Editorials

Editorial: Old-School Nostalgia

By Bup
6 Comments

I recently saw the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (which was excellent and you should all see it like eighty times), which started a conversation between a friend and I about old-school videogames and our memories with them.  This in turn made me bust out my old NES and Super Mario Bros. 3. The game unsurprisingly took a bit of blowing and cleansing with a Q-tip and Windex to finally get the game to work, but it was worth all the trouble.  While playing I got to thinking about some of my favorite memories of these old-school videogames.

Was Mario the first furry?!

My earliest, and fondest, being of sitting with my dad on the couch playing Antarctic Adventure for the ColecoVision.  I remember hearing my dad say the title for the first time, but thinking the title was “Aunt” Arctic Adventure and the penguin was trying to make his way to his Aunt.  I was too young to know about the actual continent of Antarctica and the put two and two together.

USA #1 WHOOOOOOOOO!

So my question to you, my dearest of doves, is this: what fond memories do you have that involve retro games?  Tell me in the comments below!

6 Comments

  1. Jenifer
    Posted 2010.09.01 at 00:29 | Permalink
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    My very first video game memory is from an old Atari game where you played the cowboy shooting your little square bullets at Indians. I was horrible at it, as it required timing and was before the days of spray-and-pray, unless you were a great button masher which I was not.

    As far as my first fond memory, it would have to be when my older sister gave me her SNES with Secret of Mana, which I’d watched her play for hours. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten much older since the Atari game or I simply hadn’t gotten any smarter, as I was terrible at it and couldn’t figure out the ring system, leaving me unable to heal and thus unable to get past the second boss until I was a few years older.

    …I was a very inept little kid. inb4 “you’re inept now, hurrrrrr”

  2. Cram
    Posted 2010.09.01 at 01:02 | Permalink
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    My first video game memory is similar to Jenifers’. Mine being dodging cannibals on the Atari 800xl’s Jungle Hunt. Followup memories including playing Super Mario Bros 1 on the NES at a friends place for the first time, playing Zelda 1 at some person I knew in Kindergardens birthday party. Finally, playing Final Fantasy 1 for the first time when a friend brought it over, having nearly beaten the game. He told me he was trying to find some weapon called “Masmune” but had no luck. It was on the Weapon chart/map that came with the game, and he wanted it because it looked badass. I stumbled upon it by fluke on Tiamats floor at the Temple of Chaos. It was hilarious, I think. My first Final Fantasy memory of any kind is finding Masmune, I can’t complain.

    Other important memories include getting Final Fantasy II on the SNES for Christmas (mother hid it in the middle of our giant christmas tree as a joke), and renting Final Fantasy III (aka VI) and playing that for the first time. I consider that weekend one of the holiest weekends of my life, being that Final Fantasy VI is one of the greatest video games of all time, if not the greatest.

  3. SiliconNooB
    Posted 2010.09.01 at 04:32 | Permalink
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    Where does one draw the cut-off point with retro gaming?

    Strong childhood memories include Super Mario Bros, The Adventures of Link and Double Dragon II&III. On SNES games include: Super Mario World, Street Fighter II, Super Double Dragon and Donkey Kong Country.

  4. Cram
    Posted 2010.09.01 at 04:36 | Permalink
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    @SN – Bonus points for Adventures of Link mention. My favorite Zelda game in the entire franchise, and I know I’m almost completely alone in that statement. I actually just played through Zelda 2 tonight with a friend, beat in 3 hours. Thing is, it’s about the 50th time I’ve beaten the game doing the level 1 magic challenge.

  5. Lusipurr
    Posted 2010.09.01 at 09:46 | Permalink
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    My first video game memories are of my uncle’s old Pong console; of course, I recall playing Pac-Man on arcade machines, which my sister and I used to enjoy. But the first system I owned myself was an Atari 2600, and the first game I remember playing for that system was Plaque Attack, also on my uncle’s console.

    Pac-Man at the arcades was my big favourite when I was younger. I loved mazes, and enjoyed that game thoroughly. That said, the console versions of the time were a huge disappointment.

  6. SiliconNooB
    Posted 2010.09.01 at 10:19 | Permalink
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    *Add to my list Konami’s TMNT Arcade game.