Childhood memories and games

[CS2x]

Am I the only person whose fondest childhood memories are dominated by games? Whose strongest feelings of nostalgia shoot up when listening to a theme from some old interactive experience? No friendships, rambles in the park, times spent with the parents or anything else conjure up quite the same feeling. Nor do old tv programs, films, books or songs.

The game that does it strongest for me is Little Big Adventure 2 (and to a lesser extent, its prequel.) Just putting on a theme from one of those games or looking at a few images can send waves of crippling nostalgia.

I somehow feel that this is a bit strange, maybe even a bit wrong. It's not the sort of thing I could readily admit in public, at least.

[Jam_sponge]

You're not alone. My childhood memories of holidays around the world in particular are punctuated by the games I was playing at the time, or why those places reminded me of games i'd played. Looking back, it's no surprise i've become the games nut I am... Embrace it, I say!

[Timmo]

The game that does it strongest for me is Little Big Adventure 2 (and to a lesser extent, its prequel.) Just putting on a theme from one of those games or looking at a few images can send waves of crippling nostalgia.

Absolutely. I remember literally shaking with excitement as it installed. I thought I was going to explode! Nah not like that, I was only 10 you filth.

[Jam_sponge]

All this LBA love is making me want to revisit it... I've forgotten so much of it, although I do recall my brother and I sharing the following catchphrase for years after:

"Myyy deeear sir! My goods are only available to fully licensed wizards!"

[Timmo]

As someone mentioned in your thread it was really scary too for a youngster, for some strange reason. The music perhaps.

[mchugh]

the word memories got me thinking - its wierd how much detail of a game you can remember, you can go back and play FF7, and know what to expect when you open a chest, you can visualise entire counter-strike maps in your head, remember every secret in super mario world - if school was a video game, we'd all be eggheads by now!

[CS2x]

the word memories got me thinking - its wierd how much detail of a game you can remember, you can go back and play FF7, and know what to expect when you open a chest, you can visualise entire counter-strike maps in your head, remember every secret in super mario world - if school was a video game, we'd all be eggheads by now!

That's true. I can still remember every section of LBA2, or FF7, or Broken Sword, 14 or so years on. I can't remember anything much from school, though, apart from some nice friends and the odd book I enjoyed in English. But maybe that's just coz I'm stupid at maths and all the sciences.

I wish my degree was a game. I'd be a genius at it.

[Qazimod]

I was obsessive about games as a kid, but I wouldn't say they dominated my childhood memories - a lot of memories were still very entertainment-centric; music, film, TV, comics... That said, I was still a keen follower of gaming news and the "next big thing" - the highlight of a seaside visit would be the trip to the pier arcade for a blast on Outrun, for instance.

I guess it's because back in the 8/16-bit era games were still growing up, finding new ways to impress people, and so there were a lot of games that stuck in my mind, from playing some ropey space shooter on a 3DO (sp) to seeing Sonic The Hedgehog for the first time. Of course, games are still impressing today, but it's no longer the new and shiny pursuit filled with possibility that it used to be.

[Harry]

My fondest memories are of the Sega Master System, probably because it was the first console I'd ever played on.

I still have strong images of Alex the Kidd, Sonic & Running Man in my head, I must have only been 5-6 as well.

[roskelld]

I can remember the sun shining through the window on the beautiful day when I (or my Granddad) unboxed the Spectrum and we loaded up Horace Goes Skiing... After having to look up the load command in the manual.

Also the all nighter my uncle and me pulled while playing Fairlight-- trying to get as many guards helmets in the room as possible. The game crashed after about 30 hours when we dropped our (possibly) 15th or more helmet. I guess the game wasn't made for that reason.

[SeanR]

there's a smell I associate with computers being on all day... mmm, nice.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

As someone mentioned in your thread it was really scary too for a youngster, for some strange reason. The music perhaps.

That was me.

God, LBA2 was amazing. I need to replay it. Last played it maybe 2 years ago.

