The first and probably the last game I ever defeated in the arcades was Double Dragon back in 1987-8. My brother and I spent our entire holiday allowance and most of an afternoon playing through it to get to the end. While gruelling at times, it was worth it for that rare feeling of completeness that comes from having achieved something - I was filled full of youthful pride that, no matter what came my way, I could always say that I had taken Willy Mackey to task.
The shine of my victory quickly dimmed when I left the arcade only to discover that I didn't even have enough pesatas left to go for a celebratory lemon fanta. Thankfully my parents took pity on my folly and came to my rescue when I gripped at the spanish comics that had been promising delights to me all day.
That reminds me, they also had the original streetfighter in the arcade with the pressure pad. Goddamn that game was extreme - only way it could have been more like real fighting was if the console occasionally headbutted you or gave you a swift knee in the jewels.
As for games that have defeated me, Nintendo are bastards for this but I have to say that I don't think I ever completed one game on my ZX Spectrum +2 (the +2 referred to the 'Datacorder' - a built in tape player and very next level at the time).
These days the introduction of a casual difficulty level has made me a lazy gamer who happily swans through games happily lying to myself that I'm half decent. Dead Rising defeated me though.
I was so happy to get past that damn hammer throw and finally, high jump.
did you ever do the finger nail style play with this game? Where you would take your fingernails and run them across the buttons to go extra fast. It was much faster than just pushing the button, but it was painful.
We used a pocket comb.
We used to drum our fingers on one button to get the speed up. You need to be getting 1250+ speed to qualify on the hard levels. In the UK they started putting buttons with lips on them to stop drumming. So those machines earned nothing real quick.
The only place you could go wrong once you had the immortal technique was in the hammer, because you threw it based on when the speed bar got into the last square and sometimes 3/3 would go into the net. Otherwise you would be on it all day.
Loved these games. I beat KQII, Space Quest 1&2, and Police Quest, and I used hints like a motherfucker on all of them. But I did try to just use hints when I was stuck. I didn't just sit there and read the hint book and do what it said.
Space Quest was the first game our family got for the Tandy computer. I would labor over that game most days after school, but would always get stuck. Having to type in specific commands or do very specific things in those older games was quite difficult at times. But my pops would always come through with a crucial hint that kept it going. Not sure how I eventually found out, but the man had the hint book with the special decoder window thing. I felt cheated. He was traveling a lot for business at the time and it blew my mind how he could step in and figure that I had to buy a specific droid to pilot the ship to the Seearins (sp).
However, I was/is a fan of all of those Sierra games and played/beat most of them -- though none of them without the occassional help from "above."
The genre of "adventure" games is still my favorite, though it's almost extinct.
Got an LOL moment from Batmon's post below. Don't think I ever made it past level two or three in Adventure.
Atari-Adventure - when I won on Level 3 I felt like I graduated from Law Scool.
First game I beat was Star Trek on a TRS-80 with a tape drive. I had to enter in the BASIC code by hand from a book.
I wasn't expecting to find the game I played in the image of the TRASH-80 I searched for, bonus!
I finished/beat many games since then, and left unfinished many more. If a game bores me I just can't invest my time and energy.
The games I am most proud of finishing were Balder's Gate and Planescape: Torment because of the xp system (AD&D related) there was a lot grinding out levels (which I hate). The story and the humor were enough to motivate me to finish them come hell or high water.
Right now I am working my way through No More Heroes on the Wii and GTA IV on the PS3. I am considering running through Gears of War again on the 360. After that Lego Batman is in the queue.
I've never been that into video games, only owned a Playstation and PS2. But I can say that I've beaten Metal Gear Solid and MGS2 multiple times for the different endings. 3 was too hard for me so I gave up and I don't have a PS3 so I can't play 4 but I heard it's dumb good.
I've never been that into video games, only owned a Playstation and PS2. But I can say that I've beaten Metal Gear Solid and MGS2 multiple times for the different endings. 3 was too hard for me so I gave up and I don't have a PS3 so I can't play 4 but I heard it's dumb good.
MGS4 is pretty damn amazing. I'm hella slow at MGS game though, takes me forever to get anywhere.
I've never been that into video games, only owned a Playstation and PS2. But I can say that I've beaten Metal Gear Solid and MGS2 multiple times for the different endings. 3 was too hard for me so I gave up and I don't have a PS3 so I can't play 4 but I heard it's dumb good.
I never knew MGS1 and MGS2 had different endings?!?! I've just played through them once. So you recommend that I play them again? Is it worth it? Does the different endings have anything to do the different difficulty levels?
You should do anything to get your hands on a PS3 just to play MGS4. Its insane! I borrowed my brothers PS3 and bought the game and played non-stop for 6 days.
I rate MGS1 and MGS3 just above MGS4, and then comes MGS2, but all of them are incredible. If I had to choose I think I prefer MGS3.
Which means you've never seen Yoshi chillin' at the top of the castle???
The games I am most proud of finishing were Balder's Gate and Planescape: Torment because of the xp system (AD&D related) there was a lot grinding out levels (which I hate). The story and the humor were enough to motivate me to finish them come hell or high water.
Baldurs Gate 1&2 (+expansion packs) and Planescape:Torment were epic!
I've never been that into video games, only owned a Playstation and PS2. But I can say that I've beaten Metal Gear Solid and MGS2 multiple times for the different endings. 3 was too hard for me so I gave up and I don't have a PS3 so I can't play 4 but I heard it's dumb good.
