What's your greatest "gaming high" you've been chasing ever since? Please take care not to spoil anything, if you are going to be story-specific.

Submitted ⁨⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨eru777@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨retrogaming@lemmy.world⁩

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For 90s kids, there will be no explanation necessary. For others, well, pokemon was a phenomenon. It was everywhere, on TV, in magazines, toys, stickers. You could trade pokemon at the school excursion on the bus. You felt alive in this world, pokemon gen 1-2 were the pinnacle of pokemon for me. And in gen2, finishing the game, and lo and behold, there’s a whole other region (kanto) waiting for you to explore it. The night cycle in the game blew my mind in ways that I have been chasing ever since. I know it will never be reached again, but the memory will remain as powerful as it was that evening of the early 00s. What is your greatest gaming high, that you know will never be topped again, and that you have been chasing ever since?

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douz0a0bouz@midwest.social ⁨28⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
Being a 90s kid I feel that there were many mind blowing moments seeing the games evolve.

My first one was playing Shining Force 2 on the Sega Genesis with my dad.

Next one was probably FF7 on the ps1. Remember having to switch disks while the game was running? 🤯

Next one was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Kinda burnt out on games now. Adulting sucks

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Seasm0ke@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
The first two weeks of Pokemon go were like peace on earth. Everyone was friendly, excited, and walking around outside together, chatting with perfect strangers was actually a blast for once. We shared tips and locations, exchanged numbers, metup after work, cops were largely unmotivated to do anything about it because of how many of us and how wholesome it really was. Honestly best 2 weeks of my life

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Nalivai@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Morrowind. Playing it, modding it, breaking it, trying to fix mods, writing new mods, all of it. Morrowind was so fun, for some time it convinced me that Bethesda might be a competent company

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billwashere@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Finishing Ultima IV on my C64. Yep I’m old.

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uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Someone else’s comment about LAN parties jog my memory. I only ever attended one (big one in a university auditorium), and for the most part, it was kind of meh. Until late in the night, a game of Savage got going, something myself and my friends had never played before. After a few other people hopping in and out of the commander role, I decided to give it a go. Before long, the game just clicked. I had four of my friends at the table around me designated as squad leaders and was barking orders to them as they moved across the map, I beefing them up with spells, poi ting out enemies, etc. It’s the only time that I can recall getting into a real tactical squad-based flow.

I didn’t chase that experience much, though, because nothing recreated the physical space I was in. I went on to play Savage 2, which I loved for a time, but I almost always eschewed the commander role.

Aerial dueling in Starsiege Tribes was a high for me that I will always chase. Any game that offers that freedom of movement + timing of shots always piques my interest. Wall running and leaping as the Alien in AVP 2 did much the same.

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Canconda@lemmy.ca ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Halo 1 LAN parties

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- GerardsGuitar@retrolemmy.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Damn- I wish LAN parties were still a thing. The vibe was unmatched
  
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- Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Unreal Tournament LAN parties.
  
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- BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Also, Halo 3 custom games with full lobbies and super creative customs. Honestly, just Halo 3 in general
  
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- Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Same except Marathon 2
  
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- ouRKaoS@lemmy.today ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Splinter cell: Pandora Tomorrow.
  
  Spies v Mercenaries, screens were set back to back so you couldn’t peek at the other team. We were rotating around for a while before people settled into their preferred play style and shit got intense.
  
  I miss that game.
  
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Denjin@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
After dragging my long suffering mum around every shop that might possibly still have a copy of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and finally getting what must have been the last one anywhere.

We then have to go and do a whole load of other things all afternoon while I read the manual from back to front about a dozen times in the back of the car, getting more and more excited.

Then we finally got home but I had to help with dinner first and then eat all the while jabbering incessantly about how amazing it was going to be while I’m sure she just rolled her eyes and said “yes dear” and then I was finally allowed to put the N64 on and I then sat glued to it for hours in a state of wonder and amazement.

Truly the best experience I’ve ever had gaming.

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chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Playing the Mass Effect Trilogy for the first time.

Sure the ending was a bit disappointing, but the ride was absolutely phenomenal.

