Replaying Mega Man 1-6 for the 999th time

After living and breathing NES Mega Man over these few days, did you dream about it? Did you think you were him for a moment, and try to shoot your microwave with your hand?

I read the part about your grandfather. It's interesting to imagine for me. I never played games with an adult growing up, not once. Father and grandfather both dead, and I'm not sure it ever occurred to my mother to even try one. Then again, I should ask her. Maybe she played some Pac-Man or Space Invaders when she was younger? She didn't mind us playing them, though, up until we started playfighting after accidentally hitting each other in Streets of Rage or whatever beat-'em-up we had rented for the weekend. That's my older brother and me - he's the only family member I ever played video games with. My friends' parents never played them either. I do remember my friend telling me he'd gone to visit his grandmother or great aunt or something, I think, out in the country, and she had a Sega system that was older than the Genesis - that's the first time I heard of the Master System. I guess it had belonged to a kid who had moved out since. Ha, I usually avoid nostalgia now, but this whole topic makes me miss being a kid, pre-Internet, when the world seemed so mysterious. Like, for years I wasn't convinced there was a Street Fighter 1. We'd just never seen it anywhere, Capcom kept making new SFIIs... I figured they had just named their series "Street Fighter 2" and that was it.

Xeogred Heck of a nostalgia ride for you 'eh? Interesting read with the childhood stuff you put in.

Your fervor for MM makes me want to finish the NES and X entries I've not played through yet:

MM = 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
MMX = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Then again, looking at that many games my eyes kinda glaze over.

Speaking of MM games not beaten yet, I've got one for you that I bet you haven't.

I was messing around with some WonderSwan emulation last night and came across this 1999 series entry:





(The game's framerate is much smoother IRL, don't know why this video is choppy.)

"Rockman & Forte: Mirai kara no Chōsensha, also known as Mega Man and Bass: Challenger From the Future, and often abbreviated as R&F2 or MM&B2, is a classic Mega Man game for the WonderSwan, serving as a sequel to Mega Man & Bass. Like its predecessor, Mirai kara no Chōsensha includes both Mega Man and Bass as playable characters, with the two characters having the same unique abilities they had in the prior game. There are only eight stages in the game: An intro stage, six Robot Master stages (though only five of them give weapons), and a fortress stage. Expanding on the visual differences between Mega Man's weapons and Bass' weapons in Mega Man & Bass, the two now get different weapons from each of the Robot Masters (though two of the Robot Masters give weapons that are only different in name). The game's music is lifted straight from Mega Man & Bass, and bosses uniquely lack invincibility frames."

As far as my family gaming goes...

When I was in third grade, my mom used to play Atari 2600 and SEGA Master System games with me. She would even play Joust, Quartet, Wonder Boy and Fantasy Zone II on her own. But she quickly grew bored with them and stopped caring by the time I was in 4th grade.

My dad never played video games with me. Actually he always made fun of me for liking them. My dad thought video games were a complete waste of time. But my dad still allowed me to play all I wanted at night (though he made me do endless chores during the day).

I used to co-op/versus games with my cousin when I was kid (we are same age), and also my brother who is 8 years younger than me. On the very rare occasion my brother is around me IRL, we will still play video games together. But that's very rare as we live on opposite sides of the continent now.

I played a lot of video games with my daughter as she was growing up. We still play them together from time to time nowadays.

I play video games with my niece and nephew occasionally, they really enjoy kart racers.

The majority of family gaming I do now though, is with my wife. She very much enjoys playing video games with me. But she never plays video games on her own.

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I do intend to beat the rest of the NES MM games eventually. And at least beat MMX4 in the X series. I have sunk time into other NES and X MM games, I've sampled all of them. So I recognize these games' quality, I don't think these are bad games at all. It's just that after beating a few MM games, they become very familiar experiences. I tend to seek out new-to-me experiences rather than rehashing already explored ones. But I don't look down on anyone who enjoys a formula. I would play a dozen King's Field or Front Mission games if they existed.

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Anyway it was fun to read about some of Xeogred's childhood gaming experiences. I can see how they shaped him into the gamer he is today.