Your first video game wow moment

[+save2600]

Thanks Aaron, almost forgot about the SNES. I guess I was and still am rather impressed with Contra III's Mode 7 graphics and Yamaha DSP sound. To think they pulled all that off with very little slowdown on a 3.x mhz processor. Quite an impressive programming achievement when you think about it and speaks to me more than Castlevania IV or Super Ghouls and Ghosts. So yeah, that would be one of the few real console wow's I've ever experienced.

[The_Laird]

Not sure I can remember the first game that made me go WOW! but I can certainly remember the game that made me go WOW! the most and that was STUN Runner on the Lynx, my jaw simply dropped to the floor when I saw how incredible my little Lynx was. Klax on the Lynx had similar effects in a way when I heard that speech for the first time, I had never heard speech that clear.

[StoneAgeGamer]

Mine was seeing Sonic the Hedgehog for the first time. I remember seeing those pseudo-3D sprites as a kid and thinking graphics wouldn't get much better than that. Before that I had an NES so it was a huge step up in graphics.

[Sgt.Pepper1983]

I've been emotionally wowed by a game before, but never by the tech. It's just not a factor. The first time I was really wowed by a game was summer of '92 when I beat mario world. The closest tech has come to amazing me was when I found out the 20 year old 2600 I had just found at the thrift store still worked.

Edited December 31, 2009 by Sgt.Pepper1983

[phaxda]

First time I went into an arcade and saw Berzerk. It just looked so cool. Probably around 81 or 82.

 

After that, I have to admit I was not really impressed with games until my upstairs neighbors bought Gran Turismo for the Playstation. That was also truly a WOW moment. I'd never seen anything like that on a home console.

[tz101]

I will agree with a couple on here and say that my initial reaction to seeing Super Mario Bros. demonstrated in a Target store, I was awestruck. I don't think SMB actually hit the arcades with the Playchoice 10 until the carts were released to the stores, so I had never even seen it in an arcade at that point. My initial reaction was that you could actually move a character in a cartoon. Nobody had ever offered that before. Simply amazing for 1986 tech.

[The_Laird]

I am honestly stunned that anyone could go wow at SMB. I guess that because in the UK we already had far more impressive computer games than anything the mediocre NES could offer.

[Albert]

Star Raiders on an Atari 800 when I was about 10 years old. I was so impressed that I eventually saved up enough money from paper routes and shoveling snow to buy an Atari 800XL and 1050 drive.

 

..Al

[Eltigro]

Really the only things that impressed me was the level of detail in Project Gotham Racing 3. Also I nearly soiled myself after seeing Gears of War for the first time.

 

Something tells me you won't get a lot of people relating to you on this forum .

Yeah, true. I never really noticed technical innovation until about 2004.

 

Wow, how old are you again?

18

 

 

 

lol...

 

I remember being pretty wow'd by Mrs. Pac Man on the 5200. Such a huge leap over the 2600 version. That was probably my first real WOW moment. There have been others since, but I remember that one.

 

(I'm 35 btw.)

Edited January 1, 2010 by Eltigro

[cybercylon]

Depends on your definition of a "wow" moment

 

Have to have the system wow moment: Tie between Space Invaders for the 2600 and Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis.

 

Fun wow moment were I just couldn't put the controller down: SMB3

 

Storyline, emotional wow moment: tie between Suikoden 2 and Persona 3 FES

 

Caught me off guard wow moment: Star Wars KOTOR (good case for NOT reading spoilers)

 

Graphics/music wow moment: Final Fantasy X. No, it's not the best graphics wise from the time and it has it's flaws, but being a big fan of JRPG, it was the first one from the PS2 era that said that RPG's had reached the next level

 

Artistic Wow moment: Tales of Vesperia. It may not be the best the 360 has to offer, but it just looks good. Too bad the next Tales game is Wii bound.

 

Wow, my a$$ will be handed to me forever, but I love playing it anyway: Ikarugra for the Gamecube/360.

 

Wow, this game is a POS moment: Summoner for the PS2. I'll take ET for the 2600 any day.

