What is your greatest achievement as a gamer?

1. 70

   glenn wallaceposted 12 years ago

   We all have those video game accomplishments that we cherish.
   
   Maybe it was dominating your local arcade's Street Fighter II machine for an entire summer. Maybe it was finally beating that Genesis title, and watching the end cinematic roll at 2 a.m. Maybe it wasn't a game so much as that time you set up that LAN party in college that resulted in a whole night of epic Starcraft games. Maybe it's a particularly difficult in-game achievement on your online profile, or a popular youtube video of you playing a recent AAA release.
   
   For those of us who began gaming before the advent of in-game achievements, they were accomplishments that were sometimes only commemorated in our memories. But we all have those moments of sublime gaming glory that we take pride in.
   
   What's yours?

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   1. 95

      j-u-i-c-eposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Two great achievements:
      
      'Beating' Spiders of Mars for the Vic-20. I got so good I could earn free lives faster than I lost them. I ended up just turning the game off and never played it again.
      
      Dominating Space Harrier at the arcade when I was a kid. The second highest score was about half of mine. Actually, the day I got that score was the last time I played it. I think that's a trend.
      
      That should give people an idea how old I am, too.

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2. 93

   melbelposted 12 years ago

   Here's an almost one:
   
   I was on my warlock in World of Warcraft when the "Deadman's Hand" dropped from Arcanist Doan in Scarlett Monastery. My friend, also a warlock, won it, though. And then quit like two days later.
   
   I never ever saw that ring drop again. A WoW addict that was in our group had never seen that ring drop before either.
   
   
   I got yelled at for playing WoW at a LAN party, once. Since the LAN party was at my house (my husband at the time had thrown it) I felt that I was not required to participate in their LAN games. Plus, all they wanted to do is see if they could soup up a machine enough so that they could play Vanguard (a game which ultimately failed because nobody's machine was good enough for it.)

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3. 80

   Crewman6posted 12 years ago

   Cool topic!  I play Runescape now, and my favorite moment in that was my first time to beat Jad.  But about 30 years ago, in the early '80s, I played an arcade game called Defender, a lot.  I had just started a game when someone behind me asked if he could play when I was finished.  I told him sure, and then proceeded to play a perfect game without losing a life.  When the game recycled to begin again, I handed it over to him and said "I'm done."  I never played it again.  I had a witness, had a perfect game, and knew better than to ruin that memory by trying again.  It's my all-time favorite gaming moment!

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4. 70

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   When Diablo first hit the market, I sat down at my computer and played for 13 hours and managed to kill Diablo in that sitting. I don't play too many video games. I don't own any video game system. Computer games is what I prefer. I don't really get into gaming as a whole. I don't use online RPG's. I've never played Diablo online.
   
   Too many players have used cheat codes to increase their characters. I have three naturally built characters that can complete the game. Not to mention, Diablo has multiple expansion packs, which added things to the game.
   
   Diablo II - when it hit the market, it took me about 22 hours to complete it, just because the new patterns, new characters and more variety in selections for building a character. I had 3 characters on this one that could finish the game.
   
   And, I'm pleasantly waiting on Diablo III which is either in the stores already or just about to come out. Recently seen ads for it.

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5. 66

   Trekkiemelissaposted 12 years ago

   In STO, besides making it to endgame, I would say my best achievement would be the fact that I can hold my own in Space PVP to the point that its very hard to actually take me down.  When I started playing, I was more of a ground person, so I pushed myself to get better in space to where I am now.  Its an accomplishment because I came a long way without much help.

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6. 88

   SimeyCposted 12 years ago

   I was number one on Pole Position on every arcade machine I played - In the days when I used to go to Barry Island if you looked at the Pole Position machines they always had SMC with the highest score - I was a Pole Position fiend!

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7. 70

   glenn wallaceposted 12 years ago

   Great replies all! Any other points of gamer pride?

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8. 0

   Onusonusposted 12 years ago

   One day I was playing Dungeons and Dragons, when suddenly,,,, I stopped! And never played it again. Best decision I ever made.

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9. 61

   rbe0posted 12 years ago

   My greatest achievement was when i saved that princess in mario brothers.

