[General Discussion] Your most memorable moments in gaming.

One of the most memorable things in gaming for me was being able to afford my own games. I was a poor kid, so my mother bought a lot of the stuff for me.

In 1990, she bought me a Fountain Tunix which came with a bunch of games. In 1992, she bought me a Mastersystem. I remember staying up until 11 pm playing Alex the Kidd. We both played a bunch of games.

The Megadrive came along, which we rented from time to time. I loved renting Aladdin, Cool Spot and Sonic 2. They were really fun games to play. Eventually she bought my own Megadrive and I managed to get myself a handful of games. A lot of game trading occurred because I didn't have enough money to purchase my own. Games were really expensive back then.

I remember seeing a 64, PS1 and Saturn in a store. I saw the Saturn playing the original Rayman, and instantly knew I preferred 2D games over 3D. Cool Boarders was playing next to it, but I didn't like how it looked.

However, the says of owning a Saturn came and went, and I jumped from 64, to PS1, to Saturn, to 64, to Saturn, to PS1. I only stayed with the PS1 because of it's variety. The Saturn didn't do very well here. But really, what I wanted was a Dreamcast.

On December the 4th, 1999, the Dreamcast was released. I had $200 saved, which I even took to school so we could go there afterwards and purchase one immediately. They had a kiosk playing Soul Calibur. Weeks prior they had a kiosk with House of the Dead 2 which my mother and I both loved playing.

The bad thing about this was, they didn't release memory cards for the DC at the same time as launch, making it impossible to unlock anything in the two games which my mother bought for me - Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure. We ended up returning the Dreamcast when we received a letter saying Sega was going bankrupt.

Then came the PS2, which I had to pay off each week for two years. It came with MGS2, which I played through, followed by Jak & Daxter. I had a paper run and wasn't earning that much money, but enough to pay off the console and buy a game once every few months. It was nice.

This went on for awhile, until I turned 18 and got a real job. I bought a PC, which was an insane amount of freedom from using my mother's computer for such a long time (since 1999). About a year later, I got myself a credit card, and started importing games almost exclusively. I think this was the best time in my gaming history, as I could finally afford my own stuff.

I didn't like to do it, but I had my PS2 modchipped. I could finally play games without having the hassle of using a Swap Magic and such.

Then along came the limited editions, box sets, imported consoles, you name it. I think the most memorable purchase would have been the ANUBIS Zone of the Enders 2 Premium Box Limited Edition which someone was offering me (only discovered through conversation) since he was coming up to Auckland anyway. I grabbed it. There's only 1000 of these things created. I'm also very happy with my Ice Blue DS Lite, Felicia Blue PSP and Japanese 360 which I all purchased this year.

Also, my big box of stuff Enkidu sent me from Japan this year. Great fun.

But mostly, shmups have been my favourite genre of all, and 1ccing Mushihimesama in August 06 was my first real achievement. I was proud. I've improved so much since then, 1ccing Mountain of Faith and Imperishable Night both on Lunatic.

Any console or expensive purchase should be celebrated, I think.

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