Tell Us Dammit: When Did You Fall In Love (With Video Games)

12 years ago

September 27, 2012 at 11:00 am

How did you fall in love with games? Do you actually them? I have a couple of moments where I remember feeling wildly and uncontrollable ecstatic about them — Street Fighter II in the arcades, Monkey Island on the PC, A Link to the Past on the SNES. Now I feel as though me and video games are like an old married couple. Occasionally we get it on and interface in a wild and frantic manner — but for the most part the sit in the background, constantly there. We have conversations and stuff. And drink peppermint tea.

Alright, that analogy got a little bit weird. But my question is — when did you fall in love with video games? And do you feel like you’re still in love with them?

Answer me!

Comments

72 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: When Did You Fall In Love (With Video Games)”

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rocketman

September 27, 2012 at 11:03 am

I would say that while gaming stuff plays a fair sized roll in my leisure time i wouldn’t say i love them. I mean i am not ready for that kind of commitment. I want to see the world.. I dont want to look back in 20 years and be full of resentments for games at what i could of done instead of being with them.

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1. starchild Killer
  
  September 27, 2012 at 11:53 am
  
  you dont need to play all the time to love them
  
  Reply
  1. rocketman
    
    September 27, 2012 at 12:09 pm
    
    Sage advice hombre’
    
    Reply
Shane

September 27, 2012 at 11:04 am

All my living memory, video games have been part of the landscape. The old married analogy is pretty much spot on. Every now and again, I’ll see a game that reminds me why I stick around 😛

Most recently, and breaking almost a decade of various levels of meh, Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls have rekindled my passion .

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Dire Wolf

September 27, 2012 at 11:05 am

Mark, I think you accidentally a word with that second question.

I grew up playing video games so I can’t really say there was a particular time I fell in love with them. They’ve just always been a part of my life, like TV or books.

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Haydo

September 27, 2012 at 11:06 am

Holy sh-t, you actually guessed mine already! Monkey Island on the PC (specifically The Curse of Monkey Island) was one of the first PC games I played that I fell in love with. The art style , voice acting and humour were all top notch. The Monkey Island series are still some of the funniest games I’ve ever played.

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chrobaciky

September 27, 2012 at 11:11 am

My parents got an Amiga 500 when I was 7 or 8.
Monkey island used to have this cardboard wheel… ppl who played it know what I’m talking bout.
Leander, Stormlord, sotb, walker, silkworm… man the games were so much better back then, the atmosphere of them too. Inserting 12 froppy disks before the game would even get going… but it was worth it.
I don’t think I love it as much as when I was a kid, it doesn’t feel the same.

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toejam

September 27, 2012 at 11:12 am

Alex Kidd in Miracle world, built into my Sega Master System 2, 1990. This game was my first true gaming love, beating it for the first time as a kid was epic, and set me up for a life long affinity for all things gaming. I have a japanese mark III copy in the gold cardboard box on the mantle piece in my games room!!

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1. DNR
  
  September 27, 2012 at 11:25 am
  
  This ^, i’d played games before Alex kidd, but that game was like love at first punch
  
  Reply
2. Thom
  
  September 27, 2012 at 11:52 am
  
  Yeah – I’d probably have to nominate this, or Wonder Boy. Mostly because they were the only games I had.
  
  Reply
One_Man_Matrix

September 27, 2012 at 11:12 am

Got my grubby mitts on the 4 floppy disks containing the original DOOM… Nuff’ said.

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1. hermantoothrot
  
  September 27, 2012 at 11:55 am
  
  Ah man, happy days for the Amiga 500 (+)! I got the Batman pack and if I think hard enough could remember the cheats still. They certainly dont make ’em like they use to… and certainly not as hard. New Zealand Story was epic and challenging.
  
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Tofu

September 27, 2012 at 11:13 am

… I could see this turning into a “How I met your Mario” type show where Player 1 sits his kids down and tells them about all the ups and downs of playing video games till he found that one perfect game.

