Most Memorable Retro Gaming Memories

[Cauterize]

Just to start something a bit different, I want to hear your stories of times gone by, filled with retro gaming goodness. To kickstart this, I'm going to share with you my visit to a Sega tour bus.



I was 9 years old when this bus started touring the country, and luckily enough I was in Liverpool visiting my relatives when it was due to hit Albert Dock. While I cannot remember too much about the inside of the bus or what was going on, I do remember getting given the 'Smoking Who Needs It?' sticker which I treasured dearly until it lost its stick.

[Tinsair]

Ahhh I remember the Sega bus! We used to get one here at the Northampton Balloon Festival. I went one year and they had a Virtua Racing competition, sadly I was at the back of the bus and had a dodgey TV so did rubbish I ended up with a certificate saying I borded the bus etc.. plus a Sega Crew wallet which I still have, I remember the winner got a Mega Drive console!

The following year the bus was at the Balloon Festival again, this time it was Sonic & Knuckles, a highest score competition. This time I had a better TV and actually won the competition! I thought great going to win a Mega Drive, but to my dispair all I won was a yellow Segabus T-Shirt and another certificate & stickers with Knuckles on saying the "Smoking - Who Needs It" quote. I've still got all them things now, but was really disappointed that I didn't win what the other kid did the year previous

[Pondis]

I guess mine was going to official Nintendo Magazine Pokemon tournament. It sounds a lot fancier then it was.

It was at a local sports centre full of tables with link cables screwed to it. You would just find someone, battle them, if you won you got a stamp, if you got 5 stamps you got to battle the 'Champion', apparently one of the editors, i didnt care.

If you beat him your got a gold sticker! if not, you got a gold sticker, it was pretty much worthless.

Though I did get to play Pokemon Stadium MONTHS before release and made pretty much all my friends jealous.

It was a pretty cool day out meeting other Pokemon fans, but not as exciting as it looked in the cartoons...

[mr_gibbage]

I went to see a Gamesmaster show when I was about 8 or 9, was given free tickets to see it. Only it wasn't quite a proper show, but it had Dominic Diamond fronting it (and was called GamesMaster), it was at North Weald airshow. They had some kind of games tournament on it, just remember the winner getting an Amiga Comic Relief pack as the prize.

[Katsu]

I recall going to s Gamesmaster Event at the NEC they had the do Sonics 1st level time trial compo
More importantly I remember meeting Shadow from Gladiators there, he was proper ripped & crazed eyes! I actually bumped into him again at my local gym later in the year... Scared the ruffage out of me

The best buzz memory however was probably getting Mortal Kombat on the MD as soon as it was in the building whilst working at Rumbelows & my manager knew I was a gaming nut so he let me take it and pay on release day

The most heart warming memory would have to be whilst tracking down a PAL Keio 2 around 2002/2003 I was so gutted I never picked it up when the Saturn was dropped more so than £19.99 PDSaga.. I contacted JVC by email and they actually had one that they sent to me! I cannot to the day believe my luck there & if I can buy something JVC I do (my car stereo is JVC), I just wish I had kept the paperwork...

[Lord_Santa]

upon moving to Denmark, from Sweden - I was a but a little kid (about 10 years old) and didn't know the first thing about the Danish language, but I did manage to gain some friends at the local library, where they had a Commodore 64 available for gaming (think it was 20-30 minutes at the time) and I spent all my free time down there, trying to beat Bubble Bobble with various people and thus making friends and learning the language at the same time

also, me and a couple of friends of mine found an arcade-machine with Wonderboy in Monsterland, which when kicked in the right place would give you extra credits - needless to say, we abused this almost until the end-game, when the owner found out what we were doing and we had to make a run for it and never return =/

[ewjim]

Worked on a couple of adverts for channel M and the main d.o.p was the guy who composed music for commodore games, including Bionic Commando - one of my cherished childhood games. I didn't know it was him until I researched him after. Tim Follin I think he is called? Either way he was awesome to talk to and had I have known about his 8 bit days id have chatted his face off.

[mr_wistles]

I remember being at a holiday camp (Havens I think) when I was about six / seven. I remember going into the arcade and there was this gargantuan crowd around a brand new game, it was Double Dragon.

There must have been 100 people trying to watch. I spent my entire holiday waiting for a go but the queue was so long. I finally got a go very early one morning and died on the first screen as I did not know what I was doing!