
gosh, how haven't i posted in this thread yet (addendum: didn't expect to ramble quite this much

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so, a common theme from my childhood is that, while i played a few games quite a lot, i didn't ever *beat* any games until years later (my first might have been lego stunt rally GBC, circa 2003?).
that's probably one reason why Pajama Sam 1 (nnthwido) stuck with me so much, the randomization element coupled with damn good writing and acting. other PC games i played a lot of in the late 90's were Rollercoaster Tycoon Gold, LEGO Island, LEGO Racers, Star Wars Episode 1, LEGO Alpha Team, and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (can you sense a pattern here? lol)
sonic 2 and shining force 1 have some of my earliest gaming memories as well (possibly earliest memories period?) and when pokemon blue came out i played it with my uncle (his copy), it helped teach me how to read
said uncle also got an xbox when it came out, and the first console game i ever played with analog controls was crash bandicoot 4 (wrath of cortex), which i still have a big soft spot for, despite not really liking any of the other games in the series.
my first ever best friend, we played and talked a lot about pokemon, sure, but hot dang did we play a lot of halo 1 (and later, halo 2) together. still have a blast playing halo games with friends, but i think that's just part of the series' general appeal! he's also where i played TY the Tasmanian Tiger first, which is another series very dear to me.
GBA has a lot of games that i spent quite a lot of time on - me and my sister cracking jokes at Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, getting my first 100% in TY 2, grinding away at endless new game +'s in Tron 2.0: Killer App to finish my upgrade chip collection, my first encounter with a game progression softlock bug in BIONICLE: Maze of Shadows... sneaking my GBA to school to play on the bus, hiding it under my pillow to play at night, this was really when games really started taking over my life, for better or worse
meanwhile, the ds lite and the wii signified me and my sister playing together the most - new super mario bros., clubhouse games, super smash bros. brawl, wii sports (and resort), warioware smooth moves, even the co-op Spring Breeze in kirby superstar ultra... me and my sister would try to sneak playing the wii early in the morning sometimes (since my parents got up around noon on the weekends, and we were only allowed around an hour on the wii and/or computer each day), but that dang startup jingle was so loud we'd have to start with the tv completely muted, heh..
around this time i *started* getting into older games by way of online emulation websites - i have probably played far more Super Mario Bros. Deluxe through a flash player than i will ever play of the original in any form; i tried out metroid (got lost but thought it was cool), zelda (wasn't crazy about it, twilight princess was way better), mega man (okay this is probably why i still can't get into the series, my only impression of the series for years was of it being hard trash), and likely a few others with the takeaway thought of "games really did get better over time"
forward another couple years, i now have a ubuntu laptop and no more time restrictions for computers (and generally less supervision as well), so i did a shady and got ZSNES and a few roms off the internet... and hot dang, super metroid really blew me away! star fox 1 was too hard for me, but star fox 2 kept me coming back to it.... the overworld and progression saving of super mario world kept my interest enough for me to beat that as well (with savestates of course), but i never really had much interest in returning to it - until i saw videos online of japanese players doing weird custom stages, either really hard or fully automatic, and then i caught protonjon's kaizo mario video, which led me to lunar magic and romhacking in general, and then to here (thanks again, ninji and vltone). i don't really hold mario world too fondly itself, but it's solely responsible for my current friends
and for more recent times... halos reach, 4, and 5 have had a considerable amount of time and memories poured into with friends (even nowadays thanks to MCC); Resident Evil: Revelations was a game i 100%ed on multiple platforms playing with my girlfriend; Minecraft is a huge game for most people (for good reason), and i'm no different; metal gear solid and danganronpa serieses still cause me to do big introspections every now and then; La Mulana (classic) is close to everything i could want from a metroidvania; Metroid: Zero Mission might be my favourite control feel of any game (sorry celeste); Tetris The Grand Master does good to make you feel progress as well as still having goals to target; Super Mario v2.0 for MirageOS got me thinking about level design and pixel art; and X has been a continued fascination of mine for a few years now...
quite a lot of games mentioned, but uh, i guess i just, really like games,,,,,,
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