Fond Memories of Gaming

I think we all have fond memories of gaming, but I don't mean the day you took on the Imperial City and felt invincible (Oblivion) or the day you found a glitch on your own, but those memories of time spent with friends. What are some of your fond memories?

For me

Staying up all night playing Pac Man Jr. (Atari) on a Friday, then going to bed at six AM to have my friends parents wake us at 8AM.

I was playing Super Mario Bros. (NES) and beat it for the first time at my friends house just after I touched the flag the phone rang, and my Grandfather had passed on, not so much fond as an event I will never forget attached to SMB.

I have two brothers, and have only seen them for one month in the last 15 years, I only got to play 3 games with them, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, Gran Turismo 4, and Rumble Roses. I own all three (PS2) for the memories of time I got to spend with them.

I also have one Sister who also I have only seen twice in her life for a total of about 5 weeks of her life, the only game I ever played with her was CSI: Crime Scene Investigator (Xbox) I also own that even if my Xbox has passed on and I can't afford a new one.

Mario Kart (SNES) My friends and me played this almost everyday for what seemed like months constantly trying to beat each others scores, I wish I still had my SNES.

Golden Eye 64 (N64) So many nights I had parties growing up and we would sit there on Multi-player and just have fun, those are days I sometimes which I had back.

Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 (PS2) I have spent many hours maybe 50 run throughs with a very good friend of mine, "I will end you!" Echoes Lyrons words, and when we think of this it usually starts a 3 or 4 week marathon.

Diablo 2 (PC) Another game I have some great memories of playing with friends, and I will always go back to it now and again, because of the hours of fun I have had. "Whoah oh

I do have many fond memories of gaming. I was a single child (guess I still am) growing up. I was really more of a loaner growing up. I had friends at school but I really didn't have any friends that I played with in the neighborhood. As such I would spend a ton of time playing video games by myself and occasionally with my Dad. My uncle was the closest thing that I had to a brother. We were about eight years apart. He was actually the one who introduced me to the NES and thank God he did. We used to play games for hours. Whether it was Contra, or Excitebike it didn't matter. I had to get pretty good real fast otherwise he wouldn't want to play with me LOL. I think i was 6 when my parents bought my NES. It worked out great because my uncle and I used to make sure that we never bought the same game. That way we could just trade and borrow games back and forth with each other. As such I had access to well over 100 games that I had the opportunity to play regularly on top of the games that the rental store down the street had. I was really bummed when he started high school and decided that girls were more fun than games. I guess we all go through that stage LOL. My Grandma used to love the black box Pinball for the NES. When I rebought an NES about a year and a half ago that was one of the first games that I bought. She is no longer around but that game helps me remember her. I used to hide in the hallway when I spent the night over there and watch the scary movies in the hallway. I remember the first time I watched Nightmare on Elm St. I was probably 7 and it scared the crap out of me. I think that memories like that are the main reason that I started collecting for the NES again in the last couple of years. I will never be able to get those times back. My Grandma has been gone for over 10 years now and my uncle is still in town and we are pretty close still but those are moments that I will always cherish. Think I may go play some Blaster Master!

Turtles in Time and Super Ghouls N Ghosts with my older brothers are fond memories for me.

Also, a few years back my best buds and I started doing marathons where we played through a bunch of game series. We started with a Mariothon... 72 hours where we played through all the 3D collectathon games too 100%. Then we did a Spyrothon: two teams racing to 100% the three main series Spyro games. Then a Megathon; all 10 main series Mega Man games, a Crashathon, all three main series Crash Bandicoot games, and most recently, a Katamarathon--all the Katamari games.

I've also done two live Let's Plays with my friends... Heavy Rain and Twisted Metal. I didn't like either of them, but getting to play through them with a friend made it all worthwhile.

Not to mention staying at a friend's house for an entire weekend playing Slender (and freaking the fuck out), Mario Party 4, Billy Hatcher, and the entirety of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. Or setting up a projector in my school's dressing room during plays and blasting through Mega Man 8-bit Death Match, Minecraft, and Mario Kart.