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Grandmaster B-Funk

September 27, 2012 at 11:15 am

playing sonic 2 a my cousins place was the seed, my parents buying me a ps1 with crash bandicoot was my blossoming, but it wasn’t until about year 9 or 10 when i realised “i’m a mega nerd for video games, and i don’t care what anyone else thinks”

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Unicron

September 27, 2012 at 11:16 am

I was always competitive and inquisitive as a child, so when i saw and played my first game of Pong, a TV show you could interact with, albiet, very basic interaction, I knew i was hooked for life. So, 33 years of games in my life to date and no signs of that love waning. In fact, seeing all the changes over the years has only made it stronger.

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SunSkorpion

September 27, 2012 at 11:18 am

Somewhere between Alone in the Dark, Monkey Island, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Duke Nukem, Rise of the Triad and a whole lot of other stuff in the early days. Sure were some great games when I was growing up.

What am I talking about… I still am growing up. “I’m a 30 year old boy.”

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Strange

September 27, 2012 at 11:19 am

I was thinking today how my life can sort of be divided into sections where I’m obsessed with something and spend almost all my time/money on it…like books, music or sewing. But throughout all those phases there’s been a constant. Games. So hells yes, I believe I do love games. 😀

First time I fell in love was when my parents bought an Amstrad and I played Down The Mine and The Neverending Story. Both text-based adventure games. Both had game-breaking bugs but they were still enough to get me hooked on games.
Then I discovered the King’s Quest series and fell in love all over again. But there ended up being a long few years when we didn’t have any type of computer and I would always dream of the day when we’d finally have something to play games on again. I didn’t even know Nintendo existed at this point so I was basically just dreaming of an IBM-type computer.
When my parents bought another computer I fell in love all over again. Quake, Diablo, Duke Nukem…a whole new world was opened up to me and I disappeared into it with joy and complete abandon.

But for me the most important time in my gaming life was when I discovered consoles. Even though I’d been playing PC games for most of my life, the thought of consoles puzzled me. I didn’t pay them much attention because I didn’t think I could work out how to use a controller after playing with keyboard and mouse for so long.
But then I bought my (then) boyfriend a PlayStation for his birthday. After watching him play it for a while I decided to try it out and played Abe’s Oddysee and Tomb Raider 2. Thus began my transformation into what I am today…a console gamer. I had no idea what games were good, and no friends at the time I could ask so I’d just go down to the local pawn shops every payday and grab whatever took my fancy. Games like Final Fantasy VII and Soul Blade were discovered this way and I would lock myself away all day and night, mastering them.
After typing all this out I think I can now safely conclude that games have been my one true love. 😛 The kind of love that never leaves you, even when trying new and different hobbies. Games are always there for me, sure in the knowledge I’ll always return. <3

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MrTaco

September 27, 2012 at 11:20 am

It’s hard to say. Games have more or less always been there as far as I can remember. Dunno when we first got a computer or games on it, but they’ve always been there. It wasn’t til some time when I was in Kindergarten when my friends started getting these Nintendo things (NES), and I guess I became hooked from there.

But then, I don’t know if that was the “in love” part. I can pinpoint a pivotal moment in my gaming life where everything changed for me. Mid-2001, arriving back at the airport from a holiday to New Zealand. As I usually did at the time when walking past a newsagents, I browsed through the gaming mags there to see if there was anything interesting (ie any good cheats in the back pages). But then I spotted this new magazine I hadn’t seen before, something called Nintendo Gamer. And it had all this awesome stuff about this fancy new GameCube thingo that had just been shown off at E3. I got mum to buy it for me because zomg awesome, and I read the whole thing cover-to-cover, a first for me. Doing that kind of made me suddenly realise that these games I’d been playing all my life were actually something that could be appreciated, and it gave me a whole new perspective of them. It was pretty much from there that I kind of “switched on” as a gamer, trying to keep up with what was new and what was good, what was unheard of and should be checked out – as opposed to what I’d been doing up til that point, which was just basically getting whatever my friends had that was cool.

It also triggered the vast money drain that is my collectionism 😛

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Dave

September 27, 2012 at 11:21 am

Custer’s Revenge.

