Your first "Oh snap!" moment in gaming

[TPA5]

I know there's probably threads that talk about the first game you played, favorite moments, etc, but my question is a little different. What was the first game where you had a genuine "Oh snap!" (or other, colorful words) moment. Whether it was the first time you saw something that genuinely blew your mind, something you didn't know could even be done, or even just an experience that raised the bar for gaming in your mind, let's hear it! Even if it wasn't about graphics, it could be music, a plot twist, a game-play mechanic, whatever!

 

 

For myself, I grew up playing Sierra adventure games and the like with my dad on a DOS machine, then Win95 eventually. I also had an Atari 400 in my room that my dad gave me, and I played the likes of Centipede, Space Invaders, etc. But from sort of '99-2003 I played mostly older PC games and didn't really even know about 'modern gaming', until my dad brought home a Gamecube for Christmas. Then I played Metroid Prime, and it blew my mind for what gaming could be. Great story, amazing gameplay, rich environments, things I didn't even know you could do in a game, and 10 year-old me could barely believe what I was seeing. It really was the 'oh snap' moment for me, because I saw what gaming could be. (Although sadly, I find that since the Gamecube era mainstream gaming has utterly failed to capture me in the same way.) To this day it's my all-time favorite game, and I still do a full play-through of Metroid Prime 1 and 2 at least a couple times a year.

 

 

So what about you guys? What moment in gaming really blew the doors of your mind?

[CatPix]

Late 1999.

 

My brother brought a PlayStation at home. It was the first time I experimented it.

I played a bit or Resident Evil, and even at the time, I could see how much it borrowed from Alone in the Dark.

 

Then I tried Silent Hill.

I played only the first minute, the one where you have to die to continue the game.

Oh SNAP.

It's definitively the point where I felt like video games could be more than video games - something with a real storyline, able to give you feelings, to turn your brain upside down.

And over time I seeked more and more of those games, but none came close to this first time with Silent Hill.

Because since then, there has been me, the game, and Silent Hill.

 

Silent Hill 2 gave me a second "Oh Snap" moment, all over the game; even if I expected it. In fact, as I mentionned, I bough the PS2 ONLY for Silent Hill 2 (even if the PS2 is actually the platform on which I own most games).

 

No games I can think of gave me those "oh snap" moments.

Sure, I have been trhough awesome times - Road Trip Adventure, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Zelda Twilight Princess, Stunts, the whole Leisure Suit Larry series up to Love fo Sail, SMB2, Alone in the Dark, Sim City 4, Heart of Darkness, etc... But none of them came close to give me that "arrow through the brain" heartstroke feeling.

[Rhomaios]

My first real one was probably Tomcat Alley on the Sega CD. I didn't really have any experience with FMV games before this one, and so my young mind was very impressed. It's like playing a movie!

 

FFVII was also a big step in gaming. 3D games I wasn't overly impressed with. I got the N64 first, and to my mind, it was just the next step in gaming, not a huge leap as many I guess thought it was. But seeing the trailer for FFVII just blew me away.

 

Oddly, I keep having these. The graphics on a mid-360 game (some racing game) was just incredible. And now, even Madden 2015 or whatever it is is really impressive graphically speaking.

 

It's always a mixture of amazement and disappointment, though. I do not like FFVII, I could play (and score a touchdown!) Madden 2015 on the Xbox One with one hand (I was carrying a bottle of wine and a package from the post office, stopped by GameStop, and scored a touchdown), so I question how challenging the game can really be. Tomcat Alley is good to me only, only, because of nostalgia. It is not a good game. And even as a kid, I played far more of the older generations pretty much every generation.

[+Random Terrain]

Finding the Yar in E.T. back when the game was new was amazing. Getting the JD initials was easy to discover, so it wasn't such a big deal, but seeing the Yar fly up the screen was the best surprise I ever ran into while playing a video game. Getting Ninja E.T. with the screwed up energy count back then was pretty cool too. At least I was able to show the JD initials and Ninja E.T. to my mother, unlike the Yar which was gone in the blink of an eye.

 

If you're only talking about gameplay and not Easter eggs, blowing a hole through a wall in Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Atari 2600 was a significant event. That one cool thing infected my brain with ideas about alternative paths in games.

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

Mortal Kombat in the arcades! When watching someone doing the Sub-Zero fatality while knocking the head off the opponent. It really wasn't "oh snap", it was "oh sh*t" with everybody (including me) watching it!

 

Anthony...

Edited November 6, 2014 by fdurso224

[+wongojack]

Great topic!

 

I clearly remember the first time I saw Pitfall and heard the Tarzan music as I swung over some wildlife. I was probably 6 or 7 at the time, and it really did capture my imagination.

 

I had another moment years later when I saw Summer Games loaded up for the first time on the C64. Waiting for the game to load and then seeing and hearing it launch into the Olympic theme was just awesome. I played that game quite a bit more than Pitfall, and I still get it going every once in a while to listen to the anthems and see if my muscle memory is in tact enough to get some high scores. Great head snapping moment for me there.

