Civ 2 is definitely on my short list. Dragon Quest III (at the time, Dragon Warrior III), too. That was a very early one that spurred my love of JRPGs. When I upgraded to a Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy IV, and later, Chrono Trigger -- I played through that one multiple times, and got every single ending possible. I'd also probably include the Quest for Glory series.
Veloxi wrote:Starflight
This was mine too.
My man. (Assuming you are, indeed, a man. Correct me if I'm mistaken.)
Forbes wrote:Veloxi wrote:Starflight
This was mine too.
My man. (Assuming you are, indeed, a man. Correct me if I'm mistaken.)
You are correct. 
Starflight 2 was pretty good too.
Not as good as the first. Still great though.
There were plenty of other games from before I turned 13, but my bar mitzvah saw me receiving a PS2 Slim, a few years into the console lifecycle. With that summer came a trip to the EB Games in my local mall, where, having been a studious middle schooler who chipped away at their Final Fantasies here and there, asked the EB Games clerk if they had any PS2 games like Final Fantasy.
And that man bestowed upon me the most glorious curse that still haunts me to this day, for better & for worse:
A pre-owned copy of Kingdom Hearts.
For all of its imperfections, it was perfect. Big shonen anime energy, lore that could be splashed around in with a deep end to dive into should one be so ready to swim, Yoko Shimomura's compositions in top form. My first playthrough, I never used the Dodge Roll ability, thinking that jumping out of the way would suit all of my needs. I bashed my head against the 2nd Riku-Ansem fight in Hollow Bastion at least 8 times, enduring the lengthy cutscene before it every time, refusing to let that be where my story ended. Beating KH1 was a tremendous triumph for small me, and I wanted more. More of that Keyblade-swinging combat, more tales of Hearts & Worlds falling to darkness and the heroes of the light who would set it right.
And so I continued onto the GBA game, Chain of Memories. I spend that Fall semester of school farming Moogle Points & trading theories with classmates about the mysterious "Organization" and that cool Axel guy.
Then Spring comes around, and that March, Kingdom Hearts II sees its NA release. My preorder has been placed for months, and my mom does me the kindness of having picked up the game while I was at school.
I have the distinct memory of thinking to myself that, if I only had 24 hours left to live, I'd be happy throwing all of it into KH2.
KH2 continues to hold up as one of my favorite games of all time. The action-RPG gameplay is perfectly tuned, the story gets continuously absurd & wild, performances between the voice cast and the Tokyo Philharmonic are firing on all cylinders. The lore gets deeper and opens up into the big ol' mess we know KH for these days - Nobodies, Organization XIII, Xehanort, and the Secret Movie showing off Keyblade Armor and hushed whispers of The Keyblade War.
My obsession is cemented. With the exception of the Switch, every console purchase I make from here on out is motivated by one underlying question: "Will a Kingdom Hearts game be on this system?" It's why I hustle money hocking cookies & energy drinks in high school to save up for a PSP for when Birth by Sleep comes out. It's why I ride a connecting series of trains to meet up with a Craigslist seller for a 3DS XL, because Dream Drop Distance was waiting for me. It's why, when my college graduation money would've maybe been better spent on a new computer, I instead pick up a PS4, because Kingdom Hearts III was on the way. It will probably be Kingdom Hearts IV on the horizon that finally gets me to shell out for a PS5.
Even after the frustrations of KH3's ending, I'm still in it for the long haul. I will see this franchise off into the sunset, should Disney & Nomura ever allow such a thing to happen. Until then, I'll be following Sora into the realms of unreality & beyond.
Elite.
For me, it was Hack. I spent way too much time playing this all through college, to the detriment of my studies.
The first was probably Elite back in 1984, playing the "family" computer with my brother. We would play for hours.
Second would be Civ 2 on my first proper pentium computer. Bought that for University Coursework, spent a lot more time playing Civ 2 and X-COM: enemy unknown.
I'll throw this out as the last true game I lost my life too, and it was a quirky TBS strategy game called Silent Storm When I first moved from where I grew up to the other end of the country for my first "proper" job, I played that endlessly in my little house-share as I didn't get on that well with my then housemates. Still got very fond memories of it. I'm not sure it would stand up to a lot of replay though.
Sigh. I'm too old to remember.
Coolbeans wrote:Everquest. It quickly became a second job!
Yeah same for me. There's plenty of games I spent a lot of time playing before Everquest but it's the only game in my life that took over to an unhealthy degree. Once I gave it up I never got into another MMO.
EverQuest was a heck of a ride. Glad I played it, and very thankful I stopped when I eventually did.
Committing to an MMO since then has been impossible.
Ultima III on the Commodore 64 was the first game I remember playing 12+ hours in a row, followed probably by a bunch of C64 games I don't remember.
The first game I played all night til 8am without really realizing I had done that...Civilization 2 sometime around 1990 or 1991 at university. Told myself, "If you finish writing these two papers, you can play Civ for a bit as a reward..." and I do remember starting to pass out around 8am...
The earliest I can really remember obsessing about, at school and at home, was Wing Commander: Privateer. I had played and liked some space trading games before it, but Privateer was a whole new level. At school I would draw my own sector maps, ship designs, quest ideas, etc. And then play for hours at home. I never was able to beat it, due to being bad at video games, but I got close.
The earliest I can really remember obsessing about, at school and at home, was Wing Commander: Privateer. I had played and liked some space trading games before it, but Privateer was a whole new level. At school I would draw my own sector maps, ship designs, quest ideas, etc. And then play for hours at home. I never was able to beat it, due to being bad at video games, but I got close.
Don't be too hard on yourself, that final fight against the alien was f*cking brutal.
Elite.
128k? Bloody luxury.
I flew around the galaxy for that entire summer on a rubber keyboard and I were thankful for it!
It's either Dynamix's Red Baron or Silent Service II. Those were the first 2 PC games my dad got, and I went all-in on them.
Mixolyde wrote:The earliest I can really remember obsessing about, at school and at home, was Wing Commander: Privateer. I had played and liked some space trading games before it, but Privateer was a whole new level. At school I would draw my own sector maps, ship designs, quest ideas, etc. And then play for hours at home. I never was able to beat it, due to being bad at video games, but I got close.
Don't be too hard on yourself, that final fight against the alien was f*cking brutal.
So I have heard. A few years ago I hex edited a save to give myself a ton of cash and made a few failed missions successful. Need to get back to that and finish it up some time.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms II for the NES is the earliest I remember.
I still don't know how my father decided, when he came home with a Nintendo as a gift for me, that Rampage, Play Action Football and were appropriate for an 8-year-old, and while I loved Play Action Football, RTKII is the game that started a lifelong hobby that had a seriously negative effect on my grades for the next decade.
If I'm being really strict about "taking over your life" though, it's Final Fantasy VII. I stayed home "sick" from school for an extra day to play that game, which was of course the talk of literally everyone at school.
strangederby wrote:Elite.
128k? Bloody luxury.
I flew around the galaxy for that entire summer on a rubber keyboard and I were thankful for it!
Eh. I don't judge you for it.
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