Ghosts of Gaming Past

Last night, something weird happened. I was doing the dishes and listening to music on my iPhone when, instead of just going along with whatever ‘shuffle’ served up, I started scanning through the albums stored within its sleek curves. In amongst a few ace game soundtracks (including Bully, Street Fighter IV and Mr Driller: Drill Land) I spotted the Beatles compilation album ‘1’.

Thinking how long it had been since I’d listened to it, I tapped at my phone’s screen and as the opening bars of ‘Love Me Do’ flooded into my ears I was instantly transported back to several of the many, many times I’ve listened to the album over the last 12 years, and felt quite overwhelmed at the amount of happy memories that hit me in that moment. It felt quite like the superb moment in Ratatouille where an unassuming forkful of food has a similar effect on snooty food critic extraordinaire Anton Ego…

For some reason, listening to this album made me think about other things that had a similar effect on me, and suddenly I was reminiscing about an untold number of gaming moments that have stayed with me to this day.

Moments like figuring out the route through the Lost Woods in Zelda: A Link to the Past, frustrated that the map in the guide magazine was completely wrong and finally claiming the Master Sword as my own.

Playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time with my good friend Dan Lloyd, and by an absolute fluke positioning our Ninja Turtles in the exact position to kick the ass of Slash (a particularly tricky boss), trapping him in such a way that he couldn’t get a single hit on us.

Years later and I’m playing Final Fantasy VII, having scraped together every last penny I could get my hands on to buy it and an original PlayStation in the January sales. Again I’m at Dan Lloyd’s house, and while he battles his way through Diablo on his PC, I’m battling my way through the slums of Midgar, calling Dan whenever any cutscenes pop up. Later I finally square off against Sephiroth and can’t believe the guy has his own theme tune.

Some time later and Ridge Racer has me glued to my TV screen. Sat in my bedroom, dazzled by the sense of speed, perfecting power slides and, through a combination of blind luck and perseverance, winning against the bastard-hard Devil and Angel cars.

Biding my time in Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, waiting for the perfect moment to leap from the shadows and strike down the enemy just around the corner, then making a speedy getaway thanks to a grappling hook and a good aim.

Then I’m playing Resident Evil 2, having survived the chaos on the streets of Racoon City, and successfully battling through the police station, now racing through Umbrella’s secret lab as the self-destruct countdown begins, completing the game over and over and over until I can comfortably beat the game with an S-Rank.

A few years later and I’m playing Onimusha on my PlayStation 2, my first games console bought entirely with money I’d earned myself and loving its fusion of Resident Evil mechanics with a feudal Japan setting.

First year of uni and everyone’s playing Soul Calibur II, arranging tournaments among our circle of friends, resulting in some epic grudge matches.

It’s the summer between my first and second years of uni and I’m playing Ubisoft’s underrated cel-shaded FPS XIII, my first real FPS experience other than dabbling with Doom and being baffled by Quake. I get really good at it, something I’ll never be able to claim regarding a FPS ever again.

A few months later and I’m in my halls of residence playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The phone rings, and I end up having my first conversation with Vitty who, seven years later, I’m still with now.

Final year of uni and my flatmate manages to get his hands on a projector, transforming Shadow of the Colossus into an even more epic adventure. With each level played over the course of a week, more and more friends who lived nearby came by to see what the fuss was about until by the time the final colossi had been reached our living room was literally full of people eager to see how the game would end.

Madrid, Spain. Working my first job in the games industry as a tester for EA, mainly testing the multiplayer parts of games not due for release for months, I fire up Burnout Paradise, my first experience with the Burnout franchise and suddenly find the first game that, for me, feels truly next-gen.

Years later and I finally have my own Xbox 360, finding myself waking up at 6am most mornings to squeeze in a couple hours of Fallout 3 before I have to get to work.

All of these moments, and so many more, are treasured. Where perhaps non-gamers see hours wasted, I see countless adventures I’ve felt part of, experiences that have genuinely excited me, moments of mastery and a shared history with so many other gamers, whether they have experienced the same games I have or have their own tales to tell.

I’m proud to be a gamer. I just needed a nostalgic nudge to remind me why. But what about you? What gaming highlights from years gone by stick out in your memory? Let us know via the comments section below.