harrisk954
Member
So, I was recently talking to my younger brother about how much video games have changed over the years. I have been playing video games since the 70s and my first home console was actually a Tandy knockoff of the Odyssey (for you young ones, it was tennis, soccer and squash, all in one -- Basically PONG). I remember seeing Donkey Kong for the first time in an arcade and I thought to myself, "Holy crap! That looks like a cartoon!". I grew up spending hundreds of hours in the arcade during the "golden age" in the 1980s and then moved onto consoles and some PC gaming sprinkled in for good measure...
I am 49 years old still play games almost every day (usually late night after the wife and kids are asleep). I am a litigation attorney and a partner at a big Florida law firm and I work pretty darn hard all day. Video games are my release at night... My wife teases me, but I love it.
So, anyway, as I was talking to my brother, I came to the conclusion that the reason that I still play games is that I love the technology. I love the way games have evolved. I look at MLB: The Show on PS4 and I think, "wow... the 12-year old version of me could never have envisioned what this would become as I played Atari "Real Sports" Baseball on my 2600" And, every year, as video games continue to evolve, I think to myself, how can it get any better?! Going from text-based games to the graphical powerhouses today, I am constantly floored.
I have either owned or had access to most of the major gaming consoles over the years... The funny thing is that my memories of certain consoles are not necessarily of playing the "BIG" games or the most "RECOGNIZABLE" games or even my "FAVORITE" games that you see on most lists. Some are, but as I thought about it, most are not. So, I made a list of each console that I have ever played a game on (and even threw in some arcade and computer memories) and then wrote down the first thing that came to mind in regard to what I remembered playing - Not always my favorite games from those systems, but the ones that elicited that emotional feeling and popped into my head first. Here is my list... what about your memories? What elicits that emotional feeling in you when you think about a games system and what you played on it? Just like music can bring you back to a certain moment in your life, so can games... What say you all?
Home Console:
Atari 2600 - Megamania (gotta shoot the falling hamburgers, bow ties and irons!)
Atari 5200 - Congo Bongo (anyone else remember this one? Actually, did anyone else have a 5200?)
Colecovision - Donkey Kong (just like the arcade - at least in my memory!)
Intellivision - Football (my buddy had one and we spent hours playing football! Yes, it was "Football")
Sega Genesis - Madden (don't even remember which year's version)
NES - Mario Bros. (loved flipping those turtles upside down!)
Playstation - NBA Live (I spent hours and hours getting my ass handed to my by my buddy)
Playstation 2 - Metal Gear Solid 2 (I bought the system for Resident Evil, but this is my clearest memory from the PS1)
XBox - Splinter Cell (graphically blew me away)
Playstation 3 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (I had never "played a movie" like this before! Game play aside, the writing.. oh my god, the writing!)
Playstation 4 - Bloodborne (the first game I think of so early in this generation)
Arcade Coin-Ops
Arcade (1970s) - Galaxian (was looking for Space Invaders with my Dad and found this instead!)
Arcade (1980s) - Star Wars (the one the sit down cabinet and vector graphics)
Computer Games
1970s - Zork (all text-based... needed a pencil and paper to map it out as I played)
1980s - Ultima (on the Apple IIe)
1990s - Age of Empires (when I fell in love with RTSs)
2000s - Links Golf (seemed so realistic at the time! I think it still holds up!)
I am 49 years old still play games almost every day (usually late night after the wife and kids are asleep). I am a litigation attorney and a partner at a big Florida law firm and I work pretty darn hard all day. Video games are my release at night... My wife teases me, but I love it.
So, anyway, as I was talking to my brother, I came to the conclusion that the reason that I still play games is that I love the technology. I love the way games have evolved. I look at MLB: The Show on PS4 and I think, "wow... the 12-year old version of me could never have envisioned what this would become as I played Atari "Real Sports" Baseball on my 2600" And, every year, as video games continue to evolve, I think to myself, how can it get any better?! Going from text-based games to the graphical powerhouses today, I am constantly floored.
I have either owned or had access to most of the major gaming consoles over the years... The funny thing is that my memories of certain consoles are not necessarily of playing the "BIG" games or the most "RECOGNIZABLE" games or even my "FAVORITE" games that you see on most lists. Some are, but as I thought about it, most are not. So, I made a list of each console that I have ever played a game on (and even threw in some arcade and computer memories) and then wrote down the first thing that came to mind in regard to what I remembered playing - Not always my favorite games from those systems, but the ones that elicited that emotional feeling and popped into my head first. Here is my list... what about your memories? What elicits that emotional feeling in you when you think about a games system and what you played on it? Just like music can bring you back to a certain moment in your life, so can games... What say you all?
Home Console:
Atari 2600 - Megamania (gotta shoot the falling hamburgers, bow ties and irons!)
Atari 5200 - Congo Bongo (anyone else remember this one? Actually, did anyone else have a 5200?)
Colecovision - Donkey Kong (just like the arcade - at least in my memory!)
Intellivision - Football (my buddy had one and we spent hours playing football! Yes, it was "Football")
Sega Genesis - Madden (don't even remember which year's version)
NES - Mario Bros. (loved flipping those turtles upside down!)
Playstation - NBA Live (I spent hours and hours getting my ass handed to my by my buddy)
Playstation 2 - Metal Gear Solid 2 (I bought the system for Resident Evil, but this is my clearest memory from the PS1)
XBox - Splinter Cell (graphically blew me away)
Playstation 3 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (I had never "played a movie" like this before! Game play aside, the writing.. oh my god, the writing!)
Playstation 4 - Bloodborne (the first game I think of so early in this generation)
Arcade Coin-Ops
Arcade (1970s) - Galaxian (was looking for Space Invaders with my Dad and found this instead!)
Arcade (1980s) - Star Wars (the one the sit down cabinet and vector graphics)
Computer Games
1970s - Zork (all text-based... needed a pencil and paper to map it out as I played)
1980s - Ultima (on the Apple IIe)
1990s - Age of Empires (when I fell in love with RTSs)
2000s - Links Golf (seemed so realistic at the time! I think it still holds up!)
)
