Your Gaming Origins

[Drixxel]

We all started somewhere as fans of ye olde video game. These first gaming experiences defined our initial gaming tastes, and chances are that all of us still feel the influence to this very day.

For me it all started with..

Asteroids/Donkey Kong, Atari 2600
The first two games for the first console my family ever owned. My brother had just gotten chicken pox, and to help ease the secluded lifestyle he'd have to lead for the next while, my parents bought an Atari 2600. Must have been late '88 or early '89, I am not entirely sure as I was at most 3 years old at the time. We all had a lot of fun with the Atari, and within months had built up a good library of games including Pheonix, Solaris, Desert Falcon, Kung Fu Master, Crystal Castles, Jr. Pac-Man, Q-Bert.. loved 'em all.

Anyways, how did the rest of you enter the kingdom of gaming?

[lordofduct]

The earliest I can remember is the NES we had... don't really remember getting it, I know it was for X-mas and I know it was for all of us kids. It was around release date... it was the pack that came with the running pad and the olympics game.

My earliest memories though are me and my brother using are hands on the running pad to get perfect scores.

Throwing the control repeatedly at the screen in Mario... (this caused one hell of a scene that I still have scars from, damn Tobin and his quick wrist with knives)

Hating Mickey even more in that Mickey Mousecapades game that seemed so freaking hard back then!

----
My friend had an SMS down the street and I would go over there all the time and play the elusive SEGA... no one had a SEGA, I didn't even know it was a SEGA. The thing was mysterious and drew my attention.

My gaming experience didn't actually take form though until November of 91' when I got my own SEGA Genesis. It came with Sonic and my parents also got me ToeJam and Earl, Mickey Mouse Castles of Illusions and I had one hell of a time. From there I was buying all the games I could get my parents to shell out cash on. By Christmas 92' I had about 30 games. (which is a lot for a kid of 9) I have been hooked to SEGA since.

[Vicman]

1983/4. Atari 2600. Boxing, River Raid, Moon Patrol, Spider-Man. My lil brother (3) and I (5)would wait up to play with our Dad late at night when he'd get home exhausted from work. He might've been tired but he always had time to spend with his kids. Memories I'll always cherish...

[Drixxel]

It's too bad that in this day and age most people are introduced to video games with the current gaming generation powerhouses. I mean, I have a deep appreciation for the Atari 2600 because it's where I began, but if the PS2 marked my entrance into gaming, my fondness for retro gaming would be.. nonexistant, maybe.

[dementia]

1992. The Genesis II with Sonic 2 pack-in. I was five at the time.

[Vicman]

Drixxel,

I think it's the perspective one has because they've seen/experienced gaming's growth and evolution. Something younger gamers often don't experience firsthand and so don't have the proper mindset to appreciate where gaming has come from and how far video games have come along.

It's kinda like how I can enjoy a bit of pin ball but I don't have the experiences my father had in the 50s/60s/70s with the flourishing of pin ball machines and understanding how far mechanical, and later on electronic, pin ball gaming had come. What it's like to play an old video game for me is similar to when he sees a classic Williams or Bally machine in a pool hall, arcade, or bar n' pub. It's a feeling that truly can't be replicated w/o having had firsthand experience during the growth of that medium. One can gain an appreciation later on, but unless you lived through it you truly don't understand.

[Drixxel]

There are periods of time I sometimes wish I had lived through, but coming in where I (and all of you) did has no doubt made for a life of experiences impossible for those who came before or will come after. I wasn't alive for the birth of gaming, but being born in '86 let me grow up during the 16-bit glory days. While getting an Atari 2600 in the late '80s put me a solid gaming generation behind, for the early years of my life that Atari 2600 was gaming.. that made the jump to 16-bit so incredibly shocking. That's probably why the 16-bit era stands out so prominently in my memory.

Yep.. methinks the Atari 2600 will be the first console greeting my kids, whenever that is. Slowly advance 'em through the gaming eras.

[Dartagnan1083]

Being born in 83 with a cheapskate father allowed me to spend the early years with an Atari 7800 and a Commodore 64.

While I never got anything more powerfull [the Genny] untill 1992, I had friends with NES systems and another with an SMS.

I really miss my C64.

But I sometimes wonder what I might have been like if I had gotten an NES in those early years. How different would I really be?

[crazyjoedavola]

I started out with the 2600. At the time, it was the greatest thing a kid could have and my friends and I would play for hours until mom chased us outside. A kid up the street had Intellivision and we'd go up and play that every now and then. Back then, we thought that system was amazing. For me, the Genesis was my first 16 bit system and I guess it's for that reason why I still love it today. So many great memories attached to it.

I agree that so many people who have just come into gaming in the last ten years or so don't have an appreciation for the roots of videogames. I think it's neat to look back and see how it started and evolved and I often wonder what the gaming industry is going to look like twenty years from now.

