Fond memories and video game nostalgia

Fair warning, if you don't like walls of text this probably wont be the thread for you. Read on at your own discretion!!

The point of this thread shall be to share with you all (and hopefully hear some stories as well) some fond memories of gaming "back in the day". Whether it be games you had a blast playing that you don't have or anymore or that arn't supported / died off, or groups of people you reminisce gaming with, or anything along these lines. What is / are your strongest memory(ies) of gaming?! Let me start...

Recently, I decided to give TF2 a shot with much reluctance. I use to be a die hard TFC fan years ago. I think I actually must have stopped playing in 2003 or 2004.. Perhaps even earlier then that. Well, at first TF2 just didn't do it for me. But after forcing myself to play it some more, having nothing else of interest to play really, I started to really fall in love with it. Now, I don't know what did it, I think I saw someone with [NS] in they're name, but either way, it immediatley reminded me of the old crew I use to roll with back in the day, insomniacz... I was very young when I played with these guys, however I recall this as one of the best times of my life as far as gaming goes. We wern't a huge group, but we were all pretty tight-knit. I don't really remember why I became inactive, however I think it was because I ended up moving when my parents split up. Oddly enough, I can only recall the name of one of the clans leaders, Mr. Magoo!

I was immediatley intrigued to google anything I could think of relating to the old clan, but unfortunatley all that google turned up was dead links. This was very frustrating and lead me here were I decided it would be good for me to reminisce a bit. And besides, this is one of the biggest gaming forums I know of, perhaps the odds arn't to bad someone from this old clique remembers like myself.

The only other time a game has left me with nostalgic feelings would be Ultima Online. I started playing in July of 2000. From what I hear, this wasn't exactly the golden ages of UO (depending on how you look at it) however IMO it was a great time to play the game. Pre pub-16 and I do believe it was before the EA aquisition of the game. However, either way, until shortly after pub 16 this was the game that I enjoyed the most in my life, hands down. It was a completely new kind of game for me. Before playing UO, Diablo 1 / 2 + expansions were my only RPGs of any kind. So UO took it a million steps further. I had so much fun experimenting with different skill sets, mixing it up with different clans, the PvP and the PvM both were amazing (to me) at the time. Character customization was the best out of any game (imo) with the dyable clothings etc. There is just so much that was great about this game it would take me forever to list all of it. I've tryed a handful of other MMO's since, and not one of them has come close to giving me that feeling Ultima did back in the day.

I quit UO also in 2004.. Come to think of it, gaming has been in steady decline for me since 2004. No game can bring me the feelings of complete joy and euphoria that I use to get from them. Perhaps this is just symbolizing the end of my childhood. Or maybe its something else entirely. Either way, it sucks! :P Anyways, even though the point of this thread is to share fond memories in gaming history, I don't want to draw this out tooooo much. So lets hear what you all have to share! Don't be scared...

Bumping this thread. I'm hoping it didn't catch on because I posted it at 3:30AM and not because there is no interest... I'd like to see some actual discussion or something different from the thousands upon thousands of "THIS GAME OR THIS GAME" and "RECCOMMEND ME SOME KEWLZ FREE MMOS GUYS" threads. Please someone show me that this forum hasn't been taken over completely by prepubescent twelve-and-unders... In light of staying on discussion here I go with some more... of the good 'ol days!

The year is 2001 and Counter-Strike 1.1 is being released! After following the game losely and playing on weekends at a close friends house for a while, my computer is finally broadband'ed up and ready to go! This is not the counter-strike like most of you know it... Quick switching between pistols and awps, no slowdowns, bunnyhopping, no sheild, no famas or galil, flashbangs did damage (this was pre 1.1 maybe but I recall this vaguely), and people played ALL THE MAPS! Yes! Believe it or not, it wasn't just a bunch of elitest pricks (most of whom were teenegers with to much testosterone) who play dust2 all day and talk about how much they pwn in cevo! Most of these maps are long forgotten now... as_tundra, cs_thunder, and cs_estate were some of my favorites to name a few. The competitive scene was there but much less in you face. People are much more friendly and just looking to HAVE FUN!

