Manufactured Content - Video Game Time

I am not as much of a gamer as I used to be but here goes:

Consoles that I have had:

 A couple of the old Atari (dont know the models) the first in about the early 80's and the last was late 80's the original was the one that came with the tank battle, pong, and dog fight bi plane game on it

PS4 and the old Nintendo consoles

My favorite arcade games from my days in the Manitowoc arcade:

1.  Galaga (I still play this one from time to time)

2.  Missle Command - I was so good at missle command my hands would get sore from playing so long

3.  Tron

4. Centipede

Games now?  well those days are kind of over but I will from time to time play Civilization (my all time favorite game),  Total War franchise, and Forge of Empires on my phone

CONSOLES

Our parents were always a little behind the times when it came to this stuff, of course living in the country and growing up in a really tiny town didn't help.  All of my friends at school had Atari, so my parents opted for...Odyssey by Magnavox!  Not a ton of fun, but we did have this awesome game called Quest for the Rings, that had a D&D style to it, complete with a map and a keyboard overlay, and little ring tokens.  Dragons, orcs, the whole nine yards...

Eventually, when the Atari 7800 came out, my parents got us the Atari 2600 on clearance with a shit-ton of cheap games.  Those Activision ones were the best: Pitfall, River Raid, Spider Fighter, Starmaster, Keystone Kapers, Robot Tank, Chopper Command, etc.  I could dominate at Seaquest like no other.

After that, we got the classic NES.  Tecmo Super Bowl with a full season and stats?  Enough said.  Just try to stop Christian Okoye  on offense or Green Bay's Bob Nelson (who?) on defense.  Probably all-around the best system in terms of fun games to play.

When I left for college, my grandma got me the Sega Genesis, and my addiction to Madden and EA Sports was born.  I also had the original Joe Montana Sports Talk Football with actual play-by-play announcers!  Just try to play Sonic the Hedgehog after a night out at a house party.  And they actually had EA Sports Rugby world Cup!

I eventually got into the Playstations, starting with the original.  Always bought Madden and NCAA Football.  Best game hands-down for me was MTV Music Generator--a game that actually was a basic loop-based music production program.  Graduated to the PS2 and now have the PS3. 

I also had the original Commodore 64--my all-time favorite game machine.  I used to bike to friends houses out in the country and we would spend an entire day playing the Ultima series role-playing games.  So addicted to them.  They are the standard in my mind for any adventure game.

ARCADE

My main arcade was the Skill Mill in Stevens Point, WI.  Wasted a lot of money there.  I loved Elevator Action, the original Star Wars polygon game where you fly the X-Wing, Sinistar, Space Invaders, Tempest.  Loved Golden Axe, a buddy of mine actually bought one for his house.  Gauntlet was endless fun, that could go on forever.  But my favorite was probably the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I loved that it had a story and you could actually conquer it.  Just a blast.  I wish I could have figured out how to play Dragon's Lair--cool concept, horrible game!  Friends and I do still like to do tournaments on Golden Tee at bars from time to time.

TODAY

As I said before, I have a PS3 now, and we mostly use that for streaming and Blu-ray.  These days, I mostly play Madden, NCAA Football, and MLB the Show (2012 version), and have gotten the Brewers to 6 consecutive World Series titles, and Braun is closing in on the all-time home run record.  However, I have a weird addiction to the Lego games (Star Wars, Batman, and Marvel).  Just easy and mindless fun.

I play a few time-wasters on my phone (Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes and The Walking Dead: No Man's Land).  Nothing on PC, although I did find a free site that allowed me to download some of the classic Ultima games for my Mac!  Still can't beat them!

I really want to upgrade to the PS4, but since it won't play the ultra 4KHD discs yet, I just can't pull the trigger.

Great thread!

No consoles. Too old. But I did spend hours on:

Real NFL Football: Big box with a lamp Offense pit a play sheet on the screen. Defense covered it up with another sheet. pull out a panel and the light showed the play results. I beat my older brother like 10 times in a row.

Table top hockey with 3D players. Undefeated in college

Hundreds of quarters on Pole Position. 