 

Interesting that Cat Pix mentions Twilight Princess. That game for me is the opposite of an Oh Snap. Instead that game convinced me that Nintendo was willing to milk the Zelda franchise by copying all of its previous iterations endlessly, creating a world to explore that has almost nothing in it with nothing to do. Very uninspiring experience for me that really turned down my enthusiasm for the Wii and Nintendo in general.

[ZippyRedPlumber]

When I first played MAME back in 2004

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Well I have the worst memory so I might not recall that original "Oh snap!" moment yet their are moments that always seem to pop up in my memory that I recall with fondness and wonder:

 

1. Meeting the T-Rex in the original TOMB RAIDER.

 

2. The damn zombie dog busting through the hall window in the original Resident Evil.

 

3. Psycho Mantis boss in Metal Gear Solid PS1 when he starts talking about the contents of my memory card!

[+Gemintronic]

Dino Smurf (Apple II) - Huge freakin' foot!

Bruce Lee (Apple II) / Xenon 2 (PC) - Stereo Soundtrack on mono speakers!

Starglider (Atari ST) / Might & Magic 3 - Digitized speeh in intro on mono speakers!

Hadron (Apple II) - 3D gameplay!

Phantasy Star 2 (Genesis) - Mind fug of an ending!

[NE146]

Probably showing my age here... but:

 

The ship explosion in Defender looked like 3D Fireworks

Figuring out the 5th life trick in Space Invaders pt2 by shooting more than 255 shots.

Coming across a Star Fire cockpit, sitting in it and realizing it was like flying an xwing in STAR WARS and shooting tie fighters!

Playing Demon Attack on my VCS.. a game that seemed impossible to be on there.

The vector mothership explosion in Eliminator blew my mind at the time.

Seeing Colecovision Donkey Kong

The music in Gyruss.. I didn't even know how to describe it to my brother.. I think I said "It's like a movie!"

Seeing Cobra Command laserdisc..

Getting Turbografx Blazing Lazers & Genesis Altered Beast (tied)

SNES F-Zero

PSX Battle Arena Toshinden

 

 

..just a few off the top of my head. There's many others.

Edited November 6, 2014 by NE146

[NE146]

Finding the Yar in E.T. back when the game was new was amazing. Getting the JD initials was easy to discover, so it wasn't such a big deal, but seeing the Yar fly up the screen was the best surprise I ever ran into while playing a video game. Getting Ninja E.T. with the screwed up energy count back then was pretty cool too. At least I was able to show the JD initials and Ninja E.T. to my mother, unlike the Yar which was gone in the blink of an eye.

 

If you're only talking about gameplay and not Easter eggs, blowing a hole through a wall in Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Atari 2600 was a significant event. That one cool thing infected my brain with ideas about alternative paths in games.

 

That Yar man.. I played a bunch of E.T. and only saw the Yar once. And when it came up, it was so fast I almost missed it.. and since I could never find it again I began to question if I even saw it.. but I KNEW I did. 'Course it wasn't until the internets when I was validated.

[cimerians]

Pitfall - Atari 2600

It was the best Atari game visually when it came out as well as a great game

 

Donkey Kong - Colecovision

Are you kidding me? Seeing this made me beg my parents to get me a CV in 83'.

 

Dragons Lair - Arcade

I remember when this came out it was huge because of the animated scenes. Too bad the gameplay was simplistic but it made a huge impression.

 

Ultima IV - C64

Everything. The world, the music, the gameplay.

 

Tomb Raider - PC

The T-Rex.

 

Warcraft II - PC

The gameplay, the music. Everything.

 

Comix Zone - Genesis

Just so different and so cool with the comic book like effect.

 

Out of this World - SNES

Looks stupid now but back then I was amazed by the graphics etc.

 

Final Fantasy VIII - PS1

The cutscenes still look good today. Amazing.

 

Resident Evil - PS1

The dog scene.

 

I'm probably forgetting more mostly on the arcade side. I agree with NE146...the music in Gyruss and the Defender ship exploding were so cool. I think the Gorf mothership had a wow affect on me too as a kid when you destroyed it. I also think just seeing vector graphics for the first time wow'd me. Battlezone, Tempest....it looked so "futuristic" back then and made big impressions on me as a young kid.

[roland p]

SD Snatcher: wow! my own spinner!

 

Hunter (amiga): free 3d exploration. Doing badass stuff like 'Collect the general's head'

 

Pilotwings: I can fly!

 

Shenmue: It's like having a second life.

 

Leisure suit larry in the land of the lounge lizards: OMG!

[LS_Dracon]

When I understand the (Snes) StarFox was not using scaled mode7 graphics.

[+Gemintronic]

When I understand the (Snes) StarFox was not using scaled mode7 graphics.

 

It is impressive to have such powerful DSP/support chips inside a cart. We should do that with the 7800.

[LS_Dracon]

 

It is impressive to have such powerful DSP/support chips inside a cart. We should do that with the 7800.

 

Harmony cart 2 for 7800 will comes with a powerful 32bit arm processor.

[Torr]

For me it was Metroid Prime (GCN)

 

I have a fear of water (aquaphobia?) and not long after landing on the planet's surface there is a path you can take which leads to an underwater segment.

 

When I made that literal jump, and ended up landing in water; which meant a deeper landing than I expected, and a lulling drop to that new depth, adding in the 'obscured by water' vision, and the whole GCN was the new "Top-O-Th'Line" in graphics; I felt, honestly felt, my stomach drop and roll a little when I slowly descended to the water's depth and the less than favorable view distance.

Now I was in my most feared sate of matter, I could see very little and truly felt I was underwater... I stopped breathing for a moment, just as I would had I REALLY been submersed in water, and that was a WTF moment for me, not so much that I thought "What is WATER doing in game?!?" as "I Can't believe a video game has captured my fear of water so greatly", and I started to hope there would be less underwater segments as my adventure carried on...

 

Time to load up some Metroid Prime... been way too long, and I actually forget what most of the game is going to throw at me...

 

Can't believe GCN is starting to be a "RETRO" gaming thing to me...

 

Damn time...

[adamchevy]

The first time I saw my neighbor playing ridge racer on the ps1.

 

The first time I played counterstrike at a lan party.

 

Playing Mario 64 for the first time after reading about it for months in nextgen magazine.

[cybercylon]

Good but tough topic since my memory isn't so great either.

 

Space Invaders for the 2600. One of the first conversions of a game outside of Pong, and I liked it more in many ways than the arcade version.

 

Pitfall and Pitfall 2 for the 2600. I know Pitfall 2 uses extra chips, but still, to get that out of dated console.

 

As someone mentioned, playing Donkey Kong on the CV. Of course, it does not hold up all that well now.

 

BattleToads for NES. Good graphics, and really hard, but I managed to beat it. I would not have the patience now.

 

Super Mario Brother 3 for the NES. This one is still my favorite, and I could not put this game down trying to find out the secrets on my own. That said, if I ever had to go back, I would play the SNES version since I cannot play such a game now and finish it in one sitting.

 

The storyline for Suikoden 2 and the death of a favorite character. Only game that made me throw my controller in anger.

 

Final Fantasy X for the PS 2. It is not the best FF game, but still up there. This was the rpg on the PS2 at the time that said "next gen" for rpgs has now reached the PS2/xbox/GC era. I was amazed about how almost all of the dialog is spoken.

 

The plot twist to Knights of the Old Republic.

 

Person 3 FES and Persona 4. Story and characters just really captured my attention.

 

There is probably more.....

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Ah just recalled another, it was my reason for getting a Dreamcast......I had heard about it of course, read about it etc, but one day I was in the local mall, approaching my videogaming shop (I don't recall the name) as I approached I noticed a DREAMCAST DISPLAY set up in the window. Now, you got to understand I don't care about sports and certainly not football, honestly as I approached looking at the 15" monitors or TV's above the display I thought to myself "REALLY? WTF? They are playing a football game ? What, is it an important game or something? Geez that sucks, I, uhm.....wait a second...is that? OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! " YES as I approached I realized that it was not a televised Footbal game but in fact a Football game on DREAMCAST, the sound, the animation, the fluid movement......THIS was the next level in gaming! I MUST HAVE THIS!!!! Of course I never bought that football game because I cannot stand it but still, that display did the trick, I guess I figured if FOOTBALL was this amazing on DREAMCAST then what are games I actually LIKE going to be like?

Edited November 7, 2014 by OldSchoolRetroGamer

[SoulBlazer]

Well I have the worst memory so I might not recall that original "Oh snap!" moment yet their are moments that always seem to pop up in my memory that I recall with fondness and wonder:

 

1. Meeting the T-Rex in the original TOMB RAIDER.

 

2. The damn zombie dog busting through the hall window in the original Resident Evil.

 

3. Psycho Mantis boss in Metal Gear Solid PS1 when he starts talking about the contents of my memory card!

You read my mind. I would have said all 3 of those.

[bennybingo]

Ultima II….finding the rocket ship

 

Also, the first time I saw Dragon's Lair in the arcade. That tripped me out…playing a character in an actual cartoon.

[Reaperman]

S.T.U.N. Runner in the arcades. I was probably somewhere around 9-10 years old. Lots of polygons, 900mph, amazing. I'd never seen anything like it and didn't believe home systems would ever be able to match it.

[+save2600]

Playing Splatterhouse on the TG-16 for the first time back in the day. The boss hanging from the ceiling that you think you've beaten... only to have an alien thing jump out of his gut. One last baddie to beat for the win and what a shocker!

[bennybingo]

Oh…I completely forgot….Eternal Darkness on the Game Cube. That game really messes with your head. I won't say how, just in case there are any late comers to that party. If you haven't played that game, I would highly recommend it…just for the cool "mess with your head" features.