Defining moments in video games

[Booldawg]

What has been a video gaming moment that will always stick with you or what game do you consider a benchmark?

I'll kick off by nominating 'Hunter' on the Amiga. For the first time in a game I felt a real sense of size and scope of playing area. The game involved moving from island to island by various means of transport. Obviously the helipcopter was quicker than the boat and driving was quicker than walking. The game gave a great sense of being aware of distances and travel time.

[bibblebub]

i'll get in first with Pong in the arcades in the early 70s

then buying an Intellivision in the mid-70s

possibly being the first in UMIST student's union to turn the clock round in Space Invader, and without losing a life

[Mattk]

I would say a major milestone was when home gaming first exploded with the releases of the Atari 2600.

As for a game, Metal Gear Solid on PS1 as there was finally a game that allowed you to do the things you wanted with the constraints of programming being considerably relaxed.

[Daisho]

I'm feeling in a right retro mood at the moment.
I'm playing Gateway to the Savage Frontier by SSI in DOS right now.

[Daisho]

Getting back to your question, in 1988 I imported a Sega Megadrive from Japan a good year or two before it's Euro release, and it blew me away with it's near perfect coin-op releases. I bought Golden Axe, Super Hang On and New zealand Story with it. Great days.

[imhotep]

Oooh yes, I agree with Daisho!! I'm madly into retro games too,as well as the latest ones like the God of War series of games.
There are a few worthy games that have always been stuck in my mind.....in fact quite a numerous amount of them.
Worthy ones that I like to mention are......
Scramble
Donkey Kong
Battlezone
Galaxian
Final Fight
Shadow Warrior
Ghouls 'n' Ghosts/Ghosts 'n' Goblins
Tron
Toki
Moon Cresta
and one if anyone can remember it is ..... Firebirds
There are many others....but I will leave it at that for now.

[B00]

I'm going for the predictable reply from me....

The God that is WoW (World of Warcraft) will take some beating. This game has been going now for 5 years and still has a nearly 12million playerbase, which is still growing.

Whilst some of the graphics, now look a bit dated, the sheer scope, of where you can 'travel' is truly gobsmacking.

[Whickerman]

As someone who has played video games since the early 80s, I would say the milestones for me are:
1 First playing Space Invaders
2 Moving on to games like Pengo where you could move pretty much anywhere on the screen
3 First game to use Cartoon animation (rubbish game play) - Dragons Lair
4 Games that allowed simultaneous 2 player games- kung fu for example
5 Release of the first games console I could afford - the Megadrive
6 The first Playstation - oh my god I would've married that if I could. Resident evil, MGS, Syphon Filter etc - really opened up a world within a game

[Booldawg]

^ I absolutely loved using the taser in Syphon Filter. Frying people was so novel.

[Richard1966]

I still occasionally play Elite, originally played on the zx speccy in 1984. This was huge and their was a real sense of being part of the game. Graphics were rubbish compared with todays games, but the speccy got he hooked.
Ill also add
Jet Set Willy also speccy
Doom- PC
MS flight sims -PC
Sonic the hedgehog - megadrive
Halo 1 on the xbox
Call of duty 2 - Xbox 360

[cazzz1975]

elite on the acorn archemedes- I was the only female in my group who was "elite"

the atari 2600 was brill, games I used to play were centipede, joust, real sport boxing, qbert, pole position, pong

on the amiga 600 I became obsessed with "formula one grand prix" by microprose

doom on the pc (60mhz pentium no less)

[cazzz1975]

my first type of computer game was "invaders from space" by grandstand, followed by table top game "mario's cement factory"

[imhotep]

Oh yes, Richard1966!! Those were the great days of Speccy gaming....I have loads and loads of Spectrum games,and I have a Spectrum 48K and Spectrum 128K +3 which still work.I loved the very first Manic miner game which got me really hooked, until I began writing a few Adventure Speccy programs myself.
This is one pastime I loved when playing on my Spectrum.....text/graphic adventures made you think,and I have plenty of these kind of games,as well as arcade ones.
I also have a Master System,Gameboy original,GBA, GB Color, Gamecube,N64,SNES, a PS1 console,and two PS2's.I now have a 60Gb PS3!!!
Oh yes,and a PC.....

[bushbaby_de]

God I loved Ghouls'N'Ghosts!!!

The Rainbow Islands series of games was my absolute favourite though.

[Daisho]

So Imhotep, did you enjoy the games from Level 9? I still have those games in their full packaging (I'm a serious collector see). My favourite one was Knight Orc. I have a collection of many games from many systems of old, here is but a small portion of them.

http://www.facebook.c...59921676&l=734042f436

[Sooper]

Great question and some great answers taking me way back!
This could be a massive list as lots of new things have blown me away over the years as technology has evolved so quickly.
Here goes!
Manic Miner - Spectrum
Elite - BBC
Paradroid - C64
Uridium - C64
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - First on-line Pc game i played, that changed everything!
Goldeneye - Nintendo
Halo - Xbox
Oblivion - 360
Battlefield and C.O.D franchises
Im sure there are loads that i have missed but im sure all the greats will be covered!!

[sezweblee]

kula world on ps1!! it was so,so addictive and surreal!! i still have the game now! love it!

[bushbaby_de]

God I can still remember the irritating music from Manic Miner!

[ChuckFickens]

Morning Vibes, did you have a good weekend? not too bruised I hope :)

I'd have to say wolfinstein 3d and the original Doom for being the first real popular FPS games in the modern format.

[AB Editor]

Munch & Crunch on the Fountain II - I was very young at the time.

First time I had actually felt scared in a computer game.

Set me up for a love of survival horror games. For those that have not played it, try "Siren" (or it's sequels) for a really scary game!

Spare Ed