What were your (now retro, but not at the time) gaming wow moments

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨HexagonSun@sh.itjust.works⁩ to ⁨retrogaming@lemmy.world⁩

I remember a few from various stages of my life (born 1984).

Seeing the demo footage of Sonic 2 in Woolworths and thinking the leaves falling down in Aquatic Run zone was so cool and advanced.

The original Sega arcade of Virtua Racing with the moving cars completely blew me away.

I remember my uncle loading up Cannon Fodder on his Amiga, and a REAL song with REAL music came out, along with REAL photos. I was amazed haha.

A few years on I remember a PlayStation demo disc having promo footage of the first Gran Turismo and it looked so real to me, I watched it over and over. The first Driver on PS1 looked absolutely amazing to me also.

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the16bitgamer@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Booting up Mario Kart DS and seeing 3D on a portable game system. For years it was 2d portables, 3D consoles. But now both had 3D. My mind would have exploded if I ever saw the steam deck or switch.

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andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Art direction in Comix Zone for Sega Genesis. After static cartoonish games it’s unbeliveable you can pull it off on the same hardware. The animated intro, the hand painting enemies as you go and these transitions between scenes were very impressive.

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SendMePhotos@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I miss demo discs. My favorite one had I think spyro and some snowmobile game on it. Playstation 1…dominos disk?

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- can@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I think it was Pizza Hut. I bet it was Reggie Fils-Aimé’s idea.
  
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  - Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Oh the irony!
    
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altima_neo@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
People shit on this stuff like it’s terrible garbage that no one would want to play, but I remember playing Zelda on my friend’s CD-I and being blown away by a video game having fluid animation and voice work. Up till then, I had only experienced NES games, and a few super Nintendo ones. But that shit was amazing to me. The RF remote control, on the other hand, wasn’t.

Then there’s was also virtual boy. I remember trying it out at a Sears and thinking how cool it was.

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- SurfinBird@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Those qualities were really impressive back then. I remember being super impressed when games started having cut-scenes.
  
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otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Star Control 2 on the 3DO.

It was my first CD console (never got into PC gaming back then), so while I had games like Donkey Kong Country and Sonic & Knuckles, the 3DO could do things that the 16-bit consoles just couldn’t.

The opening cutscene…voiced. The graphics blew my mind wide open, and the virtually fully-voiced adventure sucked me in for a long time.

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whotookkarl@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
EverQuest, playing a 3d online fantasy game with some sim elements with other people, was something very new and felt like the future. Limiting fast travel to specific places and classes made the world feel huge. Stumbling across the weird stuff like giant chess boards or a whole underwater dungeon made it feel unique.

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giddy@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Impossible Mission on the Commodore 64. The running animation was mind blowing for the time

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MisterMoo@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Playing Air Warrior II on Windows 95 in 1997. My dad and uncle lived in another state and we’d hop on AOL at a specified time and join a game. It was my first ever online game experience. I was 13. I hope kids today can still feel that total world-changing excitement that I did back then.

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9point6@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
But of an odd one, but who remembers the dos installer for the original command & conquer?

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Artemis@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Beating the first Baldur’s Gate after numerous (hundreds?) attempts over the years when I was 19-ish (ca. 2009). I recall actually tearing up quite heavily 😂. Even after all these years, still my absolute favourite game for replay (when I get the chance!).

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jecxjo@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I was always more of a retro gamer even back in the day. 80s and 90s playing MUDs or Atari and getting an SNES late to the game. My computers were always hand me downs from my parents so i never really got into the best games when i was a kid.

But when i got that issue of PC Gamer with the demo of what Halo was going to be like, with the dinosaurs and cut scenes built into the engagement with your targets…wow i wanted to play that.

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Philote@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
First time I played Myst in 93, that was mind blowing. I didn’t see that level of graphics for a long time after that. Also a friend let me play Half-life Alyx when it first released and it seemed to be a monumental shift in what gaming would become….. it wasn’t or hasn’t yet, but it blew my mind at the time.
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- HexagonSun@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, Myst was definitely something else when it came out
  
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- jecxjo@midwest.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  In the original release of Myst you weren’t necessarily prevented from stumbling upon things you would find as you follow the progression. My parents got me the game and i ended up clicking on everything and found the last room where the whole story comes full circle…well before i hit up the individual book worlds.
  
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fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Mario 3 unveiled in The Wizard.

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B0NK3RS@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Biggest for me would be going online with the Dreamcast. At home I was online with the DC before we had a PC so used it quite a lot.

I probably spent to much time on Dreamarena chat rooms and playing PSO with randoms.

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Subtracty@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Playing Call of Duty World at War for the first time, if that counts as retro. I had always played co-op games with my brother, and when he was gone for a weekend, I decided to try and play for myself. Spent countless hours replaying missions until I finally beat the campaign. And if I remember correctly, it drops you straight into zombies with no warning. I remember it being way past my bedtime, sitting alone in the dark. I was absolutely terrified because I was genuinely shocked by the premise and maybe too young for something so scary. Didn’t sleep at all that night.

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You_are_dust@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I remember being in like a GameStop or whatever the store was prior to that in my area. The tvs in the store were playing a teaser for the new Zelda game that was going to be coming out. I think this might have been like very early concept of windwaker before they went with the cartoon cell shaded style. I remember there was a sword fight between I think Link and Ganon. I remember thinking that games had peaked at that point. Of course we didn’t end up getting exactly that, but the memory remains.

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