What was your one, perfect gaming moment like?

[Dyspaire]

For me it was late-winter of 1992, living on the top floor of a 115-year-old mansion with all the atmosphere that implies, it being cold and snowy outside, and a brand-new copy of Ultima Underworld sitting opened next to my brand-new 486-33 with a 17" monitor.

I had absolutely nothing to do for a week, the weather was terrible, the room was dark, and the monitor glowed.

It's hard to describe how incredible it was to move forward for the first time within the gameworld of Ultima Underworld. Those first few steps changed gaming more than just about anything before or since.

It was an incredible week. All alone, no interruptions, plenty of good food, lots of hand-written notes and a fantastic in-game automap. Games don't get more atmospheric.

I was gone.

I've had a few other great ones; a similar experience with Ultima6 in '90, that non-stop weekend with Pool of Radiance in the fall of '88, the first few months of retail WoW... but that week in the cozy embrace of snowstorms with a warm fire nearby and Ultima Underworld experienced for the first time would be my one, perfect gaming moment.

What was yours?

 

[Blowhard]

As a kid playing Morrowind. Eerie occult stuff, alien and unfriendly natives, limited draw distance, easily trumped unplanned kid build where basically anyone kills me unless I abuse every limitation of the engine= fullblown nightmare. Every bit of intrigue, lore, and dream-like mystery that is already natural to Morrowind was amplified a thousand fold by my child mind. It was like some sort of perfect, surreal dark fairy tale. The game seemed absolutely limitless. As a kid, I didn't even really grasp that the game had a limit, and I was easily fooled into thinking it was larger than it was (I always thought the island was insurmountably huge. I never realized you could just walk from end to end in a short period). It was very frightening to actually sit down and play it, as I did approach it like this entirely different universe I was completely lost in. The illusions of game design were sufficient to make me think that this whole world operated in a completely functional and normal way. To make matters trippier, I took that game entirely out of sequence and did basically no quests. So I would get into alll sorts of situations that demanded a pre-existing context to make sense of them. So it appeared like all this random shit happening in a completely surreal way. For instance, I killed Vivec without even knowing who he was. I ended up discovering the alchemy glitch myself and freaking myself out when I shot through the world into a void. I got to Dagoth Ur without even finding the puzzle box. I had no grasp of TES lore or history but would randomly pick up books in the game and read about some dude spawning vampires by raping a corpse. I didn't know that daedric princes were a thing, would walk up to a huge statue, then suddenly have a god talking to me and in that moment I'm pretty sure you could have opened my door and found me basically cowering in combination fear/excitement.

And the game to me was just about seeing how much I could get away with. If I had any "character" I was just some scoundrel that collected shit, but not in some bethesda forums larping way, but this awesome, completely organic, natural sense of childlike treasure hunting. It's the sort of experience that would be impossible to have as an adult. The game was just "how do I get that piece of armor in ghostgate? maybe I can make a spell... hm, now I have to figure out how to get enough money to get a spell to get the armor... No, it'd be easier to kill them. Ok, how about I kill that chick in Suran, get HER armor, and that will make me strong enough to get the new armor. Alright let's walk to Suran; holy shit whose this big guy with a sword? Oh shit he wants to duel..." It was stupid and impractical and I didn't understand anything, but that's what made it awesome. I was like Cugel from the Jack Vance tales. Just a complete bastard getting into complex Rube Goldberg scenarios because every scheme demanded an answer I didn't have, then before I know it I'm tripping out in giant mushroom towers trying to hop up a vertical shaft by glitching my feet through slightly angled walls.

 

[Shin]

winter of 1998, daggerfall, getting out of that fucking dungeon

 

[Gregz]

I'm too old to remember

winter of 1998, daggerfall, getting out of that fucking dungeon

Yeah...that was pretty fuckin' great. I remember exiting...it was night time, and snow was falling gently, and I could see the stars, and the MIDI music was really cool.

Enchanting it was.

 

[vmar]

Probably something to do with Morrowind, I have fond memories of playing that game for the first time, then I faked being sick for an entire week so I could stay home from school and play. It was like nothing I'd ever played at the time, and was my first 'real' rpg you could say. Up until then I mainly played fps, I had always been under the impression that only fat autistic 30 year olds who lived with their parents played rpgs and D&D was some weird cult thing where people gathered around dressed in robes worshiping demons or something. It got me into rpgs and turned me into one of those aforementioned weird nerds. I'll never forget being blown away at the fact that I could do pretty much anything I wanted, and got completely absorbed in the world. First time I'd ever used a notepad to keep track of stuff in the game world. My first character was some thief archetype and I spent basically an entire week going around robbing houses, exploring, dungeon crawling, reading books, joining factions, etc etc. The possibilities just seemed endless, and I've got so many good memories of just walking around in what felt like such a massive, living world, discovering amazing stuff everywhere I went.

