'Played it with a friend...'

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I think this is a tale as old as gaming itself.

We go to a friend's house for whatever reason, sit in front of the “dumb box", and start browsing their games to find something to play with them... Then, they show us something so cool that we simply HAVE to get it ourselves.

My best friend had been building PCs since we were both little, so she was always “ahead of the curve” (so to speak) and introduced me to endless cool stuff like emulators - I bet parts of my jaw are still on her floor, because seeing Pokémon come out of a 486 was close to a miracle for us - online gaming and, of course, the hottest new things.

I think I got myself brain damage trying to figure out how to make my PC run a PS1 emulator when those were unheard of, just to play a few of the games she had lent me (Winning Eleven, Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot were keepers), and when Call of Duty was playable on her brand new Pentium IV PC? Oh, man... We were internet café junkies simply because we wanted to play stuff like CoD, Warcraft III, Age of Mythology and The Simpsons: Hit & Run, and that was impossible for us... For a while. Yes, we started having a TON of sleepovers just to play those games until ludicrous hours, which made us VERY popular with her parents (who both worked).

But I think my fondest memory of this sort of thing is actually my last, when our college-aged selves found Left 4 Dead 2 on some shady site and - once again - took advantage of her technological obsession to get the game downloaded and running in just a few minutes, because OF COURSE she had the fastest internet around, which I wasn't envious of at all =D!

We played like maniacs, but my discount laptop couldn't even DREAM of running that one, so it was about the perfect ending for those adventures.

*Stares back at barely coherent text wall* Uh... Yeah! Games! Got any memory to share?

 

[random0nonsense]

My only experience with gaming on BBS was at my friend's house. I didn't get a computer with Internet access until close to the turn of the millennium. My buddy's dad got their first PC and modem in the early 90's. We spent hours dialing into a BBS playing text RPGs. Matt got into so much trouble when the first phone bill came in...

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Matt got into so much trouble when the first phone bill came in...

Matt and I could have been buddies XD

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

Early on in my life (1994) my neighbors owned Sega Genesis, whereas I had a Super Nintendo. I played a handful of games at their home, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 3 & Knuckles, Dynamite Headdy.

The speed of those games impressed me, and frantic action that was so addicting especially to my young brain. Prior to Super Nintendo I had Nintendo Entertainment System which was my first console.

A few years later, around year 2000, I played Nintendo 64 at my (2x) friends house, I owned Sega Saturn, PlayStation then Dreamcast. Memories playing multiplayer games Kirby 64, Mario Party, WinBack, Blast Corps, Killer Instinct Gold. Fun matches all around, but didn't convince me to run out and want to own the system.

Another memory was playing my friends Game Boy Color of Kirby Tilt'n'Tumble (2001), I owned Game Boy Pocket. The game was interesting to say the least. I would discover emulation a few years later.

 

[wetformommy]

>I have this friend that I literally know for my entire life (going to name him Kman)
>we used to play ps1 games like crash team racing, team buddies, bisi bashi and etc on his house or sometimes mine
>that was like 20 years ago (more or less).

>around 2003 we start playing this MMO called Ragnarok Online
>but after a few years Kman decided to play another MMO that I don't really enjoy and I kinda leaning into rhythm game more
>soo we kinda stop talking for about 10 years or so (bcs of school and we got different interest, there is no fight lol)

>fast forward to 2023
>I was playing in a private server of that MMO game Ragnarok Online again by myself
>until I manage to find a new friends from that server
>got invited to a discord by a new friends (going to call it Lman)
>decide to hop on the vc and get along with everyone
>Lman introduce me to everyone on the vc and one person sounds hella familiar
>I ask this familiar sounding person "are you Kman Mr.A son? that lives in "X resident"
>he said yes and everyone surprised including me
>Lman ask me how do i know soo much about Kman
>I decided to tell everyone who I am


alright to sum it up, basically me and Kman start hanging out again after stop talking for about 10 years bcs of that MMO game lmao, also we still talk from time to time to this day

 

[Kovlak]

I did play quite a bit at friends' houses, and got a good stock of laughs and wins and losses. But it never really made me want to buy into anything... Well that is until Zombies Ate My Neighbours came along.

Had a really good time playing through that game with a friend on his Megadrive (Genesis). After a long while, at the time he had already moved to playing on the Sega Saturn, I came across a second hand copy for SNES at a gamestore, and bought it. Played it with him again, till we reached the spider final boss. We put a very good fight, but ultimately we didn't win, and never played it again seriously.

 

[nobitakun]

Seiken Densetsu 2.

 

[Vardalis]

My memories with friends are mostly around lightgun games. I remember being at one of their houses and we discovered House of the Dead 3 was out on PC. We scoured website after website, eventually finding the demo, which we both bashed for about an hour trying to see if doing anything differently would open the full game for some reason. This was also well before either of us knew what computer viruses were.

I also remember, with another friend, discovering emulation on PC. We both had some spark to try and get a PS1 disc running on his laptop despite a PS2 being about three inches away, for the novelty I guess. We didn't manage it in the end, but it was a fun hour trying to figure things out despite that.

 

[Deleted member 924886]

These are moments you will never forget!!!

