Super Mario Bros on the NES. I remember getting super frustrated and throwing a tantrum because I couldn't figure out how to jump over the second hole. Hahahaha man I was pathetic.
I'm pretty sure it was Pong on a dedicated console from Sears. I remember playing Pong when I was super young, but I don't remember if that was at the same time as us getting an Atari 2600 or not.
I have very fond memories of playing Freddie Fish in our local library while my father thought I was going to children's choir stuff (I hated it and was hanging out in the library instead, just to be back in time, when my father came to pick me up again).
Got a NES with Mario and Gradius as a Christmas present. Opened the present with Gradius first and had no clue what it was but that would be the first game I ever played. Then running into the goomba in Mario like everyone did :)
I have only the vaguest memory of something on what I think was the Atari, but I'm not even sure if we ever actually owned that console. I think the first game I actually remember playing was Super Mario Bros, on the cartridge that also had Duck Hunt.
Jump Man, Space Taxi, and Ghostbusters on Commodore 64. I was using that version of the Ghostbusters song as my ringtone for years, back when I got phone calls ;)
Mine was a point-click quest written in visual basic that taught Russian alphabet. I was 2-3 years old, playing while sitting on my father's lap. Apparently this created some core memories since once I was 15-17 I found it and still remembered every dialogue word-to-word
My earliest would probably be Space Invaders on the Atari 400.
But I also did a lot of PC gaming around that time - Alley Cat, Paratrooper, Prince of Persia, Dangerous Dave, GORILLA.BAS, NIBBLES.BAS - these were some of the earliest DOS games I played and still remember them fondly.
When we got a NES later on, spent a lot of time on Duck Hunt. And Super Mario of course, but don't think I ever managed to get past level 3. Still had fun though.
most likely Peek-a-Boo, or outside either Tag or Hide and Seek, if not something like Mouse Trap or Candy Land for board games
If you're asking about video games, Pong on some sort of Realistic/Tandy console system in the late 70s when I would go to work with my father at Radio Shack (back when it was legit) and he would put me in front of the black&white.
Pac-Man on the Atari 2600. I understand the complaints about that port, but I'll always have a soft spot for it for getting me into the hobby way back when.
I don't know the name. In the afternoons in the early nineties after school I was at a neighbor's house. Her husband had a PC and a joystick connected to it sparked my interest. He showed me a flight game. I don't remember much detail, but it was a vector based game with fast action based flying and you had to bombard or shoot enemy bases. The next thing I remember is my mother calling our neighbor when I planned to come home because it was already getting late and I had never stayed that long before.
Probably Duke Nukem 3D, introduced by way of my uncle’s at the time high end computer.
I’d seen arcade games and things, but an actual interactive 3D world I could walk around in was wild. It was also a much bloodier and more “adult” game than anything I’d seen before.
Later that year, 1997, I got a Nintendo 64 for Christmas along with Goldeneye and StarFox64. Those two games became mainstays for me at home.
First game I remember playing is a DOS game called Snipes. It was at my stepdads work and I remember getting smoked by his workmate as we were playing it LAN and I remember crying haha.
This wasn’t the first game that I played but it was the first game that I PLAYED. It really got me, made me draw stuff from the game, scratch my head and glued me to the screen.
My little brain melted from not understanding. The bitterness of every mistake and death was sprinkled by some mysterious force with the most magical feeling of solving the next level. This game explained by the example how games can be and are amazing. Before it, I just enjoyed the fun aspects of playing but here I was gaming and every level felt like a real achievement.
Now, when I think about it, this game made me skip building with LEGO for some time.
It was an Apple ii I think and Star Trek of some sort. ASCII based graphics and words. Idk I was 6. Didn't have a clue what I was doing. It was on my bio father's computer. He used it as a way to distract me while Mom and him argued over child support. Last time I saw him thankfully. But at least I have that memory of trying to catch a "k"
While I had probably already played a couple of counterfeit NES games at a friend's house before that, the first 2 games I clearly remember playing on PC were Tux Racer (on my dad's Linux setup) and Warcraft 2.
The cart said Final Fantasy 2. We now know it as Final Fantasy 4.
My father had my playing it and reading all the text out loud. I played that game over and over and over. I have all the hidden paths and treasures memorized.
The opening scrawl ended in something about Cecil and Kain vanishing "into a deep fog." For years and years I thought it said they vanished "into a deep frog." Let me tell you... the hours I spent lying awake at night wondering what that meant...
It was either the dungeon crawl game "Eye of the Beholder" or a Japanese translated strategy game “Romance of the Three Kingdoms III” on a floppy, around 1991-1993 I think.
I doubt it was the literal first game I played, but Ghouls n' Ghosts for the sega genesis was my favorite as a kid, with sonic 2 as a VERY close second
Mostly flash games on some websites. However, the main one I remember was Colin McRae Rally 2.0. Getting a cheap controller with force feedback was amazing.
Probably something on the Amstrad CPC computer, and I couldn't tell which game specifically.
I had the Donkey Kong arcade port on it, ironically better than the NES one because it had the full 4 levels instead of just 3.
Other game of note was Jet Set Willy. Despite the simplistic style that game was creepy as hell to me. The intro music was a pretty good 8-bit rendition of the Moonlight Sonata. Not sure how much of this is due to the game, but that music still kind of gives me the creeps.