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rozodru@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
the very first Call of Duty and Tribes 2 on PC way back in the early 00s.

I used to be fairly “known” on the old “Planets” websites (PlanetQuake, PlanetTribes, etc) that were hosted via gamespy. I was popular, on a few of their camportals that were invite only and I worked on a couple of the gaming news sites providing art, writing reviews, and doing web dev stuff. I was friends with some very early internet celebs which really just consisted of guys that made webcomics or had their own websites. Friends with Mike and Jerry at Penny-Arcade, etc.

So anyways about once a week we’d all get together, Jerry from PA, myself, couple of gamespy guys, and a few other close mutual online friends and we’d play CoD, Tribes 2, etc. We started playing CoD fairly frequently. One guy on our team, Porkfry, had a thing about not playing as the Nazi’s so if we got into a game that put is on the Nazi side we’d always have to leave and find another server until we were Americans.

It was funny, we joked about it. just one of his many quirks.

Now on one map in CoD there was this german truck that had a raised flatbed. there was NO WAY to normally get in it but Porkfry had figured out that if you jumped at the rear of the truck at a certain angle you could get inside, duck down, and you’d essentially be hidden. So we did that. We would hide in the back of this truck and while the enemy team was frantically searching for us we would stop crouching and just blast them when they got nearby. We’d do this constantly and just howl with laughter over vent or teamspeak or whatever we were using. That’s what we did, just silly stuff like that. Or we’d be playing Tribes 2 and one of us would act like a disgruntled bus driver when flying the troop transport. We’d just do dumb shit in the games we’d play to keep us all entertained and make each other laugh.

I really miss those pure early internet days.

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KokoSabreScruffy@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
In Division 2 before NY expansion:

So, for some reason they have set their maintenance 30minutes after reset time( so if reset is at 10am, maint was at 10:30). So, in their discord we gathered a random group and decided to challenge ourselves to complete it before maint hit. During the run we were all talking how somebody will get the unique AR right before the servers go down… Lo and behold it happened to me(sad the clip is gone after gfycat went down and I fried my old HDD) but we laughed for good 5 minutes and thinking if the AR will be there or not after maint… It was.

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Donebrach@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Not really a thing I’ve been chasing but I did really enjoy the time I was home sick from work and spent all day playing Super Mario Odyssey back when it first came out. I really felt like I was a kid again and hadn’t felt that before or since.

Middle of the road millennial for age context.

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everett@lemmy.ml ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I know what you mean about Gold and Silver. Everything you mentioned, plus events that happened on specific days of the week, “mystery gift” functionality via IR, and more stuff I’m forgetting. There were also radio stations you could “listen” to (read text) that made the world feel alive.

Even in gen 1, trading/battling revived link-cable culture, which I’d only ever seen people use for Tetris, years before.

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ivanafterall@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Two that come to mind:

One that I still remember from high school. It was just a simple Counter Strike match. But it was down to me and one other guy. I switched to knife, turned the corner, there he was, going the other way. He didn’t see me. So I followed him, riiight behind him, around several corners, while chat spectated. Still never noticed. I finally knifed him in the back, chat erupted, I felt like a god even though I sucked at Counter Strike.

Winning my first Rocket League tournament after years. It really felt like I’d done something that mattered.
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afk_strats@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The awe and grandeur of Occarina Of Time… at the time.

Disco Elysium is the best literature I’ve ever played.

I still feel like used to live in Skyrim. It was a place where I wanted to be and explore.

TF2/Halo CE multilayer mix of copetitive adrenaline and funny shenanigans

Those are the game experiences which stuck with me.

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HerrVorragend@lemmy.world ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Planetside 2.

Was pretty new to the game and just wsndering around as a sniper when a guy in a transport pulled up and told me to get in.

Boarded the transport and drove around for a bit when we crossed a hill that sat above an enemy camp.

I jumped out as he drove on and started scouting the camp from the hill. Felt a bit lonely and asking myself if jumping out here was a good idea at all.

After a while, I chose to shoot and see where it lands to see how high I need to aim to adjust for bullet drop.

