Me seeing the starting screen “These are the end-times… There was no hope of survival… This is how you died.” For Project Zomboid the first time. The one and only Zombie-Survival-Game that absolutely hit the nail on the head in relation to an atmosphere of despair and gritty survival.

The coolest thing ever HAD just happened

Lucky you. I only had Lee Carvello’s Putting Challenge. I kept hitting the ball in the parking lot.

I got the master sword in TotK around release and wasn’t spoiled on the context of it. It was really cool.

I’m not entirely sure what scene I would’ve said had me similar when I could still more surely remember those first years. Possibly a game I’ve forgotten since. Maybe one of the Bionicle Mata Nui Games or some other big online game. Or Imperium Galactica 2.

But a moment that will always stick with me is from the first Homeworld game: when you return from your first hyperspace voyage. That entire game was epic, including the intro sequence, but it’s that sequence that I think can stand forever as a masterpiece.

Thrillho

Star Control 2 on the 3DO, playing that before I’d seen a PlayStation, was this for me.

And later, FF7 was this for me.

Me with Bioshock when you descend for the first time with Andrew Ryan introducing rapture.

But tbf, imo that’s a modern game as in I don’t see much difference between that and the latest AAA single player game.

I died sooooo many times to the zombies in the castle town.

Me having my first ‘open world’ experience with TES Oblivion and not enjoying it until my inner monologue suddenly switches from “I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what to do” to “I can go anywhere. I CAN DO ANYTHING!” and then I am slaughtered by the guard for trying to kill the nearest random peasant.

-Sometime in 2007

I wonder if there’s a timeline where Link is wearing flood pants when he first meets Rauru on that weird fountain platform in the Chamber of Sages

And then you got outside, there’s a fiery volcano and zombies that make Link shit himself.

I know this probably won’t get seen much now, but man that game has a special place in my heart.

Starting with the original Zelda game, my mother and I always beat them together.

We were very poor, but she always did what she had to do to get us the latest Nintendo console. She worked as a dog groomer leading up to the release of the Nintendo 64. She would be gone for 12 hours at a time, working for below minimum wage (under the table) just to get us that console.

She got Ocarina of Time for my brother and I for Christmas. She was just as excited to play it as we were, but there was no way my dad was going to let us open a Christmas present early. We only got one big present to share, and two small presents. Sometimes if my dad had saved a decent amount, we’d get the large present (usually a game), and then we’d get something that we really wanted that we didn’t have to share.

I begged my mom, she begged my dad. He wouldn’t budge. In the weeks leading up to Christmas though, she broke. She came to me with her plan. We were going to open it every day when he went to work and play it until an hour before he got home.

By the time Christmas rolled around, we were in the forest temple. He didn’t play games so he didn’t have a clue.

It was so much fun sneaking that game out with my mom and my brother. It was so much fun. Seeing how big it was for the time, we literally couldn’t believe our eyes.

Is OoT my favorite game of all time? Not anymore. It is my favorite memory of a game though, and by a long shot.

Edit, for fun.

It meant so much to me that the only boxes I still have from my childhood are my Zelda and N64 boxes.

Me, but when I gave the stripper money in Duke Nukem 3D.