[j_factor]

I got my gaming start in the arcades, like any true gamer. (*braces for angry mob*)

Well after my intiation into console gaming (which was my dad's SMS), I continued to frequent arcades for many years, until 1998. So many quarters dropped.

[Dartagnan1083]

I'd say that a few youngins have some appreciation for older games.
Just not as far back as old farts like us.

Sure, I still have my old Atari, but not too many games for it are still worth much time.

[Mel]

I started off witht he Atari, but I didnt really become a full blown addict until the NES. My favorite ancient game is Buck Rogers for the Adam(is that the rigt system?) Was likea computer with what looked to be cassette tapes.

[Menosa Torres]

Well i remember going to my cousins house in the late 80's he had an NES and a ton of Nes games i really enjoyed playing games with him later on my parents bought me and my Sister an NES my sis kept the NES in her room and would hardly let me play it :evil: anyway around 1991 i was about 9 years old my parents bought me my own Sega Genesis with the Sonic the Hedgehog and i played the hell out of sonic to this day i have never played a game as much as i played sonic :D

[Mel]

Yeah, my family cut me off after the NES, didn't get into fresh gaming until about 2000

[rgam2000]

Around 1986, in Mexico my Dad bought me a Sega Master System with Astro Warrior and Hang On. Before that, I had never played any games.

[hadjiquest]

My Gaming roots started with 2 consoles: Atari 2600 & Coleco Vision.
My dad got me a Coleco ADAM computer and it came with a Buck Rogers game cassette of course made by SEGA! My favourite games on the Coleco Vision are Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, Up 'N' Down, Subroc & Star Trek. I still love that system to this day and I miss it so much. Next I got a Sega Master System, while all my friends owned Nintendos. I couldn't wait for some games to come out for my Sega Master System, so I myself got a Nintendo. On the Nintendo, my mom and I loved playing Duck Hunt. The success of the Nintendo prompted me to get a Super Nintendo. I loved Donkey Kong Country. The success of the Super Nintendo prompted me to get a Nintendo 64. That system got beaten by the PlayStation. I defected to the PlayStation 2. Now with Sega out of the system-making business, I'm currently collecting classic systems. I am the proud owner of 6 Sega machines: They are Master System, Genesis, 32X & Game Gear, Sega Saturn, and a Dreamcast. I gotta get a Sega CD. Even to this day, my little cousin still loves to play Duck Hunt on my old Nintendo. My favourite game on the Sega Genesis is Sonic.

[Fang]

I first started playing the NES at my cousins house. We played super mario and duck hunt, later he got contra and that was when I wanted my own NES. That's how it started for me.

[David J.]

I started playing arcade games when I was 4, around 1991 at the local grocery store in the ghetto.

I've since moved out of that neighborhood, and got a Genesis around 1992, and stopped for a bit when I started working, but have resumed playing games.

[Vorty]

My first console was the Game Gear, which pwns the Game Boy. That thing really fucked your eyes up.

[landstalkerx]

The first console that I ever owned/played was the genesis. I got one for christmas when I was arouind 4 years old. The first game that I owned/played was sonic 2.

[Ro Nova]

Atari 2600...Combat! My sister and I would play that game until we'd just want to shot each other in real life. My parents would get so mad at me. I must have broken at least 3 joysticks from trying to spin my stupid tank to sharply.
I have a lot of memories and I'm sure my origins are earlier than that but Combat's the strongest one.

[ROBOTRON]

I'm an old F*ck so I was around before home consoles...it started with pong and my parents got me a Telstar Pong and shortly after an Atari 2600.

The rest is His-story.

[Wampaa]

Lets see...got an Atari 2600 when I was a little kid. Then for Christmas one year I got a Commadore 64 computer. Man that was great!

Then I got these systems in this order....

Nes, Genesis, Turbo Grafxix 16, Snes, Sega CD, 3DO, Saturn, Playstation, Dreamcast.

I got a nice Pentium one computer in there when they came out and have had a decent computer ever since.

I spent tons of time in Arcades when I grew up in the 80's. When I was in high school the great Sega and Capcom arcade games came out like Strider, Ghouls and Ghost, Golden Axe, Forgotton Worlds, Final Fight, Altered Beast. I spent tons of money in those machines :P

[profholt82]

Thread necrophilia, I found this old thread and thought it was worth reopening. My earliest memories of gaming come from when I was about 3 or 4. My dad had a 2600. I remember playing Space Invaders, Stampede and Pacman with the old joystick. When I was 6 or so, the kid across the street had a Master System. We used to play Double Dragon and Reggie Jackson Baseball religiously. And I'll never forget my First Communion. I don't remember it as a religious rite of passage, I remember it because I received an NES as a gift. It was the first actual system that was all mine. From that point since, I haven't stopped gaming.

