Ha, I watched the video before reading your post and was thinking to myself "that's definitely from the ET school of design".
Cool snake effect though.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Games you had no idea what to do in as a kid
- Thread starter Phediuk
- Start date
Ha, I watched the video before reading your post and was thinking to myself "that's definitely from the ET school of design".
Cool snake effect though.
Lloyd Christmas
Banned
Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man for the C64
Ocarina of Time. My first game that wasn't linear level-based progression so it confused me.
Also, goes without saying:
Came in to post this.
Will add this to the list
BigDaddyFatSack
Banned
NameGenerated
Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
I did the same thing on the PC version of Simcity 2000. Just activate the debug menu and summon aliens and volcanoes and shit. Had no clue how to actually play the game.
...Scatter...
Banned
If you guys knew how to play this as kids then god bless you
Also, goes without saying:
This for me as well as the sand slide in Sonic and Knuckles Sandopolis, I woud always die after 9:59 minutes of confusion. Must have taken me months before I figured out what to do.
Pokemon crystal version.
I remember when you beat the flying-type gym you had to go south and then this lab guy would stop you and say there's was someone with glasses looking for me in the PoKé center. I was a kid, and I didn't know English so I thought I had to look for that guys (the lab guy) glasses and that they where on top of the roof or something like that.
I remember when you beat the flying-type gym you had to go south and then this lab guy would stop you and say there's was someone with glasses looking for me in the PoKé center. I was a kid, and I didn't know English so I thought I had to look for that guys (the lab guy) glasses and that they where on top of the roof or something like that.
panama chief
Member
this shit right here
Was going to post this. How many times Sonic died at 9:59 back when I was a kid.
neurosisxeno
Member
My god was that game terrible. I remember the surfing and skateboarding sections being nearly impossible. I remember as a kid A Link To The Past had a section where you had to go to the northeast corner of the map, stand in a specific spot, and change what world you were in to progress, but nothing anywhere in the game hinted at it so I spent like 4 hours running around looking for shit to do...
I had this game when I was a kid that was like top gun. The game was called turn and burn. When you finished a mission you had to go back and land perfectly.
That's how it's suppose to look like when you're about to land perfectly. Sadly I always did a nose dive straight to the ship.
SuperChoco
Member
Always got confused why the screen went black after a while when I was doing my own thing. Turns out there are objectives in the game that you have to fulfill. I just wanted to shoot things
.nintendork666
Member
Silent Service, the submarine simulator for the NES, left me completely baffled.
Jessie.Bristol
Member
The Rocketeer for NES.
EmptySpace
Banned
just.....ugh.
The Dutch Slayer
Member
Boy and his blob I had no idea what to do in it :O
gigantor21
Member
FUCK ME. My whole childhood, I was stonewalled by that shit, straight up! Good Lord.
Why!? WHY did you have to remind me of this!? D:
EmptySpace
Banned
FUCK ME. My whole childhood, I was stonewalled by that shit, straight up! Good Lord.
honestly, the down on my mega drive's d-pad wasn't working as a kid.
never got past this, and those things from sonic+knuckles mushroom level act 2 where in the last part you have to pull down to get to the boss fight.
Baraka in the White House
2-Terms of Kombat
Some old PC game where you played as something like a Descent ship only you had no weapons. You puttered around a giant derelict space station looking at I don't know what until the station's rogue security drone found and killed you.
terrisus
Member
just.....ugh.
But... It tells you exactly what to do...
Alright, some of them take a bit of working out (firing the rocket at the Kwik-E-Mart sign and such), but otherwise, it's not like it's that big an area with that much to do in it...
Also, it always baffles me to see so many people who got stuck on that moving drum in Sonic.
Yeah, I get it, it wasn't a game mechanic that was used anywhere else...
Still though, there are only so many things you can do, it seems people would have tried pressing up and down on it eventually even just randomly...
CharminUltra
Member
Temple of Doom - NES
Even Dragon Warrior 2 (my first JRPG ever) was easier for me to figure out, even though I couldn't read English at the time...
Even Dragon Warrior 2 (my first JRPG ever) was easier for me to figure out, even though I couldn't read English at the time...
