Your greatest game

[WatchVenusSpa]

High scores aside, what was your greatest game ever. Was it a head to head battle with friends? A major tournament win? The rush to get scores high enough to get an Activision merit badge? What was your finest 2600 hour?

[ATARIPITBULL]

When I did everything right and got to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time, I felt like I was Indiana!!!

 

[Atarian7]

When I figured out a pattern at Pac-man's highest speed on the 2600 to play the game forever. I loved playing pac-man as a kid on the atari 2600. I had never really played it in the arcade so I didn't feel like I was missing anything. I played Ms. Pac-man and Super Pac-man in the arcade every time I went though.

[+Random Terrain]

The greatest thing that ever happened to me was when the flower turned into a Yar when I was playing E.T. in late 1982 or early 1983. The second greatest thing was when E.T. turned black and the energy count had weird stuff in it.

 

I found the JD before the Yar, and it was kind of cool, but it was nothing compared to discovering the Yar and black E.T. You can make the JD appear any time you want, so I thought it might just be as easy to get the Yar again if I could figure out what I did, but I couldn't do it again until I read about it on the Internet almost two decades later.

[ninermaniac]

When I beat my dad on Christmas when I was 5 playing Pac-Man. I believe I was still playing for over a half an hour after he already lossed his last Pac-Man. I was very young but still remember it to this day. Man those were the days. It was probably like the kids in the 50's when they watched their first actual Jackie Gleason TV show on thier TV.

[homerwannabee]

My greatest game probably came last night when I broke my record live. And the reason for this was the circumstances surrounding the me breaking the record. Before I came to the event I thought I would get an audience of 3 to 4 people who would watch the whole game. I got an audience of 0 who watched the whole game. During this time the super excitement of others playing just a regular game brought home the reality of what my record really meant. At that moment I realized that most there could care less with what I was doing. Then that's when I had to rise above everything. The distractions the indifference, the not knowing that I had flipped the game because no one noticed, the point where I broke the record, and no one was even watching. At these points you realize it is not about the people, it not about you even. It's about history, and if the people there don't even care what's happening then so be it. You some times have to rise above things, even when expectations of how people would react are dashed in your mind. So that night not only did I transcend my score, I transcended people really not caring. And for that I played the game of my life. After my game I did receive congratulations for what I did, and that did feel good. Also Jose realized I was close to breaking the record, so I thank him for that. Also, the organizers were great as well, and set up a spot for it to happen. I am grateful for that. Also I realized a greater truth that night.

 

Just because you think you have something or an accomplishment that is truly amazing, does not mean anyone else shares in your amazement. So because of all of this, this was my greatest game.

Edited September 28, 2009 by homerwannabee

[StanJr]

as a kid: Getting Pitfall II for Christmas and staying up all night playing it with my Dad.

 

as a grown-up: maybe that run I had on Frostbite that seemed to last for HOURS. Had the same thing going with Pressure Cooker once, and Crystal Castles... Those marathon, "how long can I really go, can I get an extra man?" session are what gaming is all about!

[Jason73]

I too think my greatest moment was solving the Raiders of the Lost Ark game. I believe it was sometime in 1984. What a great feeling.

[Cebus Capucinis]

as a kid: playing Space Invaders doubles with my dad on the difficulty setting where it's 2P co-op but the left controller only moves left and the right only moves right. It probably wasn't the "greatest" in terms of score or anything but I remember it being the most hilarious thing I will ever remember. We both got so frustrated because each person wanted to be "in charge" that he just started purposely doing goofy things to make us miss/die. I remember laughing about it for weeks!

 

as an adult: I creamed my wife at Indy 500 last night. That was pretty awesome. I promised her I wouldn't beat her "too bad" but then whalloped her. She was getting pretty irritated. I guess I'm pretty mean to think that my best 2600 moment is making my wife, who almost NEVER swears, drop an f-bomb.

[Kenny_McCormic]

Rolling the score counter on asteroids for the first time.

[retrorussell]

Rolling the score counter on asteroids for the first time.

Same here. My sister and I did that numerous times over. We was damn good at that game!

