Back in 2005 I was gifted both Guero (by Beck) and Guild Wars on my birthday and ended up listening to the album on repeat while playing the game and I really vivid visual flashbacks to that game's art style whenever I hear that album.
As a child I was gifted an album (cheesy christian rock, but it's what my parents would buy me) and a full set of the Chronicles of Narnia. Album went on repeat while I read the first few books and now they are forever, deeply linked in my memory.
DOOM had Smashing Pumpkins in it first: the cheat IDSPISPOPD ("smashing pumpkins into small piles of putrid debris") gives you the chainsaw due to some inside joke. The Smashing Pumpkins sample is a nod to this.
It's fun deciding to imprint yourself in that way, it feels like a conscious decision to re-wire. That said, the most deeply-seated ones are the ones I didn't really decide on.
along the same lines, red hot chili peppers and halo 2 on Xbox live for me!
also morrowind since somehow I managed to accrue 250+ hours of play time on that despite spending about 16 hours out of every day that I wasn't at school (those days were more like 8-10 hours ಠ_ರೃ) playing halo 2 online.