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10. 60

    Matt in Jaxposted 12 years ago

    Got to be beating Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Veteran. I've always been terrible at COD story modes for some reason, but completing that on the hardest difficulty was my greatest video game accomplishment.

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Nice! Beating any game on hard mode definitely takes some dedication.

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11. 59

    R9139posted 12 years ago

    For me it was playing World of Warcraft for 80 hours straight in 2006 to get an item I no longer remember. Ah good times, shame I wasted the best part of a week doing it. Or getting the Mile High Club achievement on Call of Duty 4, after exactly 1877 attempts the month it came out.

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    1. 69

       AshtonFireflyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       ....wow....I'm impressed

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12. 69

    AshtonFireflyposted 12 years ago

    I bought my boyfriend a Gamestop gift card for christmas. Does that count?

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Only if he does something epic with the merch that the card helped purchase. Even then, you'll only be credited with the assist.

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          AshtonFireflyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Okay then well I'll ask him if he did something epic.

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13. 61

    dfuntanarposted 12 years ago

    Good topic! Damn this makes me remember those wonderful World of Warcraft Vanilla days (lol). I don't really know if these achievements are worth mentioning but they're all I can remember that seemed great at that time
    
    Completing the epic hunter quest for "Rhok'delar", I remember my friends going crazy over it that time. I'd also throw in my grind for the High Warlord rank on my rogue, (this was vanilla, when queue times can go way long, and an Alterac Valley battle  lasted hours - a 1hr AV was a quick AV, some can last days), whole grind to HW took about 15 weeks..
    
    Unfortunately, World of Warcraft is not the same anymore.. "shakes head".

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I know what you mean, having done ye'olde style 40-man Molten Core raids.
       And guilds nowadays complain about trying to get 20 people together, pfft.

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14. 60

    rai2722posted 12 years ago

    I still remember the pride I felt finishing Final Fantasy 8. Suikoden also a game that took a lot to finish.

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Yeah, loved the Suikoden series. The whole idea of building up an army, and the hideout improvements always made me love those games. I don't know I ever stuck it out to the very end on any of them though : /

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15. 78

    iantoPFposted 12 years ago

    I've never been a gamer, don't own any video or PC games, though my kids do. I was never much good at arcade or pinball games either.
    But in 2009 I wrote the song in the background of the video trailer for HALO 3 ODST. I had never even heard of HALO until I got the job. I'm still amazed at how it went viral on you tube.

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16. 76

    zoey24posted 12 years ago

    I remember completing Mario on my old Snes, me and my sister stayed up for hours completing each level

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17. 81

    David 470posted 12 years ago

    One of them was beating the final boss (SIN) on Final Fantasy 10 for PS2. Man, I want to play that game again, but need a PS3 that can play ps2 games. I also no longer own Final Fantasy 10

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Props on beating Sin... my wife and I had a tag team FF10 game, and we made it all the way to the final dungeon, before we both just burned out. I think I still have the save file on a memory card somewhere.

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18. 0

    richardkruseposted 12 years ago

    The first one that comes to mind for me is fairly recent. Super Mario Bros on the Wii...damn, that game was difficult! It starts off alright and your confidence builds and then they just knock you down continually with tricky and frustrating levels! Typical Mario game...felt REALLY good when I finished it. Good fun

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19. 56

    liamb2001posted 12 years ago

    my greatest achievements on gaming has to be on Goldeneye on the N64, completing some of the levels on that game within a certain time was near impossible, especially the one where you had to do a mqap to get invisibility magazines said it wasnt possible it was that hard but i managed to achieve it by realising that Bond moves faster when he he strafed than when he actually walked forwards....absolutley brilliant game though a classic

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Gawd, my college buds and I sunk hours into Goldeneye! Those challenge missions were great. I remember working on those, and also on Perfect Dark challenges too.

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          liamb2001posted 12 years agoin reply to this

          yeah perfect dark was a great game as well

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20. 83

    Al Shieldposted 12 years ago

    Finally completing the 'Wasteland Survival Guide' mission on Fallout 3. God she threw me some interesting challenges!

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21. 88

    WryLiltposted 12 years ago

    Got the Ambassador title on my WOW hunter back when it was hard to do.
    
    Reached level 160 on my Maplestory Bishop.

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       That title required a maxxed faction standing with how many groups? I bow to your tenacity! I just barely got the Love Fool title on my priest, mostly just for the candies.

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22. 40

    prowlinggingerposted 12 years ago

    I'd have to say beating L4D on expert. I never wanted to see another zombie after that.
    Then my friends made me join a game of versus and I was hooked at chocking people with the smoker & to drag a survivor 100 ft with your old zombie smoker tongue.

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23. 59

    Scott Fischerposted 12 years ago

    My greatest achievment...hmmm...I think I will say when I beat the Baldurs Gate Series going through the throne of Bhaal.....yeah...that was killer.

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24. 79

    Rain Defenceposted 12 years ago

    Call of Duty 2 on veteran was mine. I haven't got the patience for COD on veteran any more. I used to play it a bit a night and not turn it off til I'd got at least one checkpoint further. Eventually managed to beat it although it took ages.
    The best achievement for me though by far was the day that I took on all comers at Tekken 2 at university. It was winner stays on and I was on fire. There were about 20 lads standing around at one point and none of them could take me down. That was definitely my best gaming achievement! I'd get slaughtered at it nowadays, but in those days I played it all the time.

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Oh yeah. Loves me some Tekken. I'd get waxed at Soul Calibur, or Mortal Kombat, but I ruled the Iron Fist Tournament.

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25. 95

    Daughter Of Maatposted 12 years ago

    Ok this may be a lame one to everyone, but I was so freakin ecstatic about it, I had to take a picture and send it to my hubby at work because I got the achievement before he did.
    
    MW3 achievement: Kill a juggernaut by knifing it.
    
    It took me forever to do this, it seemed. I had the juggernaut follow me through a path of claymores, I laid into him with my CM901 and all my flashbangs and when I was out of ammo, I ran up and knifed him, killed him on the third knife.
    
    OMG it was so awesome, I scared the crap out of my daughter I screamed so loud. I HATE JUGGERNAUTS!

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       liamb2001posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       hehe brilliant, tis hard tho well done

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26. 76

    JohnGreasyGamerposted 11 years ago

    Hmm.... not really sure, in all honesty. Perhaps it's getting all 64 Orbs and 10,000 gems in Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer? Maybe it's accepting that Skylanders, Spyro's Adventure isn't an awful game? Who knows. Though when we find a challenge and beat it, we're seperated from the players.
    
    We become gamers.

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       "When we find a challenge and beat it, we're seperated from the players.
       We become gamers."
       
       Well said.

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27. 81

    mskillsposted 11 years ago

    Since the Sega Genesis was mentioned in the OP, I have to go with beating Dark Force in Phantasy Star 2 back at release.  Not Mother Brain, mind you, but that AOE spamming, mind controlling SOB Dark Force.  In a game where just making it to the end is a major achievement, the Dark Force battle is equivalent to your worst enemy pissing in your last flask of water after crawling for days through the Sahara. 
    
    As far as WoW goes, my ultimate achievement was finding the courage to cancel my subscription after Cataclysm's release, having played since the open beta.  Other than probably being the first DK on my server to own a Netherdrake right after Wrath's release, I can't think of anything particularly impressive.
    
    Does sitting through countless Commodore 64 loading times qualify?

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28. 68

    hlrutherposted 11 years ago

    I AM Leeroy Jenkins! j/k
    
    Actually, I guess the first ever game I beat stands out in my mind. It was some Duck Tales game in the early 90s. NES all the way. Now games are easy to beat because you just pause game, come back and start where you left off with unlimited dying abilities. On the NES you had three lives and no saving feature. If you lost power, you started from square one. Ahh.... the good ol' days!

