Super Mario Bros. A game that’s nearly as old as I am, that fully stands the test of time. From the very beginning of my gaming days, this and Duck Hunt got me into it. Dig Dug 2 was the first game I ever got angry enough to flip the tv the bird. Sonic and Tails probably was the second major influence on my life, from a video game perspective. After that I was a gamer and will never turn away from the cathode-ray light!
We have a Home Movie of me at 3 years old playing Tetris on my cousin's Gameboy. I don't remember a time that video games weren't a part of my life.
The first game I remember realy clicking for me was Donkey Kong Country. I can still play that game off muscle memory alone.
I once stumbled into my parent's computer room as a little 6 year old and saw my older brother playing Sim City 2000. That moment literally changed my life.
Before that, I had seen my parents on the computer, but they were always just emailing or faxing stuff. I thought computers were boring machines for adults to do paperwork on.
The day I saw my brother playing Sim City on the computer was the day I realized it could do something awesome.
That was well over 20 years ago, and I've been a PC gamer ever since.
Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Elite back in the mid-90s. Jagged Alliance 2 and Fallout 2 a few years later got me finally hooked.
Sonic Adventure and Rayman 2: The Great Escape on Dreamcast
MASS EFFECT!!!
I’d played games pretty casually since I was a kid, but Mass Effect is what turned me into a gamer. Before Mass Effecf, I hardly finished games and could never really master controls, let alone the concept of movement with one stick and viewing with the other.
The Mass Effect story pulled me in so deep that I put in the effort and learned to actually play the game. After, ME I started playing just about everything.
Now, I’m in the process of recording my ME playthroughs and editing them into a show just for fun. I used to be normal at some point…
Can't remember if it was Baldur's Gate 1 or Morrowind when I was a kid.
Been playing Nintendo since I could remember. That's like everyone else's story.
However, I took a break. 1st kid was born and I wanted to focus on them. 5 years, no gaming... But Factorio... You see, that's where the trouble began to grow. That factory. That damned factory.
edit: fellow engineers, check the FFF blog, they've released news of the expansion!
RuneScape, back in 2007, not that I hadn't gamed before but that was my first real game.
I just installed the game after 13 years last week with a level 3 skiller in osrs. Just hit level 30 fishing, aiming for my first ever 99!
Super Mario Bros on NES.. About 1991.
It's definitely not my first game, but the one who really gave me my love for games was Spyro the Dragon
Surprised that I cant find it in the comments allready: Definitly Minecraft
The first game I have a memory of playing is Sonic 2 with the Knuckles cartridge you could piggyback it on, so I guess that, but I was young so it could have just been the most memorable. I remember playing Earthworm Jim around the same time but having no idea how to play it.
Mario 1, 2, & 3 on the NES
Also Bible Adventures on the NES
My mom worked for the church part-time and she'd park me and my brother in the youth group room with the NES. Someone had stolen all the games (except Bible Adventures) but not the console. Our grocery store would rent you a game for a three days for a dollar, and we rotated between the three Mario titles until we mastered them all.
Galaga. Amazon Trail really got me hooked though. Then Earthworm Jim and Mechwarrior 2 turned me into a full-blown addict.
My dads collection of pirated games :)
The secret of monkey Island or doom.
Crystal caves, doom, Duke nukem 1, commander keen.. the incredible machihe, legend of kyrandia. Those are the earliest games I can remember playing. Fuck crystal caves I spent way too much time trying to beat that game.
Earliest memories of video games were titles such as Aztec, Spy vs Spy, Frogger, King's Bounty.
But what really got my eight year old mind captivated on a summer vacation in the 80s was Elite on C64. I've spent hours into the night trying to get as far away from Lave as possible, all while trying to make some profit on hauling food and computer parts. I did not understand the concept of saving and loading a saved game back then, so there was a lot of trial and error into permadeath involved.
Doom and Doom II.
They certainly were not the first games I played. For my young self, games before then were either trivial games which you can figure out and play easily or difficult games without manuals which held my interest for brief periods of time. Games were (and are?) a certain difficulty and operate as they were designed. For Doom and Doom II, that was different.
Doom and Doom II were the first games I used cheat codes in (because they were the first games that I knew cheat codes for). The cheat codes in those games spoiled because they did more than just "make you invincible" but they also let you walk through the walls of the levels (noclip). They allowed you to see how the game worked (at least in a small way). You could also level jump (a more common cheat code) so that you can see levels that I did not have skills to reach. This made the games more than just a triviality since I could keep exploring and trying new things despite my skill level.
