In my best James Lipton voice, today is a glorious day. Today is the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. Yes, the game which caused me to spend my days in arcades for hours on end, spending hundreds upon hundreds of dollars one quarter at a time. And what did I have to show for all of this? Absolutely nothing except for discovering I am just not that good at games. Greasy, bacon stained hands and a joystick are not the best match. Anyway, in honor of this special day, Google has made their homepage banner an actual playable Pac-Man game. Soooo, if you are looking for something to while away the rest of the day, today is your day.
Meanwhile, I would like to know your favorite video game, or the first one you played, or someone you know who spends their entire lives playing video games.
I would offer you the link to Google, but I am pretty sure you can find it on your own. Thanks Lillian.
Pitfall for Atari.
ReplyDeleteBest. Game. Ever.
Nothing holds a candle to it. I wish I still had an Atari and could play this game again.
I LOVED PItfall. And Frogger!
ReplyDeleteGalaga is the best game ever....It's at a local pizza joint. I always go early to pick up dinner just to spend some dollars ( not quarters anymore )to feel like a teenager again !! I hold the highest score, btw !
ReplyDeleteQ-Bert for Atari was the first game I played now its World of Warcraft.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of WoW my partner was addicted to that game and it was almost 6 months before I gave in and played... our poor kids now know everything about that game. At least I can walk away and mostly play on the weekends unlike their father.
Jennifer - me too!!! Loved Pitfall!
ReplyDeleteFirst computer game I played was Infidel by Infocom - a text adventure game (remember those? Hitchiker's Guide was one. Zork was another)
Oh gosh, I forgot Pitfall! Loved it! I also liked Mario and Sonic games.
ReplyDeleteNow, with a computer, I like to play the online games on Pogo.com, I'm a total Sims freak (first 1, then 2, and now playing 3), and also love Tropico in all its many incarnations except the latest one, which did not seem like so much fun. And I play MouseHunt and Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook.
M.U.L.E. on the C-64.
ReplyDeleteBubble bobble!
ReplyDeleteOddly, this "Your Turn" seems so much more personal than usual.
ReplyDeleteI'm about as far from a gamer as you can get. I don't play video games and my parents forbade me to have games of my own, which I am eternally grateful for today.
ReplyDeleteThat being said --
Aladdin for Sega Genesis at my best friend's house. I was around 9, and it was glorious!
I spent an entire summer playing Centipede at a convenience store when I was about 10. I got REALLY good. Any of my facebook friends can tell you my current obsession is Castle Age. I also spent about 40 hours a week on Zelda custom quests a couple of years ago, and I got through my first year of college on Ms. Pacman. This is why I don't own a gaming system - my life would end. I'm really good at games, but it does me no good whatsoever. Stupid OCD.
ReplyDeleteFavourite game is probably the entire GTA series, i can't pick just one. I'm just obsessive about it and my other half is sick of hearing of it because of me. I even made him go to a midnight release to get GTA IV with me.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with computers and games so i can't remember the very first game, but i think my old favourite was Bomberman, possibly on the Commodore 64.
Oh yes, I'm a Sims girl, too. Sims 3 World Adventure is good (love the timb exploration and puzzle solving aspects). I think it's time they came out with another expansion pack, though. I really miss Pets and Seasons and have thought about reverting to Sims 2 just to have them back!
ReplyDeleteI had Pong which my sister and I played on a black and white set. Old school. Later we had the Atari with the games that looked like 8 track tapes. I was a Breakout fiend. I had Super Breakout where you could customize the sound to make the bricks sound like gunshots or guitar strings when you hit them. Very good times!
ReplyDeleteOh - I forgot! First game I ever played on a computer - I think - was something with a bunny. It ate carrots. LOL. Anyone know what I'm talking about????
ReplyDeleteAnother great computer game - I think it was on the IBM (my neighbor had an IBM, we had a PET) - was King's Quest. I was prob about 10 or 11 when I first played it... you had to give the guy directions like "knock on the door", "pick up stone", "talk to the princess". I remember trying to give him commands like "pee on the princess". Hahahahahaha. It always responded with "you are not allowed to do that". Hahahaha, I was a messed up kid.
