Gaming "moments in time" you remember fondly...

[Jerm411]

So with the release of FFVII: R and the nostalgia bug hitting me hard, I wanted to look back at certain moments in time in gaming I reminisce about and hear everyone else's thoughts too....could be a game launch, a particular boss you beat, good times with friends, or maybe a moment you missed that you wish you could re-live.

For me it's 2 game launches in particular:

The first is The Burning Crusade....I had been dating my now wife for a little while, we had just started living together. I was already into WoW and so was her sister and her boyfriend at the time (now her husband). I got my wife into the game and we were all looking forward to the launch, we set up at our house and just played our asses off. None of us had kids at the time and outside of work (which we all took time off for lol) no real responsibilities. Man what a time...wish I could go back to that. It was a more simple time and just all of us having fun.

The other is the launch of Skyrim. It was one of the first games I was real obsessed with heading into launch, I had read and listened to everything I could about that game. My local Gamestop had a midnight launch and the turnout was insane which for a small town was not very common. It just made the experience better and I remember going home, playing a ton of hours, trying to sleep, and then waking up to play some more. I was completely mesmerized and incredibly happy as it met my loft expectations.

What are some of your favorite moments like this?

 

[dipship31]

Always seemed like the hype leading up to a launch has always been more memorable than the games themselves. My most memorable launches were probably:

Zelda OOT
Modern Warfare 2
XBox 360
Switch

 

[Secretofmateria]

The night the xbox 360 launched i was in 7th grade. I had begged my parents to get me one that year but to no avail (though i got one the next year for christmas of 2006!). G4 (RIP) was doing an xbox 360 launch broadcast of x play all night. From like 7pm to 1 am. I was supposed to be in bed by like 11 but i stayed up the extra two hours just to watch the whole thing through. I watched the reviews roll in for games like perfect dark zero, kameo, pgr 3, and condemed. And i watched bill gates at the time square best buy launch event. It was so exciting, i did the same thing the next year for the ps3 launch on g4.

 

[Jerm411]

The night the xbox 360 launched i was in 7th grade. I had begged my parents to get me one that year but to no avail (though i got one the next year for christmas of 2006!). G4 (RIP) was doing an xbox 360 launch broadcast of x play all night. From like 7pm to 1 am. I was supposed to be in bed by like 11 but i stayed up the extra two hours just to watch the whole thing through. I watched the reviews roll in for games like perfect dark zero, kameo, pgr 3, and condemed. And i watched bill gates at the time square best buy launch event. It was so exciting, i did the same thing the next year for the ps3 launch on g4.

Click to shrink...

I remember watching old E3's on G4 lol....man I miss that channel!

Awesome story!

 

[Deleted member 10629]

Wii hype was off the fucking charts

 

[Jerm411]

Wii hype was off the fucking charts

Click to shrink...

Had to buy mine off eBay lol...could not find one anywhere in Kansas City.

Had to pay more but it was worth it...

 

[V has come to]

Skyrim launch for me too. i wasn't even that excited for the game but i have lots of fond memories of getting to school each day and sitting around the breakfast table with my friends just sharing the stories of our adventures

my favorite is easily Kingdom Hearts 2 though. my first ever midnight release. i was probably the annoying kid there that everyone hated but it was a really cool experience being there with a ton of other fans. i ended up going to the early release of 3 with the same friend as i went to 2's with, which was pretty cool. would have been a lot better memory if the game delivered

in a more negative memory the back to back crushing disappointments of MGSV and Fallout 4 changed the way i anticipate anything and killed my interest in gaming for months

 

[Hate]

Dragon Quest VIII. Bought for the demo of FFXII. Instead I was blown away. Really it's my introduction to DQ and it managed to make me fall in love with it. I also felt it was better than FFXII.

MS Saga. I remember this fondly because I wasn't really a fan of Gundams as a whole. I thought it was a game about that Gundam for kids anime that ran on toonami which is about a kid becoming friends with a Gundam called commander or something which I really liked as a kid. Completely fell in love with Gundam afterwards.

