Nostalgic games

[InBOUND HD]

Counter Strike brings a lot of memories back to me, probably because it was the very first pc game I ever played. Now that I look back and compare it to the all new CS GO, I realize so much has changed. I'm just curious if anyone remembers a game that brings a sense of nostalgia when we see it or play a game we loved when we were very young. Doesn't have to be a pc game, can be anything related to video gaming in general.

[Pine]

I always get a sense of nostalgia whenever I see old Runescape stuff. I was really into it when I was younger and I have wanted to find a new game like it but I haven't. It was probably the first game I really played and got me into RPGs and it was very simple.

A few weeks ago I had hardcore nostalgia for Super Mario Sunshine and I played that for a while ha.

[Supreveio]

MapleStory is really the only game I get nostalgic over. I've played it on and off for at least eight or nine years at this point.

Such a shame that the company that runs it pretty much ruined it.

[Will T.]

Going in roughly chronological order by when I was introduced to them:

Jet Moto - the first game I ever owned for any system. Got it when I got my PlayStation when it was brand new.

Super Mario 64 - I rented this every time I visited my grandparents, where my N64 lived. Didn't get my own copy until 1999 or so.

Super Mario World - my uncle had this game and eventually gave it to me along with his SNES. I remember how badly I wanted it as a kid, and how fun it was when I finally got it. The GBA version was also bundled with my GBA when I received it as a gift.

Mario Kart 64 - everyone I knew had this, but I didn't. I played the heck out of it at friends' houses. Took me until years after the N64 hype had died down to actually get my own copy.

Diddy Kong Racing - same as MK64 above.

Banjo-Kazooie - the first N64 game I ever owned, and the one that sparked my current interest in game development.

Crash Bandicoot 1, 2, 3, + Crash Team Racing - the games I spent much of my childhood playing. Crash and the PlayStation were my main source of video entertainment at home since the N64 was so far away.

Super Mario Sunshine - the game that game with my GameCube. Still have fond memories of going for all 120 Shine Sprites with the help of the players' guide that game with it.

Luigi's Mansion - probably the game that introduced me to things other than platforming and racing for the first time.

Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door - back when I was a bit of a Mario fanboy, this game was one I played for hours on end. I still admire the super-simple execution of attack and defense stats - no mucking around in inflated numbers or complex multiplication tables or any of that useless junk. Plus the enemies actually had (usually) fair HP values, instead of having to deal 100 damage per turn for 50,000 turns to defeat the Ultra-Demon-Angel-Winged-4x4-BBQ-Whatever. Short battles are always better in RPGs IMO. Nobody likes clicking through battle menus for 40 minutes only to lose all their progress when they die for reasons beyond their control, despite that being the norm in RPGs for some reason...

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 - still one of my favorite PC games, especially with the modding community that was still active as of a couple years ago. I installed so many mods at one point that the game couldn't run due to trying to load too many files. Before I first discovered mods, I would build sandbox parks until my computer couldn't run them anymore due to the high density of structures within them.

Portal - my first introduction to Valve, Steam, and PC gaming in general.

Garry's Mod - my second Steam game, where I had tons of fun just messing around with physics in those early days. Certain maps will always remind me of those fun times.

Portal 2 - it's more the hype prior to release than the game itself that I feel nostalgic for, what with the Potato Sack fiasco and all. I had a mini-release party with a friend where we raced to be the first to play it on our respective machines and went through some of the singleplayer and co-op. Good times...

[NerevarineKing]

Kingdom Hearts

[Zork Nemesis]

I play a number of games that are pretty heavy on nostalgia these days, either by design or because their awesome. If there have to be specific games that invoke childhood memories or anything like that:

-Tetris Attack: This one game is the catalyst that ignited my love of video games as a whole. I remember playing this game for hours on end getting better and better. Marathon sessions of Endless mode were not uncommon in my youth and I remember how awesome it felt to complete CPU VS on Very Hard for the first time.

-HyperZone: I can't say I remember much about the game specifically when I was growing up, but I remember watching other people play it and how awesome it looked. I go back to this game all the time because it ended up becoming one of my absolute favorite SNES games after I got a chance to really play it. For comparison's sake, picture playing Star Fox with F-Zero graphics.

-Pokemon Yellow Version: I grew up in a time when Pokemon was the hottest thing ever. I followed the anime from the pilot to about the time Ash went to the Johto region. At the time I didn't have my own Gameboy, but I filled my Pokemon obsession with the toys and the trading card game (I have an 8-inch tall Pikachu stuffed animal somewhere). Yellow version was not only the first Pokemon game I got to play, my parents also bought me the Game Boy Color to go with it. The fact that Yellow was based on the anime was a big plus.
....I haven't played it since the second generation came out. Still, I remember growing up with it, taking my Game Boy to my friends' house and bringing a link cable along. Those were the best times.

-Pokemon Trading Card Game: For pretty much the same reason as Yellow; I was a massive Pokemon nut when I was a kid. I never really had the friends to play the real Pokemon TCG with (they weren't interested) so this Game Boy Color game was the next best thing. Not to mention the promo cards out of the game box and strategy guide.

