As a massive Star Wars fan, one of my favourite arcade experiences was the Star Wars Pod Racer, when they had the full on pod that you could climb in. What a game. Much better than The Phantom Menace itself (although having endured the sequels, I am a prequel apologist) 
Digital worlds, real emotions: You & Videogames
Hah, it seems that you and @Louis 
had identical experiences with your trips to the arcades.
Speaking of Star Wars and videogames, KOTOR is still one of the most immersive experiences you can get with the series. BioWare truly created something special. Cannot wait to see what Ubisoft Massive will do with the franchise.
More recently, I did like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Hopefully, the rumors are true and Respawn can announce a sequel. Next month weāll have the EA Play Live, so perhaps a hint will be given.
But the most solid rumor for next month is the āre-imaginingā of Dead Space being announced. I loved the first two games. And even if EA ākilledā Visceral, the rumors point to EAās Motive studio leading the project.
6 days later
Oh man, KOTOR is easily one of my fave games of all time. BioWare under the two doctors was a god-tier studio. I sincerely wish Microsoft had bought them after publishing the first Mass Effect rather than the studio going to EA. Itās been interesting seeing the evolution of the devs who made the RPGs I grew up on. Obsidian and the games they make are faves for that reason too: fantastic, immersive world-building, with choice-driven gameplay that really delivers a sense of agency.
I completely agree with you about BioWare - I think they are still recovering from Anthem and losing two leads.
Itās interesting to see how developers are working under Microsoftās umbrella. Take Rare for example. I mean, the amount of time they are - and will be - taking to put Everwild in the market is, I think, possible by having a reliable source of income.
Not only that, but Sea of Thieves was a game that, a little bit like No Manās Sky, only grew and got better with time.
Or even the case of Playground Games. The Forza Horizon series is one of my favorites, gradually becoming more important than the Forza Motorsport saga. And now they are also going to give Fable a go. I donāt think the problem with the Xbox Game Studios is their future, but more its present.
But if you want a pure narrative-driven experience, I cannot suggest What Remains of Edith Finch enough. Love that game dearly. Or Dontnod Entertainment with Life is Strange and Tell Me Why.
Speaking about games and growing up, part of my teen years was dedicated to Monkey Island and LucasArtsā excellence - I still remember the chewing gum and the gold tooth. 
I LOVE Luigiās Mansion. I didnāt realise it was a Resident Evil game in disguise until last year when I got into the franchise.
PS: Iām always down for gaming chat! Prior to joining Nothing I worked in the gaming industry.
Video Games have gotten me through some of the hardest times in my life. Lonely times. Scared times. I have a strong connection with them from when I was a kid, to now as an adult trying to navigate myself though the pandemic.
As a kid, I had a Nintendoā¦but I wasnāt in love with it. It wasnāt until I had gotten a Sega Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, that I fell in love with games. The graphics, the music, the adventure, the creativity.
As I got older and I discovered emulators and roms, I started playing SNES games. So many games on that console are timeless and genius. I never had an SNES as a kid. I didnāt know what I was missing. But Iām glad it wasnāt until I was older because I was a little more mature and I was able to appreciate how amazing they were. I think if I was a young kid playing those games, Iād have taken them all for granted. Final Fantasy III (6) and Chrono Trigger 
are still amongst my all time favorite games.
The PlayStation 1 housed a ton of memories for me that helped me through my adolescence. Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7 and 9, Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Cross, Grand Turismo, NFL GameDay. So many memories. All those games are attached to key points in my life that I will never forget.
My favorite system of all time is the Gameboy Advanced. I could take it with me anywhere. Have fun any time, any place, and there were so many games to enjoy and delve deep into. Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced, Advanced Wars, Fire Emblem, all the Castlevania games, all the Zelda games (the Minish Cap), all the Metroid games (Metroid Fusion), all the classic SNES ports. I can go on and on. That system helped get me through college. The GBA was my clutch when I was alone.
Currently, I play many games on my phone and PS4. I hadnāt played many games from 2014-2019. Then the pandemic hit and I was out of a job. Final Fantasy 7 remake was released for the PS4 and that got me back into gaming. I played the new God of War after that. Then I discovered Horizon Zero Dawn 
.
The game Iāve been playing most lately is Axiom Verge on the PS4 and PSvita. Its a āMetroidvaniaā type of game. I discovered it from a feature story on IGN about the developer. Its a touching story. So I looking into the game and itās exactly the type of game I love to play.
Antonio_Luis Metal Gear Solid
Man this game for me was everything! Especially remember the use of the cardboard box, the āmagazinesā to distract enemies and the famous ācheatā when fighting Psycho Mantis blew my mind (Controller into P2 slot). This was such an epic game for so many reasons, would love to see a next gen remake.
āA Resident Evil game in disguiseā is a great way to describe Luigiās Mansion.
I donāt know if you enjoy horror games, but Bloober Team has done some interesting productions. I have played Layers of Fear, Blair Witch and a little bit of The Medium, and they are not bad. Observer is another solid game from them.
There are rumors circulating they are going to tackle Silent Hill. That, plus the rumors about a new Dead Space, can be incredible news. I mean, now we just need a new Forbidden Siren and a proper Project Zero, and horror fans will be in seventh heaven.