Those games were able to be modded though. You could easily get CDs with plenty of mods that changed the weapons, added levels, completely changed the game, and so on. This was the first game that I ever played that could do that. The CDs also came with editors which let me dabble in messing with weapons myself (where I managed to get around 1 FPS with all the rockets I fired at once from a rocket launcher). As such, the games could be made fresh and new again by modding it to be something different.
Those games also had a great sound track. It seems like a minor thing (and other games have great sound tracks as well) but I learned that music significantly influences my like or dislike for a game. Games that I played before didn't have bad music per say but nothing earlier really grabbed my attention like Doom and Doom II.
I do enjoy many modern games. Still, I miss that games typically do not have cheat codes (and things like noclip are a rarity in any new games) and modding has never seemed as "wild" as some of the Doom mods that were created back then. If Doom was never around, I'm sure that some other game would have grabbed my interest in different ways (likely it would still have a great sound track though). However, I would have likely missed the wonder of seeing how a game worked and seeing a game be modified.
Fortunately, these games are still playable today and still have new mods released for them today. As such, I can take a nostalgic trip and play them whenever I want.
Gaming in general would be the original Far Cry, Fallout 3, Battlefront 2, the Sims, and Age of Empires.
You can trace a lot of the games and genres I play today back to them.
sonic 1, first game i ever played
Spyro the Dragon on PS1
I've been into gaming since as long as I remember. My dad played halo 2 when I was a baby. First game I played tho was Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga.
I honestly couldn't tell you exactly which game that hooked me for life. My first exposure was when I spent summers with my grandparents on their farm.
Grandpa and I would ride his trike out to the fields, and we'd... do stuff? To the plants? I don't really remember the work.
I do remember that work ended at noon, and we zipped into town on the trike. And we went to the pub. Grandpa would get me a root beer, and we'd split a poutine. Then he'd give me a roll of coins. I can go nuts on the arcade machines, he can have way too many beers, and WE DON'T TELL GRANDMA.
Anyway, a half century later I'm a recovering alcoholic. Good times!
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Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
Only because Sonic Mega Collection wouldn't work on the defective GameCube I had.
Pretty sure it was Rick Dangerous on C64.
Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country
Two great side-scrollers
Think Brave Fencer Musashi or Zelda Ocarina of Time.
Honestly? This hole in the wall food store in my home town managed to pick up a pretty early release of the arcade game Robotron. I was instantly enthralled, visiting arcades any time I could. From there, I played on friends' Atari 2600s and Commodores until I managed to get my own C64, and I've never stopped since. From there, I migrated through their products and stayed a diehard fan till the mid-90's - C128, Amiga 1000, Amiga 500, and Amiga 2000.
I played a few early x86 games on demo machines in stores, but I didn't finally relent and build my own x86 rig until the release of the Descent 1 demo, which single-handedly destroyed all of my remaining resolve. I already considered myself a pretty consistent gamer, but that was the nail in the coffin. The rest, as they say, is history. It was only 4 years later that EverQuest came out, too, and that swallowed me whole.
I was kinda born into it? My earliest memories are of some Tom Sawyer game on an Apple IIe sitting on my mom's lap while she taught me how to play it. My parents had an intellivision with a good collection of games, the most notable I can remember being Microsurgeon. One of my aunt's had an Atari 2600. She even had E.T. I was born earlier the same year the NES released in the US, and when I was 4, I think, we got one but I had played Nintendo before at other kids' houses. I always loved Balloon Fight. I kinda latched on immediately and never let go.
Probably Mario on the first NES system. Then I got a Genesis, and I was constantly playing a little-known number called Ranger-X. THAT game was Dark Souls-hard.
Pac-Land. 10p per play in the cafe that my old girl used to go to in the mornings - she clocked that I wa I to that sort of thing and kindly got me an Atari 800 XE for a birthday or Christmas - I forget which.
It was all downhill from there.
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flashgames if it counts
Probably doom/Wolfenstein 3D (the original DOS title, obv.)... That started the whole thing, but FF6 and 7 were also huge catalysts for it back in the day. I think FF6 on the SNES was the first game I was addicted to. I couldn't have been much older than 10 at the time.... I can't say that I really understood the plot, but I enjoyed it a lot.
