Video Game Memories

Recently my buddy Travis purchased a used Super Nintendo, and I played Street Fighter for the first time in who knows how many years.
I've grown past the video game stage of my life. I sold my PlayStation 2 and all my games at our garage sale because I never play it anymore. With work and a family, it's just not a high enough priority.
Every once in awhile I'll go over to my buddy Jason's and play college football on his PlayStation 3, and I still enjoy it.
But after playing that old school Super Nintendo, I did some comparing and contrasting on the old systems versus the new systems.
The most noticeable difference is that the new systems are insanely realistic. The graphics are amazing. I remember thinking Street Fighter was awesome in that regard when I was 11, but compared to the new games it looks about as modern as Pong on the Atari.
But what I miss about the old games was their imperfections. The unrealistic stuff made the games more fun. For example, on the old Madden NFL games, you could hit a guy 5 or 6 times after a play was over. Both players would immediately bounce right back up, and you could nail the guy again. Usually this would not result in a penalty, but you could occasionally injure an opposing player on a 4th or 5th hit. Regardless of whether there was an injury, each hit would result in the "hoooah....HOOOAH" rumbling sound of the players colliding.
Nowadays, when Jason gets a lucky play on me for a touchdown, I can't even fly in and take out his kicker on the extra point. As soon as a play is over, it either cuts to a replay or just moves on to the next play. They've made the games more realistic, but they've taken some of the fun out in the process.
Here are a few of my favorite old Nintendo/Super Nintendo games, and what I liked most about them.

Tecmo Super Bowl

This game was AWESOME back in the day. I had some epic battles with my next door neighbor growing up. However, if you can do this, it's obviously not the most realistic game of all time.

RBI Baseball

The original was always the best. The players were fat, the balls flew a mile out of the stadium, and if you hit one right down the line, it would get stuck in the corner to where the fat outfielder couldn't get it and you'd get an inside-the-park home run. I found this YouTube re-creation of the 1986 World Series on RBI, and it's flippin' awesome. (If you just want to see the famous Buckner play, start watching about 7:30 into the video).

I also liked RBI 2 and RBI 3. They made the players skinnier and the gameplay more realistic, plus they had every team in the majors. 

Madden Football

The best part about the old Madden games wasn't the late hits, it was what happened after a player was injured. Here's a reminder. How come they can't put that on these new football games?

In high school, I got one of the new Madden games right before our family went on vacation. I didn't even get a chance to play it. I let my friend Kevin borrow the game, and when I got back he had set every record possible. He ran the ball back to the 1-yard line so that his 99-yard pass and 99-yard rush would forever be the record for the game. He also kicked long punts and field goals and racked up 999 yards of offense or whatever the maximum was that the game would count. Then, when you went to the records page, it said "KEVIN WINS" as the user for every category. Well played, Ashman!  

Super Mario Kart

My brother Andrew and I both got really good at this game, and we had more than a few tightly-contested races. It also caused more than a few fights, but the good memories definitely outweigh the bad.

Street Fighter

I was never any kind of expert at the fighting games. I always preferred the sports games. But it was fun giving them another crack after probably 18 years. 

And it gave me the idea for this blog. Please leave a comment either here or on my Facebook page with your favorite old video game memories. There's probably enough stuff for two or three blogs on this topic, but just like mom used to say to me back in the day

(Baby) Boomer Sooner!

On Saturday I took Missy to the OU football game for her birthday.
We had a great time, but the highlight of the game was the guy sitting directly behind us.
When I titled this blog, (Baby) Boomer Sooner!, what I meant is that this dude's kids were probably baby boomers. He was pretty old.
He had a radio and some cheap headphones, which had OU stickers over each of the ears.
Before I go any further, you should know who Toby Rowland and Merv Johnson are. Rowland is the play-by-play voice of the Oklahoma radio broadcast, and Merv does the color commentary.
I'm not big on listening to games that I'm attending, but in the case of Saturday's game I didn't have a choice. This guy behind us repeated nigh near everything Toby and Merv said throughout the game.
As a journalist, I can at least appreciate the fact that this guy attributed all of his quotes. After a long pass, he'd say, "Toby said Landry (Jones, the OU quarterback) couldn't have dropped that one in any better!!!" After a big hit on defense, he's say, "Merv said that running back will be hearing bells for a week!!!"
And I'm telling you, he repeated something one of those guys said after EVERY play.
Typical of someone his age, he didn't exactly have an inside voice. There were 85,000 people at this game, which wasn't nearly enough to drown out this dude. If receiver Kenny Stills made a good play, he'd go, "KENNY!... KENNY!... KENNY! ... Merv said he's quicker than a rabbit chasing a squirrel!!!"
When OU got close to scoring, he liked to suggest plays. "GIVE IT TO WHALEY!!! WHALEY TO THE LEFT!!!" This would seem ridiculous, but he was probably loud enough for the OU coaches to hear him, even though we were on the opposite side of the field.
He disappeared near the end of the first quarter, appearing on the field to be honored with other members of the 1956 National Championship team. Props to him for that -- a pretty awesome accomplishment.
Less awesome was what happened in the second half.
At OU games, the fans hold up their index finger before every kickoff, shouting "OOOOOOOOO" until the kicker approaches the ball and then one loud "U!" as his foot hits the ball.
Now then, my wife and I are both wearing OU shirts, cheering after every good play, high-fiving after every touchdown, and doing the traditional kickoff chant.
OU ended up winning the game 62-6, and I'm not sure what the score was when this happened, but suffice it to say that OU had already scored a lot, and this guy had seen us doing a lot of cheering.
So it was a little odd when he tapped me on the shoulder following one particular kickoff. He said, "Why were you doing the Hook 'em Horns sign?"
For those of you who don't know, Oklahoma's biggest rival is Texas. Texas fans do the Hook 'em Horns sign. It looks like this. Clearly this not something that anyone -- especially not an OU fan -- would want to do in the midst of 85,000 OU fans.
I just laughed and said, "No Hook 'em Horns for me."
He continued. "No, no, no. I saw your pinky finger in the air. What's the deal with that, son?"
I said, "I'm an OU fan. I promise I wasn't doing the Hook 'em Horns."
He leaned over to his friend and not-so-quietly said, "I know I saw that pinky finger up. He was doing the Hook 'em Horns!!!"

Ah well. I hope that man is really happy on Saturday, and he will be if OU kicks Texas' teeth in when the teams meet in Dallas. Merv said that would be sweeter than your grandma's apple pie. Boomer Sooner!