[gloriousconnor]

My greatest game probably came last night when I broke my record live. And the reason for this was the circumstances surrounding the me breaking the record. Before I came to the event I thought I would get an audience of 3 to 4 people who would watch the whole game. I got an audience of 0 who watched the whole game. During this time the super excitement of others playing just a regular game brought home the reality of what my record really meant. At that moment I realized that most there could care less with what I was doing. Then that's when I had to rise above everything. The distractions the indifference, the not knowing that I had flipped the game because no one noticed, the point where I broke the record, and no one was even watching. At these points you realize it is not about the people, it not about you even. It's about history, and if the people there don't even care what's happening then so be it. You some times have to rise above things, even when expectations of how people would react are dashed in your mind. So that night not only did I transcend my score, I transcended people really not caring. And for that I played the game of my life. After my game I did receive congratulations for what I did, and that did feel good. Also Jose realized I was close to breaking the record, so I thank him for that. Also, the organizers were great as well, and set up a spot for it to happen. I am grateful for that. Also I realized a greater truth that night.

 

Just because you think you have something or an accomplishment that is truly amazing, does not mean anyone else shares in your amazement. So because of all of this, this was my greatest game.

 

 

That's.... deep.

[shadow460]

Hmmm... there are several good 2600 moments:

 

Getting a high enough score for my first Activision patch.

Hitting 999,999 in Megamania

Finishing all six levels in Miner 2049er (I've finished all the levels in several ports of that, BTW)

Playing all five Party Mix games with my cousins over a Christmas holiday in 1984.

Beating Survival Island for the first time in 1995 or 96.

Beating Sword of Saros for the first time in 2000.

Setting the world record score in Escape From the MindMaster.

Acquiring prototypes.

Getting 999,999 in Chopper Command.

Paying $1 for Star Wars: The Arcade Game

Paying $1 for another copy of Star Wars: The Arcade Game.

Meeting new people during "the hunt" for games.

[+Random Terrain]

Just because you think you have something or an accomplishment that is truly amazing, does not mean anyone else shares in your amazement.

That's reminds me of the old Mike Myers quote on this page:

 

http://www.randomterrain.com/favorite-quotes-motivation-and-action.html

My dad delighted in me, which is an interesting realization. Anything that I would do throughout the week was kind of like when you're at a casino and you get casino chips but it's not real money until you go to the cashier's window. On Sunday, when I'd go home and do laundry, I would tell him about my week. Just to watch him delight turned those chips, if you will, into hard cash. When that was taken away from me, you realize that you have to do things for your own gratification and not for parental acceptance or whatever. You just need and want to do it for yourself.

~Mike Myers from Inside the Actors Studio (adapted)

[tetrode kink]

...I guess I'm pretty mean to think that my best 2600 moment is making my wife, who almost NEVER swears, drop an f-bomb.

You evil bastard, you ain't hooked up right.

 

I'd have paid money to witness it!

 

-tet

[godzillajoe]

Mine is not a 2600 moment but a C= 64 moment.

 

My friend and I would have these World Series best of 7 games with Accolade baseball, whatever that was called. The one with the Red team and the Blue team

 

Of course it went to a game 7 and I was down late.

 

In storybook fashion, I had two guys on, two outs and hit a fly ball with the number 7 or 8 hitter.

 

If you ever played the game you know that that guy has no chance of hitting one out

 

But for whatever reason, that ball just hung up there and somehow made it over the fence

 

I kinda flipped out.

 

We were both in shock.

 

And I won twenty bucks!

[moycon]

When I did everything right and got to the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time, I felt like I was Indiana!!!

 

Thinking back, this may have been mine as well. It happened so many years ago, but I can remember it like it was yesterday.

[The MilkMan]

Probably others, but the one I that sticks out most is when my folks bought our 2nd Atari. My first Atari was stolen when our house was broke into. I was like 9 or 10 and we went to (some store I cant remember) to get a new Atari. While looking, some other customer asked my dad if he wanted to buy his...he was selling his Atari (and probably at better deal than retail price)

 

So, we left the store and went to this guys house. To make sure it worked, this guy fires it up, and puts in Combat.

"I'm pretty good at this, just so you know." the guys tells me as he hands me a joystick. I smile and just nod my head. He hits the "reset" switch and we're off.

 

I drive out and give him the first shot, for free. I think he laughed a bit under his breath. "Thats good enough" I thought to myself, because I then, as they say - handed him his ass. He never got a chance to score another point. He flipped to to Bi-Planes. Mistake. It was even worse for him.

 

Frustrated, he killed the power and handed the Atari over to my dad. It was great!

[disjaukifa]

I think my greatest moment for the Atari 2600 was just recently, I have not owned it all that long and I have just started to really play it but it was when I finally got the controls mapped correctly in my head for Q*Bert (I kept doing it wrong and jumping off the edge), first game I got the control right I got 25,000ish and I was so happy that was a couple of days ago now. I love that game now, its simple and fun once you get the hang of the directional controls.

 

-Disjaukifa

[Rom Hunter]

My friend and I would have these World Series best of 7 games with Accolade baseball, whatever that was called.

HardBall.

 

http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=3418&d=18&h=0

 

Know your classics.

 

Great game.

 

Edited September 29, 2009 by Rom Hunter

[godzillajoe]

My friend and I would have these World Series best of 7 games with Accolade baseball, whatever that was called.

HardBall.

 

http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=3418&d=18&h=0

 

Know your classics.

 

Great game.

 

 

 

That's the one. At least I remember that the football game was 4th And Inches.

 

There was a pretty sweet hockey game as well where you could play like 10 or 12 game seasons and if you were good enough, make the playoffs.

 

Forget who made that one and what it was called.

 

Back to the original subject, finishing Raiders and ET were big deals.

 

Finding the "secret dot" in Adventure and any of the Easter Eggs.

 

Scoring 19,000,000 on Video Pinball

 

Being the first kid in my neighborhood to roll Space Invaders (or 'flip it' as we used to say)

 

And all of those !!!!!! moments in Activision games

[+save2600]

 

Finishing all six levels in Miner 2049er (I've finished all the levels in several ports of that, BTW)

 

Impressive! Have you played the TI-99 version of that game? That one has 8 stations:

 

The Slides

The Transporters

The Lillipads

Advanced Lillipads

The Radioactive Waste

Advanced Transporters

The Pulverisers

The Cannon

 

...I can only make it up to level 6 :-(

[DickNixonArisen]

Figuring out a pattern in montezuma's revenge 2600 (I can pretty much go indefinitely on that one, until I get bored or sleepy). It's one major and one minor step off of the published 'solution'. I never found out if it would roll or not though. I should sometime.

 

Rolling megamania, which is pretty easy actually. Except that you really miss the pause function when you go back to first gen systems after an absence.

 

My wife is an RN and could definitely catheterize me if necessary though.

 

A flawless pitfall run.

[jimpoleshuk]

Probably others, but the one I that sticks out most is when my folks bought our 2nd Atari. My first Atari was stolen when our house was broke into. I was like 9 or 10 and we went to (some store I cant remember) to get a new Atari. While looking, some other customer asked my dad if he wanted to buy his...he was selling his Atari (and probably at better deal than retail price)

 

So, we left the store and went to this guys house. To make sure it worked, this guy fires it up, and puts in Combat.

"I'm pretty good at this, just so you know." the guys tells me as he hands me a joystick. I smile and just nod my head. He hits the "reset" switch and we're off.

 

I drive out and give him the first shot, for free. I think he laughed a bit under his breath. "Thats good enough" I thought to myself, because I then, as they say - handed him his ass. He never got a chance to score another point. He flipped to to Bi-Planes. Mistake. It was even worse for him.

 

Frustrated, he killed the power and handed the Atari over to my dad. It was great!

 

^ Epic!

[Keatah]

The greatest game was going to the real-life store and seeing a new game, then getting it, then playing it, then adding it into to my library, then looking at it, then telling my buddies about it, then doing it all over again the next week. You never knew what was going to come next!