Childhood Video Games: My Gaming Adventure as a Mainland Chinese 90s Kid

As a 90s kid, most of my memory about childhood video games started when I was around 6-12 years old. Playing video games is unthinkable without the prevalence of computers and laptops. I would describe the Chinese game market at that time as a combination of Western influence and its own features. At least, that’s what I saw and enjoyed when I was a kid!

Video game DVDs sold in computer stores

The topic of childhood video games is like a big puzzle with so many pieces to fill in. I’d like to start my story from the DVDs.

There’s no mature online platform for AAA games yet. Local computer stores offer many video game DVDs for you to take home and download onto the laptop. There were some websites giving out pirated versions at that time, but they were mostly unreliable and flooded with ads. That’s when my dad bought back several DVDs for him to play, and later, for me as well.☺️ (Like father, like daughter!)

Up till now, I can still recall some of the quests in the games that got him stuck for a very long time at that time. That’s how I can find out which games exactly he was playing after some research.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation is on the list. The game was on the market in 1999. I figured this out because my dad spent such a long time finding the underwater opening in the mirror room. It took him a while to realize there was an extra room for you to catch a breath before heading to the room. But that’s my first time realizing that watching someone playing games can be so interesting. I believe there were other Tomb Raider games as well. Yet, I couldn’t find the names based on my fragmentary info about the traps in the games.

The Sims 2

The Sims 2 was another one that I can remember, back in 2004. It was also the first simulator game I played. As you can imagine, I wouldn’t play Tomb Raider because the game was too intense with all the traps and dark environments. However, you can easily relax and enjoy The Sims 2 without too much pressure. But I still managed to burn down my whole house somehow in the game. As a kid, I never figured out how to recover my sims from that fire hazard.💀

Discover more about The Sims 4!

Everyone was playing web page games…

Starting near the end of my primary school life (around 2010), web page games became very popular among the students. Even primary school students love playing those games. This category must be discussed in two sub-categories: flash games and online RPGs.

Flash games

I believe that if you ask a 90s Chinese person what his/her childhood memory of video games is, most of the people will answer 4399. That’s the company running their own websites to host all kinds of flash games. Flash games don’t have high computer performance requirements.The games provide such an easily accessible and convenient option for kids to play with their friends after school. To be honest, many games on 4399 are pirated games from abroad, like Fireboy & Watergirl, Crazy Arcade, Papa’s Burgeria, etc. But for kids, we simply couldn’t tell what pirated versions mean…

Online RPGs

Other than flash games, many online RPGs also got extremely popular at that time. Compared with the pirated flash games, most of the games from this subcategory were developed in China, especially the games featuring Chinese Wuxia ideas.

Unlike single-player games and flash games, online RPGs attract students at that time with their comprehensive design to encourage online socializing. The gameplay system like stories, quests, and gears is downgraded. You can just leave the game on and switch on to automated path finding and mission completion. The games will usually help you easily get to a level (for example, around level 50) without too much trouble or time.

However, you will need to spend a large amount of time and even money to level up and upgrade your gears further. That’s what happens after reaching the level plateau. You will need to join gangs, play with other players, and even online-marry other players to gain extra benefits. As the leveling-up slows down, the games encourage you to form friendships and bonds with other players.

To name a few, Legend of Sealed Book is one of the online RPGs that gained such popularity among students. Mole’s World, Seer, and Flower Angel are the best of their kind as well, each of which has very unique world settings. Shanghai Taomee Network developed all the latter three. Thanks to this company, I enjoyed so much fun time back then.

For more about my recent favorite RPG, explore posts about Cyberpunk 2077!

Conclusion: reminiscing the great moments

One just couldn’t help feeling nostalgic when listing all these games. Gameplay is only a part of the whole experience. The even more unforgettable experiences were the fun time spent with my dad and friends. There were also moments of frustration, anger, and worry triggered by the games, but they also became a precious piece of the past. Name one good thing about becoming an adult? I don’t need to fight with my cousin over the computer anymore!