ThanksGaming Month

[Ayen]

If you've clicked on this topic then chances are you're wondering to yourself, "What is ThanksGaming Month?" I'm glad you asked.

ThanksGaming Month is one time a year where we can all come together as a single gaming community and remember the games that shaped our childhoods. It doesn't matter if you were raised in the 70's, the 80's the 90's or the 00's. Whether you're a PC gamer, console gamer or you just used to go to the arcade with friends. If you have at least one video game you enjoyed, cherish it. Remember it. Play it again if you can. Not just games of your past, but games you enjoy in the present and, assuming you have any, games you believe you'll be enjoying in the future. I'll get the ball rolling.

I started playing games when I was three or four on my brother's old Nintendo. The first game I ever played was Super Mario Brothers, followed closely by Duck Hunt. It was the double cartridge that came out in 88 and it was the first and only time I got to use the Nintendo Zapper. After that I played Karate Champ, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Uncanny X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II with my brother. I also got to play the old Jaws game by myself. Used to think the scuba diver was a gold fish, good times. Other honorable mentions are Super Mario Bros 2, Paperboy, Golf and Baseball.

After the Nintendo my brother would get a Sega Genesis and we would play Battletoads/Double Dragon, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, X-Men 2: Clone Wars, Cyber Justice (anyone who remembers this game gets a hug from me), Mortal Kombat II and Doom. A lot of fun mulitplayer games that were challenging. In addition to those games that he owned I also got to play Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2, Comix Zone, NBA JAM, Wolverine: Adamantium Rage, Spider-Man/Venom Maximum Carnage, Mortal Kombat 3, Barney Hide and Seek, McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure, Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers and Road Rash II. I remember one friend of my brother playing that game and he crashed his bike and had to run the rest of the way to the finish line. It was awesome.

There were some games I played on my old computer too. Gorillas, Snakes, Treasure Mountain, Midnight Rescue and Reader Rabbit 1, 2, and 3.

Old Arcade games I played involved at least one Mega Man, though I can't remember which one. Area 51, the old rail shooter. Gauntlet Legends which I played with my cousins. The old X-Men arcade game that was up to six players that never got ported to a console. "WELCOME TO DIE!" I know there was more but I can't remember any of them. I know I played at least one driver game where you sit behind a wheel and get to put your foot on an actual gas pedal. I don't want to make this post too long so I'll be saving the rest of the games I played as a kid for later. Your turn.

[Jinx]

My first real experience with gaming was the N64. (Although I'd played my mom's old Atari and NES a couple of times). I wasn't very good at it, but I loved playing. Then, when I was 8, my uncle let me play a save file of FFVII while he went out for the night. I remember getting pretty decently far--all the way to Don Corneo's mansion--for a little kid. I loved that game, and thought about it for years afterwards. My stepdad got FFX for Christmas from my aunt a couple of years later, and I remembered FFVII, while wanting to play FFX so badly. And I did! Then, when my grandparents came a couple of weeks later, they took me to the used game store and bought me a copy of FFVII. Not long after that my uncle gave me all of his old PS1 games, so I got FFVIII and hated it instantly. Over the years I've collected most of the Final Fantasies in the series. I found my love for some other games as well, though I'd hardly count myself a game.

Even though most of the games are kind of boring to me now, just because I've played them all so many times, I'm thankful because they brought me to this community. :)

[Pike]

I don't even know where to begin with this because games have been such an important part of my life for the past 30 years. I'm actually on-and-off writing a novel about my experience with games (no joke) just for my own benefit although once finished I'd give it out for free to anyone interested (lol).

[NeoCracker]

Yeah, I'm with Pike here, literally my earliest memory is getting Super Mario World and an SNES. The game itself came out when I was 3, and I was like, 6 at the time I got it. I remembered seeing adds on in-store TV's hyping the new release of Mario RPG on.

Started with Super Mario, played games on a Friends NES, and then my brother came down with a copy of FF II (The SNES US version, so it was actually IV), and I became hooked on RPG's. I still loved my side scrollers, but I would grab at any SNES RPG looking title I could. I distinctly remember picking up games like Breath of Fire 2, Lufia 2, Earthbound and Ogre Battle (The former two I actually hated the first time I played them, and now I love them both, Ogre Battle being one of my favorite SRPG's of all time).

