*reminisces* in no particular order:
Playing the shareware version of Wacky Wheels with school friends over direct dial and thinking it was so cool to be able to do. I was really impressed you could pause the game and bring up a text chat menu. Up to that point I'd only played word games like Strike A Match or such and hadn't had a computer or internet access for very long.
The frantic final five seconds or so in a round of ChuChu Rocket! when you're protecting a lead or trying to win, feeling almost like the outcome isn't in your control, holding your breath and hoping you don't get a kapu kapu... or lucking out and getting some much needed mice in your ship. Then erupting with glee and relief when your ship takes off (you've won) and feeling like your heart's going to burst through your chest it's beating so fast (maybe it's a good thing they turned the server off
)
Finally getting a Double Eagle in Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds on a completely fluky shot in an online game with pals. I was so happyyyyy. 300+ yard shot, from 15 yard elevation, driver in Full Power Shot mode, nailed it, watched it fly seemingly forever, hit the flag in the air and plopped into the hole. The funny part is I didn't know how Full Power Shot mode worked at the time. Regular power shot gives you 10 extra yards with clubs, Full Power Shot is a risk shot that can give up to 20-some yards power or even take away a few yards. And it's random. So yeah, lucky as hell! I'm glad my first one wasn't a glorified hole-in-one on the easy course or something
Playing through a full fantasy draft season of MLB 08 The Show and coming back to win down a few runs late in the seventh game of the World Series. Was playing on the hardest setting with all the gimmicky pitch-guess/zone-guess crap turned off and even then the game's too easy because the sluggers hit way too many homers --- so I drafted a team full of Asian players
so my team wouldn't hit a jillion homers. Still hit 50+ HRs with Hideki Matsui and his barely above average power rating. (I didn't like messing with gameplay sliders in sports games if I don't have to)
Back when my brother still lived at home prior to getting married he'd come home during lunch hour (I guess in the summer when I was on break from school) and we'd rush through a session of Konami International Track & Field for PS1. Good times.
The first month or so of Phantasy Star Online. Not only was the type of game and game itself fresh to me, I also posted on a Dreamcast message board and just about every regular on there bought the game. It was pretty awesome having 30+ forumites including a handful of good pals to go through the game with.
KB Toy Works near my house had a Lynx kiosk and I was impressed with California Games so I asked for a Lynx for Christmas '92. Went to EB to buy another game or two with my monies and the clerk said the system had been discontinued :'(. I may or may not have cried. Okay, I did... :'(. Mom took me to stores to find games and I found a copy of Rygar at a KB Toys for a buck
Seeing a ten-second commercial for WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game during an ad break on wrasslin
"WTF I MUST PLAY THIS"
And the most traumatic... My brother is more than ten years older than I am and he had a friend over. I was 6 or 7 playing him in Baseball Stars on NES, trailing him in the bottom of the ninth of a close game. I hit a ball to deep center, knowing it had enough distance to clear the wall and getting all fucking excited thinking I was about to win and finally beat him. Bro scales with wall with his center fielder to rob my homer and steal the game. Heartbreaking stuff, especially when I started crying and they were rubbing it in
And a silly one: Playing Arch Rivals for NES on my crappy old color TV... the black cheerleader's outfit was very close to her skin color as to be almost indistinguishable. Hmmmmmm.
Mom ended up with a bad cold 2 days later because she'd stood in the line in the cold so I could have a Wii. I see many others here can relate to the whole parents doing something great and unexpected for you thing too
Hell yeah, moms rule. I remember when mine rented me a SNES and SMW and Pilotwings from the video store. Just randomly when I got home from school one day it was set up and there
And christ, all the times she drove me to the mall to preorder Dreamcast games. Then another trip to pick them up.