If you are a gamer, there are moments in your gaming life that you can really recall as being cool, heartfelt, humorous, frustrating, evil or absolutely awesome. I intend to have some of those thoughts put forward into digital form for all to see. Even though all of us have fond gaming memories, those of us that have played the same games share a special camaraderie. Enjoy the nostalgia!

Hungry Monster (Hand Held)

I bet you haven’t played this! It’s Bandai’s 1981 Pac Man clone “Pack Monster” licensed to Radio Shack and sold as Hungry Monster in 1983! Seen here in this link: Handheld Museum Link Jeez, that was a mouthful.

Full of memories! My dad has a box full of old handhelds like this stashed in his house. Not all of them work but this one did, and I played it for hours. Resulting in looping the score over and over again. Let me tell you this game gets really hard, so you have to come up with a few ways to cheap the game. Like, for example, staying INSIDE the warp zone for as long as you could possibly want until the coast is clear, but sometimes THAT doesn’t even work…the enemies move too fast. I still have this around somewhere. It brings back fuzzy memories every time.

Super Mario Bros. 1/ Duck Hunt (NES)

When my dad bought me a NES, this is the game that came with it. A dual game cartridge that had a little shooter on it called Duck Hunt. Being I believe only about 5 or 6 at the time, my motor skills for gaming were…well, not the best. I can remember that same night I got the system and played Mario, I was stuck in between those two long block “towers” at the beginning of the second level. “It’s too tall! I can’t jump over it!” One of my dad’s friend’s did that part for me. When I think about it now, it’s embarrassing. I will admit that this was the first video game I ever beat. And believe me, it was one of the happier moments in my gaming history. One never truly forgets the first game they beat after so much blood, sweat and tears. My mom wouldn’t hear the end of it until the next day.

“… I beat Bowser… OMG I beat the game! I finally saved the princess! Not some damn overgrown mushroom.”

Then there was Duck Hunt. I was really better at the clay disc shooter than the ducks. Besides, that dog ALWAYS pissed me off when I missed. I tried to shoot him in the face millions of times but to no avail. Luckily I could always switch to Mario to ease the pain. F*** you dog.

Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)

I can hear the hardcore nerds yelling now, “It was originally Doki Doki Panic!1!! blah blah blah…”. Well, ‘ya know what? I don’t care. I NEVER played that.

Mario 2 was one of those games that just made me play it for months. Messing with the mechanics of the game after running through it for hours was fun. You learned every little trick with every character. And I think everyone played as the Princess, you could skip so many obstacles with her. I can remember that 8-bit music. Good stuff that.

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

Ahh, beautiful 2D sprites, animations and great style with every different world. I absolutely loved and giggled about world 4 (giant world) while world 7 (the pipe maze) frustrated me and my brother to no end. “You’ve got to be kidding me! I have to run non stop and reach every star at exactly the right moment before my invincibility ends and reach the end of the level while treading over invincible enemies otherwise I die?!” Some of you may know what level I’m talking about. And while we’re at it, how about those random grabbing hands pulling you into mini levels on world 8? Damnit…

However, I did perfect the run and jump method of getting the star every time at the end of the level. I had 99 lives at every other time, while losing them promptly on some damn jumping level in the last world. Also, damn you Nintendo and your damn dungeon maze level!!! I think you might know this one as well.

I remember learning about the secret of the white blocks from a magazine that my brother told me about. At the same time every little kid with a shred of Nintendo loyalty learned the trick from some movie called The Wizard… :-p

Vegas Dream (NES)

One of those games you could continue to play forever if you wanted. A casino “simulator” if you will, with black jack, keno, slots and roulette all in one. It even had the stereotypical Las Vegas interactions with people who were trying to scam you out of your money, or gold diggers trying to marry you. Ahh, those were the days. I would play with my brother and we would create gross names for our personas. “Mr. BJ” and Ms. Boobs” were a couple, I think. All the while giggling like some little kids. Who am I kidding? I was the kid, my brother was in his twenties. I think he still makes jokes like that even now, lol.

I can remember back when people would play this game at my house like it was an addiction. Especially with my mom. I would often wake up to her playing the damn slots and then a little bit of black jack. One time she played it so much, I pressed the reset button on her to get her to stop. Hah! She was pissed, but she stopped. It’s called an addiction and I didn’t get grounded for it. It is just a game after all. Note for the wise: Don’t ever try this same trick with someone playing WoW in the middle of a instance. It just doesn’t work out the same way.

Well, that’s all for this episode. Join me next time for a few other games in my continuing series of Gaming Moments.

I’d love to hear some gaming stories from anyone else here. Post away.

-Asura