Ragnarok Online is my introduction to MMO and it completely blew my mind with how interactive it is and also started my appreciation to game OST.

 

[DECK’ARD]

The early days of Phantasy Star Online.

It was magical.

 

[Baphomet]

Playing Breath of Fire 4 for the first time.

 

[Deleted member 16657]

The TF2 trading update. That summer I went in a boy and came out a capitalist.

 

[deep_dish]

The gold Zelda OOT N64 cart. I literally cheered when I saw it!

 

[Pyro]

Skyrim is also memorable for me. I was a junior in high school and in English class our teacher was pretty cheesy, saying that at 11:11 A.M. (on 11-11-11) we should make a wish.

I didn't have a job and was hoping I'd be able to trade in enough stuff at Hastings to buy it with my friends. So I figured what the hell, made the wish to have enough store credit for the game, and after school when my friends were waiting for me to check out lo and behold I had just enough to cover the cost of the game and tax.

It was a cursed wish though as I was one of the few people that had a PS3 and that version of Skyrim, much like F:NV, started to tear at the seams once your save file got big enough.

 

[Nintendo]

GTA V launch. It's the only midnight release I ever went to. I played all night and missed my classes that day.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

• Destiny launched. Played 8 hours straight with my wife and one of my best friends. Good times.
• Zelda BOTW. Really underestimated it before release due to disappointment with SS. Blew me away. Got laid off a week after and played it all that month while looking for a job. Was a good stress reliever.
• Goldeneye multiplayer nights with friends 97-99
• Playing KOTOR for the first time and getting back into gaming after years off. Probably played all of Tarus (first planet) in one 10 hour sitting. Remember playing from when I woke up until it Was dark outside
• Wii launch and the ensuing year. Wii sports was a hot item and everyone I knew wanted to come over and try it
• To lesser extent but still really great memories: FE:3H playing thru houses, AC:NH launch even now, Mario Galaxy/Odyssey release, Uncharted 4 release, Halo 3/Gears/GTA4/Mario Kart Wii/Smash Bros Brawl releases

 

[Clay]

I still remember the first time I played GTAIII very, very vividly, that was so mind-blowing at the time.

Playing Mario 64 was pretty big too but not as impactful for me personally, mostly because the 64 was the first console I owned. It was still crazy but I only had the brief time I had played Genesis and SNES at friends' houses at a comparison.

 

[ClickyCal']

Seeing my dream get revealed that I thought was never happening.

 

[Bruceleeroy]

It had snowed for 3 days in the beginning of November which in the years prior and since was and is incredibly rare. Almost all roads were shutdown and I was trapped at a friends house who had just recently moved out on his own. He was 19 I was 15. The roads pretty much looked like this:

The day the snow began we were both extremely worried as he had pre-ordered a game that was supposed to be delivered that day. Because he was part of the of POWER CLUB he was supposed to get the game a couple days early and it was supposed to be the GOLD version. We heard the roads were making it so no deliveries could go out but we weren't sure and refused to give up hope. At 6pm there was a knock on his door and Fed Ex (Bless you Fed Ex and Tom Hanks) my friend was delivered this:

It snowed non stop. For me school was cancelled for 5 days and we played that game every second of the day. It was and is the most amazing combination of life events and video game magic I've ever experienced to this day.

 

[smurfx]

a lot of my gaming moments involved me going to toys r us and seeing games for the first time. mario 64 and panzer dragoon were two games i remember being amazed by.