 

[Bakuma1997]

One of my cousins brought a N64, said Nintendo 64 had a single game: Goldeneye 007, nowadays my opinion of the game hadn't aged as well, but those memories are still good

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

One of my cousins brought a N64, said Nintendo 64 had a single game: Goldeneye 007, nowadays my opinion of the game hadn't aged as well, but those memories are still good

Yeah... That one was definitely rough for me to pick back up.

 

[Jeff]

Not only my friends, but I would go to my cousin's house who had Goldeneye 007 on N64 and we would play multiplayer in the archives level for two whole hours.

 

[DunkeyKong]

First of all, what a wholesome story (got me grinning like) . I think I used to play with some friends on a laptop, and then on the playstation (never went to their homes tho)

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

First of all, what a wholesome story (got me grinning like) . I think I used to play with some friends on a laptop, and then on the playstation (never went to their homes tho)

Hey, thanks! I'm glad you liked it ^^!

 

[PrinceRogue]

I remember going to friend's house and playing a lot of Wipeout on the psx, only I couldn't remember the name and I could only remember it as "That game iwht the triangular spaceships". Years later I could find the game again and play the connection.

On the other hand, I was telling a friend just yesterday how many years ago a friend told me about this online game they began playing and it sounded so cool I just had to try it, so we went to his house and I watched him play. Once I was back home, I was downloading it asap. The game was called S4League, it was kind of an online arena fighting game? Really cool and really 2000s looking

PS: It's so fun to read everyone's stories :)

 

[DunkeyKong]

Hey, thanks! I'm glad you liked it ^^!

I do yes, and I hope you two are doing well in life

 

[Moreno909]

I played a bit of the Dragon Ball Devolution web game with my cousin

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

I used to have a friend, whom like me was very into video games, we became friends cause both of us absolutely love Halo, together, we played SO MANY games.

Him coming over to my house so we could play NES and SNES games, me going to his house to play PS1 games. What we played the most, was Battle City (NES), Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES), Joe and Mac (SNES), Final Fight 2 (SNES), Gekido (PS1), Medal of Honor (PS1), and Army Men World War (PS1).

Then, we both got laptops, so we started to do LAN parties to play Age of Empires 2, Age of Mythology, Dawn of War, and Warcraft 3, learning to use hamachi and game ranger to play online, we even started to play WOW together (although we preferred to play Dofus and later Wakfu). A lot more games once I learned to "acquire" them from the internet. I even taught him how to use emulators, so we could play the classics while in school.

I remember playing Smash Bros and Mario Kart on my laptop during boring classes, or both of us going through Valkyria Chronicles and SMT Nocturne.

Then we got into League of Legends, got tired of the ranked malding, and switched to Dota 2.

Good times.

The last time we played together, was a few games of Dawn of War, as a final goodbye since both of us went to vastly different directions. No idea what he is up to these days, since I don't like using social media.

It is what it is.

 

[platuna]

Little Fighter 2 ,It was a fun time to play. While waiting for lunch break in the classroom with my friends

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

I do yes, and I hope you two are doing well in life

We don't really hang out anymore, but we are both doing very well (:

 

[Yousef Yousef]

What’s interesting about these “played with a friend” stories is how they’d be the exact stories I’ve experienced if you replace “friend” with “brother”, there’s times where I instinctively try to get people into something, but never times where someone is trying to get me into something. Not until my brother picked up Dark Souls during its heyday and kept begging me to try it. I insisted how much I often resent games made around being difficult and that was actually the case with Dark Souls 3! As that game always felt soulless to me. Same with bloodborne, Sekiro and elden ring.

But good news is, switching gears did the trick, and playing Dark Souls 1&2 (with guidance from my brother on where all the items were) helped open my eyes to how great of a series it was. I’ve played the good ones, the ones that focused on world-building, as opposed to mindless fast-paced bosses. The worlds of Dark Souls 1 & Dark Souls 2 were incredibly addicting to explore and learn about, I actually felt like a resident of their worlds.

So it was nice experiencing this with my brother, it was a slow-burner too! It took us around 6-7 years to finally get along about dark souls! What a nice, happy ending!

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

When I was like 8 to 10 years old, we used to live in a closed street with my cousins house being the last one, a guy that played Diablo 2 next, then was my house, and then there was another guy that we used yo play with from time to time.

We practically all had a N64 and would occasionally get to each other house to play Smash, Golden Eye, Mario Tennis, Mario Kart and, ofc, Mario Party.

Each of us would bring their controller to the owner of the game house and spend some hours playing.

Good times...

 

[Megarockman _1987 Megarockman _1987]

Me and my friends used to play L4D2 after the school every Friday at night
Then we move to Fortnite
Also with my cousins we usually play quake 2 or smash bros
Something any street fighter game
Now rarely we play Charlie murder, it's a rocker and emo beat em' all

 

[toothflick]

For me that game was Four Swords Adventures. Myself, cousin, and two brothers slowly beat it over the course of like 2 years where everytime we'd visit he'd be a massive bro and rent 4 GBAs and link cables just so we could play it. It was an awesome experience and one that I doubt I'll ever be able to have again and I'm forever mad that Nintendo never made a Four Swords game for Wii U despite Adventures basically predicting the Wii U gamepad with its GBA connectivity.