☆ Let's Try Stimulating The Retro Gaming Nostalgia Gland ☆ #Retrogaming #GamersUnite

The memories of our retro gaming pasts are sometimes better than the reality.

BUT the stories that they evoke are truly priceless and bring a smile to your face as the nostalgia gland* in the brain sends waves of rose tinted memories through your central nerve system into the tips of your fingers.

*there is no science behind this statement but just try and stick with me on this one ok?!*

I love to share video games memories ,as you can probably tell from the Games Freezer blog, and I recently followed up my last memory sharing post with a question to the Reddit retrogaming community.

 

The responses did not disappoint and i'd love to share those short stories of joy with you all today.

 

I defy you not to smile and even cry a little at some of the brilliant stories contained within the next section of this article.

 

This is how my text post on Reddit began......

 

"I love to read and share video games memories from when I was young.

My aim is to one day create a book of video games memoirs just chock full of stories and memories of every console ever made.

I'll start everyone off with my favourite video games memory....

As always it starts with a SNES.

Add to that a copy of Super Mario Kart and we have the perfect scenario for local multiplayer!

My 3 closest friends and I would gather at a chosen venue to play Super Mario Kart battle mode.

The venue was normally my best mate Paul's house and there we would stay there for hours on end mastering the tactics of battle mode until it got dark and i'd have to head home.

The thing I loved most about these Battle Mode sessions was the way we created our very own 4 man Battle Mode League complete with a league table and a metric known as 'Balloon Difference'.

Balloon Difference (much like goal difference in football) would be used to separate competitors in the Battle Mode league who were tied on points.

For every balloon you had left after winning a battle you would get additional Balloon Difference points so that you were rewarded even more if you beat someone and had 3 balloons left.

2 points were awarded for a win and we kept a running league table over the course of many months.

The laughs we had playing Battle Mode League have never been rivaled since those days and I look back on them fondly.

It also explains why in my eyes the original Mario Kart has never been equalled.

So....over to you.... What Is Your Most Cherished Video Games Memory?"

These are some of the brilliant replies that I received from the coolest Reddit Community on this planet!

[–]Supernintendolover

The day i first play dkc2 on the snes. I was already into gaming then, but this experience literally made me fall in love with gaming.

[–]C64_Television

Finishing Ultima III and later Ultima IV.

[–]r2d2emc2

Overall: playing Master Of Orion. E.g. finding out how my counter measures in ship design really solved problems with an unbearable enemy was stunning.

Also Great Gianna Sisters on the C64 for the sweet, sweet music.

[–]stone500 

Playing Double Dragon 2 with my dad when I was like, 6. My dad isn't much of a gamer, but he loved to spend time with me, and I always loved him for that. Double Dragon 2 was always a game that we played together. We always used a Game Genie, because neither of us was that good at the game, but we always had fun.

I've played many more games then. I've played many games that affected me on a very emotional level. But nothing is ever going to top the memories of me in my pj's sitting on the floor with my dad and playing Double Dragon.

[–]newbachu 

Easy, NARC.

The High School/Jr High I went to was within walking distance to a mall with a pretty decent arcade. 

One day due to this weird scheduling for finals we had an hour and a half lunch. A whole bunch of us kids went to the arcade for lunch. 

After having beat TMNT the day before a few of us decided we were going to beat Narc.

Narc's not the easiest game in the world so we burned through a lot of quarters. 

Every few lives we would swap in and out so no single person had to spend 10 bucks beating it. 

When we made it to the final boss we had drawn a decent sized crowd of kids, I was playing with one of my best friends Jimmy. Near the end of the boss fight he died and he wasn't able to get his quarter in the machine and hit continue before I fired the final shot.

If you've ever beat Narc before you might remember that once you beat the final boss you're taken to a room full of cash and guns and drugs. Just huge piles of everything, you're score goes up like tenfold with just that room. So in front of a whole crowd of people, my buddy Jimmy had to sit there with his credit pending while I picked up all the loot and locked down the high score for the machine. 