Morrowind was the game that got me into rpgs, so it always has a special place in my heart for that, it led me to check out lots of other rpgs that released years earlier when I was a kid that I wouldn't have payed any attention to otherwise.

 

[Zanzoken]

uninstalling Dragon Age 2

 

[Epsilon]

As a kid playing adventure games. There's no real specific title but possibly Zak Mckraken or Space Quest. Sitting in my room with an english dictionary looking up every other word or phrase I don't understand and then, realisation dawning upon me and laughing out loud at the jokes and funny scenarios. The better my understanding of the english language, over the course of a couple of games in those years, it felt like a door was slowly opening to so many new and interesting worlds for me to experience and explore. It was a great time, every new game in the Space Quest series and then Hero's Quest and it's sequel Quest for Glory 2 in the years 1987-90. Then I inherited my uncles goldbox games and got into those... such an awesome time. I've never had experiences like that since, despite learning a couple other languages and visiting new countries.

 

[Hoodoo]

catching a wall jump pass play into my friends endzone for pointgame in nfl street 2 and standing up and yelling gibberish loudly at him. drop controller and walk outside and roll in grass while parents ask him whats wrong with me

otherwise same sorta experience OP had with ultima except WoW

great thread btw

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Every bit of intrigue, lore, and dream-like mystery that is already natural to Morrowind was amplified a thousand fold by my child mind. It was like some sort of perfect, surreal dark fairy tale.

I had similar experience and I still find Morrowind to be one of the most atmospheric games to play, even after most of the mystery is gone. And what a mystery it was when I played the Russian version as a kid who barely understood Russian and didn't even know all the letters. Felt like a proper N'wah in a bizzaro world.

Actually a lot of games were mysterious because almost none of the affordable game CD shops sold anything but Russian publisher CDs. Played hours upon hours of Submarine Titans with all text just being question marks since the Russian font didn't show up properly.

 

[Xathrodox86]

Spring 2003. I was sick and couldn't go to school. I've decided to boot up the first KOTOR. It was my second attempt at the game, since the first didn't went well (couldn't get into the atmosphere). Despite the bugs, crashes and lowest graphics (had a shitty PC back then) I've spent nearly whole day playing this game. The only time I got more immersed in a story, was in 2012, when I've started playing the first Deus Ex.

 

[J_C]

Playing Halo on ma xbawks.

 

[sser]

Being a general loser, I have a lot of great moments.

I guess what first popped to mind is when my dad got a new computer and we booted up Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Just a cool like, "Well shit, would you look at that." Last thing we played was on the Amiga.

 

[Jimmious]

I believe it was 2000 , first year in Uni, an extremely rainy winter week. Roads were even closed from floods.
I couldn't do much more than do an install of JA2 and play the whole week like there is no tomorrow.
First time I finished it properly, what a game

 

[Lady_Error]

Playing Karateka and River Raid for the first time in the USSR around 1987. "Dem Computers, they cool!"

 

[Hoaxmetal]

One of my earliest gaming memories is figuring out one of the puzzles in The Lost Vikings that had stopped a bunch of kids way older than me from progressing in the game. That might have been the peak of my intellectual prowess and now it's all downhill, posting in 'dex.

 

[SionIV]

Late 2000, my older brother bought Baldur's Gate II. We were both super excited as we had played Baldur's Gate every week for well over a year. I shared the computer with my brother and I ended up as a 'second tier citizen' when it came to gaming, so when he was at home I was only allowed to look. I ended up faking sickness many times so that I could spend 6-7 hours alone and uninterrupted, completing the game first with my Sorcerer and then with my Monk.

It was an amazing time and such a wonderful world to explore.

 

[Whisper]

uninstalling Dragon Age 2

Why people bought Dragon age 3 after playing Dragon age 2???

 

[MediantSamuel]

I initially played Morrowind as a fresh faced barely-teen, ignorant of the horrors of the world and unaware of the degeneracy that Bethesda would eventually succumb to. I remember the thrilling, enticing soundtrack as I wandered into the nearest swamp and was set upon by ravenous rocks-turned-crabs with claws as sharp as steel. My clumsy attempts at retalliation resulted in my fleeing from this ravenous, savage beast - a beast that kept coming, despite its slow gait. I looked upon in horror as it drew closer and promptly ran as far as I could before the hourglass that was my stamina bar drained completely. I believed myself to be safe now; the chorus of excited battle music had slowed, signalling a reprieve from the harsh reality of my own fading mortality.

