Game buying stories:

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>1993
>go to toys r us
>going to buy my first game ever with my own money
>nervous that I will fuck it up
>pick pic related by cover alone

Best decision by cover I've ever made. Still have my original copy CiB.

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>Was 10 years old
>Actually a pokefag (I'm ashamed today)
>Saw a 4in1 Pokemon game for Famicom
>Be idiot kid that didn't know anything and thought it was legit
>Swapped Super Mario Bros 3. + $70 for the cartdridge
>I wanted it so badly I stole money to make the exchange
>Obviously it was 4 unlicensed platformer Pokemon games, broken as fuck

I guess I deserved it

There was actually a "bug" in the Pikachu game where you would pause the game and become invincible and go through walls

>>3767010
Your dad is a true hero.

Metal Warriors was one of my favorites for Super Nintendo. I used to play it for hours with my cousin.

>already own a SNES
>friend convinces me to get a Genesis
>ask my grandma for a Sega Genesis
>We go to the store
>get the genesis
>on the way out there was an electric stair and my cousin didn't hop in and she started crying while we were going down, a man took her down with us, my grandma got really nervous
>we go to the theatre to see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_fUBFS4WA
>I watched the entire thing while checking my Genesis box on the bag
>we get home and my grandma, who's never played a video game in her life, got past the first stage by just pressing right and occasionally jump when I told her

>germany, 2000
>facing deportation to bosnia, family applied for green card to the US and received flight tickets for february 2001
>germany passes law in january 2001 to the effect that we can stay
>parents buy me final fantasy IX for a whopping 140 DM the day before our flight was supposed to be
>fire up FF9 for the first time the next day and listen to the menu music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW3QK6CTg2g for at least half an hour during the time we were supposed to lift off

i don't think i've ever been happier, nor will be happier, in my life. FF9 isn't perfect, but it will always have a special place in my heart.

>2000
>dad takes me to GameStop, maybe it was still Babagge's then
>says I can get one game for Game Boy or GBC
>looking in the glass case of used games, not sure what I want since I already have Pokemon and SMBDX
>Dad starts suggesting games like Kirby or some puzzle games
>guy behind the counter is asking what games I've played before
>literally 5 so I've played Mario 64, Mario DX, Pokemon, and Kirby 64
>clerk asks about Legend of Zelda
>dad asks him if it'd be too hard for a kid my age
>but then he remembers I beat Pokemon by myself
>clerk even let my dad check out the games on our GBC since I had it on me
>they of course have all 4 GB Zelda's
>dad asks about the differences between them and decides Oracle of Seasons sounds most interesting
>clerk mentions that it would probably be more straightforward than LA and that he heard it was better than OoA
>even though it was much more expensive than LADX being newer my dad asks if I want that one
>the colorful graphics and music and the clerks description got me super hype so I say yeah
>me and my dad get home and we sit playing it together for hours while eating Doritos and watching the Marx Brothers

>2002
>in Circuit City, playing the Super Mario Sunshine demo since I don't have a GameCube yet
>mom says I can get an N64 game since they were all cheap at this point besides Majora's Mask
>says to get something my sister will like too, maybe a two player game
>I'm looking at Mario Party 3 but my mom is looking at some sports games
>suggests Mario Kart and Golf but I have both already
>she asks if I've ever played Tony Hawk
>say yes that I don't like it much
>but then she shows me 1080 and I'm autistic and see the snow and decide it looks amazing
>go home and mom is watching me play
>game is harder than it looks
>my mom reads the manual and says she wants to try
>mfw she does a bunch of tricks fairly easily and then does a 580 air the first time through the course

>1999
>be 7 years old
>have a SNES and a ton of games, favorite of which at the time was Mega Man X1
>mom lets us rent games from Hasting (SNES games) but that was the day they decided to sell off their SNES stock in favor of N64 and PS1 games
>clearance rack of SNES games complete in box
>See "Mega Man VII"
>Think to myself, oh, the one I have must be Mega Man 10! I should get this!
>pay 10 bucks in birthday money for it
>still have it to this day

>want Star Wars Shadows of the Empire for N64
>it's sold out everywhere
>mom orders it via phone from Sears, or maybe JC Penny, one of those
>wait another agonizing week
>my neighbor friend has it and is playing it all this time, I'm going crazy now
>it shows up and is available at the stores will call
>huge snow storm hits Albuquerque
>my father reluctantly drives he and I down to the mall
>get the game
>will always remember holding it in my hands, the shine on the shrinkwrap, as we drove home through a winter nightmareland
>first stage is Hoth

starwars

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>>3767024

Good taste from the gate.

