I remember when my cousin got me a copy of Colonization and I wanted to play it more than play Pictionary with the family. To this day its still one of my favorite games, Colonization not Pictionary.

One of my favorite gaming moments was hiding under a table from the alien in Alien Isolation. It noticed me but then pretended not to and tip toed while smiling off-screen, just to jump on top of the table and get me. That kind of quality programming is why it's my favorite horror game of all time.

Since this is a PC site I'll give you my PC stories.

I remember playing Monkey Island when I was a kid. I can't remember if I played it on 386SX/DX or a 466DX/SX. I always LOVED that game. I would like to find an old box for memory sake.

My first encounter with Wolfenstein 3D was at a Montgomery Ward where an employee had left it playing. I gave it a shot, definitely something different. I don't remember if I saw the blood or not...I remember the employee closing the game or shooing me away.

I remember that Shareware collection of games called "The Gold Vault", "The Diamond Vault", etc. This is how I came across the ORIGINAL Duke Nukem so when I hear of Duke Nukem I definitely think of the original game...which is a
classic. I remember finishing the first episode and getting the message to send X dollars to X address. I remember the hidden items. I can't remember if there were hidden areas but I definitely remember playing the crap out of that 2D platformer.
Another game I found on that collection I believe was an action or turn based RPG called "Excelsior" which has the HARDEST puzzles I have ever encountered in any video game. I've been meaning to buy the first and second game. You can look up the game and should still be able to find it. The game is a definite classic, even if it looks dated by today's standard, especially given the impossibility of the puzzles. I know there's "7th Guest" which I like but this is worse.
I remember when the PC market was even more diverse. At one point the Dreamcast was dying and instead of allowing it not to be released in the US Sega translated "1000 Swords" to English and released it on PC. I suppose Japanese companies are looking at the PC again.

I'll try to remember more later.

Damn, that's impressive! You reminded me of the first time I played FFV, a Japanese cartridge on an SNES with a converter. I spent over 20 minutes fighting a dragon in a chest in the end dungeon, wondered why it was so difficult, eventually had to turn off the game (later just skipped the chest and beat the game). Years later, I was chatting with a friend who played this version, and he said, "Oh yeah, that dragon's bugged. It can't be beaten." Got my revenge in the GBA version and shredded the bastard.

I don't know when you stopped HM, but just to let you know, the current HM games are cheap clones of its history. Story of Seasons is the real deal, being the new name of the localizations of the Japanese Bokujo Monogatari series.

Anyway, I have loads of good memories, but I'll post my most recent experience. I played 100s of hours of Terraria on the 3DS (I prefer handheld games), beating everything solo except for Duke Fishron, Ocram, Pumpkin Moon, and Frost Moon. Got burned out because I was too lazy to build proper arenas for the Moons, too unsure of myself to fight Ocram, couldn't find a truffle worm to challenge Duke Fishron. (Then I got a Switch and Breath of the Wild, and good-bye life for months.)

Recently thought about Terraria again, found it's coming to the Switch in 2019, decided to mess around in the 3DS version again. It... sucked me back in.

Revisited old worlds to see what I did back then, created a new world but used my OP character, had a blast exploring. All sorts of things happened during the month or so of play. The slime staff dropped 3 times in as many days, when the first time I got one was well into hardmode. The new world got corrupted (as in it wouldn't load and crashed the game), but luckily I'd been moving all my stuff to my storage world. My first few truffle worms were stuck on the ground, so harvested them easily, the next few scared me witless by shooting past me at mach speed. (But still didn't challenge Duke Fishron because I was rusty.) Found an Enchanted Sword! The new new world also got corrupted. (Never happened in the 100s of hours before, but twice in this current run, only lost a few statues.) Oh, right, and I killed my first rainbow slime, too!

And here I am. Decided to just go ahead and download it to my PC, see the bajillion new things not in the 3DS version, even if it means starting from scratch. I tell you, I'm doing better than I thought I would. The Terraria gods have rewarded me with some pretty good RNG early on. ^o^

That's Shinryu (spelling?) one of said optional bosses. Even harder than Omega weapon. I don't think he was bugged, just absolutely rock hard to beat.
In that run I destroyed him without breaking a sweat :)

Ok, and another memory.

