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March 24, 2009

The Games We Grew Up On

Steve Neill

After what seemed like a long night of sleep, this morning I found myself sitting in front of the computer, trying to figure out what to play next on my iTunes. I came across Kool and the Gang’s “Summer Madness,” a tune that brings me back to a time when everything was much more carefree, much more fun, and a lot more lazy: my early teenage years of video gaming.

Read more after the jump!

“Summer Madness” was one of the longest tracks on the Radio Station Fever 105. Even if you happen to live in the Greater Miami Metro Area, you likely don’t know the station, because though it’s based around a city similar to Miami, “Vice City” was a truly mythic place, with 8 more great stations to tune into, each with their fair share of stimulating and happy-go-lucky 80′s music.

For those of you who never got to play Grand Theft Auto Vice City (which is likely few of you, since it was the greatest selling Playstation 2 game of all time), the plot centered around a disturbed, tightly wound, and emotionally disgruntled fellow named Tommy Vercetti. It was your job to guide him around the vast (or so we thought then; looking back now, it seems quite small) area of Vice City, and make him complete missions in order to become a major powerhouse player of the city. The plot was loosely based on the movie Scarface, and the game was widely regarded as being far too violent, and far too disturbing. Whether you were out jacking cars, delivering pizza, being a hired hitman, patrolling the coast of Vice with a cigar boat and a fine glass of ale, the whole game just reeked of 80′s coolness.

I still remember begging my best friend Phillip to lug his original Playstation 2 over to my house, because I was too poor to afford one, and I wanted to play Vice City. His mom would drive him over, and we’d spend hours upon hours sitting on the floor of my living room, inventing new ways to snipe people, or a new angle to hit that jump with a motorcycle. When my mom offered us dinner, we would let it sit cold, just so that we could rock a Vigilante mission or two. Once you entered the world of Vice City, with its brightly lit neons, beautiful music, and idiotic political system, you never wanted to leave.

vc2

Then of course, there were the times when I finally got the system and the game, and would play it for 5 or 6 hours at a time, just trying to complete the mission of killing Lance Vance (who ironically enough was played by Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame). All in all, that game was my childhood. Bringing friends over to see who could get the best time in a Hotring Racer lap battle, or going to a party just to see 20 people gathered around the screen as some newbish player tried to fly a helicopter, was a truly entertaining time, and it still sticks with me to this day.

So the question I have for you is this:

Whether it was Outrun, Gran Turismo, Forza, or Mario Kart.. which game did you grow up on, and how did it affect who you are as a person today, and your love affair for cars?

Now you’ll have to excuse me–I have a Countach or a Testarossa to go out and jack from a man in plaid pants and a vest.

Permalink:

Posted at 8:28 am in

Comments

deadly_dai
Mar 26, 2009 at 4:57 pm

What you know about the first Mortal Kombat on Sega,
Back,Back, B….GET OVER HERE!…LOL!

deadly_dai
Mar 26, 2009 at 4:40 pm

OK hold up, first off who in the hell said they grew up on PS2…WTF?…you just grew up then..lol. When I read this post I automatically started reminiscing of Paperboy, Xcite Bike, Top Gun, Skate or Die, Karate Kid, Contra, Streets of Rage, Sonic 1,2,and 3…Not Vice City…LMFAO. Put it like this if you was blowing in cartridges and the tapping them, when the game froze. Then please dont post. Oh yeah and….SEGAAAAAAAAAA!!! And Cruisin’USA did run it for the car games, “Blackcompany”.

shaved6
Mar 26, 2009 at 8:50 am

Your not an OG until you remember using your running pad for Nintendo. My friends and I would play that for hours. I was really into sports games as a kid. My friends and I would setup tournements for Blitz on N64 along with 4 player 007 for N64.

I remember one game for Playstation that was a racing game but you could create your own track and that was a lot of fun!

Katakuna
Mar 25, 2009 at 8:19 pm

I love playing GTA4, but it’s too damn easy. I beat it twice in two months of owning it. But I grew up on Tomb Raider, Super Mario Bros, Need For Speed (before the series went to shit), Diablo, Resident Evil, all the so-called classics. I miss the days where I’d do nothing but play them (that was rare, but I do miss them).

Duckhunt was the shit, Steve! I remember playing it when I was five years old. I even have one of the original gameboys.

88eurotrash
Mar 25, 2009 at 11:29 am

I also enjoy the GTA series, but I can’t seem to just accept the games the way the were, I have modded GTA III, GTA vice city, and GTA san andreas, san andreas has been the most fun because I choose witch cars I want to replace with what real life cars, so far no one has developed a mod to insert a old school celica like mine but there are alot of high quality car mods that are more fun to drive than the made up versions in the game

Tcassa
Mar 24, 2009 at 11:50 pm

Brett, I only realised there was Street Rod 2 and 3 after searching some screenshots of the original. I might have to download that game and relive those memories again! What’s SR 2 and 3 like? As good as the original?

NobiZero
Mar 24, 2009 at 5:11 pm

The original Driver for Playstation. ‘Nuff said.
For stress relief, Destruction Derby 2.

Brett Powers
Mar 24, 2009 at 4:24 pm

Wow Steve, I always just assumed you were older than me.

TCassa, did you know there was a Street Rod 2 and 3? You can still find the free downloads on the net.

