First game you have memories of playing as a child [Archive]

houstonlibrarian

03-11-2010, 09:26 AM

duffmanth

03-11-2010, 10:21 AM

Ducktales for the NES. What a classic!

cityside75

03-11-2010, 10:25 AM

For me, I remember an Atari 2600 game vaguely. I must have been 3 or 4 years old at the time. I had the Atari 2600 and plenty of games, but my parents eventually sold them and got us an Intellivision. Despite all the games we had though on Atari, I really can't specifically remember playing most of them.
The one I do remember, I'm not even sure the name of it. It had something to do with a circus if I'm not mistaken. There were objects flying across the sky and you had a guy that would jump up and grab the objects I guess. It's all pretty hazy as I was so young and that was in 1979 at least.

Anyone else have a first game that they can actually call up a memory of playing?

You're thinking of Circus Atari, and your memories surely must include the little guy going "SPLAT" on the ground if you missed him.

Unfortunately, I'm so old that my earliest memories predate video games being widely released, but we did get a Pong machine when I was around 6 or 7 and my handheld Battlestar Galactica LED game was probably before that.

mr obscure

03-11-2010, 10:30 AM

smb/duck hunt OF COURSE.

ShinobiMan

03-11-2010, 10:35 AM

It's either Space Harrier or Ghostbusters on the Sega Master System. When I was 2 years old going on 3, my neighbors would let me do the car driving scenes in Ghostbusters. As for Space Harrier, I'm told it was the first game I ever played... the arcade version. Oddly enough, I'm told I played it in the movie theatre after having just seen my first movie ever, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

megasdkirby

03-11-2010, 10:42 AM

Not too sure, but it was Defender for the 2600. Then probably Tac Scan for 2600.

However, I do vividly remember a few years after my first LCD video game. It was a weird alient-themed game where aliens were dropped from the top of the screen and I had to catch them at the bottom. I think I had to "deposit" them to a "house" to the bottom-right of the screen.

I vividly remember LCD games very much. I still have quite a few of them, many in retail packaging.

My first SMS game? HangOn & Safari Hunt. Followed by Ghost House. And I think followed by Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

jb143

03-11-2010, 10:47 AM

I'm pretty sure it was Frogger. There was a cocktail machine at a pizza place we would go to when I was little and I distictively remember *trying* to play it when I was around 3 or 4.

phreakindee

03-11-2010, 10:51 AM

Commander Keen and/or Crystal Caves on PC. Shortly followed by Seaquest on the VCS.

somesortofrobot

03-11-2010, 10:52 AM

It was either Pinball Quest on NES or Fester's Quest.

animesuperj

03-11-2010, 10:59 AM

I remember mine very well. That would be Megamania for the Atari 2600. It's still one of my favorite games today. Everyone else that was older could get to the last asteroid stage and keep going around the levels, but I could never beat all of them in one shot. I was so proud of myself when I was finally able to beat the last stage and keep looping them.

Also, the first arcade I remember playing was a cocktail Tetris that was at Pizza Hut down the street from our house. I remember "playing" the attract mode and "winning", lol. Every now and then my dad would give me a quarter to actually play it.

houstonlibrarian

03-11-2010, 11:28 AM

The first arcade game I played just came back to me. I'm going to need some help with the name though. I used to have all of my birthday parties at the roller rink. They had a room with a few games in it. This game was a sit down driving game. The screen was mainly black, except for a few white lines showing where the road was. It was a first person point of view driving game that just looked like it was night time at all times.

The best part is that I alwasy had to play it with these big heavy skates on my feet, which really amped up the difficulty level.

jb143

03-11-2010, 11:42 AM

nensondubois

03-11-2010, 11:47 AM

Spot for the NES.

ambriglia

03-11-2010, 12:02 PM

some intellivision game for me. either dungeons and dragons (i still remember the sounds of the enemies in that game), frogger, or boxing.

DDCecil

03-11-2010, 12:10 PM

I think my very first was a Pac-Man (maybe Ms. Pac-Man) arcade machine at Shopko.

BetaWolf47

03-11-2010, 12:12 PM

Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt. Yep, I'm generic.

TheDomesticInstitution

03-11-2010, 12:16 PM

It may have been Pole Position or Space Invaders for an Atari console. Most likely it would have been the 2600. It's a pretty distant memory though.

