I've been playing Super Mario World like a madman the last few days. What are some of your fondest memories of console or arcade games from, say, pre-1995? My first arcade game I can remember was Pac-Man, or maybe Space Invaders. Home game was something called an "oddysey 2", which had Pong and such. It wasn't mine, and was already pretty old when I saw it.

ZAXXON

I tried to play it a couple years ago when I went to DisneyQuest and I lost my touch. I completely suck at it now. (Previously I only mostly sucked at it.)

"Adventure" for the Atari 2600. Where the dragon in the game looks like a big giant duck chasing you all over the screen.

Pac Man was classic. I was also a big fan of Q-bert and Centipede.

In High school our comic store had some video games...i remember playing Double dragon like a madman..it was fun getting to the end where you had to fight your partner.

You can find some versions of Q-bert here:

http://www.sonypictures.com/games/qbert ... php?hs308=

http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=qbert

http://www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/arcade.htm

I probably dropped more quarters into Bosconian, mostly because I was better at it than other games and my 25 cents went farther.

I now have it on one of those tv plug-n-play thingies as well as on my Mac (via MAME)

TETRIS & DR. Mario!!!!

I was playing them the other day. I totally kick butt!

Oh jeez, far too many to name. Pre-1995? I still go back and play a LOT of that stuff. More than ever these days, in fact, since I no longer have the time/patience for four-hour game sessions.

Space Invaders still rocks, as does Breakout and Pong. Simple, elegant and addictive. There is a lot to be said for those early classics. They stand the test of time for good reason.

I've replayed Phantasy Star from the Master System within the last few years; an all-time favorite, that game is. Most of the other games from that system don't hold up, but a few do.

Sonic The Hedgehog STILL rocks my socks, and I still love hacking and slashing through Golden Axe.

Speaking of, GAUNTLET baby! I've wanted an original Gauntlet arcade machine forever, but they're expensive. Love, love, love this game to this very day.

Super Mario Bros., of course, almost never gets old. Same with Wonder Boy in Monster Land, which is surprisingly awesome and WAY overlooked.

I plan to play the original Zelda very soon.

Oh yeah, Tetris! How could I forget that? I've played that game on a sem-regular basis probably longer than any game ever. It's the perfect video game.

Two words:

"RUN, COWARD!"

Ah, Bosconian... I know it always said "Fight the spy ship," but the cheesy synthesized voice sounded to my friends and I like it said "Fight the spider."

So we used that often as a rallying cry.

Loved Sinistar, too.

But my Gorfian robots will gonguer anoather guh-laxy, Space Gadet. Ga ga ga ga.

PGA Tour 2 on the Sega Megadrive. The music and gameplay kicked ASS and the skins games (played with at least 3 friends) were totally unpredictable, brutal tension.

Hit the fucking line!

I still love Galaga. I have a working Contra Arcade game in my basement.

Oh god...............
Berserk
Zaxxon
Galaga
Cliff Hanger
Battle Zone
Journey:Escape
Adventure (for the Atari)
There was a sit down Star Trek vector graphic game where you fought Klingons, docked with starbases, navigated asteroid fields etc that was a blast!
Tron
Food Fight
Tapper
Space Castle
Sinestar

Man...........I used to spend HOURS in the arcades when I was younger.

Battle Zone was great! Especially after one of the more experienced players taught me a few tricks. I could play for an hour or so on one quarter.

PAC-MAN

I was really really really good at "Breakout" on Atari.

Hmm....the original Star Wars game kicked ass - especially if you found one of the sit-down versions of it. 'Immersive Reality' back in pre-Vectrex days.

Spyhunter. First of the top-down driving games I've ever played (I love that style, if only because it looks like you are playing a video game version of Car Wars), and one of the all-time best. And, of course, there was a cheat corridor on the right hand side of the screen to hide in if the bad guys got too tough.

Battlezone. Again with the vector graphics. Fucking awesome!! And, like Star Wars, much better in the arcade (although I gotta say that the Atari port of both was pretty good, all things considered).

Asteroids.

Missile Command!!

Pro Wrestling for the original Nintendo! If only to play that swamp-monster guy so you could whack your opponent with a dinosaur bone.

How could I forget Star Wars, and Spy Hunter?!?!?

I dunno...too much Scarface lately?

Lots of memories playing 1970s raster and vector coin-op games like Sea Wolf, Gun Fight, Tank, and Lunar Lander. I remember when Space Invaders first came out and how you had to wait in line to play the game. The same thing occurred with later releases of hit games like Asteroids and Pac-Man.

Some of my favorite games:

Robotron 2084

Tempest

Discs of Tron

Wizard of Wor (the cocktail machine)

Atari Football (uses a trak ball and has the x's and o's as players)

Ladybug

Kangaroo

Moon Quasar/Moon Cresta

Moon Patrol

Pengo

Gyruss

Crystal Castles

Dragon's Lair

Space Ace

Star Wars (the "sit-down" machine with the vector graphics)

Rastan

Track and Field

Tron- when I was in High School, I worked in a bike shop, and he had a pinball machine and a couple of video games. Mostly to amuse ourselves when things were slow. Tron was my favorite of those.

I also loved Xevious and, of course, Super Mario Bros.