Though I think the game that really sparked my investment more then any other was FF VI. It's the game that made me realize just what a video game could be, and I even looked over all other games I'd played up until then in a whole new light, and pretty much my opinion of them all grew.

Maybe it's having a full game like Super Mario to start with, but I could never get into those more simplistic games like Pac-Man and Tetris (WHich I fucking despise, mind you). I can throw some of them on and enjoy them, but they never really leave any kind of impression on me.

While my taste in games has expanded since my early days (Hell, PSX era was almost exclusively about RPG's for me, with the only exceptiosn were Tekken, Smash Brothers, and Zelda, and a couple more here and there.)

The PS2 marked a big branching out for me in terms of games though. I got into harvest moon on my Gamecube, God of War on the PS2 pulled me more into the bigger scale action games, I could go on a bit more, but yeah. The PS2 for me was the horizon broadener.

[Ayen]

My first real experience with gaming was the N64. (Although I'd played my mom's old Atari and NES a couple of times). I wasn't very good at it, but I loved playing. Then, when I was 8, my uncle let me play a save file of FFVII while he went out for the night. I remember getting pretty decently far--all the way to Don Corneo's mansion--for a little kid. I loved that game, and thought about it for years afterwards. My stepdad got FFX for Christmas from my aunt a couple of years later, and I remembered FFVII, while wanting to play FFX so badly. And I did! Then, when my grandparents came a couple of weeks later, they took me to the used game store and bought me a copy of FFVII. Not long after that my uncle gave me all of his old PS1 games, so I got FFVIII and hated it instantly. Over the years I've collected most of the Final Fantasies in the series. I found my love for some other games as well, though I'd hardly count myself a game.

Even though most of the games are kind of boring to me now, just because I've played them all so many times, I'm thankful because they brought me to this community. :)

A gamer is anyone who plays video games.

While we're on the subject of Final Fantasy I will say that my first Final Fantasy game was also VII. It was also my first RPG game. And my first Square game. And the first game that had more than one disc. There was a lot of firsts going on that day. My brother rented it from Blockbuster (who remembers Blockbuster?) and he played it for a bit and as was the norm back then I would watch. While he was working I played it a little bit and I got about as far as to the construction yard with Aerith, I think it was a construction yard. I could not for the life of me navigate that place I just kept wandering around getting into random battles. I hated random battles as a kid. Then after that I played VIII. Didn't hate it. First RPG where I got as far as the second disc, in fact I got to the end of the second disc. I GF spam the hell out of bosses back then, no lie. From there it was IX. That's a game I would learn to appreciate more with age. As a kid I was kinda, "Eeh, not as good as VII and VIII." but nowadays I'd put it in my top five favorite Final Fantasy games list. Always did like Vivi, though. In fact, next time I play Final Fantasy Origins I'm naming the Black Mage Vivi.

[Pike]

I can't remember the first game I played. Games were always there. Like eating, or breathing. My first "system" was a Commodore 64 computer and we had a few hundred games for it, both original titles and ports of arcade classics. We'd rent NES (it was commonplace to rent whole systems back then) or I'd play it at my cousin's house but ultimately I didn't really get into console gaming until the SNES which happened when I was about ten. Unlike much of the memberbase here I was mostly a Nintendo and then Xbox "kid", I never really got into Playstation the same way so many others here did (although I did play around with them but I can't say they were the base of most of my videogame memories.)

These days I'm back to being a computer gamer :)

[Cosmiccandy]

My earliest gaming memory was me playing the likes of Crash Bandicoot 3, and Spyro the Dragon. For you N64 kids, they were basically the Sony equivalent of Mario 64 and Zelda. I even played some age innapropriate titles like the original Resident Evil and Silent Hill and tried mostly in vain to get the hang of more complex titles like Abe's Oddworld, Breath of Fire IV, and FFVIII. Yes, im sure you're horrified to discover FFVIII was my first Final Fantasy and indeed my first role-playing game. I try not to let my obvious bias for that game influence my opinions too much and I can laugh about how silly the game is now while I watched Spoony's FFVIII "review" of sorts, but I think everybodies first RPG holds a special place in their heart regardless of its failings and I understand why people hate it. Basically if you can think of a great game title on the original Playstation, chances are good that I have played it.