[thebiggw]

Probably the first time I laid eyes on Super Mario Bros. on the NES. Growing up with Pong and the 2600 and such, and never having a home computer, it FLOORED me, and I went back to Wal-Mart anytime I could just to see it in action. After that, it was probably the fist time I laid eyes on Super Mario 64. Seems the Mario games really were the trendsetters for many gaming generations.

 

Agreed I remember when my neighbor got an NES I was so wowed by SMB1 we played it everyday until we beat it (to us it was extremely tough given we all had 2600's until that day) we played it until the wee hours of the morning leaving it on pause to go to the store to get more snacks and pop so we could stay awake.......I miss those days....lol

[thegamezmaster]

Wasn't impressed with much until I saw Star Raiders on an Atari computer. Don't remember what store. But that sealed the deal for me. Had to have it! I agree with Albert's reply.

[atarilovesyou]

Probably the first arcade machine I ever saw, which was Asteroids. I truly had no idea what it was but it was pretty amazing; I could barely see the screen but I remember hearing it quite vividly. Since I was being 'wowed' all the time as the advances were made, I think the most recent one was Valis 2 for the Turbografx 16 using the CD player add-on...for some reason, hearing the vocals on that system was pretty impressive. I seem to recall Dragon's Lair in the arcade making a HUGE impression on me; it didn't even occur to me at the time that you weren't really 'controlling' Dirk...and it's kinda strange that we still don't have a truly interactive 'play an animated movie' game yet some 25 years later.

[+save2600]

...and it's kinda strange that we still don't have a truly interactive 'play an animated movie' game yet some 25 years later.

 

Agreed. It's one of the reasons video game technology really doesn't wow me. Video gaming has been a pretty damn slow and linear evolution when you think about it. Wii tries and comes close, but ultimately... <yawn>

 

Remember the Neo Geo game 'Crossed Swords'? I would have thought by 2010, we'd be "fighting" and playing a game like that in the middle of our living rooms holographically by now. lol

Edited January 1, 2010 by save2600

[JamesD]

Wasn't impressed with much until I saw Star Raiders on an Atari computer. Don't remember what store. But that sealed the deal for me. Had to have it! I agree with Albert's reply.

Well... now that you mention it, Star Raiders made such an impression on me that I wrote a 3D space game in BASIC on the TRS-80 Model 1.

It pretty much just drew the targeting box on the screen and space ships would appear, you could use the arrow keys to target them and they would try to avoid being hit.

Word of advice... don't use a large 3D array to represent space on an 8 bit computer.

[kevincal]

Seeing Sonic run for the 1st time.

[desiv]

Too many to count...

 

I remember being Wowed by Vanguard's talking "Let's Attack!!" pretty early on...

 

And of course, the first time I saw Dragon's Lair...

 

On the computer side, it would be the time I played Ultima II on my friends Apple II+.

 

Playing KC Munchkin at home on Christmas was pretty awesome...

 

desiv

[Classic Pac]

The first time I ever played FF7 in my Playstation I was just blown away by everything I saw.

[Albert]

I have to add a second game that wowed me more than Star Raiders (although Star Raiders was the first), and that was my first viewing of Alternate Reality. I had just recently purchased an Atari 800XL and connected with other Atari 8-bit users in the area thanks to the Connecticut Atari Systems Enthusiasts user group. I went over to another user group member's house and he popped in Alternate Reality. My jaw must have been stuck to the floor during the entire introduction and then into the game itself. I immediately went out and purchased Alternate Reality and spent many days playing it.

 

It's rare today that any games will get that same kind of reaction out of me as that first viewing of Alternate Reality did.

 

..Al

[potatohead]

My first is deffo seeing a VCS. After having seen "PONG" type games, the VCS with it's cool design, interesting controllers, well designed carts, color graphics and sound, I was hooked!

 

ADVENTURE and BREAKOUT were the two I really liked early on. Soon after, it was Indy 500 (still love that one), and Space Invaders. "Super Mario Brothers" on NES. AvP on Jaguar, T2K too.

 

In the Arcade, seeing DEFENDER was a "Wow" moment, as was ASTEROIDS, TEMPEST, STAR CASTLE, I-ROBOT... GAUNTLET was another one.

