My Memories of Gaming in 1998
For many of us gamers, we’ve been playing games since our childhoods. If you were like me, most of your gaming years started around the early 90s. Most of the games during that time are what’s well-known, popular or mainstream nowadays. It doesn’t hurt looking back at the past of gaming and reliving those moments, either through memory or actually playing those games that came out during those times.
One time period that seems to always be mentioned is 1998. While I’m sure not a lot of people remember 1998, especially me since I was still a kid then and didn’t really care about what was going on in the world, a lot of gamers remember it as being a prominent year in gaming. This is mostly due to the fact that the games released then were sequels/prequels, innovative and influential or just commercially successful titles. While you can see a list of them here on Wikipedia, I can tell you here a little about some of the games from that year I’ve experienced. I will say, majority of these games were experienced after 1998 and were only a small play sessions or demos.
Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Pretty much my last time playing fighters in arcades. Mostly due to the fact that arcades were hard to come by and the closest one at the time was a 30 minute drive to the mall. Either way, seeing Ryu and MegaMan fight Wolverine and Spiderman was amazing. I wasn’t really good at the game though. I would probably win one match before either the next round or if a bigger kid came and beat me in the next match. It was one of the first games I came across that had crossover characters, which later became a feature I love in fighting games today.
This version was just a demo of the game my cousins had, but a demo we played non-stop. The only characters available were Xiaoyu and Eddie in the demo, but once learning Eddie’s spinning kicks, we would have matches to see who was better as him. His stage music has been embedded in my mind, I’m glad NamcoBandai added the Jukebox mode in Tekken 7 (only on PS4, though) just to hear it again.
I’ve been seeing commercials and booths advertising this game so much, I thought he was a game character I just never heard of, and there were a lot of them at the time. I got a hold of the game as a rental and played it. The cartridge I had wasn’t completed, so I continued. After not getting far, I started a new game from scratch. Needless to say, I wasn’t too interested in the game. The gecko mechanics were pretty good, but I think I had problems with attacking enemies. I remember smiling at some of the quips from Gex, but looking back at them now, they still make me smile, but only how lame they are now.
A game series that I would have never would thought would stick with me. The demo for Metal Gear Solid was so intense for me, that it took me years to actually man up and play the demo in its entirety. I remember my cousin and I were scared to get past the front entrance to the base because we didn’t know how to get pass the guards without getting caught. Hearing the screams and cries of Colonel Campbell, Dr. Naomi and Mei Ling after Snake dies were a bit too dramatic for me. Granted, this was a huge jump from Mario and Sonic games, but the interesting story, realism of the world and dramatic acting was too much for me to not know what the game was all about. After playing the demo, I wanted to play the game, but didn’t had a memory card at the time and Metal Gear Solid 2 was already out. I did finally played it, but it was the Twin Snakes version.
These were random sports games my father bought. NASCAR was bought one day after work. Madden was a Christmas gift. I wasn’t really interested in sports titles, mostly because I was not good at them. I guess it was his way to get me into sports and get me from playing games so much. I didn’t really play them much with anyone either. For some reason, Madden 97 was still fun on the PSOne.
Then this bad boy came out and I was hooked! You telling me I can play a football game in arcade style AND body slam my opponents when I’m mad at a play?! Anyways, the arcade style of the game make someone like me who didn’t understand football at the time learn it quickly. Finding and printing out cheat codes for the game to put in (Headless mode, anyone?) were great, especially rushing to see who can put in the most codes (they even worked in the demo, too!). Plus, the music made each game more like an epic battle was about to go down in the stadium. One of my greatest moments was using the game to predict the Super Bowl XXXIII game between Falcons and Broncos by finally beating my cousin in the game with the Broncos. This game was the hypest shit when it came out and I only wish it continued better than it did.
I remember when my sister and I finally got ourselves a PSOne, it came with a Playstation Underground disc. It had some games, including Spyro the Dragon, but also promoting the game by having a behind the scenes of the development of the game. I didn’t understand most of it as a kid, but it was cool to see a look into making a game like that. The game’s music always stuck with me, especially the calming sounds of Dark Hollow and the rocking beat of the Title Screen that played in the Overworld in the demo.
Once these games came out in the US in 1998, I wasn’t too sure on what to make of it. It as a GameBoy game, which was already interesting, but it was an RPG style game that came out around the time of the virtual pet craze, which was starting to become oversaturated to me already. I guess it being an actual video game was enough to spark my interest. I only got a chance to play a bit of it thanks to a friend, but it was interesting to see a world were I can just go around, collect, fight and trade monsters and raise them to become stronger. I finally got the game a few years later, but by then Gold and Silver was about to come out.
Another random game I got which I honestly don’t remember if it was for my birthday or Christmas. Regardless, this was my first experience with a military style shooter. Needless to say, this game was only loaded probably three times. The game was too realistic for me to understand how to play and PC gaming was still new to me. I thought it was just a cheap selling PC game, but I’m now learning it was a pretty popular series that had its starting in 1998.
The demo of this game was so fun, I can’t think of any time where we would not turn on the PSOne and not play it. I remember really wanting the game when it finally came out, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it. It was interesting to see the game’s dark and gloomy atmosphere. Paired with the weird motion animation common in PSOne games back then and it made some of the cutscenes and enemy movements kinda scary. I was looking forward to playing the remake, but after hearing some of the reviews, I think I will not spoil it and just find the original and play it instead.
Another demo my cousins and I had that we played numerous times. The cool think it we both had different versions of the demo. One of our disc had the level were Crash is underwater, while the other had the level were Coco is riding the tiger on top of the Great Wall. We never got the game despite playing the demos so much. Usually because by then, my cousin’s PSOne was starting to wear out and we were losing interest in it.
There are other games I’ve eventually played years after their release, but after playing them and learning how popular they are and when they came out, its easy to see how 1998 could be seen as a prominent year in gaming. Its more prominent to me personally because this was a year were most of my favorite games have came out. Some of these games became important to me personally in other ways. I don’t think I would ever have a year like that in my life gaming wise, but I would like to experience more of these games from 1998.
Were there any games you played that came out in 1998 you enjoyed? What was your experience playing it?