FF7 and 8 were both fun too.
After FF 6, we got LTTP and that's also huge for me. I've fallen away from LOZ, because I don't want to pay the Nintendo tax....
Sid Meier's Pirates and Minecraft
Runescape skill farming to get into tech stuff.
Dark Souls.
I remember the first game I played was Super Mario World on the SNES at my cousins place.
That game enthralled me because I was not good at it, but each time I played through after losing all my lives, I had the chance to get a LITTLE further, to DISCOVER something which I had EARNED.
Most games I played after that on Playstation 1 and 2 or Xbox had a lot more hand holding. There was not such a sense of achievement, though I learned to appreciate stories in games much more then.
Then I played Dark Souls 1. My BF at the time told me about it, and good god did I struggle with it. But like SMW, I found such a large sense of achievement as I inched further into the game. The non-standard story telling in the game was also really interesting, learning about this ancient lore from items and weapons and armor that I would find in the most desolate and obscure places of this dying world.
The combination of what I loved from high difficulty early games on the SNES in conjunction with what I loved from the story of games on later consoles were both present in Dark Souls, and to this day it holds a very special place for me.
Since, I think while Dark Souls 1 and 3, and Elden Ring have some of my favorite gameplay, Bloodborne has my favorite story of all time.
In Fromsofts games the world building is incredible and the difficulty is treacherous, so the journey is worthwhile.
I wouldn't call it a hobby, just some entertainment to pass the time/hang out with friends.
It was Counter-Strike 1.6. I didn't leave the house the summer I discovered it as a kid.
Pokémon FireRed
Daggerfall was the first game that really got its hooks in me. It had everything I wanted, a huge open world, tons of different items, getting to dress up my character :)
I must have spend hours just visiting every single town, playing tourist and just ignoring the story. It was all about exploring and role playing for me.Motocross Madness 2, baby. That's when I knew...
Xmen arcade game
Counter-Strike 1.3
I'd have to go all the way back to pinball, since I've always been fascinated with games.
But the very first video game that really sucked me in was Batman on the NES. I'm talking fully immersed; no awareness of my surroundings. Jacked in.
The music paired with the grim visuals was such a vibe. Just playing it made me feel cool. My parents had to drag me away from that birthday party haha.
Memory, Monkey Island, Diablo 1 and Street Fighter 2
Pokemon games and older 2D Zelda games. I really got into it when I found Halo
Mario Bros 1-3
Sonic 2. I was like 3 at the time.
The first game I ever really wanted to get good at was the arcade game spy hunter. The first time I got the speed boat was a dopamine high I've never recreated.
For me it was more a system than an specific game. I got a second hand GameBoy when I was like 5 or 6 and have been gaming consistently since then. Probably the highlight of that period was Super Mario though.
Lemmings or Descent, I don’t remember.
Asteroids, the arcade game.
My dad bought us a multi game pong console, then an Atari 5200 years layer.
But we often went to arcades and got $20-$40 in quarters.
In later years I remember truly loving the Buck Rogers and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom arcade games.
First computer was an Apple II and I had about 500 floppies of pirated games by the end of its life.
Always always been a gamer. Also had a Merlin handheld game for car trips, which saw constant use.
Monkey Island 2
Kingdom Hearts II
That game is the reason the X button stopped working on my PS2 controller when I was like 4 or 5
I always clicked with it really hard as a kid, but my parents banned me from it, so I just wound up making friends so I could play OG Red Alert or Commander Keen or whatever. I also played Tabletop 40k from a pretty early age, which my parents were more permissive of. In tabletop I have a very good systemising mind, so I wind up being the rules person, but I'm not super obsessed about any one system (I am a little "obsessed" with how few people play something other than D&D systems).
Age of Empires II
Breakout, Sokoban, Prince of Persia, Command & Conquer, Tilt!, Space Invaders, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Fallout, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, Wolf3D.
This was in the '90s but some of those games were already quite old by that time.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Pitfall on Atari
Couldn't give you the exact game that got me hooked, but I have been playing for pretty much my whole life. Earliest I can recall that could have gotten me hooked is either Yoshi's Story on n64 or some edutainment PC game where in one part you were moving pirate objects like a pyramid of cannon balls and other stuff away to clear a stone room.
Otherwise it could have been plenty of other games like some ps1 Egypt pharaoh themed game that was something like tetris or something similar.