I'll tell you guys what, compared to those days Counter-Strike absolutely succckks. Granted it may have been a nessescary evolution of the game, but all the same it changed to much for my tastes. Not to mention it is a whole new community now. It seems like everyone is just playing to be the best and thinks they can make a buck off the game. Lol, good luck with that. Now granted there are still a lot of cool people playing, but not enough to keep me interested. TF2 seem to have the kind of community I miss, and thats where you will find me now.

In spite of all of this, CS is still the best as far as gameplay goes in my eyes. The community is what kills it for me. Anyways guys, let me hear what you all have to say. I'm only 20 and I feel like an old fart talking about games of old like no one else has anything to say...

Well my first experience with PC Gaming ever was on my old Pentium 1 Gateway computer with 2 gig hard drive lol. I went to best buy, and being a fan of fantasy and strategy, I saw a game on the shelf called "Warcraft: Orcs and Humans". I bought it from the pictures on the back of the box, thought it looked fun.. Well took it home and was instantly hooked and mesmerized. Then sometime later I saw Warcraft 2 on the shelf and bought that. Logged tons of hours playing that game and was blown away even more by number 2 than the first one. Was like a whole new world to me, as before that my video game experience consisted of Atari and Nintendo lol.

Then of course was Doom II. Seemed so hyper realistic 3D at the time. lol. Had tons of fun with that and Duke Nukem and messing with the map editors for each game.

Then Diablo 1 came out, and launched the battlenet service. Was quite unlike anything ever and was immense fun.

Then my first MMO Asheron's Call blew me away. Never played a game in a persistent world with hundreds of players before that. Kept me hooked for quite some time.

Other than those specific games, I can't quite think of anything that has left me in awe and wonder in the gaming world since. Not quite sure what it's going to take to recapture that feeling again, if it is even possible.

I was way big into simulations when I first started gaming.

My three favorites were:

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe
Aces of the Pacific
and Tie Fighter

Man those games were great.

The only experience I've had to the one's you have described was with SOF2 Multiplayer. I wasn't into PC gaming at all until that game so I missed out on the original Counter Strike. Anyway I went over to a friends house and saw him playing the multiplayer demo (the original "Shop" map) and thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I bought a new PC just so I could play the game thus started my 3 or 4 year addiction. To me it was the perfect blend of fast paced arcadish action in a military shooter setting. The game had so much personality with all the different mods, skins and soundbites. Sure the sound soundbites could get annoying if people over used them but they bring back good memories now. I still have the game loaded on my hard drive and play every now and then but it's no where near the same as when it had a hopping, active community. I do still try to keep up with the clans who's servers I played on the most just to see what they're up to. I'm still looking for the next SOF2 but realism is the thing these days and I'm afraid there will never be another one like it.BlackBart2

Haha, funny you should say SOF2, it's the exact same for me, damn i remember the first time i fired that game up, i was so shocked at how amazing it was, i was hooked to that game for years, you could say that was the game that makes me a pc gamer even today, but it's a shame that there's not more games like SOF2 (the new SOF was bull) the only game that hooked me after that was UT2004, but since then, both games have lost their community, now i'm waiting on the next great FPS...

Looks like i'll be waiting a while :(

Did you play in any clans? What servers did you frequent? I try to fill the void with CS: Source. They have some good mods, maps etc. and if you find the right server with the right group of people it can be a blast but it's stil not the same as SOF2.BlackBart2

Yeah i played in a few clans, for Elimination, cant remember their names though, and cant remember the servers either, was so long ago hehe, but i know they were based in the UK (assuming yours werent) and yeah i play a bit of CSS now and then too, good game, but not as fun as SOF2 was.