On the First Day of Blogmas…

I’m pretty bad at taking part in blogging events, as you tend to need to write a number of posts in a short space of time. This is something I struggle with due to my schedule (even during the holidays!), but Athena is pretty cool and has set up the Twelve Days of Blogmas! I intend to take part for at least as long as I can!

Today is the first day, and the theme is twelve gaming memories. Funnily enough, I’d recently been thinking about what sort of memories I’d include in a post like this. So, in no particular order, here they are!

1. Putting together a PC with my dad.

I couldn’t tell you exactly how old I was, but around the age of 13, we finally replaced our old 486 PC which was about as fast as a modern calculator. With had a new Pentium 400 (I think) that had arrived on Friday evening and I, being a keen gamer, was excited to start using it. My dad had ordered all sorts of extra odd and ends though. That meant that things like subwoofers, new printers, microphones, and other extraneous paraphernalia needed to be connected before anything could be done.

Shoot the aliens until there are no more aliens.

We stayed up for hours that night, just piecing together the various peripherals so that things would work right the first time. And would you know it, around half midnight everything was working beautifully. The graphics card that came with it had Incoming bundled in, so we spent the next hour or so shooting down aliens together. The game itself was fine, but spending all that time with my dad was golden.

2. When my parents would go on holiday.

From playing with my family, to my family being away. For a few years, my parents (and sister sometimes) would go on a summer holiday and leave me in charge of the house. Being a nerd meant there was no risk of a full-blown house party, but I did get a bunch of friends to move in with their computers and have a LAN party. Because we were super cool.

Games of Warcraft 3, Quake 2, and anything else were par for the course over the 2-week stretch, interspersed with BBQs. Those were the days.

3. My daughter’s first game.

A brief one here. I always hoped my daughter would enjoy playing games with me, and one day, at the age of around three, she did! She had seen me playing Switch Galaxy Ultra on PS4and asked to play too. It was really just her following my button prompts, but I loved it all the same.

4. World of Warcraft

Nothing specific here. I have so many fond memories of playing WoW that I’d never be able to narrow it down to just one. Being in a group the first time they take down a tough raid boss was nothing short of spectacular. Going through the Dark Portal on the day the DLC was released is incredibly memorable. Seeing the world of Warcraft up close and personal was something I’ll never forget.

5. Gaming with the wife

Proper football.

My wife was never much of a gamer before me. You’re welcome, dear. FIFA 10 was her gateway game, one that had been given to me by my sister that Christmas. My better half is a football fan (proper football), so she took to it pretty quickly. After that, we started playing a lot more together, with her gravitating more towards FPS and TPS games in which she could play as a sniper. Sadly, local co-op FPS and TPS games are few and far between these days. Hopefully, there’ll be more in the future!

6. Guitar Hero and Rock Band

Damn these were a lot of fun to play at the time. I loved having friends get together to play these games in four-player mode (even if no one wanted to be the singer), or even playing it solo. It was by far my go-to game at the time and I’d play to the point of memorising songs. I wonder what I could have accomplished if I’d put my mind to something worthwhile instead…

7. My first console

Whilst I spent most of my time being a PC gamer as a youngster, I played a fair bit on console when I could. I got a NES for my seventh birthday and had a great time with it over the years. I played Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt far more than I probably should.

8. Taking turns on the PC

A stone cold classic.

My sister and I both enjoyed playing on the PC. Our parents decided that we needed to take it in turns by having one day each with it. If my sister was playing on it and it was my day, I could happily kick her off it and play. It did create issues when we’d buy a new game together though, as whoever was currently in charge of it would get to play the new game all day. I pretty sure there were arguments over Rollercoaster Tycoon…

9. Gaming for sleep

Remember the LAN parties from earlier? Well, there were only a handful of beds in the house, and when I say my friends moved in, they really did. The only way to decide on who got a bed was to play tournaments on console, with the loser sleeping on the floor. Mario Party, fighting game contests, and deathmatches were all choices that resulted in either a restful kip or a sore neck in the morning.

10. Jackbox

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much as I have when playing Jackbox games with friends. Whether we’re writing d**k jokes in Quiplash or drawing comedy c**ks in Civic Doodle, there are tons of ways to make friends (or family if you want to mortify your in-laws) laugh at how immature you are!

11. Arcades

Look how pretty it is!

They’re a rare thing these days, but I really did like arcade cabinets. My personal favourite was Area 51 at the local bowling alley. Whilst there were plenty of others to play, I always found myself drawn towards the cheesy light-gun game, and I played it to the point of finishing it on only a couple of coins. Bring back the arcades!

12. Jump and slap!

A few of us would have retro gaming nights a couple of years back. We’d get our old consoles out, meet up and play some classics. One that stuck in my head was when we played Street Fighter 2 on SNES. The bosses in fighting games were always a pain, but for some reason, we really struggled with Bison, and resorted to any tactic we could. Eventually, we decided on Chun-Li using a jumping medium punch would do the job! “Jump and slap!” were the shouts that echoed around the house!

There we go! 12 memories! What do you remember fondly about your gaming life?