Suddenly I hear a loud ‘boom’ and an explosion roughly where I was shooting at. Then another ‘boom’ and another explosion.

Turned around to be surprised by 5 friendly tanks in one line behind me unloading at the enemy camp.

After about 20 more seconds, my hill was swarmed with all kinds of friendly tanks and personell, just blasting away at the camp.

It was as if I went from a lonely scout newb to somehow spearheading the attack, which felt really cool.

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- FlihpFlorp@piefed.zip ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I was late to planetside starting in 2018, then a haitus and then playing the shit out of it from 2020-24
  
  Getting a level 80 asp 2 NSO (I’m not insane I’m not insane)
  
  But for me I suck at the game, drift my ~~pancake~~ dervish over a lib and perfect swing around keeping my Gub trained in him at all time
  
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SolarPunker@slrpnk.net ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Psycho Mantis

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- WhiteRice@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  
  Revolver Ocelot
  
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boogiebored@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Also most all my friends and co workers getting on Vent to play WoW regularly and leveling up characters shortly after Burning Crusade released. Gaming hasn’t been the same since.

Next best would be COVID era playing Red Dead Online and drinking IRL and fishing in game until IRL dawn with a friend. Sunrise in that game is such a good representation of a sleepy sunrise.

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veeesix@lemmy.ca ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The decision of waking the Wind Fish in Link’s Awakening broke something in me at such a young age that I don’t think I’ve since experienced as profoundly.

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Pulptastic@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I’ve had a few over the years. In high school I got all stars in Mario 64 and I beat Quake 2 without getting shot for the lulz.

In college I went through and beat all of the Adventures of Lolo games. I played hundreds of hours of FFXI but the real gem was later on when I could solo almost anything, including legendary Pokémon that normally take a party of six.

Portal and portal 2 are great experiences I’ve been through a few times.

I was obsessed over Pokémon Y. It was the first time I got into breeding perfect Pokémon with egg moves, hidden abilities, and perfect or zero IVs. I also tried for weeks to get 100 consecutive victories in Battle Maison but the third time I failed at 99 because the game cheats I threw in the towel.

In Pokémon Scarlet I really got into shiny hunting and have 200+ now. I also tried Masuda method for the first time but dang is that slow.

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BurntWits@sh.itjust.works ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Probably Halo Reach Forge mode, couch co-op with a friend of mine. We’d spend countless hours building bases, doing races, all sorts of stuff in Forge. We played other stuff in Reach too but Forge was always my favourite.

We haven’t spoken in years. We used to be super close, I hope he’s doing alright.

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RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The experience of a brand new game with a new computer build that upped the standards. Particularly from the ‘90s to ~2010. Games pushed ahead with more expansive levels, better graphics, better sound, larger worlds. All more incredible than what you’d ever played before. It was a joy just to see it and experience it on top of whatever storyline and toys were in the game itself. Every year there was a leap in some facet of gaming.

I haven’t really experienced that since. PC builds are just way more expensive for minimal gain, franchises are just rehashes of old games, and it’s hard to find storylines and worlds that are fleshed out enough to make me want to invest the time.

On an individual game level, Battlefield’s Gunmaster mode is a real rush. Success can be ripped away instantly, you’re on your own skill, PvAll, and it’s a race to the top. Intense AF to win, got my heart rate up.

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- LePoisson@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Gonna have to check out that gun master mode, hopefully it’s in BF6
  
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MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Halo 3 Multiplayer before system party calls were a thing

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- yermaw@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  The proximity chat where you could hear the enemy if you were close to them. Serious psyops. Hiding in their base and announcing to your teammates “im hiding by their warthog spawn they dont even know hahaha” and watching them all leave the flag to go get sniped while you nick it.
  
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Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Grand Theft Auto 3.

Going into that for the first time was mind blowing. A true generational leap over everything before. Now you just get slightly nicer reflections and loading times and pay £500+ for the privilege.

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DaTingGoBrrr@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The last time must have been when Valheim released. That shit got me hooked. Now I am waiting for the Deep North biome to finish development before I play it again.

Now that I think about it the last time was when Schedule 1 released.

