Moments Of Pure Amazement . . . .

[TL]

So over the years of playing video games what are those moments of pure amazement that you have had when playing a game?

It can be anything; graphics, sound, FMV, originality even the packaging!

Here are a few of mine to start with:

1. The first time I played Klax on the Lynx. I was on the train back from Luton with my friends and I stuck in and played it and my jaw just hit the floor when I heard that speech. My friends were all amazed too, we just couldn't believe something that good was coming from a handheld.

2. When I got Missile Command 3D on the Jaguar was blown away by the 3D effect in the virtual mode as you looked up at missiles raining down on you. Many years later I was even more blown away by this effect when I finally got to play the game with the VR helmet.

3. Panzer Dragoon on the Saturn - it was one of the games I bought with my Saturn and I was stunned by how beautiful the game was. I still think this game, and even more so its sequel, look amazing today and everytime I play them I marvel at the design.

[TrekMD]

One of mine was the very first time I played with the Jaguar.  Up until then, I had only played Atari 2600 and 7800 games and I had never experienced a more capable console (I had my Lynx, of course, but I'm talking console, not handheld).  I was blown away when I first tried Tempest 2000 after hearing so much about the game.  The music, the graphics, and the gameplay just had me right then and there. 

[Shadowrunner]

The first one that comes to mind is finishing the original Super Mario Bros on the NES.
That was the first game I ever finished and I can still remember how excited I was!
Another one would have to be when I bought my 3DO and fired it up for the first time.
This game hasn't aged very well but I was blown away by Off World Interceptor.
Compared to my Genesis at the time I couldn't believe I was playing a game that looked that good. And of course I have to add buying a Dreamcast at launch and playing Sonic Adventure and Hydro Thunder for the first time. Amazing memories!

[zapiy]

First is Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga. Simply amazing, I can feel the hair on my back twitching even now all these years later. When I first loaded this game it just blew and my friends away, miles better that anything else I had seen up to that point.

Next would be Heavy Rain on the PS3. If you have never seen or played this then you are missing out, massively. It's heart wrenching, atmospheric master piece. To say I felt my heart skip a beat is an understatement.

Heroes Quest on the Amiga is another game that just remains one of my most memorable games. The graphics were okish but the gameplay epic. Not sure any game has pulled a group of mates together like it since. We were mad for it to an obsessive level lol.


There are some of mine. All different reasons as you can see, but that's the beauty of gaming, variety. 

[AmigaJay]

Wonderboy 3 on the Master System, going from a Speccy with its beeps and colour clash graphics and broken kempston joystick to this game really impressed me....great game too.

Shadow of the beast Amiga, walked into Dixons and I tried to talk my dad into buying an Amiga after seeing this stunning demo in the corner, instead we walked out with a +2 and Pcw512!

Warbirds Lynx, loved flight sims on the amiga, so to see such an advanced 3d engine on a handheld in 1990 blew my socks off!

Wipeout PsX...16 bits were fading out and early 32/64 bit machines failed to really impress, I didn't have access to a 3do until later, so seeing Wipeout running in the Sony centre on launch day of the Ps1 truely blew me away...£345 from my bank balance saw me walking away with Sonys best Playstation model to date.

Intros wise, Microcosm CD32 was and still is stunning to watch, lots of Psygnosis games indeed have great intros...
I suppose small features in games like Settlers where people took on a world of their own for the first time (also in lure of the temptress, one of the first games to have characters that went around and not just stayed in a scene) and Lemmings, just digging through the scenery of a game and changing the backgrounds was pretty unique at the time.

[Bobinator]

Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast. It was my first game for the Dreamcast, and only one of two that I actually owned (the other games I played were rentals). I was a really, really huge Sonic fan at the time after playing the PC ports of CD and 3&K, so this was pretty mindblowing when I was a kid. Holy crap! Sonic is in 3D! And he's talking! And Robotnik destroyed a whole city! ...Actually, now that I think about it, he pretty much got away with that. Depressing.

There was also seeing a fatality for the first time in the original Mortal Kombat. Scorpion's, to be exact. Although, this was in the SNES version, so there wasn't any blood. The good news is that I didn't even know there was an arcade version at the time, so the lack of blood didn't bother me. Seeing a fatality completely changed the way I saw the game though, and made 'FINISH HIM!' stop looking like shorthand for 'DO THAT COOL UPPERCUT MOVE ON HIM!'.

And to get a little less retro, Bayonetta is a moment of pure amazement all the way through. Probably one of the best games, if not the best, of this gaming generation. I fully admit I have no interest of any sort in the main character, but the actual game is incredible. This is a game where you end up fighting what's basically the pope, who, while fighting him, attempts to use his satelliate death ray on you. And then you end up fighting what's basically God, before punching her soul out of its body and steering it into the sun. God bless you, Platinum.

[dcultrapro]

Bobinator got in there with one of mine... Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast on the day of release was one of those moments where you just know your experiencing something incredible. I had never seen graphics like it and I was playing on release. I'd seen it in my Saturn magazines for months and never thought I would EVER get a console on release. So for me that was a big one

the only other really big one for me other than when I first played Sonic and Knuckles (not quite a moment of pure amazement but that was a bloody awesome XMAS lol) would be when I first played and then subsequently completed Panzer Dragoon Saga in 99. That for me was one of the greatest moments of my life. Simply because the story was so good and the action so awesome and the graphics, the fmv sequences. Before that I had NEVER seen a game experience like it. I was just used to Sonic and stuff like that, saving on a system storage cart and playing such an immense, epic cinematic experience was mind blowing at 16 years old


great days

[TL]

A few more of mine:

1. My friend getting a Mega CD on launch day and seeing Cobra Command for the first time. CD was a new thing for consoles and the FMV just looked so cool, we spent the whole day playing that game. Shame it seems no were near as impressive these days.

2. STUN Runner on the Lynx - I just couldn't believe what I was seeing! A handheld console not just pulling off a conversion of a state of the art arcade game like that but also nailing it. To this day STUN Runner on the Lynx is still an awe inspiring game that showcases just how good this system is.

3. When my friend Will got an Atari ST and I went round his house to play on it for the first time. Obviously I was impressed by seeing a 16-bit machine for the first time but the game that really took my breath away was Star Ray - I just couldn't believe how great that game looked with its multiple levels of parallax scrolling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbQZHq7aMVk

[Rogue Trooper]

Off the topic of my head and in no particular order:

Seeing 3D Monster Maze (and later 3D Defender and Mazogs) on the ZX81, if it was'nt for that? probably never have gotten into gaming.

Dungeon Master on the Atari 520STFM, just jaw dropping.

Hearing my 1st Rob Hubbard music on the C64 and the SID chip in itself (also speech in Beach Head 2).

Seeing rolling video footage of AVP on Jaguar on Gamesmaster TV show-Up until then all the Aliens games i'd played had been 2D.

The T-Rex demo on the sampler CD you gpot with the Playstation.

[Flukesy]

Very obvious one for me, seeing Street Fighter 2 on the SNES at home for the first time was quite jaw dropping.
And then later on Starwing, seeing those effects on my special little box was out of this world

[zapiy]

Fantastic to read some of those guys. Really great insight to how people see certain games.

[Flukesy]

Another great moment for me was seeing a Spectrum+2 set up in my local Tandy store. I played on operation wolf with the light gun while my parents were shopping.

I couldn't believe my eyes on Xmas morning when they had taken the hints and brought me the very same thing I spent Saturday mornings in Tandy playing.

The love for the Speccy grew when I would spend my paper round money every Saturday morning carefully selecting a £1.99 game to buy to play that week!

[onthinice]

1. Playing K.C. on the Odyssey 2 and on a color tv. It was at a friends house. 1982 I believe. Make your own mazes and it kept high score till you shut it down.
2. Playing Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back on the 2600. First Star Wars game I played and have been hooked since.
3. Tecmo Bowl Football on the Nes. Intermission cut scenes and the players did not look like 2600 trash cans.
4. Buying a Genesis/Mega Drive and hearing/seeing arcade sounds/graphics. Made me a big Sega fan ever since.
5. Sega CD when my friend bought one. Yeah it cost $399 but it came with games. First system my friends and I ever wanted to rent games for was the Mega/Sega CD. Good times!
6. Dreamcast really made me want to thank Sega but I still had a bad taste left over from spending so much money on the Genesis, 32X and Sega CD. I have since learned to appreciate the DC. Wish I would have bought when it was new.

[Mire Mare]

Seeing WOTEF one Saturday morning in 1985 at the local computer shop.  I don't think I believed it was on my computer and that I could buy a copy and take it home.  It's remained a firm favourite of mine ever since.

It was a similar story with Last Ninja, Creatures, and many more well known c64 games.  I was always shallow enough to be blown away by impressive graphics and a Rob Hubbard or Martin Galway tune as a kid.  Not that I knew who Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway were when I was a kid.

This just popped into my head.  Not a game, but something else that fascinated me: When the 16 bit machines began to creep into the same shop that I bought TWOTEF from I found that juggling man demo, on the ST(?), totally spellbinding!  I just found it on YT - it was the Amiga - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yJNGwIcLtw

Mario 64 - the glossy pools of liquid were unbelievable.  No, actually they looked believable!  As if they'd flow out of the screen.  Typing that reminds me of Wave Race on the GameCube.  Real water in a video game!

Destruction Derby on the PS - car damage and great physics = amazing
I'm pretty sure it was Ridge Racer on the PS that I was totally sucked into.

Another mention for Street Fighter 2 on the snes.  It felt like having an arcade machine.

Seeing SML & Tetris running on that tiny original GB screen.  I had to have one!  I bought a GB myself shortly after seeing and playing on a friend's GB at college. 

Madden 94 & NHLPA 93.  For me these two games were the first time either of these sports made an almost perfect transition to gaming.  Still two of my fav Megadrive sports games.

Seeing the animation and cut sequences of Another World and Flashback also on the good ol' MD.

I could probably sit here for an hour coming up with these.  Better remove my nostalgia specs though, I have work to do tonight!

[TL]

It's brilliant reading this thread and all the wonderful memories people have of games and often knowing you felt the same!

A few more I thought of while I was just reading this, all arcade based:

• Dragon's Lair - the first time I saw the Laser Disc arcade machine in action in the arcade at my local Odeon cinema. I was just gobsmacked by it and couldn't believe a game could look like that, I obviously wasn't so impressed by the gameplay when I finally played on it.
• Gauntlet - Being on holiday at Butlins in Margate and seeing that huge Gauntlet cab with the massive stereo speakers on the side blarring out that speech. Then begging my dad and sister to come and play on it with me, still a fantastic game to this day.
• Outrun - I remember seeing my first sit-down cab of this at Butlins in Brighton (I think) and just thought it looked so amazingly cool, I sat in it for ages like I was in a real Ferrari. My dad wasn't a big gamer but he got hooked to this while we were there and played it loads.