My brother is also hugely into gaming and all through our childhood we'd play games, often this meant taking turns on whichever Nintendo console we had at the time or on the single PC we had. More often then not this meant my brother playing and me watching (I'd never have admitted it back then but he was much better at pretty much all games than I was).

But this led to finding ways to play games co-op that weren't really meant to be. The first was a game called Isolated Warrior on the NES where we found out that the second controller could move the player, so I'd sit and watch for any projectiles my brother might have missed and dodge to the side when they came. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but it was fun.
Then there was a PC version of a sonic game (I can't remember which one, there were two or three on the disc we got) where when playing as Sonic Tails would follow you around and you could get him to carry you places. Until we realised a second player could control him and he had unlimited lives. So I would play as Tails and just fling myself at difficult enemies and bosses to kill them as it didn't matter if I died I would just reappear. We won the whole game like that.
And last was Diablo 2, a game which admittedly terrified me, so much so that I never completed it myself.
I wasn't particularly scared of the enemies, but of dying and having to run weaponless to find my corpse and retrieve my stuff.
My brother had no such issues, but in the midst of a fast and frantic boss run reaching up to hit the number hot keys to use a potion could distract you enough to kill you, so that was my job. I was potion guy.
I'd sit hovering over the number keys ready to replenish health or mana as required, and it was often required. And playing like that we beat both Diablo and Baal in the expansion.

Ever since that "conquered nightmare" I can usually do it if things go south in a dream and I wake up from it.

Bump for visibility.

I will talk about... game variants! Self-imposed rules in one of the games I have played the most, Sid Meier's Colonization.

One colony challenge: OK, everyone and their dog have done this... But keep in mind that in the 1990s, pre-Internet, as a kid this was an idea of my own. I found the perfect spot in North America, a tile with access to fish, wood, mineral ore and some fields to plow. Maybe, more than the challenge, I loved this location so much that I didn't want to build anywhere else. I played many games, with different nations, building only one colony in the perfect spot.

The Rum Empire: and now we arrive to my second era of playing Colonization, thanks to GOG and their ready to install classic games. Things will start to become more creative. For this game, as the Spanish, I claim the Greater Antilles (Cuba and Hispaniola) and the northern coast of Colombia and Venezuela, turning the Caribbean into my own Mare Nostrum. I prioritized planting sugar and manufacturing it into rum, building a successful tycoon empire. At some point I had sold so much rum in Europe that the prices dropped too much and it was more profitable to sell the raw sugar! This game taught me to diversify my economy with backup goods (thank God Cuba had one tobacco plantation).

The railroad: I wanted to simulate the construction of an Atlantic-Pacific railroad in the United States, so the British seemed the natural choice. With only one port in the Atlantic, I started building a roads (let's imagine our trade caravans were metal horses) and some colonies in key strategy points, mainly to get ore, silver and other goods unavailable in my settlement. Finally, after a very careful expansion and a legendary migration to the West, I was able to found my second port, in the Pacific, with a contiguous road network joining the two coasts of the continent! In this game I had to master land transportation to move goods to my port colonies, and I actually used the Pacific route to Europe (I even had a permanent armada in California!). This also took the focus to zones that in games are usually just places to explore with a scout; for example, the Apache became one of my main allies and, eventually, my biggest enemies. In addition, the Royal Expeditionary Force landed in the West instead of the East, turning the Independence War into a unique experience.

One of my memorable #GamingMoments in my gaming life is not bask in glory, but in defeat.

I was at 5th grade, and my first ever PC was given to my family as a secondhand from my Uncle's office. It was an old 286 CGA DOS PC, not even modern at that year standard. But it still usable and good enough for gaming if you can find a compatible games playable at 16-color palette. Prince of Persia, Prehistoric, Golden Axe are games that works flawlessly on that. But my fondest memories comes from a legendary basketball game, 1989 EA's Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoff.

It was a great game, with fully licensed NBA players name with their own signature move. Barkley's Gorilla Dunk, a certain Jordan & Pippen combo, John Stockton with his sweet 3 point at the top of the arc. But really the best player in the game is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. His sky hook is beautiful and as in real life, unstoppable with 100% accuracy (at least if he's not drop dead tired).

