1 of 15 Spiderman (Atari 2600)
The first game I have a distinct memory of playing. I could only ever get to the top of the first sky-scraper and then the Green Goblin (who I thought at the time was a woman) would knock me all the way back down again. Yet for some reason I kept on playing it all the time. Looking back on it I can’t help but think of Groundhog Day: Up and down, Up and down, Up and down…

2 of 15 Amstrad 6128+ (with in-built GX4000 cartridge-based system!)
The first system I had that wasn’t a hand-me-down from my older brother. It included the ill-fated GX4000 (which was shite) and only ever seemed to play host to licenses from better home computers (Turrican, et al). Still, it kick-started my love of gaming and introduced me to classics such as Golden Axe, Final Fight and (gulp) Dizzy!

3 of 15 Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES)
Now we are talking. I remember sitting playing this at 5.00am on Christmas day, feeling a little under-whelmed and promptly switching back to playing original the Super Mario Bros. A day or so later and I was hooked and to date this remains one of, if not my favourite game of all-time. Better than Super Mario World, and you can have that in writing.

4 of 15 The Secret of Monkey Island (Amiga)
I never owned a Amiga myself (sob) but I played this with my cousins with they visited my Nan and it really opened my eyes to what gaming could offer. I had simply never witnessed an adventure game like this before and from then on I harboured nasty thoughts about how to thieve the Amiga 500. One moment I will never forget in this game is standing in the shop after the store-keeper has left and realising: “You have to follow him to the sword-master!” My cousins were well miffed that I worked that one out.

5 of 15 Streetfighter II (SNES)
Cost a hefty £65 at the time from Virgin Mega store but I think I kept playing it for about 3-years after. This was the first game that I was very very good at and could happily take most people to the cleaners on it in two-player mode. My proudest memory was winning a SF2 competition at a ‘Donkey Derby’ at our school. I won a box of melted Terry’s All-Gold and my friend and I sat eating them on the grass in the late-afternoon sun.

6 of 15 8-Player Daytona USA (Arcade)
Every Thursday the local (ish) Sega World did a special offer where you paid £5 to get in and all the arcade machines were free-play. It used to get busy but the four of us would just queue for Daytona all night. Sega Rally was more popular at the time but you just couldn’t beat the intense 8-player battles we had on Daytona. Marvellous.

7 of 15 Secret of Mana (SNES)
A game that is so good that words don’t really do it justice. I bought this on import after a blinding review in Super Play and can only think of a hand-full of games that I’ve enjoyed as much since. Even cynical friends that thought A Link to the Past was the be-all and end-all were intoxicated by this game. Sublime.

8 of 15 Syndicate (PC)
Another one that would probably make its way into my top-10. One of the first PC games that I bought after we got a system with a Sound Card in it (a SoundBlaster 16!) and also one that sticks in my mind because I think I became quite addicted to it. I had the add-on disc as well which was extremely hard, but even through the brutally unfair levels I just sat there with a big smile on my face. Bliss.

9 of 15 Alone in the Dark (PC)
One of the first games I played that used the extra space provided the CD-Rom format to awesome effect. The wonderfully eerie soundtrack frightened the daylights out of me and the game set the template for pretty much every ‘Survival Horror’ since. I still find the Thing in the Bath, the frozen Zombies in the dinner room and giant worm terrifying to this day. I still have my copy if anybody wants a go?

10 of 15 Duke Nukem 3D (PC)
Not my favourite FPS by a long way but the first game I played online with a modem-to-modem connection. My mate rich and I used to play it every Saturday morning and it was bloody hilarious - great fun. A few of us even set up a sort-of Duke League but lack of interest prematurely ended that. Think I still have the ‘League programme’ we made somewhere…

11 of 15 Super Play Magazine
I wouldn’t be the gamer I am today without Super Play. A publication that exuded a passion for it’s subject that I had never witnessed before. It also showed me that there was more than the UK/US mainstream of games and brought Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy III and Shadow Run into my life. God bless em’.

12 of 15 Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
This one always sticks in my mind as the first ‘stealth’ game that I played, and how little I grasped the concept of keeping quiet. I must have spent a good 45 minutes on that very first section of the game because all I wanted to do was wade in and kill every mofo in the room. Still do. Damn stealth games.

PS Anybody who has played MGS must watch the parody.
Apologies if you’ve already seen it.

13 of 15 Super Monkey Ball (GC)
When the Game Cube was released I was a very skint student and so I agonised over whether to go and buy it so soon after the initial release. By the time I decided to go for it they were all sold out in Loughborough and so I trawled to Leicester to get one. Super Monkey Ball was the game I got with it and within half an hour of playing ‘Monkey Target’ I realised that this was soon to become a firm Uni-house favourite. Still one of the best multi-player games to date.

14 of 15 Golden Tee Golf (Arcade)
No visit to my local would be complete without a go on this. A wonderful pub game because absolutely anybody can enjoy a quick 3 holes and it presents the illusion that you could be a legend as each machine is connected up to a central server that tallies everybody’s records. No matter where I am, every time I have a pint of Stella Artois I think of Golden Tee.

15 of 15 Wario Ware Touched (NDS)
Gamestation had opened early on the day of the DS release and I went and bought one at 8am just before going to work. On the night I took it round my girlfriend’s house. She wasn’t a big games player but – 8 hours later – we had nearly been through all the mini-games between us. Just like a big bag of cocaine! This game proves to me that the magic of games never ever goes away. Amen.