I didn't have it... But I knew a guy

[Br81zad | 628]

As the years keep coming, I find that I can still remember which games in my collection have been with me since childhood. Or even if I've let some go along the way, I still remember owning them in my youth. (I think that's pretty common among everyone here)

What I've also noticed, is that I can remember games that my friends had that I didn't. Some are lifelong friends that I keep in touch with, and some I haven't spoken to since elementary school. For example, I can still remember that my first time playing Bomberman on NES was at a kid named Chris' house in 3rd grade. And that he also had Paperboy, Excitebike, and Faxanadu. I haven't seen him since 5th grade.

And it's not just one or 2 of my friends that I can remember having certain games, it's the majority. Those titles reminded me of the good times had with those friends, so I found myself gravitating towards those games when I first started collecting. I get a kick out of having friends over and them saying "Wow, I had this game." Then, rather than saying "Yeah, I know.", I just smile and say, "Let's play it."

 

So how about you all?

Do you remember the games that your friends had growing up?

And did nostalgia drive you to pick them up?

What games stood out to you?

[RH | 4,895]

I love the idea of this topic.  On my top 10 list of favorite childhood games, I'm guessing 3-4 of them I didn't own, but a friend did and we'd play them at their home, or they'd let me borrow it because swapping games was something we did and respected one another's stuff.

The following games might not be on my top 10 list, but the feelings are strong with these since they were games of my buddies that I enjoyed either borrowing or playing with them.

1. California Games - Had friends come over when I finished the 5th grade. We played this all night long.

2. Fester's Quest - A cousin of my owned this.  It was a favorite to borrow.

3. Contra - Yeah, who's 80s childhood would be complete without this game? Well, I never owned it but I remember borrowing it every chance I got.  I loved this game and I didn't own it until I won a giveaway on NA. It's always been a fun one to play though!

4. TMNT  (and Fall of the Footclan for GB) - I'll put these together as one because I LOVED both of them, but I always had to borrow them.

5. Tekken 1 & 2 - Me and my best friend in high school LOVED the Tekken series.  He had the first two, but I bought 3.  Between GoldenEye and Twisted Metal 2 sessions, we would play this.

6. Mega-Man ? - Honestly, I can't recall which one but it was probably 1, 2 or 3.  I remember playing it at some buddies house and thinking it was "a lot like DuckTales", which I had for the Game Boy.  Little did I know, it's because it was built on a Mega-Man engine. 

7. Rescue Ranger & Adventrues in the Magic Kingdom -  There was a kid in our neighborhood that lived on the block behind my grandmother's house.  In the summer, we'd go over to his house on occasion, or he'd come over to ours. The two games he had my brother and I loved playing were these.

8. Sonic 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Virtual Bart - Yup, all four of these are grouped together because when I was old enough to have my own car, I'd drive over to the other side of our town to spend the weekend at my Uncle's house.  My cousin had these 4 games and we rotated them all out quite often and LOVED them.  The three Sonic games are probably the 3 favorite games from my childhood that I didn't own.  I was a "Nintendo" kid, but even back then I'd argue that my preference was Sonic.  Mario games are fun in their own way, but the Sonic franchise mechanic is completely different and I preferred it as a kid.

[Br81zad | 628]

10 minutes ago, RH said:

I love the idea of this topic.  On my top 10 list of favorite childhood games, I'm guessing 3-4 of them I didn't own, but a friend did and we'd play them at their home, or they'd let me borrow it because swapping games was something we did and respected one another's stuff.

The following games might not be on my top 10 list, but the feelings are strong with these since they were games of my buddies that I enjoyed either borrowing or playing with them.

1. California Games - Had friends come over when I finished the 5th grade. We played this all night long.

2. Fester's Quest - A cousin of my owned this.  It was a favorite to borrow.

3. Contra - Yeah, who's 80s childhood would be complete without this game? Well, I never owned it but I remember borrowing it every chance I got.  I loved this game and I didn't own it until I won a giveaway on NA. It's always been a fun one to play though!

4. TMNT  (and Fall of the Footclan for GB) - I'll put these together as one because I LOVED both of them, but I always had to borrow them.

5. Tekken 1 & 2 - Me and my best friend in high school LOVED the Tekken series.  He had the first two, but I bought 3.  Between GoldenEye and Twisted Metal 2 sessions, we would play this.

6. Mega-Man ? - Honestly, I can't recall which one but it was probably 1, 2 or 3.  I remember playing it at some buddies house and thinking it was "a lot like DuckTales", which I had for the Game Boy.  Little did I know, it's because it was built on a Mega-Man engine. 

7. Rescue Ranger & Adventrues in the Magic Kingdom -  There was a kid in our neighborhood that lived on the block behind my grandmother's house.  In the summer, we'd go over to his house on occasion, or he'd come over to ours. The two games he had my brother and I loved playing were these.