On the school break playground chat, my friend mentioned that he too have that game on is his family's PC. He invites me to come over to play and I happily obliged. His home located on a shopping district doubles as a shop and the family room is on the 2nd floor upward. His PC is better than me, also DOS but with VGA colors and the game never looks better. I manage to beat him easily, but then his older brother, maybe about 9th grade comes back from school. Me, high from the joy of winning challenges him for a game. He's kind enough to play with his brother's friend.

In the first quarter, he observed my playing style. I use Kareem in box one with him also doubles as a main point getters (I criminally underused Magic). After me leading in quite a margin at half time, he said "OK, you playing with that direct playing style. Let me show you how to play the game". Playing with the Bulls, he get his team in their sweet spot, killing me with MJ and 3 points galore. He eventually winning with just 2 points difference. Unlike me in the halftime, he didn't gloat much.

A game can be play in many different tactics, some are better than others. It is up to you to find it. I also realize how good you think you are on your own, there will always be persons better than you. And premature celebration will never bring good fortune. I think it also applicable not only gaming wise but also in real life.

This game? http://www.excelsior-rpg.com/

I think everyone on this forum has a love for games that nongamers just dont get. Most of us have spent those timeless adolescent years playing a game that brought us out of our realities into worlds we never could have believed possible. I still get those nostalgia feelies whenever I hear the intro music of Myst or System Shock, immediately sending my mind to that time I played, and who I was at that time. Gaming is so much more than some entertainment to while away hours of boredom, or it can be. We all have tons of library titles that just dont reach that level of soul binding, but now and then we find 'that' game that rings all our bells, tickles our toes and sends us into digital nirvana. Its why we keep rolling the dice and buying games, hoping for that lottery win.

I have many gaming moments, times where I paused the action on the screen to just look around, take in the wonder of a beautifully painted landscape or some tiny detailed bit of art that is lost in the grander span of the game. In a time of my life that was difficult I found solace in digital worlds that let me escape for a few hours. Ive felt loss when a loved character died or a favorite series ended. Rage when I lost saved games and had to start over. Sat there open mouthed at some plot twist. Morrowind, Riven, Tex Murphy, Gabriel Knight, Unreal, Silent Hill, Project Zomboid.. the list goes on and on.

Instead I will share my most enduring moment in gaming, its when my avatar in an mmo stumbled across a ridiculous looking character who got right on my nerves. He was annoying, silly, chose horrendous cosmetic looks and was clueless about game mechanics. I took pity on him and tried to show him how to work the game. it took me by surprise to find that I had been chatting with this dork for hours without noticing. Next day there he was in the same neighborhood. And the next. and the next. fast forward years of game chat, different mmos, group pugs, taking on quests, grinding for mats, fighting bosses in guilds, making homesteads, our game friendship morphed into something more. I was there during his real life triumphs, boredoms, irritations, family dramas and incredible losses as he was for mine. It took years but eventually we met in life, from different countries and worlds. That first moment face to face was intense... and also not. tho we had not ever seen each other it felt like no big deal, we had after all shared ourselves virtually for years. Been together ever since, our desktops are next to each other and we still game. More people are getting it nowadays, a billion dollar industy has clued in that just because its virtual dont make it less intense than reality, senses are what they are and can be easily fooled with technology. I will always be a gamer, whether by keyboard and mouse or futuristic neural emplant (its coming I just know it) it fills a void in my life that only gets larger the older i get and my physicality narrows. I can ride whales, build worlds, fly spaceships and fight zombie hordes with my ax and never tire, never ache, never die, forever young.

Firewatch's wedding ring, putting it back on and feeling devastated.
Small details like that one simple ring that turn into memorable experiences are what keeps me hooked to videogames even today.

I'd say we should be adding mintee to that top list. Excellently written post too.

There are a few posts in this thread that don't just present some stories, but through being shared here, and in this manner, and being connected to the common reason why we're all here, show what's left of the heart of this community, or what should be.

Mintee, your post reminded me of this lovely article: My life as the grandma guildmaster of Ultima Online Forever (https://www.pcgamer.com/my-life-as-the-grandma-guildmaster-of-ultima-online-forever/)