You Had To Be There: Great Gaming Moments [LONGER THAN LONG CAT]
The Rev
gaming life?
SUPER MARIO 64
It's the late nineties. I've got a Playstation, with a few games that OPM said
were good. Destruction Derby 2, Die Hard Trilogy, Formula One. That sort of
thing. I've been playing games for years, off and on. I had a Spectrum, I had a
Gameboy which I swapped for a Master System with Sonic, I even had a SNES with
six games. I have a PC and I love Sam & Max and Doom and other games I've
forgotten about now. I like games. I like games a lot, but they're not a true love.
I walk into HMV in Maidstone. There's a demo Nintendo 64 there, running Mario
64. Nobody's playing, so I decide to have a quick go. You remember the first
level? There's a bit where there are some platforms rotating around, letting you
get up from the brown floor to the path near the Chain Chomp? At the exact
moment that I jump from the path on to one of those platforms I have some sort
of epiphany. It's like a light going on my head. No, it's like a light going off
in my heart.
Dixons do store credit, so I walk down, fill out some forms and leave with a
Nintendo 64 and Mario. And for the first time in my life I stay up until 1:30am
on a work night playing a game.
I think the receipt said it cost a little over £300. In the end it cost me
something like seven or eight hundred. The interest rate on the store credit was
extortionate and I completely forgot about it when I moved to the US. On coming
back to the UK I had a black mark on my credit record and bill for hundreds of
pounds that needed paying.
It was worth it.
DOOM
Early '94, playing co-op across the college network with a mate. See some
movement off in a corner of a large open area, instinctively fire a rocket.
However, it wasn't a monster moving, it was my mate. He's running across the
room at a ninety degree angle to path of the rocket. It seems impossible that
they'll meet, but he doesn't see the rocket and they reach the dead centre of
the room at exactly the same time. There's a big explosion and he crumples to
the floor. I hear a shout from down the corridor and start laughing.
There wasn't much co-op in our co-op match after that.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT #1
The trip to Booty Bay. The three of us - Undead Warlock, Undead Rogue and Tauren
Druid - were too low level to go to Booty Bay really, but we wanted parrots. So
after a couple of false starts trying to board ships with high-level Alliance
on, we find an empty ship at set off. We run off the ship and split up, looking
for the parrot seller. One bemused Alliance character who could have killed us
all without blinking either doesn't see us or doesn't care and we buy our
parrots. We get killed a few times trying to leave again - not helped by me
managing to fall into the water instead of getting on the ship a few times - and
I think we only get back to Horde territory by pure fluke in the end. But it was
worth it.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT #2
Some Spanish people are forming a raiding party. There's a couple of pretty high
level characters, but the bulk of us are in the teens and twenties, as I
remember. We start running, following our leader. We run through places I've
never seen before, through contested territory and into the Alliance homelands,
somehow not meeting any real resistance. (Some low-level Alliance try to take us
on alone, but they don't last more than a few seconds.) Still running we get
close to what seems to be a city or fortress, deep in a forest.
Coming over the brow of a hill we see a bridge over a small stream. The bridge
is full of Alliance, and from the looks of them they're high level. I'd never
seen anything like it. Some of our force continue to charge, others break off
and run. None of us live very long, except for the odd rogue. Resurrecting at
different times and in different places we run back to our own territory in ones
and twos, defeated but elated.
DRAGON QUEST VIII
My feelings before defeating the final boss, as recorded in my gaming diary:
"Six minutes. That's how long he took to kill me.
I barely scratched the bastard.
I don't think there's anything I can do about it, either. His attacks are too
powerful. If I play a purely defensive game without trying to hurt him I'd still
die. He just throws more damage around than I can deal with.
So I guess that's it. All this way and I'm not going to finish it. Sixty two
hours or so and that's it.
Really, what the fuck it the point of upping the difficulty so much at the end?
It's a long enough game as it is. It really, really doesn't need to stretch
itself out by getting you to level up for hours on end.
It's Vagrant Story all over again. An object lesson in how to ruin a great game.
Just make that last boss easier and I'd have had fond memories of a great game
with the odd annoying bit in. Now I'm just going remember it with annoyance.
Okay, okay, because it's been so long, I'll try it one more time. Maybe the game
will adjust the difficult or something now I've lost once..."
And then, later that evening:
"I did it!
I only went and bleedin' did it!
Thirty-nine minutes it took. All my skill, all my cunning. Items and abilities
and spells and attacks. Omniheal! Kerplunk! Sage's stone! Oomph! Kabuff!
I was magnificent.
Oh man, there's not many feelings like seeing that bastard (who looked a lot
like me, disturbingly) go down.
Ignore what I said earlier.
Best game ever!"
TOTAL ANNIHILATION
Start a LAN game against a colleague one lunchtime. It lasts a long time and the
pattern is the same. She attacks, I defend. Just as I've rebuilt my defenses,
she attacks again. This goes on until we're feeling guilty and knowing lunchtime
is very over. But surely she'll break me soon, then we can get back to work, but
I won't give up. I'll keep fighting. Then, a Krogoth. These are the uber units,
the death-spitting, heavily armoured stomping gods of death. It keeps coming and
doesn't stop, until, right in the centre of my base my last few units finally
bring it down. It's a punch-the-air moment, but I suspect my triumph will be
short-lived. There's no way I can rebuild this time, there's nothing left. So I
take my remaining forces - a few units and my commander - and walk it up to her
base. It's a suicide march, a defiant, glorious end...