The only game I've ever played was Mario Carts, and that was at a friend's house. We weren't allowed to have them at home, so I never got into them.
ReplyDeleteNot a video game person. My husband is (it's GREAT)but I never got past Gameboy. I mean it. I think I got to, like, the 5th world of Super Mario on the old, grey Gameboy and never had the patience to try to beat it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Jr. High, I used to roll up all my penny's, sneak out of the house at night, go to the Circle K, and play...dun dun dun
ReplyDeleteSUPER MARIO BROS!!!!
I, like Enty, spend hundreds of dollars on that game :)
BUT to list a few other fav's
New Super Mario Bros for the Wii
Super Mario for the DS
Spyro the Dragon PS2
Diablo II PC
The Legend of Zelda (old school)
Galaga
Pac Man
Jeez I'm sure there are a few I'm missing. I love games. I also LOVE the Wii.. Anything on the Wii is fun. Love the Trivia ones too!!
K, I'm done.. I think!
Happy Weekend Folks!
Donkey Kong Country. Hours and hours and hours of my life spent playing that game.
ReplyDeleteNow, I farm. FV all the way.
definitely first games were cabinet arcade GALAGA or CENTIPEDE for me as a wee lass! my mom's boyfriend at the time was an old school nerd. as a kid, i was tOOOtally into The Legend of Zelda until i beat that damn thing and lost interest. then got really, really into SMB 3, then Sims. somehow skipped over playstation and dreamcast completely and moved on to XBOX where i loved FABLE and PSYCHONAUTS! anything with a good story is a game i'll probably like.
ReplyDeleteSuper Mario Bros, particularly 3, I used to beat my younger brother at it all the time. Or, alternatively, Zelda, particularly on the original NES.
ReplyDeleteAs for now, Sims. Particularly Sims 2 though it means booting up my 7 year old desktop but I have almost all the expansion packs.
Haven't bought the new expansions for Sims 3 though because I'm still undecided whether I like it or not. Thankfully I can't see how many hours I've logged on either game.
Oh and I asked for a Wii birthday before last just to play Zelda and the newest Super Mario, the latter of which I bought on presale.
I'm 27 and female, the shame of it.
Pong-first game we had. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. If you set the paddles correctly you could have a game that went on forever.
ReplyDeleteThen we got an Atari and I played Frogger very badly. So badly that my sister would invite friends over so they could watch me attempt to play Frogger.
First PC game-Zork. Wow. I am a big geek.
Pitfall on Atari, Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3 for Nintendo, and Mario World and Mario Cart on Super Nintendo. Sonic on Genesis. LOVED Legend of Zelda for Nintendo (the gold cartridge) and Shining Force for Genesis.
ReplyDeleteDonkey Kong Country and Bomberman were also favorites.
ReplyDeleteTable-top Pac-Man. My family would go to Cloverleaf Pizza on Friday nights, and my brother and I would play until the food was ready. Great memories.
ReplyDeleteMs Pacman back in the day. Diablo and Diablo II not as far back. As of late, I'm addicted to Plants vs Zombies on the iTouch.
ReplyDelete@ WestEndGirl - it took me several months to play Sims 3 although I'd pre-ordered it, I hated how the sims looked, just basically didn't like the game, so I just kept on playing Sims 2 with all my beloved mods and custom content - casual romance, teen woohoo, etc. I had all the expansions and stuff packs. But I decided to quit thinking of it as the same game, and have been forcing myself to play Sims 3 and I'm liking it now. Not wild over World Adventures, it seems like one tomb is like another tomb. Kristen S, there is a new expansion pack coming out the first of June.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully though it is all starting to strain my Alienware with only 2 gigs of RAM, and I'm sort of eyeing iMacs, once I finish getting all this dental work done.
I liked and played Tempest on the occasions I was at an arcade. I was actually okay at it, compared with very poor scores on the other ones.
