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

[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.