Games you feel a sense of pride having finished

[Cagliostro]

I'd say the one I'm most proud of is Zac McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders for the C64. That was back in the day before there were hints online to run to whenever you get stuck. And I definitely got stuck. This was doubleteamed with my girlfriend at the time and I. It took about a month, partly because I couldn't play it unless she was also playing. It was a lot of fun.
Bard's Tale 1-3 is also the same kind of thing, with another doubleteam with a friend of mine. Whenever we'd go into a dungeon, he'd move it around and I'd map. With graph paper. He'd take a step, we would check all directions, and continue on. Tedious tedious work, but it made for less tedium overall, as we started off not mapping, and just kept running around in circles getting jumped by wandering monsters.
Myst 1, same thing, all by myself though.
Myst 2-4 also the same but with another girlfriend.
I've certainly had more fun with games than these, but these were acheivements I feel proud of. I just don't have time to get stuck like I used to, and there are always new games to play.

[Usivius]

DOOM!


I remember this wayyy back and it was so hard! The barrage of monsters that never let up and the area where the crap demons appear as walls go up scared the piss out of me! And the big boss at the end!!!
whew
that was an achievement for me...

[CovenantJr]

Secret of Mana. Really, it's a difficult game but not a very difficult one, so it might seem like a strange nomination. The thing is, it was my first proper RPG and I knew nothing of RPG conventions/tricks of the trade, like power levelling. Made it very hard indeed the first time through. When I eventually finished it years later, I felt quite elated.

Terranigma. Another SNES-era RPG, but this time actually quite difficult by nature. Specifically, it features Bloody Mary, a boss who can only sustain one solitary point of damage from any form of attack, meaning you need to fight her solidly, without taking any serious damage yourself, for a good couple of hours. Took me forever to beat her. I didn't have the net at the time, so there were no online guides, but I did have a Nintendo magazine that happened to be running a walkthrough at the time. Their immensely helpful tip for dealing with Bloody Mary was "hit her until she dies".

[aTOMiC]

I was quite proud to finish DOOM as well. Since then it's been kind of a matter of fact that you play through to the end of whatever game you happen to be playing. It was gratifying to get through Super Mario Bros when I first got my NES.

[CovenantJr]

I almost never finish games. I think I get bored of them before the end.

[[Syl]]

Super Mario Brothers. It probably took me over two months, but to finally beat it... Now I look back on it in pride. The fact that I knew every trick in the game - infinite one-ups, negative warp, and little with fire power - adds to the pride.

Dragon Warrior. Sure, all my friends thought it was a stupid game, couldn't get a trade with it to save my life. But it was the first RPG. I spent hours leveling up decades before the term 'grinding' was ever considered.

Double Dragon (arcade). Beat it on one quarter. That's a whole lot of elbows, I tell you.

Area 51 (arcade). Again, one quarter (ok, one credit). I had a 927 streak. I've never seen another one on the top scores above the 200s.

[jelerak]

I am going back to the C64 as well.

Ultima IV
Sword of Fargoal (nearly impossible!)
The Standing Stones
Bards Tale 1 & 2 (never played 3)

Not quite for finishing...but achieving a Congressional Medal of Honor on Gunship.

[Cagliostro]

Y'know, I should add Ultima IV as well. That final dungeon where you have to go to the codex of ultimate wisdom and put some word in...I went through that several times before I figured out what word it was. It took a few hours to get to the bottom, so it was frustrating when whatever you came up with didn't work. I can't remember if I figured it out, or if a friend did and told me. SO much fun, but so nasty hard at times.

That game still reminds me of Fun Dip and Mountain Dew as that was my addiction food at the time.

[Worm of Despite]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Rented the game at age 7, thinking it the most massive creation of all mankind. 2 worlds, 12 dungeons...truly transcendent of my notion of games at the time, and it took me 3 years, on and off, to beat. Now, I breeze through it in two days to a week.

Chrono Trigger
I brought honor to mine house by defeating this 16-bit milestone. My 2008 resolution was to finish Final Fantasy VI, which I did at 1:44 AM, January 1.

I've beaten Super Mario World so many times it's sickening.

[Menolly]

What is the definition of "beaten?"
Beorn wants to say Super Mario Galaxy as he has beaten all of the bosses, but he's only on level 70...

...admits I have no idea what he's talking about...

He says the most sense of pride at totally completing a game has been Sonic Adventure for his Dreamcast. And he did that two or three years ago, so yeah, that must have really stayed with him.

