The Christmas Memories Thread...

da gamer

So Christmas is around the corner and that can only mean one thing - games, games and more games! Christmas is a huge season for the video games industry and it seems to be getting bigger year by year. For me, Christmas is a chance to get a bit more game time in and purchase a few extra games. for the past 28+ years i have gotten video games for christmas from 'Santa' etc. what i love about playing games at christmas is that years later when i go to play a game again, like mario bros for instance,it reminds me of that memorable christmas i first spent playing that game. what memories of christmas games do you guys have? and what games have you gotten over previous christmas years?

Pyongyang

da gamer wrote: »

So Christmas is around the corner and that can only mean one thing - games, games and more games!

It also means it's my birthday.

Alas this year the wife and I are putting all our Enda Kenny's patented European milk tokens towards Japan in July. I have a shopping list the size of a telephone directory I wish to acquire while over there so Christmas is a no-go really for me this year.

Wife wants bags and shoes though so I guess I'm on that duty again this year...

Christmas last year was grand. Family and all that good stuff. I didn't really play many video games though, even though I got a Kinect. Spent most of it bed ridden with the lurgie.

Memories of Christmas past though. Wow! My favourite is probably when I got Zombies Ate My Neighbors and an import copy of Street Fighter II Turbo from Japan for my Christmas and birthday presents. Glorious days!

EDIT: I almost forgot. The Christmas version of Creatures that came with Commodore Format was brilliant too!

da gamer

Pyongyang wrote: »

It also means it's my birthday.


Memories of Christmas past though. Wow! My favourite is probably when I got Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Early Birthday Wishes! ah zombies ate my neighbours, loved that game, however i got that in the summer so different memories for me! my earliest christmas video game memory was in 1991 when that great man santa got my brother and i a nes with super mario brothers and solar jetman. ever since that christmas its been video game after video game!

unky chop chop

Ahhh
Playing Christmas Nights on Saturn.
Getting my first Saturn with VF and Daytona..Jaw dropping stuff.
Getting a pal Megadrive with a copy of Champo edition Street Fighter and not leaving the house for two days before Xmas for fear it would be robbed.

paperwork

Ocarina of Time = Mind Blown!
I got a nostalgia related lump in my throat when I played the remake. Dear god i promised myself I wouldn't cry.

nyarlothothep

Christmas 1995: Got the 32X and Doom. Life would never be the same
Christmas 1996: Got the Sega Saturn with Virtua Cop. I will never forget.
Christmas 1997: Got Resident Evil and Magic Carpet.
Christmas 1998: Got a collection of retro games and Quake 2.
Christmas 1999: N/A, completely into music at that stage.
Christmas 2000: Got Baldur's Gate 2, played it continously
Christmas 2001: Got Wolfenstein 3D, played it obsessively
Christmas 2002: No game year as I had Morrowind from 6 months back.
Christmas 2003: Got an Xbox for the sake of it and played Halo obsessively.
Christmas 2004: Halo 2
Christmas 2005: Completely into music and studying.
Christmas 2006: Playing GTA Vice City
Christmas 2007: Completely into music, nada
Christmas 2008: as above
Christmas 2009: Mass Effect
Christmas 2010: Still playing Mass Effect
Christmas 2011: Considering Skyrim
Christmas 2012: ?

I'll just say nothing can surpass the wonder and awe of getting a sega saturn with a light gun in 1996, or the awe and wonder of seeing a 32X before me, everything was so righteous in the 90s, the whole atmosphere was perfect, Britpop, Des Lynam, Star Trek and next gen consoles.

da gamer

paperwork wrote: »

Ocarina of Time = Mind Blown!
I got a nostalgia related lump in my throat when I played the remake. Dear god i promised myself I wouldn't cry.

i remember when my brother got this in christmas '98. we played it for weeks. the music still reminds me of that christmas. i had a ps1 in those days and my brother had a n64 which i thought at the time wasnt near as good as the ps1. but looking back the n64 gave me great memories of christmas- mario kart 64, turok, mario 64 and of course goldeneye 64, i think we actually played goldeneye solid for the whole christmas holidays back then, great memories

Retr0gamer

Christmas was always a bit crap for games because my parents hated games. Got a C64 when everyone getting a SNES or Megadrive in 1991. Got a Megadrive in 1993 after asking for a SNES the last 3 years. Wanted a Saturn of PS1, eventually got a PC in 1996 on the education pretense, was able to play new games for a year since it was low spec. Still wanted a PS1 but that didn't arrive until 1998. Then eventually got the console I wanted when I got a PS2 in 2002... which I bought with my own money.

da gamer

nyarlothothep wrote: »

I'll just say nothing can surpass the wonder and awe of getting a sega saturn with a light gun in 1996, or the awe and wonder of seeing a 32X before me, everything was so righteous in the 90s, the whole atmosphere was perfect, Britpop, Des Lynam, Star Trek and next gen consoles.

your so right about the 90's, everything about that decade was special, particularly gaming.

ill have a go at remembering my gaming christmas years from the 90's.

1991- got my first console, the nes with super mario bros and solar jetman - the beginning of the end of my social life!
1992- robocop, kabuki quantum fighter, tmnt and gauntlet (nes)
1993-gameboy arrives in my house along with the magical zelda links awakening, tetris and mario and yoshi
1994-i discover 16 bit life with a new sega mega drive accompanied with the bundle games italia 90, sonic, columns, goldenaxe, etc.
1995- batman returns, fifa 95, aero the acrobat and the pagemaster
1996- 32bit arrives, ps1 with formula 1, fifa 97, resident evil and tomb raider
1997-the amazing final fantasy 7, tomb raider 2 and time crisis (i remember bad storms around the country meant no electricity until after st stephens day, my god i stared at that time crisis gun for two days solid praying for the electricity to come back!)
my brother got the n64 with turok, nba 97, mystical ninja, mario kart 64, mario 64 and the unforgettable goldeneye 64.
this was probably the best christmas in terms of games ever imo.
1998-ocarina of time, tomb raider 3, redneck rampage and cool boarders 3
1999-final fantasy 8, driver, gran turismo, toca touring cars

K.O.Kiki

I've never had a video-games related Christmas.

