Pinnacle of gaming

Tecmo Bowl and Super Tecmo Bowl days on NES, woot.

This one is easy - SOCOM II. Hostage extraction online mode in particular. Favorite map: Fishhook

It was my first experience online gaming and everyone had a mic and worked together to try to win.

It was the highwater mark of objective-based online teamwork, in my opinion. The COD and Battlefield franchises have better mechanics and graphics by a mile, but they lack that "it" factor that was captured long ago in SOCOM II. Your online "life" was rendered so much less precious by the mere fact that we can respawn indefinitely. Neither franchise has a hostage extraction mode, either.

SOCOM III came out and introduced much larger maps and vehicles and whatever it was that was captured in SOCOM II just faded away, and it has been a slow decline ever since then.

The COD's and Battlefield games are still fun, just not FUN and addicting like my first online crush. I've been chasing that high ever since.

Another high water mark was NHL '95 for Sega Genesis, but that was as much to do with where I was in life as the game.

My friends and I were in college at NIU and lived together off campus. It was the mid-90's. No wifes or kids yet, a good economy, college was still affordable, no bills to pay - the world was our oyster and real responsibility or worry was but a light at the end of a very distant tunnel. We had upwards of 7 or 8 guys playing abbreviated 20-game seasons plus playoffs. We would hold drafts where we picked which team we wanted, ponied up some cash and even had a miniature Stanley Cup that would go to the winner. Cash would be paid out to the Cup winner and to the winners of the trophies presented at the end of the season during the in-game trophy presentation.

Games would get so heated they would almost break out in fisticuffs. Playoff series would come down to a Game 7 and entire parties (which we threw on a nearly nightly basis) would come to a halt and watch and cheer intently. There were even a couple seasons when we all dressed up in thrift shop formal attire for the "Awards Banquet" (which consisted of a first-viewing of the awards, tons of complaining over being slighted by not getting nominated for whatever award, acceptance speeches and lots of Busch Lite).

We played 7 seasons that one year of college, which was quite an accomplishment given 20 games plus full playoffs per season and you couldn't skip ahead days until everyone had played their game. I won all 7 Stanely Cups, some in dramatic Game 7's including one that went into OT. Our league had 3 or 4 guys that were great and would always DESTROY any 'outsider' who claimed they were good at the game.

Some of my best gaming memories are hoisting that miniature cup and drinking Busch Lite out of it for the remainder of the night/early morning.

There was a certain......artistry....to being great at that game. And just like SOCOM II, a lot of that required imagination faded away with subsequent (more complicated) versions.

When I got to college, Counterstrike was all the rage and playing it in the dorms was amazing, since everyone was a LPB and we could talk junk to each other just by walking down the hall. Later on split-screen Halo got big but it just wasn't the same.

Also old-stuff from my youth, like Super Mario Bros. 3, Final Fantasy III (VI), Sonic 2, Chrono Trigger, Gran Turismo, etc. Virtual On on Dreamcast was also an amazing game, I wish it caught on more than it did.

Now that I am old, obviously most joy has been crushed from my system. But I realy got a thrill from playing SF4 and other fighters online this gen. I think it is more of the novelty, as I didn't do it much when I was younger.

Easy, playing KING ARTHUR´S WORLD in my beloved SNES

Two high points for me.

So long ago now- the Genesis "SEGA" startup screen for the very first time. Then on for years that system was a blast.

Then many years later, when I thought I didn't have any awe left in me, I play Fallout 3. The first time I saw the half destroyed Washington Monument actually made my breath catch for a moment. Having lived and grown up a short bike ride from DC made that game extra fun.

This might be the best post I've ever read.

Can't say there's any one pinnacle. Just waves of greatness in different areas.

The arcade explosion in the late 70s / early 80s was amazing because everything was fresh and new, and the graphical and memory limitations forced games to stand out through unique gameplay, rather than glossy sheen.