I then progressed to the PS2. To this day I think the PS2 is possibly the best goddam console ever made. Its gaming library is extremely extensive and it boggles my mind how many gaming franchises were introduced to me through it. Once again, I've played pretty much every game of note on that console you could think of. Ive played more great games for that thing than I could possibly hope to mention.

I then progressed to PC gaming and have stuck with it pretty much ever since. I think the convenience of a service like Steam and programs like emulators is just too good for me to give up.

[NeoCracker]

Well have you played Brigandine: Legend of Forsena Mr. I played all the great games for PSX. :colbert:

:p

[Ayen]

I still have the first three Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games for the original Sony PlayStation. Cortex Strikes Back was my introduction to the Crash Bandicoot franchise followed closely by 1 and then Warped after that. Spyro on the other hand I played in order from 1, 2 and 3. I'm going to give Croc an honorable mention here too since he doesn't seem to get all that much recognition.

[Cosmiccandy]

Well have you played Brigandine: Legend of Forsena Mr. I played all the great games for PSX. :colbert:

:p

Thats not fair, the game wasn't even released here in Australia! Doubt I would have been mature enough to appreciate it given what I just learned about it after a quick google search.


I still have the first three Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games for the original Sony PlayStation. Cortex Strikes Back was my introduction to the Crash Bandicoot franchise followed closely by 1 and then Warped after that. Spyro on the other hand I played in order from 1, 2 and 3. I'm going to give Croc an honorable mention here too since he doesn't seem to get all that much recognition.

Platformers dominated most of my gaming time back then, and while I remember playing the likes of Croc and Gex, I neglected to mention them because I cant actually remember if they were good games at all. For all I know Gex could have been one of the best platformers ever made. I guess I'll have to revisit it one of these days with an emulator.

[Ayen]

Never played Gex, but I found Croc enjoyable and would put it right up there with Crash and Spyro. Never played the second one, though.

[Bolivar]

My first games were with my Uncle or my Dad on the NES, a good time to start gaming, with Mario 1 and 2, Duck Hunt, Tetris, and a sweet action game called Tiger Heli. My Uncle was big into sports games, so RBI Baseball, Tecmo Bowl and Blades of Steel all featured prominently as well.

For the next two generations, I always wanted the Nintendo systems, but eventually one game would change my mind, and so I moved onto the Genesis. It was a good move with Sonic and such but what made it such a game changer was Sega Channel. I don't know if they had this outside the states, but it was basically a cable modem cartridge you would put in the console and it would download/stream games and could even have leaderboards with monthly competitions. From there I got into so many games from Streets of Rage to Road Rash, Golden Axe, the bizarre Mega Man remakes, but most importantly, RPGs. Sega was where I discovered my favorite genre and the titles were so diverse, I'm really glad I got to discover them there.

My childhood gaming was also defined by the Gameboy and ironically the Mac. Marioland and Pokemon ruled in those days and I was also introduced to Harvest Moon and Zelda with their gameboy color counterparts. Those games left a big mark on me and to this day I'm still a big handheld gamer (with Zelda 3DS coming out this month!). The Mac was cool since at school I'd play edutainment games like Oregan Trail and Dino Park Tycoon while at home I would play computer RPGs like Ultima 3 Exodus.

With the next generation I wanted a N64 but a little brand called Playstation came a long with games I didn't know could exist up to that point, although I did game countless hours on the 64, eventually getting one myself. Together with the PC these three platforms dominated a big part of my life but I think that's statying to get away from the early childhood theme we got going om here :D

[Mirage]

I'm gonna break the mold here and say Amiga 500 and sidescrolling shooters + arcade driving games.

