Ooh boy, where do I begin? I suppose these are the ones that influenced me a lot, in the order that I remember playing them:

• Tobal no. 1 (1996) - My first game ever, on the first and only console I've ever owned, the PlayStation 1. A great if a little obscure 3D fighting game, and surprisingly mechanically complex for the time. Has a unique Dungeon Mode for unlocking bosses. Most people would only know this from the Final Fantasy whatever Demo Disc bundled with it. I stuck with Tobal, and if I ever get around to making a fighting game of my own, it'll probably be heavily inspired by Tobal's mechanics and control scheme. "Ready? Fight!"
• StarCraft (1998) - Probably the first influential PC game I played, the one that got me into PC gaming, and later, with the Campaign Editor, the one that got me into making games of my own. I was never much of a multiplayer guy, but custom maps (and much later, mods) kept me coming back to SC. The aesthetic, sounds, and feel were also just built different, and stood the test of time (especially compared to the sequel). "Goliath online!" (I'm a Zerg player tho).
• Diablo II (2000) - My first ARPG game (and RPG game in general), and boy did it set high expectations for the genre and the series (that were never met). I was a Sorc player first, but I also played as a Necro, or an Amazon. But the most fun I had was playing as a Barbarian. With a crossbow. Why? Because I can. You can't even do that in later entries in the series, I think.
• Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue (1999) - Back on the PlayStation, this was one of the Disney games that my mom got for us, along with Hercules and A Bug's Life. Of the three, this was my favorite - just the concept of being a small character in a regular-sized world over multiple locations was so fascinating, and I've thus far played no game that does the same.
• Crash Bandicoot (1996) - One of the last games I played on the PS1. It came in a bundle with Crash Bandicoot 2 and 3, and we never got around to finishing any of them. Partly because they were pretty difficult, and also because we didn't have a memory card, so every time our play time came to an end, we lost our progress. This was my "git gud" game, and I remember that my sister and I memorized it to a tee, that if we don't have like 20 lives by the 2nd stage of Cortex Strikes Back, we weren't gonna make it very far. The world, characters, and music live rent-free in my head to this day.
• The Sims (2000) - Lent to me by another friend, this was the first "life simulation" game I played. I wasn't really too keen into the whole "control the lives of people" part, but building a house? That's for me! I remember having the grandest house in the neighborhood, with a pool, a dream that remains to this day. And the music was soothing. "rosebud ; ;"
• Aliens vs. Predator 2 (2001) - My first FPS game, and an action-horror one to boot. This was my first foray into "serious" gaming, blood, guts, swearing characters and all. I loved how you get three campaigns for the price of one, and how each character's story starts out loose, interconnects with others, then finishes off separately. I played this game *YEARS* before I got to watch any of the Alien and Predator franchise, and it holds up - I just can't find it online legally. "Hey, it's a boot!"
• MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries (2002) - The first (and thus far, only) game I bought a peripheral specifically for - a joystick. I loved this game and wish I could play it again, but I can't find it online legally either. Besides the awesome Mech combat, there was a bit of management to the game, wherein you have to manage your Mechs, pilots, and even alliances. "This is Duncan Fisher, signing off."
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002) - This is it. The big leagues. Lent to me by my best friend, this was the third Star Wars game I played (after Star Wars Episode 1: Racer and Rogue Squadron), and lives on an absolute pedestal in my head. I did not take Star Wars seriously until I played this game, and it was the first time I experienced the Star Wars universe in a way that felt immersive and real. Some of the shooty-shooty levels didn't age as well, but HOT DAMN once you get the lightsaber, it immediately becomes one of the best Star Wars games ever, for combat alone - Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor don't even come close. Couple that with a great story, characters, settings, and a nostalgic soundtrack, and you can see why I put this on a pedestal.
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003) - I bought this one when it came out, just because it was a sequel to Jedi Outcast. I put it on the same pedestal, with a story that I felt was slightly weaker than Jedi Outcast's, but with lightsaber combat that was just as good, if not better. Getting to create your own character and choose your own path was fun, but if there's one thing I have to give Jedi Academy credit for, it's for getting me into multiplayer (and I've never been quite as active since - Zack_Falcon), and installing mods. I remember going into jk2files.net on the school computer to download mod files and take them home on diskettes. ForceMod III, and Movie Battles, anyone?
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) - This game set my best friend's PC on fire. No joke. We thought it was the red LED's in his PC case. Nope, it was fire. Nonetheless, he let me play it (on his new one) and let me tell you, when I exited the sewers after the tutorial and saw the world of Cyrodiil for the first time, not only was I absolutely blown away, but for the first time in a long time, I was also... optimistic. This was good. Life was good. And it could only get better from there, right? Well no, but the game was awesome, and my first foray into graphically intensive, open world games. RIP, my friend's GeForce 6200.
• Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) - While I briefly played the original Tomb Raider on PS1, I never got very far because I only borrowed that game from my cousin. It was sometime later, on my brother's PSP, that I got to try Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and that game converted me to a Tomb Raider fan, and more of the Legends series than of the later ones. There was just something about the environments, the focus on exploration, the isolation, the... wonder and awe of things that just set it apart. I've played many Tomb Raider games since, but Anniversary holds a special place in my heart.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) - This was one of the last games I played on my original PC, and also one of the last games I played before I graduated from college and got too busy for games. This was the end of an era for me, but my God what a way to go - this is still one of the best games I've ever played. When I tried out the new Spiderman game years later, my only thought was "The combat isn't as satisfying as Arkham's." - seriously, I could *feel* Batman's thunderous punches, but somehow, Spiderman, who is supposed to be super strong, gets a faint thud when he hits someone.