8. Sonic 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Virtual Bart - Yup, all four of these are grouped together because when I was old enough to have my own car, I'd drive over to the other side of our town to spend the weekend at my Uncle's house.  My cousin had these 4 games and we rotated them all out quite often and LOVED them.  The three Sonic games are probably the 3 favorite games from my childhood that I didn't own.  I was a "Nintendo" kid, but even back then I'd argue that my preference was Sonic.  Mario games are fun in their own way, but the Sonic franchise mechanic is completely different and I preferred it as a kid.

Glad to see I'm not the only one, you came up with that list pretty quick. lol

Some of the games you mentioned would make my list too!

 

3. Contra - I didn't actually get to play this game until High School, and it was at a friend named Sean's house

5. Tekken 1 & 2 - My neighbor growing up had the tekken games. Played tekken 2 until we had blisters lol

8. Sonic 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles and Virtual Bart - Genesis was a complete mystery to me growing up. The only time I got to play it was at a family friend's house that we only went to at Christmas time. That's when I got to play the Sonics as well as Street Fight 2 Champion Edition. I thought it was so cool that it had more characters than my SF2 for SNES. 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

Honestly, with the exception of Mega Man 2 (and the SMB/DH pack-in), all the well known, popular games were owned by my friends and not me, lol.  I got enough money in my pocket to buy a regular priced game or two maybe once a year, so I'd save all that money and blow it on as many $10-20 NES titles when one of the local department stores (Hills, for those who are/were familiar and remember) would do its shelf-clearing after Christmas blowout sale.  I ended up with a bunch of stuff that was thought of as crap then, but gold nowadays.  (Anybody who was in the 6-10 age range and, without using a walkthrough or hint guide, thought Metal Gear was anything other than frustrating back in the day is probably lying, lol!)

[Tulpa | 3,488]

My aunt had Castlevania II, and other friends had the original. I don't think I got past the second level of Castlevania I as a kid, as I didn't have much time to play. I was the only one in our circle that had Ninja Gaiden, though.

 

 

[RH | 4,895]

3 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

My aunt had Castlevania II, and other friends had the original. I don't think I got past the second level of Castlevania I as a kid, as I didn't have much time to play. I was the only one in our circle that had Ninja Gaiden, though.

Lol, an uncle of mine had Simon's Quest.  I recall he returned the game and his reason was "there' a jump in the game and it's literally impossible to jump over it. This game is broken." I think he returned it within a week or two. That was his legit reasoning and to my surprise today, that reason actually worked!

I never got a chance to play that game and I've always been curious what he was talking about.  To him, though, it was a chasm was no wear close to being jumpable, though I'm sure it was a mis-assumption (because to many people have beaten this game since then) but I have to assume he was just missing an item or choosing the wrong path or something.

[Br81zad | 628]

21 minutes ago, RH said:

Lol, an uncle of mine had Simon's Quest.  I recall he returned the game and his reason was "there' a jump in the game and it's literally impossible to jump over it. This game is broken." I think he returned it within a week or two. That was his legit reasoning and to my surprise today, that reason actually worked!

I never got a chance to play that game and I've always been curious what he was talking about.  To him, though, it was a chasm was no wear close to being jumpable, though I'm sure it was a mis-assumption (because to many people have beaten this game since then) but I have to assume he was just missing an item or choosing the wrong path or something.

Can you imagine trying to return a game for a similar reason in this day/age? lol

[RH | 4,895]

3 minutes ago, Br81zad said:

Can you imagine trying to return a game for a similar reason in this day/age? lol

I know.  Even back then that sounds crazy.  All the associate had to say was "Well, we've sold a bunch of these, but no one else is returning these.  I think you might be wrong." But that didn't happen.  I do recall that you couldn't return electronics back then that were open unless they were "defective". So, yeah, the associate believed that was defective.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

51 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

 I ended up with a bunch of stuff that was thought of as crap then, but gold nowadays.  (Anybody who was in the 6-10 age range and, without using a walkthrough or hint guide, thought Metal Gear was anything other than frustrating back in the day is probably lying, lol!)

