Which Video Games Are You Most Nostalgic For?

Earthsiege!!!! That was awesome, but I played it on a potato and during some fights I was down to about one frame per second.

I've been feeling very nostalgic for the early/mid-2000s era. Stuff like the GameCube with Kirby Air Ride and Smash Bros. Melee, or even those Y2K-style electronic devices and MP3 players.

Tradley

You sent me on a quest similar to your game box collage. After almost a full hour of reminiscing and looking through photos, game cartridges and the games archive on my server this is my list of games I'm most "nostalgic for" in rough cronological order. - Super Mario World (SNES). My first own videogame on my first own console. Many playthroughs. Controller claw hand cramps. Playing 2-player with neighborhood kids and discovering all the hidden areas and easter eggs. - Super Mario Kart (SNES). Endless hours played with a neighborhood friend first trying to get gold on all cups, then setting fast lap times and finally absolutely annihilating each other in battle mode. Good grief, I could still sketch the map layouts from the top of my head. Maybe too many hours were spent :). - Digger (PC). Similar to Dig Dug. One of the first games played on the first family 286 PC on a monochrome screen. Audio from the built-in squeaker and looping soundtrack drove my parents mad. - Microsoft Flight Simulator 3.0 (PC). Ridiculous graphics, play speed and handling. But flying a freaking Learjet! I tried to plot an intercontinental path in my school atlas. Realized it didn't really work for unknown reasons after flying for hours on the calculated headings. - Star Trek 25th Anniversary. I can hear the ambiance of the Enterprise bridge in my head, the beeping and clicking and occasional reports by crew members. A friend and I played on his 486. We didn't understand the story and just clicked and hoped. I don't think we ever finished it. The space fights against Klingons and Romulans were stressful as heck. - Banjo-Kazooie (N64). A neighbourhood kid got an N64. I think we never managed to finish the game but it was so much fun running and flying around the maps. - Red Baron 3D. This game had a 400 page manual. I put in the time learning the airplane controls, fighter tactings, navigation and mission planning. - Archimedean Dynasty (PC). First real time sink on the upgraded family PC. I was totally immersed in the post-apocaliptic world of Aqua. Bangin' soundtrack, crushingly hard missions and some bugs. Had to cheat my way to victory by just changing some values in a text file savegame. Hackerman! - Counter-Strike 1.6 (PC). LAN parties. I went to a 2000 person LAN party some cities away. We played for what felt like 40 hours in two days. I was so tired afterwards but very happy. We scored in the lower middle of the rankings, about what we expected. Winning the odd game against superior players felt SO good! - Age of Empires II (PC). Also LAN parties. Wololo! One friend was a wizard in AoE2. We never beat the team he was in. It was impressive. I tried to learn from him but never got close. We mostly played "Black Forest" type maps where the player bases are connected by narrow paths through impassable woods. Closing the paths was first order but also trying to hide one or two villagers in the enemy are and organizing annoying raids. - X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter - Balance of Power (PC). Playing with a proper joystick. The thought of shield and energy management makes me break out in sweat today. Graphics were astonishing for the time. Flying over a massive Star Destroyed let my jaw drop. - Grand Theft Auto (PC). Insanely fun first installment of the lineage. This was THE talk in the friends group. Finding a rare car or weapon was the deal. - Half-Life (PC). Blew my mind. Physics, lighting, sound, gameplay, story. 10/10. - Earth Siege 2 (PC). Bit of an odd one but one I understood the weapons damage system and mission design I got exceedingly good at wrecking Cybrids. - Interstate 76 (PC). I put so many hours and effort in this game it's not even funny. The story, setting and voice acting were so captivating to me. Graphics and vehicle handling was janky as heck but the local and online multiplayer offered tons of fun after completing the main story. The funky soundtrack is still in my daily playlists. - Battlefield 1942 (PC). My first online multiplayer experience with 64 simultaneous players on a map. Chaotic fun. When paired with coordination via teamspeak our team dominated the maps otherwise filled with lonely wolfs. EA didn't get the cheating issues under control which resulting in frustrating matches. I played in 2021 on an XP machine I keep for such games. Didn't check if the servers are still running today - May Payne. Unbelievable graphics for the time. Had to upgrade my PC to properly run it. First time for me using bullet time. The comic-esque storytelling and noir setting was new to me and hooked me. I could extend the list by quite a bit but let's leave it at this for now. Thank you for triggering this summary.

