GameSpot's 18th Birthday is TODAY!

GameSpot's 18th Birthday is on May 1st. Here's my proof that I am not lieing.

Since a large majority of you come from that site, what memories do have with that site?

EDIT: Also, here is a GameSpot Cake:

EDIT EDIT:

Happy Birthday GameSpot!

Cool.

I'm 19 so I obviously wasn't really on the internet back when it looked like this, but wow.....that old design is something alright.

Oh, and happy birthday! Even though this isn't actually GameSpot!

I love that "Inter Active Movie" is one of the genres. For as much as I will shrug at a lot of what Gamespot offers now, from around 2004 to early 2008 they were my video game website of choice. 1996 was a loooooong time ago.

Oh, man. That 1996 web design.

@hailinel: I mean, as weird as it looks, I kinda find it slightly less confusing than their current design. :/

Weirdly enough, I was just playing Duke Nukem 3D.

Phone modem 1996..... sigh, good times, good times.

Damn that shit was next gen.

Ouch. I know what you mean, but ouch.

Also, "John Romero's DeathMatch Tips". Oh, man. The halcyon days of his career before Daikatana.

Gamespot is now a legal adult.

@bigjeffrey: Many lives were ruined that day.

Happy Birthday Gamespot!!

Was a great website in its time, was on there all the time from 2002 - 2008. Once Jeff got fired and everyone started leaving, the site basically blew its head off with a 44 magnum.

In the words of the great Ryan Davis, "It's 18 years old... You could fuck it if you wanted to".

I was trying to think of something funny or snarky but I'm at a loss for words. My mind is just blown away by this fact.

I want frames.

Huh, I guess I'm older than Gamespot.

Is it really a majority of people from Gamespot?

Strat

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Simu

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Adven

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Gamespot is officially a consenting adult. Happy Birthday, girl!

I wonder if someone could dig up that article on "John Romero's Deathmatch Tips."

Was Jeff there in the beginning in 1996?

@bigjeffrey said: [8.8]

I'm having trouble really wrapping my mind around the fact that, at the time, that 8.8 score was widely considered inconceivably, impossibly low. Like, "this guy has to be trolling for the attention." In retrospect, 8.8 seems generous.

What a crazy fucking thing the internet is sometimes.

Remember when we were promised Unions 2.0, a huge update to the unions tech? I was there a couple months ago and it's the same old tech. Some of those Unions from 05 and 06 are still around and as active as ever, which is weird.

I believe he was hired a month or two after it launched. Don't know for sure but I do know he was there in 1996.

@cloudymusic: It's a Zelda game. If you gave one an 8.8 today, you can guarantee the fans would have the exact same reaction. In fact, I'm pretty sure the exact same thing happened with GameSpot's Skyward Sword review a few years ago, only I think they have it an 8 or something.

@steadyingmeat said:

I don't know, I feel like the stagnation of the console Zelda games has become evident to all but the most die-hard fanboys, but maybe that's just my own feelings influencing my perception. Back then it was a little different because TP and SS hadn't come out yet, obviously, but the fact that any game can be so untouchable that "anything below 9.5 is considered trolling" is insane. I can't think of any other series for which that's true anymore.

Wow I love seeing how the internet looked like back in the 90's. Happy Birthday Gamespot!

ALSO IT'S VIDEOGAMESPOT DOT COM MOTHERFUCKERS GET IT RIGHT!!!

Also Happy Birthday! Damn, I feel old.

The first website I ever went to was www.videogames.com (which eventually became Gamespot). Went there religiously from that point ('97) up until late November 2007.

I remember being 12 years old and e-mailing to ask why my Gameshark codes for FF7 weren't working and Laura Fielder replied. We actually exchanged a couple e-mails. I was just so excited to be talking to another human being somewhere else on the planet about games. Our tumultuous 2 day relationship ended when I embarrassed myself and asked if she was married.

Internet was a better place back then. Also, I'm kinda surprised Dominion had already been announced at that point. It wasn't released until 1998 as I recall. I do know it influenced Blizzard to redo StarCraft from the ground up, but I thought that was a bit later.

Things I remember from OG Gamespot:

1. Lithium forums.
2. Elitest users who told new forumers about how great the Lithium forum days were.
3. CaseyWegner (no idea why I remember this mod, but his username is stuck in my head even to this day).
4. Sigs that basically allowed you to put anything on there. At one point I had a sig that was organized using html table tags with a <marquee> with the box art of every single game that I owned and was looking forward to.
5. System Wars people getting into arguments with General Games people. I remember at one point they were trying to organize a debate between the two forums (I'm guessing for intellectual bragging rights?).
6. The gold medal icon for games that got the editor's choice award.
7. All the invites you got from crappy Unions.

Last, but not least... the best rant ever on The Hotspot:

Gamespot is older than I am. Crazy.

If anyone has the clip, ( or full show) of when they talk about Heat the game, I'll be in you're debt. It was during a E3 2006 hotspot.

Thankfully web design has changed for the better over the last eighteen years. Most good website -such as Giant Bomb- are pretty to look at and easy to navigate. The 96 Game Spot homepage would make a great exercise for redesigning a web page to follow current best practices.

GameSpot, you can even rent a car. Guh!

Love the video Danny put up :)

Alright gamspot! Now you can buy Smokes, buy a rifle, and vote!

There was a period in time when GameSpot was almost as meaningful to me as Giant Bomb is now. Then the whole fucking place caught on fire and it was years before the flames were doused. Thankfully they have some really good writers and personalities over there right now. I hope it can one day return to the glory it once had.

Man, time flies. Gamespot was one of my first gaming websites.