[cheaterdragon1]

My first console was an N64!

[eddiespruce]

I first got an NES back in 1992 with Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, but shortly before that I regularly enjoyed the Pac-Man arcade cabinet at my local malt shop. And I finally got my Genesis for Christmas in 1994.

[sheath]

My first console was an Atari 2600. I played Enduro, Adventure, Empire Strikes Back, and Combat almost to death, but our controllers were never very responsive. After the unit broke I didn't bother picking up another. When my friends started getting NESs in 1988 I went to their houses and played their games, but wasn't very impressed. I even spent a vacation playing Metroid at my Aunt's house and, while entranced, was never compelled to ask for one. My parents pretty much bought me gifts on my birthday and Christmas and that was it.

Then my foster brother randomly mentioned that he was going to "The Arcade" one night and it caught my attention. I asked what that meant and when he described Arcades to me I begged to go with him. I don't remember what all I played that night but I played everything that interested me and spent the most time with Afterburner. It wasn't a deluxe cabinet but it had a full flight stick that shook with the action.

This caused me to get a lawn mowing job and start saving for a home console. I thought I was going to get an NES but ended up with a Master System. That decision pretty much set my gaming habits in stone even though I ended up getting an NES the following year.

-edit-

I forgot about my Kaypro, it had quite a bit of ASCII based games that I played the heck out of. Once we got a Macintosh I never saw a game I wanted to play on a computer until 1996.

[The Jackal]

Amiga 600 as a kid with some games, then a Mega Drive, then a PS1.

[Guntz]

Apple //e as a kid, which in all honesty isn't very special since that computer is really common.

[Bastardcat]

Like most people my age, It was a mix between the Atari 2600, arcade games of the early 80s, and an early home computer(In my case, the TRS-80 Coco 2, of which I'm co-credited for creating the OStan for).

[NeoZeedeater]

1975 - I was spewed forth into the world and probably didn't play any video games in the first few years. I wish I could have been there for the earliest years of the medium but I did end up loving lots of '70s games in the early '80s.

1979/1980? - Played my first video games as far as I know: arcade machines like Galaxian and Space Invaders.

1980-1983 - I played games on other people's systems: Apple II, VCS, InTV, Colecovision, 5200, TRS-80, etc..

1983 - Got my first system, a Commodore VIC-20. A family friend gave me it for my birthday. And my dad picked out my first game, Serpentine.

[The Coop]

There's raising the dead, and then there's this thread's bump :lol:

It pretty much started with Space Invaders at a local Denny's (back when they were actually more like a restaurant, and not a glorified fast food chain). They had that arcade machine near the restrooms, and every time we went there, I got a few quarters to play it while we waited for our food. Eventually, a 2600 was bought for the family by my parents. It was picked up at a garage sale with a few games (Race, Combat and Kaboom!... maybe one or two more), and all of us played it off and on for a few years. I eventually got my own system, an Atari XEGS, for Christmas in '87, along with a copy of the 7800's Xevious. See, I was really wanting a 7800, since it had a port of Xevious, which was one of my favorite games at the time (not to mention Pole Position II, which I also loved playing). But like most uninformed people working at a Toys R Us back then, the dipshit clerk at the store said the XEGS could play 7800 games. Needless to say, it couldn't. The game was returned, I was disappointed for a while, and the end result was that I didn't play the XEGS games much at first. But, I eventually got over it and had fun with my little computer/game console hybrid.

Then came my Genesis, a used Master System a couple of years later, and various other systems that I bought with my own earned cash as time rolled on. And that's basically how it all began.

[Bastardcat]

I think a thread like this deserved resurrection! Its about the core of retro-gaming itself, old farts talking about the good old days!

[NeoZeedeater]

The game was returned, I was disappointed for a while, and the end result was that I didn't play the XEGS games much at first. But, I eventually got over it and had fun with my little computer/game console hybrid.
I hope you had Archon for it. :)

I remember being confused at all the different Atari hardware when the XEGS came out.

[The Coop]

I hope you had Archon for it. :)

I did and still do, along with games like Mario Bros., Crossbow, Karateka, Ace of Aces and a bunch of others. There's also a healthy amount of older 400/800 games like Dreadnaught Factor, Donkey Kong, Defender and others with them.

[Baloo]

I started with a NES handed down to my brother and I from our Aunts, along with a Sega Genesis my brother got for Christmas one year. And we had a blast with the systems for years, and after the N64 era I didn't really move on. Kept accumulating and playing classic games.