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1. hermantoothrot
  
  September 27, 2012 at 12:25 pm
  
  I lol’d
  
  Reply
DistantDrop

September 27, 2012 at 11:24 am

I must of started off with a NES I can’t remember at all what I played on it I was so young and and along my raising I went from that to SNES, Megadrive, N64, PS, PS2, GameCube, PS2, Wii Xbox, PS3 Xbox 360, I’ve even had a few consoles during this time like Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS and played the PC alot I guess I love video games because I was raised by them.

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oggob

September 27, 2012 at 11:25 am

I don’t know how or why we got an Atari when we did, perhaps I played one at a relatives house first, but we did get one.

From there…
Combat
River Raid
H.E.R.O.
Enduro
Pitfall

got me hooked! (Also Activsion were beasts back in the 80s!)

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James Mac

September 27, 2012 at 11:27 am

TIE Fighter…

That first moment when the music came through my ‘Sound Blaster’ and the space whirled as I barrel rolled… that was the moment.

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Braaains

September 27, 2012 at 11:29 am

I was about 4 or 5 years old… this would have been 1979/80 I think… hard to remember anything exactly from that age, especially 30+ years later 😛

Anyway, my family moved into a new house and just after we did that my parents had the entire kitchen re-done. For a while there they were unable to cook at home, so my dad would take me to this place just down the road for dinner. I forget what it was called, but it was a hamburger type restaurant, a bit like McDonalds – this is back in the days when there actually were such places that were independent, before all the big chains like McDonalds, Hungry Jacks etc wiped them out. So my dad would take me down there for dinner and they had a few of those table type coin-op cabinets, one of which was the original Space Invaders. We would have our dinner then we’d sit there and have a game of Space Invaders (20c a game!), and video games became an obsession for me from then onwards.

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Saturday

September 27, 2012 at 11:30 am

First game ever played was Pokemon Yellow. Straight up a classy, classic entry into the world of vidyagaems.

I’m not in love with games per se. I will admit it takes up a large chunk of my life today. I hope to find something else to entertain myself in the future; I’m all for having multiple hobbies. But I’m always sure that wherever I go in life, I’ll always be up for a video game.

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os42

September 27, 2012 at 11:33 am

Not really sure… I remember my parents shuffling me off to play golf on their friends computer whenever we visited… and I remember saving up a whole $40 to buy a second-hand SNES (in ’98 – my parents couldn’t justify the price of a N64, so I had to save up)… but it’d be either when a friend introduced me to Monkey Island and Worms 2 in the late 90’s… or when I got an Xbox and a copy of Halo. I suppose with respect to the analogy, the SNES was the first date, and the Xbox became the life-partner… well, at least until I upgraded. 😛

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Badger

September 27, 2012 at 11:34 am

Prince of Persia on a friend’s computer when I was about 8. Loved it. It was many years before I had my own gaming system (was given an old C64 in about ’96 when I was 12), but I was completely hooked from the start.

I used to draw game designs on paper when I was little, before I ever had a computer or knew how games were made.

I’d also try to convince my brother to play “Prince of Persia” in the backyard with plastic swords, him as the guard and various toys being spikes that I had to jump over.

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Michael

September 27, 2012 at 11:35 am

I’ve been playing video games since the mid-80’s, so I’ve been hooked on them for quite some time. I can’t really narrow it down to any specific game, though owning an Intellivision and then later an Atari 7800 were big contributors to that. Games like Donkey Kong, Q*Bert, Centipede, Joust and Karateka were all right up there, as were the late 80’s and early 90’s Apogee PC games like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Rise of the Triad, Monster Bash, etc. One of the earliest memories of a game I played to absolute death was Pinball Fantasies…man that game rocked! I still fire it up in Dos box from time to time. Shadow of the Beast on my Atari Lynx was a big one for me too. The original Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II were also big influences on my gaming life.

It was definitely that period of mid to late 80’s to early 90’s where my video game love was established, but I can’t narrow it down to one particular game or experience.