NESGamer24

03-11-2010, 12:19 PM

First game I remember playing was SMB/Duckhunt

As a little extra info: First game I remember watching:

Strawberry Shortcake match-up game for Atari - I remember watching my sisters play this all day.Being born in 1985 and we got our NES in the late 80s I had to be pretty young when this happened. I think we got rid of our Atari after we got NES.

JunkTheMagicDragon

03-11-2010, 12:40 PM

first game i ever played was probably at an arcade, but i can't remember a specific one. first home game i can remember is video olympics for ye olde vcs.

my dad got me a 2600 at a flea market in the late eighties. had lotsa fun on that old beast.

Red Warrior

03-11-2010, 12:53 PM

In the arcade, Pac-Man. I can still remember my dad holding me up so I could see the screen to play it... and that I wasn't very good.

At home, we had an Intellivision, so it was either Astrosmash or the Donkey Kong port from Coleco that I first remember playing. I can't remember which memory came first.

UnpluggedClone

03-11-2010, 12:56 PM

Google 4 Gaga

scottw182

03-11-2010, 01:14 PM

SMB1 when I was 3.

hbkprm

03-11-2010, 01:31 PM

mario
sonic
street fighter

Leo_A

03-11-2010, 01:32 PM

Solar Fox on the Atari 2600

understatement

03-11-2010, 01:36 PM

Cannon Man or Human Cannonball for the 2600. I'm thinking it was Cannon Man, Sears was the only department store around here at the time.

YoshiM

03-11-2010, 02:03 PM

At home I remember playing the Coleco Telstar Arcade system with the packed in game. The most standout memory was that the trigger on the gun was broken and the only way to fire was to pull the hammer back and let go. Not that I did much with the system, I was 4 years old or so.

Arcade is harder. I wanna say Asteroids Deluxe, but that could be because my Mom told me that was a game I tried to play as I toddled about.

As for computer, it wasn't really a game but when my Dad brought home a TRS-80 Color Computer (whopping 16K with Extended Color BASIC), he typed in a program where you could move a train horizontally from one side of the screen to the other. I was amazed.

thom_m

03-11-2010, 02:14 PM

Missile Command for the 2600. It came with the console I got back in 1987 (I can't remembrer if it was my 6th birthday, in January, or that year's Christmas). The first time I played it, somehow I thought I was controlling THE FALLING MISSILES, and had to destory the city below - and, of course, I was happy I had great success in doing so! I CLEARLY remember it, me shouting "YAY! I killed them all!!!" LOL My uncle came to the room, I told him my accomplishment; he had a good laugh at my expense, and patiently explained me how the game worked.

I fell in love with the game after that, and eventually got really good at it. In fact, I clearly remember going through all the stages and having the game revert back to the first one again, thus "beating" it. Is that possible even possible, or I dreamed or something?

I aslo remember playing Frog Bog on my aunt's Intellivison (which is sadly missing today; nobody knows who it was given to, and I never saw an Intellivision again...), but I'm pretty sure it was after I got my 2600. Good times, good times...

tomwaits

03-11-2010, 02:34 PM

I was pretty young, but I can clearly remember opening & playing my aunt's 'new' Odyssey 1. We taped overlays onto the screen but her TV was somewhere between the large & small overlay sizes so nothing really lined up. (probably not a Magnavox TV) It was still great fun though... enough to plant the seeds of addiction.

jonebone

03-11-2010, 02:47 PM

Legend of Zelda NES for me.

Steven

03-11-2010, 03:31 PM

Like so many others, Super Mario Brothers on the NES probably in 1986, no later than 1987. Remember the house this event took place in, the exact room and my feelings of wonder. It was me as a very very little kid, my older brother and our favorite uncle.

obesolete

03-11-2010, 03:57 PM

Canyon Climber for the Trash-80.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv9TeRbe_ok

Rickstilwell1

03-11-2010, 04:04 PM

I played a cocktail table version of a Pac-Man game at Azteca Mexican Restaurant when I was about 2 or 3. Not sure if it was actually Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man though. The only other possible earliest game was the handheld Entex Space Invader that my grandpa got from a yard sale for like $3 or $4 when I was 3.

SEGA

03-11-2010, 04:05 PM

Rad Racer 2 on the NES! I was the only kid at daycare who could get too level 2; "Big Apple" and beyond. I was 5. I also remember being one of the only two people in the building who knew how to hook up a NES.

Sandrik

03-11-2010, 04:20 PM

My first game was Ghosts and Goblins for The NES , i was 2.5/3 years old i think... my brother sitting next to me , and i randomly smashing buttons rofl ;P

skaar

03-11-2010, 06:02 PM

Boobhunter.