 

[Riversands]

Bloodborne. It started way before i had ps4. I saw it for the first time on ign's youtube, and then people had been hyping it up and talking about its difficulty. I also watched the trailers, and decided to pick it up. It is my first introductory game to ps4

 

[Jerm411]

It had snowed for 3 days in the beginning of November which in the years prior and since was and is incredibly rare. Almost all roads were shutdown and I was trapped at a friends house who had just recently moved out on his own. He was 19 I was 15. The roads pretty much looked like this:

The day the snow began we were both extremely worried as he had pre-ordered a game that was supposed to be delivered that day. Because he was part of the of POWER CLUB he was supposed to get the game a couple days early and it was supposed to be the GOLD version. We heard the roads were making it so no deliveries could go out but we weren't sure and refused to give up hope. At 6pm there was a knock on his door and Fed Ex (Bless you Fed Ex and Tom Hanks) my friend was delivered this:

It snowed non stop. For me school was cancelled for 5 days and we played that game every second of the day. It was and is the most amazing combination of life events and video game magic I've ever experienced to this day.

Click to shrink...

What a story...this is what I'm here for lol.

 

[defaltoption]

The launch of Halo 3, Modern Warfare 2, GTA 5, and the PS4 all were ginormous for the industry and were so exciting.

The announcements of God of War Reboot, FF7 Remake, and RE7 the best reveal moments in my opinion ever though I was never more interested in something I'd never seen before as I was with Fallout 3 at E3

My first time playing through Mass Effect 1 and 2, Life is Strange, Telltale's Walking Dead, and Fallout 3

Edit: Oh man the Skyrim launch too, everyone was playing that shit lmao, I even had people who thought I was the biggest nerd in the world for playing games talking to me about Skyrim quests. The PS3 psn shutdown, my first RROD. So many memories. Thats not even counting super old stuff like when I got my first copy of Pokemon Blue and played for days, I had like a level 83 blastoise and like no other good Pokémon and was wondering why I couldn't beat the elite 4. Trying to upgrade a pc for the first time, it was the ram in my dads pc so I can play games and I broke the ram slot.

 

[Jerm411]

I'd like to add another one to my list....Sony's 2013 E3 conference.

Jack Trenton, Radioactive, "this is how you share games", Andy House, $399.....shoot it all directly into my veins. So good.

 

[Scottoest]

- Playing Sonic 3D Blast during Chrstmas break on my Genesis, while listening to "Mo Money Mo Problems" by Puff Daddy and "Miami" by Will Smith, recorded to a cassette tape, over and over.
- First time playing World of Warcraft, running around on Teldrassil trying to get my bearings, and being amazed by how big it was.
- Playing 4-player GoldenEye constantly one summer, in my friend's garage on a 15" computer monitor.
- Midnight launches of Mass Effect 3 and GTA IV. Going to Best Buy on my lunch working nightshift, to pick up my collector's edition of COD Modern Warfare (2 I think?) at midnight, complete with night vision headset.
- Playing multiplayer C&C Red Alert, via serial cable with my friend. Playing it on my dad's work laptop at the cottage.
- Playing "Wheel of Fortune" off of an old-school floppy disk on our first family computer as a kid
- Playing "The Incredible Machine" on our second family computer, a 486/66, where you had to use pre-chosen parts to create machines to do certain tasks. There was a cat and mouse I think named Sid and Al?
- Going with my dad to the computer store so we could upgrade the RAM in that computer from 8MB to 16MB, so we could play NASCAR Racing by Papyrus.
- Finding all of the golden spiders in Ocarina of TIme. First time I had ever done absolutely everything in a game.
- Playing Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast, with my friend.
- Constantly renting and re-renting Burnout Takedown to play with that same friend.
- My two best friends bringing their entire desktop PCs over to my place so we could play Battlefield Vietnam over LAN. Instead we mostly just ended up sharing files with one another
- Playing Unreal Tournament on our third family computer, a Pentium III 800MHz. Hours spent just playing Facing Worlds over and over again against bots. Later playing the Strangelove mod with a friend of mine.
- Years of playing Team Fortress Classic all through high school. Late nights running conc jump and rocket jump challenge maps with my friend. Briefly being in an "OGL" clan for TFC.
- Doing the same with Team Fortress 2 for a while.
- Not game related, by going through a case of beer one night with my friend, while we manually bootstrapped a new installation of Gentoo Linux on the first computer I built myself - an AMD Athlon 64-based PC.

 

[Zaied]

The Vita launch was a pretty great time because it launched almost exactly a week after my birthday, it was the first system I ever got on launch, and I desperately coveted a new portable gaming system at the time since my PSP was no longer in the best shape. The hardware simply wowed me, especially as someone who spent years gaming on the PSP. I was mostly excited to finally start playing portable games with dual analogs; the 3G, touchscreen, and touchpad were icing on the cake. On top of that, I decided to get Shinobido 2 for my first game, despite the poor reviews, as I was unfamiliar with the series and wanted to play something exclusive to the Vita. Shinobido 2 is now one of my favorite games ever, so it proved to be a wise choice.

 

[Terra Firma]

When I "won" a PS3 in early 2007 through a literal pyramid scheme. I made a YouTube video advertising it back when the PS3 launched and had enough people signed up using my referral link in a couple of months. In fact, I had even completely forgotten about the video and the pyramid scheme but just remembered it out of the blue like 4 months afterwards and I had had enough people sign up for me to get the PS3. Keep in mind this was when the PS3 60GB was $700+tax Canadian so when I literally got the PS3 in the mail, I probably had a mini seizure or something because I involuntarily started jumping up and down like an idiot.

(my out of pocket expenditure was like $10)

 

[Delroy]

Not exactly a moment, but when Diablo II was fairly new and relevant, my friends and I would get home from school and play for hours. I'd toss my bag by the door, boot up the computer and dial-up internet. Had to convince my parent that cable internet was a necessity....great times. That, and CS 1.5 and Starcraft took a large chunk of my youth time outside of sports.

 

[GamerJM]

The launch of the Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I followed both obsessively up until launch. For the Wii I spent like an entire Summer rewatching trailers of Wii games and trying to read about every bit of news I could get on the console. The entirety of 2006 felt like an eternity because of it. The day November 19, 2006 finally came felt surreal, like I was dreaming. Then of course, it was a massive success, and I felt vindicated about excitement I had tried with little success to spread to those around me.

Brawl was the classic checking the dojo every morning and getting excited. I remember the one-two-three punch of my mom telling me I could go to "E For All," that year since we'd be in Los Angeles that week, then finding out Brawl would be playable there, then finding out Sonic the fucking Hedgehog was in the game and playable at the event. What a time.

The entire early seventh gen period holds a lot of memories like this for me too outside of just Nintendo tbh. The launch of stuff like Halo 3 and GTA4, even though I didn't buy them at launch, felt huge to me. Obsessing over magazine spreads about games that were years away or wouldn't even come out at all, like Too Human and Huxley. "599 US Dollars" and "RIIIIIDGE RACER". "My Body is Ready". Internet message boards being huge in an era where most people had left dial-up but modern social media wasn't there yet. Guitar Hero and Rock Band taking the world by storm.

 

[Silvergun-Blue]

Playstation era Square was completely off the chain in terms of the volume and quality of their output, particularly in the latter half of that gen. Hardly a "moment" but it was a glorious time to be a gamer, especially as a teen when everything is super amazing to you.
If you want a moment on a far more literal sense, the first time I saw Soul Calubur in motion and I was floored that any video game could look and run like that.

 

[Grue]

I think this thread is going to be a lot of OoT and Skyrim.

I'm no different. The gold cartridge was like some magical Christmas present, and Skyrim got me back into gaming in a big way, after something of a break.

I'll chuck in a few extra from the N64, which was really my personal golden era:

Seeing Mario move in 3D, in line with someone's thumb twiddling a stick, was absolutely an epiphany for me and I'll never forget it. (The fact it was in an Argos in Essex will absolutely not ruin this memory for me).​

​

Lylat Wars (or Star Fox, as I wish Europe had also adopted) - came with the rumble pack in an extra big box, which was exciting. I was on a caravanning holiday with my family at the time and I had no option but to stare at the back of the box, and greedily read and re-read the manual cover to cover, before getting home and being able to play it.​

