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Mingo’s Video Game History

I’ve played lots of video games in my life, but these are the ones that stuck. Most I finished, all of them I remember fondly and have sentimental value, like a good film or book.

Released Game Platform Played
1988 Pinball Construction Set
Make my own pinball machine?! I truly live in the future now!
Mac 1991
1988 Shufflepuck Café
Hours and hours of flinging my mouse across the desk.
Mac 1991
1989 Chip’s Challenge
Loved playing this game at my childhood friend Daniel.
Lynx 1991
1989 Final Fight
Co-op with my best mate.
Arcade
1989 Pipe Dream
Not many games ran on the Classic, but this, Shufflepuck and MS Flight Simulator kept me busy.
Mac 1991
1990 Looney Tunes
Loved the animations and smooth game play, not too challenging though.
GB
1990 Revenge of the Gator
Great physics and I've always had a week spot for pinball games.
GB
1990 Super Mario Land
If I close my eyes and think of video games, I hear this Mario music playing, not the NES one.
GB
1990 Tetris
This should probably be on my moms list, because this game drained so many batteries over night after I went to bed.
GB
1991 Blades of Steel
Icing!! What the hell is an icing? I have no clue. Best sports game of my youth.
GB
1991 Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0
I regularly flew from Chicago to New York City in real time at 5 fps on a Mac Classic, what did you do with your childhood?
Mac
1991 PGA Tour Golf
Gaming on a Mac, you take what you can get. Putting and choosing the right golf-rod (that's the term, right?) was my favorite part.
Mac
1991 SimCity
Building the smallest viable self sustaining cities, in hind sight, was a good challenge for my web-dev career later on.
Mac
1991 Todd’s Adventures in Slime World
Beautiful graphics (is what I remember, I don't dare to look up a screenshot)
Lynx
1992 Days of Thunder
The first racing game I loved, though that might go to an MS-DOS title of which I only remember that it came on a 5¼" disk and that it had to run in Hercules mode.
GB
1992 Street Fighter II
I was the best street fighter in school, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Signature move: M.Bison's Psycho Crusher
Arcade
1992 Wolfenstein 3D
Played this first at my friends house (in a tiny postage stamp of a screen inside a screen).
PC
1993 Spectre Supreme
Got this on a MacFormat disk, it felt fast and difficult, but really cool to learn how to get your bearings in a 3d virtual world.
Mac
1994 Marathon
Made so many maps for these, all lost to time.
Mac 1995
1994 Wolfenstein 3D
Also loved making maps for wolf3d when it came out for Macintosh.
Mac 1996
1995 Lemmings
Just, fun.
Mac
1995 Star Wars: Dark Forces
Fondest memories of a Star Wars game for me.
Mac
1995 The Need for Speed
Played this at my cousins' on their beast of a PC. I remember loving the cops and robbers aspect of it.
PC
1996 Escape Velocity
Great music, sound effects and super smooth graphics, spent so many nights in space exploring, fighting and trading.
Mac
1997 FIFA: Road to World Cup 98
I remember this looking exactly like watching football on TV. No I will not lookup a youtube video to verify if it still looks that way.
PC
1998 Gran Turismo
Speaking of ultra realistic graphics, such a beautiful game. I bought my PlayStation just for this game. Favorite track: Clubman Stage R5
PSX
1998 Metal Gear Sold
Hideo Kojima got me. I shouldn't like these kinds of games, I don't like third person, but I couldn't put it down. I still vividly remember the sniper level and the rumble in the controller shaking you out of control if you didn't take diazepam in time.
PSX
1999 Driver
Game changer. So much freedom in a game and with these graphics! It felt like being in a movie.
PSX
1999 Half Life
LAN parties at the office. We networked (it was a different time) our office together with that of another company in the same building and played every Friday 'till late.
PC
1999 Quake 2
Same as Half Life, played this almost exclusively at the office, railgunning everyone in milliseconds.
