Did you become a fan of the NES (I'm guessing you are based on your name) with the Virtual Console?
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
What defined middle school for you?
- Thread starter SolVanderlyn
- Start date
Early 2000s. The GameCube games of the time are probably my strongest memories of the era. I was in a transitional phase in terms of TV (stuck in between watching shows meant for kids and shows meant for teens with even a few straight-up adult shows like Sex and the City in my rotation), so that phase of my life was not as defined by what I was watching as high school (which was all about Bleach and Naruto and the other Adult Swim anime) or kiddom (which was about classic Nicktoons/Cartoon Cartoons).
My "middle school" is a narrower band than some people's, though. I went to a small district that had a single K-6 elementary and a single 7-12 High School, though they coded 7-8 as Middle.
For the games itself, middle school was the height of my Sonic fandom between Sonic Adventure 2 and heroes, and in love with Phantasy Star Online on GameCube, along with Sonic Mega Collection. This was the all-time height of my Sega fandom. Metroid Prime was also a huge influence on me at the time.
My "middle school" is a narrower band than some people's, though. I went to a small district that had a single K-6 elementary and a single 7-12 High School, though they coded 7-8 as Middle.
For the games itself, middle school was the height of my Sonic fandom between Sonic Adventure 2 and heroes, and in love with Phantasy Star Online on GameCube, along with Sonic Mega Collection. This was the all-time height of my Sega fandom. Metroid Prime was also a huge influence on me at the time.
Learning to get into Fashion. For the first time people really started paying attention to brands etc.
SNES/Genesis wars
Edgelord tryhard shit
Wanting a Job but being to young leading to kids making money selling Bone Thugs n Harmony dubs on cassette and shit like that. Hustle Era.
SNES/Genesis wars
Edgelord tryhard shit
Wanting a Job but being to young leading to kids making money selling Bone Thugs n Harmony dubs on cassette and shit like that. Hustle Era.
I actually did first use this name on a Zelda forum I was on at the time. And yeah, the first NES game I played was the original Super Mario Bros I got off the virtual console.
Nas, biggie, kool g rap, wu-tang, Buju Banton, beenie man, bounty killa, ninja man , super cat, puff, tribe called quest, Jay z, brandy, Monica, tlc, outcast, snoopdog, smif & Wesson, dunkaroos, boxing (started boxing cuz I was jumped after school one day), fighting, mouth razors, being scared of "what time is it?", Divorce. I started middle school in 94' and I love music.
Grew up in Scotland so at 12 we go straight to high school -- although in my case the high school (tynecastle) was split into two buildings - the main campus and a smaller annexe campus which was directly across the street from my house - and because you went there for first and second years of high school it felt like a transition stage - perhaps like middle school (posh kids could attend grammar school to prepare them for poshness) although the syllabus and class structure were identical for the whole district in public high schools.
I excelled there - don't particularly remember why but I think home life was more stable - I won four first place school prizes in the second year - history, English, geography and art - three for essays rather than actual ability but I was set to be an academic star for a moment there.
Then in third through fifth year (14-17) at the main campus I dropped off into good but non stellar performance and unsurprisingly home situation was chaotic and poverty stricken and some generic trouble at school with bullies and psychos. Nothing too bad or out of the ordinary but definitely extra stress till handled.
Wish I could go back in time and smack the shit out of one guy two years earlier than I ultimately did -- instead of wasting time trying to negotiate my way out of a "sorta bullying" situation that as it turned out was a simple pushback away. Might not have changed much but at least would have been satisfying. Hard to explain but I let myself get bullied by a kid who's ass I kind of knew I could kick. I wasn't actually scared of him but for some reason I let him harass and get to me. It boiled over one day when he pressed his hand and boy did I feel like an idiot for putting up with it for so long.
Once I got enough O-grades (I guess high school diploma level classes in American parlance) and Highers (A levels in England - college admission grades and classes in American) I left school, left home and went to college to escape that domestic horror show. Thanks to "socialism" my college and accommodation were paid by the state. I believe that's much harder now from what I'm told.
Wasn't even a scholarship in the true sense - just funding available by filling in forms for students of lesser means with adequate grades. The college admissions board did take circumstances into account when placing students so the odd B or B plus was softy recalibrated to a "poverty-A" I suspect.
That and a couple of lucky breaks set me on a path to the middle class and comparative comfort and luxury.
