Games you grew up with

As in something you have a nostalgic attachment to. Here is a few of mine (all of mine are for PC so it's before I used an emulator):

• All these puzzle games (like Ant Run for instance)
• Chex Quest
• Commander Keen
• Duke Nukem 1 & 2
• All these early Epic games (Jazz Jackrabbit, Jill Of The Jungle, etc.)
• Terminal Velocity

And that's about all I could get off the top of my head right now.

Anyone else?

Pokemon. What? I played Gen 1 on my Game Boy Color when I was about 3.

Companies I grew up with are Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Game Freak and EA/Maxis (Sims 1 FTW)

edited 12th Oct '10 8:10:40 AM by ACrackInTime

Deus Ex. I reinstalled it like 5 times on different computers to play it over the last 10 years. (Though usually to play mods that take years to be made). Most recently last year.

Also any of the Humongous Entertainment games. Sigh...

edited 10th Oct '10 11:51:18 AM by Exploder

The first game I beat was Super Mario Bros 2—I was four or five? I probably spent the most time playing Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart.

Super Mario World was the first game I've played.

I learned some written Japanese as a kid with one of the early Dragon Quest games. Words like Hoimi and Mera...

I didn't actually get a system until I was about 14, so most of the games I played in early youth were whatever my friends had (mostly Mega Man and Mario), and whatever I could play at the local arcade (Killer Instinct and Street Fighter Alpha).

It's weird to look back at my gaming roots, because now I play almost exclusively RP Gs. I was something like 17 before I got to play FFVI, and it was kind of a revelation. Makes me wonder what would've happened if my first game had been, say Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, rather than SMB 2.

I don't remember a lot of the games I had on the NES and SNES, but I think they included a few Mario games.

For Genesis, I remember having Sonic 1, 2, and 3 & Knuckles. There were two other games on the system that I forgot the name of, but I can remember some things about them.

For the N64, I had Mario 64 (of course), Mario Kart, Star Fox 64, Super Smash Bros, Glover, Mario Party 1-3, and some others. Unlike the other systems, I still have it, along with several games.

Oh, me? I was a DOS gamer. Heck, I didn't play anything written for any version of Windows past 3.1 until the end of 1999.

If I try and list everything I grew up with, it'll look like a catalogue listing of games published by Apogee, ID and Epic. Suffice it to say, I tried pretty-much everything they published for DOS and Windows 3.1

Among the few games not from those three publishers:

• Space Quest
• Doctor Brain
• Descent
• Warcraft II
• Under A Killing Moon (yes, it runs on a 486DX/33 with 8MB of memory)
• Lemmings
• Worms
• Captain Comic (damn, that game is hard)
• Sim City 2000
• Hexxagon (okay, it's a board game, but at least it's not Solitaire)
• Scorched Earth

That's my list of games I grew up with which were not published by Apogee, ID or Epic. The list would be much longer if I included them.

Not so much games, but certainly companies. Naughty Dog and Insomniac. They are the reason I love platformers to this day, with the fantastic fun of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon for the Playstation 1, then Ratchet And Clank and Jak And Daxter for the Playstation 2. It's a real shame seeing how far the former two have fallen after being taken from their true parents.

Lots of Game Boy stuff. The Donkey Kong Land games, Kirby (oh yes, Kirby), and lots of other stuff.

Bugs life, spider man, and crash bandicoot 3 on the PS 1. Sonic 3 and Knuckles on the PC.

First game I ever played was probably Duck Hunt. First game I ever beat on my own and 100%ed was Kirby's Adventure. First RPG was either Pokemon Red or Quest 64. Grew up with a Genesis, loved what little life the poor old Dreamcast had, and wound up a Nintenerd with the assistance of the N64 and Gamecube.

Was also heavily slanted to giving weird, experimental games a chance by the Ecco the Dolphin series and to a lesser extent by Hey You Pikachu in early adolescence. Later still, I became an avid portable gamer since I could get those games without my crazy stepmom finding out.

SNES games, mainly. The Soul Blazer Trilogy, the first few Final Fantasy VI, V and VI, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario World, and so on.

The nice thing about portable games is indeed that they're cheap. Why, with enough birthday money, you could maybe get *gasp* two of them!

Oh yes, I've also grown up with a few simulations as well:

Caesar II and those early Maxis games, especially Sim City 2000. Age Of Empires was close, but I didn't pick it up until I think 2001.

Mostly Pokemon. Maybe the Genesis Sonic games too.

I was raised on Super Mario World. And the first Donkey Kong Country, to a lesser extent.

First game I ever played was the PS 1 adaption of Hercules back in...98? 99? Something around that. Back when I had no clue what a Playstation was, or how it worked. I've also got a special attachment to Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, thanks to the memories I have of it being one of the oldest games in my memory.

Other than that, Kingdom Hearts 1 for the Playstation 2, which was the sole reason I got a PS 2 and began a metamorphosis into a Sony fanboy which lasted roughly 8 years. There's also Ratchet and Clank, thanks to the extreme WANT I had for the first game, and Ratchet and Clank 3 is still one of my favourites, even though I haven't played it in ages. Last but not least, Crash Bandicoot. Anything by Naughty Dog was wonderful (and still is. I <3 you, Uncharted). Anything past Naughty was...ok. Crash Twinsanity was pretty good, and the racing segments of Tag Team Racing were good, but the Crash sections were so boring (and they gave Nina a VOICE) that I knew it was basically the end. And then they brought out the 'Mutant' series, and I knew the end had arrived.

I've also got some vague memories of FFVIII and FFX, which I played (surprise surprise) thanks to Kingdom Hearts. Namely, getting my ass kicked by Elvoret and Sinspawn Echuilles, respectively.

edited 11th Oct '10 9:59:03 PM by Legionnaire

Reminds me of the good old days with Creatures...

Indeed, portable games are useful for their cheapness, but what drew me so much to them was their hideability from someone who doesn't game much. Kinda hard to hide when you've got a new console game...

Anyway, love for strange and/or Needs More Love games was continued on the Dreamcast with Skies Of Arcadia, along with Seventh Cross Evolution which I bet no one here has heard of.

ETA: I Knew It!, it's even redlinked!

edited 11th Oct '10 10:49:41 PM by SparkyLurkdragon

I recall, when I was around seven or so, sitting down to play some Diablo II as a sorceress occasionally.

First game I was really into was Neverwinter Nights, though. I played that game and its expansions so much... loved it to death. Should play it some more, but first chapters are absolute drudgery.

When I was younger than that, though, what I really enjoyed was sitting next to my dad and watching him play either the above two games or Knights Of The Old Republic.

Oh, to be young(er) again and not know what the hell the Moonstone Mask is.

edited 11th Oct '10 11:01:04 PM by Kadael

I grew up with a few games, such as Super Mario 64 and one of the first Zelda Titles which came on the collectors edition disk they first released with the gamecube (the one that came with the 30 minute Wind Waker demo, anyone else remember that?) but the games i really grew up with were Sly 2 and 3. I loved the stealth aspects of that series, and it's not a surprise that years later i would find a love in the Assassins Creed series. Its also kind of ironic how i never played the first game for either of those series...

I'm a Chess native. I like Go, but no matter how much I try it's always been a foreign country.

Some more shareware games I grew up with:

• Hoosier City
• Hugo's House of Horrors
• That one King Arthur conquest simulator from the same company as Hoosier City, but I forgot the name.

In fact, a few of those Let's Plays with Pushing Up Roses made me remember some of the games of my childhood.

edited 10th Dec '10 9:07:28 AM by WartysNeryon