You always had the advantage being on the left with pong, the other player had to reach over more and you just needed to bump them at the right time to win.  We had some kind of knockoff pong (dong?) that we used on the 13 inch b&w tv.  

Only console I've ever owned.  

I like playing Borderlands when I have free time, just haven't had much free time the last few years.  Was pissed when Nintendo didn't release a N64 classic this Christmas so I can beat my wife at MarioCart again.  

The first game Tudor electric football, way way way back in the 60's.  it was an arms race in my neighborhood, I kept stats on pad and pencil for every team, and I had most nfl teams. I was pretty much a pencil neck geek,

the neighbors would have weekly tourneys ,  things were pretty even until one day I had an idea. Underneath the bottom of the bases so no one could see, I glued big nuts on my linemen, and little nuts on recievers and HB.  After that before the games were even played the outcome was already known. 

El-Ka-Bong posted:

Was pissed ... beat my wife ... again.  

Damn dude. 

 nice editing 

Who had this bad mother****er when they were kids?

The only 2 video games I've played through to the end are Dark Castle (on Macintosh) and Pikmin on the Game Cube.

I bought the Game cube for my sons (and the Wii and 360 and the PS1,2,3...). I spent more time fixing them than playing them.

The older boy likes anime themed stuff like Final Fantasy and the younger does FPS. Both are finally spending less time at it.

Our first console was a Sears-branded Pong clone that may or may not have been sold under license from Atari, I don't remember.  There was a design flaw in that the speakers were IN THE CONSOLE, so that you could only turn down the sound by muffling it.  And those speakers were F***ING LOUD.

Eventually we got an Atari 2600.  I preferred the Activision games like Pitfall, Freeway, and an odd little one called Pressure Cooker.

Didn't get to go to the arcade much, that being Just Fun at the now dead Hudson Valley Mall.  My favorite video game was Q*bert.  Loved the puzzle aspect, and how the little bastard swore. 

I don't do video games these days, preferring to play Go over the internet, even if I don't play very well. 

My dad and I had absolutely knock down drag out games of Intellivision baseball.

The port for Atari had some serious flaws.  You could change the speed and curve of the pitch during its path to home plate.  And once a runner got on base, immediately start trying to steal, because there's no way the defense is catching you in a rundown or the catcher is throwing you out.

Consoles growing up?  Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.  I'd maybe go into the arcade in town but that wasn't often.  I remember Wizard of War and Joust along with Pacman.  

Played SNES with my nephews some in my 20's but never owned anything.  Never much of gamer. 

3 years ago, bought an Xbox when I jacked up my back pretty good.   Then I bought a PS4.  Now a Switch.  I love games with great stories.  Bioshock series is the classic literature of video games.  Bioshock Infinite alone was an incredible story.

 Borderlands, Borderlands 2, hilariously fun. 

Nier Automata, great story telling with absurd mechanics.  Fallout 3 and 4, have some post apocalyptic fun.  Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption,  Bloodbourne/Dark Souls.  All incredible games that are challenging with excellent stories with a lot more out there. 

Video games are becoming sources of unique narratives (and you can blow people's head off). 

For all you old schoolers, Switch has all of that stuff that was in the arcades in the 80's and 90's.  Great side scrollers are still fun as hell.  And Mario Kart, who doesn't like Mario Kart?  

Keeps you young.  Optimistic nihilist at play, leave your hang ups at the door.

El-Ka-Bong posted:

Who had this bad mother****er when they were kids?

I wanted it, bad. 

First taste of games was the handheld electronic football game where you moved the dash up and down the field.  I was a bad dude. 

First console was an Atari with all the regular games.  I also had a game system where there was an electronic paddle that bounced a ball back and forth.  Was that Pong?

I used to go to the roller skating rink at Grand Forks AFB.  They had a bunch of video games there.  Asteroids, DigDug, Caterpillar, Space Invaders, Pac Man and Defender were the go-to games.  I wasn't great at any of them.

In 1986, I worked at my uncle's arcade in Eau Claire (Loose Change) over the summer. I was a big fan of some golf game (Golden Tee??).  The greatest arcade game ever ****ing invented was bubble hockey.  USA vs. Russia.  I'll kick your ass. 

