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I'm interested to hear what everyone's first experience with videogames was, and how it effected them.

I didn't own any videogames until I was in middle school, and most of my friends early on didn't have any either. The first game I ever played was Warioland II for the Gameboy, and I loved it. It didn't really spur and interest in videogames; I just really wanted to play Warioland II The first console game I really remember playing was DK 64, which a friend of mine got when it first came out.

The first game I ever owned was James Bond 007 Nightfire. Aside from FFX, it is probably my most-played game. There was a period of about two years after I bought it where it was the primary game my friends and I played; get four guys, set up six enemy bots, load Skyrail with the Cloak and Dagger weapon set and you've got a great time.

My early gaming experiences had a moderately strong impact on me. They didn't have the powerful impact that FFX did when I first played it (which was still relatively early in my gaming life), but they did remain my favorites for a long time. I've replayed Warioland II many times, and it (with Warioland III) constitute a sort of standard for me in any adventure-type game, what with its entertaining puzzles, several side-options and variety of locations. Nightfire is still my favorite shooter, and I put it in every now and then to fight against a group of bots. I still look into each new Bond installment just in case.

What was the first game you ever played? What was your reaction to it: did it lead you deeper into videogaming or did that come later? What was the first game you ever owned? Did they shape your attitude towards future videogames?

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Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

I played those 007 games too. I started with Agent Under Fire, and then went into Nightfire, Everything of Nothing, and then From Russia with Love. Those were all important games for me (though, I just went back through Nightfire, and the controls are pretty terrible. Everything or Nothing still holds up though.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Before I was born, my father lived above a bar in Toronto, and spent a good deal of time shooting pool and, on occasion, would play one of the arcade games they had in the corner while waiting for a table to free up. His personal favorite was Gauntlet. When I was born and we moved to Montreal, he bought a NES so that he could keep playing that game from time to time. To this very day, whenever he's hungry, he'll occasionally say something like "Wizard needs food." He eventually stopped playing games altogether, but some of my earliest (and favorite) memories are sitting on my dad's lap, watching him go through dungeon after dungeon, level after level. Sometimes he'd give me the controller and watch me fail miserably at finding the key or getting past the goblins. I was hooked from then on, and I've never looked back.

In terms of games that have had the most impact on me, beyond those early memories, I'd have to give it to Megaman II, Chrono Trigger, Starfox 64, Diablo and Starcraft: Brood War. They're all very different periods of my life, but they're definitely the games I've logged the most time in, and far and away the games I've got the most memories of. Especially the first Diablo, as it was my very first experience with online gaming.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

I honestly don't remember what game it was that I first played, but the first game that I poured myself in to is Shining Force. I played that game for what seemed like weeks at a time.

Atari 2600 back in the early eighties. My favorite game was a Defender rip-off about a Helicopter that shot lasers! Freaking lasers man! How boss is that? Aaaand it could be played in color! That made it extra badical!

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Arts

Farts

Twarts

I was a bit of a weird child. I was reading simple books and comics on my own by the time I was two and a half, and I have small but clear memories going back almost as far. The reason I bring this up is because I can remember with absolute clarity the very first video game I played at the age of three: Mouse Trap for Intellivision, which was then followed by the Intellivision port of Donkey Kong.

The first system I ever got myself was a second-hand 2600, which I got somewhere around the age of five and I swear is still somewhere in my parents' house and I would love to find. I know it doesn't work any more, but I just want it so. I had quite a few games for it since it was pretty easy to find cheap ones, but my favorites were always Pele's Soccer, Combat, and River Raid.

I don't know why the NES was special, but like so many people my age, getting one in the mid- to late-eighties cemented my gaming hobby. I had fun playing games before the NES, but once I got that grey box, I was a real gamer and it immediately became my favorite inside-the-house hobby. Since it was my first new-in-box system, I actually do remember what games I got first for it; my set was the Deluxe that game with both Gyromite and Duck Hunt (with ROB and the original grey Zapper, of course); on top of that, my grandparents got me the first NES Golf game too, which my dad and I played forever.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

My first gaming experience was on the original Gameboy - Gremlins, the game.

It was the only game I had for my Gameboy for a long time, and it was bloody hard!

My parents for some reason were always dead against me having any games consoles, and I only got the Gameboy after a persistent and gruelling campaign of whining, helped by my rather persuasive and interfering aunt.

About a year or two after that, I got given a Playstation for Xmas, and then my parents' resistances were just steamrolled, tbh.

I think the reason they were against me having them for so long was due to the fear that I would spend all my time playing games and do no school work. I guess I only proved them right when I eventually discovered FFVII...