And zero-gravity rockets-only matches in Halo 3 at 2 AM. And NBA Jam tournaments. And playing L4D with the guys only to have our buddy Will sprint to the safe-room without us while singing WWII air-force songs. And smuggling a Wii on overnight school trips to play Metal Slug Anthology.

Yeah... I have a lot of fond memories with my friends.

One of the best ones I can think of was when my father took me to his work when I was younger. He took me to a presentation/training room where there were rows of computers with a walkway down the middle and a projector displaying on the front wall. What he did was install Doom (1) on the presenters terminal in the back center of the room and while I played the game, it replicated everything I was doing on all of the PCs in front of me and on the wall from the projector. Was a really good time. Not much to say about it but thought I would share. =D

The only game I ever got to play with my Dad besides the original Pong was Mole Patrol SNES for use with the Super Scope.

Ooh, what a topic to induce nostalgia. I'll rattle off the top 3 that come to mind:

(1) Super Sprint (NES) - I always liked racing games, especially when I was a kid. Super Sprint on NES and in the arcade was my favorite for a long time. One time when I was probably 8 or 9, my friend and I spent a whole day trying to beat it. We were way farther than we'd ever been and knew we would be victorious that day. But, my friend's little brother decided to be a brat and was dancing around threatening to turn off the console if we didn't let him watch TV. Sure enough, he turned it off. We were like 5 races from the end and never got that far again.

(2) Far Cry 3 - I have a friend who I trade Xbox 360 games with. He buys new ones, and I let him borrow all my old ones that he missed. A few weeks after Far Cry 3 came out, I went over for a night of drinking and hanging out. At some point, he wanted to see me play the game, so we turned it on and had the most hilarious play session of the first couple hours of the game. Like I said, we were drinking, so we were being very silly narrating the game, screwing around, exploring, botching missions, commenting on everything...best gaming experience in recent memory with another person.

(3) WoW - Any of the thousands of awesome experiences I had playing with other people, friends outside the game, friends in the game, strangers...raiding, questing, PvPing, chatting, exploring together, showing people the game, having someone teach me something about the game, etc etc.

I've had quite a few memorable moments playing games with friends growing up.

I remember when I beat Ganon for the first time in Link to the Past for SNES. I had a couple friends in the room with me. They watched me for a couple hours trying to kill the bastard! We were like 9-10 years old at the time. Years later, during our senior year of high school, a bunch guys got together for one last time before college / setting off into the real world. And my friend was there and he brought up the game in conversation. He was reminiscing and actually said watching me beat him was one of the most memorable moments he had growing up! He was never much of a gamer, so I was surprised he said that.

I also played Golden Eye on N64 with friends for countless hours. Gauntlet Legends as well.

When I was in 7th grade, my family got their first computer. It was the year Starcraft Brood Wars came out. That game pretty much consumed that entire year of my life! I joined a Starcraft Clan called Gemini- and took the name Gemini-Dragon. Pretty much every user name I've used since 1999 has been influence by that clan name. Forums / AIM / E-mail addresses. Even my name on this website!

Pokemon XD - I remember just playing it for hours when I was around 9. I never watched the series or had a modern gaming console to that point, but Pokemon was all the rage and it with Coloseum were some of the five games I had for the system. I remember that my dad, who to that point wasn't a fan of electronics aside from television, bought it with the help of a roommate and friend. I still have the game and I think of him often now.
Fallout, Ultima, Dungeon Keeper and Age of Empires - Back before I got my Gamecube the same roommate had introduced me to some DOS titles, Dungeon Keeper being my favorite at the time. I remember killing my own people in Empires for good amusement.
Super Mario Bros and Startropics - Super Mario Bros, and Startropics.

The Bards Tale (on the ps2) I remember when I was such a little kid. Maybe I was in around 5th grade back then when I beat that game. It was so hard for me. It was the time that I wasnt much of a hardcore gamer yet and it felt like such an achievement back then. I was so happy I finally beaten that game

The best memories i have about gaming are the ones i played against my brother Pro Evolution Soccer. I had a lot fun playing with him cause he made me want to be a better player :)