I start getting suspicious when, according to the map, we're right near her base
and we've seen nothing. We get closer and closer and hardly see an enemy. Then
we're in her base, a few scattered buildings and her commander all on his own.
She'd not put any of her resources in defense at all, everything she'd had had
gone on offense. There's some factory trying to create a unit, but I destroy
it, then concentrate all my fire on her commander. He doesn't stand a chance and
against all my expectations the day is mine.
(We got rid of all the games off our work computers shortly after that.)
BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY
An arcade in Scheveningen, some time in the eighties. I'm in The Netherlands
visting my father and he's let me go to the arcade. I decide to play the Buck
Rogers game. I'm not sure why. It's some low-tech into-the-screen shooter, as I
remember. I don't remember what it was like to play, but at the end of the game
I'm asked to enter my initials. Being even worse at games then than I am now,
this is the first time this has ever happened to me. I enter my initials -
either OPA or OGA, I assume (having two middle names is a pain when it comes to
arcade games, though now I just use REV) - and feel a great surge of pride.
Okay, so I was only about twentieth on the table and I didn't realise then, as I
do now, that the scores probably reset overnight and that it was probably such a
rubbish game that I'm the only one to have played it all day, but it was a
great, great feeling.
It's also one game I've never, ever felt tempted to track down on MAME. I know
this is better left in memory.
DAY OF DEFEAT: SOURCE
I think my gaming diary says it all:
"I want this recorded.
I've had this game since it came out, what with buying Half-Life 2 over Steam,
but I'd not got around to playing it.
Chose a server at random (more or less, filtered it down to Euro servers that
had anti-cheat stuff enabled) and leapt in. Wasn't sure what was going on at
first, but I soon got into it after working out that Assault class characters
fit my style of play best. I even recaptured one of our flag point things that
the enemy had taken. I learned the best ways round the map for an Assault payer.
(Assault players have short range attacks that do a lot of damage. Up-close
fighters, suited to interiors. Nasty, brutish and short, basically.) When the
map finished, I was about half-way down my team's rankings. Fair enough.
Then we moved to a different map. I was a Nazi and started in a railway station.
This map (dod_surrender?) has three of the flag points and each team starts with
one each. The idea - as it is on all maps - is for one team to capture all
three. My team kicked arse. We won and won and won and won and kept on winning.
Not only were we winning, but I was the top player on my team. Yes, me. The one
who's rubbish at all games ever. I had more deaths than anyone else on my team,
I think. I had a fairly low kill count, though it wasn't embarrassingly low. But
the list is sorted by the number of flag captures and I was at the top.
Of course, being an Assault trooper I'd be expected to get more flag captures
than a defensive player. It's pretty much my job. But the point is, I was doing
it. And not doing it badly. And I wasn't the only player on my team who was on
the offensive side of things.
I was competent."
I never once started the game up again.
--
Xbox Live Gamertag: That Rev Chap
http://www.inverty.com
Chris Whitworth
> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember from
> your gaming life?
SHENMUE
So many moments. When you meet Nozomi in the park at night. You know what I
mean.
MAX PAYNE
There's a bit where you have to enter a building, and the first room you go
into is full of bad guys down a small flight of stairs. You kick down the door,
run in, activate the slow-mo thingy, jump and twist over, spraying the room
with bullets. By the time you hit the floor, all the bad guys are dead. I AM
SO FUCKING COOL.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
More recent. Spent a dedicated few evenings grinding and questing to get to
level 58 so I could go through the portal to the outworld. Finally made it,
wandered over to Shattrath and realised... why was I doing this? It felt more
like a /responsibility/ than something fun. I logged out, and haven't been
back since.
Sure there's more than that, but it'll do for now.
Chris
--
Gamertag: parm * BRING BACK BLUE SKY IN GAMES *
"Back when I was young, we had to travel back in time to put the tape in so
the game would load before we died."
Chris Stevens
news:55ncp0F...@mid.individual.net...
> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember from
your
> gaming life?
Taito World Cup '90 - The newest shiniest arcade football game when I was at
University, and I was the first of my circle of friends to beat it. All the
way through to the final game, the same basic tactic worked (diagonal cross
into the box from the right wing, volleyed back into the far corner), but
that last match just wouldn't have it. I seem to recall that the winning
goal (after dozens of attempts) came from a lofted ball straight down the
middle, with my striker *just* beating the goalkeeper to it to slide it into
the net. Words can barely describe how happy I was. I've since played it on
MAME, and was struck by how easy it actually is. I'm not letting this
detract from my lingering sense of glory, though. :)
Phantasy Star Online - I was relatively late to the party, but I'll never
forget the first online session I had with this. It wasn't so much the game
itself, which I can only remember vague details of (spent quite a lot of
time just in the lobby, did a couple of quests, someone gave me some money,
which to them was nothing, but for me was a fortune). What really affected
me was the whole online community side of it. I'd never really experienced
anything like it, and when I finally did go to bed that night (stupidly
late, with work looming), I just lay there marvelling at how playing online
with other real people, with their tendency towards unscripted and
unpredictable actions was so completely, utterly, *infinitely* better than
just playing on your own. I've been a devout online gamer ever since, and I
think it all goes back to this.
Amped 2 - I do so miss XSN competitions. The fierce competition that used to
develop as the deadlines approached was something to behold. The first one I
entered after this game 'clicked' for me was particularly memorable. Over
the course of the last day before the deadline, the high score and high
combo increased by a factor of 10, with the lead swapping endlessly between
two of us. I nicked it in the end for my first ever XSN win, and seeing the
XSN site switch over from 'current standings' to 'results' was a fine
moment.
Marble Blast Ultra - My most recent 'run around punching the air' gaming
moment was getting the final Easter Egg on this. Beating all the levels
under par was satisfying in itself, but finding all the eggs was something
else. However, it was the one egg that was the most easily visible that
turned out to be by far the hardest to get. Black Diamond, for those of you
who are unfamiliar with the game, is a huge downhill level, with an
assortment of sharp edges that can launch your marble way into the air.
Suspended way above the course, about halfway down was this particular egg.
Literally hundreds of attempts to launch myself at it had seen countless
near misses, but no real feeling that I was getting any closer to
understanding the best approach. Eventually I ricocheted off the lip before
the pyramids at just under full speed and saw that I had the height right,
but really wasn't confident that I'd reach it. Pushing the stick forward so
hard I was convinced it was going to snap off, I just clipped it on my way
down. Happy days.
Chris.
GT: SomethingWitty
Kendrick Kerwin Chua
The Rev <the_rev_y...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember from your
>gaming life?
Spoilers apply, of course:
* Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn)
The proverbial "fourth wall" is that invisible barrier through which an
audience views the show. Ordinarily the characters cannot see back through
it, and usually when they do it's by way of contrivance or humour. Never
has the fourth wall been so gracefully broken as in Panzer Dragoon Saga,
where the player of the game is also acknowledged as a character in the
game. Revealing that the protagonist Edge is still dead, and is being
animated only by the influence of the mysterious 'Divine Visitor' is a
wonderous moment that could only occur in a video game.
* Minotaur (Macintosh)
Before they were the FPS kings, Bungie was a quirky little independent
developer that made games in every genre. Minotaur was my first multi-
player LAN game, a dungeon romp where four players fought over treasure
and weapons enough only for one. Many nights were wasted and many
keyboards were broken, and in between all we ever said was "Just one more
game, just one more game."
* Phantasy Star Online (DC)
The first time I beat Dark Falz with three other players, it felt really
good. And for some strange reason, it never got old. It got expensive, but
it never got old.
-KKC, who had something to post about Shining Force III as well, but it's
not really a gaming memory.
--
-- ...Durante la batalla, espias rebeldes lograron robar - kendrick
los planos secretos del arma mas extrema del Imperio, - @io.com
la ESTRELLA DE LA MUERTE, una estacion espacial blindada -
con suficiente potencia para destruir un planeta entero. -
Zomoniac
> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember
> from your gaming life?
Pro Evolution Soccer 3 (PS2) - Goalscorer-stays-on multiplayer with a
few mates. At the start of one game we put the lens cap on for a laugh
so we could see a thing. The whistle went, then we heard a big cheer.
Took off the cap, to see a replay of me landing the ball in the top
corner from the half-way line, straight from the kick-off. I've never
once been able to do it before or since when I've actually been able to
see.
Powerstone (DC) - Playing a mate, he was absolutely destroying me. I
was down to about 5% health and hadn't even touched him. Then I landed
a punch, to which his response was "bollocks, there goes my perfect". I
don't ever remember feeling quite as smug as when I then proceeded to
win.
Geometry Wars: Evolved (360) - Going for the survived 250k achievement
(I'm rubbish, but it was hard for me), watching it start to get very,
very hard. I was playing in a pitch black room on a 96" HD screen with
a huge surround rig with massive sub booming out the tune, sitting on
the edge of my chair watching the score gradually creep up. Once it got
to about 230k, the adrenaline rush was fucking amazing, and I'm quite
sure it's the only time I've ever found myself gasping for breath
through sitting still playing a game. The sense of overwhelming
euphoria as it ticked over was mental.
Ico (PS2) - The last ten minutes.
Shenmue (DC) - The first time I opened a drawer, or flicked a
lightswitch, or picked up an orange, or played Hang-On, or met I
Nozomi, or when I fought Chai, or Gui Zang, or the 70-man fight, or the
chase after that tit from the travel agent, or the QTE in the bar, or
the QTE against Charlie, etc, etc, etc.
Shenmue 2 (DC) - Most of the third disc. OutRun, the chase with Dou
Niu, meeting Xiu Ying, the chase through the market, finding Zhu Yuan
Da, etc, etc, etc.
Yokohama (RL) - We got completely lost. So I followed my nose based on
much driving around in PGR2 to find I actually knew the city layout
perfectly.
A back street in Kyoto (RL) - We were lost trying to find our hotel, so
we stopped and asked an old Japanese woman who was walking towards us.
She said "I'm just passing there myself, follow me", and then turned
round and walked the other way very slowly whilst we followed a few
paces behind.
Lots of arcades in Tokyo (RL) - Going up to OutRun 2 cabs and saying
"OutRun. 1 game, 100 Yen. I should try it, once". That didn't get
annoying for everyone else.
Sonic Adventure (DC) - The first encounter with the whale, the first
snowboarding run, the first take of Speed Highway, the first trip down
the Lost World waterslide.
Going to a friend's house and playing MotoGP on his XBL beta for the
first time.
The first time I played Gran Turismo 3. It looked real. A similar
feeling came with playing REmake on GC for the first time.
The last 6 minutes of Halo.
Too many CM/FM moments to go through.
Finishing Sonic. The first game I ever completed.
A huge number of GoldenEye moments, mostly multiplayer. The SP ones I
recall most was the first time I shot someone in the leg and they
grabbed hold of it and hopped around, and zooming in on that island and
wasting many, many hours trying to find a way there.
Call Of Duty 2. So far I've only done the first level on veteran. But
standing back and watching the building come down after an hour of
killing really hard enemies was damn satisfying.
Super Mario 64 DS. It's 3D. Proper 3D. On a handheld.
Ridge Racers. It's a game. A proper, full-featured current-gen console
game. On a handheld.
That split second when it clicked, and Wind Waker went from "meh,
Zelda" to ZOMG or similar.
--
Zo
jochta
> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember
> from your gaming life?
>
Several but one that will always, always stick with me is....
SHENMUE
This was a life experience for me. Difficult to describe, but I lived
this game. I played it over the Christmas break at the time of release,
through my birthday. My real life became entwined in the virtual game.
The first time I had real people on a leaderboard that I wanted to beat.
Everything about this game is just perfect as far as I'm concerned. I
cannot see me having anything similar again ever. Interestingly I bought
and played only about 20 minutes of Shenmue 2, partly I think because it
was subtitled, I couldn't emphathise with the characters any more, they
were different without the dodgy English voice acting.
Others worthy of mention that come to me as I type...
DECAP ATTACK
Getting to the final final boss after hours and hours of play and with
about 20 lives only to lose them all and never beat him. I almost cried.
I never played the game again.
THE REVENGE OF SHINOBI
I was off sick from school, in bed with portable TV at the foot of the
bed, i played this all day. My Mum brought me Frosties with warm milk,
always a favourite 'off sick' breakfast. I always rememeber that.
BLUE MEANIES FROM OUTER SPACE
We'd bought a Vic20. I was about 11. This was the first 'proper' home
videogame I played other than Pong.
C&VG (and other type in games in magazines)
My sister and I would type in the games together. One would read, one
would type. We spent hours doing this, I learnt Basic programming and
then Machine Code through this activity. I still have the early issues
of C&VG from issue one.
Zomoniac
> The Rev wrote:
>> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember
>> from your gaming life?
>>
>
> Several but one that will always, always stick with me is....
>
> SHENMUE
>
> This was a life experience for me. Difficult to describe, but I lived
> this game. I played it over the Christmas break at the time of release,
> through my birthday. My real life became entwined in the virtual game.
> The first time I had real people on a leaderboard that I wanted to
> beat. Everything about this game is just perfect as far as I'm
> concerned. I cannot see me having anything similar again ever.
> Interestingly I bought and played only about 20 minutes of Shenmue 2,
> partly I think because it was subtitled, I couldn't emphathise with the
> characters any more, they were different without the dodgy English
> voice acting.
Why didn't you play Shenmue 2 on Xbox, which had the dodgy English
voice acting? It was recently added to the BC list, so no excuse now.
--
Zo
jochta
I've got it and again only played 20 minutes or so!! I have played it BC
on 360. I think the moment has passed, Shenmue was then not now...
Kendrick Kerwin Chua
jochta <dontb...@spamoff.com> wrote:
>Zomoniac wrote:
>>
>> Why didn't you play Shenmue 2 on Xbox, which had the dodgy English voice
>> acting? It was recently added to the BC list, so no excuse now.
>
>I've got it and again only played 20 minutes or so!! I have played it BC
>on 360. I think the moment has passed, Shenmue was then not now...
As big a fan as I am of Shenmue, I have to agree that it's been surpassed
as a game experience by a number of more recent titles. One would hope
that Sega is quietly maintaining the features of the FREE game engine so
that when the third game comes up, it's still relevant and enjoyable.
-KKC, doing fun things with the old Wizardry games.
Zomoniac
> In article <45f6a26d$0$6401$9a6e...@unlimited.newshosting.com>,
> jochta <dontb...@spamoff.com> wrote:
>> Zomoniac wrote:
>>>
>>> Why didn't you play Shenmue 2 on Xbox, which had the dodgy English
>>> voice acting? It was recently added to the BC list, so no excuse now.
>>
>> I've got it and again only played 20 minutes or so!! I have played it
>> BC on 360. I think the moment has passed, Shenmue was then not now...
>
> As big a fan as I am of Shenmue, I have to agree that it's been
> surpassed as a game experience by a number of more recent titles. One
> would hope that Sega is quietly maintaining the features of the FREE
> game engine so that when the third game comes up, it's still relevant
> and enjoyable.
As a complete experience, it still hasn't been matched. It has been
surpassed on every technical level, without a doubt. But no other game
since has managed to deliver a story and make you feel like you are
playing the role and genuinely connecting with people that Shenmue did.
The fact that it's no longer a technical marvel that is way ahead of
everything would certainly detract from people who've not played it
before, as that was a big part of its draw, but once you're in the
little world, that stops mattering, and I still don't believe there's a
world out there as convincing as Yokosuka.
--
Zo
Toby Newman
> SHENMUE
>
> This was a life experience for me. Difficult to describe, but I lived
> this game. I played it over the Christmas break at the time of release,
> through my birthday. My real life became entwined in the virtual game.
> The first time I had real people on a leaderboard that I wanted to beat.
> Everything about this game is just perfect as far as I'm concerned. I
> cannot see me having anything similar again ever. Interestingly I bought
> and played only about 20 minutes of Shenmue 2, partly I think because it
> was subtitled, I couldn't emphathise with the characters any more, they
> were different without the dodgy English voice acting.
Oh, man, you have to play Shenmue 2. It's incredible.
--
-Toby
250 Nintendo Stars for trade: Wii Play
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Add the word afiduluminag to the subject to circumvent my email filters.
Zomoniac
> On 2007-03-13, jochta <dontb...@spamoff.com> wrote:
>> SHENMUE
>>
>> This was a life experience for me. Difficult to describe, but I lived
>> this game. I played it over the Christmas break at the time of release,
>> through my birthday. My real life became entwined in the virtual game.
>> The first time I had real people on a leaderboard that I wanted to
>> beat. Everything about this game is just perfect as far as I'm
>> concerned. I cannot see me having anything similar again ever.
>> Interestingly I bought and played only about 20 minutes of Shenmue 2,
>> partly I think because it was subtitled, I couldn't emphathise with the
>> characters any more, they were different without the dodgy English
>> voice acting.
>
> Oh, man, you have to play Shenmue 2. It's incredible.
Except for the last five minutes, which is gay.
--
Zo
Kendrick Kerwin Chua
If you consider that Sega was fighting several battles, all on different
fronts, it's a wonder that Shenmue 2 got released at all. Spoiler alert...
One of the rules of cinematic presentation is that your hero must win some
kind of victory as your story ends. It may just be one minor victory in a
long struggle, as in the defeat of Chai at the end of the first Shenmue.
That Shenmue 2 ended with the mystical mirror lightshow was indeed
unsatisfying, and didn't fit in with the realistic setting of the rest of
the game.
Speaking as an editor? It might have made more sense to end the game with
the defeat of Dou Niu, and then present the interaction with Shenhua on
the mainland as a sort of optional epilogue, or a teaser for Shenmue 3.
Ending with the revelation of the mirrors isn't really improper, but it's
no way to wrap up an epic martial arts story.
-KKC, who gets his tax refund tomorrow, yay!
Chris Whitworth
SAM AND MAX: ABE LINCOLN MUST DIE
Two moments: The song-and-dance number by the secret service agents, and the
"watermelon" moment, which you may not have seen unless you explored all the
side-dialogue between Sam & Max:
Znk fnlf fbzrguvat vf vf frpbaq snzbhf ulcabgvfz bs nyy gvzr. Fnz nfxf jung vf
uvf svefg, gb juvpu Znk ercyvrf "Jngrezryba" naq Fnz pyhpxf yvxr n puvpxra.
Toby Newman
> gaming life?
DOOM
We never had consoles when I lived at home, and my home computer used to be
an Atari ST. The best 1st person game I'd ever seen was "Legends of
Valour" which only barely qualified for filing under real-time rather than
turn-based. (Screenshot: http://tinyurl.com/ywo58z )
My mum had an IBM Compatible 486-66 for office use and I'd played
around with it, mainly Lucasarts games, and thought I'd seen
everything it could do. One day, she hired a local computer whiz to come
and do some database work and he brought the Doom Shareware floppy with him.
After he'd gone, I snuck into the office and unpacked the floppy onto
the hard-disk.
There's not much more to add that goes beyond what I'm sure most of you
felt when you first saw Doom running. I had no idea that textured 3D
walls could move so smoothly. I had no idea a world could be represented
so realistically. I had no idea this technology was in the reach of the
average home user. Shortly after, I bought my own first IBM Comp PC. :)
Red Alert 2
Two friends came over and brought their PCs. We started a 3-way
Red-Alert match but, due to my cocky nature, I managed to piss them both
off and they formed an alliance against me. I remember, when they
allied, I had a huge hit of adrenaline as I decided on the spot that I
absolutely would force a win. I went into overdrive and played as fast
as I could with as much attention as I had, and set about the task.
About 6 hours later, the game was still running. My mum had come in to
watch over my shoulder. I had killed one opponent but the other was
proving to be a problem. We were both down to our last legs and,
following each battle, we'd in turn be left with a few infantry running
across the landscape looking for either a hiding place or a gift parcel
to make a new base. When I finally did win I knew that I'd just peaked
and would never play a game as well again in my life. :)
Toby Newman
Spoilers
> In article <55np2eF...@mid.individual.net>,
> Zomoniac <the_pro...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>On 2007-03-13 14:00:01 +0000, Toby Newman <goo...@asktoby.com> said:
>>
>>> Oh, man, you have to play Shenmue 2. It's incredible.
>>
>>Except for the last five minutes, which is gay.
>
> If you consider that Sega was fighting several battles, all on different
> fronts, it's a wonder that Shenmue 2 got released at all. Spoiler alert...
>
> One of the rules of cinematic presentation is that your hero must win some
> kind of victory as your story ends. It may just be one minor victory in a
> long struggle, as in the defeat of Chai at the end of the first Shenmue.
> That Shenmue 2 ended with the mystical mirror lightshow was indeed
> unsatisfying, and didn't fit in with the realistic setting of the rest of
> the game.
Spoilers
spoilersspoilers
spoilers
On the contrary, the mythical ending was all the more amazing given the
mundane realism of the game up until that point. It worked, in the same
way the intro to Half Life worked, when the world you had become
accustomed to, the world you were beginning to believe in, was suddenly
blown apart by a series of incredible events. The end of Shenmue 2 makes
me want Shenmue 3 more than anything.
Kendrick Kerwin Chua
Toby Newman <goo...@asktoby.com> wrote:
>
>Spoilers
>
>
>
>
>
>spoilersspoilers
>
>
>
>spoilers
>
>On the contrary, the mythical ending was all the more amazing given the
>mundane realism of the game up until that point. It worked, in the same
>way the intro to Half Life worked, when the world you had become
>accustomed to, the world you were beginning to believe in, was suddenly
>blown apart by a series of incredible events. The end of Shenmue 2 makes
>me want Shenmue 3 more than anything.
This is where you and I might differ. I want Shenmue 3 because I want to
catch up with Tom and Nozomi, both of whom are in North America somewhere.
I would love to see Vancouver, Los Angeles and Manhattan rendered in the
FREE engine. I imagined that the pursuit of Lan Di might take Ryo all over
the world, and so there was the remote possibility that he would learn a
wrestling move from a bepectacled Welshman standing among the sheep. :)
I'm also interested in seeing Ryo's quest for revenge evolve into
something more mature, or at least something with more shades of grey. The
realism of Shenmue is less in its setting and more in the relationships,
at least to me. Glowing, mystic MacGuffin objects do not detract from
this, but they don't add to the appeal either.
-KKC, doing fun fun paperwork.
RichGK
> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember from your
> gaming life?
>
Thief - The game was filled with tension but when I reached the level "The
Cathedral" it went through the roof. At one point didn't want to leave a
room because the sounds on the other side of the door were freaking me out
so much.
Adventure - Back in about 1977 a technician friend of my dads visited us
and he had a car full of electronic bits. He lugged them all in and
proceeded to put together a huge box and then plugged this into a TV he had
with him. When he'd finished messing about the screen just said 'Welcome to
Adventure' - that day I became a geek.
REZ - this came through the door the same day that my mate bought a load of
A grade skunk. Probably the most I have ever been into a game - although my
mate said the game made him feel sick :-)
MrDo (arcade) - When I finally finished screen 10 in a crappy arcade in
Skegness.
Star Force (arcade) - After an argument at college about Star Force I went
to a chippy with the other guy for a challenge. Against all my expectations
went about 400% further than I had ever done before and truly wiped the
floor with him (and then gratiously retired from amature star force
challenges).
World of Warcraft - When I first grouped up with a bunch of people I didn't
know and completed a few quests and generally had a good laugh with them.
Being my first ever mmorpg this was a revelation.
Quake 3 Arena - The first time I finished top of a DM game when playing a
bunch of people who I considered to be quite good. I pretty much stopped
playing after that.
Elite - Becoming Elite!
RichGK
> "The Rev" <the_rev_y...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:55ncp0F...@mid.individual.net...
>> [1 quoted line suppressed]
> your
>> [1 quoted line suppressed]
I had two moments with this game.
When I finally completed the last level under par (after something like 10
months of completing the rest of the levels under par) - thanks to your
advice too :-)
and getting the egg on Black Diamond, I was off work sick that day and
decided to spend it playing MBU. I spent 3 hours trying to get that egg.
Gunther Gloop
news:11zqf23l9bmqf.1...@40tude.net...
> Thief - The game was filled with tension but when I reached the level "The
> Cathedral" it went through the roof. At one point didn't want to leave a
> room because the sounds on the other side of the door were freaking me out
> so much.
>
I couldn't really recall any "moments" per se, until I read this. Then it
reminded me of Thief 3.
The game itself is average initially. After a while it becomes "very good" I
think, but towards the end, it turns _great_.
That haunted nursery near the end had me screaming as I slammed the ESC key
within seconds of playing every time. Shalebridge Manor or something like
that it's called. Damn I was creeped out by that.
I don't recall being so freaked by a game before or since -I'm sure there
have been scarey games since, but that was the last one I allowed myself
play.
Anything like that again would cause a drought in useable underwear in this
house.
> MrDo (arcade) - When I finally finished screen 10 in a crappy arcade in
> Skegness.
>
Again, another reminder!
...Myself and a mate used to regularly be first-in and last-out of a local
arcade in the early-mid eighties. Our day consisted of keeping the bottom of
the Mr. Do screen lined with 10p pieces. We never put in the money til the
Game Over screen came up for some reason -suspicion I suppose.
Bombjack was the other one. That lead me to actually _buy_ a Bombjack arcade
machine in the mid-90s... which I later took apart in order to use as a MAME
cabinet... which is a project that didn't go beyond that phase. One day!
(it wasn't an original Bomb Jack cabinet)
-Kevin.
neil h
> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember
> from your gaming life?
Aliens Vs Predator 2
Playing as a marine, near the start of the first level. You walk through
an abandoned base, lights flickering, hearing weird noises in the
distance. Seeing blood on the floor and looking up to see skinned
corpses dangling from the ceiling. The motion tracker starts bleeping,
something is out there, you fire a whole clip of ammunition in all
directions before realising that the motion is a chain blowing in the
breeze ....
GTA : San Andreas
It was the casino heist mission where you parachute from a rooftop. I
missed the place where you are supposed to land and ended up in a car
park, where I stole a crappy car and somehow managed to evade the cops
all the way to the airfield where I drove headfirst over a cliff to land
in the right place to finish the mission. "Running Down A Dream" was
playing on the radio. Pure class.
Dune 2
Finishing the final mission as the Atreides, after my base had been
nuked by the Emperor three times. I think I must have played for three
or four hours straight and my eyes were streaming from concentrating on
the screen.
--
neil h.
Google Brights
Resident Drunk
> your gaming life?
>
Location : Some taxi office in Shaw (a small suburb of Oldham) around 1983
when for the first time I went into the 'zone' playing a game - Asteroids. I
couldn't be killed, I was totally unaware of anything going on around me and
played over 2 hours off 1x10p. My highest score stood until the machine died
a couple of years later.
Tomb Raider : The T-Rex. WHATTHEFUCK!!!
SM64 : Getting to the roof of the castle.
Beyond Good and Evil : Finishing the game when I was on the point of giving
up gaming.
Doom : Why is it light outside? What happened to the night?
Megabowl Bury 93 or 94 : Playing Ridge Racer for the first time. This will
never be possible on a home console I thought. Unfortunately when I finally
got the game I waited until I had a wheel to start it, sat down to play it,
switched on the TV and the Dunblaine massacre had just happened. My daughter
had been born a few weeks earlier and this affected me so much that even now
RR games remind me of that horrible moment.
[ste parker]
> Star Force (arcade) - After an argument at college about Star Force I went
> to a chippy with the other guy for a challenge. Against all my expectations
> went about 400% further than I had ever done before and truly wiped the
> floor with him (and then gratiously retired from amature star force
> challenges).
>
A great shooter! Never could stop having just one more go.... Got it
on MAME now and I still think it's a fine game.
--
[ste]
hurricanepilot
<eld...@notformail.com> wrote:
>"The Rev" <the_rev_y...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:55ncp0F...@mid.individual.net...
>> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember from
>> your gaming life?
>>
>
>Location : Some taxi office in Shaw (a small suburb of Oldham) around 1983
>when for the first time I went into the 'zone' playing a game - Asteroids. I
>couldn't be killed, I was totally unaware of anything going on around me and
>played over 2 hours off 1x10p. My highest score stood until the machine died
>a couple of years later.
>
When I was about 10, I went on holiday with the folks to a french
capsite. The only thing that felt vaguely like the civilisation I was
used to was a Wonder Boy arcade cabinet in the cafe. I spent 2 weeks
throwing my dad's cash into the game and about two days before the end
of the holiday, I managed to "enter the zone" and finish the entire
game on a single credit. When I finished I noticed that there were
about 15 people watching. Ace.
The Rev
>
> When I was about 10, I went on holiday with the folks to a french
> capsite. The only thing that felt vaguely like the civilisation I was
> used to was a Wonder Boy arcade cabinet in the cafe. I spent 2 weeks
> throwing my dad's cash into the game and about two days before the end
> of the holiday, I managed to "enter the zone" and finish the entire
> game on a single credit. When I finished I noticed that there were
> about 15 people watching. Ace.
I had a somewhat similar experience. We went camping in France and there was a
Donkey Kong cabinet in the cafe. Trouble was, I spent my entire pocket money
allowance for the holiday there on the first night and got into all sorts of
trouble.
Toby Newman
I booted it up two weeks ago and was surprised how good it still looked.
I think this is because the graphics are very 'ordinary'; they don't use
any cheesy blooming features or exaggerated colours, so there's not much
to suffer from aging. It's really not stylised at all; it's just very
'normal' looking which works in its favour.
Alastair Foster
> Not games, gaming moments. What great single moments do you remember from your
> gaming life?
>
>
> It's the late nineties. I've got a Playstation, with a few games that OPM said
> were good. Destruction Derby 2, Die Hard Trilogy, Formula One. That sort of
> thing. I've been playing games for years, off and on. I had a Spectrum, I had a
> Gameboy which I swapped for a Master System with Sonic, I even had a SNES with
> six games. I have a PC and I love Sam & Max and Doom and other games I've
> forgotten about now. I like games. I like games a lot, but they're not a true love.
>
> I walk into HMV in Maidstone. There's a demo Nintendo 64 there, running Mario
> 64. Nobody's playing, so I decide to have a quick go. You remember the first
> level? There's a bit where there are some platforms rotating around, letting you
> get up from the brown floor to the path near the Chain Chomp? At the exact
> moment that I jump from the path on to one of those platforms I have some sort
> of epiphany. It's like a light going on my head. No, it's like a light going off
> in my heart.
>
> Dixons do store credit, so I walk down, fill out some forms and leave with a
> Nintendo 64 and Mario. And for the first time in my life I stay up until 1:30am
> on a work night playing a game.
>
> I think the receipt said it cost a little over £300. In the end it cost me
> something like seven or eight hundred. The interest rate on the store credit was
> extortionate and I completely forgot about it when I moved to the US. On coming
> back to the UK I had a black mark on my credit record and bill for hundreds of
> pounds that needed paying.
>
> It was worth it.
>
> DOOM
>
> Early '94, playing co-op across the college network with a mate. See some
> movement off in a corner of a large open area, instinctively fire a rocket.
>
> However, it wasn't a monster moving, it was my mate. He's running across the
> room at a ninety degree angle to path of the rocket. It seems impossible that
> they'll meet, but he doesn't see the rocket and they reach the dead centre of
> the room at exactly the same time. There's a big explosion and he crumples to
> the floor. I hear a shout from down the corridor and start laughing.
>
> There wasn't much co-op in our co-op match after that.
>
> WORLD OF WARCRAFT #1
>
> The trip to Booty Bay. The three of us - Undead Warlock, Undead Rogue and Tauren
> Druid - were too low level to go to Booty Bay really, but we wanted parrots. So
> after a couple of false starts trying to board ships with high-level Alliance
> on, we find an empty ship at set off. We run off the ship and split up, looking
> for the parrot seller. One bemused Alliance character who could have killed us
> all without blinking either doesn't see us or doesn't care and we buy our
> parrots. We get killed a few times trying to leave again - not helped by me
> managing to fall into the water instead of getting on the ship a few times - and
> I think we only get back to Horde territory by pure fluke in the end. But it was
> worth it.
>
> WORLD OF WARCRAFT #2
>
> Some Spanish people are forming a raiding party. There's a couple of pretty high
> level characters, but the bulk of us are in the teens and twenties, as I
> remember. We start running, following our leader. We run through places I've
> never seen before, through contested territory and into the Alliance homelands,
> somehow not meeting any real resistance. (Some low-level Alliance try to take us
> on alone, but they don't last more than a few seconds.) Still running we get
> close to what seems to be a city or fortress, deep in a forest.
>
> Coming over the brow of a hill we see a bridge over a small stream. The bridge
> is full of Alliance, and from the looks of them they're high level. I'd never
> seen anything like it. Some of our force continue to charge, others break off
> and run. None of us live very long, except for the odd rogue. Resurrecting at
> different times and in different places we run back to our own territory in ones
> and twos, defeated but elated.
>
I was there to witness both of these events... HOORAY!
I would also class them as 2 of my favourites. Long before the
bitterness of WoW hit me in the face xD I remember the Parrot RAGE we
were all like "OMG where do you get parrots from! I want one!!! Then
spending all our money on them and we were like woot! We have
parrots!" Then i realised i am a rogue and when i stealthed the parrot
revealed where i was x-O
The only one that i can really think of by myself is also WoW related:
Killing Nefarian!
For anyone that doesnt play WoW Nefarian is the final boss in the
Blackwing Lair instance. It used to be the hardest in the game (pre
TBC) but harder ones have been introduced since. Beating Blackwing
Lair is considered a huge moment for any guild, and we cleared it in
just over a week :-) I was literally screaming at the monitor "DIE YOU
BASTARD JUST FUCKING DIE!" in the final few percentage of his health.
I was so emotional pumping out as much damage as i could. Then the
bitch went down... the Teamspeak exploded with cheering and much
w00tage! I was crying. Literally crying. It was the first time a game
had made me cry. 40 of us has worked together as a team and beat
Nefarian down. It was the proudest moment in my WoW life. Loads of
guilds had done it before, it was just that i never even dreamed of
seeing him go down.
Of course we killed him easily the next week, and the week after, and
the week after that... Till it became a chore but that first time <3