Over the years I've played a lot of games. Some of them winners, some not so much. And yet, inside some of the what looks like worst games ever come some of the best moments in gaming for me.
The RPG triumvirate:
Dragon Warrior, Ultima III: Exodus, Final Fantasy
Dragon Warrior. The entire series. These games, dating back to the first one on the NES in 1989 (the Japanese version hit in '86), had me hooked on rpg's. This game was my drug growing up as a kid in the 80's and early 90's. I remember saving allowance money to rent this game from my local Blockbuster Video store. I cherished being able to rent this game, and hated having to return it after my rental time was up. You could save your progress, you had three spots to save everything you had accomplished. I would get pissed, PISSED, when I would rent the game again and my saved states were deleted or overridden. But I just got back into the game and slogged through it. By the time my parents would let me start buying games, I had almost won it several times, but I never did beat it until I had bought it, a couple years after it had first come out.
Ultima III: Exodus. This game was where my dad taught me how to get "hardcore" on video games. My dad figured out how to min/max this game to a rediculous degree. In that game, ranged, and specifically clerics and wizards, had the advantage of having free aoe level one spells that could instantly kill the early level enemies, trivializing those early encounters. On top of that, it was discovered that the games graphics telegraphed when to click the button on the controller to guarantee a hit with the spells (yes, if you timed the button press wrong, you missed). My dad figured this out before the secret went global via the internet and magazines that showed two screenshots side by side, the "miss" graphic and the "hit" graphic. My dad cheesed the hell out of the game, spending hours easily winning low level fights to the point where he got a stupid amount of gold, more than enough experience to hit level 25 (max level) on all 4 characters, and then ran through all the dungeons. I literally woke up one day where, the day prior I had seen my dad aimlessly wandering the country side fighting the same fights over and over, and then the next day he had his save state ready to load and walked me through the final dungeon. There were invisible creatures in that one, he had figured out, knew how many spell casts to kill them, where they were, how they would move, and walked me through all of it to the final boss, and how to kill that. My dad was insane, and I loved it.
Final Fantasy. This game hit the US in 1990. By that time, after the Ultima games and Dragon Warrior, I was ready for this game. So was my dad. We both played the game on and off, taking turns playing, or making progress while the other wasn't around to play and then recapping once we were together. If you have played some of the Final Fantasy games, but you haven't played the first, you owe it to yourself to see what this was like. It is an experience. It had content, a lot of it, for that day and age. You grew these characters, quite literally when it was time to class advance. I woke up one day to see my dad playing, and the characters we had been playing looked different. I was confused by it, but after my dad explained everything, it all made sense. It was a race to the finish for us at that point.
China/Japan:
Nobunaga's Ambition series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.
Starting with Japan, and my Sega Genesis, we had Nobunaga's Ambition hit the gaming scene in 1988. This was a different type of game all together, yet it had similar elements to rpg style of play. All those games like the Civ games, the Total War series, etc., owe their roots to this game. I played Nobunaga's Ambition I, II, and III across all the platforms they came out on, and I loved every minute of them.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Dear God, if there was ever a game I loved the most, it would be this game. I can spout second and third century Chinese history better than I can American history thanks to KOEI. Cao Cao, Guan Yu, Lu Bei, Lu Bu, Sun Quan (if you know these names, hell yeah!). From 1988 on, I played almost every iteration of this game that I could get my hands on. I destroyed so much of my life playing these games, I couldn't tell you how much I've played. I can easily, EASILY, tell you that I have played Rot3K and all its series more than anything else on the planet. Even if you add up every MMO that I've played together, all of them, KOEI still has held me enthralled longer than every other company put together. I still play the Rot3K games every once in a while. I can tell you family histories, layout of castles, battles that took place, tribes that fought inside and outside of China. I know too much about this stuff. If you have ever loved playing World Sim/RTS/Turn-based strategy games, you have to pick up some of the Rot3K games and give them a shot. Your inner child will thank you.
Arcade Action:
Golden Axe, Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Black Tiger...this list could go on forever.
These games, I played mostly in the arcades, but again on home consoles once arcades started to phase out, were fantastic. They had action, side scrolling, and rpg elements. Single player, two player, four player, it didn't matter, they were all fun. If you have ever played any of these games in the arcades, you had a great time growing up, and you will always remember them. Nobody left these games without feeling like it was money well spent. Nobody.
I do want to talk about one game here, called Gain Ground. In 1988, this hit the arcade scene, and later a myriad of consoles. Top down, free captured characters, all with different types of attacks and abilities, this game was amazing. This game was crack for me. If you haven't ever played it, you need to. This game is a classic great game.
I also need to devote some time to Gauntlet. In 1985 this BAMF hit the arcades, and it blew my mind. It freaking blew my mind. The first game where myself, my dad, and my two older brothers could all play together, work together. This game gave me some of the greatest memories with my dad and my brothers that I will carry with me for my entire life. I still find moments where I'll chuckle out a "red warrior needs food badly!" or a "blue valkyrie is about to die!" from time to time. This was my first foray into multiplayer raiding. My dad always played the wizard, and always yellow. My oldest brother played the red warrior. My second oldest brother played the blue valkyrie. I always took control of the green thief. We had our roles. I was the key runner. When we came up to a gate, with an entire horde of baddies on the other side, I would be the one to open it and then run the hell back. Both my brothers would be on either side of the gate ready to blast away from the sides. My dad would be far back, launching fireballs as fast as he could. And as soon as I had run far enough back, I'd turn and blast away with daggers. We orchestrated our combat. It was art. We were a team. And usually since I was the fastest, my brothers and my dad would be cheering me on to try to complete a level once they were dead and I was just making a break for the exit. Those rare times in my life where all of us would get together and play this game together, there was no feeling like it in the world. Nothing compares to this type of experience for me in my life. It is such a unique thing, to have the perfect game that all of us guys in the family loved to do, together, I couldn't cherish anything more in my life.
I think I'll cut this post short here, as I really do think I could just go on forever about all the different games I've played and loved. Hell, I'm starting to remember the years spent playing Dig Dug, Burger Time, Tron, Pole Position, Yar's Revenge, Galaxian...
Anywho, just a little bit about me and my gaming. I hope the trip down memory lane sparks something in you that you remember and loved.
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