The best affective memory I have with videogames is of my mother when she went to a local fair, usually bringing a certain game for me to enjoy on my ps1, besides that, I fully remember one time when I was playing Medal of Honor on ps2, my favorite, and asked my father what that red flag meant, my father explained it to me in a simple way, creating in my person the fascination for historical taste that in the future I became a Historian.

Back in the day.... when I was at university and had the time to do such things... We picked up the awesome Total Annihilation and got somewhat addicted and competitive in multiplayer games in our student house. Unfortunately, as TA lacked the option to save multiplayer games at the time it became a case of taking it in shifts between lectures and sleeping/eating as one of our games lasted almost 24 hours. I can't say there are many games since that could keep me hooked for so long!

That's one prize definitely accounted for :)

There have been many, but many have faded away from memory in two decades of gaming. A rather recent one was when playing Dying Light, and doing the mission in which Crane (the player) encounters the Volatile for the first time. That chase was so tense - it wasn't fear I was feeling, but the adrenaline rushing through me, and the blood pumping making my skin warmer, as I was trying to figure out the shortest route to the tower, while the night walkers were starting to give chase after me, and hearing their growlings, closer and closer behind me. Somehow, I managed to arrive at the tower, receiving just a few hits from the night walkers. Only then I realized the scariness and the excitement of that last minute. The good thing is that some encounters with the Blue Volatiles can end up in similar chases to this day, giving me a somewhat close feeling to that first chase.

Thank you for the contest! :)

A very fond gaming memory I have is browsing the library catalog on Phatt Island in Monkey Island 2. I found the description of the books, the comments made by Guybrush and the movements and remarks of the librarian hilarous. In the end it even payed up, as there are some hints hidden in the books (including one added by the traslators into some languages who took pity of the poor gamers who wouldn't understand a certain infamous "pun" puzzle). During my many playthroughs using my fake library ID I must have checked out all books at least once.

As others before, I can't really say which memory would be the one, but here's one of those I'm really fond of:

The year is 1992 and I have just reached the final level of Turrican II on my Commodore 64. At the beginning of the level, I find a hidden jetpack and start flying up. It's not an easy level; there's a plenty of monsters and gun turrets, but the game has trained me well enough in the previous worlds and levels. Plus there are many power-ups scattered throughout the level.

I fight my way through another tough wave of monsters, and - there are no further ones in sight.

A second passes. Two. Three. And then, at the bottom of the screen, something starts shifting up. A big arc slowly moves onto the screen. It's rougly a top of a big ring shape. As more and more of it gets visible, I finally realize what it is. A helmet. Giant helmet. Helmet about the size of my character.

My jaw drops. My lips start moving. "You... can't... really..." I hear myself whisper.

Without any sign of hurry, the behemoth slowly ascends into view. I can see the huge shoulders, chest with a built-in gun whose caliber alone is about half my height, jetpack the size of a two-story house. This is something larger than anything I've ever seen, a monster larger than I could ever even imagine. How could I even think of taking of something this big?

For the first time in my life (and still last to date), I feel pure, bone-freezing awe induced by a computer game.

Slowly, majestically, seemingly uninterested in my presence, The Machine passes by. It doesn't fit onto the screen - it's about 1.5 times taller.

The Machine has finally passed by, and I know we'll meet again. Probably very soon. My character knows this will be a true fight for the future of the universe, and winning it would equal a small miracle. My gaming self is still in a state of utter disbelief. The C=64 isn't supposed to be able to do something like this. No computer can! Ever!!!

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About ten seconds later, I flew out of the huge cylinder and into the open. There, The Machine was waiting for me, and an absolutely epic battle ensued. But that battle was so hectic that I wouldn't have appreciated my opponent enough. The magic had happened before, when Manfred Trenz (the game's designer) gave me all the time to see, admire, and incredulously stare at The Machine. I later found out this bit was missing from the 16-bit versions, and even if the C=64 version didn't have the totally polished playability it has, I would still find it superior just for these few seconds of my nemesis heading for the final confrontation.

Well, I'm in my forties now, and gaming isn't the most important thing in my life anymore. I haven't played Turrican II for ages. But even now, almost thirty years later, I still got goosebumps when writing about it.

My favourite video gaming memory is of purchasing Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy on GOG, and being able to play it natively on Linux, because the publisher, in their benevolence, decided on that occasion not to withhold the Linux binary.

There is definitely more than one moment to remember so to pick one, I'll go for the discovery of the world of Termina in The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask. Seeing this world changing over the course of 3 days only to meet the same unescapable fate each time was incredible.
For example, after defeating the first boss in Woodfall, the poisonous water would turn clear blue again and trees become green instead of menacing red/orange. It gave feeling of accomplishment and the thrill to explore a 'new' world after saving it. And then of course after reseting the cycle, it would go dark again...
The colors, sounds and soundtrack, this game has a soul and it's tormented for sure.

When I was young I live in rural area where video games are harder to get. So I tend to hoard a lot of video games when I went to big city. The problem is I don't know what good video game is and only bought stuff that looks cool. So I ended up stuck with what I bought for the whole year.

Playing for the first time my most anticipated game ever, Doom 3, on a brand new Radeon 9800 XT. I will never forget that feeling.

The fondest memories I have a playing Doom on a coax network with like 9 players. We had to set up a couple separate networks to do it but it was amazing. My fist delving into networking as well. Ahh... the good ok days. LOL.

My all time favorite moment playing video games was the reveal of your character's real identity in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I know some people saw it coming, but it completely blew my mind, especially since on my first playthrough I was playing light side to neutral. It made me really stop to reconsider how I viewed my character and feel like I was part of a grand Star Wars saga.

My fondest memory was watching my older cousin playing Star Ocean: The Second on the PlayStation. Watching him play this amazing game is probably my fondest memory, I looked up to him so much back then. Watching him play that also got me into JRPGs, A game so full of beautiful art, great music, fun gameplay, and so much replayability.

And now? After so many years, A New Star Ocean was announced at that feeling has come flooding back, and I am genuinely as excited as I was as a kid when I got my own copy of that game.

Watching him play that game, and then playing the game myself, is not just one of my fondest gaming memories, it's one of my fondest memories period.

When i and my brother were kids we always played video games together. We only had the NES clone console with the yellow casettes back then that we bought on a local fair, but it was enough. A lot of good memories recalled about the games we played. Sometimes i wish we could go back to those times. We argued often about what we had to play and sometimes it was almost a war, but we managed to came to an agreement :). So this is my favourite memory with my brother when we became acquainted with video games on our good old fake Nintendo console, good old days.