One of my fondest memories was when I finally beat Super Mario 64. It was such a triumphant event since I kept failing over and over again. It was really tough for me because of the difficulty of maneuvering on the level while it kept breaking down when there was progress. I remember that after I beat it and got the end cutscene and credits, it just stopped and it was my first time experiencing a game in which the actual system had to be restarted in order to return to the main menu. After beating it, I beat it over and over until I got it to a science just to experience the end cutscene and credits again since I really liked watching that (now a days, people could see a video clip online to re-live their favorite cutscenes and credits/intros).

Playing Prince of Persia with my friend, and getting quite far. We alternated on the jumping, with both of us pressing all the jump buttons for longer jumps (space+shift+others). Turns out later it wasn't really necessary, but it was great fun nonetheless.

Definitely two things connected with the Games Convention in Leipzig (RIP):

The Concerts! Not only did I attend each and every one of them - the memory of the Morrowind theme performed by the orchestra still sends shivers down my spine - I also was part of the team, even if I was the "lowest ranking member". I used care for the location of the aftershow event. Having a drink with the likes of Nobue Uematsu, Chris Huelsbeck, Allister Brimble, Gustav Grefberg, Jonne Valtonen (just to name a few) is one of my fondest memories. And they all were extremely nice people - and very modest.

Since I was part of the team, I also had the chance to get business tickets for the GC, meaning I could not only the consumer fair but also the business section. It was there I got the first glimpse of The Witcher (a few years before its release). I was intrigued by the booth, so I stepped in. There was a screen showing parts of the game, and every once in a while a presentation intruducing the game. I was totally impressed, both by the visual quality (I had to exclaim "This is Aurora?!") and the promise of that "choice and consequences" beyond the usual good-evil-dichotomy.
But it was not only the game that impressed me a lot but also the team at the booth. Where other people in the business part of the fair were rather cold and distanced when they found out that I was a nobody, the Witcher team was extremely friendly and hospitable even though I made it very clear I was of no importance - not even a blogger (there were lots of those kids around, waving their press passes and feeling very important). In fact, I came back to this booth several times (when I needed some rest) and every time I was welcomed back and offered a beer (!) and cookies. I left there pretty late, with a bag full of presents and not just a little bit tipsy. I still have (and use) the sturdy leather mouse pad I got there.
I thought this game was a German phenomenon :-)

It is ;)
And it was absolute addictive, you could play over weeks on one game turn based (hot seat or what it is called now).

There were many indeed. But I have one particular remembrance that fills my mind...

We have moved from a flat into a new house. And this was our first Christmas there. We invited my godmother as she lived alone at the time. That day I got a very special present - two my very first computer games in CDs. One of them was about fishing - I can't remember the title, but the game was in high quality. The other game was The Road to The El Dorado. Wonderful game!

Now my fondest memory is associated with this game. Early in the beginning, I must play dice with a gambler to acquire a map. However, in order to do that, I must get enough money (sell the chicken). I did not know that at first, so I'm standing in front of this gambler and have no idea, how to start playing dice.

I asked my father for help. He came and basically tried to do all the same things that I did. Like father, like son, eh? He asked my mother to come and take a look. She was smarter in trying stuff. In the game it's possible to crawl. So she tried to walk near the chair and sit on it by crawling. That didn't work. We asked my godmother for help. She was even smarter! She managed to talk to the gambler, but had no idea what he said in English.

That day I learned that my family does not speak or understand English. As for the game - my parents and godmother agreed that I "must sit on the chair" in order to gamble. And they went to take a smoke. They were honestly very surprised, when I told them that I caught and sold a chicken. In the end, I was the smart one : P

- Playing Counterstrike with my friends in LAN. 10 vs 10. :-)
- Playing Fallout for the first time and my Rosella parrot, always kept distracting me by standing on my shoulder and chewing my hair or my t-shirt or by standing on top of the screen whistling and fluttering his wings or by chewing the mouse cable and the mouse buttons (he heard the "clicks" and always tried to chew them by placing the beak in the narrow gap between the button and the mouse.)
- The tendonitis i got from playing Diablo II for hours..
- The day i bought Oblivion and went home to install it, only to find out that my PC wasn't powerful enough to get the graphics i saw in the screenshots, let alone the single digit fps i got in some places.. ha!

Definitely this - I still remember setting foot in the Shire during the closed beta; the music, the sights.. it all worked (and still works). That and the first time I set foot into Rivendell and saw Bilbo and Frodo - it was towards the end of closed beta and my kinship ran me there (I was level 5, at the time the lowest level [and first low level] on the server to make it to rivendell with no deaths) and just the sight of Rivendell opening up in the valley, and the entrance to the Last Homely House.

Another one was beating one of the Commander Keen games (don't remember which one, maybe 'Aliens stole my babysitter?') - it was the first PC game my dad actually bought for me [the first time he seemed to take an interest in my hobbies, since they were so different from my other siblings and his].

As a kid - a gas station up the street had a Double Dragon arcade machine. Spent WAY too much money tossing coins into that one. Good times playing with my friends. Still one of the best arcade action games ever. One time me and another kid played it to the end, it was the first time I ever beat the game. I think by the time we beat the last level we had spent about 10 dollars in coins to get there.