First game was Safari Race on a Sega SC-3000. After that mainly played PC games when they were a thing and had a 1st gen Gameboy.
I gave up on games and tried to adult through my 20s... but after a bad breakup I bought an Xbox-360 and Skyrim and it's been a hobby ever since.
Sonic the Hedgehog
The first game I regularly played may very well have been Chex Quest. Unless you count Math Blaster. Or maybe Chip's Challenge.
As far as multiplayer games, I'd have to say Descent, the original one from 1994. I actually had a copy of the game years before I even had a PC capable of playing it at anything over 3FPS LOL!
Once I did finally upgrade to a decent PC, we held LAN parties at my place and we had an absolute blast!
Oddly enough, I can honestly say I've never played any games over the internet though. For me it's either single player games, or LAN party whenever we would play multiplayer.
Carmageddon, it was the first 3d game I had played and I spent all my time at my grandparents house playing it. I still regard it as one of the best games ever made.
Am I a gamer? Not sure. But Oblivion really blew my mind. I pirated it not knowing anything about it, I just googled "best games of last year" and that thing was the suggested result.
I was hooked. Years afterwards when my situation changed I bought it on Steam, along with Skyrim. I don't think I've ever played the steam copy.
Played my first game on a dedicated Pong console but my first transformative gaming experience was either Ultima III, Archon or Starflight. Those games were on IBM DOS machines with only 4/16 colors and a floppy drive. In the arcades it was Dragon Slayer and a little later the original Street Fighter.
Neverwinter Nights and Roller Coaster Tycoon when I was a little kid. I watched my dad play Neverwinter and had to indulge in my own tiny fantasy to play as a "dragon." Still at it.
I had a Sega Pico and a PS1 so early I can’t really remember. I was maybe 5/6, idk. But it wasn’t like today : I had to plug and unplug the console everytime I wanted to play, so I wasn’t playing a lot at all. Then I got a Game Boy Color and boi, game was on.
I’m from 1995.
Oh wow, this takes me back. I've thought video games were cool since the first time I saw a Space Invades arcade cabinet when I was like 4. But the game that got me really into video games? I dunno. It was either Donkey Kong or Ms Pac-Man.
Yes, I'm old. Yes, I've been playing video games since the 70s. No, I'm not particularly good at them. But ask me whatever I guess 😁
Final Fantasy
Bubble Bobble on the C64 :)
Asteriods, Atari 2600
Super Mario Land on the Nintendo Gameboy, and Lemmings on PC/DOS.
Sonic Heroes
Word rescue by 3D Realms, and maths rescue. Can still get them on steam!
Pokémon then was reinvigorated but Minecraft.
Super Mario Bros got me in. It was my older sister's game, so it was just something we had around the house for as long as I can remember. I think that's a great first game to get into, because it has wonderful art and music, and simple, straightforward challenges to overcome.
On the flip side, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain got me out of gaming for the most part. I had never been more excited for something than by the story being painted by the trailers leading up to the game's release. I was already a big time MGS fan, and I'd say I still am. I even enjoyed MGS5 basically right up until the moment I beat it, and then I reflected on everything I just saw and felt utterly deceived. Empty open world, lots if time wasting interstitial moments, grind-based mechanics, and an unfinished story that didn't need to take as long as it did to tell (and was stupid, too).
Planescape: Torment was the game that popped my cherry, my very first. After that, I played links awakening, and that was it I've been a gamer ever since.
Super mario bros
First games i played were Pokémon and super Mario, but I think the first game that REALLY got me hooked was Banjo Kazooie.
Fallout 4.
I started Fallout 4, instantly loved it, and got the initial few quests done and made my way into the open world. There were also side quests asking for help and stuff though. I thought to myself - let's knock out the small stuff so I can get the hang of this.
400 hours later I was basically fighting deathclaws with a high XP character and had barely completed past diamond City I think.
I didn't realize the side quests never stop and I'm an idiot but I was having fun anyway. I eventually looked up why I had to do so many and realized my issue. Finished the game shortly after because I had a maxed out character basically for beginner missions.
Dune II
Watched my dad play kings quest 2 when I was a kid.
Doom II was probably the first game I ever saw and it made me ask for a computer. Got a hand-me-down pretty much the next day.
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Dangerous Dave.
Age of Empires 2 on my parent's crappy old laptop.