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29. 77

    Greekgeekposted 11 years ago

    Beating Yiazmat in Final Fantasy XII (over 50 million HP; it takes hours. I am embarrassed to have done this. Luckily, if one has a very good grasp of tactics you can set up some automated battle actions with gambits and do something else such as knitting or graphics design and only step in every ten-fifteen minutes to do triage.) That was probably my most hardcore gamer moment, since I generally only care to finish as much of the game as possible so I don't miss out on any cool story or character moments; the actual racking up of points or trophies is not usually my goal.
    
    Completing every sidequest and minigame and maxing out all characters on Final Fantasy X (Which is currently being remastered in HD for PS3 and Vita, stay tuned) I found dodging lightning bolts strangely relaxing, but oh, the chocobo races in that game were a challenge.
    
    *pats the Auron figure on my desk; he defends my wireless router from the cat*
    
    Actually, finishing the original Karateka and rescuing all 64 hostages on the original Choplifter were a buzz at the time.
    
    But the biggest one was breaking Catherine out of prison in RIVEN. I spent all of MYST and RIVEN wondering where the heck she was, and by the time I finally reached her, I really, really liked the character. Those were great old games. (Now available on iPad!)
    
    Beyond video games, I would say that GMing a combat with over 50 different PCs and scores of NPCs ranks up there. Trying to run battles on old text-based roleplaying games, before a game engine did it for you, when we had to type all the descriptions on the fly and keep track of spells, abilities, injuries -- that was a great challenge! I am glad there's still some MU*s out there for real writers, although I gave up all that 15 years ago.

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    1. 70

       glenn wallaceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       /awe

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30. 87

    kschangposted 11 years ago

    A very very long time ago, was playing a game called "Spare Change". I was doing so well, I overflowed the 5 digit score counter.

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       mskillsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Apple IIe, baby!  Even though I could only have been 6 or 7 years old when I last played Spare Change, my fondness for the running barstool guys endures to this day.  I had almost forgotten that Broderbund published some very innovative stuff back then.

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31. 75

    Kangaroo_Jaseposted 11 years ago

    Computer generated - beating the final brain with maxxed out research tools on the original Microprose X-COM.
    
    Non Computer generated - defeating a god whom wanted to exterminate all life on our planet in Dungeons and Dragons. After battling mega-vampires, liches, demi-gods and megalithic creatures that f*** with your head, we finally defeated the god by driving him insane who convinced himself he no longer existed. 17 consecutive Friday night games....and MUCH coffee drank!

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       kschangposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       He-he-he. I edited the XCOM FAQ.

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32. 60

    snapper2kposted 11 years ago

    The ending stage of The Legend of Zelda - ocarina of time . It was so jammed packed full of action , killing gannon , the collapsing tower, the final fight with a bad ass boss.
    The ending celebration scenes reminded me of star wars return of the jedi . No game has yet been made which can surpass that!

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33. 59

    kanzelm3posted 11 years ago

    Now, don't make fun of me! I have always been a WOW nerd, I have since quit playing, but my greatest accomplishment as a gamer was when a friend and I quit our guild in WOW and we created our own by pooling together all of these great players who had a lot of respect for us, and then the first week we raided, we killed 6 out of the 7 bosses in a raid called Firelands, and our guild jumped up to rank #3 on the server. (We came from a guild that was rank #7) Pretty proud of that!

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       glenn wallaceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       That's totally cool! Especially a guild of friends has such an interesting dynamic. Just holding a large group together is a challenge, but when all that hard work comes together in successful raiding, it really is an amazing feeling.

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34. 61

    richdayposted 11 years ago

    My greatest achievement as a gamer was losing my many gaming lives and getting killed on all levels:-). Seriously.

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    movielardatadareposted 11 years ago

    I have 3.
    First, defeating Super Street Fighter 2 on Sega Genesis with all of the characters (without any cheat codes).  It felt so frickin awesome to defeat M. Bison (to this day, I still hate that dude).  This game definitely caused me the most stress.
    Second, defeating Sonic The Hedgehog because that was the first game that I ever defeated.  It felt so awesome having my younger bro cheer for me to defeat it.  And of course, I would defeat numerous more games through the years.
    Finally, defeating Deus Ex 2:  Invisible Wars (all 3 endings).  That game was just so fun and awesome to play on XBox.  I loved playing it just because the storyline was so complicated.

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