RetroGaming

My cousin rented Megaman 2 and I spent at least an hour in awe of the fact that he could get hit more than twice because he had an energy bar. Then he switched weapons and threw a saw blade and I had to go sit down and think about it for a while.

I was always more of a retro gamer even back in the day. 80s and 90s playing MUDs or Atari and getting an SNES late to the game. My computers were always hand me downs from my parents so i never really got into the best games when i was a kid.

But when i got that issue of PC Gamer with the demo of what Halo was going to be like, with the dinosaurs and cut scenes built into the engagement with your targets...wow i wanted to play that.

Star Control 2 on the 3DO.

It was my first CD console (never got into PC gaming back then), so while I had games like Donkey Kong Country and Sonic & Knuckles, the 3DO could do things that the 16-bit consoles just couldn't.

The opening cutscene…voiced. The graphics blew my mind wide open, and the virtually fully-voiced adventure sucked me in for a long time.

First time I played Myst in 93, that was mind blowing. I didn’t see that level of graphics for a long time after that.

Also a friend let me play Half-life Alyx when it first released and it seemed to be a monumental shift in what gaming would become….. it wasn’t or hasn’t yet, but it blew my mind at the time.

Storming the beach for the first time in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault back in 2002.

Even though the graphics haven't aged well (of course), the sound design, the vibration of the controller, the beats in the pacing as you are tossed around in the boat and then thrown overboard. It was all so well done. It was also the first time (that I could recall) where you began the game and had a moment to just "look around" while the boat was heading to the shore but before you had the ability to move.

You look behind you and you see other soldiers, some puking. Someone yells, and you look up as a fighter/bomber screams over you. The controller rumbles as it drops it's load on the landing craft next to yours, tossing you around. The game took a few moments to let you immerse yourself in the situation before the action started, which I think was an amazing choice.

Anyway, that's my answer. And yes, I'm old.

Getting into Hyrule field for the first time in Ocarina of Time after being stuck in the forest for months or years. I got promptly destroyed by a pineapple.

I don't remember much from my childhood, but that stuck with me.

EverQuest, playing a 3d online fantasy game with some sim elements with other people, was something very new and felt like the future. Limiting fast travel to specific places and classes made the world feel huge. Stumbling across the weird stuff like giant chess boards or a whole underwater dungeon made it feel unique.

Final Fantasy X blew my mind in pretty much every way possible. Never had I seen such amazing graphics, heard such great video game music, been immersed in such a gripping story in a game.

Honestly I think I may have been chasing that high ever since.

Mario 3 unveiled in The Wizard.

For me it was the jump to 3D in the 32 bit era. We already had some games in 3D prior to that, but with the arrival of Playstation and Saturn the landscape changed forever.

The first time I saw gameplay footage of the original Doom, I thought it looked almost photorealistic. I must've been like 6 or 7 at the time.

The beginning of Link to the Past, with the rain, thunder and lightning. LttP took it to another level coming from NES games and even most PC games at the time, setting a mood and atmosphere I had never experienced in gaming before.

Biggest for me would be going online with the Dreamcast. At home I was online with the DC before we had a PC so used it quite a lot.

I probably spent to much time on Dreamarena chat rooms and playing PSO with randoms.

Loading into World of War craft for the first time back in 2005 is probably the biggest.

Seeing all the people running around and doing their thing was incredible. It made me super excited to go explore the world.

UT2004

So many...

• loading (from cassette!) and playing Adventure on a PET 4008. It was breathtaking! The first truly immersive gaming experience.
• Wolf 3D on my first x86 machine. I hooked up the modem from my old Atari 400, and went looking for shareware. I had no idea what I was in for.
• DOOM! I spent all bloody day trying to download the two shareware floppy images on the University campus, and a few hours tweaking the boot disk to get it running. Then the game started, and I played until I had to go to work the next morning.
• Crying at the end of Grim Fandango. I play the game through every year or so, and my eyes still water up at the end.
• Dark Age of Camelot - my first MMORPG. Hundreds of people in guilds and armies, organizing in real-time. It was fantastic. (until the script kiddies took over)

Impossible Mission on the Commodore 64. The running animation was mind blowing for the time

Pitfall on Atari 2600

Becaise I'm old, I guess. Pacman, too, but pitfall seemed more advanced.

Booting up Mario Kart DS and seeing 3D on a portable game system. For years it was 2d portables, 3D consoles. But now both had 3D. My mind would have exploded if I ever saw the steam deck or switch.

Playing Air Warrior II on Windows 95 in 1997. My dad and uncle lived in another state and we’d hop on AOL at a specified time and join a game. It was my first ever online game experience. I was 13. I hope kids today can still feel that total world-changing excitement that I did back then.

Art direction in Comix Zone for Sega Genesis. After static cartoonish games it's unbeliveable you can pull it off on the same hardware. The animated intro, the hand painting enemies as you go and these transitions between scenes were very impressive.

For me it was the original Resident Evil on the Playstation.

It was the first time I saw live-action digitized full-motion video on a gaming system. I know there were a lot of FMV (Full Motion Video) games in that era on other systems, but I didn't own those other systems and I didn't know anybody who did. So, it was all new to me once I played a Playstation.

Resident Evil was also the first time a video game had ever given me a jump scare. Early in the game a zombie doberman bursts through a window unexpectedly and I was hooked! I loved introducing my friends to the game, specifically so I could see their reaction when the dog shows up. So much fun.

Honestly seeing and hearing Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo was kind of wow, too. The graphics boost compared to the 8-bit systems I was used to was incredible. And the sound quality compared to the other 16-bit systems I'd played (Genesis and TG-16) was a leap above. The experience probably pales in comparison to modern games, but back then there was wow factor to it.

To young me, Street Fighter 2 Turbo was pretty wow as well. It was "literally" the same as the arcade version to child me. I could not believe the home version was so close to the real thing, because prior generations of game systems like the NES couldn't come close to that level of performance.

There are some very memorable games.

No game has ever matched the freedom of Morrowind. You are only limited by yourself. Even Oblivion and Skyrim feel restricted by the game itself.

Half-Life 2 interacting with the environment. I must have played with the can for hours the first time.

Final Fantasy VIII though was the single most impressive game for the hardware it came out on. The character models being actual human proportion, the summons looking like actual monsters, and the FMVs where people look like damn people in a movie.

In the same vein, FFX being described as looking like FFVIII's FMVs but all the time. And then living up to the hype.

3D graphics on a mobile device (Gameboy Advance)

I don't think I even enjoyed many of the games I played on GBA, just that I was obsessed with seeing how far the graphics could be pushed.

007 Nightfire Lego Drome Racers Medal of Honor

To name a few

Playing Call of Duty World at War for the first time, if that counts as retro. I had always played co-op games with my brother, and when he was gone for a weekend, I decided to try and play for myself. Spent countless hours replaying missions until I finally beat the campaign. And if I remember correctly, it drops you straight into zombies with no warning. I remember it being way past my bedtime, sitting alone in the dark. I was absolutely terrified because I was genuinely shocked by the premise and maybe too young for something so scary. Didn't sleep at all that night.

Playing Mario Kart DS with people I did not know.

The DS was my entry to the beautiful world of online gaming (it was free, can you believe it?).

And now I see this world kinda meh, perhaps I play (or not) the wrong games, but nothing can beat a perfect 1 player game.

Born in 1980. Seeing the original Mortal Kombat arcade for the first time at a smoke-filled bowling alley that when I was in 7th grade was pretty awe inspiring.

Aside from that playing Wolfenstein 3d for the first time was really trippy.

Oh boy I have a few:

PC
Another Lifeless Planet (and me with no beer) was fantastic for a text adventure.
Testdrive pushed graphics hard
Wolfenstein 3D was incredible at the time being surpassed by Doom then Quake.
Day of the Tentacle for its high quality cartoon animation opening sequence.
Unreal on a Voodoo graphics card was something else.
HL2 of course with its physics (ragdoll) engine and jump in polygons.
Doom 3 for its advance in polygon count again.

NES
Super Mario 3 was a leap believe it or not. Blew people away back then.
Battletoads had huge sprites which wasn’t a NES thing until they did it.

SNES
Fzero and Mode-7 graphics
Donkey Kong Country, its CG was nuts at the time
FFVI’s snowfield theatrics
Starfox

Sega
Earthworm Jim had a great art style and pushed edgy games
Another World/Out of this World for that opening and style was amazing and still holds up!

N64
Super Mario 64 Japanese demo at Babbages in a mall before the US demos came out. That was mind blowingly smooth.
Waverace 64 for its water effects.
Ocarina of Time for its cinematic 3D story telling and fun gameplay.

Neogeo
Metal Slug was incredible in the arcade for all the sprites moving on screen and action. So much fun still to this day.

PlayStation
Resident Evil was incredible for the atmosphere.
Tomb Raider for more detailed 3D environments.
Warhawk also stood out for its great use of the analog dual joysticks.
FFVII for its cinematic story telling and FMVs.
Wipeout for its fast paced racing and great OST.
Grand Turismo for its photo realism simulation and physics.

Dreamcast
Seeing the demo of Sonic Adventure blew my mind since it was so fast and colorful. The whale jumping after Sonic as you raced away was burned into my brain.

Gamecube
Wind Waker, still love that art style and loved the exploration that was enabled by sailing the sea. Didn’t feel that again till BoTW.

Wii
Super Mario Galaxy for its outstanding OST and gameplay.

Playstation 2
Grand Turismo 3
Little Big Planet had incredible art direction and unique play style

Wii U/Switch
Breath of the Wild. What an intro to a new world! They absolutely pushed the hardware to the limits on the Wii U.

Final boss fight of Portal 2 - one of my favorite and most satisfying gaming moments.

I still remember the headache from trying out the Nintendo Virtual boy at Toys R Us for just a few minutes.

Sonic the Hedgehog's impossibly sparkly invincibility, with the show-off music that sped up to show off that there wasn't any lag at all from the particle effect graphic. Really everything about Sonic when he first arrived. That's the best 16 bits ever looked and sounded... Except...

Star Fox. See the other post about Star Fox 64. Star Fox (original) felt the same. Nothing before it looked or played that way. (No offense to Stellar 7's many previous attempts.)

But of an odd one, but who remembers the dos installer for the original command & conquer?