I've been through several game systems since then.  I have an Xbox One now that I rarely use.  When I get a hair up my ass, I like to play Call of Duty.  Shooting and eating sammiches scratches an itch.  I can't quite put my finger on it though.  The latest version I've played is WWII.  It's been about a year since I dove into it. 

We had the Atari 5200. I don’t remember having many games though....played a lot of Super Breakout and Centipede.

My friends had the 2600 and that’s what we played most often.  Some of our favorite games:

Journey Escape, Asteroids, Defender, Time Pilot, Frogger

Remember these? 

I spent many quarters at Pizza Hut playing Ms. Pac-Man when I was a kid. 

Favorite arcade games:

Joust was fun and not too difficult  

Tempest

centipede was fun except when you pinched your finger in the damn roller on the console...which seemed to happen at least once per game.

Dig Dug

Defender: “warp speed” was a useful option if you started getting into trouble, but the trick  was to only use it for a second at a time...otherwise you’d run into something that you never saw coming.

Pole Position: “Prepare to qualify!” Beep beep beep beeeeep!

BurgerTime always made me hungry.

Punchout: “body blow! Body blow! Knock him out!”

I remember when Dragon’s Lair came out. The graphics were crazy good for the time, but the game had a steep learning curve. I could be wrong but I believe Dragon’s Lair was one of the first arcade games to charge $.50 per game instead of a quarter. I was very much not on board with that.

I lost interest in video games fairly early.  I remember playing some Nintendo hockey in the early 90’s, but that was about it.

Nowadays my kids have an Xbox and are heavy into Fortnite. Two years ago it was Minecraft. I don’t have any desire for video games anymore.

Started with table top electric football, table top hockey, progressed to NFL Strategy Football, then strato-matic baseball & basketball. Never played a video game. 

Great topic 

Growing up was an Atari 2600 guy.  Later gravitated to NES and Sega Genesis.  Then PlayStation and all versions up to PS4.  Had a few early handhelds like Gameboy but moved to game(s) on mobile devices up to current IPhone.  

My thing right now is Fallout 76.  I am obsessed with that game.  Probably not a healthy obsession but whatever. 

Back in the day I played them all.   Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Battlezone,  Defender, Galaga, etc.  man Defender was challenging!  Donkey Kong was a good one but could never seem to advance all that far on that one either. My personal favorites were Spy Hunter,  Paperboy, 720, Rampart, Gauntlet, Karate Champ.  Forgot about Burgertime and then Tapper and Sinistar came to mind.   I’m sure there are others! 

No console here, too old and parents too cheap. 

Joust, Track and Field, Donkey Kong (you could get free credits by sticking a straw into the front through the top hinge on the left and wiggling it) all swallowed a lot of my quarters.

Non-electronic, we played a crap ton of Strat-O-Matic baseball.  We had about 10 seasons from the years 1969-82.  We would draft "all star" teams from the same year, across all years, you name it.  Ellis Valentine had the best homerun card against lefties.  1 - 5 through 1-9 was a homerun.  If you've played it before, you know what I'm talking about.

Played for hours with neighborhood kids, had tournaments, seasons, etc...

Nothing ate quarters quite like this

Taming deathclaws as pets that’s awesome.  Even better is inviting “friends” to your crib to share a moment with said critter.   Brilliant.  

The Abe Lincoln look is a nice touch 

El-Ka-Bong posted:

Who had this bad mother****er when they were kids?

Hell yes! Although, I felt it was not playable the months of August and March, and "year round" was a bit of false advertising in my mind.

Who had these though? I had this one, a friend had the basketball one which I think was better. 

Had it.  Loved it.  Valley Fair in Appleton had an arcade that got most of my money.  There was one on College Ave. in or next to the Viking theater as well.

