Happy 40th Birthday Konami!

From everyone in the OLR community! without you this show and website wouldn't be what it is today!

Konami Week Honourable Mentions:
Contra 3
Gradius
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3

Top OLR community Konami moment:

DarkTetsuya: Watching my mom try her hand at SotN

I think just about everyone has a story about their parent trying to get in to video games with their kids. Even if it doesn't take it's still a great moment and I'm a sucker for family togetherness.

More of your Konami moments after the jump!

DarkTetsuya: 

- the get-togethers back in the day! staying up till all hours of the day playing IIDX, PPP and DDR? Good times...

- For that matter either of the two tournaments I managed to enter (NOTE TO SELF: when freestyling blind, make sure you KNOW THE STEPS before going in  however I DO still have the shirt from my first one  )

gs68: 

October 2008: So I was playing Pop'n 16 and I come across A--

OK fine SakuraMaxX, no Pop'n moments.

December 2001: Playing DDR USA (lol) while on a field trip to Ice Chalet in Cupertino (this was before Tilt closed down) and having a good chunk of the 8th grade watch me.

January 2004: I got a IIDX JKOC, a JPS2, and IIDX 6th CS!

August 2004: So I was playing Gradius III (SNES) (this was when I was a Gradius noob and wasn't hating on it yet), and my cousin and his friends decide to also play. I'm all up on the 1P side making my turns last, while they're sharing the 2P side and dying repeatedly.

September 2005: Playing Gradius V with my neighbor's kids at a garage sale.

May 2006, 2007, 2008: PPP 2nd Mix at Fanime! 2007 most notably; I was sharing the machine with any number of attractive cosplaying women. 

Deekman: 

Can't remember the exact date but my wife (who was just my girlfriend at the time) and I were in Toronto. We tried to play some DDR but the machine ate the dollar. Some American dude saw what happened and came up to us and asked if we put in real money or a "loonie" thinking that the Canadian word for a $1 coin was some kind of fake money. 

We explained to him the difference and after we all had a laugh he showed us the secret way of getting coins back from DDR machines... By kicking them square in the coin return with both feet while lifting yourself up on the bars.

After that we joked for a little while longer before he left. Never found out his name but it's a great memory.

act_deft: 

I still remember my first time playing DDR, while I did understand how to play it, I still sucked playing in a Solo 2000 machine. I think my first song was I'm Alive.

My first tournament was something spectacular, seeing someone FC Max 300 was like the best moment there. I also remember going to Tijuana for another tournament there and my group of friends (we called ourselves the PGs, for ProGamers) took 1st place in both Standard and Heavy.

There has been a lot gratifying moments related to DDR in my life, meeting lots of friends and also achieving lots of stuff I had never done before.

But since this isn't only DDR related moments... let's move on to other things.

I also remember my first time playing Gradius. Man, I fell in love so much with the genre back then.

My first time beating a Castlevania game, which was Super Castlevania IV. A whole day dedicated to finish the game and I did it. It felt so good ^_^

Playing Zone of The Enders the 2nd Runner for the first time. O.M.G. I love that game so much. While the game is short in length, everything else in it makes up for it. The fights, the music, the plot. So much action packed in a little disc. I almost creamed myself when I saw the Vic Viper mecha in the game. It was a huge fanboy boner for me.

I think that's it for my experience with Konami games. Really good franchises. Really good games. Really good soundtracks. Really good company. Even though it has had its flaws (sue-happy moments and turning DDR/BEMANI into something really linear and unappealing... <_<) I still respect the company for all the good stuff it brought to the industry. And for that Konami, I salute you.

*OLRmy salute*