Games and souvenirs

[my_lo]

Did it ever happen to you to love a game not because the game is great but because the first time you've played it, it was a great moment of your life? For example:

Psychic 5: I think that i was 14 years old when i first played that game. It was an arcade at the spanish hotel of that year's summer trip.
First, those holidays were great, i was only interested in swimming in the pools and in the sea, eating pizzas and playing videogames. At the beginning, the game didn't really interested me that much but one day, there was that german guy who was apparently on his last day at the hotel and he completed the game with only 3 coins, i stayed beside him all the way, i was amazed. During the rest of the holidays, i've spent most of my pocket money in that arcade. When we came back in belgium, we (with my bro) have tried to find Psychic 5 for amiga. I've checked a lot of game listings, called shops and finally gave up. Until one day, years later, someone told me about Mame and it's huge list of compatible games. I quicly jumped to the letter P and i found it. It was outstanding to hear those musics again and to find back those characters. Since then, i'm pretty much devoted to emulation and retro-gaming.

Another world: I was 17 years old and i was getting my amiga games via a neighbour. He had a deal with someone who was receiving all that was being released for amiga. You could buy a magazine and spot any soft, demo or game, the guy had it. Every friday, i was spending my evening in my friend's bedroom, copying his copies while testing with him the latests news.
It was always a great time, all the excitement around the new stuff. But one of those evenings has been way better then the others. That day, we received "Another world". When all the copies were done, it was already late and i had to get back home, we didn't have the time to give it a try.
As i was walking back to my parent's house, a huge storm was about to start. It was the moment before, when you can feel electricity in the air. There was wind and lightning without thunder, you could hear stuff like empty cans flying in the street. The storm only started when i was already back in my bedroom. The first thing i did was to insert the disk 1 of the game in my amiga 500 and to watch the intro in the dark.
Amazing coincidence, it also starts with wind and lighting, just before the experiment completes and throws us into... another world! The game and the storm together, man that's a night i will always remember.

I have plenty of other stories like that but those two are the ones that have marked me the most. And you, are there also games that you still play/love not only because they're great but because they are linked to a great remembrance?

[Demon Cleaner]

:lol: Hey, that is great to hear, that you played Psychic 5. I played it in a pub in my hometown, played it all the time, and soon began to get a huge amount of points. There was another guy, also playing the game, and he had a score above 5.000.000 points. So I had to train a bit, and finally I managed to beat his score. This is no joke, I got over 6.000.000 in Psychic 5. The key for getting so many points is the following:

First you must be able to get to the last boss with only 1 life, which indeed is very hard, but not impossible. There are 6 stages in all, and at the end of each stage, you have to fight a big guy sitting on a throne (or chair, can't remember). So you fight through until the last boss in stage 6, then hit him constantly until 1 or 2 more hits would kill him, but instead of killing him, let yourself get killed, and begin the whole scenario (final boss) from the beginning with your lifes you have left. When you only have 1 life left, do the same again, but this time finish the boss off. When you do all this, you get a lot of points, thus gathering over 6.000.000 points.

Best tactic for the last boss, is using the old man, as he can float very long in the air ;)

[Harrison]

Double Dragon 2: This game holds some great memories for me. I first encountered the arcade machine in one of my regular visits to the big arcade they have in Portsmouth (Southsea). I used to go there with a couple of friends about once a month. First by train, and then once one of my friends could drive we went a bit more regularly.

We played the game in that arcade for a while and really enjoyed it. Then a few days later I was in Salisbury and went into a chip shop to discover they also had a Double Dragon 2 machine in there, and as I went to Salisbury much more often then Portsmouth that was great. I used to plan to buy fish and chips there most Saturdays so I could play the machine with the friend. We ended up completing the game in that chip shop, which was an amazing feeling.

Then we got hold of the Atari ST version and played that for a long time at home, completing it a few times. Sadly I never really played it much on the Amiga, because by the time I owned one the game was already a few years old and many other games were out to be played.

Gauntlet 2: Very similar story. I first discovered this in the same arcade, but we never played it as much in the arcades as we did double dragon. We did however used to play it at least once every time we visited. However when I first got hold of this game on the Amstrad CPC we did try to complete it. With a friend who lived down the road we played it solidly for over a week. We paused the game as it had no save feature and dimmed the brightness and contrast on the monitor as low as they would go while we were at school, and then played it all evening every night. Imagine our disappointment when we got to the end of the final level and the game looped back to the first! Nooooo! Still... it is a great memory.

Elite: I first discovered this at school with the original Acorn BBC Master version. We used to play it at lunch time and often during IT and Maths classes. Addicted to the game for a long time.

[Demon Cleaner]

Just found a post where I mentioned the first games I played, and I was also mentioning Psychic 5. Here's my post:

I played a lot of the old arcade games, beginning with Asteroids (in Italy 1979), Space Invaders and PacMan (both on table tops), and then Phoenix (also table top), Time Pilot, Rally X, Rock'n Rope, Pengo, Galaga, Xevious, Exciting Soccer, Passing Shot, Elevator Action, Spy Hunter, Tron, Gauntlet, Yie Ar Kung Fu and many more.