What I learned from that experience is that I should pull the ladder up behind me and prevent other dirty poors from having those opportunities because now that I'm comfortable I don't want to pay another one percent of my hard earned totally bootstrapped income on raising pinch-faced guttersnipes above their station. If they can't reach the ladder then they can be recycled into cattle feed or subsidize my fast food drive through window by working two or three jobs just to stay afloat.
TL;DR we don't have middle school in 1980s public school Scotland.
I excelled there - don't particularly remember why but I think home life was more stable - I won four first place school prizes in the second year - history, English, geography and art - three for essays rather than actual ability but I was set to be an academic star for a moment there.
Then in third through fifth year (14-17) at the main campus I dropped off into good but non stellar performance and unsurprisingly home situation was chaotic and poverty stricken and some generic trouble at school with bullies and psychos. Nothing too bad or out of the ordinary but definitely extra stress till handled.
Wish I could go back in time and smack the shit out of one guy two years earlier than I ultimately did -- instead of wasting time trying to negotiate my way out of a "sorta bullying" situation that as it turned out was a simple pushback away. Might not have changed much but at least would have been satisfying. Hard to explain but I let myself get bullied by a kid who's ass I kind of knew I could kick. I wasn't actually scared of him but for some reason I let him harass and get to me. It boiled over one day when he pressed his hand and boy did I feel like an idiot for putting up with it for so long.
Once I got enough O-grades (I guess high school diploma level classes in American parlance) and Highers (A levels in England - college admission grades and classes in American) I left school, left home and went to college to escape that domestic horror show. Thanks to "socialism" my college and accommodation were paid by the state. I believe that's much harder now from what I'm told.
Wasn't even a scholarship in the true sense - just funding available by filling in forms for students of lesser means with adequate grades. The college admissions board did take circumstances into account when placing students so the odd B or B plus was softy recalibrated to a "poverty-A" I suspect.
That and a couple of lucky breaks set me on a path to the middle class and comparative comfort and luxury.
What I learned from that experience is that I should pull the ladder up behind me and prevent other dirty poors from having those opportunities because now that I'm comfortable I don't want to pay another one percent of my hard earned totally bootstrapped income on raising pinch-faced guttersnipes above their station. If they can't reach the ladder then they can be recycled into cattle feed or subsidize my fast food drive through window by working two or three jobs just to stay afloat.
TL;DR we don't have middle school in 1980s public school Scotland.
Here in Mexico we have Primary School which has 6 grades, Secondary School which has 3 grades, then Preparatory School which has 6 Semesters. So, I guess it's like Secondary School?
My memory is shot so I barely remember what I used to do back then eitherway so I cannot contribute to this thread in any meaningful way. thanks for the info
For me it was 2005-2008
-This one friend who I hung out with like every day who dropped me when high school started because he thought I was weird
-Boy Scouts, going camping like once or twice a month with them
-A lot of bullying
-The DS, stuff like the original Ace Attorney trilogy, MKDS, and Tetris DS
-A few teachers who were really memorable and I still think about to this day
-The Nintendo NSider Forums
-Avatar: the Last Airbender
-Invader Zim
-Summers filled with visits to the arcade with a lot of DDR
-Wannabe "Gangsta" culture
-The Soulja Boy dance
-The launch of the Wii
-Learning Ancient Egyptian History and Greek History
-The Eragon novels
-Having first crushes on girls and trying to repress them because I thought people with my mental problems shouldn't have them
-The leadup to and release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Halo 3
-The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels
-Building toothpick bridges with my dad for science projects
-Canned food drives that I did for church
-This one friend who I hung out with like every day who dropped me when high school started because he thought I was weird
-Boy Scouts, going camping like once or twice a month with them
-A lot of bullying
-The DS, stuff like the original Ace Attorney trilogy, MKDS, and Tetris DS
-A few teachers who were really memorable and I still think about to this day
-The Nintendo NSider Forums
-Avatar: the Last Airbender
-Invader Zim
-Summers filled with visits to the arcade with a lot of DDR
-Wannabe "Gangsta" culture
-The Soulja Boy dance
-The launch of the Wii
-Learning Ancient Egyptian History and Greek History
-The Eragon novels
-Having first crushes on girls and trying to repress them because I thought people with my mental problems shouldn't have them
-The leadup to and release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Halo 3
-The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels
-Building toothpick bridges with my dad for science projects
-Canned food drives that I did for church
Lockers. I hated having to use and share them. In high school I just carried everything in my backpack.
-Bullies and fights, almost daily.
-The realization that the power structure supports the bullies. And the school will do nothing to stop them no matter how hard you try.
-The school will punish you more than the aggressor if you defend yourself.