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- krooklochurm@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Valium was truly magical for me too.
  
  I played on a custom server with four friends but I had, like, way more time for gaming than then.
  
  Or rather I made the time.
  
  We had a mutual base it eventually I just said fuck it and went off into the world and built my own. I went absolutely apeshit. Giant walls, neatly organized chests. I was obsessed with making an indoor dock big enough for a boat to go in. I ended up besting the game while they kind of just gave up but the first time I got on a boat and just kind of sailed into the unknown was absolutely magical. Of course goblins and mosquitoes killed me more times than I can count but I’ll never forget that feeling.
  
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- WhiteRice@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  soft smelting and forging sounds beckon
  
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Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Learning I only beat half of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and then playing the rest. And then playing it again and again, and finding new crazy weapons I’d never seen before. Learning that some weapons (like Sword of Dawn) do something other than just slash. Later reading GameFaqs .txt guides to learn about even more stuff I had no idea about, so end up playing it even more.

And playing Final Fantasy 7 right before all of that. When the demo disc of Final Fantasy 7 came out (inside a Playstation Underground magazine), I lost me shit. I had loved, loved, loved FF4 and 6 (2 and 3 in the US), and 7 was just insane. The graphics, the music, everything. Absolutely revolutionary. That game was a reason to buy a PS1. I remember maxing out the playtime at 99 hours in my first playthrough.

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wide_eyed_stupid@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Ragnarok Online. Before the third jobs, and without donation items and high rates. I played on the kRO server for a while and afterwards for many years on a 5/5/3 private server. I still remember how it felt, the first time I played it. Never found anything like it again.

Now, I’ve played a lot of amazing games and some of them really hit me in the feels, but this was the first MMORPG I played, ever. I was like what, 15? when I started playing and I played this game with the same people, for years. In the same guild, over Ventrilo, I knew these people. From all over the world, we’d even set alarms and such to make sure people were there when WoE started and half of us were sleeping due to time zones, or to make sure we could keep the MVP boss schedules. Some of us even met in real life, we talked off-game as well. We grew up together, quite literally, from teenager to adult. It’s not surprising it left such a mark, I guess. Nowadays… well I’ve tried MMO’s but it just isn’t like that anymore.

I only have to listen to the soundtrack, music from Prontera or Amatsu, and boom, nostalgia!

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rodneylives@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Katamari Damacy

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- Ashtear@lemmy.zip ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  FF6 is mine. That moment when they turn the corner and the world map music changes. Beyond cathartic. The 3-4 hour tension and release they set up in that part of the game is an incredible design triumph.
  
  I did okay with the delays in FF7 but it was absolutely unbearable by FF9. On the plus side, that drove me to discover Suikoden merely because it had instant transitions.
  
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MXX53@programming.dev ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I have a few from childhood, but the gaming high I am chasing now is whatever Outer wilds was. A beautiful story told through exploration and discovery. I just want to go back and experience for the first time again.

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- Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Did you beat the echoes of wisdom DLC? It’s fucking incredible and easily on par with the base game if not better
  
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- dbtng@eviltoast.org ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  d00d. I keep trying to play it. The world resets and I’m like wtf is going on? Something is not clicking for me. Boy do I suck at piloting too.
  
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  - olafurp@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    You’re out there collecting info maaaan. Information is the thing that unlocks new areas.
    
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gary@piefed.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
The absolute peak of gaming for me was the first time I got stoned out of my mind and played Minecraft. Probably like... circa 2012. I've never been able to get back to that place ever since lmao the colors were so vibrant, each pixel was absolutely perfectly placed. The light grey ui elements in your inventory... everything just tied together so perfect. It was like seeing a new color for the first time, but then every time after that is just, eh...

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- Rekorse@sh.itjust.works ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I had similar experience with alcohol and horizon zero dawn. I can remember so much about that night despite the liquor.
  
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mavu@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Playing Wing Commander very late at night, hit a large glass water bottle off the table with my elbow, and catch it with the same arm/hand before it reaches the floor to shatter and wake up the whole family.

Peak reaction times induced by VideoGame adrenaline never reached again.

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