nce you reach a certain point in your life, it’s hard not to start thinking about the things you’d like to do before you croak. See the pyramids! Set foot on each of the continents! Take a Tex-Mex cooking class! As gamers, we often have similar thoughts, though they’re not necessarily on such a morbid timeline. Marriage and parenthood can also take a chunk out of prime gaming time, depending upon your choice of spouse or the amount of attention you plan on giving your tiny terror. Even if you don’t plan on spawning or dying in the immediate future, there are still tons of things that you should plan on doing while you have the time.
Here’s a list of 150 things that every self-respecting gamer should do or experience before they die, get married or have kids. Some, like “Consult a game FAQ in secret and lie about it,” or “Use a video-game tune for your ringer” are probably as good as checked off for most gamers. Others, like “Play a game from start to finish in one sitting” or “Yell voice commands at your DS while on public transportation” require a bit more dedication (or bravery).
Today, we’re bringing you the first 75. Tomorrow, we’re completing the list and presenting a printer-friendly version so you can track your progress. Good luck.
1. Go online with a shooter and get your ass handed to you
2. Practice until you see that shooter every time you close your eyes
3. Vindicate yourself. Gloat
4. Sell your old gaming gear, thinking you’ll never want to play old games anymore
5. Buy it back, years later
6. Use a class project as a platform to talk to a captive audience about video games
7. Save a hapless parent from making a tragic video-gaming error at a store
8. Get good enough at an arcade game to attract a crowd of people
9. Play for an hour on a single quarter
10. Beat the music game of your choice on the highest difficulty setting
12. Do well enough in an online game that the host boots you
13. Play a Fatal Frame game in the dark, alone
14. Zerg rush
15. Buy a game during a midnight-launch event
16. Buy a game on impulse, without knowing anything about it beforehand
17. Read a strategy guide, and feel sorry for those poor saps who have to write them
18. Play The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time back to back and appreciate how games made the leap into 3D worlds
19. Find a great gaming deal at a yard sale
21. Try to get an original cartridge game to work on original hardware
22. Have a friend save over one of your files
23. Misplace the CD key on an old PC game
24. Play a game in a genre you don’t ordinarily enjoy
25. Breed a Gold Chocobo in Final Fantasy VII