Who Or What got you into gaming?

[DotCom]

I don't know if this has already been done, if it has, lock it.

Anyways, what got me into gaming was a mean kid who had a gameboy and he wouldn't let me play. At the time I was in day-camp and I was pretty young, so I got mad. Later that day, I asked mom for a gameboy, and she didn't know what it was, and the subject was dropped. While I was at home, she came back home, with a $100 gameboy with a game(forogt which one), and I was very happy.

Now tell your stories...

[omnedon]

When I saw Pong being played at a cousins house, I was entranced. It was 1977. :)

[Ed Oscuro]

CRTs and towers...shiny... o_O

I have no clue, honestly. I was able to play around with a friend's NES back in the early 1990s, and after that I had a bit more time playing with old computers and a battle tank game on Mac (ported to the SNES as well, name escapes me at the moment though I'm quite sure it's one of those one-word titles) later on. In the mid-1990s I got Legos, but was able to fool around with Star Fox at the local Target (never shopped there much at all before or since o_O), and played a bit of Super Metroid and Virtual Boy (Red Alert and I believe Wario... O_o) at the local Toys-R-Us.

From there, not much really, just random encounters with SNESes at friends' houses or Game Boys owned by friends at school.

[Darkness X]

The early 90's, I find my parent's old Intellivision system with around 50 games that got me interested in games. Then a friend of mine let me play her NES with Super Mario Brothers 3, I was starting to really like games. And then in around 1993 or 4 my friend got a Genesis for his B-Day with Golden Axe/Streets of Rage/Sonic/ect that got me totally addicted to games!

[BHvrd]

When I saw Pong being played at a cousins house, I was entranced. It was 1977. :)

Pretty much the same here. Except it was 1979. Still Pong though. :love:

My brother wouldn't let me play either. The system and pong were at his friends house, and he kept pushing me away. Eventually my best friend got an intellivision, and I didn't care about the Atari anymore "well I did, but the situation didn't allow it".

My parents didn't buy into videogames at first, they thought they were "evil". Eventually they caved, and i've been gaming since.

[punkoffgirl]

I'd have to say my dad. I don't have any memories of any video games before he brought home our 2600

[Lady Jaye]

In my case, it was my best friend when I was in grade 4 (in 1985). His name was François, he was a couple of years younger (looking back, that's kinda odd, as age difference can be steeper then). He had an Atari 2600 and I was always at his house playing videogames with him. A couple of years later, after I had moved away, I saw him again and he had a NES. He sold me his old Atari games for next to nothing, and I still have these games to this day.

[-hellvin-]

My half brothers would visit us all the time over the weekends when I was much younger and lived back out in Florida. My dad had bought an Atari 800xl for them and he kept it at our house and every time they'd come by they would load up the DOS OS and boot up the games from floppy for me, we only had about 8 cartridge games, =). Ahhhhh....those were good times. After that it was the ol' NES and getting up around 6am to play super mario brothers and duck hunt.

[Sanriostar]

The Earliest gaming memory I have is playing the Sears VCS setup, that and going to Safeway and seeing Scramble, Battlezone, Asteroids, and Galaxian.


Got into Classic games from the rec.games.video.classic newsgroup. Left it behind because the talk just kinda disintergrated like a relative on Alzheimer's.

[wberdan]

my father bought me a colecovision for christmas 1982- i was 4 years old. i dont remember, but i assume i must have been nuts to get one or something- prob from playing an arcade game locally or something.
after that coleco came into the house, it was all over for my brain cells.
i went on an all out gaming spree for about 10 years that was just insane... i don't play as much anymore- i think im still a little burned out.

willie

[PapaStu]

Ive been playing games for far to long... I can remember playing our Atari 2600 when i was just a young sprite of 3 (1983). Played serious to some level when i got my NES in 87/88?? I really started to collect when i used it as an escape from the Ex (who i was with at the time) somewhere around 2001, when the collections started to explode.

[Dr. Morbis]

My earliest video game memory is playing Carnival on the 2600 at about age 4 or 5. I was mesmorized by the idea of being able to control something on the TV screen. Fastfoward a few years to 1986 (or was it '87?) and I go into the corner Mac's convenience store like I have a million times before; only this time there is an arcade game in the corner: "Playchoice-10". My friends and I used to spend so much time in that store at that machine that we were 'banned' from it by our parents on a regular basis. Anyway, I got a NES that Christmas and never looked back.