Pokémon Gold, when I was 8, got it for Christmas. Technically my first game was Battleship, which I opened first, but I probably spent thousands of hours playing Pokémon Gold. :) I've played almost every Pokémon game since, up until Scarlet/Violet, which I haven't gotten yet, but maybe I will eventually.
Myst.
first game I got into was Pokemon Blue, but Guild Wars is what turned me into a gamer
Centipede.
Yes, I'm old
Evercrack and Diablo 2 were my starter games
Pokemon Platinum
Sim Park
Idk if anyone else ever even heard of it, it was a late 90s Sim game where you built a wildlife park.
My first game was Lego Island! I played it a bunch when I was around 6 years old. My first online game was Red Alert 2 which really kicked off my love for gaming. I still remember my friends being jealous when I upgraded my RAM from 32mb to 256mb. It was a simpler time.
My parents got me my first video game when I was 3 years old called Ready for Math with Pooh. I still remember some of the games!
Halo/a slew of freemium MMOs I'd play on my dinky laptop in the mid 00s
super mario brothers 2 baybeeeeeeee
Probably Commander Keen 4 and Prince of Persia in black and white on my dad's 286 pc.
Pong.
Pole Position II on Atari 7800.
Pong.
Sid Meier's Civilisation. Got me hooked like what I imagine crack cocaine and meth would do to you.
Portal. I have terrible FPS skills but love puzzle games. Having a FPS where I could proceed at my own pace and wasn’t constantly letting down teammates let me develop the skills needed to actually play.
Pokémon Blue on a used Gameboy color when I was like 8. All downhill from there.
I was first blown away with SimCity 4. My uncle had a pretty decent computer for the time, which could properly run it and I spent hours loving it. My nephew had RTC2 which we played for days on end, the first game I played through at home was Age of Mythology. I guess it shows where my love for strategy/simulation games comes from.
There was never really a single game. First game: Grand Prix on Atari 2600 Then The Settlers, Desert Strike, Another World and Lotus Turbo Challenge 2 on Amiga. Age of Empires 2, GTA, Stronghold, SHOGO, Morrowind, BG2 on PC After these titles I can try just about anything. That made me consider really wide variety of genres, styles and publishing formats (from indie to AAA).
The first games I played were some Windows 3.11 and DOS games, like Microman, Space Quest V and Civilization (which I didn't really understand, mostly liked to build up a palace lol). But what really got me into gaming was probably my Gameboy Advance with Pokemon Gold.
Freddy fish 🐠
Tony Hawk's Underground, Need for Speed underground, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I don't remember which one I played first, but it was one of them.
NFS 2SE
I got a Sega Genesis at 5. I had Sonic 1 and 2, and tiny toon adventures. Tiny Toon Adventures slaps.
KOTOR It is still one of the best stories in a game.
Roller Coaster Tycoon Deluxe
Ultima online
Dune 2, on our 386. Pretty sure my brother pirated the game from a BBS and at the time I didn't know piracy or BBS' were a thing.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Legend of the Lost Spatula on Game Boy Color
Video games? Space Invaders on my mate's Atari 2600. Asked for (and got) one that very Christmas.
Board games? That's a tought one, but I reckon Talisman 2nd Edition, which my uncles had a copy of. Played maaaaany hours of that game.
First game I ever played was Donkey Kong country 1 at 4 years old and it shaped my hobbies up until recently. So definitly that
Donkey Kong Country for SNES
I’ve been playing games since I was a kid, but I never got hooked to any until The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Now I’m playing the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom. They’re both fantastic games.
The first game I ever played was Mario on the NES, but the ones that really got me into gaming were Duke Nukem 3D and Quake on PC. It's been 27 years and I still enjoy them.
Super Mario Bros. circa 1987. I’m getting old.
I've been playing games ever since I was a little kid, I don't really remember any particular "first game". We did have an old SNES that I did all the time so probably Super Mario World I guess.
Monuments of Mars and later Command & Conquer were the two biggest.
How do all of you even know? I was like 4 and played an NES at a friend's house then got a game boy. Did you all get in at older ages? My memories at 4 are mostly gone.
mario kart wiiiiiiiiiiiii
While there was a bunch I played before it, Quake 2 and the rabbit hole of mods for it, were what really got me hooked. Really loving the remaster that just launched and what that is bringing to the mod community that is still going strong to this day.
Pokemon Blue that I got from a girl my mom babysat. But I think really getting into the hobby would be minecraft when I started hosting servers for my friends in middle school. I owe my career to that game.
