I remember when I was a wee child of just 6 or 7 and I had Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. The first boss in that game was some yellow bird thing that chased you round a circular battlefield. However, I was young, and a bit stupid, and didn't realise I had to run from him and wait for him to get tired. Weeks and weeks passed with me dying over and over, as I would just run up to him in the hopes that somehow, for some reason, I'd kick his ass this time around.
Then one fateful day I saw an ad for Croc on the TV, featured in the ad was footage of Croc running away from a boss. I thought to myself "hmmm, I'll try that", so I did, and lo and behold, I finally beat the boss I had been stuck at for almost a month!

Ok, it's no amazing feat or anything, but that was my first real "Gaming Victory", any o' you Escapists remember the glorious time you first beat a difficult challenge? Post your stories here!

My greatest was finishing Cod 5 on Veteran today, not because it was impossible, but because I lost all my mission progress up to Vendetta and had to start the whole game again.

Headshotting 4 guys in CS for the first time with the starting Terrorist pistol. I've never done that again.

My first was completing the first level of Mario on the Gameboy. My greatest was completing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 to 100% without using cheats. I loved that game.

I remember when I was younger, playing Final Fantasy VII, having no idea how to use the Materia system, I went all the way through to the Boss, Rufus on top of the Midgar Tower, took me ages to actually do it with Cloud not having any healing magic and me not actually knowing that I could buy potions; some how I actually beat him and just as I got into the open world I learnt what the damn Materia system was; I also think that was the first time I ever major facepalmed at how silly I was for not knowing that.

Discovering metal gear online.

Beats cod 4/5's ass anyday.

Oldest and greatest gaming victory: completing Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the gameboy when i was 8. Took me bloody ages.

Most recent gaming victory: Psyconaughts. That last platforming section made me emotionally breakdown.

Beating Cool Spot for Genesis with all the letters of "UNCOLA" and taking a picture of the secret ending screen! I should scan that in to the computer some time if I have a scanner around.

(Sadly, the contest was long over by the time I got that, but I was like 10, it was exciting!)

Greatest? Marching proudly through Baldur's Gate 1 AND 2 (AND both expansions) with one character. He was magnificent!

First? Beating the first, and original, Prince of Persia.
I still remember loading it up...

CD C:\prince
prince.exe

Awesome.
I love DOS.

I don't know which is my greatest victory, but the first game I ever beat was Strider on the original NES.

No, I didn't beat Super Mario Bros. first. For some reason that damn game eluded me until I went back to try it again about 6 years ago. Go figure.

Well, I got news for ya. I'm 27 and that makes me old enough to be in the Atari age, which I have been. So, first victory would be in dominating a fair few of them simple-but-fun games in my youth.

As for my first greatest victory...I have no freaking clue at this point.

The first time I got MVP in Hardcore team deathmatch on COD4. Not particularly amazing, but it made me feel good.

Greatest? Tanking Karazhan as a frost mage in Warcraft.

stompythebeast:
My first pc game, Medal of Honor Allied Assault. The second campaign with the U-boats, during your escape your supposed to run to the train waiting on for you with some allied soldiers trying to give you covering fire, but your supposed to run through 30 - 40 meters of open ground with a few boxes for cover and 50 German soldiers trying to stop you. After you make into the train one of the allied soldiers says " I think i wet myself". WIN

Yes! My god that was a fantastic game, and back then World War Two games weren't everywhere you looked.

And that was my favourite moment of that game.

First would have to be completing Alien Trilogy (the first game I ever played to completion) while my greatest would have to be...can't really decide on a greatest achievement to be honest.

My most memorable moment in gaming was a LAN not too long ago where I managed to kill the entire opposing team of five guys in a game of CoD4 multiplayer with one, single, well-placed RPG rocket! 8D

Hmm, not quite sure what my greatest acheivement would be...

Possibly getting gold for my M60E4 on CoD4. Not paticularly amazing I know, but noteworthy.

finishing gears of war 2 on hardest difficulty without dying once

thank god its over

First? Probably beating one of my SNES games with my brother. It was either Goof Troop the game or Spiderman and Venom: Separation Anxiety.

Greatest: Well that would be beating Thunder Ripple in Shadow of the Colossus. I know its not exactly hard, but I'm so terrified of underwater creatures that to finally beat him and be over with that section of the game felt better than beating three FPS games in a row.
Notable others include: Finally beating 3 computers at Starcraft in a free-for-all.
The sensation when you've been stuck for a while in Grim Fandango and you figure out that you were supposed to do X with Y object.

4 player deathmatch Doom.

Two of my friends had told me how much better the game is using the mouse, but I adamantly refused to abandon my keyboard-only controls and I destroyed them all utterly.