I played games like Lotus Turbo Challenge, Silkworm, Test Drive and some F1 game I forgot the name of. I also spent a decent amount of time playing Ducktales on A500, as well as Rick Dangerous. On PC, I mostly played Sim City 2000.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

It's kind of hard for me to remember how gaming started for me. I did play the Mario games, Ninja Turtles, and Metroid on the NES a lot as a kid. I think I actually played the Atari 7800 a little bit as well. I can't remember if we had a SNES/Genesis/Turbo Grafx at that same time, though. I probably spent a lot more time as a kid playing Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Sonic 2, Jungle Strike, Aero Blasters, Keith Courage in Alpha Zone, and the Bonk games. Honestly, I played all of those about the same amount as each other.

When I was pretty young, I also played Galaxian, Galaga, and Dig Dug a lot on the PC.

[Hollycat]

My brother had a genesis, but I never got to play it and didn't even really consider it a video game. My first real exposure to video games was Crash 2 on a cruise ship on my fifth birthday. I told my parents how much I liked the game despite only playing it for an hour, so for my sixth birthday they got me Crash 2 and a PS1 along with spyro the dragon. Not a bad start to the world of gaming if you think about it. It is too bad both of those franchises went down the tube soon after.

2 years after that for Christmas I got a gameboy color and Pokemon silver, despite never having heard of the game or a gameboy for that matter. (I was extremely protected as a child)
I think that is when I first truly fell in love with gaming, and also the origin of Mom, you can't save during a battle.
Back then I was only allowed to play an hour a day, which really wasn't so bad. I think it made me appreciate the games even more.

[Ayen]

I'm gonna break the mold here and say Amiga 500 and sidescrolling shooters + arcade driving games.

I played games like Lotus Turbo Challenge, Silkworm, Test Drive and some F1 game I forgot the name of. I also spent a decent amount of time playing Ducktales on A500, as well as Rick Dangerous. On PC, I mostly played Sim City 2000.

That's awesome. I have the PlayStation port of SimCity 2000, I'm guessing it's better on the PC. Ducktales! That's another one I forgot, though it's probably not the same one since I played on the old computer back when we still had floppy discs. Yes, I'm old enough to know what floppy discs are.

--------------------------------

I neglected some titles from my last post. On the NES side of things I also played Ninja Gaiden, can't remember which one exactly, all I remember is running around in the sewers as a purple ninja, and the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I also played a game where you control a pink thing that shoots things and crawl walls and ceilings. Can't remember the name of it.

Other Genesis games I also played were The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Fatal Fury 2 and some side-scroll space shooter that I'm only vaguely certain was on the Genesis.

After the Genesis we got a Sega Saturn, although I can't remember any games we played for the Saturn. I want to say Battle Arena Toshinden and Virtua Cop, but I'm not 100% on that. Then we got the PlayStation and the first games brought home for them were Tekken 2, Resident Evil and Tomb Raider. They were awesome. I used to be scared just going into a room in Resident Evil and as much as it pains me to admit, I never got past the third level on Tomb Raider. Level three is as far as I've ever gotten on the original Tomb Raider. The puzzles were just... asdf!

[Madame Adequate]

Like Pike and others I've never not played vidya, it's been a part of my life since I was a wee babby and I devote more time to it than anything else. I first played stuff on my dad's PC in the late 80s, and my first own system was an Amstrad CPC (So it's a wonder I grew to love vidya given that! :p). On and off over the years I've had a Master System, Mega Drive, PS1, PS2, XBox, 360, Game Gear, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, DS, and 3DS, as well as various gaming PCs - I just built a new one a few months ago actually!

Although I'm not jazzed about the direction mainstream videogames has been going for the last few years, I can't say we're living in a bad time for gaming or anything. Between Steam, GoG, and emulators, I can play damn near anything I'd want to from the past, and it seems a bit jejune to suggest gaming is in a bad place in a time when XCOM, GTAV, The Walking Dead, Arkham City, Dishonored, Crusader Kings 2, Europa Universalis IV, and so on and so forth all came out recently.

That said these whippersnappers today whose first game was Halo don't know shit about shit and should fuck off and die :colbert: