My Life in Gaming

I don’t recall at which age I began to game — between six and eight years of age, I reckon — but I’ve been at this hobby for at least 75% of my life. I anticipate this number will only increase as I age. Were I a smarter man, I would have compiled a list sooner and kept up with it, but I’ve always been a poor planner.

I’m keeping this a list of games I’ve spent at least ~15 minutes with and/or more than two credits’ worth. An all-encompassing list would be significantly longer, but my memory is rubbish, so. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I’ve beaten and forgotten more games than there are entries on this list.

Games I’ve Played

NES

Kirby’s Adventure One of the original games that just appeared in my house one day, along with an NES. I think I remember getting it new, but many of my games were from pawn shops, so I’ll never know. I loved the soundtrack then and now, and prided myself on a hitless run.

Super Mario Bros. Another game that just appeared one day. Definitely not new when purchased. My dad and I used to love going to pawn shops on weekends, and there was always a copy of SMB available.

Super Mario Bros. 2 Never felt like a sequel to SMB, and at the time (early-to-mid 90s), I wasn’t aware of the game’s history. I did enjoy being able to play as Luigi and Peach. I thought her ability to float was OP.

Super Mario Bros. 3 I played this more than any of the previous 2 SMB titles. I was blown away by the abilities of the tanooki suit, the shoe, and the hammer suit. Giant Land was amazing to me as a child, as sprites of that size were uncommon in the games I played.

Top Gun I did not enjoy this game at the time and have never played it since. I suspect not having the manual hurt my ability to understand the mechanics.

Amagon I definitely remember getting this from a pawn shop. I found it difficult and never got too far. I played it again as an adult and got farther than I ever did as a child, but it still wasn’t that fun.

Faxanadu Rented this at least once from Video One. Was too dumb as a kid to appreciate it.

Yo! Noid Rented this often from Blockbuster Video. I never saw the commercials (they may have aired before I was born, not sure), so I didn’t understand the mascot, but it was a fun platformer.

Marble Madness Thought the isometric view was interesting, but made for a frustrating play. I recall being annoyed with the controls.

Bubble Bobble I loved this game. Very satisfying to chain attacks on enemies.

Ice Climbers I think I didn’t like this game, but I remember playing it often, so I’m not sure what to make of that.

Gauntlet Loved this game.

Mega Man 1 Rental from Blockbuster or Video One. Probably the one I rented the least.

Mega Man 2 Rented this one a few times. Best soundtrack.

Mega Man 3

Mega Man 4

Mega Man 5

Mega Man 6 Owned this one, and it was new. I think we got it from K-Mart? Watching replays on YouTube made me realize how much more I should have used Rush’s abilities.

Arcade

Galaga I distinctly recall hurting my wrist playing this at Jolly Time in the Odessa mall (before the mall was renamed and the arcade moved to make way for a theater). Dad said it was carpal tunnel, and I now know that was a correct diagnosis.

Hard Drivin’ Even back then I thought the graphics were poor. Unenjoyable, but interesting as a novelty. Cool cabinet.

Virtua Fighter I was never good at “realistic” fighting games. I think it was directly next to Hard Drivin’ at Jolly Time.

Marvel vs. Capcom One of my all-time favorite games. I could never do amazing combos, but could — more often than not — beat the game on a single credit with Ryu and Wolverine. I entered into a tournament at the arcade and did not place in the top 5 — I think every other player was at least twice my age — but I do remember dad telling me he was proud I entered anyway.

Street Fighter vs. Marvel I loved these crossover games. Beautiful sprite work.

X-Men: Children of the Atom This was at Gatti Town (or Gatti Land?) and I only ever went there for friends’ birthday parties. I was a huge fan of crossover fighting games by this point, but for whatever reason, I don’t think I ever played this one much. The attract mode was cool and was the first time I ever saw Omega Red.

Mortal Kombat I remember when Jolly Time got MK. There was a crowd around a new cabinet inside and to the right (where the new games went) where the teenagers were vying for standing space to watch. Didn’t play much, as it was almost always being played and I was reluctant to fight against a non-computer opponent, as that was guaranteed to be a short game.

Mortal Kombat 2 Played it enough to make it to the list. The characters and story was more interesting to me than the actual gameplay.

Mortal Kombat 3 This, like MK2, was more of a joy to watch than play. My friend across the street had UMK3 for the SNES and he and I played it often.

Police Trainer Played this very often, probably every time I went to Jolly Time.

Area 51 Played this more often than I should have, because it wasn’t very good (though much better than the sequels). My interest in this title went up when I learned you could unlock secrets by breaking all the glass, shooting all the fire extinguishers, etc. Most of my deaths occurred because I was too invested in unlocking secrets than shooting aliens.

Golden Axe Played this often at the laundromat my dad and I frequented. I don’t remember which character I liked to go with. Probably Ax Battler, as I found the name humorous. Still do.

Street Fighter II Played this often at the (other) laundromat my dad and I frequented. I always wondered why I couldn’t interact with the stone in Chun-Li’s stage. I think I mained (if you can call it that) Dhalsim?

Super Street Fighter III Alpha (?) I didn’t “get” this game despite how many quarters I fed it over the years at Jolly Time. Or was it Wal-Mart? Not sure who I liked to play as. Maybe Birdie?

Aliens I didn’t play it much, but I loved the art direction. I saw Alien when I way too young and thought the arcade game did a fine job of capturing the feel of the movie. Not sure I feel that way now. Part of the feel of the game came from Jolly Time being a dark arcade (that is, poorly lit — which was the style at the time), so that helped.

The Simpsons Loved this title! Great attract mode.

X-Men On equal footing with The Simpsons game. Played this a lot with friends, as it was at Gatti Town/Land and that was the spot for birthdays in Odessa. One of my favorite memories was playing this with my friend Bryan. He chose Wolverine and I liked to play as Colossus, but for some reason I thought that I had chosen Wolverine and he the Russian. So when we were fighting Magneto, I was standing in an empty corner firing off ults while Magneto was beating on Wolverine. Bryan, rightfully exasperated, asked what I was doing. I explained I was clawing away at Magneto, and the look on Bryan’s face was priceless. Simpler times.

Alien vs. Predator I loved this game more than I played it. Excellent sprite work. Should have put more quarters into it.

Primal Rage It was available, so I played it. Not much to say. Vulgar.

The Avengers Played this one quite a few times — I opted for Vision, I think. Not bad. I remember thinking the game went on forever.

Cruisin’ USA Similar story to Primal Rage — it was there, so I played it. Better than a claw game. I don’t enjoy racing games outside of the Super Mario Kart series.

Killer Instinct I played KI2 before this one, so it never really did it for me. I do appreciate how the series started, however.

Killer Instinct 2 Played this almost as much as the crossover fighting games. Could reliably beat the game on a single credit with Glacius (the gray color variant, of course). The music and sound effects were sublime and the announcer still plays in my head from time to time. I could never do the insane combos, but I was more than satisfied with knocking Saberwulf down the well.

Gauntlet Dark Legacy I really enjoyed this game, but thought the interface was a bit too much. It was difficult to pay attention to what was important on screen. Cool idea, wonky execution. Original was more playable.

House of the Dead Probably the last lightgun game I played. It was okay. I think I played it in Dallas? Houston?

Donkey Kong Played it for the novelty every time I saw it in an arcade, which wasn’t often.

Burger Time Cool idea. Boring after a few rounds.

Ninja Gaiden For whatever reason, a Long John Silver’s in my hometown had this game. I was too young to play it well, but enjoyed it. I recall especially liking the bonus stages where the enemy ninjas came at the screen and you had to throw shurikens at them.

Pinball Lots of pinball games. Couldn’t tell you which ones.

Dig Dug Available at a bowling alley in Odessa. I thought it was rude to blow up monsters (I still do).

Ghosts ’n Goblins This cabinet, alongside another game I cannot remember, was at a Texas Burger in my hometown, and we ate there frequently. I think it was Texas Burger, anyway.

Super Nintendo

Super Mario Kart

Super Mario World

Super Ghouls ’n Gosts

Demon’s Crest No clue where I got this from. One of my all-time favorites. Beautiful music, stage design… not to mention the sprite work. Took me far too long as a kid to realize Firebrand was the same Red Arremer from the Ghosts ’n Goblins series.

Super Buster Bros. Must have been a pawn shop purchase. Fun game.

Hagane Rented this one from Blockbuster once or twice. Couldn’t get far.

Doom I played this port before I played it on PC, and so maybe I didn’t know any better, but I really liked it. Played it constantly. I still have the blood-red cart.

Shaq Fu Played it often at a friend’s house. It was fine — not nearly as bad as it’s made out to be.

Nintendo 64

Star Fox 64 Played this a ton, as it was one of the few N64 games I owned. My cousin and I would take turns with the controller. Not sure I’d find it interesting enough to play past a few stages these days.

Glover A weekend rental, but I think I beat it. Can’t tell you anything about it except it’s a platformer starring a glove.

Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time Another one of the three N64 games I owned. Loved it, beat it multiple times. Always hated the water temple.

Doom 64 I rented this a few times from Blockbuster over the years. I never appreciated it the way I did the original games, but it’s since grown on me. Makes me happy to see it’s recognized for being a good game.

GoldenEye 007 The other game I owned. My cousin (who lived with my dad and I) would play deathmatch for hours. The cheats, level variety, and weapon options did wonders for the replayability. I remember being pretty bad at Secret Agent difficulty level, so my cousin had to beat those for me on my save file.

War Gods Not sure why I rented this.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter I don’t recall if I beat this, but I definitely rented it more than once.

Super Mario 64 We rented this one so often, at some point it would have been cheaper to just buy it. Absolute classic.

Super Mario Kart 64 When I was in middle school (or high school), my dad and I forgot to move the clocks back in the house for DST, and we were well up before realizing this error. Worked out, because I got to stay home for an hour before school and play Super Mario Kart 64. That was cool.

PlayStation

Grandia The only thing I remember about this game is getting to the end, mistakenly choosing the wrong answer to a character’s question, realizing I hadn’t saved in a while, and then not ever playing again.

Breath of Fire III This is the first RPG I really fell in love with, and it’s perfect in my eyes. The soundtrack is phenomenal and the character design and sprite work is some of the best I have ever seen.

Intelligence Qube This came on a demo disc, and I played it with my friend Vik quite often. When I got to uni, one of my suitemates had the full game. Fun little title.

Romancing SaGa Another RPG that I don’t recall wanting that bad but somehow owned a copy of. I suspect that I was on an RPG kick so just bought whatever I could find at Hastings and Circuit City. If I remember this one correctly, it featured a lot of watercolor graphics. Beautiful stuff.

Final Fantasy VII This and BoF III defined what an RPG experience is and ought to be.

Final Fantasy VIII

Valkyrie Profile

Resident Evil 1

Ultimate Quix

Disgaea

Brave Fencer Musashi

Xenogears

Metal Gear Solid

Playstation Games Grandia, BoF3, Intelligence Qube, MGS, Romancing Saga, FFVII, FFVIII, Valkyrie Profile, resident evil 1, utimate quix, disgaea 5, disgaea 6

PlayStation 2

Dance Dance Revolution

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness

PlaysStation 3

PS3 Games

Wii

Monkey Ball Got this as a gift and didn’t really enjoy it that much. I still feel bad about that. Sorry, John.

Legend of Zelda: I always forget I beat this.

Wii Sports Probably played this more than anything. Still holds up.

Metroid Fusion Didn’t like the switch to first person, but got over it pretty quick. I beat it, but that’s about all I can tell you.

PlayStation 4

Get the list from the console

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance I cannot recall why I downloaded this, but I was reading Gematsu at the time, so surely the two are connected. I really liked the art style (HD sprites!) and though my misplaying of Final Fantasy Tactics left a bad taste in my mouth for tactical RPGs, I gave it a go (it was probably on sale on the Playstation Store). Despite being more intricate than Tactics, it was easy enough to understand after a few play sessions, and I reckon I put 80 - 100 hours into it. Very, very good, despite a B- story.

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny I barely beat this one. I was dismayed by the switch to polygons, but I’ve softened on that front since it came out. The story was uninteresting, and to this day I do not understand / appreciate the infatuation with sibling relationships in many Japanese games. Also annoying was the auto battling system. The inclusion of this idle-gaming feature baffles me to this day.

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Currently playing this one. Truly a return to form. I’m also playing Disgaea 1 and I can’t tell if the exposition cutscenes have gotten longer across time. I think on average that they have, and I don’t care for it. Disgaea 1 had a silly story with silly characters and that contributed greatly to the charm. The newer titles, though not “serious” by any metric, take themselves just a bit too seriously. Still, extremely fun.

PC (non-Steam)

Ah, the pre-Steam years — the age of Shareware. I downloaded and played so many demos and single-developer games from Tucows, download.com, et cetera that I could never hope to include them all here.

Doom Possibly my favorite game of all time.

Doom II Not my favorite game of all time.

Doom 3 What were they thinking?

Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition I bought this on sale at Hastings around the time it was released. Nearly perfect.

Lineage II I won this game at an Unreal Tournament… tournament at an anime convention in either Austin or Dallas. I didn’t get the concept of MMORPGs at the time, but it was fine. I grinded to get a bow called Gastraphetes and then foolishly let another player borrow it. You live and learn.

Halo I think I beat it?

The Incredible Machine What an excellent game.

JezzBall What can be said? Classic.

Chip’s Challenge Somehow I got ahold of one of those Microsoft Entertainment Pack diskettes. This was back when we had a Gateway 2000 computer. Fun stuff.

Rodent’s Revenge Didn’t much care for this one.

Pipe Dream Fun. I think my mom played this once or twice.

Solitaire It’s solitaire. Worth playing to see the cards bounce when you win.

Spider Solitaire Hated it until I figured it out, then loved it.

Taipei It’s mahjong.

SkiFree We only had dialup Internet for the longest time, so this game, and others its ilk — see the titles above — were how I passed the time since mom didn’t want me tying up the phone lines. It was more than sufficient.

Diablo II Loved it. Shame what happened.

Rise of the Triad Goofy and fun.

Blood There was a time where I’d play any FPS I could get my hands on.

Blood II " "

Blast Thru I think this is the correct title. Fun Breakout clone from the shareware days.

Clean Asia! Where did I find this? Came out around 2007-2008, which seems about right. Fun stuff. I played another one of this games, but I don’t remember the title and none of the games on his website ring a bell.

Quake Lovely title from id Software. I loved the level design.

Quake II Equally cool as the first.

Quake III Arena Played this frequently, but not as often as UT.

Quake IV Bought it, played it, beat it, and promptly forgot about it.

PC (Steam)

Team Fortress II ~1,800 hours played. The only gold weapon I ever got was a rocket launcher, and I don’t play soldier.

Team Fortress Classic
I barely played it, though just enough to land it on this list. I recall being confused — and bad — but I’d play it again.

Natural Selection This was so much fun! I preferred playing as the alien forces. The human forces had a specific unit, the commander (?) whose interaction was purely tactical — dropping health, ammo, et cetera. Bryan was an excellent commander and led us to victory innumerable times.

Day of Defeat This, along with CS 1.5 and Natural Selection, were the tent pegs of the LAN parties we had in high school. I was markedly bad at this game, but it was just so fun.

Half-Life Played, and beat, the original HL on the recommendation of a friend in middle school. I probably wouldn’t have played it otherwise. I grasp the impact it had, but I thought it was boring then, and I maintain that opinion.

Half-Life 2 Played it off hype. The physics-based exploration and fighting was neat, but I wouldn’t play it again. As with the original HL, I never connected with the protag or cared about the plot.

Counter-Strike 1.5 In high school, one of my friend’s dad worked at a metal fab shop (probably misremembering this) and they had a huge meeting room we would take over during the weekends with our computers to have LAN parties. Eight, 10-hour sessions of CS would just fly by. Pizza from Domino’s. Good times.

Plants vs. Zombies: Game of the Year I got this on Steam because the standalone launcher never worked. Pretty cool.

Portal Got it as part of the Orange Box. I beat it and it’s an alright time. Inventive gameplay, but unworthy of the hype. Is this about the time video gaming became more mainstream?

Spiral Knights I enjoyed this, but apparently I was nearly alone.

Warframe I don’t remember this, but apparently I spent a few hours playing it.

Path of Exile I put about 800 - 900 hours into this game during the course of a year. Then PoE2 came out, so I quit PoE. I really liked going through acts. The endgame was great, of course, but the acts weren’t a chore. Masterful crafting system.

Path of Exile 2 I don’t know if I like this game or not. It’s more accessible, but I was used to blasting in PoE, and PoE 2 is slower (which was indeed a stated goal of the devs, so). Every now and I then I log in, fire up a map, die immediately or get a single tier-1 map drop from a tier-10 map (or no decent drops at all) and then quit 10 minutes later. Not really for me. Also, there’s no righteous fire, which was my favorite build from PoE. PoE 2 is kind of a slog, and I often ask myself, “is this fun? Am I enjoying this?” when I play. I’ve trained myself to stop playing any game when I have these thoughts. I love Grinding Gear Games, and I hope they continue making great games for a long time.

MapleStory No idea how I heard about this time, but I put many, many hours into it. That being said, couldn’t tell you which class I played as.

MapleStory 2 Am I the only one who liked this game?

Counter-Strike 2 Played it for maybe 20 hours. I was past my prime when it came out.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Got it on sale. Pretty cool, but I don’t care about Lord of the Rings, so I stopped after 20 or so hours.

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN Played it to see what it was like on PC. I play better on console.

Painkiller: Black Edition Played this originally when it came out and got pretty far but quit before I beat it. Loved the weapons. Hated the incredibly lengthy levels.

Bloons TD 6 Great TD game.

Marvel Rivals I miss the first 12, 18 months of Overwatch. I don’t at all care/know about Marvel IPs (outside of the crossover fighting games), but I chose Rocket Raccoon at random and got decent with him before learning he’s not well-liked. Ah, well. My competitive days are behind me, and no one complains in Quick Match.