Parents hate games, and we usually spent too much time cooking & eating anyway! :pac:

OwaynOTT

Getting up at 2 to play my first Nintendo product. A gameboy with tetris, super mario land and megaman 2. Best present ever!!!!! Packing it all back up at 6 and back to bed to get up in an hour to pretend i never opened anything. Always thought I pulled that off.

Then got a nes next year with all the mario games 1 2 and 3. Kept dying on first mini castle in world one, bleedin' lava. Star wars, super off road, time lord, duck hunt, turtles and other crap.

Next year got a Snes with all stars, tin street fighter turbo, marioworld, secret of mana, starwing, stunt race, nba jam and tiny toons.
Starwing was like soooo cool! And stunt race was like deadly cool!!
Lost days to street fighter and to this day it pains me that when I passed it with no continues when my cousin went home for a bit, he wouldn't believe me!
Secret of mana with a multi tap was great as well, it has to be one of the most frustrating games to play with siblings!
'fu*k sake come in will ya!'
'no don't kill it let me!'
'you read again? I'm not reviving ya.'
'not that way'
'use your magic!'
'stop bringing up the equip screen!'

Painful stuff. A much better game on your own and I played that game for hours! Excellent game.

That was kinda it then for years. Got N64 and GameCube myself.


No present since the gameboy has came close. That was amazing. Super Marioland was so addictive and it began my obsession with all things nintendo. The music from megaman was excellent as well. Krustys Simpsons game! Ah the games I had for that some bomberman like game that I loved. Can't remember it.
Still have the gameboy and tetris but it's in bits. Still plays fine though not like brothers 4th ds.

nyarlothothep

da gamer wrote: »

your so right about the 90's, everything about that decade was special, particularly gaming.

ill have a go at remembering my gaming christmas years from the 90's.

1991- got my first console, the nes with super mario bros and solar jetman - the beginning of the end of my social life!
1992- robocop, kabuki quantum fighter, tmnt and gauntlet (nes)
1993-gameboy arrives in my house along with the magical zelda links awakening, tetris and mario and yoshi
1994-i discover 16 bit life with a new sega mega drive accompanied with the bundle games italia 90, sonic, columns, goldenaxe, etc.
1995- batman returns, fifa 95, aero the acrobat and the pagemaster
1996- 32bit arrives, ps1 with formula 1, fifa 97, resident evil and tomb raider
1997-the amazing final fantasy 7, tomb raider 2 and time crisis (i remember bad storms around the country meant no electricity until after st stephens day, my god i stared at that time crisis gun for two days solid praying for the electricity to come back!)
my brother got the n64 with turok, nba 97, mystical ninja, mario kart 64, mario 64 and the unforgettable goldeneye 64.
this was probably the best christmas in terms of games ever imo.
1998-ocarina of time, tomb raider 3, redneck rampage and cool boarders 3
1999-final fantasy 8, driver, gran turismo, toca touring cars

Totally. Each upgrade brought new amazement. I started off with a NES which I wasn't much impressed by, graphically or sonically even though I played it quite a bit but then I got a megadrive in May of 1994 and I was blown away by the graphics and sound quality. Streets of Rage 2 being a case in point. But it didn't stop there. Doom was a new level of awesome. The backgrounds were photographs in a game! Before this all I had seen were sprites, in Doom the graphics were in 3D with photo realistic (for the time) backgrounds. Shock and awe. And then the Saturn was kick ass with even more polished 3D graphics. From 8 bit simplicity to the foundations of modern grahics in 6 years. Then there were games like Donkey Kong country pushing the boundaries of 16 bit gaming with beautifully rendered graphics. The 90s were the 60s for music in terms of gaming given the speed of technological progress and classic releases.

CiDeRmAn

I got my first Spectrum for Jesus day in 84, it was fantastic.
I remember getting Spy Hunter for it the following year, not a great conversion but good enough for me!
By 90 I was living out on my own so I bought games when I wanted, Jesus day never meant anything special really, I bought consoles as they were launched along with the games.

I typically get games shop vouchers in the pressie haul, I never know if to spend them on one or two new releases I want or blow them on four or five preowned classics instead.

To show my age, this year I hope to get a Kindle!

horgan_p

Amstrad 464 , with the big bundle of cassettes and a joystick.couldnt unbox it fast enough then wait 15 minutes to load "oh mummy" then lose whatever patience a 9 year old has playing "roland in the caves".

That was the start of all the troubles......

CiDeRmAn

When I was in college in Sligo I'd come home every couple of months, with a bag of bits and bobs, including whatever console was on the go.
So, it was the Gameboy in 90, the Megadrive in 91, the Snes in 92 and so on.
Little did I know, and they only confessed to this recently, that my brothers, including Kerbdog, were raiding my bag for my gaming goodies while I was out and about!
The lousers!

I knew I should have wrapped them in my dirty laundry as a deterrent!

On the MD I obsessed about Road Rash 2, Biohazard Battle and Sonic.
On the Snes it was Super Mario World, Super Star Wars and Batman Returns.
And on the GB it was, unsurprisingly, Tetris and, perhaps more surprisingly, the monochrome, GB version of Lemmings.

Retr0gamer

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

and, perhaps more surprisingly, the monochrome, GB version of Lemmings.

Not surprisingly. It was a damn good conversion considering.