The Intellivision in the early 80s was a revelation with its 32-direction disc and 14 buttons. The baseball and football games were amazing for their time, and Utopia was arguably the first real-time strategy game ever. I was so spoiled by this machine that I wanted to vomit when the NES showed up after the crash with a lame-o 8-direction D-pad with two buttons, and those limitations basically became standard for consoles until the PS2 generation.

The Apple II / C64 craze in the mid-80s produced some fantastic games like Karateka, The Bilestoad, the early Ultima RPGs, M.U.L.E., Racing Destruction Set, and countless others. Personal computers were new and exciting, people had them at home and at school, and they really took things to a new level.

The Sega Genesis in the late 80s / early 90s was a 2D powerhouse with 10 layers of parallax scrolling and some truly seminal games. Looked great, played great. Nearly unseated Nintendo at the time, and frankly, it deserved to. And if you don't agree that Intellivision's Utopia was the first RTS game, then you have to give that honor to Herzog Zwei on the Genesis.

PC games in the early to mid 90s had a stellar run, including classics like Star Control II, Civilization II, and X-Com. So many hours well spent.

The Sega Saturn and Atari Jaguar in the mid-90s weren't great systems, but they had a few truly awesome games. Alien vs. Predator on the Jaguar was fantastic for its time, with separate campaigns for each of the three species and an interweaving story. Walking onto that Predator ship and seeing 4 of them decloak at once almost made me pee my pants. Tempest 2000 was also a revelation. Trippy, addictive, and mindblowing. On the Saturn, Guardian Heroes was arguably the greatest brawler ever made, with a crazy arena mode that let up to 6 people play as any character in the game (including enemies, bosses, and NPCs) in arbitrary team combinations. This one is screaming for an HD update with high-res sprites and online play.

The PS2 had Grand Theft Auto III, which changed everything. Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge, which were stunningly great online. All the Clover Studios games. The Prince Of Persia revamp. The list goes on. A truly great generation for console gaming.

I won't bore you with tales of this generation, but it's certainly had its high points. And I expect some great stuff in the next wave, too. It's always a great time to be a gamer.

- Jer

Well, I'd say the best "era" of gaming was from 1989 till about 1996. From the time the Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 launched in america, to the launch of the Nintendo 64. After that, gaming lost it's luster. Basically, since 1996, there has only really been 3 companies battling it out. Back then it was Sega, Sony and Nintendo. Sega left the hardware game, but Microsoft took their place. We're still stuck with just 3 options. If you go back to the early 90's though, there was SO MANY OPTIONS ! I mean, think of all the different gaming systems that existed simultaneously. All of them hoping they could be the one gaming system that would become the dominant force. For example, in the year 1994, all of these platforms were viable:


Sega Genesis
TurboGrafx-16 / TurboDuo
Super Nintendo
Sega CD
Neo-Geo
Phillips CD-I
Panasonic 3DO
Atari Jaguar
Sega 32X
Sega Saturn (in Japan)
Sony Playstation (in Japan)


I remember getting EGM magazines back then, and on the very top of the magazine they would list all the different platforms of the day, and back in 1994 they had a LONG list. We will never see a day like that again. Gaming has become too huge of an industry now. We only have the 3 major players, and for anybody else to take a shot at breaking into this industry, they have to have a billion dollar war chest, and be willing to battle it out with some fierce competition. It wasn't like that back in 1994. Back in 1994, companies like 3DO and Atari (Jaguar), actually thought they had a chance to get lucky and be the defacto standard. Obviously, those companies didn't really have much of a chance, but at least they thought they did.

Companies now adays just aren't going to try to challenge Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Sure, I know everybody will say "Apple", but again, that is a billion dollar player that could actually hang. In the early 90's, you had smaller companies that were willing to take a chance. It's a different era.