>late 80s
>at kiddie city
>game showcased behind a glass case taller than me
>box art looks awesome
>River City Ransom
>first game I ever picked out

>be around 9 years old
>have snes mini
>video cable broke
>go to game store and tell them what i needed
>they hand me a original snes rf/component video cable
>i tell them that wont work
>he shows me it connecting to an original snes
>fine.jpg my parents pay and we leave
>get home and it doesn't work just like i thought
FUCKING HELL

>>3767025
Ha I'm pretty sure I know which Pikachu game you're talking about. You pause the game but can still move right to the end without having to actually play the level? My buddy has a Wii for emulation and has every NES/Famicom game legit or otherwise.

>I'm like 5 in 1997 I guess
>Go to rich family friend's, he just got n64, same age as my older brother
>We still had Sega Genesis, mind fucking blown by Mario kart and Mario 64
>Family friend's mom gives us a big brown paper bag filled with family friend's Sega games (like 20+ games)
>He doesn't care because he's a normal lax bro, just cares about new shiny (but a good dude)
>mfw playing Shadow Run, Sonic 1, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles (we only had Sonic 2), NHL 95, Pugsy, Vector man, Subterraria, the Power Rangers Fighting game

Three stages of buying games

>childhood
>going with my grandparents to blockbuster to rent games
>had a maximum of one game and one movie to rent per trip
>would spend over a hour anagonizing over which game I wanted
>riding home with the game hoping it's not a stinker
>always got a pack of giant chewy sweetarts while we were there

>teenage years
>going with my dad to best buy and eb games
>did research before hand on what games I thought were worth it
>we would aisle browse for a while before picking a couple up
>stop by for milkshakes on the way home

>now
>buy game off gog or steam
>buy pack of 36 giant chewy sweetarts off amazon
>text dad and ask if he's played anything recently
>just the usual xbox one titles

The process of buying games really got anti-fun as I got older

>>3767010
That game had fun multiplayer

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>raised in a home where video games were generally frowned upon. They rot your brain, mentality.
>got away with a few computer games, mainly because it was on something that could be used for something other than gaming. so consoles were a complete waste of money to my parents
>always jealous of kids who's parents bought them video games and consoles.
>around '97, I have a small part-time job and some income of my own. I have some extra money and buy an old thick gameboy from a pawnshop. has a few games and accessories. Parents dont know about it for a long time because afraid to show them. Once my dad finds out he doesnt seem to mind too much because he knows I bought it with my own money, and I can make purchasing decisions. But they would never buy games for me, so I have to get it all on my own
>eventually I was able to trade the old gameboy and some games in for store cred + more money I made for a GBC about in about '99
>best purchase ever
>eventually get Warlocked. Looks interesting because I love warcraft and starcraft.
>best purchase ever
>Beat it, but want another game and not enough money. Perfect Dark looked pretty cool.
>traded warlocked for credit and bought Perfect Dark.
>worst purchase ever. Learned my lesson, never get rid of games you liked for a shot for another game
>some time later get Magi-Nation, because I was big in to the CCG
>awesome purchase
>still have magi-nation, and perfect dark (for some reason) and some other old gameboy carts I accumulated over time, because those were always cheaper than the GBC ones
>always regret getting rid of warlocked

cont.

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>>3767545

Fast forward, and the first console I got that really was my own was an xbox 360. GBC remained long forgotten, but still in my possession packed away in a box.
Now I catch up on ALL that gaming I missed in my youth through emulation, and I really don't mind. I built a raspberry pi emulation console and my wife and kids and I are loving the hell out of it. So much I missed! I'm really not faulting my parents though. They were fed information most parents of the day were fed.
>about a month ago, break out the GBC and can't stand playing on it because no backlight.
Never remember that being a problem, lol.

>>3767149
I got 1080 when I got an N64. I eventually traded it to my local second hand shop for Banjo Kazooie.

>>3767545
Warlocked rules, forgot about that one.

Also really liked Perfect Dark for GBC though.

Don't worry about people shitting on emulation or pi's around here. 4chan users are really insecure and will find ridiculous ways to try and make themselves feel superior.

>see commercials for Spyro when I was younger
>oh my god I want this game
>family was pretty poor when I was younger so we usually rented games, was used to not having them as long as I'd like (remember playing a rented Tomba. I'd kill to have one of my own, it's like $60 now)
>dad brings home Spyro one day
>he actually bought it and I absolutely cannot understand the concept of not having to take a game back to the store due to being so used to rentals
>proceed to have my mid-childhood defined

>>3768417
Man, if you lived in south america you could have owned every (bootleg) PS1 game you wanted, probably for the same price as a regular rental or even less.

