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5 Most Frustrating Video Gaming Elements of My Childhood (That Naturally Still Piss Me Off Today)

Video games are supposed to be fun, not frustrating.  Challenging sure, but when you’re seven years old and your parents are helping you fill out your first Anger Management class application because you just pushed over your dad’s brand new Zenith television set after activating real-life beast mode, something is wrong.  Blowing in the ends of NES game cartridges to make them work?  That was fun!  Seeing your AOL Internet connection time out just as your engineer in Command & Conquer was about to capture your opponent’s MCV because your family only had one phone line?  Completely not fun – and you know what, it is still frustrating to think about today.  Come to think of it – I can count five of my most frustrating video game moments from my childhood that still irritate the heck out of me, some twenty plus years later.  Some may classify this as a recurring rage problem; I like to call it simply my passion for (un-interrupted, frustration free) gaming.

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16-Bit Characters in Real Life Photos

Where are all my retro gamers at?  Raise your hand if you grew up on the NES, and if the top two items on your Xmas list started with a Super Nintendo and ended with a Nintendo GameBoy, and I’m talking the old school brick of a GameBoy with a black and white screen.  Color screen?  That wasn’t even a rumor at that point; I think the word “fantasy” is a more apt description.  All of us at that point in the gaming world were longing for realistic graphics, and in the late 80’s/early 90’s, we still had a long ways to go.  The advent of the Super Nintendo really was a neat jump, as it allowed for at tremendous amount more processing power, and maybe above all else, a ton more colors.  It really wasn’t until the N64 however until we really saw an epic graphical jump, and now today, we’re about as realistic as we’re going to get.  Seeing these amazing photochops (easy to do, really) below really brings back some memories, although I’ll admit, there are some characters where I don’t know the game that they’re from.  That’s where you come in; you’re slightly qualified, right?  You raised your hand earlier, didn’t you?

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Odd Gaming Tributes: The Elevator

After more than 160 years since its invention, the elevator remains arguably one of the most socially-awkward environments today.  Everyone stares straight ahead, talking is strictly forbidden, and everyone is hoping in the back of their mind that the lift doesn’t get stuck.  Or that Hannibal Lecter isn’t hiding on top of it.  Gaming has incorporated the awkward, but useful invention since the 1980’s in some very memorable games, such as TMNT: Turtles in Time, and the very first Mass Effect.  So how the heck does an elevator garner its own tribute on SQ?  Well, we labeled it as an “odd” gaming tribute, so we think that justifies the love, however through our nearly twenty some odd years of gaming experience, we’ve come to notice a few awesome trends that all revolve around the epic experience that is the virtual elevator; click that attractive link below for full, scientific results.

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