Later I played a lot of Kick'n Run (Mexico 86), and I loved it. At the same time I played Psychic 5, which is still now one of my favorites, I think I mentioned it more than once here on the boards (old board), and always told you to test it (@Harrison). I managed to get over 6.000.000 points in that game, which was of course the high score in my home town for several years.

[Harrison]

:lol: You know what. I've still not played it! Will make a note and give it a play in MAME later tonight.

[my_lo]

@ Demon Cleaner: You are probably the first person that i know (besides my brother) who knows Psychic 5 from the past. Now I'm seriously impatient to be back home and to play it the way you told me :D But i must tell you that i'm not really sure to be able to complete it with only one life.

@ Harrisson: About completing games in a food shop: In front of my college, there was a sandwich bar and, in the back, they had mortal kombat. I've been skipping school soooo many times to play that game, i even once got out of the religion class by the window, runned to the game for a few coins and jumped back to my seat without even that old priest to notice that i was gone. Later i could complete the game with only one coin, those were the cheapest lunchtimes i ever had :cool:

[Buleste]

One of my local pubs had a arcade machine and we spent many hours getting drunk and playing Nemesis and Aliens. 2 player games of either after a few beers could get very very very loud.

[Teho]

Just want to add that I too remember Psychic 5 from the days of old. Definitely a great platformer, but not a game I have particularily fond memories of. I can't actually single out a game that fits that description. There's certainly a good number of games I have great nostalgic memories of, but I can't think of any that I have certain special memories of, sorry.

[Harrison]

Another I have really great memories of is Xybots. But it had to be the arcade machine, as the home conversions could never recreate it. The reason was because it had special joysticks that rotated 90 degrees on their axis in each direction.

I first played the game on a friend's ZX Spectrum, and he spend ages telling me about how much better the real arcade machine was that he had played on holiday. But I had to take his word for that as I was enjoying the Spectrum version well enough, and it was the only version I had played.

Eventually a few months later we visited the Portsmouth arcade and they finally had a Xybots machine, and he was right. Rotating the joystick to rotate the 3D maze like levels through 90 degrees was a brilliant idea and it worked really well. We didn't really play any other arcade machines that day. Four of us just took it in turns to play two player on the game. I remember one of our friends was really good at the game and could just keep going on a single life, while the rest of us kept dying on swapping over as the second player.

Sadly it was another looping game, with 100 repeating levels, but it was still a great memory.

[Demon Cleaner]

@my_lo

A good tip from my part: Try to get the witch with the broom as often as possible, this helps a lot going past enemies, and it's quite easy to get the witch. Wait until she's onscreen, then jump but let yourself fall immediately, then jump again. At that moment she should easily be in reach.

Oh, almost forgot, to get the 6.000.000 you also have to get every single chest and coins and whatever gives you points ;)

[my_lo]

I've been trying the whole week-end but i just can't complete it with only one life. Those damn toasters or the lamps always get me one way or another, grrr. Next week, i'm on holidays and my x-arcade should be delivered. I'm so gonna play for hours, i hope that i'll improve my skills... Thanks for the witch tip but i already knew it. If i get close to your score i'll post a screenshot here ;)

@Harrison: I had a bit the same thing with the game "after burner", i was used to play it at a friend's place on his sega but he couldn't stop telling me how much greater it was with the original arcade one, with the cockpit that reacts when you move...
In my hometown, there's a street fair that comes every october and stays the whole month. There was always plenty of luna parks and i could finally try the original after burner, it was fantastic. Many years later, i was in London when we discovered some gigantic arcade room on the top floor of a gallery. There was a few virtual video games, it was pretty funny but there was also an after burner 360°. Basically, it's the same cockpit but you must use a safety belt because he turns completely (head upside down). It was amazing and we stayed in that place the whole afternoon, spending all our coins on that game... It was great!

[Harrison]

That 360° Afterburner machine sounds great. I've not seen one of those.

Where in London was that? I always visit the Trocadero centre when I go to London as it has a huge Video arcade inside on many levels, with a lot of arcade machines. It was originally called Sega Park, but is now changed to a FunLand Amusement Park. The website is at http://www.funland.co.uk/

[my_lo]

It seems to be that one, i recognize the special mechanical stairs. When I've been there (16 years ago), there was bumping cars inside and guys dressed as superheroes at each floors to welcome the people. I remember having been welcomed by Captain America...

[Harrison]

Yep, that is the one. The long escalator takes you right up through the building to the top. That is one long set of stairs.

[my_lo]

I've found a link to the machine:

http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=844

And a little video here:

http://www.vimeo.com/clip:117405

That would so be nice in my living room...

[Harrison]

Ah! I have seen that machine in the arcades, but never anyone playing it.