Best cheat code ever to  learn as a kid!   (for those not in the know, FUCK1 MEEEE EEEEE EEEEE EEEEE would drop you just outside the final boss with a pack of cigarettes and a random weapon)

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

Mind like a steel trap.  I've mentioned a lot of these in my rankings

 

Friend A - Killer Instinct, Earthbound, Super Ghouls n Ghosts, Tetris Attack, SimCity

Friend B - Total Carnage, Final Fight, Street Fighter II

Friend C - Tecmo Super Bowl, Super Off-Road, Mortal Kombat

Friend D - War of the Gems, Kirby's Dream Course, Yoshi's Island

Friend E - Bubsy, DKC 2, Stunt Race FX

Friend F - UN Squadron, F-Zero

Friend G - Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III

Friend H - Bulls vs Blazers

I think I'll touch upon every one of those backstories as I get to them

[Br81zad | 628]

49 minutes ago, darkchylde28 said:

Honestly, with the exception of Mega Man 2 (and the SMB/DH pack-in), all the well known, popular games were owned by my friends and not me, lol.  I got enough money in my pocket to buy a regular priced game or two maybe once a year, so I'd save all that money and blow it on as many $10-20 NES titles when one of the local department stores (Hills, for those who are/were familiar and remember) would do its shelf-clearing after Christmas blowout sale.  I ended up with a bunch of stuff that was thought of as crap then, but gold nowadays.  (Anybody who was in the 6-10 age range and, without using a walkthrough or hint guide, thought Metal Gear was anything other than frustrating back in the day is probably lying, lol!)

I quit playing it almost immediately as a kid. Those damn dogs. lol

It's one that I wish I had found in my teens so that I'd have the proper mentality to take on, as well as the spare time to sink into it. After playing Metal Gear Solid on PS1, it kinda ruined me for the NES MG games. 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

5 minutes ago, Br81zad said:

I quit playing it almost immediately as a kid. Those damn dogs. lol

It's one that I wish I had found in my teens so that I'd have the proper mentality to take on, as well as the spare time to sink into it. After playing Metal Gear Solid on PS1, it kinda ruined me for the NES MG games. 

I didn't like it much as a kid.  Hated it initially when playing at a friend's house who rented it, as we couldn't figure much of anything out.  Ended up buying it for $10-15 during the deep discount sale I described above and discovered that when you buy it new, it includes a map alongside the manual that is essentially a walkthrough.  Locations on the map for every piece of gear are labelled as well as what doors require keycards and which keys.  So, if you study the map carefully, you can easily figure out where you need to go at any given point to pick up your next keycard, vital piece of gear (gas mask to get through the gas room, etc.).  I had a bit of fun running straight through the game that way, but was ultimately disappointed with the ending and put it up until a friend borrowed it (then moved away without returning it--never seen a copy in the wild with the map ever again).

[Strange | 1,700]

A few of my friends had Kirby 64 and I adored that game as a child (still do). I eventually wound up with my own copy.

As much as I don’t care for the N64 library, I find myself super nostalgic for it and drawn to start collecting for it more and more. Ugh.

[MiamiSlice | 3,089]

I never had Super Mario Bros. 3, but I knew some kids that did, and when I would visit their house this is what we would play. I didn't have my own copy until Super Mario All Stars for SNES. 

I never had Play Action Football, but my dad did. He picked up a Nintendo and started buying games for it after the SNES was already out. I would go to his house sometimes on weekends, and this is the game that we played the most.

So yes, when I started collecting NES games again a few years back, these were 2 of the games I had to get. 

I didn't meet my wife until high school, but she has all these stories about games she played with her sister when they were growing up. They had a SEGA Genesis and not many games, but one that she remembers fondly was Tiny Toons: Buster's Hidden Treasure. I picked up a copy of it in great condition earlier this year and was excited to show it to her. 

Edited November 25, 2019 by MiamiSlice

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

Well, a few of my friends had Nintendos while I was still in 7800 land.

Even after I bought my own NES, I tried to get games they didn't already have.   I snagged MTPO used from a school chum for $15, and Tag Team Wrestling for $10 (which he tried to talk me out of because it really sucked, and boy was he right).   Then I snagged Super C and Mega Man 3 when they came out, and Tetris and Mario 3 at some point.

Neighbor A had Mario 2, borrowed MTPO from somebody at some point, Excitebike, and Contra. 

Neighbor B had Tecmo Bowl and Mega Man.   He also had Zelda but he never really played that when we were around.

School Friend had  Mega Man 2 and Tecmo Baseball.

I'm sure they also had other games, but those are the ones I recall playing the most with them.

[Br81zad | 628]

6 minutes ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Well, a few of my friends had Nintendos while I was still in 7800 land.

Even after I bought my own NES, I tried to get games they didn't already have.   I snagged MTPO used from a school chum for $15, and Tag Team Wrestling for $10 (which he tried to talk me out of because it really sucked, and boy was he right).   Then I snagged Super C and Mega Man 3 when they came out, and Tetris and Mario 3 at some point.

Man, I wish I'd have listened to my neighbor and bought Mortal Kombat instead of Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings. lol

Curiosity got me on that one. I was in a pawn shop, it was cheap, and I decided to gamble on the unknown. 

