yup.

I remember one time I decided that I was going to max out the score to all 9's on the clay shooter mode. I practiced and worked at it for a while and got exceptionally good at it. Finally the moment arrived and I played level after level after level for god knows how much time. It turns out that the game does not max out at 9's but rather drops back down to 0 and continues again from there. Hahaha

 

I was very much a PC gamer growing up, with Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Age of Empires, some Jane's flight combat simulators (USNF97 and Longbow), and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 being my go-tos. Whilst I still have my Gameboy Advance (Christmas present from 2001) and original XBox (another Christmas present, 2004), I haven't played with them in years.

 

Yeeesh.... a bit anti-climatic.

Reminds me of the time I decided enough was enough and I sat down one Saturday morning to beat Sonic on the Megadrive (the first one... with no save points...)

Something like 7 hours later I ran out of lives on the flying fortress level (final one)...

The psychological scars were so deep, I never touched the game again...

 

That's a tough pill to swallow.

My greatest old school gaming achievement was beating Battletoads on the NES. To this day it is regarded as one of the hardest games of all time. In addition, back in the day there were no continues, no YouTube tutorials, etc. I remember that when I finally beat the game, I put it away and have not played it since!

 

I feel so old. Most of those games came out when I was in High School or College. I played Oregon Trail, Where in the (World/US/whatever) is Carmen Sandiego, and grew up with those old point-n-click puzzle games like Hero's Quest, King's Quest, and Maniac Mansion. Oh, and Ultima. I played Ultima 2 (didn't get Ultima 1 until I was in college, ironically), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and then got really annoyed with 8. Never played 9 until a year ago, and haven't gotten very far into that but I keep going back to 6 for some reason.

On the NES it was all the classics. Bubble Bobble was a favorite of my circle of friends since it was two-player. Tetris, Mario Bros 1 and 2, the original Dragon Quest (called Dragon Warrior back then). Oh, and the first Final Fantasy game ported to the US. I played Chrono Trigger on the SNES (bought that one the DAY it came out with money I'd been saving from babysitting and chores). Had an NES, SNES, PS1, and Gameboy. So. Many. Games.

 

Ahhhhhh....

So many fond memories of the SNES....

Super-Mario Kart and Legend of Zelda are the ones that spring to mind most.

 

There were so many ODD games back then, and so many that became classics. Secret of Mana, all sorts of weird RPG's... Paladin's Quest was one of the more unusual. Used your HP to cast spells, so if you used too many spells you'd kill yourself, and the houses looked like eggs... Oh, Breath of Fire II was awesome. Even on the PS1, so many cool games. Wild Arms was awesome, and I still have my copy of Brigandine. I really need to fix my PS2 so I can play those old games again...

 

Time to inject some randomness into the thread for @Scalenex ...

 

She's taking a blowtorch to a watermelon... if I didn't know better, I would ask what she put INSIDE the watermelon first. There's a couple of mixed drinks made using a similar method, all of which were banned at the college I attended because, well, they didn't want students lighting the dorms on fire. Go figure.