As a teen - bombed out of my head playing Doom for endless hours. Gamers these days simply cannot fathom the cultural impact Doom had at the time. Also had a lot fun memories playing Goldeneye 64 a lot with my friends. Excellent split screen action.

As an adult - probably some of the hilarious moments playing the very fun and very bugged DayZ mod. Fell off ladders, glitched myself through buildings, and somehow still learned to be a pretty decent sniper. Then DayZ got a game all to its own and the mod version servers dried up. Eh, it was fun while it lasted.

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption. After having lost my first love (to a more competent guy), 3d class junior high, this game made me cry; hard. Also, the day i went to buy this game retail, it had been a parade day, national celebration. The shop i bought it from was on one side of the parade road and by exiting the shop, i happened by her together with her friends, they attended as spectators. I shut up and run away.

GTA 1. Playing it with cousin and friends of mine. Those were the days! Niggaz rapping, pedestrians wasted and run over by cars, missions completed... This game started me on Rap and Hip Hop! When it was out, it was only then that this music genre started appearing here, from local artists.

Diablo 2 LoD. Still is my best action RPG hack and slash fest. None of its clones or crappy sequel made me budge away from it, even for an inch. On the contrary, anything else coming after it, made me angry, because in comparison to it, they were pretty sh*tty. I liked its concept of physically slaying demons and devils, that era i had been very religious and stuff.

Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge. My first game, along with Diablo 2 above, that got me hooked in multiplayer/lan/internet play, back in the day. Bermuda Triangle, 1 ally, myself, and 6 brutal enemies, with superweapons activated... My favorite strategy title up to date. Like diablo above, anything else coming after it, made me seriously angry. I liked it, because it was one of the VERY FEW GAMES, that allow you to murder American and European people, even less that allow you to do that as Russian, Iraqi or Korean army. I loved devastating the forces of Europe and America, oh god, i always had the main enemy as American army. I played mostly as Russian and Yuri forces. I savored this game as stress relief, during major real world offenses, such as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I always hate it that i am allied to first rate murderers, warmongers and criminals of war plus human rights (tortured captives in Iraq etc etc), while no one asked me if i want to be, or if i prefer others.

Vampire Bloodlines. God, i loved this game. It reminded me of the real society, minus all fantasy elements, of course. How everyone tries to deceive you, milk you for a favor, sell you out, turn you into a personal lapdog, betray you or exploit you to work for them free. The subterfuge, persuasion, intimidation, social skills, honestly rocked me. I have yet to encounter a game so great and so colorful like this one... My first game played in a laptop. At summer, too; first area Santa Monica matched in perfectly...

GTA San Andreas. My favorite of the series. I loved its realism; corrupted policemen who ARE the crime instead of fighting it, minorities getting racist edges, drug dealing, ghettos in one place and rich folk in the other, car racing, prostitutes and car banging and the most hilarious, dating and faqing 6 girlfriends simultaneously... Add this to the fact you can drive/pilot anything, and it was great. This game in and by itself, is my single fondest gaming memory of them all. The only GTA i bothered to finish 100%. I liked the focus in details, its polish and perfection. And the countless easter eggs, or silent tributes, such as the Hydra DMA logo...

Ah yes, good times. My friend had it installed on his 486 computer; we had to shrink the screen down to almost the size of a postage stamp to make it playable. On full screen the framerate was so bad it was like watching a slideshow of digital images. Doom was also the first game in which I saw multiplayer. Two guys on separate computers, but their playable characters occupying the same virtual space. Now that was a concept!

Speaking of multiplayer, I never played it much, only for a year or two before I grew tired of it and switched entirely to story-based singleplayer games. But during that time we played LAN games like Duke Nukem 3D, Blood and Quake 2. All demo versions, since we couldn't afford to purchase originals. And the only place we knew of that had several networked computer was a private IT school. We were 12 at the time, and we attended computer courses to learn more about Windows, MS Office and basic programming. The class started every Saturday at eight o'clock, but we knew that the secretary lady would come in at 7.30 to prepare everything for the classes, so we would stand there in front of the locked doors from 7.20 onwards just so we could play some FPS games in LAN for half an hour. As an added bonus, if we were good and completed our tasks in class quickly and accurately, the teacher would allow us extra 20 minutes of gaming at the end. Such fellowship!

Thought of another one. Playing Aliens vs Predator 2000 with my friend JT over TCP/IP using Roger Wilco. Was the first time I ever played an online game with a known friend. Connection was shit 56/k. Still had a blast mowing down aliens with my buddy.

Is Roger Wilco still even around? I'm sure they've been eclipsed by now and disappeared into the dust bin of computer history.

Fondest gaming memory? That's relatively easy:
Fallout 1 beginning.
Fallout 1 ending.
First launch of Operation Flashpoint (original one, from Bohemia).
Revisiting of Icewind Dale places in IWD2.

Playing Mass Effect for the first time. Damn I loved that game. Then playing ME2 for dozens of times :D
And finishing the Saga with ME3, of course (after the Extended Cut. Also, I love the Citadel DLC. Best.DLC.Ever.)

And finishing PoP: Sands of Time was pretty nice. Few years after I had first started the game.

Playing Super Mario 64 for the first time truly amazed me. That was the first time ever I played anything that used the third dimension, it was breathtaking.

Various LAN-parties also comes to mind. That and split-screen multiplayer with lots of friends on the couch yelling and screaming.