memoirs

An oral history of the games I’ve played

visakanv
January 26, 2016

What’s the first video game you ever played? I’m not entirely sure. I recall watching my brothers play games on their Sega Megadrive. They played Street Fighter 2, and Bare Knuckle, and Fifa 95, and some Formula 1 racing games. I also remember Midnight Resistance, a Contra clone with really good music.

With Street Fighter 2, I played all the common characters – Ryu, Ken, Guile, Bison, Dee Jay, Vega, Chun Li, Dhalsim, Blanka, E. Honda. My eldest brother would play sometimes. He particularly liked Fire Shark, the vertical-scrolling shoot-em-up. We don’t talk anymore. He has kids now.

I’m remembering now that there was a sort of tank commander type game that I used to play with my neighbour when he came over.

Used to play GTA and Midtown Madness at a cousin’s house. And some boat racing game. At another cousin’s, once we played some road rash type racing game.

I remember, during the school holidays, I’d go to the arcade at Tampines with my friend Gordon. We’d go early, before it opened. We would meet at the McDonald’s at Tampines Interchange. There was a Star Wars Episode 1 themed racing game by the entrance, which I never played because I had never gotten into star wars as a kid. I did play Crazy Taxi. There was a 3D Bare Knuckle-type game, called Dynamite Cop. I spent many dollars playing that one. I was always impressed by the people who were really good at Time Crisis, or DDR.

DOS – Blackjack. Ski Free. Chip’s challenge. Prince of Persia 2. Tomb Raider 2. It’s funny how there were all these games that I enjoyed despite getting stuck. Fifa 98 and 2000. Final Fight 3. Metal Slug series – Metal Slug 1, 2, X. Friends would come over to my place to play. I’m still pretty good at those.

Counterstrike and Dota were too really popular games that I played with friends in order to socialize, but I never particularly got good at them. I played Half-Life up to some point and got stuck and gave up. I played a demo of Opposing Force, and was always curious to try the actual game. I played Simcity 2000 (not sure how it ended up on my computer) and went on to excitedly ask my mother to buy me Simcity 3000 for my birthday.

Left4Dead led to hours of fun with friends when it came out. We also played some funny “pirate ship” mod of Warcraft 3.

I never got into Halo or Call of Duty. I liked Duke Nukem 3D – it had so much personality. And Quake 2, which had a pretty neat style. I liked the idea of Hexen (Heretic?) but I sucked at it.

 

  • Games
  • Prince of Persia. This was one of the first games I ever played. I read up quite a bit about it – Jordan Mechner, his thoughts about story, Karateka, how he drew the character animation by filming everything in real life and then drawing it frame by frame.
  • Wolfenstein 3D – I still remember the protagonist’s square face, how it would get beaten up as he lost life, and how he’d grin when he gets the biggest gun. I remember all the Nazi bling bling you can pick up. [1]
  • Duke Nukem 3D – This game was so cool – though the later stages seemed hard AF to navigate.
  • Bare Knuckle – I played 1 and 3.
  • Metal Slug.
  • Red Alert – the first RTS game I ever played. I thought the music was really great. I thought the Tesla coils were really cool. My strategy was to defend the base with several Tesla coils, some troops and heavy tanks, just keep advancing up the tech tree and then build 8 Airfields and MIGs – which can then take out just about any building when you send them all together at once. Very fragile, but I always enjoyed the building up part more than the micro-managing combat part.
  • Digimon Cards – I collected these when I was between 7 and 10 years old. I was late to the game – I didn’t really bother until I found a rare-ish card on the road somewhere. After that I started buying and trading them with friends (I think). I’d buy them from the mamak shop next to school, where you could buy a packet of 3 cards for $1.50. 
  • Mortal Kombat 3 – this was the first Mortal Kombat game I played. It was pretty difficult. I was young and afraid of all the fatalities. I remember the final bosses were really cheap and hard to beat. I started doing better after learning some of the combos.
  • Terranigma
  • Final Fantasy and other playstation fun
  • Fighting games- GGX2, Street Fighter 3S- arcades, w/ JS, sticking to 1 character
  • Tomb Raider 2
  • Zelda
  • Zork
  • Final Fantasy 6
  • Final Fantasy 7
  • Dragon Age – I have a funny story about this one, how I played the nicest possible role at first, but then had the game hang on me in a way that I couldn’t get out of, so had to start a new game and then dicked around through the start – only to have it influence the end result.
  • Mass Effect 2 – funny story about this one too. 
  • inFamous
  • Uncharted 2
  • Starcraft
  • Simcity 2k, 3k
  • Half Life
  • Grand Theft Auto
  • Heroes 3

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Feels:

[–]Blackzach9 2445 points

I used to play Halo: Reach all the time with a friend I met in one match. We played everyday. We watched each others back, avenged each other, and generally had a good time. We got to know each other better and I found out he had a serious spinal problem that could slowly kill him. However, he joked around about it alot, often saying things like “If I had armor lock this wouldn’t be a problem” and “don’t worry, I’ll mention you in my will”. Couple days go bye, and I haven’t heard from him. Then months. He hasn’t logged in 7 months. I’m worried. Few days go bye and I get a package. Inside were 3 things, a note, a Halo 3 360, and a copy of Halo: Reach. The note read “Sorry man, I ran outta time. Never did get that Armor Lock”

So I do hope you find your friend. Gaming friends mean more than people think.

[–]ScizorofVenus 1605 points

Ah, I remember a buddy from Lord of the rings online called Achtavius.
We played every day, when suddenly LOTRO told me my account had been hacked. Many months went by, and I eventually made a new account. I directly added Achtavius to my friends list. He hadnt been online since a few months, and I read his character biology for funs.
“Cancer’s a bitch. Skorgram (my character), if you ever see this, it was a great time. Goodbye!” never played LOTRO since.

VIDEO GAMES: Best games I’ve ever played are:

  • Terranigma- Incredibly epic bildungsroman (journey of a hero) that gets you to grapple with a lot of big questions.
  • Final Fantasy VI. Amazing characters. Depressing to contrast this with FF13.
  • Final Fantasy VII. The one and only.
  • Mass Effect Series.
  • Dragon Age: Origins.