 

More recently, DDR, and some bike game where you fly to pop balloons!

 

On the computer: Apple ][, CHOPLIFTER, ULTIMA, ROBOTRON... Atari, Star Raiders. This was about the time I saw the VCS, and Star Raiders blew me away. Still does.

 

Internet: Online MUD games, USENET, WOLF3D, DOOM, QUAKE.

 

Microcontrollers: "CRAFT" demo on AVR, Last years Propeller demo by Linus, and seeing a textured WOLF3D renderer running at speed on Prop.

 

Modern retro / homebrew: Strat-o-Gems, Pacman on Fairchild (bad ass that one), YOOMP!

[jeremysart]

I have to agree with you on both counts. I still remember the first time I saw an N64 and Super Mario 64 in Toys R Us. I remember holding the controller and feeling so giddy, and watching in amazement at what was on screen. I swear the grass looked so much more impressive back then. I remember day dreaming about how amazing the environment looked for the rest of the week.

 

I'd have to agree with that. I remember going to a Toys R' Us when I was 10 and seeing an N64 for the first time with Super Mario 64. I was amazed! Then when my friend got one and I got to play Goldeneye, Doom64, and Mario Kart 64.. those were pretty big wow moments for me.

 

 

I think my first real "wow" moment came when I first saw and played Donkey Kong Country. At the time, being 13, I thought that this was as real as it could get.

 

Definitely have to agree with you here!! The SNES I think had the most WOW! moments for me than anything. It was the only system I ever owned brand new from a retailer. I remember being blown away when I seen the first DKC commercial, and I begged for the game. My sister had a hard time prying me off the game to get her turn. After that, I was also pretty wowed by Doom, Killer Instinct, Star Fox, F-Zero and Yoshi's Island on the SNES.

 

I think other than that, I wasnt wowed until I got Fable II and seen how real the environments looked. The water is just insane, and standing on a cliff off the oceans coast just looks too real. I love that game!

 

I was also pretty wowed today when I say RT's post of the VIC-20 DK port lol.

[mbd30]

For all of us, there has to have been an event in our lives where we recall first being wowed by a video game or system. A defining moment we will never forget. I will show my age and tell that my first video gaming "wow" moment came in the late 70s as I stepped into a Sears store in our town and saw an Atari VCS (wasn't yet called the 2600) for the first time. Up to that point I had seen a Pong system at some relatives' house and that was about my level of exposure to video games. Every electronic game I had ever seen in a public venue had been pinball or some derivative thereof. Atari and Sears blew my juvenile mind with the shear amount of games I saw displayed on that wall rack. Who knew you could have one appliance that offered so many awesome game playing options? Bowling, Space Invaders, Circus Atari, Combat. They were all there in grand array at that Sears store that night. My life has never been the same since.

 

Playing NES titles such as "Super Mario Bros" and "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out" after being used to Atari 2600/7800. I might not have been so impressed had I grown up with an Amiga or Commodore 64 rather than a 8088 XT with PC speaker, monochrome and then CGA graphics.

 

Playing "Sonic The Hedgehog" for the first time. It was almost as much of a leap from NES as NES was from the 2600.

 

 

Those were the big ones... And then to a lesser degree:

 

PC "Doom".

 

SNES "Street Fighter 2".

 

Sega Dreamcast "Soul Calibur", "Sonic Adventure".

 

XBOX "Ninja Gaiden"

[tz101]

Mine keep coming back to me in little spurts.

 

I had another "wow" moment the day I walked into Aladdin's Castle in our local mall and saw a Darius Twin dual screen cabinet. I had always been a fan of space shooters, but this one amazed me in that it used two visually overlapping CRT's to make for an extra wide playing field. The graphics helped as well. They were mind blowing in clarity and detail. Too bad none of the home ports of this game ever made use of side by side monitors.

[potatohead]

"Star Raiders" got me saving too.

 

I still will play it regularly. It's such a fun game. Needs some ports, IMHO.

[+save2600]

"Star Raiders" got me saving too.

 

I still will play it regularly. It's such a fun game. Needs some ports, IMHO.

 

 

Well keep on saving buddy... there's Battlesphere for the Atari Jaguar