IH-international
Mar 24, 2009 at 2:39 pm

VICE CITY!!!!! by far my most favorite game ever!!! i put thousands of hours on that game!!! and still play it from time to time!!!
the banshee was my favorite car as it was based off the corvette!!!

BoltZ22
Mar 24, 2009 at 2:01 pm

Steve: How did you survive before that? lol… Too bad you missed the Mortal Kombat Arcade Era. Your parents would have loved that.

Steve Neil
Mar 24, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Alright, for the people who are wondering, I’m 20 at the end of this month. I was 13 when Vice City came out, and it was the first video game I ever really played. My parents isolated me away from Video Games until that point lol.

Tcassa
Mar 24, 2009 at 12:27 pm

Hehe still playing it Brett…good stuff! I haven’t played it for at least a decade now, but the memory is still there!

Brett Powers
Mar 24, 2009 at 11:53 am

Tcassa, man I was playing that game like two years ago STILL! No I doubt anyone has beaten the king.

Killersharq
Mar 24, 2009 at 11:27 am

Mario kart on SNES, Cruisin USA, 4×4 Evo, and Pod racer on N64. I loved playing that game. Vice City is still my favorite of all the GTA games, I still play it on my PC every once in a while.

___nes___
Mar 24, 2009 at 11:24 am

My first chilhood memory is playing Indy 500 on Atari then Mario Kart!!! and then the star wars racing game (whatever the name was) and last but not least Gran Turismo.

Gregarious
Mar 24, 2009 at 11:09 am

Old school games were alright, I grew up on Indycar racing, and then Destruction Derby was fun. The Gran Turismo series, the Colin McRae Rally series was awesome. But today’s games are too much fun. Games like GRID (which evolved from the Colin McRae Rally series). My favourite game of all time though must be Live for Speed. It’s not widely known, but look it up, it’s the most realistic online racing simulator there is. If you have a force feedback racing wheel, you’ll enjoy it.

donqe
Mar 24, 2009 at 11:07 am

mario kart lol,and vice city ofcourse

Tcassa
Mar 24, 2009 at 11:01 am

valek, I could never beat the king. His car was just too fast hehe. And I do think that was the first game to introduce customizing as you mentioned. I loved how you could drop in a nice, new BB V8, slicks, and then race Pink Slips or over-rev the gearbox and your finished. Such good memories of that game. Anyone still play that game?

I_Luv_Dusty
Mar 24, 2009 at 10:56 am

Dude, if you grew up playing Vice City, you must be pretty freaking young.
.
Of course, I’m not really one to talk, since I grew up playing Chrono Trigger on the Super Nintendo.

BoltZ22
Mar 24, 2009 at 10:31 am

San Francisco Rush in the Arcades… Was much better then Cruis’n USA.

I still remember going to the local Pizza Hut and playing Drive’n (or something like that). It was like the first 3D Arcade Racer. Had graphics like that of Virtua Racing, hard polygons galore.

Moparmaniac07
Mar 24, 2009 at 10:12 am

Never heard of street rod, but I loved crusin’ USA and some nascar game for 64 at my grandparents house. When me and my brother got ps2, we bought vice city and my parents made us take it back after a day or two because it was too bad, and it probably was for how young we were back then. One of my buddies rented GTA4 for x-box 360, the first thing I did was do a burnout until the tires popped. I wasn’t allowed to play after that because all I wanted to do was burnouts, trying each different vehicle and such. Don’t have much time for them anymore, most new ones are too complicated anyway, I want my sega genesis back.

valek
Mar 24, 2009 at 9:47 am

Have to agree with Tcassa and Brett Powers. Street Rod i think was the first game where you could customize your car: chop the roof, remove the bumpers just to go a few miles faster. best car game ever. did anyone of you ever beat the King?

Steve Neil
Mar 24, 2009 at 9:43 am

And as for age? Let’s just say that I’m somewhere around the Duckhunt era.

Steve Neil
Mar 24, 2009 at 9:42 am

Some of you might be surprised to hear that Vice City was 2002… that’s 7 Years ago. As for video games of your youth, I clearly remember Cruisin USA AND Twisted Metal for Playstation as being fun too, but VC is where my heart was at.

Brett Powers
Mar 24, 2009 at 9:27 am

Tcassa, I hear you man. I loved Street Rod!

Oafman
Mar 24, 2009 at 9:23 am

Video games of our youth? GTA Vice City was what 4 years ago? That is waaayy back, yeah right. I grew up with an Atari 2600 at home and played Pole Position at the arcade. I remember playing Indy 500 on the Atari for hours on end. My favorite classic racing games has to be the original cruisin USA arcade game. While in college I once was the proud owner of the top 5 times on every track.

Tcassa
Mar 24, 2009 at 9:13 am

Crusin’ USA was fantastic on the arcades, so was that NASCAR game, which I still see being played today! But the best game ever (and I mean ever!) was Street Rod on DOS. How awesome was that game for the early 90s. Remember starting off with around $800 and a basic car in your garage. After some drag races at the local diner, you would earn enough money to upgrade your 2D car. Love that game so much!

Blackcompany
Mar 24, 2009 at 8:57 am

Wow, you write like playstation 2 was the first console to have car based video games…how old are you? What about Cruisin’ USA in the aracades?….that’s just to name one.