For me, I had this phase where I thought I was real cool playing all these cyberpunk-inspired games on my mom's old packard bell (thanks to drunkforeleven for helping me remember this). I didn't know at the time what "cyberpunk" was, but I knew these two games in particular were pretty cool, and I have an interesting story on how I obtained both of them. (This isn't a bullshit post, its chock full of info :) )

Game #1: Bioforge

You play as some dude, like Robocop, but in a cybernetic hell. Half man, half machine, you're trapped in this crazy place, with crazy people... machines are ruling over everything and you're just a lost soul looking for a way out. From what I hear, this is a pretty groundbreaking game, but I've never met anyone else that has even heard of this game.
One scene that really got me was when you were stuck in a prison cell with this crazy guy. Not like "wow, he's nuts", but crazy in such a way that it grew and festered in you... really creepy, psychologically stimulating character development, I must say. Anyways, if I remember right, you can kill him or figure out a way to get around this. I also seem to remember that you can use his dismembered leg as a weapon. If you killed him, the game left you with this existential void to where carrying around this guy's leg wasn't nearly as awesome as you'd think, it was just kind of disturbing. I have no idea how much this scene, along with Ren and Stimpy, Primus, Tool videos, and Quinten Tarintino fucked up my personality for later on in life.

Game #2: System Shock

Awesome game man... if you've ever seen the little booklet that comes with the game, there is this crazy picture of a guy's head in some sort of vise-looking machine... maybe the most fucked up thing I've seen this side of that Edvard Munch painting, the Scream :O. ( http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/965151407-00.jpg )Anyways, you're weaving in and out of reality and cyberspace, constantly jacking in and out of reality, and reading cryptic passages the whole time.

The vibe this game had going for it... man. Just plain ol' weird. I really love it though.


And now, how I got 'em:

I had cancer, and somehow ended up on these lists that corporations get for Kids-to-have-a-photo-op-with. This was great for me, I mean, the cancer sucked, but the perks were great. My little pale, baldheaded self got treated to all kinds of great sporting events, dining, tours... tons of "exclusive" shit, got to meet lots of famous people, just because I was a good kid to take a picture with to show that whatever company cared about dying kids.

So, one day I go to the Hair Cuttery's headquarters, which is located just outside DC, I met the corporation's president, Dennis Ratner, and we take all these pictures, and he gives me a basket with Bioforge, System Shock, and Wing Commander 3 in it. Ca-ching! So awesome... how did the Hair Cuttery people know to get me such awesome games? Games that would instill a deep love of subversion in me that would forever shape my personality.

kudos for typing all that shit, very interesting

My friend gave me a copy of System Shock. That game was great. It really was just a blast. I loved it. I never played the sequel though. I wouldn't mind playing the original again. I'd probably get my ass kicked.

dude if u don't play snatcher u're emo

What's snatcher?

Sega-CD game. Here's the Wiki-link. (Did I just make up a new word?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snatcher

Its just another sign of the coming apocalypse.

As for the game (thanks for the wiki-link, by the way)... I now have yet another obscure, difficult to get thing that I'm going to have to track down.

Great.