AstralSoul

Well after a lot of internet scouring I found it! Looks like a working download link too! https://sites.google.com/site/knpkorner/tributetomoonstrike I haven't thought about the game in a long time. This topic kind of sparked that memory though. The guy I co-created with seems to get the credit for it. But it was already half done by the time he helped me finish it. I can't run the .exe file tha't's there because I'm at work but now I really want to try it when I get home.

I'm going to say between 2002 and 2004. It was a small article in the front of the magazine, where the fan letters were I believe. I no longer have a file of the game and it was hosted on a site called The Daily Click years ago, but the site is still active but the game appears to be long gone and I can't find any site for the guy I co-created it with, who was a lot more active game maker than I was. It was basically an idea I had, one I started making myself, the guy liked it and offered to help finish it and it basically become a cool co-op project.

Moonstrike, or Project Moonstrike or something along those lines. It's been so long. It was a shmup and it was made in a program called The Games Factory made by Clickteam. Which is still around but I don't think it's widely used.

I co-created a game with someone many years ago, early 2000s-ish and it was featured in a mini-article in an issue of EGM. I have no idea what issue it was. It wasn't any big game or anything, but it was cool that my name was mentioned in a popular gaming magazine.

I bought mostly PS4 games this year on early black friday deals and cyber monday and got some great games at great deals including PS VR for $200.

Graphics have reached a kind of plateau ever since Gen 7 IMO. The jump from Gen 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 were all big jumps, but as time goes on the jump becomes less and less. At what point will graphics become impossible to improve on? When they look exactly like real life? Gen 9 consoles will look better than Gen 8 sure but it will be marginally incremental.

Doom (2016) - PS4 Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix (PS4) Pokemon Shield (Switch)

A box and manual by itself usually goes for the same as just the cart. So if you want CIB you're most likely going to pay about double the amount of cart only. Personally I only collect boxes for my absolute favorite cartridge based games. Anything disc based I always go CIB. But normally if a CIB is cheap enough I'll just go for the whole set at once. More expensive games I'll get cartridge first then maybe down the line get the box and/or manual separately when I decide if it's worth spending the extra money or not. As far as how often you see boxes by themselves, certainly not that often, but they're out there, and I don't know about your local shops but my local shops will sell any individual piece of a set, so if there is a CIB that I want just the box of, they will sell me just the box. but your mileage may vary. The hard part is finding boxes in good shape. I am particularly OCD about boxes because I hate paying money for crushed/ripped boxes. I need them in near-perfect shape, which as you can imagine, makes it all the more expensive and harder to come by. More and more I'm deciding that boxes just aren't worth the effort though.

Just like any other console N64 has its share of duds but there are a lot of gems on it as well. Aside from the obvious first party and Rare titles... Beetle Adventure Racing Bomberman 64 Bomberman Hero Castlevania Castlevania Legacy of Darkness Cruis'n USA Cruis'n World Disney's Tarzan Doom 64 Extreme-G Extreme-G 2 Goemon's Great Adventure Lode Runner 3D Mischief Makers Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon Quake 2 Rayman 2: The Great Escape Rocket Robot on Wheels Shadow Man Snowboard Kids Snowboard Kids 2 Space Station Silicon Valley Star Wars Episode I Racer Star Wars Rogue Squadron Star Wars Shadows of the Empire Tetrisphere Top Gear Rally Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Turok 2: Seeds of Evil WWF No Mercy

Blooper and Lakitu have nothing on these assholes:

Yes it is cheating but who cares if it;s not used for competitive reasons, as long as you're having fun.

Some places like Best Buy and Amazon have early Black Friday sales this week. I just bought a PS VR bundle on Best Buy's site for $200 which is a pretty good deal IMO.

Cassettes won't last IMO. They are inferior to both vinyl and CDs. I never bought cassettes despite them being popular when I was younger. I never got into vinyls - too inconvenient to me. Over the years I amassed a big CD collection though I purged it a good amount a few years ago. But I am hanging on to my favorites and maybe even start building the collection back up. CDs are super easy to get and cheap right now. So we'll see who's laughing when CDs become collector's items...

I've never played Occulus but I have played PS VR and I loved it. Plus it's the cheapest VR option. There are a number of great games for it. I just bought a PS VR bundle myself on early Black Friday sale.

The Jaguar has always intrigued me. I know the game selection is bad and the consoles are not the most reliable, on top of that they are expensive. But something about the system has always grabbed my attention since the 90s. Maybe it was the badass boxart for the console.

I am LOVING Sword/Shield so far. 35 hours in, just finished Gym 5, I love the wild area and the raids. Highlight of the game for me so far. The Pokemon selection is great, despite the fact that half of the total Pokedex was cut in half. I really haven't found anything to complain about honestly. Best Pokemon game since Gen 5 IMO.

