I couldn’t have been much older than 2 or 3 when my Uncle Billy introduced me to video games. I remember the first moment. It was Horse Racing for Intellivision. I remember the 8 bit sound of “Call to the Post” before every race. I remember us all sitting around watching these colorful block shapes that resembled horses race down a track. I remember not only thinking how amazing this was, but I remember the excitement of all the grownups in the room watching as we interacted with the television.
Before I could read a book or tie my shoes I was playing video games.
I look at my life, and I’m disappointed that I’ve never been to Europe, or Asia, or even California. But, I’ve been blessed to have video games in my life and get to have experiences that aren’t limited to where I live, or my physical abilities. In video games you can go anywhere and do anything.
Sure, YOU might have been to Greece, or Prague, but have you fought Mike Tyson? Raced a Ferrari at 180 mph around the Nürburgring? Flown though Northrend and visited Dalaran? I bet you’ve never won the Superbowl, or gone on a secret mission to save your country. What about saving a Princess from a dragon, just to find out the real Princess was in another castle? Well I have.
My video game life has been truly epic. Here’s a list of my favorite gaming moments. BTW, these might contain some spoilers if you haven’t played before. You’ve been warned.
10. Cool Boarders – PS1 - The first snowboarding game I ever played. It was FULL of bugs and almost unplayable, but even with it’s flaws, I spent hours with it. As someone who grew up snowboarding, I always wanted to live out my fantasy of doing awesome tricks and racing down a mountain without fear of breaking bones. I literally played the snot out of this game with JC in High School and eventually unlocked the double secret snowman character. An achievement that only diehards of the game could fully appreciate.
9. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons – Intellivision – Yup, I guess my love for roaming around in dungeons killing creature began at an early age. 3-4 to be exact. As much as I loved this game and played it over and over again, it scared the crap out of me. Specifically the Minotaur. How could I be scared of a video game? Anyone who remembers this game, remembers in order to kill this Minotaur guy, you had to roam around for hours through a labyrinth searching for him. All of a sudden you’d walk around a corner, and BAM! there he was. A big red pixelated shape. The scariest damn pixels I’ve even seen.
8. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare – Xbox360 – If I could point to a specific moment in this game, it probably came in the single player campaign when you’re playing and a nuclear bomb goes off (seen above). You live through the initial blast and eventually crawl around until you die. Pretty shocking stuff, but not quite as scary as the big red blocky minotaur in D & D. I’m not a huge FPS guy, but I got into the multiplayer on this game. I think it was the addition of the leveling and unlocking of upgrades to weapons and perks that got me into it. I only played though to prestige 1, and then moved on. All and all, I had a really fun time playing online with friends like Tim and Todd.
7. Gran Turismo – PS1 – Gran Turismo was the first realistic driving game with customizable cars I had ever played. It really pushed the PS1 in terms of graphics and innovation. Something the series has never quite replicated IMHO. This was another game that JC and I played the heck out of. I credit this game for my car craziness during college and shortly after.
6. Mario 64 – Nintendo 64 – I didn’t even own the console or play the game that much, but there was one singular experience I had with the game that changed everything for me. That moment happened on a demo unit at Lechmere in the Independence Mall. The reason this was so important for me, was because this was the first video game I played that had a fully rendered 3D polygon environment. It blew my mind to move in 3 dimensions. It changed the way we interacted with games.
5. Call of Duty 2 – Xbox360 – My first current gen experience. This time my exact moment came a few weeks before launch in 2005. It was a beautiful November afternoon, and instead of going to eat lunch on my break, I headed over to Walmart in Plymouth to check out demo unit that had just arrived. Again, i’m not a huge FPS fanboy, so it was the evolution in graphics and story telling that I was after here. Check out the video above and you’ll see what I mean. The experience was beginning to become more realistic and realistic physics became commonplace. This was another huge step for video games and I won’t ever forget that day at Wallyworld.
4. World of Warcraft – PC - Overall the experience of playing this game is something you can’t really describe to someone who’s never played it. For years I made fun of people who played, and then my buddy Tim told me I was an idiot. I listened to him, gave it shot and never looked back. I spent a good 6 months not fully knowing what I was doing. I put it down for a while and picked it back up after the Lich King expansion and got into it. From there I played a for a good 8-10 months. The pinnacle moment probably came all by self last summer, just questing around Northrend when I finally dinged 80. I probably should have taken a screenshot or something. I haven’t been back to Azeroth in a while because it is quite a time suck, but I do miss the friendships and “second life” really. I feel bad I judged WoW before I played it. If I had only known about the depth, fun and community, I would have started playing when it launched.
3. Madden Football – Sega Genesis through current Gen – This is pretty much my crack each year. I’ve been obsessed since 92-93. Countless hours were spent with JC playing and learning the actually game of football really. Up until then, I wasn’t a huge football fan, but after I started playing and understanding the ins and outs, I couldn’t get enough of the video game, or even the real thing. Some of my favorite memories of video games come from last minute wins or loses against friends or the computer. There’s been some many over the years to point out one. The most obsessed I’ve ever become with a game, was when I lived with my buddy Adam in Quincy. We played almost every day. We had what seemed like 50 year dynasty with custom teams and even custom named players. We got a little carzy… Good times.
2. NES – Christmas Morning 1986 – Probably my fondest moment from a non-gameplay moment. I don’t think I even slept that Christmas Eve. I just knew Santa would bring me one. I woke my parents up at what seemed like 1am. They hooked everything up and I played Punchout, Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Top Gun and Olympic games on the PowerPad until Mom and Dad woke up much much later that morning. A truly epic Christmas morning 
1. Final Fantasy VII – PS1 – Not only did FFVII push the RPG genre, it pushed story telling in video games to another level. When I got the game, I knew this was going to be a technically superior experience than what I was used to. What I wasn’t expecting was to become emotionally attached to my in game characters. And SPOILER… I was genuinely upset when the main antagonist Sephiroth killed my friend and romantic interest. I had never been attached to an in game character before that point and to have them taken away… Well, I was feeling like William Wallace in Braveheart. I wanted nothing more than to exact my revenge. For me, video games had finally reached the point where I could become immersed in the experience. The story seemed so much more personal to me than a sitcom or movie because I was controlling it.
So that’s it. I hope my trip down memory lane has brought back some great gaming memories for you too! Whether you’re 5 or 105 years old, if you have a moment or ten you’d like to share, please feel free to do so in the comments below.
Until next time