Some of the worst years in my life. Thank god High School was better.
Mine was "Ignore them and they'll go away!"
If I ignored them I'd get sucker punched in the hallway.
-The realization that the power structure supports the bullies. And the school will do nothing to stop them no matter how hard you try.
-The school will punish you more than the aggressor if you defend yourself.
Some of the worst years in my life. Thank god High School was better.
Mine was "Ignore them and they'll go away!"
If I ignored them I'd get sucker punched in the hallway.
Lots of SNES and obsessing over Star Trek: TNG while listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
But it was not a happy time.
But it was not a happy time.
We don't have middle school in the UK but in that age bracket (11-14 right) ermmmmm
Halo
Bullying at school
Ipods
The DS
Pokemon
The Harry Potter movies
Bullying at home
Probably the amount of movies I used to watch. Like I used to watch anything and everything, all the time.
Halo
Bullying at school
Ipods
The DS
Pokemon
The Harry Potter movies
Bullying at home
Probably the amount of movies I used to watch. Like I used to watch anything and everything, all the time.
Good:
NES
Dungeons and Dragons
Guns and Roses
Bobby McFarren
Bad:
Social cliques. I actually moved to a new school system in sixth grade. All the kids knew each other from grade school and had already started forming these social groups largely around what clothes you wore. Coming in to that full swing gave me social whiplash.
NES
Dungeons and Dragons
Guns and Roses
Bobby McFarren
Bad:
Social cliques. I actually moved to a new school system in sixth grade. All the kids knew each other from grade school and had already started forming these social groups largely around what clothes you wore. Coming in to that full swing gave me social whiplash.
Middle school here is grades 7 and 8. Defined, by me, as fights and dententions.
This was '87,'88. Not much else to do. I was a skater, so that helped ostracize me as well as my budding taste in heavy metal
This was '87,'88. Not much else to do. I was a skater, so that helped ostracize me as well as my budding taste in heavy metal
Mabinogi
Tales of series, specifically Symphonia 2 and Vesperia
Fairy Tail
Lots of ecchi anime (don't ask)
G4
My parent's divorce :(
Tales of series, specifically Symphonia 2 and Vesperia
Fairy Tail
Lots of ecchi anime (don't ask)
G4
My parent's divorce :(
American middle school is generally grades 6, 7, and 8 (ages 11-14). This is not true everywhere though.
OP
OP
We're about the exact same age, and I can relate to this post a lot.
Being bused to a far away school when were two other middle schools closer to me. I guess it was desegregation busing? It was about 75% black while I was there, when there had been almost no black kids at my elementary. Nothing interesting happened for me while there, same routine but with a much longer ride to get there. I did get sucker punched once while climbing the stairs though. Got a new pair of glasses out of it. Lost all my existing friends from elementary, and then the ones I made there in the transition to high-school (where I proceeded to make none at all.)
Aside from school I guess the defining thing was getting access to Cartoon Network. I was very into Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
Aside from school I guess the defining thing was getting access to Cartoon Network. I was very into Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
Let's see, Korn, drugs/booze in class. Tony Hawk pro skater, very hot and slutty girls! Huge pants and tiny wheels on my skateboard! God I wish I could go back to the 90s but I am in Oregon so it's as close as I can get with out a time machine?
- sf2 at 7Eleven, sf2 at roundtable pizza, sf2 at arcades
- Playing Sierra Online and Lucasarts adventure games
- Messing around in MS-DOS
- MTV (Beavis and Butthead and music videos)
- Nickelodeon shows (Rugrats, Doug, etc.)
- Dragonball Z weekly jump manga and renting anime on VHS tapes
- Pearl Jam and Nirvana
- Internet starting to become a thing and AOL free trials, chatrooms
- Having sleepovers and playing stuff using the SNES Multi-tap like Secret of Mana, Super Bomberman, Slam Masters, etc.
Everyone watch Pen15. It gets the pre-smartphone middle school vibe down pat.
- Playing Sierra Online and Lucasarts adventure games
- Messing around in MS-DOS
- MTV (Beavis and Butthead and music videos)
- Nickelodeon shows (Rugrats, Doug, etc.)
- Dragonball Z weekly jump manga and renting anime on VHS tapes
- Pearl Jam and Nirvana
- Internet starting to become a thing and AOL free trials, chatrooms
- Having sleepovers and playing stuff using the SNES Multi-tap like Secret of Mana, Super Bomberman, Slam Masters, etc.
Everyone watch Pen15. It gets the pre-smartphone middle school vibe down pat.
Last edited: