Could be a console startup, title screen, intro cutscene, etc. I just got wired off an energy drink so I apologize in advance if this post is unhinged.
I personally associate it with Kirby Super Star’s intro, the Sega CD boot screen (non-US, I associate the US ones with Christmas), and the original Xbox startup.
Halo CE, BF2 and WoW
For me it was the Star Wars Rebellion main menu. I played that game tons back in the day on a PC that couldn’t handle much more. Starting it up locked me into just wanting to finish a game in one night.
Loved that game!
I actually recently bought it on CD after both the Steam and GOG versions gave me visual glitches. It’s really great even if the enemy AI has infinite resource cheats.
Definitely tf2
Usually community servers are empty but pub players are practically infinite
Spent sooooo many hours as a kid playing Wing Commander: Prophecy. I still have dreams about the missions and the video cut scenes. Picked it up on GOG about a year ago and the controls sceme was still in my muscle memory.
Definitely the Ocarina of Time intro for me. It was the first game to give me a real sense of adventure as a kid, and that theme song remains forever burned into my memory.
Hands down, the Descent 2 PC/DOS intro, game released in 1996. They were ahead of their time, awesome game still to this day in my book.
Guild wars 1
Command and conquer : red alert
Diablo (the original)
Minecraft, satisfactory, factorio are ones that come to mind that keep me up too late as an adult. The TES games are ones I remember from my childhood. Morrowind was my jam back in the day, as was NWN.
Minecraft, though it’s because I usually open it after sunrise if I’m still awake. most of the time if I’m up all night I’m really deep into surfing the web to the point of like, obscure sites about aliens or something.
Breath of the Wild… so many nights were spent lying in bed playing that game until I heard birdsong! 😅
Crossposted to !patientgamers@sh.itjust.works
Nier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8XTbluLDyE
The opening rant of Kaine refers to something in the late game and it’s soulcrushing, but I love it and how they chose to scream at you on the first launch of the game when you don’t even know who’s speaking. That sets the tone.
First Gran Turismo.
Devil May Cry
Whenever I hear any sound from that game, I am immediately triggered in remembering the from dusk till dawn game nights me and a friend had. Hearing the birds sing was a sign we had to maybe stop and get some sleep. Biking home through the city while the sun rises after a game binge night was surreal.
Tribal Wars