>>3768393
Yeah I know. I just like to rub it in that I'm enjoying the same games without giving into stupid eBay price gouging.

But yeah I got warlocked on my little pi-station, that's on my queue of games to play

>the day was 9/11, the REAL 9/11
>I lived on the east coast and we get let out of school early
>go to KB toys on the way home
>I pick up Spider-man 2 for GBC
>Destruction on tv in the background as I defend NY as Spidey

>>3768493
never forget

>>3767025
Why are you ashamed that you were a pokefag? I don't see the issue

>Be 10 years old in early 1992.
>Just got a Sega Genesis for Christmas
>fucking love it, Sonic is awesome, loving all the arcade ports
>still a huge Nintendo fan
>Snes had just come out in the US before I got my Genesis
>Try the new Super Mario World at a local game shop, its amazing. Want to play that and the new upcoming Zelda
>fastforward to June 1992, my 11 birthday is coming up
>Even though I want a Snes I don't dare ask for one because I know how much the Genesis cost and I just got a new console the previous Christmas.
>Bday comes, get some money from parents and relatives, close to $100 total, cool still not enough maybe I'll get some Genesis games.
>Grandpa visits later in the day of my bday, gives me $50 and 3 lottery scratch off tickets (scratch off tickets had recently been legalized in TX and were still new and pretty popular to us)
>Scratch first ticket, I won $5, cool!
>Scratch second ticket, $200!!!! (that's a lot when you're 11). My Grandpa was so surprised.
>Use the money to buy a Snes.
>Use the remainder later that summer to get Link to the Past right after release and a Super Scope 6.
>Spend the rest of the summer marathoning Snes games while parents were at work, best summer ever.
Thanks Grandpa, you were awesome, I miss you.

went to toys r us to buy sonic and knuckles and they had to get it out of the big cage

i don't "greentext" because i'm not underage

>>3768615
>i don't "greentext" because i'm not underage
Whatever you need to tell yourself, kid.

>>3768631
How is greentext not the most childish thing ever? "Hurr I write in special text, because it's epic!" It's like that kid that wrote in different colored gel pens in elementary school. Learn to type a coherent thought like an adult.

>>3768638
>getting this mad when someone calls him a kid
>getting this mad about greentext
Wow, you sure showed us. Now we must all dip our heads in shame over the definitive showing of maturity.

>>3768638
Look man, you don't want to greentext, then don't greentext. You don't need to make a statement about it like you're trying to come off as some paragon of adulthood. Nobody said your lame little story needed to be in greentext. I don't see why you felt the need to fight it, like you have an insecurity about it or something.

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>>3767025
> + $70 for the cartdridge

>>3768653
I just don't see a reason for people to always use it. It just encourages bad grammar and writing like a 4 year old. There is no reason to use it other than "it's green LOL XD"

>>3768692
So where was the grammar and writing like an adult here >>3768615

Let me help you:
"I Went to toys-r-us to buy Sonic and Knuckles. They had to get it out of the big cage."

Oh shit, I'm not supposed to know this, because I like to green text. This means I am an underaged kid with poor grammar!

>>3768697
That's nowhere near as bad as:
>be me
>go to store
>write like baby

Those are just sentence fragments and you have to be lazy or retarded to type like that. Give me one good reason to use greentext other than "it's green and therefore, epic."

>>3768692
>>3768701
Nice justification. Regardless, the point we are trying to make is you are just succeeding in coming off as pretentious.

>>3768701
>it's green and therefore, epic."
oh come off it. no stories here are 'lel epic', it's merely a way of telling a story that's part of the 4chan's culture, theres nothing wrong with it. other anon has it right, youre not guiding anyone, just being a pretentious douche

>very long time ago
>poor family due to bad money management
>father doctor,mother nurse,grandfather furniture factory department manager
>cousins always come for the summer take every penny from the grandfather I dont get anything
>one time grandparents go to trip around the country (someone else paid for this)
>find 4 leaf clover in my back yard and wish for nintendo
>get Super Design Ending-Man BS-500 AS
>first night setting it up
>father steps on the light gun and brakes the plastic cover
>put the multicart
>play some super mario brothers
>play duck hunt
>play wild gunman

I dont have any good memories relating to my parents relating to video game or anything else since they are very strange people and never really showed love to me or my brother and sister.
I dont know how many times I got my ass kicked by my father for literally doing nothing,he always talks about how he always wanted big family while being the most selfish person one could imagine.

