by Malefico

Well, our first Retroary has been awesome. Every time I’ve visited the site this month I’ve been taken back in time with fond memories of one game or another. But like all things, even excellent ones Retroary is coming to an end. Here are a few brief flashbacks in the gaming careers of some of our members. Thanks to everyone who responded on short notice to help put this together. And it’s scary, two of five submissions are about World of Warcraft…

Runescape Reminiscence

“My finest moment in gaming was when I slayed the Dragon in Runescape, completing the hardest free-to-play quest. I stepped into the dungeon on Crandor Island, hand dripping with sweat and almost sliding off the mouse. After clicking through a full inventory of cooked lobsters, the dragon was almost dead. I remember the sheer panic I felt at that point. My weapon needed to connect just once more and sure enough, it did. After that, I couldn’t help myself. I stood up and stated, “I slayed the dragon,” loudly and with utmost seriousness. My cousins caught me in the act and still make fun of me for it to this day. But I don’t care, part of being a gamer is accepting yourself for how weird and nerdy you are.”

-Budroo

Dead Reckoning

“It was a bright and cloudless day, because it had to be. I kept the windows open to let in a breeze and remind me of the sun-dappled green outside, to prepare me for what was to come.  I opened up Dead Island, and prepared to face my deep phobia of zombies. The idea of a shambling human, corpse or virus-infected, without free will, terrified me. I mean, come on, I left the theater in the middle of 28 Weeks Later, not even the much scarier prequel.”

“As I played through the opening sequence in Dead Island, the game’s first three zombies ran at me in the darkness, and I died. In the end, it took me 30 minutes of button mashing to succeed in running away. However, I had run across my worst virtual fear and (finally) survived. Now, I can safely curb-stomp, head-shot, and otherwise grievously harm even the creepiest of the undead with a crowbar in my hand and nothing but nerd rage in my heart.”

-Konya

Malefico Ascendent

“I’ll never forget one particular Battle Ground match. I was at the point in my WoW career where I only ever logged on to do PVP. I’d been having a very mediocre night with my undead DK and I was about to wrap it up, but queued for one more BG hoping I could get back on track with a win.”

“I dropped into Warsong Gulch… Less than seven minutes left, the Allies had already captured two of three flags for the win, we had no captures and they were already scampering away with our last flag. ‘Oh well,’, I thought to myself, ‘at least it won’t take long…’”

“I mounted up and ran them down in midfield. With more hordies on my tail, I sailed off my mount into their FC group and started laying into them energetically. We managed to kill their FC and grab their flag… Less than three minutes and two horde captures later, it was a game again and I was fired up.”

“Both groups grabbed flags and returned them to base. I charged across the field with a hunter and druid behind me, ran through the second level of the Allies’ base and jumped down into the defense group. I popped Death and Decay (blasting their rogue out of stealth), then Army of the Dead on the melee troops and started to pound on their healer. I was just about to go down when our druid started dropping the awesome heals on me. With their defenders concentrating on me I killed the healer then went to work on the rest of them. Our hunter was popping folks from the second level while I hacked them up from close range. We both got good kills but I killed their FC and returned our flag. Booyah! Horde captures the last flag for the win, the crowd goes wild… For The Horde!!!”

-Malefico

Puzzle Palace

“My finest moment in gaming came in the mid to late 90s. There was a puzzle game called Chip’s Challenge, and it was originally released in 1989 for the Atari Lynx but was later ported to Windows 3.1 and 95. This game contains 149 levels, and the game only gets harder and harder with each successive level. My sister and I would play it after we did our homework, and we would try to beat it together. At first, we flew through the first couple of levels, as they were easy. But as we progressed, we would find ourselves spending an entire evening on just one level! And we might not even beat it! After a number of tries, the game will ask you if you would like to skip it. You can click yes, but you won’t really be able to win this way. You must complete every level in its entirety to be a TRUE winner!”

“Maybe it feels like it took forever because I was only a child, but if I had to guess how long it took for us to beat this game legitimately, I would say 6 months or more. This is one of the most challenging games I’ve ever played, but there was NO better feeling than the day we beat level 149! It was a truly great experience, and we basked in our glory for days to come. But after 6 months of hanging out with Nerdy Chip McCallahan, we both talked about how much we actually missed the game, and we almost wished it never ended. That’s how a game is supposed to be made, folks. Talk about a rewarding game and a great experience for my sister and I.”

-NerdBerry

Level 90… WoW!!!

“One of my finest moments in gaming was finally hitting the level cap in World of Warcraft. I had been playing the game on and off since its release but as the years went on I never saw a character to max level. About a year ago I finally told myself, “You’ve been saying you’d reach the level cap for 9 years now. This time you’re doing it.” A new expansion had come out, Mists of Pandaria, and I was at college with a light class schedule. The perfect combo. With determination I started a fresh character and finally hit level 90. It was a great feeling. What was even more exciting for me was that I could now try out things like raids and other end game content.”

-Uber Nerd