​

The whole Rare/N64 period was a real undercurrent of this time. Every release and announcement was so exciting. Blast Corps whipped my arse; Banjo Kazooie was a joy; Conker was a great send-off for the console; and I even liked Jet Force Gemini. And that's without even mentioning GoldenEye or Perfect Dark.​

​

And to give some balance, some from other consoles:

Metal Gear Solid felt like some kind of boundary had been broken, for sure. In retrospect it might not quite be the mature Hollywood production I might have felt at the time ...​

​

The Dreamcast was the promise of the arcade at home, and in at least Crazy Taxi delivered that for me. Shenmue felt like it was pushing boundaries. Also, I must have played that whale opening section of Sonic Adventures dozens of times.​

​

Those periods definitely felt magical in a way games don't seem to hit me any more. I suppose it's a mix of getting older; nostalgia being amplified; and expectations being raised.

I might not ever feel the same way again - though I hope that I do - but even so, I'm very grateful for some formative memories.

 

[MetalGearZed]

I'd like to add another one to my list....Sony's 2013 E3 conference.

Jack Trenton, Radioactive, "this is how you share games", Andy House, $399.....shoot it all directly into my veins. So good.

Click to shrink...

this. probably because of your avatar but this is the first thing that popped to mind lol. I loved the PS4 pre-release hype train

 

[Deleted member 24079]

- Playing Sonic 3D Blast during Chrstmas break on my Genesis, while listening to "Mo Money Mo Problems" by Puff Daddy and "Miami" by Will Smith, recorded to a cassette tape, over and over.
- First time playing World of Warcraft, running around on Teldrassil trying to get my bearings, and being amazed by how big it was.
- Playing 4-player GoldenEye constantly one summer, in my friend's garage on a 15" computer monitor.
- Midnight launches of Mass Effect 3 and GTA IV. Going to Best Buy on my lunch working nightshift, to pick up my collector's edition of COD Modern Warfare (2 I think?) at midnight, complete with night vision headset.
- Playing multiplayer C&C Red Alert, via serial cable with my friend. Playing it on my dad's work laptop at the cottage.
- Playing "Wheel of Fortune" off of an old-school floppy disk on our first family computer as a kid
- Playing "The Incredible Machine" on our second family computer, a 486/66, where you had to use pre-chosen parts to create machines to do certain tasks. There was a cat and mouse I think named Sid and Al?
- Going with my dad to the computer store so we could upgrade the RAM in that computer from 8MB to 16MB, so we could play NASCAR Racing by Papyrus.
- Finding all of the golden spiders in Ocarina of TIme. First time I had ever done absolutely everything in a game.
- Playing Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast, with my friend.
- Constantly renting and re-renting Burnout Takedown to play with that same friend.
- My two best friends bringing their entire desktop PCs over to my place so we could play Battlefield Vietnam over LAN. Instead we mostly just ended up sharing files with one another
- Playing Unreal Tournament on our third family computer, a Pentium III 800MHz. Hours spent just playing Facing Worlds over and over again against bots. Later playing the Strangelove mod with a friend of mine.
- Years of playing Team Fortress Classic all through high school. Late nights running conc jump and rocket jump challenge maps with my friend. Briefly being in an "OGL" clan for TFC.
- Doing the same with Team Fortress 2 for a while.
- Not game related, by going through a case of beer one night with my friend, while we manually bootstrapped a new installation of Gentoo Linux on the first computer I built myself - an AMD Athlon 64-based PC.

Click to shrink...

These are all just really cool to me. We also had to upgrade the pc and get a sound card for NASCAR Racing by Papyrus.

 

[Genesius]

The release of LttP amd OoT.
Seeing RE1 and FF7 for the first time and realizing what games could be in terms of creating atmosphere.
Medal of Honor Allied Assault in college.
Halo 1 multiplayer just after.
Vanilla WoW, which I was sold on by watching a video on YouTube of someone taking a gryphon from a harbor into ironforge and there was NO LOADING and you could see details of people running around below you and then you landed and just kept going. My mind was blown.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

Picking up SSBM from EB Games store was the best time. Turning the game on and seeing this insane jump in quality from the first game was something else.

