Inspired by the excellently nostalgic thread Childhood Flavours comes Childhood timesinks that really affected you, all the way down, and you still occassionally think about. Games that had some unique selling point that really hooked you and was played at an age where they could really make an impact on you.

They don't necessarily need to be good, per say, but you had to love them at the time. Also, maybe not the Pokemon's and WoWs of the world, where their enduring appeal means they're still very much around. But, you know, I'm not your boss - go for it if they're the real OGs.

Also, bonuses if you have screenshots of pictures of merchandise or whatever from your earlier years.
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For me, there are a lot of games that had a big impact on me. GTA San Andreas almost helped me fail some exams, and Little Big Adventure was one of the first games I really remember playing in a modern way. All the monkey island games, too.

There are however two standouts.

One, Black and White.



This is probably the real dream for me. Black and White 2 was shite to be honest, but the lack of an interface on this, the expansive miracle lists and the unique behaviours of the villagers and creatures was amazing. I think I read recently that Black and White 2 still holds the record for 'most advanced' machine learning AI in a game, for whatever that's worth.

I got this when I was 11, on my 11th birthday in fact, and I remember reading about it the month before in some shitty a5 advertising pamphlet full of games, and thinking it was going to be like a Zeus RPG or something. I think, in part, the reason I got into it so deep was that it was ultimate escapism, my mum got ill and died around that birthday so it was a huge way to just totally ignore that and I sunk so many hours into it that I think I permanently ruined my eyesight around then too.

Eitherway, I still regularly check Gog to see how it's getting on. It's near the top of the wishlist, so, maybe one day.

Two, City of Heroes/Villains

I can't find any screenshots of my warshade unfortunately. But, this game was the reason I never got into WoW despite everyone and their budgerigar getting into it.

It had an amazing number of powersets, costume creation and travel powers that you could earn in a day. I got in on day one in the EU at issue 3 so got to enjoy a rare period of quite high activity and everyone racing through the games level together, and a wonderful sense of exploration and novelty as people discovered the game's challenges and various secrets together, not knowing what the end game would be like.

It was my first experience of online gaming too, so that sense of community and playing with regular people was super overwhelming and addictive.



I stopped playing it long before it was taken down, but if some of the legacy projects ever get off the ground with their improved graphics and power designs, I'd absolutely sink at least a month into it.

Also, I still feel bad for how much my dad must have unwittingly paid for this game. I think I remember him not finding out it was a monthly subscription for at least a year.

 

First thing that comes to mind and hands-down my favorite game from my childhood is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King



I have endless memories of me and my cousins playing the fuck out of this game on the ole PS2. This was back when Sony hadn't yet realized that they could sell more consoles if they suddenly decided that Co-Op is the devil, and the LOTR:ROTK's Co-Op (honorable mention to LOTR:FOTR) was the fucking bomb.

The game in general was years ahead of its time, imo. Not only a good adaptation of the movies, but equally innovative and well-crafted for its medium as the films were for theirs. Complete with behind the scenes, making of, bonus content, challenge mode, several campaigns, etc. You could tell it was made with love and care.

Sadly, as far as I know it (or any game like it) never made it any further than the PS2.


My second choice would be the original Sly Cooper Trilogy, but this did get a PS3 Remaster and a PS3 sequel some years ago, so LOTR has priority since Sony buried the shit out it.

 

Take your pick of the classic SNES RPG's. That was the golden age of gaming that has never even come close to being matched since, as far as I'm concerned.

 

My default answer for things like this is always Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. I spent hours upon hours in that game as a kid doing all kinds of crazy shit.

The followup would be the same as Rep's up there. The old co-op LOTR games were fucking amazing, me and my buddy would play all of them in marathon sessions and never get bored. It was a fantastic ride from start to finish, and I really wish they made more games like it these days.

 

Yeah, I have to third how amazing the Lord of the Ring's co-op was.

