I’ve been gaming since I was able to push the keys on a keyboard and I’ve seen good games, bad games and classic games that have been welded on to my memory. I remember the classics like Diablo 2, Neverwinter nights and even Worms and all the while, I’m adding memories and encouraging my nostalgia and it seems my latest addiction, The Witcher, has triggered this nostalgia.

So, do you remember when…

…Deckard Cain first said, “Stay a while and listen,” ?

I remember it well. The first time I stepped into the Rogue encampment and Deckard Cain said the immortal words, “stay a while and listen.” I didn’t think about it then but now I look back and that is one of the first things I think about when I remember the Diablo games. It brings back fond memories of sitting there, listening to Travis whilst mindlessly slaughtering imps.

…Worms shouted, “INCOMING!!!!” ?

Worms was probably the single most entertaining game… ever. Better than Lemmings. Lemmings didn’t have Holy Hand Grenades after all. Despite the fact that the Worms series was ruined for me by the primordial filth that is Worms 3D, I still look back at Worms, Worms: United and Worms 2 with massively fond memmories, which usually involves sitting there, sqeuking, “INCOMING!!!” under my voice, followed by a, “HAAALELUAH!!!” which is followed by at least 2 hours of Worms theme tune whistling. I’ve still got to learn that on the guitar – I shall add that to my things to do list.

…Dungeons and Dragons was cool?

Ok… ok… D+D is still cool. Possibly not as cool as it was when I was playing Neverwinter Nights or the original pen and paper D+D but it is still fairly cool. Neverwinter Nights 2 and D+D Online did the infamous rule set no favours but we look to the future longingly, right? Ah, the stress that persisted when spending my talent points on my Sorceror. When to go and not to go… prestige. That was the question. It still is as well as I still play Neverwinter Nights occasionally, just for the memories and the kicks. Damn you Obsidian and your franchise ruining dev team of doom.

…the Borg were scarey?

Some of you may slightly disagree with this but as far as I am concerned, the Borg WERE scarey and Star Trek Armada was a good game. It provided me with hours of entertainment. I mean, what could be more fun than assimilating NPC ships and stations just because you can? What is more enthralling than a story line consisting of four races stealing some random particle of each other intermittently like children in a school yard fighting over a piece of candy? I know… nothing! I still remember Worf in Armada… flying around in his Defiant class starship…

…Tetris was hot?

Ok… so now I’m going really retro on you but come on! Tetris was the hottest game around and is probably as legendary as Chomp! Aliens WILL one day invade Earth, they’ll find Tetris and we’ll drive them off simply because they’ll be too busy ooh-ing and aah-ing to care about the fact that we are shooting them with atomic warheads! The one thing I do hate about the game however is the theme tune. It gets stuck in your head for days and days and days and it hurts your mind after a while. So much so that everything morphs into the closest Tetris block for it’s shape and you start wondering how to fit it with the other blocks around you.

Those are just a few of my memories and there are plenty more. I miss the good old days when gaming was fun and not a chore. It still is for the most part but when you have concepts like grinding in World of Warcraft, the fun factor is destroyed by addiction.

So anyone else got anything nostalgic to say?