[Mayhem]

Binatone Pong clone console when I was about 5. Then the following summer we go to Cornwall on holiday and there's a huge underground cavern with all the latest coin-ops present. Was "taken" from then on it ;)

[robotriot]

My brother used to play some of the crappy games on my Dad's PC in 1986, and I was watching him do that. Later that year, he got an A500 and I was always asking him if I could watch while he's playing, I never dared touching the joystick because I thought I could damage something oO The first game I played was Bubble Bobble, and I only started actively playing games in 1994, when I got his Amiga.

[Sotenga]

I dunno... I've just been playing VG's forever. I can only remember back to when I was four years old, and back then, I played the NES quite often. There was this videotape that showed me playing games when I was even younger than that. Soooo... the NES got me into gaming, but I don't remember ever not having an interest in it. It was like some ethereal force made it destiny for me to be a gamer. But although my family members aren't as much of a gamer as I am, they have played their fair share of games, so maybe it runs in the family. :)

[GaijinPunch]

My mom not letting me have a 2600 b/c it was so evil (no shit). I was the last kid on the block to have it. And ironically enough, the first to have a NES.

I've always enjoyed games, but have had a couple of hiatuses. Believe it or not, I wasn't into games at all when I moved to Japan. I needed some extra cash, and realized I could make some on Ebay. I also needed an excuse to not go out clubbing every freakin' Saturday night (no joke) so this became a renewed hobby, and a part-time job. Kinda stuck in it now.

I'm wondering what'll happen when I move from Japan though.

[RJ]

A kid across the street had the first VCS I ever saw, & Pac-Man was a great & wonderful drug for me. I'd get my dad to take me to Rosedale Mall & play the systems set up at JC Penneys, until I finally got my own VCS.

[Drexel923]

My father had a Colecovision with the 2600 module. Once I started playing that, you couldn't stop me.

[LazingBlazers]

Chuck E. Cheese and the Moon Patrol arcade machine, and then playing the Atari version at my Cousin's.

[ghostangelofcky]

lack of sex, haha!

My dad had a Golden axe and a galaga arcade in his bar when I was little. I found the key to the coin tray to the machine and I just fell in love.

[EnemyZero]

hm well mine would be back in 1988 it was my 4th x-mas on earth and i opened up a NES and had no idea what it was, plugged it in, and me and my dad became hooked on mario, and well im sure you can all guess what happened after that

[DigitalSpace]

My mom, who bought me an NES as a birthday gift in the late 80's.

[gamergary]

My parents who gave me their 2600 when I was 3.

[Cmosfm]

When I was about 4 ( or 5, or 6, cant remember) my dad told me about NES. Had no idea what it was, but he told me about Donkey Kong also, and I had to have it.

We went over my friends house later that week and played SMB/DH & Kung-Fu. It was excellent!

Got one that christmas with SMB/DH & Donkey Kong Classics. It was good.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

We had a shiny woodgrain-and-brushed-metal Sears Pong Sports IV console at home when I was very young. I played it with my older brother a lot, and it was kinda...ehhhhh...I could take it or leave it.

I was quite fond of the original Space Invaders too, but still it was a passing fascination.

What made me hardcore (well, hardcore for that time)?

Pac-Man.

[spooie]

I got into gaming with the Oddysey 2 and my aunt's Collecovision. However... around the time the PSX and Saturn were released, I had a falling out of games for a year or two... until one summer I went to KBToys (I think it was 97) and came across a clearance bin of some NES games. They had Star Tropics and Final Fantasy for $10 and MegaMan 6 and Kirby's Adventure for $15. Loving Megaman, but never having played 6, I picked it up along with Kirby... went home, pulled out the NES and began playing it and slowly crept back into gaming.

Looking back how, and seeing all 30 of those Sealed Final Fantasy games for $10... if only I could have known the crazy would sweep soon after, and about the wonders of eBay... I could be putting myself though college right now.

x_x

[jdc]

Holy shit.....I feel "out-of-it"!!!

For me it was seeing Mario run around in glorious 64-bit splendor during the launch of the N64!!!

I grabbed one and from there I ended up running my own game store for a few years. I've been forwards from the N64, and now I'm having a blast while going pre-N64 as well.

This is the best damned retro site anywhere, which is why I'm here!!!

~Merlin

[lym]

I think it would have been my brother who got me into games, when I was little he had a Atari 2600 and one of the small rubber keyed spectrum's that i loved. I remember playing those a lot when I was young. I think i must have been about 4 when I first started playing games.

[MonkeyWizard]

I've been gaming for as long as I can remember, so I can't tell you from first-hand experience. However, I've been told that it was my father who bought our first console, the Atari 2600.