>>3768712
"Board culture" is cancer. Can you tell me what advantage it has over typing like an adult?

>>3768817
Greentexting is to abridge a story to fit it in a single post with a focus on getting the point across above everything else.

This may come as a shock to you but unless it's a really fucking good story nobody is going to read multiple walls of text on a Taiwanese Glove Puppet Show board

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>teenagehood
>take the bus to town to check the video game shop
>in the used PC games section something catches my eye
>"FPS by the creator of Doom and Quake!"
>Holy shit ! How comes I never heard of this ?!
>Back home, try the game for 1h
>Go back to the store, sell the game back to the same guy I bought it from just a few hours earlier
>in the same day the game left the used PC games section only to come back to it
>lost a few bucks in the process + bus fares

Pic related

>>3768823
It wouldn't be that long if you just typed it out and it's much smoother to read than a mess of sentence fragments. Maybe you need to take a writing course?

>>3768872
>>3768817
It get to just the important bits without a lot of long winded storytelling that's probably just going to be bad anyways. Preference for greentext stories came right out of people filling posts with babble they thought would be interesting to others but never was.

>basically if your story isn't interesting enough to hold up in a greentext
>no one gives a shit or wants to hear it
>no one gives a shit about your syntax fetish

>>3768781
>poor family due to bad money management
>father doctor,mother nurse,grandfather furniture factory department manager
just how bad were you guys at money management

>>3769072
Greentext originated on cancer boards like /b/ and /v/.

>>3769101
>>3768781
That is pretty hilarious.

>>3769129
If you think /b/ and /v/ are cancer you really don't belong on this site. I'm not going to tell you to leave, but you've picked an odd way to spend your time if the board culture of the board you come to gets your panties in a twist like this.

>>3768701
Grammar is not real. Words are all just made up by people and their definitions are created by their usage. Complaining about people's grammar on Taiwanese Wood Working Image Board proves you can't see the forest from the trees.

>>3769139
Those are the underage normalfag boards.

>>3769139
You need to go back

This is going to sound super stupid but it happened word for word.
>2005, have one free period from school
>cross the street to buy a Magic the Gathering deck from a store
>store is closed, keep the money, decide to go talk shit with the vidya store owner at the close-by gallery
>peek at the PS1 section, a sealed Final Fantasy Origins European Version for 10 euros
>Buy that shit on the spot but only play through it on easy

Funnily enough the EXACT SAME THING happened three weeks later but with Metal Gear Solid 1 instead. Favorite PS1 game for me.

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Keep the greentexts coming, that one faggot can continue to sperg about it.
>>3767545 >>3767547 here.

>some time in my teens
>go to a library book sale
>find the official front mission 3 strategy guide
>contents blow me away because i fucking love mecha. the setting seemed interesting from what little i could glean from it
>always wanted a playstation because the games look great, but for various reasons already listed, never got it
>at about 20 or so, I am in the philippines and find someone selling pirated games, still have ameribucks so everything dirt cheap. I buy about 20 or so PSX games. this is not an uncommon find in a 3rd world country
>get to a local's house that I know who owns a playstation. I think he said he altered it so it plays pirated games? Still not familiar if the playstation had a lockout chip or something.
>after testing, about 10 out of the 20 games actually work. still not disappointed because it was so cheap
>get home. A couple years and I am really not savvy with tech at the time so I could never find a ps1 cheap in stores and was too terrified of online shopping like ebay
>a long time later, this is after I owned the xbox 360, I finally learn of this miracle thing called 'emulation'
>I install one on my computer that allows me to play the psx games from my disk drive. About 6 of the 10 remaining ones work, for some reason.
>front mission 3 is one of them
>one of the most religious gaming experiences of my life. Played through the whole thing, beat it, and enshrined it
I know that may be sad to some that that stuck out in my mind so much, but you need to understand how tech starved I was as a kid living in middle-of-nowhere Idaho. I have since caught up, particularly through education and career choices.

>>3769263
>>3769293
4chan is 4chan.

>>3767010
Did anyone get the ps1 pack with Crash 3, Wipeout 3 and Ridge racer 4 as a kid?

>>3769349
Played FF8 and 9, asked for 7 on Christmas.

Dad couldn't find it, he got me ps1 FF6 instead.

I'm really grateful, 6 was a blast even if I had to play it with an English dictionary beside me (Spanish is my first language and I was like 12).

