best video game of all time

There's a bar in St. Louis that has a Sega with all the classic games available for play ... for free. Last time I was there, that's all we did. Didn't touch Golden Tee, we just rotated through FIFA 95, NHL 94 and the NFL game.

http://www.tincantavern.com/

 

For me it's hard to be Blades of Steel. A classic of classics.
FIFA is a very underrated series, mainly because of soccer's low profile over in comparison with the other major sports, but a great game none the less.
Someone mentioned the High Heat series earlier, by far the best baseball game ever.
I also remember playing Montezuma's Revenge on the old Commadore 64 for hours on end. A great game from what I remeber

 

Blades of Steel is legendary. Just thinking about it makes me want to punch someone.

Speaking of punch, Mike Tyson's Punchout is also legendary, and the World Series 1995 game for Sega Genesis changed baseball games in a great way. Had a blast playing that one with my buddies.

Mario Kart 64 is another classic. It would be awesome if they'd made a Mario Kart for the Wii with a steering wheel. It wouldn't be as cool as the actual golf club controller for Wii Tiger 08 ... but close.

 

No love for Bulls vs. Blazers?

I can see that.

 

If we're going PC, I always preferred Old Time Baseball.

Never did get High Heat, so don't have an opinion on it one way or the other. I've never been too impressed with video-game baseball, although I had a grand time playing RBI Baseball, Bases Loaded and Roger Clemens MVP Baseball D!) when I was a kid. Wish they'd make something like Old Time Baseball again, though. These other games are too much style, not enough substance, for me.

 

Never been a fan of the modern baseball games. I haven't liked one since RBI and Bases Loaded 2.

 

http://www.thewiire.com/news/1168/1/Mario_Kart_Wii_Baby_Peach_Miis_and_More

A Wii Mario Kart should be on its way this year, following a new Super Smash Bros.

BTW, can't believe no one's mentioned Super Smash Bros. All your favorite Nintendo characters beating the rip-living shit out of one another. Great party game. It was an easy way for a younger, thinner ER to pass eight hours with his friends (and worrying the Hell out of his mother in the process).

Anyway, if we're talking flat-out best for consoles:

Atari - Pac-Man
NES - SMB
SNES - Mario Kart
Genesis - NHLPA '93
64 - Super Smash Bros.
Wii (so far) - Super Mario Galaxy (it's new, but so, SO worth it)

Never got much into GTA or first-person shooters.

Sorry. I'm your friend who you kill on one-hit-kill using slappers only. I fucking hate first-person shooters because I suck at them. My brother once told me that, at the moment of my death, my sight would go red, then black and the last sound I heard would be the Bond guitar twang. I'm that awful.

 

Is that like Baseball Mogul or Out of the Park sims? Or is that more of an action-type game like MVP 05?

And did you ever play Earl Weaver Baseball?

 

I liked Tony LaRussa Baseball for the PC. It was one of the first PC games I owned, back in '93 or so.

 

Those two games were responsible for me dropping out of KU.

 

Was that the one with Billy Swift on the cover?

UPDATE: It is. Outstanding game. I loved Bob Hamelin on that one!

 

Never did play Weaver, although if I had known about it then I would have loved to. Of course, I was about 6 at the time, but still.

I was more into the Tony La Russa Baseball games from Stormfront Studios -- which Old Time Baseball was a spin-off from. (And before that, I was into MicroLeague Baseball on the PC.)

The guy who designed Weaver, Don Daglow, was also the designer for the La Russa games. (He designed a shitload of innovative games in the 1970s-90s for Intellivision, EA and Stormfront). Similar to Weaver, the La Russa games were a combination arcade-style and sim-style, so you could play the games if you wanted or you could go into "manager mode".

What made Old Time so unique was that it encompassed a (mostly) accurate archive of every player and team from 1871-1981. You could play any season, or you could create leagues and include any team from any era. Or you could open an existing season (or your created league) up to a fantasy draft, and mix and mingle players on all teams.

I once created an 8-team league of Yankee teams: 1921, '27, '36, '41, '49, '56, '61, '77. (By the way, 1961 NYY won the pennant by 2 games over the 1927 Yanks.)

The stadium detail -- 16 parks, including old "Death Valley" Yankee, old Fenway, Shibe, Polo Grounds, Wrigley, Sportsman, Ebbets, Griffith, etc. -- was exquisite. You could choose Mel Allen or Curt Gowdy to narrate.

Every game I've played since, especially on video systems ... you might be lucky to have two "all-star" teams (Legends vs. Greats), or something like that. Some of the EA Sports games are cool, in that you can unlock old uniforms and then create a historical team ... but they don't have the capacity that those old PC games did. (That is, I could create a full roster for the 1919 White Sox and play a season with them but it wouldn't let me create more than, say, 50 players at one time. So I couldn't play out the entire 1919 season on a video game like I could with Old Time Baseball.)

I've still got my CD with Old Time Baseball on it, along with the original packaging. A few years ago, I called Stormfront Studios to see if they had released that game on another format or if they knew of some kind of emulator that would enable me to play it on my computer now. But they didn't have a clue. ... I might not have a girlfriend anymore if I had the ability to play a game like Old Time Baseball again, but I'd make a few other concessions to have that chance.