My oldest is all Xbox.  My youngest is all retro and plays all of them.  He's got:

PS1

PS2

PS Vita

N64

NES

Sega Genesis

Sega Saturn

Sega Dreamcast

Retro-Bit super retro trio

The two of us make quite a few day trips every year to arcades / barcades / bowling alleys, etc.  His thing used to be Harley L.A. Riders, now it's House of the Dead I and II.  I think he's got the high score on 8 or 10 machines in SC / NC / TN / GA.

As long as there's pins, I'm good.  Especially Medieval Madness.

Pakrz posted:

First taste of games was the handheld electronic football game where you moved the dash up and down the field.  I was a bad dude.

Yeah baby.

Arcade games. Ranked. 

1. Defender. 

2. Pole position. 

3. Track and Field. 

4. Donkey Kong

5. Galaga  

Console games. Ranked. 

1. Pitfall

2. NHL 1994

3. Tomb Raider1 

4. Mario Kart

5. WII Tennis

Started with Pong and a Vic 20 with text based adventure games.  At the arcade it was Disc Tron, Joust, and Pot of Gold (?), among many others.  Console games have been on the PS2, PS4, and XBox One.  Favorite games recently have been The Witcher III, Skyrim, and Red Dog Redemption 2.  A major waste of time but I'm a better man for it.

Dr._Bob posted:

Red Dog Redemption 2.  A major waste of time but I'm a better man for it.

I've got to play that one.  Is that the one with a garbage can robbery gone wrong?

25 Horse pileup outside of Valentine. 

Oops...

Timpranillo posted:

El-Ka-Bong posted:

Who had this bad mother****er when they were kids?

Hell yes! Although, I felt it was not playable the months of August and March, and "year round" was a bit of false advertising in my mind.

Who had these though? I had this one, a friend had the basketball one which I think was better. 

It was a great Christmas for me the year I got both of these.  Super Toe was great but Rockin Sockin robots were the absolute best.  

Never had a home console. 

In the bars it was Breakout, and then Asteroids & Space Invaders. 

Lost interest by the time PacMan, Centipede, etc... came on the scene.

I'm with H5, never had one either.

I'm so old I played solitaire with a real deck of cards.
Next, I found pinball machines.
Much later I found Pong and then Breakout, both on bar machines.
(Breakout caused my brick bustin' addiction!) 

And then I found Ricochet, a 21st century breakout game on steroids.
Followed the versions through to Ricochet Infinity.
The game author included a lever editor which allowed users to make their own sets and upload them to the Ricochet Site for anyone to download.
The above resulted in 4,539 Sets containing 70,407 Levels!

And then one day the site was gone...

I just don't waste my time playing video games. I get bored. However, like a good  Wisconsinite, I do like playing Cribbage on the app on my phone. 

Consoles I had.

A lot of them starting with the Atari 7800 (which I mostly played 2600 games on). NES, ActionMax, Genesis,  Atari Lynx, SNES, Sega CD, Sega Saturn, PSX, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, PS4 Pro, Xbox One X. There may be a couple of more that slipped my mind. But I'm more of a PC gamer at heart.  Early 1990s, tail end of the DOS era was my favorite. Games like Alone in the Dark, X-Wing, Wing Commander, and the LucasArts/Sierra adventure games.

Favorite Arcade Games

I spent a lot of my time growing up in places a bit too rural for arcade games, but the ones that stuck out for me over the years on the occasions I did actually get to play them:

• Air Combat
• Daytona USA
• Time Pilot
• Dig Dug
• Ms. Pac Man
• Asteroids
• The Simpsons
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Time Crisis
• Ghost Squad

Gaming Today

• Rainbow 6: Siege - Crazy addictive and deep multiplayer competitive first person shooter.
• Rocket League - Also crazy addictive deep multiplayer, though the depth is more on the mechanical side than Siege which is heavy on strategy, positioning, tactics and communication.
• PUBG - The best Battle Royale game. Winning a solo round might be the most satisfying feeling in all of gaming.

I end up buying a lot of games and playing them a little bit but for the past couple of years I've always have gone back to those three. I would love to spend some time with Civilization 5/6, the new XCOM games, BattleTech, Kerbal Space Program, Elite Dangerous, Factorio, Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and literally dozens of others but the big three I listed are just too addicting and my time isn't infinite.