My childhood years:

NES:

Duckhunt
Super Mario Bros.
Mike Tyson's Punchout
Rad Racer
The Legend Of Zelda

Teenage years:

Gran Turismo 1 & 2
Chrono Trigger
Metal Gear Solid

Early 20's years:

Gran Turismo 3
GTA III, GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas

This Console Generation:

God Of War III
Uncharted 1,2, & 3

And IMHO GTA V will be the defining pinnacle game for this generation.

Honestly really GTA III was a game industry changing game.Sure there were previous GTA games and other games of the same genre.

But GTA III was the game that broke all of the rules and really started showing games were not only for kids and that there was a market for the young adults to older crowds.It put R* on the map in the gaming industry.

After the PS2 era GTA games look at all of the games developers have & continue to come out with today trying to be similar or better to the GTA game franchise.
Edited by Filipinoyakuza - 11/9/12 at 1:41am

I missed Duck Hunt on the NES. Played the heck out of the GB version though.

I remember those mags. The year-end issues were like 300 pages - GamePro, EGM, GamePlayers, etc. And then there was EGM2 because EGM was so popular.

1994 was probably my favorite year. It was the last viable year for 16-bit and all these great games came out. The PSX and Saturn came out in 1995 and changed everything up.

Street fighter 2 in the arcades was like a phenomenon.

I hold the SNES in pretty high regard too, just hit after hit.

Early online gaming like quake, especially the mods like action quake and counter strike made me forget about consoles for almost two generations.

But seriously, the games we have today are the best it's ever been. Nostalgia is great but I would have absolutely **** myself back then if I even had a glimpse of what gaming would be like nowadays.

+1

Almost too many to name. Some big highlights:


-Getting dropped off at the arcade for the day with my friends, $5 in quarters between us.

-Spending hours getting Tunnels of Doom loaded up on a TI-99 tape machine, then playing it all day long with my friends.

-Seeing an NES in action for the first time at a "rich" friend's house. Hanging around with my friends playing Super Mario Bros. until our thumbs bled.

-Renting NES games on the weekends and playing through them with my friends, staying up way too late.

-Playing PC RPGs in a friend's attic apartment in high school (Ultima 7, Elder Scrolls Arena, etc). Spending hours and hours swapping saves and doing hex edits.

-Traveling for an hour to see Mario 64 in action at a mall store demo station.

-Playing Goldeneye 64 endlessly among my 5 housemates in college.

-Discovering CounterStrike.

-Playing Baldur's Gate on a PC alongside my then-girlfriend who was playing it on her computer.

-Discovering World of Warcraft, and playing through to lvl 60 with one of my friends.


Looking back at that list, I realize that the common thread was the social element. As good as games can get, the thing that has always made them exceptional is the sense of a shared experience. Makes a good case for the idea that games have always been "social." Blows up the stereotype that gamers are a bunch of friendless basement dwellers.

I grew up with PC gaming so all the classics for me where the old adventure games. Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, Monkey Island.

When it got to console though i would have to say Goldeneye was huge for me. I remember all my friends having it and everyone playing it everywhere. Such a classic fps.

I think you mean "Hero's Quest."

The series name changed after I'd already played the first two games to death, so in my mind, it will always be "Hero's Quest" no matter what some stupid lawsuit says. And that was the whole idea. There was "Hero's Quest," "Space Quest," and "King's Quest." Each had its own unique flavor, but all three were united by common elements. Oh, Sierra... I'd definitely have to add those Sierra adventure titles and the Lucasarts adventure titles to my list, too. The first Hero's Quest was life-changing for me, as were both of the first two Monkey Island games. Truly magical.

I'm also kind of shocked to look back at that list of my "pinnacle moments" and see just how many of those are PC-related. I've always thought of myself as more of a console gamer with a few short forays into PC gaming. But looking at that list, that's not what it looks like. I keep putting off investing in a top-end gaming PC, but then I get little reminders like this of how much I love PC gaming.

Playing Baldur's Gate with my 6 yr old son sitting in the chair with me, and explaining to him the meaning of Hit Points, Armor Class (THACO anybody?), damage, saves, etc. Then watching him grow into being a gaming junkie like me (AND watching him win the 2007 Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures World Championship at age 14!).