ReplyDeletePlayed Pong on a friends' Atari system, but never got one/into one myself.
Play Wii games now. Fairly new to it, though (no favorites).
I have played video games for years and back in the 80's I was the first kid on the street to have a computer. The games were loaded with cassette tapes and it usually took about 2 hours to load. The first game I can remember was called "Claim Jumper"...and it was miner themed game kinda like Donkey Kong where you had to jump obstacles and climb ladders to the top of the screen. :) Ahhh..memories!!
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who played Pac-Man all day at work?
ReplyDeleteSuper Mario!!!
ReplyDeleteI can't play any other games without hurting inside
Best computer game I ever played was PC Hack, an early text-based dungeon quest game. That was fun. If you total up all the time I spent playing that game I bet it comes to a year at least.
ReplyDeleteFavorite arcade game was Xybots, an Atari game. It was fun because you had two different views of the game, a face-front version in which you progressed through the game, and an overhead map view that let you see the layout of the entire level. So you had to pay attention to two things at once. I liked that. But it ruined my wrists.
if you hit insert coin twice on google, you get ms. pacman.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have a Nintendo but I would go to my friend's house and play Super Mario and Zelda. Today, I have a son who plays the heck out of Super Mario on the Wii and loves any of the Lego games.
ReplyDeleteOh, Enty, this is just one of the many reasons I love you. I have been on Google all day and never ONCE thought to try it to see if one could actually PLAY the PacMan game! Sheesh. Guess that just proves I never was a big video game player when I was a kid. Pong at the ice hockey rink was about it for me.
ReplyDeleteSigh. And I still SUCK at it.
Centipede!! And Tempest!! And Pole Position!!
ReplyDeleteI did play some Pacman today and was reminded how much I sucked at it.
Oooh, definitely Pitfall, with Frogger and Donkey Kong not far behind. Most games were completely beyond my skill level - I never did figure out how to play Centipede, although every restaurant, arcade, and friend I knew of had it.
ReplyDeleteLoved, loved, loved Super Mario Bros (1, 2, and 3) as a kid as well as The Legend of Zelda, a link to the past.
ReplyDeleteI still play games often and I'm addicted to hidden object games on the pc. I've been playing the Sims games since 1 came out and I love them even though I don't play as often as I used to. It took awhile to get accustomed to Sims 3. Diablo II is a HUGE fave (I still play it occasionally) and I really like Master of Orion II.
I love my xbox360 and my favorite games on there are Dragon Age: Origins, both Mass Effects, and Left 4 Dead (1 & 2). I'm also a huge fan of the KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) games which fuel my Star Wars addiction. ;-) Can you tell I'm a fan of Bioware (which makes DA:O, both ME, and KOTOR)?
I sound like a complete nerd. ;-)
I got my 15 year old to play the google pac-man, and he said "lame-o, I can't believe you used to play this stuff". Lol but he didn't start out with Pong, either, and upgrade from there.
ReplyDeleteI used to spend all my $$ at the Putt-Putt arcade in high school. I had an Intellivision and a Commodore 64. I played all those Zork games. You could type something like "press the red button" and the commodore would chug for 5 minutes and say, "nothing happened".
Then, in the 90's, when I had 2 toddlers and was pulling my hair out, hubby suggested I play computer games for stress relief. God, I loved Doom!!
Now we have a Wii and an xbox 360 and 2 computers, and we are playing something all the time.
Jennifer - I too remember something about a game where a bunny ate carrots, but ???
ReplyDeleteWhen we were just married we bought an Intellivision game player, cheaper than Atari. Circa 1982.
Donkey Kong for N64 caused me to waste hours upon hours a few years ago during my undergrad degree. But then the responsible student in me came out and I've still never beaten that thing.
ReplyDeleteI also really loved playing Mario Party, and my brother's GTA: Vice City.
In middle school/high school I was obsessed with the Sims. But it was never as good when they tried to make PS versions.
Mooshki!!!! You play Castle Age?! Are we friends on Facebook? I think we are. If we are, I'm so adding you to my army. I LOVE that game.