[B.A. | 1,139]

I had a buddy who's divorced parents liked to compete for his affections by buying him stuff, so he had an awesome NES collection.  The one game in particular that stands out is he actually owned Donkey Kong Jr Math.  The cool thing was he kept all the boxes and manuals and around the year 2000 or so he gave them all to me because he wasn't interested anymore.  

So the funny part is the only game that wasn't CIB was DK Jr Math.  That is because him, another buddy and I put the box up on a dart board when we were kids one day because the game sucked so much!    

[Br81zad | 628]

1 hour ago, B.A. said:

I had a buddy who's divorced parents liked to compete for his affections by buying him stuff, so he had an awesome NES collection.  The one game in particular that stands out is he actually owned Donkey Kong Jr Math.  The cool thing was he kept all the boxes and manuals and around the year 2000 or so he gave them all to me because he wasn't interested anymore.  

So the funny part is the only game that wasn't CIB was DK Jr Math.  That is because him, another buddy and I put the box up on a dart board when we were kids one day because the game sucked so much!    

That'll teach ya some respect. lol

[DefaultGen | 5,399]

I grew up without all the main things I collect, especially NES, which I only ever played at friend's houses. My parents took my Game Boy out of my hands and traded it in for a Game Gear because they thought it was better. Only a couple rich kids I knew had Sega CDs and Saturns. Basically all the main stuff I collect is from childhood envy more than personal nostalgia.

[MovieTom | 39]

My family, we had a Sega Master System then in '90, my brother traded it into Funcoland for a Genesis. So when I would go over to my cousin's house I'd play Nintendo and Super Nintendo there. I remember playing Mario Kart and Starfox pretty vividly. He was pretty spoiled so he also had Virtua Racing when that came out (it was like $100 when it was released) and that blew my mind. No way I could convince my parents to get me that. LOL. In kindergarten and 1st grade, I went to this baby sitter that had a Nintendo. They had Blaster Master, Legend of Zelda, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and they might have had more but those are the 3 that are stuck in my mind. 

[Strange | 1,700]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

My parents took my Game Boy out of my hands and traded it in for a Game Gear because they thought it was better.

Blasphemy. Heresy. Other scary words.

[KrystalsOfZongWater | 5]

When I was ten I knew a guy with a neo geo, and looking back now, I'm pretty sure his moms bf was dealing coke. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by KrystalsOfZongWater

[Jfreakofkorn | 282]

Mine was mainly on genesis growing up w mostly friends having the system ( rare and far between w ithe the nes n snes but lost it all to the hurricane in 05 ). Flashback and crazy taxi left a mark. But nes, w gun nac n super mario bros is something i just cant not explain ( is the reason i am very unsuccessful in obtaining gun nac ) =////////

[Bronty | 187]

On 11/25/2019 at 10:57 AM, Br81zad said:

As the years keep coming, I find that I can still remember which games in my collection have been with me since childhood. Or even if I've let some go along the way, I still remember owning them in my youth. (I think that's pretty common among everyone here)

What I've also noticed, is that I can remember games that my friends had that I didn't. Some are lifelong friends that I keep in touch with, and some I haven't spoken to since elementary school. For example, I can still remember that my first time playing Bomberman on NES was at a kid named Chris' house in 3rd grade. And that he also had Paperboy, Excitebike, and Faxanadu. I haven't seen him since 5th grade.

And it's not just one or 2 of my friends that I can remember having certain games, it's the majority. Those titles reminded me of the good times had with those friends, so I found myself gravitating towards those games when I first started collecting. I get a kick out of having friends over and them saying "Wow, I had this game." Then, rather than saying "Yeah, I know.", I just smile and say, "Let's play it."

 

So how about you all?

Do you remember the games that your friends had growing up?

And did nostalgia drive you to pick them up?

What games stood out to you?

Yeah absolutely.   I didn’t own a NES growing up.   I had a friend of Japanese decent that owned a famicom and so I played gradius on a famicom before I even knew what a NES was and it totally blew me away.    It’s all I wanted to play at his house.   
 

Another friend had a NES a little later, and he owned Tyson, excitebike, castlevania, Zelda And probably some others.    
 

as a result those were some of the first titles I chased down and yes they very much remind me of that time.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Bronty

[Br81zad | 628]

2 hours ago, Bronty said:

Yeah absolutely.   I didn’t own a NES growing up.   I had a friend of Japanese decent that owned a famicom and so I played gradius on a famicom before I even knew what a NES was and it totally blew me away.    It’s all I wanted to play at his house.   
 

Another friend had a NES a little later, and he owned Tyson, excitebike, castlevania, Zelda And probably some others.    
 

as a result those were some of the first titles I chased down and yes they very much remind me of that time.

Hell yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. 

Funny how they stick in your mind like that.