Of course, when it came time to move to Quake, I was repeatedly owned as I adjusted to the Y axis.

Getting my parents to buy me a NES :)

Goldeneye103X2:
Discovering metal gear online.

Beats cod 4/5's ass anyday.

Agreed. getting it set up is a pain in the ass but once your playing, its second to none.

Finishing Painkiller on Singing AND Guitar, second time, with a 3/4.
I felt quite proud of myself actually.

Baby Tea:

I love DOS.

You and me both.

Ah... Greatest victory? I suppose it'd be winning colonization. That game is pretty hard. Also, I remember beating all my friends at Civ2, back when it was the height of gaming excellence.

Also, my first gaming "victory" was when I performed a successful operation in Life and Death 2. Man, was I happy. And relieved.

First: beating DuckTales on NES. That game still ROCKS.
BEST: probably FF VIII. only had three party members left and luckily they were my best. We're all reduced to one hit, when I decide to gamble and just keep using Limit Breaks to see how far I make it. Rinoa's dog keeps using Invincible Moon. Lasted the rest of the boss fight (two more transformations) somehow miraculously without dying.

I've beaten other games since then, but still - EPIC. WIN.

sirdapfrey:
I don't know which is my greatest victory, but the first game I ever beat was Strider on the original NES.

No, I didn't beat Super Mario Bros. first. For some reason that damn game eluded me until I went back to try it again about 6 years ago. Go figure.

Don't feel too bad, it took me 21 years to beat that bloody game. Last October I was just on fire, I guess.

first: finding the dot in Adventure for the Atari 2600
best: hmmm...
either - beating the first X-Com with one guy left and one piece of guided ammo left fired from many rooms away,
or entertaining a bunch of people under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms for several hours by beating the original Sonic the Hedgehog using the upc, downc, leftc, rightc code...

First unaided? Mew in Pokemon Snap the little bastard

Greatest? Doing a Leeroy Jenkins in WoW for the hell of it, though I did tell them before hand and they were fine with it.

Greatest

Not dying once and winning every match in a two day halo marathon against people who I had accepted to be better than me.

Every pistol shot got a ding, every assault rifle burst killed their shield and was quickly followed by a perfectly aimed sticky grenade - every powerup became my bitch; much like my friends who i was wiping the floor with, winning by margins of at least 50% of the kills on the entire map.

The pizza was perfect; the coke was just right; my couch was firm but comfortable; my hairstyle was impecable... It was all good.

How did my reign end? It didn't :D that's why it's my greatest acheivement, I haven't played multiplayer halo:CE on xBox since, and still retain the title of 'best halo player in the world' in my eyes 'cause i went two days (countless matches) winning every match and not dying once.

Note: I said 'in my eyes' so if someone says something like 'err noo, blahblah24 is the best halo player on the earth you noob' then god shalt bitch slap them for being "pants on head retarted"

ps. I didn't use any covenant guns

stormcaller:

Greatest? Doing a Leeroy Jenkins in WoW for the hell of it, though I did tell them before hand and they were fine with it.

Close but no cigar :P I actually pulled that guy... I can't remember the names... In MC there's a boss that does giant arcane explosions and blinks, then you pull another boss (i think that one was a fire one) to the same place and duke it out - i actually ran to pull the guy without anyone noticing and kited him back while they were still forming the raid..

Best part? I was GM and had been calling out instructions for where to form up the whole time I was kiting. And I didn't give myself any -DKP ... "okay guys, now that we're about halfway done setting up let's take a break and toss a boss around"

First
Finding, opening and playing my first games (Diablo I - closely followed by aoe I) at a very tender age (also the first time i had seen a modern computer) on my own without any help and, in diablo's case, completing them (it was a trial version and took me about a year)

y8c616:

Goldeneye103X2:
Discovering metal gear online.

Beats cod 4/5's ass anyday.

Agreed. getting it set up is a pain in the ass but once your playing, its second to none.

Wait. setting it up? What do you mean?

Finishing Streets of Rage 2 with my mum when I was about three.
Life defining moment.

greatest: beating two friends at once 2v1 with unlimited funds to choose our armies on rome TW
first: getting the damn gameboy off my brother for 5 seconds -_-

My first AND greatest victory: World Of Warcraft!

Optimus Prime:
My greatest was finishing Cod 5 on Veteran today, not because it was impossible, but because I lost all my mission progress up to Vendetta and had to start the whole game again.

I can't even beat ONE level in Veteran. Good job.

When I beat Captain Skyhawk for the NES with a friend during a sleepover. It was the first game I EVER beat.