>>3767063
You have to go back

>>3769101
My parents and grandparents live in a two story house and they were basically pooling everyone's money when my parents got married.
Now my grandmother gave them this idea and it was all a smoke screen to leech money to her other two children.
She basically leaked all money for years and when she was confronted about this the excuse was "but muh kids".
This practice was stopped but not before it was too late and 90% of all savings were gone.
So we lived like gypsies for years to come.

>2001 I think, cant be sure, be like 9 or 10
>wanted a gameboy for years, friend had one as well as consoles
>parents are super anti-console, think itll make me stay inside and never leave the house
>not allowed to go outside by myself anyway (parent logic)
>mom decides to get me a gbc for christmas, (gba was current) after asking alot
>get a gbc with my pokemon crystal, and aliens: thantos encounter
>cant figure out pokemon, sucked at games when i was little
>cool older brother shows me how to play. He only played old pc games for the most part.
>love pokemon and play all the time, aliens is a meh top-down shooter
>lose interest over time, really craving a console experience but parents still resisting well into my teens
>at like 14/15, parents get me a wii as my first console
>...better than nothing, play the first party wii games alot but little else.
>still against me having a "real" console like ps2/3 or xbox for some unexplainable reason
>finally get a ps2 with my own dollara in like 2012, but the conventry and magic is gone from my eyes.
>now in my 20s, have many retro consoles, emulation, ps3/4, 3ds.
>never been less happy playing games

I know i may seem ungrateful for what i had, but imagine constantly craving a specific type of game to play (the current AAA console for me) and always being one or two generations behind. Years of hearing about the current CoD or Skyrim or something pleby in school but only having wii and gameboy games to play. After so long I kinda gave up on the dream and i think thats why gaming has soured for me, despite now having money and access to most any game i could want.

Just give your kid what they fuckin want sometimes, especially if theyre a decent kid.

>>3769367
So neither your mother or father actually paid attention to their bank account that whole time? They kind of deserve it.

>>3769401
>>never been less happy playing games

It sounds like you built up unrealistic expectations of how great those games were going to be so in the end none of them really impressed you. On the upside you're in your mid 20's now and realize there are more fun things out there than video games so maybe your parents did right by you in the end.

>>3769402
Father knew about it but didn't do anything.
My mother didn't notice until it was too late.

>>3769407
Thanks man,thats a good point.
On a positive note im now in uni. for filmmaking and am obsessed with movies and collecting movies, something my dad and i always bonded over.

>>3769420
Good on you. This may be a weird thing to say on a board like this, but as much as I love video games there are many many more rewarding things out there to spend your time on. I think they're best looked at as brief entertainments rather than a main focus unless they're part of your job. That's just me though.

>>3769438
Agreed. When i try to make them a huge part of my day i get sick of it quickly

>>3769420
Tfw always wanted to study film direction and parents are forcing me onto internet and telecoms

>>3767025
I have that Pikachu game on one of those plug and play systems I got for nickel. As far as bootlegs go it's actually not that bad.

>>3769321
That's funny that you played it from the disk drive in 2008 or whenever. I used to burn emulators to disks for friend's birthdays because I was too poor to buy them real gifts.

One of my older brothers friend said you could play PSX games on a computer by putting them in the disk tray so I had my dad take me to block buster, rent Spyro, and put it in our iMac lol.

I never had an N64 and my SNES was long gone, so I was at a flea market in 2013 and found both. The SNES came with all hookups and 2 controllers. $30. Same deal with the N64, but I also got a came of my choosing with it, and I picked Pokémon Stadium of all the stuff the vendor had to pick from. That's like $20 or so by itself.

Glad I got those before too recently.

>>3769321
bosnian kid here again

>early 2000s, possibly 2001
>visit family back home now we can't get deported anymore (still terrified crossing the borders)
>huge SFOR base near my hometown
>a bunch of shacks right at the road leaving to the military base
>struckgold.jpg
>beg parents to stop there
>shacks offering hundreds of porn movies and games, mostly PC and playstation, all bootlegs of course
>not interested in the porn (i mean, my parents were there), and there was also a huge and scary jordanian soldier arguing with the shopkeep dude about his porn VCDs not working so i fucked off to the playstation corner
>tons of exotic stuff I only used to marvel at reading games magazines and shitty JRPG fansites, eyes getting wider and wider
>get parents to buy me chrono cross, xenogears, legend of mana, suikoden, and a couple more
fast forward to getting back home to germany
>put xenogears in
>wrong cable, only b/w output
>still scared shitless watching the intro
>don't play it again until 2012

seriously though, it was such a great intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYuCjPcObXU