One of my earliest gaming memories is seeing Dragon's Lair in the arcades. I couldn't believe my eyes... How is it even possible to "play a cartoon"?!?!? It was a 9-year old version of "What a time to be alive".

I was blown away. Especially because I thought the cartoons were fully controllable by the player!

Personally, I have a few. But what specifically comes to mind is “Super Mario Bros” (maybe an obvious first choice but still significant), the OG “Legend of Zelda”, and “MGS VR Missions” as a later entry. I was simply not capable of beating these as a kid. With “VR Missions” I actually got stuck on the very last level back in middle school. It wasn’t until I was grown that I finished it.

What about you guys?

It’s so easy to download RetroArch and upload your games!

First time playing any installment of the franchise. And maaaaan that shit was hard.

I knew it's considered one of the hardest NES games but I did not expect the almost Bullet-Hell level of precision and timing some of those stages required. I said in a previous post that games from this era required a different kind of skill level that I don't feel from modern games, and for this one in particular I barely had it. But I got through it and I'm happy about it.

Honestly, this one was rough. I still have Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3 on my list, and I have every intention of getting through them. But I'm not exactly hoping I'm gonna roll them any time soon

Onto the next one

I went to a vintage fest with my girlfriend today and found this copy of Nintendo Power, and I got it for $25! There's a little tear in the corner, but otherwise it's in great condition.

I love OoT, so this was an awesome find.

It's got to be a tie between urban strike or more arcade fun like choplifter. I love flying around blowing stuff up and not sure why but the crane to pick stuff up gives me some dopamine hit when it's successful haha. What's your favorite helicopter game?

I have to say that the Shadowrun SNES game truly got me hooked on the cyberpunk genre. I had enjoyed a few RPGs before, but my brother and I rented a SNES system and this was one of the games we rented with it. I don't think we played much of anything else that weekend and I eventually tracked rhe game down years later to finish.

I also played the Genesis version that came out and unlike a lot of games that were the same across platforms, for this one it wasn't. I was most disappointed.

I absolutely loved this game. I loved the theme that going back in time and killing Hitler would have unintended consequences that potentially make the world even worse…which is one element of a larger theme in the game of don’t fuck with nature/time/reality/God (if you will).

The game struck the best balance of being a realistc war game with just a few whimsical/fabtastic elements to give it some flavor. I soent countless hours on both campaigns but especially custom games.

And that soundtrack!! To this day top 10 video game score ever.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a worse ratio of how excited I was about/how disappointed I ended up being in/ a game than Red Alert 2. They took the fantasy/cartoony elements so far it didn’t feel at all like even the same kind of game. I thought maybe they learned their lesson so I approached Red Alrrt 3 with a cautious, guarded optimism but it ended up being even worse. Apparently, Red Alert 1 being a (semi) realistic war scenario rather than an interactive comic book on a computer was the odd one out.

These developments were integral to my “growing up”/outgrowing gaming and becoming an adult. I was born in 1983 FWIW.

I'm going to assume the vast majority of us are at least mid to late 30s on older. Growing up watching the massive leaps in technology that we saw, do you find it harder and harder to get excited about games nowadays?

I know I do. I wish I could get an ounce of the excitement that I used to get during my childhood but I'll be honest here, that hasn't happened for a long time. It seems like the newer stuff while cool, just doesn't offer as much as we used to get. The technological advances are just not as massive from console to counsel nowadays. What's your guys take on this?

This is one of the games I loved as a kid but could never get very far in lol. Still a fantastic game though, took everything Strider did an did it much better in my opinion.

Games have a fascinating quality: not only do they stay in your memory for a lifetime, but they also carry a whole chain of memories about the events that happened while you were playing them. That’s how it happened with Doom Troopers.

At the time, I had just finished working at a gaming hall where I could spend whole days playing on the Sega Genesis, but I still had a few weeks before I could buy my own console. The summer was hot, boring, and there was absolutely nothing to do. Then, unexpectedly, my friend called me. His mom had bought him a Sega Genesis and let him choose any game cartridge. He chose Doom Troopers.

When I saw the cover, I fully supported his choice. It showed a cool cyborg, a galactic soldier with a machine gun, crushing a zombie’s head with a military boot. In the foreground, there was a huge monster with fangs and a crazy grin, and the background was lit up by a bloody glow. It’s still one of my favorite game covers. But what happened on the screen impressed me even more: shooting off limbs, rivers of blood, and most importantly, the ability to play together!

Now, you might ask: how did his parents even allow this? The answer is simple: back then, most parents didn’t really care what their kids played. And in my friend’s case, the atmosphere at home was much more intense than any video game hell.

His father was serving in Afghanistan at the time, money was tight, and my friend’s mom decided to run... a brothel. A real brothel, with clients and a bunch of women. To keep her son from roaming the streets (which was unsafe at the time), but also out of the way at home, she gave him a small room, put in a nice TV, bought him a console, and filled it with snacks. She also suggested inviting a friend over for company — and that’s how I ended up there.

We quickly realized that getting out of the room wasn’t easy: the door was locked from the outside. Sometimes we heard strange noises from other rooms, but back then, it didn’t bother us at all. We understood perfectly what was going on, but we were so immersed in the game that we just turned the volume up and kept progressing through levels.

Doom Troopers was incredibly hard. To beat the game, we had to memorize every level almost by heart. We spent whole days in front of the console. Sometimes his mom would need the room for her own purposes (which, now, I’m uncomfortable thinking about). She’d give us money and ask us to go buy gum or ice cream, telling us to stay close to the house so we could be called back when needed.

We were almost done with the game when one day, something happened that changed everything. In the middle of a "session" at the house, someone started shouting and forcefully trying to break down the door. First with their feet, and then... with an axe. It turned out that my friend’s dad had returned from the army and found out from the neighbors what had been going on in his house.

They shoved money in our hands and told us to get lost. That was the last time we played Doom Troopers at his house. Later, when I had my own console, I borrowed the cartridge from him and finally finished the game.

Today, this story shocks me a lot more than it did back then. As kids, we just didn’t notice the hell going on around us — the gaming hell was so good that everything else faded into the background.

Do you have any games that bring back memories of real-life events?

Keeping my fingers crossed with this one. I wasted so many hours playing KC Munchkin.

Just got a Raspberry Pi retro gaming machine and it's loaded with tons of MAME games. After playing a bunch there is one (that I don't have) that is fuzzy and I'm trying to remember it. It's an early 80s top down perspective game. I believe the premise was you were at the mall and cops were chasing you. The only level I can recall is an ice rink where it was hard to move. For sure not Keystone Kapers. Other than that I have nothing. Anyone?

My father is a gamer (he's in his 40's and these of his collection of his consoles and there is more like a silver ps2 and ps3 that is compatible with ps2 discs. In the end what do you think of his collection? I will inherent them from him later.

Note (we have the ps1 and ps2 original controllers and ps2 new and sealed memory stick and the Netendo console controller but not the adapter for them)

I used to play this game as a kid(of course) but i did not own it so i could only play at my friends house. We always wanted to play a proper pennant with 6 people you know? And we would always set one up and get 6 people we knew to join, but our only connection was my friend. And so, without any internet, it was really hard to get us together to continue to play the pennant and so we couldn't get it going. we were only kids, and we did not have the means to meet up. It would require two of us to meet at my friends house at the same time and it proved too hard for 10 year old kids to pull off. It was one of those things in life that I really wanted to do. the idea of being able to buy weapons and items to improve my players as the season goes on was fascinating & all I wanted was to experience that!

But finally! 30 years later and with the new technology available to us, we can finally set a pennant up and play! It has been a long time coming !

anyone else love Base Wars and interested in playing?

Hi I’m new to retro gaming and modding in general I found my mum’s and aunt’s old gaming console 5-6 years ago in my grandparents garage. I finally own a soldering iron and have a multimeter, so I wanted to see if it works but I’m a but unsure when to look. Any help would be appreciated

I’m a bit curious what’s the black wire for, I’m guessing it’s from some factory fix?