Then on that computers I had lots of forgettable games, often in compilations. And a few bad ports (Salamander a.k.a Life Force), okay ones (Contra) and a very late addition of Lemmings, probably the best game I had on it yet not the best version of the game by far.
I got a NES as a secondary gaming platform at some point. Super Mario Bros 1 and 3 were not the first games I played, but after playing so many crappy platform games on the CPC they definitely had a huge impact on what I still consider good game design now.
Fond memories i have of Golden Axe and Warcraft 2. They werent my first games. But ones i played alot. My Dad had an Amiga and the only game i can remember by name is Golden Axe :) maybe Gianna Sisters too
Mazogs on my godparents ZX81. The game was basically navigating a maze and occasionally fighting spiders. Which was a luck based thing where you just ran into them and waited for the result. Not very exciting but novel at the time.
But it probably wasn't the very first game. I grew up in a tiny coastal tourist town that had four arcades. So it's more likely the earliest games I played were in them but I don't have a defined 'first' memory. They were fairly ubiquitous arcade games so: Space invaders; Donkey Kong; Pac-man; Asteroids; Frogger; Pole position; Paper boy; Lunar lander, etc.
I think the first game that I ever got addicted to (partly because I had the pocket money to sustain the addiction) was Ghosts and Goblins. Been chasing that buzz ever since lol.
The first game I played was somewhere between those Disney Storybook Games on PC, and the Tonka games. And sitting on my Dad's lap playing Police Quest and Wolfenstein 3D Shareware. Eventually we got a PS1 with non-point and click games with Spyro the Dragon and I think Crash Bash and CRT. Can't remember which one we played first.
how about the earliest game that had a profound impact on you? Ultima Exodus for me. it had an immersive world you could explore way bigger than zelda. lots of hidden side quests and some mind-blowing secrets. i mean, tracking the phases of the twin moons was actually part of the game. some of the secrets were essential to completing the game which is why i never was able to complete it until i used a walk-through years later.
years later as a veteran DM, it was absolutely the most influential game i ever played.
I don't really remember. Maybe Kirby on my aunts Gameboy?
Edit: Should read the whole post instead of just the title. So it'd probably be Bomber Jack. It was on a Gameboy cartridge with other games my dad got me when I was in the hospital as a kid (don't remember what for).
Sheesh. That's a tough one. My memory is trash from TBIs... Maybe pong, or space invaders? I think it would be something that was in an arcade. Our first console was the NES with SMB, but we definitely played in arcades before that.
My first gaming experience was when I was stuck in the hospital for days due to surgery on my feet when I was super young. My mom's friend let me borrow her kid's NES and, as I couldn't get out of bed, I did nothing but play River City Random, Super Mario Brothers, and one other game I no longer remember.
Hard to say, but possibly Spectron for the Spectravideo SV-328. The first game I remember really having an impact was Super Mario Bros. Played it at my friend's house and afterwards I begged my parents for a NES. That was a happy Christmas.
Playing a friend's copy of Pokémon Red. Many a late night was spent getting as far as I could without being allowed to save.
First games I remember owning:
Sega Genesis 6-PAK with Sonic the Hedgehog, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Revenge of Shinobi, Columns, and Super Hang-on. Mostly played Sonic. Mom forbade us from playing the "violent" games, so we'd get in trouble if we were caught playing GA, SoR, or RoS.
First game I have fond memories of:
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. This was one of the first games we got when we upgraded from the Genesis to a PS2, and I played it many times over from the start before we invested in a memory card. The first game I actually beat start to finish without saving. I fondly remember 100%ing it over a weekend, leaving the PS2 on overnight while I slept.
Probably "ports of call" on PC. Still haven't found an actual modern version of it. There were some half assed attempts in recent years, all with such huge flaws that they still haven't managed to be considered "playable".
The very first game I remember was Alex Kidd on Master System II, my mother was always playing it!
The very first I played was probably NFS 3 on PC with my father. I remember playing it during the 1999 Athens earthquake aftershocks and getting scared
If I had to guess it was Spider-Man for the Atari 2600. I guess it could have been Combat. It was definitely a 2600 game because that's all we had until we got a NES.
super mario bros on one of those NES bootlegs that have "16000" games while in reality it's more like 50 60 pirated games repeated across the whole list. remember i couldn't finish the second level really couldn't time the moving platform jump over the hole. it was fun.
My friend's dad owned a small local cable station so he had access and money to get all the latest crap.
I remember he also had a brand new beta max, and I was just this innocent 4 or 5 year old kid and I was asking why the time was flashing and the adults didn't know. So I just walked up and programmed it. They praised me as being a literal genius and I was like you idiots It's just a fucking clock.
Crash Bandicoot was also my first game! I was only around 2 years old give or take. I enjoyed the NES and Sega genesis a lot more until I got a bit older as it was easier to get the hang of.
The second game I saw(but did not play) was tomb raider. It made me cry when the wolves jump scare you in the first level lol.
It's weird reading through the posts and seeing how vivid these moments are for some. I think I may have a memory problem because it's honestly hard to say what I played first. It was sometime around 1988, and my guess is original Mario for NES since it's the first console my parents got, and it came with it. I remember playing it but it's hard to say if it was the first since I may have played something at a relative or friend's house. Played a lot of random NES games after that. My parents also owned an intellivision so it could have been something on that as well.