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AC

September 27, 2012 at 11:46 am

When i was young, i took every opportunity to play anything i could. I had a commodore 64 and have fond memories of summer games and skate or die. I had friends who owned Sega master systems and NES/SNES, so i was introduced to all the greats, sonic, mario, double dragon, etc. When i was a bit older i had a PC and got into things like Duke Nukem (2D), Commander keen, One Must Fall, and many many other games.

But when did i fall in love with Video games – I would have to say in 1997, when the N64 came out and my Aunt bought one for me (up until this point my parents refused to let me have a console). Still to this day i have never enjoyed gaming as much as i did then. I finished every game i got, something that never happens these days, Goldeneye 64, 1080 Snowboarding, Super Mario 64, Starfox 64, these were the games that i fell in love with.

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Nick

September 27, 2012 at 11:47 am

In the womb. My parents met at an arcade playing Galaga.
I apparently was always around games, and played them from toddler age onwards. I got a Commodore 64 for my 4th birthday, and a Sega Master System when it launched.

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Jake

September 27, 2012 at 11:51 am

The last game that got me mega ultra uncontrollable ecstatic was Tales of Monkey Island. And I was not disappointed.

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starchild Killer

September 27, 2012 at 11:55 am

I always loved them..but Bioshock sealed the deal

if you could think about how it was to play somthing like that without playing any 5th or 4th gen games up untill that point..it really was mind blowing

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Jeffrey

September 27, 2012 at 11:58 am

I had a paper route, saved my money and bought, PONG. I’m 53 and have a hugh library of video games.

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Wonko

September 27, 2012 at 11:59 am

Prolly with some crap I played on the Amiga500, but it really hit me when playing Unreal Tournament online, Deck16 with my buddies from the UK, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Austria… it was awesome. The power of the internet and the power of gaming combined really blew me away and I have not stopped gaming ever since!

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Trex

September 27, 2012 at 11:59 am

My first memory of really really enjoying a game was Alex Kidd on Sega Master system. Before that I remember playing Pong with those controllers with twisty knobs on top.

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MrBS

September 27, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Christmas 87 the parents got my brother and I a NES action set. It was all over after that.

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GerminalConsequence

September 27, 2012 at 12:03 pm

At around 6 years old, when my Father started letting me use his Apple IIc I pretty much fell in love with Games at first sight. It was cemented when I started playing my cousin’s Commodore 64 and then it just bloomed when I started hanging out with my friends at their place playing Atari and Commodore games.

When the NES came out, I pretty much begged my parents for one and had a very memorable Christmas that year. Then the rest, as they say, is history. We’ve had our differences, but Games and I are still going strong. There are times I feel we are growing apart, but then Games pull out something that just makes me fall right back in love with them.

I’m sure any psychologists will have a field day with this…

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Klutar

September 27, 2012 at 12:06 pm

As far back as I can remember.
I grew up with a Commodore 64 joystick in my hand. That’s most of what I can remember from growing up. Was playing my Commodore 64 with my dad. Unsure if that has anything to do with my dad being a jerk and leaving us when I was about 7, but whatever. Always loved video games, always will. There’s been times from when I was 17-21 where I played little, because I was starting to go out and party a fair bit. But there was always time for some video games.
I met my partner on WoW, and we now have an adorable little son together. So for me, gaming will always be a part of my life.

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Zeuss

September 27, 2012 at 12:06 pm

At age 4 i discoved Arcade machnies, I used to shake parking meters yelling “sheen, sheen’ thinking anything with a coin slot would provide a game.
never looked back.

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1. Zeuss
  
  September 27, 2012 at 12:09 pm
  
  (that was 1979)
  
  Reply
Stevorooni

September 27, 2012 at 12:08 pm

As a small boy my family used to go down to the community club (it’s like a pub, but for families!) and I would always play the couple of arcade machines they had there.

One of those games was Double Dragon. “It’s like I’m controlling a cartoon!” my younger self said to himself. From there I was hooked and have been solidly playing since.