PC
1999 Unreal Tournament
Different game, different office, same story. This time though, a new generation was fragging me in milliseconds though :)
PC 2007
2000 SSX
I was not expecting to have this much fun in a game with snowboarding as subject. Loved the off-piste map "Untracked". Great sense of speed, great music integration.
PS2
2000 Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force
The only (?) good Star Trek FPS.
Mac
2001 Advance Wars
Only strategy I ever got into, and only 14 years after its release
GBA 2015
2001 Grand Theft Auto 3
Like Driver, but you can get out off your car! Amazing game,
PS2
2001 Star Wars: Starfighter
Goes into the category, SSX, Looney Tunes: easy, simple smooth game play.
PS2
2002 Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Best in the MoH series, as far as I'm concerned. Few years after Quake 2 my love for the FPS genre really kicked off here.
PC
2002 The Getaway
Not a native of London, but I've been there a few times and those visits actually helped me navigate this game. Also, great story and really liked the gameplay.
PS2
2004 Half-Life 2
I remember being really impressed with the physics of the power lines in the game. Still have the occasional nightmare filled with the sound effects of HL2
PC
2005 Battlefield 2
Long time my favorite Battlefield game, until BF3 came out. Played this mostly against bots, though.
PC
2005 Gran Turismo 4
I remember this as the best in the series, but that could just be nostalgia.
PS2
2007 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
I'm noticing a lot of (I think) pivotal games on my list, Wolfenstein 3D, FIFA '98, GTA and now CoD4. I never got into the online aspect of CoD, but I loved the single player on-rails campaigns.
PS3
2008 Far Cry 2
I don't think a lot of people liked this game, but I really liked the setting and specific mechanics chosen to make things feel more realistic. Also, the map making feature was pretty great.
PS3
2008 Grand Theft Auto IV
I feel like this is about where big improvements in graphics stopped. And this, at the time of writing, is already 10 years ago!
PS3
2008 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
I should try MGS2 and 3 one day, but this was the first time since '98 that I amassed enough courage to begin a Hideo game. And he gives me fried eggs? This guy.
PS3
2008 Mirrors Edge
Another game about a sport I have 0 feelings for, but the design attracted me to buying it. It then completely convinced me with how well it feels to play.
PS3
2010 Inside Switch 2023
2010 Minecraft
Bought basically sight unseen on October 2nd, 2010 on a tip my coworker gave me. Still love exploring and building things every now and then
PC
2010 Red Dead Redemption
First (and only) game where I teared up. Everything is in this game.
PS3
2011 Battlefield 3
I put close to 2000 hours into this one. If you see me near a PC with BF3 installed, pull me away.
PC
2012 Journey LeGo 2023
2013 Grand Theft Auto V
The last game I got really into. It's been 11 years already, time for a new one.
PS3, PC, LeGo
2016 Firewatch PC 2016
2016 Limbo Switch 2023
2020 Factorio PC 2021
2022 Stray LeGo 2023

Platforms I played on

At home

  1. Nintendo Game Boy (1990)
  2. Macintosh Classic (1991)
  3. Macintosh Performa 5200 (1995)
  4. PlayStation (1998)
  5. PlayStation 2 (2000)
  6. Self built gaming PC (2011)
  7. Nintendo Switch (2023)
  8. Analogue Pocket (2023)
  9. Lenovo Legion Go (2023)

Elsewhere

  1. Atari Lynx
  2. Various PCs
  3. Arcade

Game Systems I own(ed)

  1. Atari 2600 (still fixing this)
  2. Game Boy
  3. Game Boy Advance
  4. Game Boy Advance SP
  5. Game Boy Color
  6. Game Boy Light
  7. Game Boy Micro
  8. Game Boy Pocket
  9. Macs
  10. Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
  11. Super Nintendo (SNES)
  12. Nintendo 64
  13. Nintendo Switch
  14. PC (Built in 2011: i5 2500k, GTX 560ti)
  15. PlayStation 2
  16. PlayStation 2 Slim
  17. PlayStation 3 (donated)
  18. PlayStation 4
  19. Analogue Pocket
  20. Lenovo Legion Go

Updated: 2024-01-15