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Dragon Warrior on NES is what really got me hooked. I'd played games on Atari but Dragon Warrior was my first introduction to rpgs. I'm glad the franchise is still going strong. Have slime magnets on my fridge.
I have no idea. My brother is 10 years older than I am, (so he's 49, I'll be 39 in a few months) and it was definitely something he let me play, I just have no idea what it could possibly have been. I've had a controller (keyboard and mouse mostly now) in my hands my entire life lol
Probably going to date myself a bit here
Doom 2, I played Doom before it and it was really fun but Doom 2 just stuck it claws in me and I was hooked.
Uh... probably one of my dad's Atari games. For PC games, though, it would be space sims, like the old Privateer or X-Wing. My dad loved them, and so I grew to love them, too.
Probably the pong game that my neighbours had hooked up to their tv in the very early 80s
I know for sure that Sonic and Knuckles was the very first game I played, or at least that I formed a memory of playing. I also had this handheld Radica Junior Bass Fishing game. And then I think I got to play Cruisin' USA at somebody's house and they had a full steering wheel setup for it.
When I was four or so I my family went to have lunch at another family friends house. Their sons were a bit older than me at the time, and they let me play some games on their new PlayStation console. I can’t remember exactly what order we played them in, but the first game I ever played was either Ape Escape or Crash Bandicoot: Warped. Both games are excellent and hold a special place in my heart to this day.
Gaming in general? First game was Duck Hunt and the game that got me into gaming was Super Mario Bros.
PC gaming? Leisure Suit Larry 6.
I can remember my Dad and I playing on the Amstrad console - "Pang" and "Burning Rubber" (I think?) .... The controller connections used a serial type port and I can recall him having to fix the pins on more than one occasion!
I also remember one uncle showcasing the PS1 to us, with Gran Turismo and Time Crisis, and another uncle introducing me to Unreal Tournament on PC, a game that I still play today!
Need For Speed Underground 2 and Burnout 3. Got it as a combo deal for Christmas as a kid.
I think Super Solvers - Gizmos and Gadgets was among the first games that really got me excited for gaming.
Ocarina of Time. There's, like, a whole world out there. I can walk around and see stuff. There are people to talk to. Hey, big owl. Scary monsters wtf. This shit's awesome.
Been chasing that feeling ever since :(
Frankly it's why I'm so into TTRPGs now. Video games can rarely give me a true sense of wonder, of exploring the unknown and unexpected anymore.
Minecraft
Probably a Lego Star Wars game for the game boy, I get nostalgic thinking about it
In theory, Super Mario Bros. on the NES, because that's the first game I really played by myself. But I'm not sure it really is, because at that time video games were just a thing you did, like watching TV. So I never considered myself a gamer as such, just someone who would casually drop in on games here and there. I was never involved in them, I'd just play for a bit, then go and do something else.
Fast forward to a few years ago, and my wife (who plays a lot of games) suggested I play To The Moon, and that got me hooked. A video game that made me cry - amazing.
Since then I've played more games, looking for ones with a great story. Played RDR2 last year, and nothing has come close to it since.
A Sega Mega Drive Car Game called: Lotus Turbo Challenge by EA from 1990
Minecraft Demo version on my grandpa's iPad. It blew my little 5 year old mind.
Does jump-start pre k count?
Below the Root on Commodore 64. After that just the Mario Games and Final Fantasy games on NES and SNES.
Sly Cooper.
Zillennials rise up.
Minecraft, and then Cuphead again
It wasn't the first game I played, nor the first I was really drawn in by but Ultima IV on the Master System just seemed like a miracle. There could be an entire world with a rich history, populated by diverse characters where I got to step into the role of the protagonist of a story like in a fantasy novel only I had the freedom to make my own choices about how to respond to the story, the gameplay rewarded careful thinking over twitchy reflexes and the game world was so big it expanded into real world artefacts. I had no idea of the potential of the medium until I encountered that game but it all unfolded before me once I had.
Chopper Commando on the PC Jr and River Raid on the Atari 2600 were my first gaming loves.
Bastion by Supergiant Games.
I'm actually not sure how precisely it happened, but a good decade ago as a teenager I somehow stumbled upon a torrent of the game. I didn't really know anything about the game, but I distinctly remember reading the description and looking at the art and being like "this is so cool", and then being like "this is even cooler" again when it turned out Rucks basically narrates the entire game with that deep hopeful voice.