After that, Donkey Kong on the Coleco. And Space Fury.

Benc

03-11-2010, 06:38 PM

Sonic The Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive. Aaaaah good times.

Nintega Grafx-16

03-11-2010, 06:43 PM

Hang-On/Astro Warrior for the Sega Master System. Both of those games rock :D

Drag0nsfyre

03-11-2010, 08:31 PM

I think it was Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 that or Adventure for the 2600. I'm pretty sure it was Space Invaders though. :)

The Old School Gamer

03-11-2010, 10:56 PM

I remember playing some sort of cowboy shooter a bit like the 2600 port of Outlaw at an arcade. It was around 1981 not sure what the name of the game was since there were a number of similar games, but it may have been Boot Hill. I also remember my brother taking me to go play Ms. Pac-Man when it first came out.

PentiumMMX

03-11-2010, 11:41 PM

My earliest memory was playing Pac-Man on the Atari 2600, circa 1993. However, I didn't become a gamer until 1997; when I got my N64.

ido

03-12-2010, 01:09 AM

Hey guys, first post here.

First game I remember playing is Super Mario Bros like probably 10 million other people. Finding the warp zones for the first time was the most amazing experience ever, imo. I thought I was doing something that the game never wanted me to do. ON TOP OF THE BOARD? Why did I call them boards back then instead of levels I wonder? I swear I called every level a "board". I probably still do that and don't realize it.

I did however play games before that with my older siblings, I just do not remember them at all because I was way too young.

p_b

03-12-2010, 01:41 AM

On computers: Decathlon or Donkey, on an IBM XT. My father used to work for IBM, and in the very early 80es he sometimes took an IBM PC XT home to do some extra work. And he had two games with it, the two mentioned above. So I was allowed to play them.

Arcade: A gambling machine! I was amazed by the "rolling pictures", so I was allowed to put a 1 SFr coin (approx $1.1) into it just to watch the pictures. I even won on that coin, 20x the original amount, which poured out in twenty shining coins. This confused me to no end, but my parents laughed.

Arcade gaming: Probably Phoenix, in a hotel during my first winter holiday. Aged 5.

Icarus Moonsight

03-12-2010, 04:19 AM

I guess technically, the first would be a Pong console. It was weird though. Two dials, no score, and it's own dedicated screen. I'm not even sure if the screen was an actual video tube, or just a green screen over mechanized lights that moved around in the box. I say that because I also remember looking through the venting on the back of the case to see what was going on inside and I'm sure I saw movement.

Other than that, I recall playing a version of Sprint. My dad operated the pedal and held me up so I could work the wheel. First arcade machines I remember playing without help (standing on chairs FTW!) were Joust and Donkey Kong.

PresidentLeever

03-12-2010, 06:42 AM

Probably Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

Animaniac

03-12-2010, 12:04 PM

Alex the Kidd in Miracle World for the Master System. Also remember playing Wardner and Taz Mania for the Genesis. Buster Busts Loose was the first game I played for the SNES.

Canadian Psycho

03-12-2010, 12:48 PM

Several memories overlap, I don't know which happened first: Pac Man on the 2600 at my cousin's house or, at my neighbour's, a game where you jump on ice platforms or something (can't remember the name). This one was on the Gemini, if it makes sense.

For all I know, my earliest memory could be of playing boxing on the Intellivision at another neighbour back in 1981 or 1982. Yeah, that might be the earliest. Sadly, it was not until 1988 my parents bought me my first system (NES).

rbudrick

03-15-2010, 11:59 AM

The first I remember was Pitfall! for the 2600. I was 4 years old when my dad came home with the VCS. I had never even heard of video games at the time, but I thought they were amazing. He also brought home MEgamania, Pac-Man, and probably some others that night. It was 1982.

-Rob

Breetai

03-15-2010, 12:05 PM

Probably TI Invaders, a port of Space Invaders for the TI-99/4a.

Oobgarm

03-15-2010, 12:08 PM

Space Invaders on 2600.

XYXZYZ

03-15-2010, 06:51 PM

It was either Pole Position (I don't know where) or Dig Dug at a Pizza Hut.

Mmmmm, Pizza Hut.

Aussie2B

03-15-2010, 07:17 PM

This (the one with the buttons):

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Nelsonic/PacMan.htm

And the Coleco Donkey Kong tabletop. Unfortunately, while I still have the tabletop, I have no idea what happened to the watch. Both were originally my brother's, so he probably just broke or lost the watch, which is a damn shame considering how much it's worth these days.