I never knew MGS1 and MGS2 had different endings?!?! I've just played through them once. So you recommend that I play them again? Is it worth it? Does the different endings have anything to do the different difficulty levels?
You should do anything to get your hands on a PS3 just to play MGS4. Its insane! I borrowed my brothers PS3 and bought the game and played non-stop for 6 days.
I rate MGS1 and MGS3 just above MGS4, and then comes MGS2, but all of them are incredible. If I had to choose I think I prefer MGS3.
MGS1 has two different endings based on whether you made it through the torture scene or if you bitched out and gave Merrill up. Now that I think about it MGS2 might not have one but I'm pretty sure there is. It's been a while since I've played that one.
I don't think there's any differences in either of em based on difficulty but I might be wrong about that one too. Great games though.
Baldurs Gate 1&2 (+expansion packs) and Planescape:Torment were epic!
I recently found that the modder community has been busy with BG and P:T. These guys have patched a lot of stuff and made some of the unused quests playable. More importantly you can now play them in higher resolution...
I have Planescape: Torment on my laptop running at 1280x800 and it looks good. I haven't tried it with BG, but it would make ranges spell casting and weapons a viable option. There was nothing more anoying than having an off screen monster plaster you from range and you couldn't target him in return.
Comments
The shine of my victory quickly dimmed when I left the arcade only to discover that I didn't even have enough pesatas left to go for a celebratory lemon fanta. Thankfully my parents took pity on my folly and came to my rescue when I gripped at the spanish comics that had been promising delights to me all day.
That reminds me, they also had the original streetfighter in the arcade with the pressure pad. Goddamn that game was extreme - only way it could have been more like real fighting was if the console occasionally headbutted you or gave you a swift knee in the jewels.
As for games that have defeated me, Nintendo are bastards for this but I have to say that I don't think I ever completed one game on my ZX Spectrum +2 (the +2 referred to the 'Datacorder' - a built in tape player and very next level at the time).
These days the introduction of a casual difficulty level has made me a lazy gamer who happily swans through games happily lying to myself that I'm half decent. Dead Rising defeated me though.
We used to drum our fingers on one button to get the speed up. You need to be getting 1250+ speed to qualify on the hard levels. In the UK they started putting buttons with lips on them to stop drumming. So those machines earned nothing real quick.
The only place you could go wrong once you had the immortal technique was in the hammer, because you threw it based on when the speed bar got into the last square and sometimes 3/3 would go into the net. Otherwise you would be on it all day.
our whole class helped complete this in grade four
best game of all time!
Space Quest was the first game our family got for the Tandy computer. I would labor over that game most days after school, but would always get stuck. Having to type in specific commands or do very specific things in those older games was quite difficult at times. But my pops would always come through with a crucial hint that kept it going. Not sure how I eventually found out, but the man had the hint book with the special decoder window thing. I felt cheated. He was traveling a lot for business at the time and it blew my mind how he could step in and figure that I had to buy a specific droid to pilot the ship to the Seearins (sp).
However, I was/is a fan of all of those Sierra games and played/beat most of them -- though none of them without the occassional help from "above."
The genre of "adventure" games is still my favorite, though it's almost extinct.
Got an LOL moment from Batmon's post below. Don't think I ever made it past level two or three in Adventure.
I wasn't expecting to find the game I played in the image of the TRASH-80 I searched for, bonus!
I finished/beat many games since then, and left unfinished many more. If a game bores me I just can't invest my time and energy.
The games I am most proud of finishing were Balder's Gate and Planescape: Torment because of the xp system (AD&D related) there was a lot grinding out levels (which I hate). The story and the humor were enough to motivate me to finish them come hell or high water.
Right now I am working my way through No More Heroes on the Wii and GTA IV on the PS3. I am considering running through Gears of War again on the 360. After that Lego Batman is in the queue.
MGS4 is pretty damn amazing. I'm hella slow at MGS game though, takes me forever to get anywhere.
I never knew MGS1 and MGS2 had different endings?!?! I've just played through them once. So you recommend that I play them again? Is it worth it? Does the different endings have anything to do the different difficulty levels?
You should do anything to get your hands on a PS3 just to play MGS4. Its insane! I borrowed my brothers PS3 and bought the game and played non-stop for 6 days.
I rate MGS1 and MGS3 just above MGS4, and then comes MGS2, but all of them are incredible. If I had to choose I think I prefer MGS3.
Baldurs Gate 1&2 (+expansion packs) and Planescape:Torment were epic!
MGS1 has two different endings based on whether you made it through the torture scene or if you bitched out and gave Merrill up. Now that I think about it MGS2 might not have one but I'm pretty sure there is. It's been a while since I've played that one.
I don't think there's any differences in either of em based on difficulty but I might be wrong about that one too. Great games though.
I recently found that the modder community has been busy with BG and P:T. These guys have patched a lot of stuff and made some of the unused quests playable. More importantly you can now play them in higher resolution...
http://www.bootstrike.com/Torment/index.html
http://www.spellholdstudios.net/
I have Planescape: Torment on my laptop running at 1280x800 and it looks good. I haven't tried it with BG, but it would make ranges spell casting and weapons a viable option. There was nothing more anoying than having an off screen monster plaster you from range and you couldn't target him in return.