Your childhood games / memories

[pierrot]

I just checked their website, and it looks like they’re in New Hampshire. I must have misremembered, lol.

No sweat. I'm somewhat 'from' NH, and it's an often forgotten state that tries desperately to cling to whatever national relevance it can, like its "first in the nation" status. (Especially now that the Old Man of the Mountain committed self-disintegration.)

Also, hears a funny story: when I saw a Crazy Taxi arcade machine there, I thought, "crazy taxi PPPPFFF!!!! that game sounds dumb" A few years later, I got a Dreamcast with Crazy Taxi, which ended up being one of my favorite games of all time

wish i played that machine

Crazy Taxi is a very fun game. I don't recall seeing the Crazy Taxi cab(inet) at Fun Spot, but I've regularly found new (to me) stuff there on return visits, so I could have very well just never really noticed it.

A long time ago, when I lived in Tokyo, I found a stand-up cab for Crazy Taxi on the first floor of a Sega arcade in Shibuya. I never really find it comfortable to play driving games with a wheel and a gear shift (even if it's just drive and reverse) while standing up, so it was not my favorite experience ever, but still cool to take for a spin.

[ElkinFencer10]

I think my favorite childhood memory was the first time I saw a Nintendo 64. I grew up poor, so I usually didn't get a console until three years or so into its lifespan. The first time I saw Goldeneye on N64, I was at my mom's coworker's house (they were having some kind of party, idk I was like eight years old), and her son had an N64 and Goldeneye, and I was watching him play. I remember thinking "Oh my god, this look exactly like real life. Video game graphics will never get more realistic than this." And now, of course, N64 and PS1 graphics get made fun of in memes relentlessly for being so damn blocky.

[sevin0seven]

One childhood memory that comes to mind, I was visiting this mansion who made a business on the pay to play with the NES (back in the late 80s, Asia). He had multiple NES lineup (probably around 5 or 6) and you can select any cartridges available inside a cabinet and you pay for 30 to 1 hour to play the console (I live in a city where the NES console is too expensive to own). One time, I was watching an adult play Super Mario Bros and I remember he was having a hard time. I was giving him tips (for example, he had to jump to kill the goombas, and hold B to run). Another adult told me I should not teach him how to play since his older and I was just a kid.

[RobertAugustdeMeijer]

For those wanting a tomb full of detailed and fun memories, check out 'The Games of a Liftime', by Jaz Rignall.
He was the editor for games magazines in Britain in the 80's and 90's.

https://www.bitmapbooks.com/pages/games-of-a-lifetime

[Gucci]

I got a good one that I get reminded often since I still live in the area and whatnot.

Where I live, we have one main road that basically goes through the entire town. Most of it is highly commercialized with strip malls dotted in a few spots.

Anyway, on October 15, 2000, Pokémon Gold and Silver was released. I was 11 at the time. We only had one car and my dad took it to work. So my mom and I had to walk everywhere. We took the long walk from my house, with my kiwi green GBC, to Toys’r’Us. I ran to the gaming section and saw nothing was there in the aisle. I wanted to get a ticket to bring it to the front counter. I was about to cry.

On the way out, one of the cashiers stopped me and my mom and said that the Pokémon GS games were kept at the registers since it was a big release. I was incredibly happy, got my copy of Gold, and ran out the door. On the way back, I was playing the game as we walked, and I remembered we stopped at a produce store at the halfway point.

The rest of that day I don’t remember. It was 25 years ago. I remember we had one of those little folding shopping carts my mom used to walk around with for food shopping. I remember we left early in the morning. I think it was overcast maybe raining. I don’t remember if it was sunny out. It’s a memory I will always remember about me and my mom.

Since then, the shopping plaza where the Toys’r’Us was leveled and rebuilt. The aforementioned store, along with KMart and the grocery chain Pathmark, are long gone (I mentioned those two stores because there were other stores that we visited during our walks). The produce store is closing up shop in a couple of days after decades of business.

Things come and go but certain memories, good memories, tend to linger. Anyway that’s my memory.