Horatio Pitt

I appreciate what those games did for the future of games and even computers as a whole. It must have been mind blowing at the time to have such freedoms in what you could do. To be able to type something and have the computer respond or react. I don't know if I could personally enjoy those kind of games today, but I certainly respect what they did. Just I like respect the original 'drag and drop' that Mac did on their computers! It made everything so much easier! :D

One version is included as "trek" in the "bsdgames" package for various Linux distributions. Other versions are also freely available online.

Andrew Pam

Apparently it did inspire games that came after it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(1971_video_game)#Reception_and_legacy

Andrew Pam

Olde Skool! :)

Andrew Pam

I cannot tell you how many hours I spent on that. I still have "city journals" which can be found on Simtropolis from a long time ago. I still prefer it over Cities Skylines.

SimCity 4 is a masterpiece, truly the apex of that genre.

I've actually heard from a handful of people who love that original Star Trek game!

Oooh, that is beyond my reach of games.

Among my absolute favourites!

Oh, and the original text based "Star Trek" game on the DEC LSI-11 that I used to play at school. I have the Roger Garrett book with the source code for one variant!

Andrew Pam

Early text adventures - Scott Adams (not the cartoonist) and Infocom (the Zork series!)

Andrew Pam

SimCity 3000 Unlimited and SimCity 4. I still play them from time to time.

ZoneSystem

I like book posts! :D The more book-like the better. I know a book horse who likes them too. It's crazy when you realize... how old some of these games are now. It makes me feel old. Youngin's talk about them like they were "classics" and they at least still hold them on a pedestal for how great they are. I am glad the gaming community actually respects and honors classic games and the history. So many groups just ignore the past.... oh what was I talking about again?

I never played any of those, besides my one friend who had a GBA. They didn't have all the racing games I wanted to play on. ;D So my entire memory of Nintendo was just from this one friend as he always got the latest system. He eventually switched to Playstation after the Wii.

OMG I’m crazy for crash, spyro, sonic, I played gran turismo with my cousin who I got my middle name from, gamecube era (what did I not play) skies of arcadia, timesplitters, advance wars, animal crossing, mario kart, lol I even played the hell out of a game called ping pals for the og nintendo ds was great when I stayed over at friends and we camped outside. Just so many good memories with family and friends. Sometimes time can be to cruel! While on gaming super excited for Elden Ring! Sorry for the book post, haha!

GBA, DS, and Wii for me.

subaruanon

They did a good job on them! It makes me cross my fingers for more remasters and maybe even some new games. I do want to try that new Crash game that came out eventually.

I have the remasters, too! =3 Been playing the heck out of them for a while, now, and can't stop! XD

Rupert the Blue Fox

Crash and Spyro I spent a good amount of time with. :) I must say, I have enjoyed the new Crash and Spyro remasters too! Lots of good memories.

I had/have (I have to look if it's still there) an Ace Combat game (the newest) in our monthly games list for people to nab. I also have a new flight fighter game on that list too. By a new company trying to bring back the days of yore of Ace Combat. I don't remember it's name. I think it's called "Wingman" or something.

Truth. The last Ace Combat one, 7, that came out a couple years ago. I still go through it with a flight stick controller on my PS4. It's fun as hell.

AutoKnight01 (Princess Deadpool)

I'm a nut for Crash and Spyro games of the past, and much of the Mario franchise. X3

Rupert the Blue Fox

I never played the Borderlands games, but I have a friend who loves them!

Isn't that great when you can pick up an old game, and feel right at home with it again? :D That is the best!

Borderlands 2

Estima

Ace Combat: Shattered Skies. I used to play that with friends. I wasn't that great, but it was fun to fly around and explore. Flying games don't even get enough love. Now days people say Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is the king of sims, which I would love to try. But there are rarely any fighter jet games anymore.

So many Mario games from the 90’s era like Super NES I look back at with fond nostalgia. Also a few other obscure games. You ever hear of a game series called Ace Combat?

AutoKnight01 (Princess Deadpool)

Star Ocean: The Second Story. 1999 JRPG with a neat sci-fi plot, great exciting combat, and the ability to pair any character with any other at the end. I played it on emulator last month and fell back in love, all over again. <3

Dan White

Ooh, this will be fun. What is the oldest game on the collage? What is the newest game featured? How many games are shown by console? GO! Someone! Go!! lol!

I think I would say the PS2 era of video gaming was among the best... if not the best. It seemed like there was always something new and no shortage of things to explore and try. Now days, people wait months for a few games a year. They were churning out games like crazy back then.

I always loved my PlayStation 2, Gran Turismo 4 was my jam