Episode 181 - The Video Game Episode

[bigraj]

Loving this episode! I never had an Atari system, but grew up with several of the arcade machines. In the early 80s when my mom was a waitress, she'd take me to work when she couldn't get a babysitter, and I'd get quarters from all the waitstaff for bringing menus to their customers. Of course, they'd get spent in short order playing some of the different games they'd get in: Dig Dug, Centipede, Frogger, and maybe a couple others I can't remember. I loved going to places that had the Pac-Man table machine. My favorite machine back then was Tempest, and my aunt & uncle bought a used one for my older cousin around '84, and we had so much on it. Another favorite was the TMNT game you could play with 4 people. My friends and I threw quite a bit of money into that one at the mall arcade.

The first console I had was the NES, several years after it debuted. Loved the Super Mario games, Metroid, and Legend of Zelda, but my favorite was the Castlevania franchise. I was blown away when I saw Super Castlevania IV. I was with my friend, Ronnie, when his parents bought the system and game just after launch. Didn't get an SNES of my own until I got HS graduation money in '94. My favorite games for that system were Super Castlevania IV (of course), Top Gear, and NBA Live '95. Ended up buying a Sega Saturn when I was stationed in Japan. Didn't mod my system, so games were hard to come by, but I loved Nights into Dreams. Ended up finally getting a used Playstation right before Final Fantasy VII came out. I saw the commercials for it while at home on leave. Was able to buy it a week before flying back out to Japan, and it was a long week waiting to play it. WCW vs The World became one of the main games I'd play with friends. Lots of great games for that system.

Waited a couple of years (and a price drop) after the PS2 came out before buying it. Still have it and love it, occassionally playing GTA: San Andreas, Shadow of the Colossus, and Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain. 2009 is when I finally got the XBox 360 (early in the year) and PS3 (when the Slim debuted) and love both systems. Video games have come a long way, but I still wish every now and then that I still had my old NES to play some Pro Wrestling, Super Mario 3, or Castlevania. One day I'll pick one up.

[NewFun#6]

Did you really just say "rad"?

[ljacone]

[Hair-Metal Hero]

"Rad" is part of my regular lexicon. I am, still, a child of the 80s.

[Fanboyimus Prime]

No mention of Legend of Zelda games?

Seriously the original Legend of Zelda was the first "go anywhere" game.

And you guys didn't play any Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior or Phantasy Star?

[ljacone]

[Hair-Metal Hero]

The Legend of Zelda games almost don't need to be talked about. Almost all of them are amazing. I could play 1 and Link to the past over and over again. Though Twilight Princess was fantastic as well. Not going to lie, didn't really care for the N64 ones.

[NewFun#6]

[Arthur Ratnik]

[ljacone]

By the way, one of the ultimate time waster websites:

http://retrouprising.com/

[JonathanCrites]

Longtime listner to the show, great episode guys!
I am too young to have experienced most of the generation of video games y'all referenced at first as I was born in 1984.
That being said, my first console at home was the NES and I loved it. I got Super Mario 3 for either my 5th or 6th birthday and it was a revelation. Me and my friends played the NES the most but it was the combination of the Super NES and Sega Genesis that put gaming on the next level for me. This also coincided with my brothers being old enough to play along too. We played Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, F-Zero, Sonic (1, 2, 3, & Knuckles), Triple Play Baseball, Spider-Man Maximum Carnage, the Super Star Wars series and on and on. I still have the Super NES with about 50 games and look forward to my own son playing it one day.
Between my brothers and myself we have bought every major system since my glory days of the SNES and Genesis (Playstation 1, 2 and 3, N64, Gamecube and Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360). For some reason we never bought any of the future Sega systems but I played them at friends houses.
My current gaming is limited as I work a lot, go to graduate school two nights a week and have a wife and newborn son. It basically consists of the occasional online round of Call of Duty with my brothers and friends and Rock Band when we have guests over.
Anyhow, similar to your episode, I have gone on way to long. Great episode, looking forward to more!

[NewFun#6]

[NewFun#6]

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/04/ ... ming-soon/

[Hair-Metal Hero]

God damnit, my nerdiness is such that I'll probably get one of these. Thanks for dropping this bomb on me Scott. My first computer is back, and cooler than ever.

[panpan23]

[Fanboyimus Prime]

[NewFun#6]

[FleaBeard]

Just like y'all, I spent a large part of my adolescence in arcades and I lament their decline. I was always attracted to ones with non-traditional controllers too. One of my favorites was Space Zap. It was super simple and a frigging blast to play. You had 4 huge buttons in a diamond pattern and that's it. On screen, you had a ship with 4 guns and various craft would pop out of any given side and you had to smack the appropriate button to get that gun to shoot. It got really frantic as the levels went up.

[Joe Anthrax]

[Fanboyimus Prime]

A pity you guys didn't get Donkey Kong gameboy game and the one device that let you play game boy games on the Super Nes. The game starts off with all four classic levels of the arcade game...and that's just to warm up for the 8 worlds and over 100 levels of game play.

I've never played it but the Let's Plays I've seen of it make it look like a game worth getting and the add on so I could play it on my SNES.