And that was that; my early gaming continued with things like Hawken, Detective Grimoire and Machinarium, but Bastion definitely holds a special place in my heart.
More than a decade later, I've played (bought) and replayed basically all of Supergiant's games several times. Such a wonderful studio. Darren Korb is a fantastic composer as well, just doesn't miss a single vibe :)
COD:MW2, Halo 3 and Fallout 3
I played games before, but my first obsession was Pokemon Blue, Diablo and 2 got me stuck into RPGs, and Halo CE got me into shooters.
gaming chooses you. you wake up one day and youre grinding something and u have a vague memory of games you played on these "old consoles"
Initially it was Animal Crossing: Wild World. One of my parents' coworker's daughter was babysitting me before school when I was in 3rd grade and she had the game on her DS and I fell in love with it. Still have the copy I got to this day. However, I wouldn't say I fully got into the hobby until The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess (Wii). TP especially got me to fall in line with video games as a storytelling medium artistically and narratively.
Wobbly Life on PC, coop with the kids, I really, really recommend that game for kids. Since then we mastered BOTW and TOTK on Nintendo Switch and now are working the ranks in Fortnite.
First a gameboy advance with three separate games, Tekken, sonic, and f-zero. Then Nanosaur on a very old mac my dad had and his Sega Dreamcast with a few dozen titles. I still think they'd be fun to revisit today!
I saw links awakening on my brother's friends Gameboy, just walking around digging with the shovel was enough to get my interest,
The first one for me was Alley cat in the early 80s. Later test drive for DOS and Mario bros.
When I played pong on a Dec PDP 11 “mini” computer in the 1970s. I was hooked and spent my life playing many games. Into VR development these days Imagineering a Theme Park.
Civilization 1.
I think... Gran Turismo?? I am a big fan of racing but the handling of TOCA Touring Car Championship never agreed with me despite my love for 90's BTCC. I had a better time with the more sensible handling of GT1.
I have fond memories of a yellow Impreza. I couldn't drive the RWD cars back then. I also remember me trying to use a racing wheel, I was equally bad at it but at least I was having fun!
The first game I played was probably Nintendogs on the GBA. The game that really blew me away was Super Mario Sunshine though.
In early 2000s, I got hooked into an online MMORPG called Tibia with some friends. At it's peak it had something like 70k players online. It was cutthroat, if you died you'd lose hours and hours of progress. I was hooked at one point doing 14h days. That experience has been impossible to recreate in adulthood.
Commander Keen in my early years. But the first game that really got me into 3D gaming was probably Acclaim's ShadowMan. It's still an absolute masterpiece. Great visuals, amazing storytelling...and that creepy soundtrack is just burned into my brain. Probably had some nightmares from that when I was a kid. 😄
My uncle showed me the doom 1 demo when I was 5.
Been fucked up ever since.
I can't remember a particular first game. Nethack, various MUDs, Descent 1, Starcraft, and Unreal Tournament (1999) were all reasonably early.
Adventure on the Atari 2600, also Pitfall and Chopper Command. Sort of fell out of it for a while until I played Halo. I've been on Xbox ever since
Pilot wings 64 and mario 64 played at my friends house. Only access to games prior to that were Prince of Persia, Myst and spooky-ass Iron Helix on an old Mac II and they were not particularly exciting for a pup of that age.
WoW - just prior to BC release
Tunnels & Trolls: Crusaders of Khazan, Railway Tycoon, King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella and some car racing game with a Ferrari Testarossa in it (that wasn't Outrun)
Motocross Mania on the PS1 was the first game that legitimately hooked me. I can still hear the menu music when I think about it, and it's been 15 years since I've played it. Team Fortress 2 got me into PC gaming and I barely ever use consoles now.
I think it was Tetris on the GameBoy, then Super Mario Land 2 and Kirby's Dreamland.
After the mandatory army service I stopped, studied and began gaming again with Portal 1&2.
Zork 2 & for a graphical game, windham classics "below the root"
I really enjoyed secret agent on dos.
It’s been a hobby ever since the beginning, I think. First games I played were Spyro and Crash Bandicoot on the PS1. Went on to play the sequels, and eventually got into RPGs with Legend of Dragoon and Final Fantasy 9. Hooked ever since.