You moving from the gaming industry to Nothing makes me believe even more in whatās about to come. If you saw something that was worthy, I am pretty sure we are in for a treat. 
In a single post you mentioned: Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Cross, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, Metroid. You managed to encapsulate like 70% of videogamesā pantheon in a lovely message.
Add EarthBound to that list and itās a solid 10/10, hehe. 
Yes, so much this. I remember playing the game and when he started to mention the games I had been playing, I had to make a double or a triple take.
Metal Gear Solid is full of those moments, but another example I just remembered is the section with the long stairs in Snake Eater. And I mean, looooooooong stairs, hah. I truly enjoyed that game.
RUTHVIKi first time I played the game was on a demo from the official PlayStation magazine. The second the bad guys noticed my footprints in the snow, I was hooked. Then when I got the actual gameā¦.
. It was an interactive movie.
Oh man, I still have some Official PlayStation Magazines lying around (and Xbox ones too). In their heyday, it was a monthly highlight. Since games were way more unattainable and the digital stores were still in the making, demos truly were a great way to play something new.
For example, I remember playing the demo for a game called Overboard over and over (and over). Never bought the full release, but I knew the demo by heart.
These days, however, to me the best magazine is EDGE. The combination of design with brilliant writing still makes it the reference. A new publication that caught my attention is āA Profound Waste of Timeā - just take a look if you have a second.
I still have my collection of Official Nintendo Magazines too and I agree, they were my monthly highlight!
Demos were everything when I was younger, I remember getting a few from Pizza Hut - some of the best marketing of all time!
What a trip down memory lane. Ape Escape really should make a comeback on the PlayStation 5.
Inspired by your message, I was checking the shelves and found two magazines that caught my attention.
The first one is a good example of EDGE aesthetics and the second one is an OPM from 2002. Itās always a warm feeling seeing such a classic highlighted on a cover. I am obviously talking about Sesame Street Sports, hehe. 
Rob
Demos were everything when I was younger
Absolutely! I remember also getting some gaming magazines that would feature demo discs and just remember the excitement of only being able to play 2 levels of a game 
Also, the furious occasions where I would be playing a game, i.e. Crash Bandicoot, and I didnāt actually have a memory card so would have to leave it all on overnight (poor energy bills).
Hah, the sentiment is reciprocal, I went back to the shelves and found another one.
This is the first edition of the Official Nintendo Magazine - Portugal. It was a short-lived version of the magazine, but I managed to get the first few editions. As you can see, itās from 2003, the year Advance Wars 2 was released - super curious to check how Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp will turn out.
So many classic names on the covers you shot, Metroid Prime being one of them. I love that, just like Advance Wars, is also one of the series poised to make a return in 2021 with Metroid Dread.
Louis
Oh man, I still remember those days of playing PlayStation without a Memory Card. The game that finally made me invest money in one was Gran Turismo. It was a little bit tricky to progress in the game without saving it.
And now we have incredibly fast SSD disks on the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series. It feels like a millennium has passed since then.
Anyone remember how much storage these bad boys had? Back in the days when saved data didnāt eat your entire machine!
Heheh, imagine if Call of Duty was released for the PlayStation - I remember reading that at one point Modern Warfare was more than 200GB.
Your post also reminded me about the icons we could see on the PlayStation 2 memory menu. These days people rave about the Switch menu icons (some of them are beautiful), but we had a glimpse of them with that console - or with the GameCube, for example.
- (Edited)
Cheetosdust What are your memories of playing while growing up? What are you playing right now? And what titles and/or hardware made your wishlist grow recently?
Aye @Cheetosdust great to see you here with your writing skills. I see @[deleted] is here too
I was born in the year when the last concorde flewā¦but talking about video games, I remember playing Road Rash on my Intel Pentium 4 PC. The game had some amazing sound effects, I loved playing it
Yash Road Rash is a classic - I believe I played it on the SEGA Mega Drive at the time. If I am remembering correctly, a āspiritual successorā, Road Redemption, was released but it didnāt resonate as well as the original launch.
I just remembered another āclassicā I used to play in my Pentium days: driving - simulation or arcade - is one of my favorite genres, and it all started with a title named RAC Rally on PC.
Look at this beauty go.
Cheetosdust
It was truly a classic 
As i said earlier and iām saying it again, the sound effects were absolutely mind blowing
8 days later
@James @Rob Saw you commenting about the Playdate on the āIntroduce Yourselfā thread before and just yesterday it was announced that the pre-orders for the console will open next week, July 29th, at 10:00 AM PDT. The first ones will be shipped in ālate 2021ā.
Panic also confirmed a few details about the process. They promised the pre-orders wonāt āsell outā and that the initial batch will be around 20,000 machines. The fans who miss this window will get the Playdate in 2022.
Those who are interested in pre-ordering will have to pay the pre-order in full, but they will also be able to cancel it for a full refund. And, finally, they will be limited to two Playdates per order.
Another tidbit Iāve found while preparing this message is that the Playdate wonāt be shipped globally. Panic says theyāll add more countries, but for now itās only going to be sent to customers in these countries.
Is anyone interested in pre-ordering one?
Hereās a nice hands-on video from Engadget.