Fondest memories of your youth/childhood playing videogames

[hashiriya1]

Playing Keystone Kapers until dawn with my friends in the neighborhood. That is my earliest fond memory of gaming.

[Key-Glyph]

This thread's adorable!

1) My parents bought an NES for the family when I was four years old -- and a very young four, at that. My older brother and I both knew some big surprise was coming, but my dad decided to let me in on the mysterious secret ahead of time. He didn't unpack it, he just showed me the box and tried to describe what it would do, and so I have this fuzzy memory of our ensuing conversation and my subsequent feelings of utter befuddlement. I couldn't understand how a plastic rectangle could "make pictures," like my dad was telling me it could. And even if it could, how would I see them? There was no window in it!

2) Whenever I beat a game for the first time, I always wanted to share the ending with my mom. It meant a lot to me that we'd be experiencing the special celebratory sequence together, something which neither of us had seen before -- and something which I'd worked so hard to get! So when I finally finished Sonic 2, I ran into the kitchen yelling about how I did it, and that she had to come right now, I got to the ending, and I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to get there again! She was reluctant at first, probably because she was most likely in the middle of washing the dishes, making Thanksgiving dinner, balancing the checkbook, and troubleshooting our computer, all at the same time (she's that kind of busy, brilliant woman), but she let me lead her by the hand into the living room to sit and watch anyway. And we had a great time.

[TheRev]

I remember the first time I beat Mega Man 3 which was also the first time I ever beat a game. I had the Nintendo power issue (Metal Storm on the cover) with all the robot weaknesses inside and I toiled for a good hour in Dr Wily's castle My grandmother was there, parents Maybe some family friends I don't remember but when I beat it the whole family was there to witness what was then my greatest video game achievement. I forgot how old I was at the time maybe 10 or 11 my brother was around but my sister wasn't so I guess around that age.

There are also several home movies were have where you can clearly hear the Mega Man 2 Dr Wily 1 stage music in the background.

I never owned Zelda but alot of my best Childhood friends had Zelda 1 or Zelda 2 and I would play with them. I remember asking my befuddled dad at this girl Laura's house, my 1st grade crush what the Triforce is... of course my dad had no idea what it was.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Most of mine aren't very great, but one that has stuck with me...

I had been playing my new game, Gun, for about 2 hours. I was so pumped, it was great. Then my mom came home. (My dad had allowed me to buy the game because "Its a western, it can't be that bad!) She gave me a condescending look and I gave an awkward smile, then she shrugged and made dinner.

Something about that mometn was great.

[Blu]

1. 2-3 years old. Choplifter on Sega Master System. This was when my dad was in college. My mom would make my dad a lunch the night before. I would get up in the middle of the night, go downstairs and fire up some Choplifter. I'd also eat the good things out of my dad's lunch, like half of the sandwich and the Nutter Butter cookies. When I heard my dad's alarm clock go off, I'd scamper up the stairs, and dive back into bed. My dad, deprived of satisfying lunches, set two alarms one morning. I heard his alarm clock, but not the alarm on his watch that he set for 15 minutes prior. He heard my little pitter-patter up the stairs, and rushed into my room. He asked what on earth I was doing, to which I calmly woke up out of a fake sleep and fake yawn, and exclaimed, "Good Morning Dad!"

His story, not mine. He certainly loves telling it though. It'll be one I hope to experience when I have kids.

2. 3-4 years old. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade in Virginia Beach, VA. To this day, it might be the only game we collectively beat together, but Mom, Dad and I toppled the Foot Clan, Krang, and Shredder. I wonder how many quarters were fed into the machine that day.

[indecks]

(Metal Storm on the cover) .

I LOVE THAT ISSUE!! I remember when it came out, and I wanted the model they had on the cover so bad. It was awesome.

Mega Man 3 is also my favorite Mega Man game. Snakeman's stage music is my ringtone on my phone.

[Luke]

2-3 years old.

[TheRev]

I'm not seeing too many pictures in this thread...

Here are two (WARNING AWKWARDLY NERDY KID)

[ExedExes]

I remember back in NJ where I lived we had a community recreational center that would be open for the young people during the school year and over the various seasonal breaks they would have special "tournament" weeks over all the games and activities it had (pool, air hockey, etc.) and they had a nice basement arcade with all sorts of free classics from the 80s (Double Dragon, Gauntlet, Joust 2, etc.) and the game they were having a tournament on was Sega's classic Turbo from 1981.

I have been playing that game regularly during all my time there and getting all sorts of crazy good scores, making it to the 2nd and 3rd loops regularly. A loop was defined as passing 30 or more cars before time runs out. The first time you have unlimited collisions (almost like lives), but after that, you only get 2 and 1 additional for every loop cleared. We played 2 games each and totaled the scores. I got over 20,000 on my first game and got near 20K on the next. I won. The prize? A duffel bag, but it was useful for me back in the day. It solidified my arcade heritage at a very young age (15)

[sosoyo180]

My first system I got was a GBA SP, I got three games: Metroid Zero Mission, Advanced Wars 2 and some random disney skateboarding game. I was able to play Metroid and the skateboarding game, but, being six years old, I had no clue how to play Advanced Wars 2. My family and I were on a vacation in Florida and my dad and I devoted the entire trip to the learning of Advanced Wars 2. It's still one of my favourite games to date.