Great, great, great memories. Truly the pinnacle for this Chairman.

OMG!!

Forgot a HUGE game that made me waste hours and hours of my time:

AGE OF EMPIRES II.

I´ll never forget that online game against my best friend in wich I barely won and just because my friend ran out of resourses, I was also on the verge of defeat for the same reasons.

Double Dribble... Nes. The sounds of the shoes squeaking, Late nights with my friends, mountain dew and doritos. Good times!

Project Gotham Racing 2 on the Xbox. It was the first really Live enabled game to really make use of the service. Amazing online (hasn't been equaled in a racing game yet). Challenging single player that actually rewarded you for completing it (Hello Speed 12). I spent so much time in that game. So many kudos, so many good nights (months, years) racing with friends. The infamous Down Town Short. The epic Nurburgring. The perfect Stockholm technical courses. Cat and Mouse. Last Man Standing. Starting a room with some friends at 9pm and not stopping until 4am, night after night after night. Those were definitely the good old days of early Xbox Live. I definitely hold a top spot for that game in my gaming heart.

I just started a list, but I realized that I was just listing my favorite games from each system. Here's my rundown of "pinnacles" for me...

As a young kid, staying up all night playing Techmo Bowl, Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden, and Contra. I don't remember much from the SNES era, so I may have spent more time outside then! Goldeneye on N64 was HUGE for me. I remember spending so much time playing that game with four players on a small 20 inch screen in a dorm room...man those were good days. Next up was Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 for PS1...again...sitting in an apartment during college slamming back beers and playing this game with friends, and you always had to set the rules of "one restart" at the very begining. Everyone has mentioned GTAIII for PS2, so that's a given, but honestly...at this point, I started getting away from video games for awhile, but always had a recent copy of Madden around. Call of Duty has taken over my 360, and PS3 exclusives are pretty amazing as well. So to recap...Techmo Bowl...Goldeneye...Tony Hawk 2...GTAIII...COD/Uncharted/Etc.

I think someone was right on in saying that most of it has to do with where you were in life at the time. For example...I've just never gotten into Halo. I can completely understand what people love about it, but it's just not my thing. When it was first blowing up, I was finishing up college and then got my first "real" job and my first apartment with no roomates...so I was out A LOT. Now that I'm married and have a baby, I'm home more, so when everyone is down for the night, it's nice to sit back with a glass (or four) of Maker's Mark, and play Call of Duty until real late.

Video games were awesome as a kid, but now as an adult, it's nice to have the means to buy the bigger TV, the surround system, and the games that you want instead of having to wait for Christmas or a birthday!

One last point I'll make...I understand the positive aspect of different console makers in the early 90's, but it's nice to have developers focusing on just two main consoles...as least that is my opinion.

Hmmmm, good question. A few experiences stand out for me:

- the first time I saw my friend's SNES in action, we played the original Street Fighter 2 for hours and hours, it was practically virtual crack, especially trying to beat Bison with his 'cheap' tactics( well to us it was cheap anyway).

- Running around the castle like an idiot at the beginning of Super Mario 64. I probably did that for 2 hours before actually jumping into a level

-4 player Goldeneye on 64. Nuff said.

-Staying up through the night to play Resident Evil 2 till the crack of dawn, then right to work. WE were the zombies by then!

-The MotoGP demo when xbox live launched in 2003. It was my first online experience. I played that demo for hours and hours. Funny enough I never got the full game

-Halo 2 online. Nuff said x 2

- Buying an HDTV for the first time, upgraded from a 36" CRT. My first game to test out the new display? Gears of War. Holy ****, that's what I've been missing??

- Playing the first Uncharted, just wandering around the jungle at the beginning, not doing anything in particular but admiring the lush scenery and running around like an idiot ( the sequel to my Super Mario 64 experience)