[Eternal Tune]

Legend of Zelda Link to the Past. When I first got this game, I about crapped myself when it was raining during the beginning of Link's quest. Though I'll be honest, I fell outta gaming for awhile, since "girls don't play games," minus the times my uncle would rent me a Sega CD with Ecco and Lunar: The Silve Star. I remember begging my mom for a Sega CD and Lunar, but she refused and I never got one and sorta stopped caring. Then I started seeing ads for Final Fantasy VII and the rest is pretty much history. Christmas that year, I got my Playstation and Final Fantasy VII. Then the day I saw Working Designs announced the re-make of the original Lunar for Playstation, I once again almost crapped myself. I can't recall a happy moment, then going to EB and buying that game. I remember running through the parking lot, at the mall, screaming various non-sense about buying God. Then I started kissing the box and my mom had to pry it away. I was 18....heh...

Then....

I was almost cried the day I won a sealed copy of Lunar: TSS off Ebay. Sure I opened it, but I wouldn't take trade it for anything in this world. Its my precious.

[PentiumMMX]

I got into gaming by watching some kids playing "Super Mario Bros.", I wanted to play, but every time i got close to the controler, they pushed me out of the way :(

But in 1997, I got an N64! (My sister wanted an PSX, but it did not have "Mario Kart" and the N64 did) But I did not get Mario Kart 64 (or Diddy Kong Racing) until early 1998.

Ever since then I have been a Gamer

[tynstar]

I strated playing Pong long ago. I also remember playing the 2600 with my Grandma. I have played games off and on over the years. I have been collecting games for about 4 years now. I have always collected things so this is just the next thing I am collecting.

[Escape•From•Jenny•Island]

When I was a wee lass I used to spend a lot of time at my Aunts house and my cousin had a Family Computer. So I fell in love with it (Naturally - Donkey Kong Jr. is the best). She ended up buying me one in 1984 and since then Ive been gaming...

[Jasoco]

When I was real young, we had a 2600. I'd play it, but didn't think much of it. It was just another toy. And it was fun, but I'd play it once in a while, then go back to my other toys or TV.

It wasn't until Christmas season 1985.. or 86 or whatever when we were at a Christmas party at the Rescue Squad. Walking by a room off to the side, I glanced in as a curious 6 year old and saw it.. Super Mario Bros. I had no idea what it was, but I wanted to play it...

Imagine my surprise when we got it for Christmas that year. That started me on the path I am on today.

About mid 90's though, I kinda lost interest in games. Probably about 1994. But in Spring 1996 I saw it in an issue of Popular Science, the Nintendo 64. (Funny.. I watched a lot of TV. Did I ever see a PlayStation commercial once? No. What was a PlayStation? Or a Saturn!? Who the hell knows? Who the hell cares? NEW NINTENDO SYSTEM!!!)

That Christmas, amid all the hype and frantic parents trying to buy them all up, I actually got an N64. No games, but I got one. Finally got Mario in February. About the time the stores were getting the system back in full time. So it wouldn't have mattered much.

http://jasoco.no-ip.com/images/news/030711.gifSo that got me back into Gaming.

It wasn't until last July that I got into actually Collecting, when I found this...

Boxed like new. That was the beginning of my latest money-eating habit. And the end of my "Trade-in" days.

[DasCrewShtool]

praise be the name" JD ROTH"

[EnemyZero]

Well probably, when i was 4 the NES pushed me through the gaming door, and when i bought genesis sega locked the door and it was all over, but now that sega is gone the door is getting weak

[Nez]

My parents bought my a nes when i was god who knows how old? It was in the late 80s i know that pry when i was 5 so 89ish. Any ways I played with my cousins every time they came over. So much fun wed allways try to shoot the dog in duck hunt but it never seemd to faze it.

[jezt]

Way back in 1988, my father came home with a very intruiging box. It had the words, NES CONTROL DECK on it. I looked it over with my two brothers, and wondered what it was, and who it was for. It turned out that it was for us, and it started me on a quest that would consume me for the rest of my days.

[BloodshedPlague]

My dad did, by buying me a NES and Dragon Warrior and the rest is history.....

[Sibs]

When I was about only 2 or 3(yeah, I can remember that far back), I used to always watch my uncle play his Apple II computer when he babysat me in his apartment and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I had to get one. My parents had to get me one, but they couldn't cuz it was too expensive.

So after a couple of years of wanting an Apple II, I visited one of my neighbor kids' house and there it was, the Nintendo Entertainment System with Super Mario Bros. playing on the TV screen. After watching and being mesmorized by the game for an hour or two, I asked the kid's dad how much it cost to get one and I immediately ran to my house to tell my parents.

After another 2 years, I finally got it for Christmas with the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet cart with the Zapper and the Power Pad. After that, I was hooked and the rest is history.