 

[Scottoest]

These are all just really cool to me. We also had to upgrade the pc and get a sound card for NASCAR Racing by Papyrus.

Click to shrink...

I'll never forget the intro for that game.

"I'm Ned Jarrett. For Papyrus, this is NASCAR Racin'."

I believe the RAM upgrade was my birthday present that year, haha.

 

[Love Machine]

The early days of Phantasy Star Online.

It was magical.

Click to shrink...

Oh, man. I remember sneaking the DC into the parent's bedroom while they were out/busy and using dial-up to role-play with friends (irl and online alike).
Never did hear from them about the phone bills, though...

 

[Zaki2407]

Spent the night before PS3 launched in front of BicCamera store in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. There were around a thousand people lining up that night. I was no. 365. The store's employee gave each of us a ticket with numbers on it. The store opened early at 6am. I got mine around 7am.

other moments probably when the first time I went to Tokyo Game Show 2004. it was a great feeling for a gamer like me.

 

[Love Machine]

I just remembered a good'n.

Going to one high school friend's house to play games, he had his gaming PC and internet connection in a shed in the garden (don't ask) and we'd stay up late playing Counter Strike and Tiberian Sun and stuff. It was so cold, and he smoked so I stank of cigarettes the next day, but many laughs and great memories.

...Actually thinking back, many great memories are of going to different peoples' houses, each with their own unique smells and types of game you'd play; whether you were taking it in turns or playing Vs/co-op, etc... Simpler times are always fonder!

 

[Deleted member 59126]

N64 was a major event happening that everyone was talking about, even my parents and other adults I knew. Mario 64 and Zelda Ocarina of a Time seemed like earth-shattering events.

 

[Deleted member 59126]

Picking up SSBM from EB Games store was the best time. Turning the game on and seeing this insane jump in quality from the first game was something else.

Click to shrink...

The first game was already good, but man Melee was great. My friends and I would get lost in time playing that and Halo.

 

[ZeroDS]

Phantasy Star Online is something that I will always remember. Met so many people, so many friends and lost them all when the servers went down. Some of the best gaming memories I have are in that game

 

[Coen]

Christmas 1998, I was sixteen, didn't really have a lot of money and Ocarina of Time had released two weeks prior. In the months leading up to its release I had savored every snippet of info, every blurry screenshot I could find. I had a taped copy of DJ Paul Elstak - The Promised Land's video just for the couple of seconds of early Zelda 64 animation in it. I needed to have the game and I made it very clear to my parents that it was the only thing on my wish list that years. Presents were under the tree for at least a week prior to Christmas and of course I had spotted the N64 sized box, so I wasn't worried.

When it was time to open up them up, just after breakfast, my mom made me promise to open that gift last. I reluctantly agreed, but I was thankful my parents bought me my beloved Ocarina of Time. After every present under the tree had been opened by my sister, my uncle and my parents, I finally got to open it up, only to find 1080 degrees Snowboarding, a game I had bought earlier that year. I was in tears, threw the present away and stormed of to my bedroom, leaving my family dumbstruck by my spoiled reaction.

After about an hour my mom came up to my room, copy of 1080 Snowboarding in hand, and asked me to open it. Inside was the cartridge for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. She explained she wanted to pull a prank on me, and just borrowed a box. She expected me to know right away, and she felt kinda sorry for me, but I had to (rightly) apologize to the rest of the family for my reaction. After early Christmas diner, my dad hooked up the N64 to the big TV in the living room and the entire family watched and directed me as I played trough the first part of the game.

 

[Shoichi]

The Wotlk and AQ events in WoW history

 

[Deleted member 179]

So many Call of Duty lines with like 12 other dudes from school. Our gamestop did trivia, had a demo tent up, the works.

Skyrim is another good one for me, that and Mass Effect 2 were my first obsessions after all my kid hype with Kingdom Hearts.