[Cagliostro]

What is the definition of "beaten?"

A lot of games these days have a nice little finish point where the credits roll and the storyline comes to an end. And then, typically, you can restart it with extras. The older games are a little more difficult to decide, and some I think never end. But there are other milestones. I remember on the Atari 2600 I didn't finish Pac-man until I rolled it over (in other words, the scoring system only had so many digits, and when it hit the top score possible which consisted of several nines, the score rolled over to zero). Ahh, those were the days.

[Menolly]

What is the definition of "beaten?"

A lot of games these days have a nice little finish point where the credits roll and the storyline comes to an end. And then, typically, you can restart it with extras.

*nodding*

Then Beorn has beaten Super Mario Galaxy at level 70. He wants to level up to 120, which he says is the highest it will go.

And definitely has gotten to the credits on the Sonic/Shadow games.

[Kil Tyme]

Castle Wolfenstein, Doom, Myst, Half-Life completions were all big game moments for me when I finished them. Arcade-wise, and I'm dating myself like some of the other posters here, I was hugely proud of finally winning Dragon's Lair and I am still proud to this day of having once been a Q-bert expert.

[CovenantJr]

I remember on the Atari 2600...

Ahhh, Atari 2600. Back when games were games.

[Queeaqueg]

I have never been really proud for finishing a game but...

Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9 and 10 but not simply finishing but going through the entire game and getting everything.
Vandel Hearts 2 gave me a little pride. Vagrent Story also did. Half-Life and MGS

.. that is it.

[Usivius]

CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN!!!
LOL ... oh yahhh! I remember that one. Fighting armoured Hitler at the end. That was cool!

Good one, KT!

[Holsety]

Terranigma. Another SNES-era RPG, but this time actually quite difficult by nature. Specifically, it features Bloody Mary, a boss who can only sustain one solitary point of damage from any form of attack, meaning you need to fight her solidly, without taking any serious damage yourself, for a good couple of hours. Took me forever to beat her. I didn't have the net at the time, so there were no online guides, but I did have a Nintendo magazine that happened to be running a walkthrough at the time. Their immensely helpful tip for dealing with Bloody Mary was "hit her until she dies".

Haha, Bloody Mary, I remember the first fight with her. Same story here...she has 350 HP so at one damage per hit it's a LONG fight.

The funny, sad thing is...all you need to do is boost your level a bit. I think around levels 19-21 she only takes 1 damage, but once you get to 23 or something, you actually "break the barrier" and start doing around 3 to her. Around 25 you do enough to make it a pretty easy fight.

And that's not all. There's also this one kind of magic ring (it's a light or thunder element one) you can make that does damage that's at least in the double digits to her, once you're around level 20, and that speeds the battle up significantly.

Of course, I only found that out my second time through the game.

Devil May cry on Dante Must Die mode. I Wanna Be the Guy, only on hard mode though. Various entries in the Fire Emblem series. Advance Wars Advanced Campaigns (only done it on 1 and 2). Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Hard Mode level 1 cap.

I have NOT beaten Portrait of Ruin with Old Axe Armor level 1 yet...I dunno if I ever will either Not that good.

[Marv]

Ninja Gaiden. I was pretty happy when I completed that.

[kevinswatch]

Chrono Trigger
I brought honor to mine house by defeating this 16-bit milestone. My 2008 resolution was to finish Final Fantasy VI, which I did at 1:44 AM, January 1.

It took you long enough. Heh.

Anyway, I haven't played too many "really hard" games that I can be proud of. Since generally I wuss out and avoid hard games.

However, I did enjoy and feel some pride in finishing all three Xenosaga games. While the story got strange at time, it had a very powerful and worth-while ending. It was an awesome feeling after playing through three 60-80 hour long RPGs.

-jay

[Cagliostro]

Chrono Trigger
I brought honor to mine house by defeating this 16-bit milestone. My 2008 resolution was to finish Final Fantasy VI, which I did at 1:44 AM, January 1.

It took you long enough. Heh.

Anyway, I haven't played too many "really hard" games that I can be proud of. Since generally I wuss out and avoid hard games.

However, I did enjoy and feel some pride in finishing all three Xenosaga games. While the story got strange at time, it had a very powerful and worth-while ending. It was an awesome feeling after playing through three 60-80 hour long RPGs.

-jay

I would call that quite an achievement. I can't even get through the drawn out opening sequence of the first one without nodding off. I've tried it about 5 times and never succeeded.