The forum itself is better. Finally it's easy to attach images to a post! That was always such a hassle on NA. VGS is definitely better than NA towards the end of its life, but I think we still have a ways to go before the population and activity level reaches NA of its formative years. That said this forum has definitely rejuvenated my interest in talking about games and such as I was pretty much fading out of NA completely before VGS was a thing.

Not my favorite genre because I'm mostly terrible at them. That said.... Ikaruga - Dreamcast/GameCube/Switch UN Squadron - SNES Gradius III - SNES Star Fox 64 - N64 (Okay, I know, not technically a shmup) Einhander - PS1

I would love to do PS1 and PS2 but there are just way too many damn games! Though I'd try to contribute where I can.

I'm more of a Cyber Monday guy. No battling against stampedes. Besides, I actually want to enjoy my Thanksgiving.

Are we counting Battletoads & Double Dragon as an entry? If so that gets my vote - the SNES version though both are good.

Welp that's where downloading the patches now and leaving them on the system comes in handy. Of course if you're going for a massive collection that will be an issue, and a bigger hard drive will be needed. I hate that games now need patches and all that to run properly.

Turbografix-16, Saturn, Dreamcast, Wii U, PS Vita

Easy 9/10. I would've given a 10 but they're not one of my absolute favorite bands. But they are incredibly good and deserve a high score.