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We apologise for the inconvenience

I remember playing a lot of games before owning any. I'm not sure which was the first. It was either the Command & Conquer 1, Duke Nukem 3D, a generic track F1 racing game that I'll never know the name of, or Robocop 3 on the SNES. None of these had any impact really.

The first game I owned was FFVII after watching my older neighbour playing it for a solid two straight days. I was totally hooked. As much as I'd think that the reason I still like it is because of nostalgia purposes, I really don't think so. It seems like an entirely different game, I had no idea about the depth of anything back then and I was just as much a big Sephiroth fanatic as the fking clones were. Nowadays I don't like what I used to like about the game, or certainly don't like it as much, and I've found a lot more to enjoy.

I don't really know exactly how much of an impact it had. I often wonder whether sitting down and patiently playing this game at an early age (8 years old) had a hand in my learning. I was brighter than all the kids my age in school, I was even moved up a year. Looking back now I'm not sure exactly what did it. I did read a good many books but for math I'm fairly certain dealing with FFVII's materia, statistics and constant number crunching made it a lot more natural for me. Also reading endless amounts of text boxes and taking in the information is fairly good learning for a young'un. Like I said before I developed a lot of patience from the game that allowed me to focus a lot more than other kids, I think. Even just having an experience of preparation, responsibility and independence is really good at that age. I wouldn't put it all down to FFVII but I'm convinced it had a really positive effect on my growing up.

One of the games with the biggest impact I've owned was Resident Evil 2: The Demo. I had nightmares for about a year afterwards, but I still did every now and then. I used to think "no no I can't it's too scary... but I really want to" so occasionally I'd put the demo disc in and play it, get terrified, then turn it off after a few minutes and have another nightmare that night. The nightmare always ended with me somehow brining up a game menu and selecting quit just before being eaten alive. Can't imagine where that came from.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I grew up on the NES. First was Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt, later joined by Metroid and Super Mario Bros. 3. We didn't really buy games much.

On the other hand, we did rent. Rentals--5 days for $1 (plus tax) at Albertson's--was what introduced me to a much larger repertoire of games, including Mega Man 4, Mega Man 5, Mega Man 6 (WHICH DIDN'T WORK...), Tiny Toon Adventures 2, Paperboy (2?), Duck Tales, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (unintuitive gameplay galore )...

We did have a Game Boy. My parents didn't like me playing it because of my nearsightedness, so as a consequence I didn't get to play it much. Originally, all I had was a Super 105-in-1 cart that my mom picked up in Hong Kong I think. It had a ton of old GB classics (such as Super Mario Land and Tetris) plus a bunch of obscure games (such as a Japan-only Mickey Mouse Crazy Castle game, The Tasmania Story, Amida, Heiyanko Alien, and Tail 'Gator). Later, I got Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge, and much much later, I got Pokémon games.

I did have the Handy Boy add-on, but its performance was meh at best--its power strips didn't fit well with the battery compartment, its magnifying glass wouldn't stay up well, and the lights just introduced more glare and (with the magnifier) multiple images. Later, we got the Super Game Boy, as we had a Super Nintendo.

We did get an SNES early on, but that only had Super Mario World and later Yoshi's Island. And Mega Man X, after a while. Only much later did I buy several games including Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario RPG, used, from someone else in the neighborhood.

Still, this was the basic gaming experience of my childhood: Lots of console gaming.

As for computer gaming, I did grow up with some older platforming/action titles, such as Dark Ages, Duke Nukem, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, Commander Keen, and Secret Agent. I also played some of Sierra's older offerings, such as Castle of Dr. Brain, Island of Dr. Brain, and Ecoquest: the Search for Cetus.

However, computer gaming for me pretty much ended there, and only restarted recently with my getting stuff on Steam. And I'm still not a big-time FPS or WRPG player; I still prefer platformers and JRPGs (which I discovered in high school). On the other hand, I used the computer for emulation gaming. This actually led me to rediscover a lot of the games on that old Super 105-in-1 pack, as well as to discover anew the repertoires of the NES and SNES.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Can't say I remember what exactly my first gaming experience was (probably SMB/Duck Hunt). One game that really sticks to my mind, though, was a little NES game called Commando, and I remember playing that game fairly obsessively back in the mid/late '80s. Dunno how, though; looking back at it now, that game was pretty brutal (of course, difficulty of that level was probably standard for many games of that age).

Video games, regardless of quality, were just utterly cool to me back then, and, since video games continued to get bigger and better over the years, gaming has never gotten old for me; my tastes in genre and gaming machine (more of a PC gamer these days) are all that have changed.

