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Our NES Memories: 30 Years of Famicom

Memories from the Community

by Neal Ronaghan - July 22, 2013, 11:26 am EDT

A few NWR community members sent in their fond recollections.

As a kid I loved watching cartoons. When I was about 4 years old, my mother and I took a trip to Quebec to visit my grandparents. One of my cousins was also there at the time, and she had brought what I thought was a strange-looking VCR called a "Nintendo". Even stranger were the flat, grey cassettes called "video games" with stickers of blocky "cartoon" characters on them.

She tried to explain that it was a game system, but having never seen one, I didn't understand. Until she booted it up, and then started MOVING the cartoon character around with the "remote control!" She let me try it, and I recall being absolutely mesmerized by the fact that I could actually control a cartoon character! The game was, of course, Super Mario Bros, and has since sparked my imagination to a world of interactive creativity. It is one of my most vivid memories to this day; the day when cartoons became not just something to watch, but something to be a part of. - Jean of mArc

I'm more of a Super Nintendo man myself, but I think my major NES memory was beating Super Mario Bros 2 - the first game I ever managed to beat on my own.

It took about four months of constant play, reading about warp zones since battery backup was saved for Zelda II, and several dirty looks from my parents, but it was really the first time I ever feel I accomplished something.- Shaymin

Talkback

CericJuly 16, 2013

I played To the Earth with the Zapper Headset that you spoke to activate.

StrawHousePigJuly 16, 2013

I heard he was a total Star Wars nerd.

A nerd! :o

ejamerJuly 16, 2013

I remember buying To the Earth due some confusion. We were supposed to buy Solar Jetman, but hey, the games are probably almost the same right? Both involve... well, space.


After the initial disappointment, I sat down and started playing To the Earth. Eventually we could get through the first 3 or 4 levels, which seemed pretty substantial. Even though the game was tough, it was really quite enjoyable once you had enough practice. I liked how you were forced to be accurate with your shots since every miss was costly and would reduce your fuel level. The one downside is that Duck Hunt became almost unplayable - the pace was just so slow.


Have thought about reacquiring this game now... but not sure my adult self would have the persistence (or time) required to build up the skill and memory required to get through each level.

Quote from: StrawHousePig

I heard he was a total Star Wars nerd.

A nerd! :Q

This is another true statement. But that didn't happen until 1994! I send out a big "Thank you" to USA (the TV channel) for having marathons of the movies around Independence day back then!


You know, apparently The Lone Ranger also used the zapper in the first person areas, but we could never get the thing to work properly.

xcwarriorJuly 19, 2013

Top 4 all worthy selections. Never played Darkwing Duck. But the omission of Legend of Zelda/Final Fantasy/Tetris/Baseball Stars 2/Duck Hunt/Mega Man 2/MM3/Double Dragon II and probably others is sacriligious!

So many good NES titles.... I normally am for NES games being on Wii U VC and not 3DSVC, but I would pay $5 in a heart beat for Baseball Stars 2 on 3DSVC.

Ian SaneJuly 19, 2013

I like Brian Davis' story about the parental network in the neighbourhood making sure that their kids each had a distinct library of games between them.  In the NES days I figured that in regards to videogames parents fell into two categories:

A: parents that thought videogames were evil.
B: parents that would buy their kids games but had a knack for zeroing in on the worst game in the store 99% of the time.

With videogames it seemed like us vs. parents.  So Brian's story was refreshing, showing that that wasn't the case every time.

TheFleeceJuly 21, 2013

Justin, our stories are so very similar it's almost scary! I always think about that event almost everyday, it's one of my favorite memories. These stories are awesome, I've enjoyed them all.

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