[Jam_sponge]

the word memories got me thinking - its wierd how much detail of a game you can remember, you can go back and play FF7, and know what to expect when you open a chest, you can visualise entire counter-strike maps in your head, remember every secret in super mario world - if school was a video game, we'd all be eggheads by now!

That's why stuff like brain training is actually amazing. I can't help but feel that if it'd been available when I was a kid I wouldn't have been continually bollocked for my inability to learn my times table.

[mchugh]

That's why stuff like brain training is actually amazing. I can't help but feel that if it'd been available when I was a kid I wouldn't have been continually bollocked for my inability to learn my times table.

i'd love to go somewhere on holiday in real life, and be able to say "ooh, theres a nice little cafe down the end of this road, we should give it a go", because i'd driven past it in a racing game, or shot it up in a shooter

[Jam_sponge]

i'd love to go somewhere on holiday in real life, and be able to say "ooh, theres a nice little cafe down the end of this road, we should give it a go", because i'd driven past it in a racing game, or shot it up in a shooter

That sort of happened to me once... I was in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my parents and somehow had a weird feeling i'd been there before. I turned to them and said: "Round the corner, there's a roman chariot.", and there was.

They kind of freaked out actually, haha! I later remembered i'd been there on the original rainbow six...

[Jamie John]

FFs VII, VIII and IX took up a pretty big part of my childhood and were responsible for a lot of my vocabulary. I can still recall most of the monsters' names , especially from IX. Good times.

[Floppy]

I picked up reading faster than some of my peers as I wanted to be able to read Spectrum game instructions so much. I desired to understand how to play the games myself so I wouldn't have to just watch my parents play...

[Dimahoo]

As Qazimod really. Not just games but the whole mix of games, movies and comics.

You know, Dandy, Scream, 2000AD....isn't it?

[Hello Goaty ♥]

there's a smell I associate with computers being on all day... mmm, nice.

...Flat Coca Cola, Knub Ends and Cheese / Onion crisps

[Raane]

I know that back when i was a kid in Cyprus i was actually an academic achiever. I realise now it's thanks to the classroom policy that if you did your work well and finished it fast you could have a go on the computers. Of course i was always beavering away just to have a go on whatever educational malarky they had on those old BBC's.

On another note, does anyone have any specific really strong smell related memories about gaming? I remember playing Syndicate in my dad's study where the computer was kept and it always had a really strong smell of his aftershave. So naturally whenever i smell that, it smells of Syndicate!

[El Stevo]

I'm just the same. Whenever my parents try to work out in which year a certain holiday or event took place I'm always able to tell them because I remember the game I was playing (or deprived of playing) at the time. Of course I'd never tell them that, I'm sure they'd be horrified! But yeah, games were a hugely significant part of my childhood.

[Leneux]

Childhood memories are great - but I only have to look at my old primary school english books to see how little has changed.

You remember at school when you had to write a page and draw a picture about what you did at the weekend? I'd have all the normal things, playing with friends, going out to the zoo whatever, but my picture was always a drawing of the game I was playing it was that deeply imprinted on my mind.

I might have to post some of the images actually, I found some of them a while back.

[PikaStu]

I suppose it's quite sad but a lot of my childhood memories include video games too as most of my friends were into them...

Playing Summer Games on my mate's C64 when I was 5 or 6. Then my dad bought me an Atari 800XL and I played Action Biker to death.

Fast forward a couple of years and I had my own C64, playing "classics" like Fist 2, Robocop, Raid Over Moscow etc with friends.

Playing my mate's imported Mega Drive for the first time when I was 10 or 11, I'd never seen anything like it ! Ghouls n Ghosts and Strider were too awesome and I had to have one!

Even into my teens, playing my mates' Amigas/PCs/CD32s , then I picked up a 3DO and we spent hours and hours on Need For Speed. Moving into 5th year and we'd skive off school to play Sega Rally on the Saturn. Great times, although I should have perhaps spent more time chasing girls and learning the guitar. Still... great times

[Floshenbarnical]

First console I ever owned was my N64. Ocarina of Time took up so much of my life, I even wrote an epic fanfic story based on it aged 11 and it was 200 pages long Just wandering around Hyrule Field and Zora's domain was so relaxing as young Link and Gerudo Valley after the Gerudo stop hating you as adult Link. It brings back memories...