I wandered for a short while, in awe at this alien landscape that appeared before me - but wait, what was that, on the hill in the distance? I ran forward, my grubby hands clutching my sword tightly. I stopped just short of this strange creature: an insect-like thing, currently thumping it's rear end on the ground and squealing like a retarded child. I swung my blade, hoping to strike true but missing it completely. The creature struck back, causing a minor wound, its horrifying wail continuing to pierce my ears but my resolve was steel. The battle raged for what felt like hours but my victory drew near, I could taste it in the back of my mouth. The creature struck a near-fatal blow, inflicting me with some form of paralysis. I struggled and raged, mashing keys and mouseclicks while I vocalised my displeasure. Breaking free when my health bar was near non-existent I drew back my weapon and ended the creature. I was triumphant, glorious, enlightened.

Just as I was bandaging my wounds and looking to the horizon, I heard a shrill cry fill the air.

Spoiler

tl;dr: shitpost.

 

[Neanderthal]

Well discounting pen an paper: Luxor the Moonprince stands on the blah, blah, blah. Lords of fucking Midnight, look at what that one bloke genius did all them fucking years ago, an it blew me away. RIP Mike Singleton, name dunt get mentioned or celebrated enough, an modern devs should take a look at LoM an despair in shame. Whatever you say about Josh Sawyer it were fucking classy on im to put a tribute to Singleton in Poe.

Intro to Ultima V an meeting "Arronax" in Void are probably runners up.

Oh another jawdrop moment were seeing cutting edge graphics o Dun Darach, played this before Marsport or Tir Na Nog an I were blown away walking Cuchulain around streets an into houses. Dint think games could get much better looks wise.

 

[GuiltyofBeingTrite]

Finding the water chip for the first time. holy shit.

 

[SionIV]

The Sheep in Arcanum was an eye opener for a somewhat young Sion.

 

[JasonNH]

Summer of 1988. I had saved up my earnings from delivering papers as I hungrily awaited the release of Ultima V on the Commodore 64 after having pirated and played IV. I purchased it at the beginning of summer break and started playing. A friend and I were taking turns at the controls, each serving as a quest logging scribe for the other when it was their turn. I had found the magic carpet and was making my way across Britannia when I stumbled across a set of falls and tumbled down ... down into the darkness of the abyss and the Underworld. The Underworld music started, we lit a torch, and I think we both wet ourselves with excitement.

 

[Alienman]

I was in the city at a local disc shop. I randomly spotted X-com Apocalypse of the shelf - it was a totally new release. I had no idea that X-com would even get a sequel and with X-com being my favorite game series I was both chocked and excited. A new X-com? Sci-fi channel endorsement on the box? What could this all be? Didn't we defeat the aliens for good in Terror from the deep? I would buy it right there if I could, but the problem was I was only a kid with no money, and my parents weren't exactly rich either. I looked it over and started to dream. It cost around 500 kronor (60 dollars). There was no way.

So I took my bicycle and went home. Before I got home I thought, why not at least ask my mother if maybe she could buy it for me or lend me the money. I mean it was at least worth a chance, even if that chance would be very slim since money was always an issue. So when I got home I found my mother in the kitchen. She had just got home from work and was in a pretty good mood. I thought here goes nothing and I asked her. I started with explaining what kind of game it was, that it was Sci-fi (something she also liked) and how great it would be to have it since it was a sequel to the greatest game ever, but of course I would understand if it couldn't be done. To my surprise my mother said yes. No explanation or anything, just said yes, smiled and handed me the money. I was in total chock. I had only about 30 minutes before the shop closed though so after the chock passed I threw myself down the stairs and on to the bicycle. I have never bicycled that fast before in my life

Got there in time, bought the game, went home and played it. The game was of course fantastic. I still have the box, and every time I see it on my shelf I think of that day and my mother

 

[Jaesun]

 

[Kahr]

Definitely returning to the mine colony in G2. I was amazed that they really did it. You're standing where G1 starts looking down to the valley -->nostalgia overload.
Also the way to reach the old camp was brilliant. Having to run through this huge horde of Orcs knowing that one of them easily could fuck you up.
Because of this danger around you the Paladins camp also has such a cozy atmosphere. This whole trip only lasts a few minutes but it's amazing.