I go into a little more detail about my adventures with the Genesis here in my own Stories from the Book of Genesis feature: http://www.sega-16.com/2011/03/stories-from-the-book-of-genesis-vol-35/

[gamevet]

I was there from the beginning. I played pinball and shooting gallery games until I'd finally played my first videogame, Tank (Kee-Games) at the local roller rink @ 1975. I'd later play video arcade games at the local bowling-alley, and my family bought one of those pong knockoffs that ran on batteries. My parents bought (1978?) the family the Tele-Games version of the VCS, that came with Combat. We wouldn't get another game for the system until the following year, when Space Invaders came out. The first system that was all mine was a C-64, that I'd bought in late 1985.

I still have that old Tele-Games system, but it's pretty beaten up. I did eventually buy a true VCS at a used game store back in the late 90's.

[Kogen]

Journey Escape on the 2600. My adventure started there and it never ended yet.

[Robotwo]

For me it all started with Robotron 2084 on the C64,
then we got a NES and it moved on with classics such as StarTropics, MarioBros 2 and Shatterhand.

About at the same time my brother got a gameboy which I borrowed many times rocking out to some Coolspot.
A few years later I played MegaDrive at a bud and after seeing Vectorman I admired yet another system.

Since then I've experienced platforming adventures on most platforms :D

[eddiespruce]

For me it all started with Robotron 2084 on the C64,
then we got a NES and it moved on with classics such as StarTropics, MarioBros 2 and Shatterhand.

About at the same time my brother got a gameboy which I borrowed many times rocking out to some Coolspot.
A few years later I played MegaDrive at a bud and after seeing Vectorman I admired yet another system.

Since then I've experienced platforming adventures on most platforms :D

Nice to meet another Startropics fan! It's one of my all time favorite NES games!

Rep'd:)

[Phantar]

Holy crap, where did you dig up that thread from? Now there's some Thread necromancy... :lol: . But it's actually a nice little thread.

Anyways, I grew up gaming with a Commodore 64 mostly. I mean, we DID have a Videopac G7000, but I hardly recall playing any games on it. I do, however, playing games on my trusty old Commodore breadbox: Summer Games, Archon, Krackout, Kaiser, Blue Max, Aztec Challenge... I even still got an original box of PitStop II lying around. Oh yeah, and I remember playing the shit out of a little game called Who Dares Wins II (though back then wehen I was only 8 years old I never got the name right, since I didn't know any english back then, and the Font was terrible to read)... also, I had the game at least twice; well, it was the same game, but it had a different title - rather common practice back in the day, they hardly cared about intellectual property back in the 8-bit computer days :p . The best thing? Turns out the game was a british-made rip-off of Ikari Warriors! Took me decades to learn about that one :D

[NeoZeedeater]

I did and still do, along with games like Mario Bros., Crossbow, Karateka, Ace of Aces and a bunch of others. There's also a healthy amount of older 400/800 games like Dreadnaught Factor, Donkey Kong, Defender and others with them.
Nice. I didn't own an XEGS until years later but I love some of the gun games like Crossbow and Bug Hunt.


Aztec Challenge
This was the main game I wanted a C64 for at the time. It was groundbreaking but often forgotten nowadays.

[shinobimusashi]

Awesome thread necrobump, some of those old threads are pretty cool.

For me. I was born in 1985. I remember playing arcade games like Pac Man/Mrs. Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and Pole Position very early in my life. I played my first NES game in 1990, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/Clay shooter. That was about the only game I played for the longest time.

I remember playing a bunch of arcade games around 1991/1992. Galaxy Force II, Shadow Dancer, Cowboys of Moo Mesa, Pit Fighter, Final Fight, Super Sprint, Castlevania and Shinobi are the ones I remember the most. I remember arcades were very popular. I remember people actually standing in line to play Street Fighter II, which was one of my immediate favorites, and remains to this day one of my all time favorites.

Got my own NES for my birthday in april of 92, played the crap out of Mario 3, Mega Man 2, Ninja Gaiden, Punch Out!, and TMNT 2. Around that same time my grandma gave me my mom, and uncles old Atari 2600 which she had found in storage, and I got just as much enjoyment out of it as I did my NES(while it lasted). I played a lot of Frogger, and Missle Command.Still some of my favorite games to this day. Got an SNES for my next birthday in 93, with Super Mario World, Madden 93, and Street Fighter II. Then my brothers, sister, and I got a Genesis model 2 with Sonic 2 for Christmas 93, and it was all over with for the Nintendo stuff. Shinobi III was one of the first games we played soon after.

We were too poor for PC's, and fell on hard times during the 32 bit era, so we played our Genesis through 2000. I remember hearing so much about Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid, and playing Mario 64 at the Wal Mart demo kiosk, and wishing so bad that I could have those games. Too poor for the Dreamcast, but we finally got a PS2 in Christmas 2001, with a bunch of cheap PS1 games, NFL 2K2, and our very first DVD, Planet of the Apes(Mark Wahlberg).

Those are my gaming roots.