I loved the opening Gandalf scene fighting with the Ents at the end of TT into the opening scenes of LOTR, and even playing as the hobbits fighting Shelob and her spawn was hella fun. My favourite was always Aragorn though and his overpowered sword skills.

 

I buried hours to The Sims with my cousin to build most unimaginative and extravagant houses ever created over and over again.

 

The Virtual Villagers games, I would try to keep them alive far past the games conclusion but I think I never got past like 6-8 generations.

I tried out VV5 a few years back and got to gen 5 after I finished the puzzles but then my PC died. They were a fun series.

 

Seconding @Zombie with Legend of Dragoon. I played that game through 3 times in a couple years, and have played it another 2 - 2.5 playthroughs on various emulators in the time since. It was my first RPG, my first multi-disk game, and I sunk hours and hours into that.

The addition system at the time was one that I absolutely loved, since it added just a bit more to turn-based battle, and I can still remember farming those stupid rainbow and other colored birds with 4 health that always ran / were tough to hit. I know that Aeris was the game death that hit many hard during that era, but for me, it was watching Lavitz die. Seeing Albert step up to take his place, where there was some similarity was hard, especially when the little things made you notice the difference (like different timings on the additions). I can still clearly envision some of the moves audio "Flame.... Shot!" or "Gust of Wind Dance!".

Dang it... now I know what I am brushing off tonight.

 

I'm pretty sure I still have the old CDs for that game, I also have the Fellowship game (I think the CD is blue, that's always on my mind for some reason). I put so many hours into that, we couldn't afford too many games so I kept playing that one I think.

One of my old favourites was a Dinosaur hunting game on the 64 that I don't have anymore. City of Villains was my shit too, I was awful at MMOs but my excitement when I got "Hover"(Level 7 maybe?) was through the roof.

Also KOTOR 1 and 2. They have to be my all time favourite games.
I could ask my parents to find the CD for the LOTR game and the KOTOR games(on the OG Xbox) since I don't live in Brazil anymore, I'll post them here if they find it.

 

Oh man do I have the game for this thread.

Back when I was 11 or 12, my mum came home from work and said someone had told her about this game called Escape Velocity. It was an indie game back in the day when pretty much all games were Indie - it was also mac only. It was basically a space RPG, top down view, where you had a starship, flew around to lots different systems, got missions, with a good story, traded, chose which governments you liked etc.

It was awesome. I do not think I'd like it at all if I played it today.

 

Obligatory 90s namedropping. Number Munchers, Math Blaster, Oregon Trail, MayaQuest, Myst, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.

 

Oh yeah, the last couple posts reminded me of Lemmings.

That shit was my cocaine back in the 90s. I nearly had to be dragged away from the computer a couple times while playing that.

 

Hell yeah.

Escape Velocity was dope. I think I might still have a copy of EV Nova somewhere on my old Mac laptop.

The modding community for that game was pretty cool; I remember this one mod from, I think it was EV Override? It was called "The Frozen Heart" and it was a total conversion that one person had obviously spent just tons and tons and tons of time on. It made the game wildly, crazily in depth. Not as in "way more ships/outfits/systems", but like... a story with depth and clues and a billion ways to semi-permanently fuck yourself over, and mechanics that used the game's UI in a clever way to push its boundaries, files you downloaded with the mod that were password protected and could only be opened with a code you discovered by getting into the storyline...

I also think I'd probably not like it now, but that game had a lot of heart and charm.

 

Put me down as another vote for Legend of Dragoon, which felt like it was definitely ahead of it's time for the video cutscenes. Also, due to unlikely circumstances, on two different occasions, after reaching Disc 4, I had returned to Disc 2 for some story thing or another, and both Discs 1 and 2 would disappear. Years apart. As such, I currently own three sets of Discs 3 and 4, and a single set of Discs 1 and 2.

p.s. Adapting to Albert's trickier timing version of Gust of Wind Dance, especially if the enemies countered on one of the fast-hits was rough.

Secret of Mana was the first game I personally owned, being the youngest sibling in the household. Even if I must admit I have probably put much more time into Seiken Densetsu 3(essentially Secret of Mana 2, but it was never localized, so I played a translated rom) by this point, Secret of Mana holds a special place(Legend of Mana on the Playstation, too!).

In somewhat random games that grabbed my attention, but I haven't done more than try once or twice since playing them extensively in the past, Machines and Descent: Freespace. The first for being a really odd blend of real-time-strategy and first-person-shooter.

The second for being the first, and pretty much only since, space dog-fighting game I ever played, with targeting generally being very far off the actual target, as the targeting system would attempt to account for the speed and distance of the target relative to projectile flight speed, requiring the player to make leading shots. It could be quite difficult against the more maneuverable enemies. Especially the decision for more dumb-fire missiles, or fewer homing, or even swarm, missiles. The first time you encounter the true threat alien species, your systems can't form targeting patterns on them, and can't track them on radar, either. Making for an extremely tense dog-fight against enemies you could barely hit(they were much faster than the ships you had at the time, combined with the lack of targeting systems, thus also no homing missiles), and barely keep track of, being forced to line-of-sight them only, with multiple of them flying around attacking you and your squadron.

Ooh, and the Gauntlet mode, which was essentially "Pick a ship and outfit it, then survive waves of enemies, with a partial repair and restock of secondary fire weapons every certain number of waves."

 

The first game I really got into was Command & Conquer: Red Alert: Retaliation. I played that shit for months on end. The ant missions were like heroin for 10 year old me.

After that I got into PlanetSide for a couple of years. It's the only MMO I've ever been interested in and up until they introduced giant robots I consider it to be the best MMO ever made. There was nothing quite like loading up 3 Galaxy transports full of troops, some tanks rolling up to the front door and a couple of infiltrators inside the base to take down the defences before you drop all of those troops right where you need them. So good.

 

Final Fantasy VIII - in no way shape or form the best in the franchise, but there was just something about that one that got me. The story, I think, and the lone wolf protagonist. It severely influenced me as a writer. All my main protagonists end up as world-weary as Squall Leonhart.

 

If we're strictly speaking of games I don't own anymore, it's actually a small list. I've still got my original C&C discs, original Baldur's Gate discs, Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen, Earthbound, Civ CTP, etc. But, there is one game, and it's kind of a silly one. Risk, by hasbro, for the PC. It had this crazy special mode called Ultimate Risk, which had massive armies, forts, generals, natural disasters, and a tactics and terrain system. I actually still have the original disk for this as well, but it hasn't work in like 15 years, and other than a few torrents I could never finish downloading, I have not been able to find it (though admittedly it's been a few years since I've looked). I don't think it's a rare game by any means, so I'll probably end up finding it at a random garage sale eventually.

 

Ultima IV is the first big one that comes to mind - in a time where virtually all RPGs were basically "do anything you want" murder-fests, this is the first thing I ever played where actions had consequences. Your character had to live up to eight virtues, and just about anything you did to the contrary of them could affect your ability to do things in the game - including barring you entry into a dungeon representing each one of them that you needed to complete to get to the endgame. What murdered most people was that most of the shopkeepers were blind, so you could realistically pay them any non-zero value you wanted without them knowing any better. But it would tank your Honesty virtue, so you'd be fucked later on and have to do a lot of work to repair it. Totally, ridiculously simplistic now, but in 1984ish it was revolutionary. 12-year-old me was fascinated. Plus, it came with the best spellbook ever.

It's not so obscure now that Wasteland 2 is a thing, but the original Wasteland was more or less the inspiration for the entire Fallout series, and was an absolute ballbuster too. Also one of the first series of games from the old Apple II/C64 days that played with a rudimentary first-person view - The Bard's Tale, a few of the Wizardry series I think, the Ultima Underworld titles, and Alternate Reality (a true cult classic) were a few other notables. Man, it's amazing how much I can remember about this stuff 30+ years later.

Fuck me, I'm old.