Before I was a gamer, I was an avid watcher of cartoons. I was fortunate enough to have cable most of my childhood, and here are just some of the cartoons that shaped my young imagination:

• Wacky Races
• Scooby Doo, Where Are You!
• Batman: The Animated Series
• The Adventures of Tin Tin
• The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
• Men In Black: The Series
• Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
• The Weekenders
• Justice League
• Static Shock
• Justice League Unlimited

I was in grade school when I watched Star Wars for the first time... on rented VHS tapes. (Remember those?)

I wasn't exactly in to it, at first; my brain just couldn't comprehend, I guess. Couple that with the fact that we only rented the VHS tapes for it, and I never got around to repeat viewings.

Everything changed when Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was shown in the cinema.

I remember seeing a news clipping about it in a library and I wanted to TRACE it on my pencil case. The librarian, annoyed, just told me to cut out the picture and paste it. Bless her.

What followed next was a blur.

We got a VCD player, and got the Original Trilogy on VCDs. (Remember those? They came in pairs)

I remember watching those CDs on an almost weekly basis. My sister and I would repeatedly quote the characters.

The magic of Star Wars, as a whole, got to me, when, upon chancing on an unknown movie on HBO (or Cinemax, idk), I saw Harrison Ford. He was getting beaten up in a glass elevator by a guy with a fake nose. To this day, I still don't know what that movie was.

I turned to my mom and excitedly claimed that that was Harrison Ford, Han Solo's actor.

I also stated that I was very impressed with what looked like OLD MAN MAKE-UP that they put on poor Harrison.

My mom corrected me; that wasn't old man make-up. That was Harrison Ford looked like. Star Wars was made years before I was even born. It never occured to me until that moment.

And as Count Dooku said, "This is just the beginning."

My aunt from US would also occasionally send toys, and mine were Star Wars Lego sets. I had the original X-wing, Lego System Set 7140.

Whenever our family computer would break down, a family acquaintance would fix it, and also install games procured from the Seven Seas.

Two of those were Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and Star Wars Episode 1 Racer.

A few years later, after the conclusion of the Prequel Trilogy, my best friend would tell me about this awesome game he had - Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and it remains my favorite Star Wars game to this day.

Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy would soon follow as one of my favorites, and it got my introverted ass online on modded game (ForceMod III) as 'Zack_Falcon'.

I never quite fit in with kids at school. Even my best friend, almost as big of a Star Wars geek as I was, was at the very least was charismatic enough to be part of the in-crowd. Star Wars just was NOT a thing where I grew up, and is largely still not a thing.

But I wouldn't trade my love for Star Wars for anything.

The Sequel Trilogy can go kick rocks tho.

If I had the talent for it, I'd like to make some videos regarding my ideas on how the Sequel Trilogy could be done better.

But that's for another time, perhaps, even... Later™.

Got my start with the game GLTron, with the awesome soundtrack. I never was very good at it, but I enjoyed the visuals. I was playing it on the family computer when my uncle came in, saw what I was playing, and casually mentioned that there was a movie about that game.

I never got around to watching said movie then.

But it was many years later, with utterly excellent and criminally underrated with Tron: Uprising, that I finally entered the fandom. I will admit I'm a bigger fan of the recent entries in the Tron franchise than the original film, but I loved the Grid.

I'm probably the biggest Tron fan in my area. Maybe even my country, because sadly, like Star Wars, this is just one of those things that isn't popular where I'm from.

I commissioned a cosplay maker to create a Tron Uprising-inspired jacket for me. If she ever finishes it, I'll show it off here, or maybe a dedicated Projects page.

I got into this hobby because of some old Tower Hobbies magazine, where I saw an excerpt from an RC Car Action magazine or something, detailing the comparison between the Tamiya Clodbuster and the Kyosho USA-1, and I thought they looked awesome! While I always preferred the looks of the USA-1, over the Clod, I couldn't afford either.

Sometime in my early teens, the whole family, extended and all, pitched together to buy me a Kyosho QRC-series Wild Dodge Ram for my birthday! I loved that thing, even if I must confess that I haven't played with as much as I'd like. It was only later when I realized how special it was, to have a Nitro-powered truck (I never did think it a "Monster" truck) with reverse! That feature was apparently rare, and the truck itself, more so, considering where we lived.

Despite all the years I've spent running the Wild Dodge Ram, I've never forgotten my love for a real Monster Truck, and I hope to build one someday, preferably, with the parts from my old Ram.