Nice list! I've always tried to do this but it's near impossible to narrow it all down to just a handful of games. But here goes nothing.... I was born in 1983 and my first experience with video games was my dad's Atari 2600 he pulled from the attic in 1988/1989. I played Pitfall, Combat, Pac-Man and a few others I can't remember but I never enjoyed the 2600 so I'm not counting any games from it as part of my list, but it is where I got my first gaming experience from. 1. Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt (NES) - 1985 My first true gaming experience that was my own, I got an NES and Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt for Christmas in 1989 at 6 years old. It took me forever to beat the first world but I was so proud of myself when I finally did. I didn't even beat this entire game til 1999.... Even now I struggle with it sometimes. But regardless it was the first game that I owned and the first one I played a lot. 2. Super Mario World (SNES) - 1991 One of the first games I ever beat. I didn't own a SNES til 1995 but my friend in elementary school got one at launch and I was simply blown away by this game. We shared a save file for whenever we would hang out we would play it together and eventually beat it together. It felt like such a huge accomplishment back then. I will forever associate this game with that one friend from elementary school and memories of getting through the game together and imagining the feeling we had when we finally beat it - few games have felt more satisfying to finish than this game back in the early 90s. 3. Donkey Kong Country (SNES) - 1994 Before this game, I liked games but it wasn't my main hobby. I love drawing, playing outside, and reading comics more. But when this game came along... this game blew me away to the point where all I wanted to do was play games. (Which in retrospect may have not been the best thing for me lol) But this game struck a serious chord with me when it came out. The commercials completely grabbed me, and I borrowed this game from a friend in elementary school because my parents wouldn't buy it for me. But eventually I did get it and I did play the crap out of it and beat it fairly quickly. I found the game pretty hard but like Mario World it felt like such a huge accomplishment to finish. This game kickstarted my obsession with platformers and the Donkey Kong franchise. I prefer Donkey Kong Country 2 & 3 more so I have to mention those, but the original DKC is what got me into the series. 4. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES) - 1996 My first RPG ever. Prior to this game I didn't even know what an RPG was. I only wanted it because it had Mario in the title. Plus the commercials made it look so good. Eventually my dad surprised me with this game one day and I was ecstatic. I found this game very very hard at the time (being new to RPGs I didn't quite understand the mechanics). But once again this game was one that felt like a huge accomplishment to finish. After I beat this game RPGs became my main priority. I sought out every RPG I could find - the next one I came across was by pure chance at a Blockbuster - EarthBound, my favorite game of all time. Without Super Mario RPG I might have never gotten into RPGs or found my favorite game of all time EarthBound. 5. Super Mario 64 (N64) - 1996 It's impossible to make a top ___ list about gaming and not include Super Mario 64 as this was most likely the biggest gaming influence of my lifetime. Never in my life have I been more impressed and more blown away and more obsessed with a game than I was with Super Mario 64 in 1996. A bit of backstory leading up to it - I only just got a SNES in 1995 so I really didn't get to enjoy that system til late in its life, so when I saw N64 was coming out the very next year I was outraged. I had only just got a SNES and now my current favorite system was being shoved out the door. When I first saw Super Mario 64 on a demo unit in Blockbuster I was like "why is Mario's head a square? This looks so stupid." But being curious about it, I ended up giving it a try anyway. And within seconds my hate for the N64 and 3D games turned into pure joy. I was overwhelmed with ecstasy when I played this game for the first time. My parents wouldn't buy me an N64 so I had to at least beg them to let me rent an N64 and the game, which I did get to do over Christmas break in 1996 and it was the most magical time in gaming for me. Nothing compares to that week even today. It wasn't until March 1997 I would be allowed to buy an N64 (but no games, so I was forced to rent a lot) and eventually later that year I finally got to own my own copy of Super Mario 64 - my second favorite game of all time. 6. Final Fantasy VII (PS1/PC) - 1997 After the RPG craze I felt after Super Mario RPG and EarthBound, my friend at the time approached me with talk of Final Fantasy VII. The game was about a year old at this point and I didn't own a PlayStation so I didn't really know anything about it. He invited me over to his house one day to play FF7 on his PC. I was simply blown away by everything - the graphics, the music, the gameplay, and the story. I loved the characters, the battle system, and everything about it. I knew I had to have this game ASAP. I got it on PC and got a graphics card just for this game, since I didn't play PC games before this really. I played the crap out of this game, maxing out my characters in my first playthrough, completing everythign 100%, and even playing the game over and over 3 times in a row. This game was my first Final Fantasy and is what got me into the series, but on top of that, it also inspired me to write. This was the first game I played that had a more elaborate story. I started out writing bad fanfic of this game, but later grew into writing my own stuff. I still try to write fiction today although with my busy schedule it's very hard to just sit down uninterrupted. But no matter what I write, as original as I try to be, I can still feel FF7's influence coming through. It simply had that much of an impact on me. Final Fantasy IX went on to become my favorite entry in the series but FF7 holds the most special place in my heart. 7. Pokemon Red/Blue (GB) - 1998 When I got notice of Pokemon in Nintendo Power back in 1997/1998 I became obsessed with the games before they even came out. My friends and I all planned on getting the games and trading and playing together. We raced home after school everyday to watch the Pokemon cartoon and read everything about Pokemon that we could find in our Nintendo Power magazines. At this point, it was rare for me to ever get a game on release day but we begged our parents to take us to the store and get the games. I got Red and my friend got Blue. We picked up a link cable while we were there and hung out every day and played Pokemon together. It was an amazing time. This game was the first and only game in the series that I managed to get every Pokemon in the Pokedex. This game also started me on the franchise that I still love til today. At the time it was extra special because even when I would bring my Game Boy to school to play on lunch, I would be consistently asked to trade or battle by other classmates that I probably wouldn't have talked to otherwise, so there was a weird sense of unity all throughout my school when these games released. Everyone was playing them and it was the first time I felt like I was part of something bigger that was game related. 8. Super Smash Bros. (N64) - 1999 It was a toss-up between the original Smash Bros and Super Smash Bros Melee. But the original had the bigger influence on me, whereas Melee I just played more of. Like Pokemon Red/Blue there was a weird sense of unity and belonging in my school when this game came out. Everyone I knew was obsessed with it. We even had a recreation room in our high school where I would go to on lunch and play people in this game - and I was pretty damn good at it at the time. But it was just wonderful to have a place to go and play games with other people since this was my first big multiplayer experience. Prior to this I had only played GoldenEye 007 with my one friend a bunch of times, and played Super Mario World with my elementary school friend. Super Smash Bros is still a series I love so much, Ultimate being my favorite, but Melee is the one I've played the most. 9. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Xbox/PC) - 2002 Prior to this game, I could've only dreamed of a game with a giant open world that I can explore and truly feel like I am roleplaying. For the first time I actually felt like I was the character I was playing - not some scripted character that was just there to tell a story. I got so much immense enjoyment out of exploring the world and just doing whatever I wanted all the time. I never actually completed the main story but still managed to clock in over 200 hours in this game. I just loved being the wandering adventurer and doing side quests and stuff. The total freedom is what I truly loved about this game. This game also introduced me to the open world concept that I desired so much before this game and led me on the path to enjoying other similar games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and more recently the Outer Worlds. 10. Animal Crossing (GCN) - 2002 It feels weird including this game here because it's less of a game and more of a social experience. I never got to play this game with anyone, as all my friends thought it was incredibly lame, but reading about this game in the months reading up to its release had me extremely excited. I never played anything like this except for The Sims on PC, but a game where you just talked to your neighbors and did favors for them and just lived your life how you wanted - that sounded right up my alley! I would obsessively seek out news, screenshots, videos, etc online for months until this game came out. I had the game pre-ordered already but Blockbuster got it in for rent a week or two early and I rented it anyway. I was so overjoyed by the simple fun this game brought. I continued playing this game for years, starting a new town up every few months or so. It was just a super satisfying and comforting game to spend time in. This game has been eclipsed by newer games in the series but the first entry is always the most nostalgic for me. I am still super into the series and similar games today. 11. World of Warcraft (PC) - 2004 Oh boy...this one. I don't even know where to begin with this game. Basically I've played it on and off since 2004 when it released...still play it every now and then today. It was my first big MMORPG experience and for the first time I got to play with my friends online. I never got to play D&D and always wanted to but this was the closest thing to it. I met some pretty cool people because of this game, and managed to talk to many more people I worked with that I ended up playing with in-game. Even in the years where I mostly played alone I still enjoyed my time with it. There is just something about this game, despite being super repetitious, that sucks me in every time. I have tried a dozen or so other MMOs but all have failed to capture me the way WoW did and still does. 12. Resident Evil 4 (GCN) - 2005 The remake of the original Resident Evil was my first experience with the series and the survival horror genre, and while I loved that game (and every game in the series I tried aftewards) I wouldn't say I truly loved the games til Resident Evil 4 came out. I loved the reinvention of the series and though it was the last new entry in the series that I truly loved (aside from the remake of RE2) this game alone just marks a special place in my gaming history. I still replay it every so often as it is just a super comfort game for me since I know it so well. This game wasn't the one that started me on the survival horror genre but it did make me much more of a fan of it. 13. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - 2005 This game may have been my first foray into the adventure genre - not really the Zelda-type adventure, but rather the Journey/Ico/Limbo kind of way. Sure this game had combat but it was mostly an empty open world and it was exciting to explore despite that. The thing that drew me to this game was that it was just figuring out how to beat each giant colossi. It was as much a puzzle game as it was an action/adventure one. I was so blown away by this game. I didn't want it to end. Luckily it started me on another genre I was fairly unfamiliar with, and went on to play many other greats like the aforementioned Ico, Limbo, Inside, Unravel and the Last Guardian. 14. BioShock Infinite (PS3) - 2013 I don't typically pick games up on a whim when I know nothing about them, but I was bored one weekend and just remember reading rave reviews about this game so I figured "why not?" and it turned out to be one of the best $60 I dropped on a game I knew very little about. On top of that I wasn't even into FPSs at the time. Turns out this was the best FPS I played (at this point). The story gripped me like nothing else I'd ever played. The gameplay was fast and fun . The world was immersive. The soundtrack was fantastic. But little did I know that the entire BioShock series would become one of my favorite trilogies of all time. Infinite was my first game in the series but the original and 2nd game in the series are my favorites. BioShock 2 specifically is one of my favorite games of all time. Plus Rapture turned out to be even ore beautiful and immersive than Columbia in Infinite. But This game gets the honor of being one that helped ease me more into FPSs and made me realize that even games in a genre I don't typically like can have a wonderful world to explore and super interesting story to tell. 15. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) - 2017 Finally we come to this game. As you may have noticed the amount of influential games have grown less frequent the newer the games we get. This was only the 2nd game this entire decade that had a tremendous impact on me. This being the only Zelda game on the series doesn't mean I don't love the franchise but few of the games managed to be truly inspirational. When I played this game in 2017 I was in a gaming slump, especially coming off the heels of the Wii U, a system I had little love for. On top of that, I was newly married, just bought a house, and working a lot and had little time and motivation to even play games, and was almost ready to accept that I'm just not that into games anymore - or that games just aren't what they used to be. I knew I was getting a Switch and this game from the moment they were both announced but I wasn't super excited about them. Even in the opening hours of this game I wasn't convinced this game was one I needed to play. I was ready to call it quits and just accept that gaming just wasn't a hobby I was into anymore - at least not with new games. However somewhere along the time - this game just clicked with me. It became the biggest and most expansive game I ever played. The true sense of freedom was almost unprecedented in my gaming history. Sure I've played big open world games like Skyrim and Fallout 3 and the like. But this game was on a whole nother level. On top of that I was also under the impression that Zelda was a franchise I had fallen out of love - with the DS entries being less than stellar and Skyward Sword being one of my least favorite games in the series. This game was a true breath of fresh air. Despite having dwindling free time to put towards games, I somehow managed to clock in 120 hours in a month and a half. Not only that, this game reminded me of why I loved games in the first place and gave me something to look forward to everyday after work. I have not felt that daily anticipation to get home and play a game like that in a long, long, long time. If not for this game being so amazing...I don't even know where I'd be right now. I might not have bought a PS4 on account of just falling out of love with games. I might not be looking forward to each new release anymore. Maybe I would've fallen out of gaming completely, who knows? At any rate this game was a true comeback for gaming in my eyes and that is why it remains the most recent influential game on my list. Honorable Mentions (because I easily could've made a top 30): DuckTales (NES) - 1989 Super Mario Kart (SNES) - 1992 EarthBound (SNES) - 1995 GoldenEye 007 (N64) - 1997 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - 1998 The Sims (PC) - 2000 Resident Evil (GCN) - 2002 Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GCN) - 2003 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS) - 2005 Catherine (PS3) - 2011 Dark Souls (PS3/PS4) - 2011 Hollow Knight (Switch/PS4/PC) - 2018