First video game I remember playing was Super Mario World in about 1996, when I got a used Super Nintendo for Christmas. It blew my mind and I remember being so impressed when my older brother showed me how to get to Star World, haha
I used to read about games in magazines. I saved up enough paper route money to buy a Commodore VIC 20, and my first game was Adventure.
The first game I ever played was Mario Kart DS. I have been a Mario fan ever since.
I have these faint memories of watching my uncles play The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends for NES when I was super little. That's probably where I first got an interest. But then the first game that I actually played myself that got me truly hooked was Super Mario World for SNES.
Still one of my favorite games ever.
Laser Blast and Pitfall 2 on the 2600
I'm not a gamer per se, just a casual, but Rome: Total War (the original one with the Barbarian Invasion Expansion, not the Rome 2 trash)
The very first game I can remember was Silk Worm on my dad's Amiga 500. After that, Shadow of the Beast and later, on PC, Command & Conquer.
I remember clearly that someone brought an Apple II to my preschool. This would be early/mid 80’s. It had a color monitor and they showed off some maze running math game (probably Number Munchers or something like that), but for some reason what really grabbed my little 3 (4?) year old mind was just this simple graphical program that displayed multicolored <<< shapes that lined up and spiraled outwards. I remember thinking, “hey it looks like my living room rug!”
But that’s when I realized that there was this magic box under the monitor. It was covered in buttons AND IT LET YOU CONTROL WHAT WAS SHOWING ON THE TV!! It set my little brain on fire and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Pokemon on my childhood 2DS was what got me interested in gaming, Minecraft was what brought me over to PC gaming (i had primarily played legacy console edition before this, but I wanted to mess around with mods and commands) and Portal 2 brought me to Steam.
Hello Kitty No Hanabatake I believe was the very first video game I played when I was like 4. PGA Tour Y2K was a banger too.
Deathmaze 5000
Cruisin' the world. Would sit and drive for hours
Edit: just looked it up and it's actually called Cruis'n World
Super Metroid when I was 5 years old. Brothers finally let me play it after a hernia surgery because they felt sorry for me. Got to sit on a comfy couch with an applesauce cup playing it.
Elder scrolls V: Skyrim. I got into gaming at a pretty high age(31yo) even though I had played a bit when I was younger, but I wouldn't consider myself a gamer before Skyrim.
MacMac (or something like that, because I can't find it anywhere) It was a jump and run game on windows 95. You were a little ninja in a red trainings suit. you had to fight and run your way into a castle. first you were on the outside walls, than on the roof, inside. The final boss was a blue genie. Along the way you had to fight bats and knights, but you could only kick and punch.
As a little child I watched my father play Diablo. I was always allowed to chose the character he used. The first games I played were Titan Quest and Lego Star Wars, excluding some learning games.
Believe it or not, Angry Birds.
Quake 3 was my first but Ultima Online is the one that made me fall in love.
Bubble Bobble
Some cowboy game on the atari started it, but since I got a NES with super Mario bros I never stopped
OG Fallout.
For me it would have definitely been an MS-DOS game. Exactly which one is harder to remember since I was a kid, but I do recall playing a lot of an educational game called Operation Neptune.
Lode Runner on an old C64 clone. That was back in '86 I think, at a local computer center in Kyiv. They had other games too, like Karateka, Rescue on Fractalus, etc. But Lode Runner made such an impression on my little mind, and got me hooked on gaming.
Later on, in that same center a teacher was demoing various computer viruses. That one got me into programming.
I played a lot of games beforehand, but one(s) that kicked off the three decades of gaming were Lufia and the Fortress of Doom, and Final Fantasy 4(was 2 here in the US). Honestly don't remember which one I played first.
Legend of Zelda 2 on NES. I could not get enough at 4 years old even though I kept getting killed.
While my first approaches were watching my father play doom and reading him Tomb Raider's strategy guide, as well as playing on my mother's Sega Mega Drive 2, my OWN first games were pokemon yellow and Homeworld, which came pretty much at the same time, and which shaped me all through. To this day I am still a PC and Nintendo gamer
Sonic on sega was the first game I played, FF7 was the first game I loved.
My first "games" were the shareware episode of Doom and the HL demo disc. Didn't have money when I was a kid so I rarely got to play on arcade machines in laundry mats, kof and Metal Slug mostly. Love them still, but it wasnt until we got our first family pc in early 2000 and I got to experience those that really pushed me into games. I honestly have no idea where those discs even came from,
Moraff's Revenge