After that it's just good, ol' stereotypical Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.

ScottK

03-15-2010, 07:17 PM

For me it would have to be either Air-Sea Battle or Indy 500 for the Atari 2600.

Arcadewise it would be either Carnival or Zaxxon.

dreamcaster

03-15-2010, 07:23 PM

I think it was Grand Prix on the Atari 2600. It was on a black and white TV too.

MissingNo_1231

03-15-2010, 07:27 PM

First console game I ever played was Super Mario World on SNES.

Prior to that I had only ever played arcade games at the local laundromat. Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, and occasionally Time Killers.

Oh, and I always forget that actually the first video game I ever owned was Tetris for Game Boy. My dad borrowed it from his cousin, got addicted, and never returned it.

Did I get a little off topic there?

mezrabad

03-15-2010, 09:39 PM

PONG, at a Brunswick Lanes bowling alley near New Paltz, NY, summer of 1973. I didn't have a clue what was happening and essentially wasted a quarter that I could have used in the vending machine...

Mobius

03-15-2010, 10:36 PM

This question has been bothering me for years because I have vague memories of an Atari 2600 game that was definitely my first game, but I have no idea what it was. I think it was a top-down tank game, like Combat, but not Combat. If you died, it showed you a picture of a skull and crossbones. If you did well, you got a picture of a tank on a cliff with a full moon in the background. I vaguely remember my brother getting the tank/moon/cliff screen, but I always got the skull and crossbones.

Or, you know, maybe I'm making all this up in my head and formed some false memories. Because I've looked, and have NO idea what game this is.

Zap!

03-16-2010, 03:22 AM

The first game I recall playing was at the arcade in a local store. It was like 1978, 1979. You drive a car, and can release oil or smoke. It's not Spy Hunter, that was way, way after. Not sure of the name. Could it have been Sprint?

Sanriostar

03-16-2010, 03:27 AM

Air-Sea Battle; but my father swears I'd play (as best as a 2-year old could) the Pong and old B&W Atari games at the Shakey's pizza he used to manage.

Robocop2

03-16-2010, 11:15 AM

If I remember correctly; it was Air/Sea Battle on the 2600. My step dad had a 2600 and he was actually the one who introduced me to video games when I was like 5 or 6 though after the NES he was pretty much out of gaming.

deltoidsteep

03-16-2010, 02:15 PM

Probably Super Mario Bros. But the first i remember playing on a console of my own would be Super Monaco Grand Prix for the genesis

Jehusephat

03-16-2010, 04:07 PM

Mine was actually Circus Atari, too. That was my mom's favorite game, and she used to play it with me when I first figured out how to use the paddle controllers. There are a bunch of other 2600 games I played around the same time, but I remember that one the best. I also remember playing Moon Patrol whenever my parents would take me out for pizza.

ReTrO-pLaYeR

03-17-2010, 12:40 AM

I vaugley remember playing Jungle Hunt on my Apple II as a 2 year old in 1998.

Balloon Fight

03-17-2010, 01:00 AM

Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt for me. I'm a commoner. :(

DenDenDos

03-17-2010, 01:42 AM

Mario Bros. (NES)

.... now that I think about it, does any one remember "Felix The Cat" for the NES?

Maybe that was the first game I played.

Quote: "I'm a commoner." [Balloon Fight].

Haha. That is good stuff.

goldenegg

03-17-2010, 02:10 AM

For me it was Pong. My parents had a pong console and would occasionally hook it up for me to play. We didn't have an RF switch at the time, so it meant unplugging the cable TV in order to play it.

Thankfully, our Colecovision came with the much needed switch, so that remained permanently connected to the TV ... until we got the Coleco ADAM :)

Zap!

03-17-2010, 04:33 AM

I vaugley remember playing Jungle Hunt on my Apple II as a 2 year old in 1998.

I hope you meant "as a 2 year old in 1988" because you're making me feel real old if you were 2 in 1998! :)

philinchio

03-17-2010, 04:40 AM

My first gaming experience was probably playing JezzBall on my dad's AST PC back around '94 or so, and the first console game I ever played was SMB on my friend's NES at around the same time.

dreamcaster

03-17-2010, 07:40 PM

I hope you meant "as a 2 year old in 1988" because you're making me feel real old if you were 2 in 1998! :)

Haha, I suspect it's a typo. But on other forums I occasionally frequent I often read things like: "the first video game I ever played was Banjo-Kazooie! omg old scoool!"

And then I die a little inside...