-City of Heroes: The first online multiplayer title I ever played This game grew on me pretty quickly with it's massive customization options and easy, fun battle system. It really is a shame that it was shut down without much warning because this game was one of the finest MMOs I had ever played. Out of all the MMOs I've played, City of Heroes had me going back more than any other and had me playing for the longest periods of time.

-Final Fantasy XI: But despite City of Heroes being the first and favorite, Final Fantasy XI has a different nostalgic feel. Out of all the MMOs I've played, this is the one I've accomplished the most in since there's something like twelve major storylines that you can play with the same character. Given that you can do just about anything in that game without rerolling your character, you end up having so many accomplishments under your belt that it's easy to get lost reflecting on everything you've done. I mained Blue Mage when it was first introduced. That job is by far one of the most tedious to skill up but one of the most satisfying and rewarding to do so given that in order to get your spells you have to fight enemies and have the skills used against you. I look back at all the time I spent leveling and collecting those abilities. So much progress.
....I may have missed the point on that one.

-Star Wars - Shadows of the Empire: Getting back on point, this game on N64 is the game I credit to being the first game I every actually beat (keep in mind I was maybe six or seven at the end of the 16-bit era). Didn't understand the story, but man I loved the gameplay and stuck with it until I beat it. It was so much fun. Favorite level has to be the fourth stage where you're riding on trains and dodging obstacles.

Other games I still go back and play from time to time:
TMNT4: Turtles in Time
Super Metroid
Mega Man 2
Mega Man X
Battletoads
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Final Fantasy 6
Zelda Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time
Star Fox 64
and of course Super Mario Bros. 3

[Boss Llama]

In no particular order:

Warcraft II - first RTS I ever played, and it had fantastic graphics and a cool sound track. I remember the first time I ever saw it being played, I kept hollering at my friend to fix his buildings, because I thought the fires (which indicated damage, nothing more) were going to spread, and burn down his town. I never once lost a multiplayer game of it (Go orcs!)

Civilization II - The first game I can remember wanting so bad, it hurt. I saved long and hard, I begged my parents for extra chores to earn more, and eventually I got it. Best game ever. Absolutely appeals to both my nerdiness and my megalomania. The wonder videos were the best - I'm pissed they got removed. I still look them up on Youtube regularly just to re-live their splendor.

Caesar 2 and 3 - Never a "great" game, but C2 and C3 were the best attempts I ever saw at doing Rome right. Rome wasn't meant to be about the legions and the wars (though it admittedly became so), it was meant to be about ideals and improving civilian lives. I enjoyed them, for all their flaws.

Descent - First fully 3D environment I ever played in, in the sense of actually being able to move in all three dimensions. The idea of not having a set up or down, with everything just being relative, was great. Quad lasers, go!

Commanche: Maximum Overkill - First realistic flight-simulator. Ran it from a 5.25 disk on our 486 SX/25. Took me years to finally beat the last mission.

SimCity (the original one) - This may be the first full color graphical game I ever played on a desktop. It was installed on the computer in my JAWS classroom, and was the source of much lunchtime enjoyment.

Scorched Earth - To this day, I enjoy these simplistic little ballistic games. Besides, nothing is entertaining as a Death's Head nuke fired blindly in to the sky at high power with edge warping on. Round and round she goes, where she explodes, nobody knows!

EverQuest - I was hardcore addicted to this game, with more than 5000 hours put in. When it was new, people actually role-played, missions were actually a challenge, and things hadn't been dumbed down and simplified for whiny casuals and newbies. If you wanted something, you bloody well had to figure it out and earn it. The surname you got at level 20 was a huge status symbol. I recall very specific details of many "firsts" from the game, back in the days before SOE... before the Empire...

[Will T.]

Descent - First fully 3D environment I ever played in, in the sense of actually being able to move in all three dimensions. The idea of not having a set up or down, with everything just being relative, was great. Quad lasers, go!

Ahhh, how could I have forgotten Descent? That was probably my first introduction to video games, period. My parents had it on the household computer back in the mid-1990s - one of those stereotypical horizontal-sitting beige boxes with a big blurry CRT monitor perched atop it.

I'm massively glad I finally got to play that game again thanks to GOG!

[eumoria]

Ultima Online is one of those games for me... I played it so much and for so many years when it was a popular MMO it's funny to even think about. Every now and then I'll look up a free shard and fire it up again for nostalgia's sake but it'll never be what it was once like, well pre-UOR that is.

See now I'm getting all nostalgic about it... Can I host a Ville UO shard? I guarantee an average player population of ~1-2 people!

[Soltan]

Original Ultima and Unreal Tournament 2004 for PC games.

Several old-school arcade/pinball games.

[darklin0]

Super Mario 64, Rampage, Mario Kart, Mario Party 1 and 2, Super Smash Bros, etc. So many of the 64 games I grew up with and played with friends.

Pokemon; Red, Blue, Yellow. These were, in 90's terms, DA BOMB.

Age of Empires 1 and 2. Also the awesome Age of Mythology.

Basically anything on Nintendo consoles before the Wii.

Mario Kart Double Dash. Yes it deserves its own line.

Psychonauts, enough said.