25 years later and he's still bitter about it.

[–]Bonus_Barrel 

Hmmm. I have a lot of cherished WoW experiences. Mostly of World Pvp stuff.

One Mario Kart Gameboy advance memory I had was what me and my friends called "Drunk Mario Kart" which is obviously very common today. 

Our version was very stupid. Whatever place you got in was how many seconds you had to chug. So as soon as you started to lose you were basically screwed. 

Our friend was getting rowdy and his broke his toe that session.

I will definitely always cherish any of my early memories (age 7 or 8 ) playing Mario 3. That game was and still is brilliant.

[–]BloodyArondight

I have a lot of good memories, but my favorite is probably the time I stayed up all night getting through Bowsers Castle in Paper Mario when I was 10. 

I didn't have many consoles up until this point and usually played at other peoples houses, so this was the first game I ever beat 100% by myself. I was really proud and I don't think I'll ever forget it.

I also have memories of playing my old secondhand Gameboy as a teenager while saving up for a GBA SP. The first time I saw those (GBC to GB backwards compatible) games in full color with the backlight kinda blew me away.

[–]AshMCairo **STAR STORY**

It was the Winter of 1989. The Sega Genesis come out in August of that year and I wanted one very badly. I can play on my most favorite arcade game, "Ghouls 'n Ghosts," in my home? Yes please! I cut out an ad from Toys 'R Us and put in on my little bulletin board and kept wishing I could have one.

I'm not a spoiled kid though. I could not just ask my parents to buy me one. My parents have their own bills to pay and whatnot, so.... I did what they would do. I got a job.

I spent all winter shoveling snow for my neighbors and saving all that money. One day, my father asked me how much money I've earned so far.

Me: "$150!" 

Father: "Wow. Can I see it?"

I handed him the envelop I've been saving my money in. He counted it.

Father: "I think you counted this wrong. You actually have $200." 

Me: "No I didn't! It's $150! I've been counting it everyda...."

Something clicked in while I was finishing that sentence. 

My father sneaked in the last $50 for me to by the Sega Genesis.

Thank you Dad. I'd like to think because of you I now have a very solid work ethic. My hard work will pay off in the long run. Wish you where still here.

[–]cubosh

being a metroid fan since NES, that first time i got to sit down and play through Super Metroid for SNES was unmatched all the way until like last year when Dark Souls blew my mind

[–]CheersMate88

Mine has to be going round my friends house before school every day to take turns playing THPS2. 

We would pretty much always play the warehouse level and just see who could get the highest score. One friend was notorious for hitting reset after he inevitably fucked up his combo in the first 10 seconds... Good times!

[–]mrtechieman

It has to be a tie. The first is the memory of waking up super freaking early before school to play Double Dragon. It was the best because there was no one there to bother me or demand the television for another purpose.

The second would be heading over to my friend's house on a sunny Saturday morning and playing Blades of Steel against each other, that was always a blast.

[–]Arkham_Retirement

When I was 18-19 or so me and a friend of mine were talking and realized that we had never beat Mario 2. So we went out bought a Nintendo and all three Mario games for NES. We spent a few months becoming the best damn Mario players we would ever be. We got so good at those games we'd do "little man missions" because the games were beginning to get too easy. It was probably the most fun I've had with another dude.

Point is we beat Mario 2 and we were both pretty pumped. I'm pretty sure we almost kissed.

[–]aldeology

We used to play Full Contact NES Ice Hockey, i.e. If you scored on your opponent, you got to give him a slug in the bicep. Pretty much young boy rites of passage at our school. This was also modified for things like Atari Combat, Blades of Steel, and Tecmo Bowl.

[–]Alexxii

Finally getting to the second town in Pokemon Crystal. i had a Feraligaor by the time derpy 8 year old me navigated through that first route.

Hopefully,like me, those memories have filled you with retrogaming joy and happiness?!

If they have, then my job here is done......

**Do You Have Any Great Memories To Add To These Beauties?**