Borderlands gets a shoutout, when the GOTY edition released with all DLC, me and my neighbor, who was my best friend then, spent every single day just binging hours and hours of it in co-op. It was perfect.

Last one goes to the original FF7. I didn't play it at release, I was 2. But growing up, funnily enough, my cousin's dad got us Advent Children and we were ALL about it. That's when we read about the game and its story. Then Dirge came out and we loved that. We would lay in the dark after bedtime and talk about the characters for hours. Fast forward a little to my summer before high school, I finally said I gotta play this. I spent that whole summer doing typical biking around town with friends, but any time I was home I was binging it while listening to the Foo Fighters greatest hits that i think just came out. Those two things are forever intertwined for me now lol. That summer cemented it as my favorite game of all time till The Last of Us came out but there's still a fight there.

 

[R IS REAL 2041]

PS4/XBO prerelease and E3 threads with CBOAT/ntkrnl
Wii would like to play commercials everywhere
Halo 3 2007-2009 *chefs kiss*
NBA 2K11 (Jordan was on the cover) and NBA Live took a big L

 

[Deleted member 24079]

I'll never forget the intro for that game.

"I'm Ned Jarrett. For Papyrus, this is NASCAR Racin'."

I believe the RAM upgrade was my birthday present that year, haha.

Click to shrink...

Haha exactly. My only objectives in that game were to paint cars and drive the opposite way to crash

 

[Jerm411]

Christmas 1998, I was sixteen, didn't really have a lot of money and Ocarina of Time had released two weeks prior. In the months leading up to its release I had savored every snippet of info, every blurry screenshot I could find. I had a taped copy of DJ Paul Elstak - The Promised Land's video just for the couple of seconds of early Zelda 64 animation in it. I needed to have the game and I made it very clear to my parents that it was the only thing on my wish list that years. Presents were under the tree for at least a week prior to Christmas and of course I had spotted the N64 sized box, so I wasn't worried.

When it was time to open up them up, just after breakfast, my mom made me promise to open that gift last. I reluctantly agreed, but I was thankful my parents bought me my beloved Ocarina of Time. After every present under the tree had been opened by my sister, my uncle and my parents, I finally got to open it up, only to find 1080 degrees Snowboarding, a game I had bought earlier that year. I was in tears, threw the present away and stormed of to my bedroom, leaving my family dumbstruck by my spoiled reaction.

After about an hour my mom came up to my room, copy of 1080 Snowboarding in hand, and asked me to open it. Inside was the cartridge for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. She explained she wanted to pull a prank on me, and just borrowed a box. She expected me to know right away, and she felt kinda sorry for me, but I had to (rightly) apologize to the rest of the family for my reaction. After early Christmas diner, my dad hooked up the N64 to the big TV in the living room and the entire family watched and directed me as I played trough the first part of the game.

Click to shrink...

LOL what a story.....oh man.

 

[Ant]

The whole pre-release cycle of San Andreas, remember it so well. Got the UK magazine where it was fully previewed.

Remember the tease of each of the three cities through the official site (distinctly remember seeing a sneak peek of Las Venturas early through the Hanky Panky Point area on their website)

The E3 Screenshot they released with the convention centre in the game

All of the mini fansites that popped up at the time trying to collate everything they could.

Then the release, and all the schoolyard rumours and secrets.

I remember having a "Sick day" that week and made it to San Fierro and when my brother came home he was amazed at how long my health bar had gotten, something I barely even noticed.

 

[monmagman]

Getting a PS1 with a copy of Tomb Raider was pretty mind blowing back in the day.

 

[dskzero]

Warcraft 3 + The Frozen Throne hype was wild.

I also have very fond memories of the time when Pokémon red and blue was all the rage and I was part of the Universal Pokémon Network forum, where we would discuss a lot about the game. The first world champion was also there (EeveeTrainer I think?)

I was also part of the Seiken Densetsu 3 forum on gamefaqs when it was first fan translated and I had a lot of fun in there with the people and challenges. I also wrote guides for that game. It was really cool to discover.