Another good memory was the first NFS when I used to sneak into my brother's room when he was at school and play on his PSX.

Speaking of smells, the smell of my favourite aftershave LaCoste Essential reminds me of the summer and my motorbike which I will be using after exams again Because I sprayed it inside my helmet so that it didn't smell rancid after a long journey

[smac]

[Re; LBA2] As someone mentioned in your thread it was really scary too for a youngster, for some strange reason. The music perhaps.

Spookily, I posted about LBA 2 in the Dark Themes thread.

Wasn't the music, but the out-and-out violence from apparently cuddly animals that did it.

As I posted in t'other thread, I lent it to a mate who looked at the box and thought it was a family-friendly game. He told me afterwards that he sat down, started playing it with his young son, then was gobsmacked when practically the first thing that happened was an elephant brought out a big stick and started twatting Twinsen over the head with it. Said he had to reset the PC pretty sharpish.

Next time I visited, his kid was playing MDK, so he was obviously over the trauma caused by all that cuddly violence.

[FargalEX]

Me and a housemate actually started having a discussion about LBA2 very recently so I decided to get it back from home and we reinstalled it to relive the memories. Of course what would have taken days when we were younger only took about 30 minutes now because I knew exactly what to do but all the music and voices brought back that flood of nostalgia. SO ER, FOR 12 KASHES, WHERE D'YOU WANNA GO? WHERE D'YOU WANNA GO?

[moosegrinder]

I played a lot fo games when I was little but I did a lot of knee scuffing and grass staining of trousers so, yeah, anyone who has predominantly game based memories should've gotten out more I've made up for it in the last 2 years though I can barely be bothered to go anywhere these days.

[Jamie John]

In contrast to most people in this thread, none of my friends were ever seriously into videogames when I was growing up (still aren't, really), so much of my experience with them was in an odd sort of sheltered solitude where all of my opinions were untainted by other people or reviews (I started buying CUBE when I was 13, but before that I went by the back of the box). To this day I am still extremely surprised (and excited) whenever anyone I know outside of magazines or the internet mentions the videogames I experienced in my childhood. Not too long ago I remember speaking to my Media teacher for an entire lesson about Final Fantasy VIII when she happened to mention that it was what took up a lot of her time at university.

[Rudi von Starnberg]

Me and a housemate actually started having a discussion about LBA2 very recently so I decided to get it back from home and we reinstalled it to relive the memories. Of course what would have taken days when we were younger only took about 30 minutes now because I knew exactly what to do but all the music and voices brought back that flood of nostalgia. SO ER, FOR 12 KASHES, WHERE D'YOU WANNA GO? WHERE D'YOU WANNA GO?

Yeah, I mentioned in another thread about having taken ages with LBA2 at first, not even summoning the courage to fight the first boss. It took me more than a year to get off the first island, that way (admittedly not playing the game all the time, but you get the idea).

When I replayed it two years ago I was off Citadel Island in an hour, tops.

Great game mind. The Emerald Moon is the best bit, if only for the airlock that you could open and make the sausage-alien-guards get sucked out of.

[Qazimod]

The shininess peaked in the mid-'90s, wouldn't you say? When Sega were bringing their coin-ops to the Saturn, and the PlayStation was amazing us with Tekken, Wipeout and Loaded.

My childhood was dominated by the great outdoors. While I was the biggest gamer at my school, I now have higher levels of nostalgia for old friends, places and times.

Pretty much - arcade classics were coming home and everyone was all , and then people started losing interest in the coin-ops because they could get similar experiences at home, but after all that the consoles didn't really know where to go, and the wow factor was wearing off fast...

The closest revolution I've experienced since would probably be, I don't know, well-rounded, accessible online infrastructures such as Live and PSN that are no longer the elite pursuit they started out as...