ReplyDeleteAs for video games, obviously I love Pac-Man (thanks for the shout-out Enty. I feel like a superstar.) I used to play it for HOURS at home. I got to where I could get to the third key without dying. Love that game. *sigh*
Super Mario Bros!! that was my first game ever, later I played Pac- man in a machine in an Arcadia game shop. My choices for favs are:
ReplyDelete-Counter Strike
-Diablo II
-Zelda Ocarina of time
-Halo 1
Counter Strike FTW! Beta tested 1.3 back in 98 when the mod first came out. I've been a gamer my whole life. Started on my cousins Atari. Got a job at a gas station when I was 13 (under the table, though I looked 16). Proud to say I have owned every single console out there. Yup, even the Jaguar. The game I do play the most is CS 1.6. Never get too far, before I pick it up and start playing it again.
ReplyDeleteI never played video games, but I did purchase various games for my daughter and now my eleven year old granddaughter..who owns a wii, a playstation 3, and a number of handheld things..all expensive..but my husband and I get a thrill and a smile when we are driving along and suddenly she breaks into song..yesterday it was "Black Betty" the day before it was "The Joker" because of guitar hero, her ipod touch as an amazing playlist..and she loves our record collection.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED Pitfall. When I got WAAAY older Resident Evil.
ReplyDeleteWay back when I played Pitfall on the Atari I taught my Mom to play a game called Circus. Mom wasn't big on video games and she wasn't very good but she loved to break those ballons. When she missed and her guy died the little guys legs would twitch and Mom would literally toss the controller in the air and cover her face with her hands. Back then-- funniest thing I'd ever seen.
I should change my google account name to Older Than Dirt. I played pong with my kids until they said I wasn't good enough. After that, they refused to play with me.
ReplyDeletefirst game i ever played was legend of zelda ocarina of time for n64... now i'm addicted to my DS, PS3 and WoW
ReplyDeleteBegan with Frogger, currently playing (and LOVING) Heavy Rain. I love the PSP in general. Yes games are a waste of time, but so are lots of fun things!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite was Defender when I was young. In college I had a serious addiction to Super Mario 3. I'd say I was just gonna play one more game before we went out and soon it would be 5am and we hadn't left my then boyfriend/now husband's house. I had to stop playing it and don't play any games on the computer. Nor do we own a game system.
ReplyDeleteMaybe my age is showing, but I'll take a pinball machine over video games any time.
ReplyDeleteGod, how I loved some Atari but my favorite game was Super Mario 3 when I was in middle school. I also now ashamedly play Animal Crossing every once and awhile and unashamedly, Wii fit and Guitar hero
ReplyDeleteAsteroids. I was totally into the Star Wars reference.
ReplyDeleteThe first video game I've ever played was Golden Axe, in Brazil...
ReplyDeleteMy favorite game of all times is Monley Island 3. I just LOVE everything about that game.
Galaga, but I was even better at its cousin, Phoenix. I frikken kicked *ss Saturdays at the arcade.
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to Galaga when I was in first year university. Loved that game. On the computer I played Wolfenstein. Loved that game. Now my two favourite games are Mario Kart on the Wii and the golf - I'm actually good at that one!
ReplyDeleteWe also have a console that hooks up to the tv with a joystick that has pacman, galaga, and ... pole position? on it.
If my son had his way, he would spend his entire life either on the Wii (he's chomping at the bit for Mario Galaxy 2) or playing on the computer. He has a myriad of sites he goes to. My favourite game he plays on the computer is Miami Shark. Check it out:
http://www.maxgames.com/play/miami-shark.html
First game? Believe it or not, Space Invaders. (Yeah, I'm *that* old)
ReplyDeleteFavorite? An oldie but still quite playable goodie called "Age Of Wonders" - the first and IMHO, the best (There are sequels with more bells and whistles, however #1 rules)
Think RTS, turn based, fantastic creatures, and tactical warfare all in one.
Add to it the ability to create your own maps and you have the perfect storm of games.