What was the game that got you hooked?

[AARON-LEON]

All of us started off somewhere. Some started with a classic while others waited for everyone else. Some of us were there to here the stores say, "order more ATARIs" while others were able to play what was handed down to show how it all started. We all have that one game that made us love sticking in a cartridge, CD, or even a quarter. It may not have been the first game you played but it was the one that made you continue playing. I began with The Legend of Zelda. Not only was it the game that started me off but it was also the first in my favorite series. What was the game that started you off?

[ShinobiMan]

Ghostbusters for the Sega Master System. As a child I was the biggest Ghostbusters fan you could find, so naturally, when my friendly neighbors busted out their SMS with Ghostbusters, it was a hit. Truly my first experience with game, driving that car from destination to destination was bliss. I ended up getting the NES that christmas (1989) and the rest as they say is history.

*Also, mods, this thread should be moved to the appropriate forum. No way is this thread off topic AARON.

[Anthony1]

Well, I'll answer it this way.


For a good number of years I was just your typical casual gamer. Actually, I was one of those guys that was a casual gamer and only played sports games for the most part. This was way back in the very late 80's.

Me and my comrades would play stuff like Tecmo Bowl and Double Drible and Bases Loaded. But I was very much a casual gamer, and not hardcore at all.


Then in very, very early 1990, I got a Turbografx-16. One of the games that I got (while waiting for the sports games to come out) was Legendary Axe.

Although I really wasn't into those types of games, I forced myself to play Legendary Axe and other Turbo games, because I had just spent a good deal of cache on getting my Turbo system. So I wanted to justify my purchase of it, so I forced myself to play games that I normally wouldn't have played.


Legendary Axe was the game that opened up the world of action games and action/platform type games to me. This made me realize that there was more to video games than just Tecmo Bowl and Double Dribble.

After playing Legendary Axe, I got into games like Bonk and Splatterhouse and stuff like that. Then I got a Genesis, and my journey to hardcore gamer was complete.


But ultimately, Legendary Axe was the game that started me down this path.

[FooFighter]

It wasn't the first game I played, but it is still one of my favorites.

I remember spending days on end in front of my C64 sailing the high seas, sinking ships, plundering towns, and hitting on the Governors' daughters.

Everyone knows which game I'm talking about right?

Sid Meier's Pirates!

[dreamcaster]

SimCity got me hooked on PC gaming in the late 80's and Super Mario All-Stars got me into consoles in the mid-90's.

[UnInformer]

River Raid got me onto the gaming wagon, but then my parents gave my Atari 2600 away!

Commander Keen on PC got me back into gaming after a few years hiatus.

[namzep]

I think that I didn't really get into hardcore gaming until college. My friends and I started playing multiplayer Half-Life (and then Counterstrike). We spent whole weekends at our LAN gaming parties. Oddly enough, there were a couple of years right after leaving college where I played no to few games. It was only late last year that I got the collecting bug again. Didn't even have a current gen console till E.B. Game's sale on used Gamecubes (for $60) in early June. Now I have 15 games for my Cube.

[Crush Crawfish]

Super Mario Bros. with my NES. First game I ever played, and I was completely hooked from there on.

[legov8]

My first game, Mario Kart 64.

[sabre2922]

I know that I posted a similiar thread to this but oh well.

th Legend of Zelda on NES was the game that "hooked" me.

I also have to give credit to the super NES version of Streetfighter 2 that helped fuel my unhealthy videogame addiction

[Videogamerdaryll]

For me..It really was Video Pinball Atari 2600 ..

[Mianrtcv]

Intellivision basesball did it for me. I had a radio shack multi pong game prior, it was fun (then). Intellivision baseball did it though. We would play and play. My friends mom and my mom would have to kick us out of the house, saying things like the old "it's a beautiful day out, go outside and enjoy it". We had to give in sometimes, but on the rainy or otherwise rough weather days we had our due. Selecting fielders. Verbally taunting any errors in the field or at the plate. Baseball was the hook for me. The other games were close (football, astrosmash, colecovision looping, turbo, pepper II, 2600 pitfall, kaboom, etc.), but the fact 2 player was involved made it all the more fun.

[Jumpman Jr.]

Well, there are two games that come to mind.
There is the game that got me into games in the first place: Super Mario Bros. I would play that game every day as a kid with my dad, and we could never beat it. That is the earliest memory that I have of playing games, and I would say that it got me to like games for the rest of my lift.
There is also Super Mario 64. The game that got me into collecting. I had stopped playing games for about a year, and one day I started playing Mario 64. The whole thing spiralled from that.
So, in other words, Shigeru Miyamoto got my into gaming.

[videogameking26]

Tecmo Super Bowl for NES got me hooked

[RetroYoungen]

Like a lot of people, I started out with Super Mario Brothers on the NES. But I was just a little kid and I played it a lot like little kids do with their toys, so that might not count. But when my sister and I got Super Mario Bros. 3 as a Christmas present in 1990, I WAS addicted to that. I was 6 at the time, and then I started buying my own games whenever I could. So it was probably SMB 3 that really got me absolutely hooked.

[Dire 51]

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the VCS was the one that did it for me. Sure, I'd played other games for the system before that, but when I got Star Wars that Christmas ('82), my parents couldn't pry me away from the Atari.

And now you know the rest of the story.

[Cauterize]

Bubble Bobble on the ZX Spectrum!

From the day i had a ZX spectrum handed down to me from my dad (must have been about 1989-1990 (i was 3-4)) i was hooked...

Also games like:

Olli and Lissa 3
Dizzy (all of them)
Jet Pac
Top Cat
Jack The Nipper 2

Ahhhh those were the days!

[Emily]

I was a purely casual gamer for years. I started out with a used NES and a hand-me-down Gameboy from my older cousin. Over the years I bought quite a few games for it, but Gameboy games were pretty pricey...$45.00 for DragonHeart...ouch! I was only really into gaming sometimes; I would be totally obsorbed in that little handheld for months, then just stop playing for another few months.
Then I played Pokemon.
Yeah, I admit it. I loved and still love the series, even though I had always hoped the series would go in a more mature direction.I bought Pokemon Blue before the hype and I cant remember any other time I was so excited to open a game. I was really jazzed about the concepts behind the title....
I played the shit outta that game. It led me to begin searching for new hidden gems on the internet eventually introducing me to gamefaqs.
After I looked at just about every Gameboy screenshot they had, I started to check out the other systems I owned .When I saw all the different systems I had never played ( Vectrex springs to mind) I wanted them all.
That damn "Gotta Catch em All" mindset....now I have way too many systems and I still want more x_x

[tholly]

we had an odyssey 2 in the house as my first video game system, but i didnt know about it until long after i got my real first video game system, the NES

so, even though there were games i could have played, Super Mario Bros. was the first video game that i played, and got hooked on

[Snapple]

On Christmas when I was five or six, I got an NES with Mario/Duck Hunt and Mario 2. They were the first three games I ever played, and I've been playing ever since.

I don't know if it's fair to say that *those* games were the ones that opened my eyes. Someone could've probably sat ET in front of me, and I would've still become hooked on video games.

But Mario 2 was definitely my first love. I really don't understand how some people bash the game. I think it's brilliant.