This post has been edited by Galsic on 30th July 2011 19:01

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Console RPG Cliches

My first game was the original Banjo-Kazooie.

My little five-year-old hands grasped the controller, and I played.

And played.

And now I own every game in the series.

The end.

Well, Pokemon (so very much), Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Zelda and Kirby, as well as Donkey Kong Country.
I grew up on mainly SNES and N64, some NES as well, and even today these remain the greatest of games to me.

NOSTALGIA, yes.

Quote (Chell172 @ 1st August 2011 19:44)

My first game was the original Banjo-Kazooie.

My little five-year-old hands grasped the controller, and I played.

And played.

And now I own every game in the series.

The end.

How did the Xbox 360 games hold up for you? I heard they got pretty bad reviews?


One of my parents came back one day when I was barely walking yet, with a Sega Master System in tow.
I believe the games we had were Alex Kidd in Miracle World (which was a preset on the system), Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap - a pretty good side scrolling adventure game with RPG elements , and Afterburner - which was an aerial fighting game I think.

Being so young I sucked at all three, but I would play the beginning of Wonderboy III again and again, and always asking my father to beat the first Dragon boss for me. So yeah like several of you, I've been a lifelong addict.
Next came the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: my patience was tempered in the forge of Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 and various other platformers.

Alas! At 8 years of age I then betrayed my beloved Sega and asked for a Nintendo64 for xmas!!
The following year or two had me finishing Ocarina of Time at 9 or 10 years old, which is probably the best thing I've ever done...

..these days I spend a lot of my freetime on my ps3, proving that I completely lack console loyalty..

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www.youtube.com/blinje
The victor sacrificed the vanquished to the heavens

Quote (Blinge Odonata @ 6th September 2011 10:49)

Quote (Chell172 @ 1st August 2011 19:44)

My first game was the original Banjo-Kazooie.

My little five-year-old hands grasped the controller, and I played.

And played.

And now I own every game in the series.

The end.

How did the Xbox 360 games hold up for you? I heard they got pretty bad reviews?

Actually, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts is incredible. The visuals are wonderful, the charm of the previous games is intact, and cameos are abound, and just because it's not a platformer doesn't mean it sucks. Hasn't anyone ever heard of Mario Kart? Or Mario Sports Mix? They're trying something new, and it's awesome. The vehicles are awesome, and I built many other video-game related ones, like the Highwind and the Falcon, along with a Gummi Ship. People who review this game are major pessimists who whine about a game that's different yet great.

Buy it if you can, it's really, really good.

My first game:mario 1 with duckhunt on the nes.

Somewhere around that time followed these games:metroid 1 on the nes and zelda 1 on the nes,followed by final fantasy 1 and megaman 2 and 3 and all the other games on the nes i have.

I also got a pc game in the early 90's or late 80's that i used to play:Indiana jones and the fate of atlantis.

I used to play this game a lot and i pick it up once in a while.After that,i moved on to other console games like:FF4 which i think is one of the first snes games i got.


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We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

It all started with Galaga for me. I remember going to William's Pizza & Arcade (now William's Pizza) and playing Galaga with my dad. Sometime later my dad bought a Sega Master (with Safari Hunt and Hang On) and a Nintendo (with Super Mario Bros. and Bases Loaded 2). My passion for gaming began with Mega Man 2, Mario was cool, but Mega Man was awesome. My gaming world was changed forever when I got a brand new Playstation back in 1995 (with Tekken, Ridge Racer, Air Combat and Twisted Metal - BEST XMAS EVER!) Things would never be the same when in 1997 a friend of mine introduced me to Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII, I couldn't believe I was playing such awesomeness.

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

The first game I ever played was Gran Turismo 3.
My parents got a PS2 for my brother when we were in middle school, and we would play GT3 after school together.
What really got me into gaming though was when a friend of my brother brought over FF VII, FF VIII, and FF Tactics during the summer of 2006.
We played VIII together over the summer before school, and I was hooked-I loved the music, the atmosphere, and the characters.
I went on to play VII and Tactics on my own, and was hooked on the series.
I also tried out some other PS1 games like Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot, and got into the Jak and Daxter series for the PS2 a bit after that.
I've always been behind on modern games since I feel like I've missed so many classics that I need to go back and try.

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FF games completed: I (psp), II (psp), III (DS), IV (psp), V (GBA), VI (GBA), VII, VIII, IX, X, XI: Nations-Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, XII, XIII, XIV, XV.
Spin-offs: FFIV: Interlude & The After Years, Crisis Core: FFVII, X-2, XIII-2, Lightning Returns, Type-0 HD, Dissidia, Dissidia 012, and Tactics (original & WotL).
Enjoyed them all.