I am realizing my life is not really marked by birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, or any of the normal milestone stuff people list. It is marked by video games.

Thanks for this thread, because it reminded me of one I cannot leave out.

There was a week I spent in a mental hospital with a major anxiety spiral. Pretty much everything felt unmanageable. The one thing I could handle was Pokémon FireRed on a Game Boy Advance.

That was it. That was my anchor.

It was actually written into my chart that I was allowed to plug my charger in at the nurses station while I slept so the GBA would be ready the next day. No arguments. No debates. Just accepted as necessary.

Not my oldest game, see my other replies for that, but it is probably the only one I have mentioned that might have saved my life.

Finished Mother 1 from 1989 recently. It’s surprisingly good aside from final mountain encounter rate.

Nethack maybe? It’s been updated over the years, but it’s still largely the game that released in '87.

I’m also playing Might and Magic 6 [98] right now, and remembering why I liked 7 so much more. Planning a playthrough of World of Xeen [93/94] soon too.

Moon Patrol and Centipede hit the spot every now and then.

I kept going back to Arcanum

There was an unofficial patch that helped it continue to be playable. It just had a unique style and story that allowed you to interact and build your character around magic or technology.

I beat Zelda 2 and its stupid.

Edit: i misunderstood the question. Zelda 2 is the latest old game. I come back to one of the many older gauntlet games. The ps2 one i think especially.

Oldest game I still play is probably Taipan.

I first played it on an Apple IIe, but now it is just a web browser thing I poke at once in a while. It is basically spreadsheets and bad luck. You trade, pirates wreck you, the math never quite works out, and you lose anyway. I think that is why I still like it. No graphics to hide behind.

After that, Seven Cities of Gold, usually on a C64 emulator. That one still holds up more than it has any right to. You sail off thinking you are doing something heroic and slowly realize you are kind of a problem. The exploration feels lonely. The map still feels bigger than it actually is.

But the oldest one I keep coming back to is Gorf on the VIC-20.

I owned the cartridge. Bought it not long after it came out. I paid for the VIC-20 by walking beans and putting up hay all summer for a farmer when I was eleven or twelve. Hot, dusty work. Long days. I remember counting the cash and realizing I could actually afford a computer.

Gorf was loud, ugly, and mean. The voice mocked you constantly. The joystick barely survived. I loved it anyway. Sitting on the floor, TV buzzing, thinking this was the future and I had somehow managed to buy a piece of it.

Also, side note. I am trying pretty hard to become a professional writer. I write essays and stories over at tover153.substack.com. If anything there hits a nerve, feel free to subscribe.

So yeah. Taipan, Seven Cities, Gorf. Not because they are good by modern standards, but because they still feel like something.

I played Super double Dragon for SNES earlier. I also played super Mario Bros 2 for nes this week. Platform games are a great way to pass the time on the go when you have a phone and a Bluetooth controller.

Every now and then I get a bit nostalgic and put on Dragon Warrior or Sword of Vermillion. I have all the older consoles.

Twisted Metal 2. I still play it on my PS4

Not crazy old but I play Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on N64 pretty regularly

In my possession is a c64 with an actual c64 monitor. Doing know if it even works. Needs a good home

World of Warcraft, but to be fair, it’s just about the only game I really play. I dabble in a few others on Steam, but I always end up back in wow.

I bought a Nintendo 3DS this year and I’ve been trying to play that more but my books are so distracting lol

Are you suggesting that Skyrim is old? It’s still getting updated, to my great annoyment.

Probably Halo reach or minecraft xbawks 360. Me and my brother are trying to get dad’s xbawks original to work, but we need to find the power cord and GIGANTIC stack of games