EmptySpace
Banned
that rocket was such bullshit. sometimes it doesn't even hit the big sign for some reason.
NotMyUsername
Member
Even when quite young I was pretty good at picking up on bad controls and some abstract concepts as a kid, but I have two that came to mind.
Populous
As a kid I rented this at a friend's house telling him it'd be awesome. Can't remember if this was based off of neighbor kid's recommendation or good reviews in a magazine. Whatever the case without a manual it was simply impossible to really sort out. I think I made some progress by leveling land and having them build huts but in the end I just worked hard to create disasters and then gave up. I had zero real idea what I was meant to do.
Infiltrator
This one I was much older. Probably tried this when I was 18 or something. I didn't spend much time with it, perhaps a few minutes, but I made close to zero progress figuring out how to take off and move about successfully. Fairly certain I was able to get up in the air but would just crash without accomplishing anything. I didn't care enough at that point to figure out what I was doing because it seemed so terrible.
Edit: I'm glad to see Dezzy shares my early confusion with Populous.
Populous
As a kid I rented this at a friend's house telling him it'd be awesome. Can't remember if this was based off of neighbor kid's recommendation or good reviews in a magazine. Whatever the case without a manual it was simply impossible to really sort out. I think I made some progress by leveling land and having them build huts but in the end I just worked hard to create disasters and then gave up. I had zero real idea what I was meant to do.
Infiltrator
This one I was much older. Probably tried this when I was 18 or something. I didn't spend much time with it, perhaps a few minutes, but I made close to zero progress figuring out how to take off and move about successfully. Fairly certain I was able to get up in the air but would just crash without accomplishing anything. I didn't care enough at that point to figure out what I was doing because it seemed so terrible.
Edit: I'm glad to see Dezzy shares my early confusion with Populous.
MightyHedgehog
Member
I had no idea so many couldn't figure Raiders out. This is like the second thread I've read in as many weeks where this was revealed to me. Imagic's Riddle of the Sphinx made less sense to me at the time.
MrCunningham
Member
I really had no idea how to play this back in the day, because all I had was a loose cartridge and no instructions:
This as well. I never really knew what the main objective was, even though I still liked the FPS segments.
Classic home video from 1982 explaining how to play this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNsC_HIgkOs
Jurassic Park for the SNES. I'm fairly certain it was the first non-linear game I played. I loved it, but just ran around killing dinosaurs.
This as well. I never really knew what the main objective was, even though I still liked the FPS segments.
Atari Indy and ET were two of the most what is this I don't even I think I've ever played.
These were the only 3 screens I think I ever saw in Indiana Jones:
Classic home video from 1982 explaining how to play this game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNsC_HIgkOs
Superblatt
Member
Landing the jet is still a running joke with my dad 25 years later. I can do it pretty consistently but never got past level 2. One tough, TOUGH game.
King_Richard
Member
There was some Indiana Jones game in the late 90's/early 2000's for the PC, I just had the demo and I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do. I remember spending a good half hour just walking around the room trying to figure out how to get out of it.
EDIT
It was 1999's Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
and there's actually a video of someone playing the demo on YouTube.
EDIT
It was 1999's Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
and there's actually a video of someone playing the demo on YouTube.
MaximumSpider
Banned
This
and this
Got my butt kicked a lot in both games when I was a kid.
and this
Got my butt kicked a lot in both games when I was a kid.
Silent Service, the submarine simulator for the NES, left me completely baffled.
Oh shit, that is a good one. I totally rented that and had NO idea what I was doing.
Senor Kami
Banned
I was too young to really get what this game was about. I'd probably like it now though.
Also, goes without saying:
I guess it's the difference between being in like 5th grade when that came out vs a really little kid. You just oscillate between up and down on it if memory serves correct.
I remember renting that game as a kid because the cover art looked so bad-ass. I don't think I ever made it past the first screen. And you couldn't save! In an RPG!
just.....ugh.
I loved that game, but what version is this? Those graphics look weird.
Winterfang
Banned
This Dreamcast game,that was anime and turn based. You are supposed to infiltrate in places and steal shit. Never made it past the second level.