The music from Alex Kidd and Wonderboy drove my family nuts. I can remember getting Super Mario World and being a bit jumpy at school just waiting to get home to it. I bought myself a N64 for xmas with 0 games (I used all of my money for it and was waiting on xmas cash to buy Mario 64) and spent days just ogling the controller until the shops opened. I giggled like a schoolgirl when I saw the first footage of Wind Waker which slowly downloaded on my dialup connection. I played Wii Sports at a preview kiosk and preordered the Wii immediately. While I loved my 360 I only had a SD-TV, but once I hooked it up to a HD TV it blew me away. I know the WiiU will be behind the times in a year or so but I am still excited for it only because I know that Nintendo will bring out games I will want to play.

I recently organised my gaming collection and it’s interesting to note how on earlier consoles I had only a few treasured games that I played to death because I only got 1 or 2 games a year, then the explosion of titles from the N64 onwards when I got my first job and started earning my own money.

With less time to play and wanting/needing to spend money on other things I think I might become a little more picky when choosing titles in the future, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll still be playing something as a hobby when I reach old age.

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MostStrange

September 27, 2012 at 12:12 pm

Earthbound on an emulator at a friend’s house. And Donkey Kong on his actual system. The joy that I felt when I realised the artists could do whatever they wanted (A pencil eraser to erase a pencil statue? Violent hobos? Dancing cops?) is still strong today. Earthbound showed me the potential games have for heart. Donkey Kong Country showed me the joy of collecting and completing with a friend.

http://evanritchie.blogspot.com/

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Dan

September 27, 2012 at 12:15 pm

In 1995 Santa brought me a Super Nintendo with Donkey Kong Country 1, Super International Cricket and Tetris/Doctor Mario. I borrowed my friend’s copy of Yoshi’s Island and that was it. The chalkboard animation intro played and I was sold.

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Sam

September 27, 2012 at 12:17 pm

Somewhere around the time I was playing through Resident Evil 2, Metal Gear Solid and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Hooked from then on.

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fatshadylive

September 27, 2012 at 12:26 pm

Two different times games have been enjoyable for me. When i was growing up my family (Mother and sister – dickhead dad you know the drill!) didnt have that much money so while we were alway happy I never really got into gaming that much. I mean we had an Atari 2600 and then a master system 1 (the old red one with hang on built in rather than the MUCH better alex kidd. I didnt play all that much and we never had a PC.

So when my sister stared dating a guy in the army with a PC which he left at our place when I was about 14? or so it was awesome, I finally got into a game and that was warcraft (original one) I did play a fair bit of that and maybe loved it a little.. but then when that PC was gone (along with the boyfriend) I didnt really care. It was soon after this that I started taking medication… that made me stay awake really late, so out of sheer boredom i bought a PS1. Now im not sure what game i actually fell in love with. Dave Mirra BMX was one of the first games I ever finished, Colin McRae Rally was also AMAZING and Tony Hawk PS series.. then soon came GTA Vice City and the rest is history.

I still game WAY too much (perhaps not too bad compared to others on here) but I love gaming now.

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weaselfeet

September 27, 2012 at 12:36 pm

Pocket full of 20c pieces and a sit-in Battlezone arcade game, say … 1980\81, something like that.
Had to put your face up to the little view port, twin stick controls with the little red button on the top.
The sound of those little missile bastards as they came in on you would freak me out. Hear t racing, sweaty palms … I need more, more … MOAR!
Sounds like love to me.

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Slyph

September 27, 2012 at 12:41 pm

Secret of Mana. I’d owned a couple of systems beforehand, but SoM showed me just how deeply affecting and complex an interactive story could be.

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samh

September 27, 2012 at 12:54 pm

when I saw my parents have fun playing with a “toy” started it, then when I played spacequest that did it for me

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Testablewalnut

September 27, 2012 at 12:56 pm

Ever since i can remember i’ve loved video games. I remember playing Alex the Kid, and Sonic on my friends Sega. When i got my SNES for christmas i totally lost my mind. I’d sneak out into the lounge when everyone went to bed to play Donkey Kong Country and Unirally until 2am. Good times!

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Benny

September 27, 2012 at 1:03 pm

Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES. It was actually my auntie’s console, but I ended up getting it a little later on in the SNES All-Stars bundle for Christmas. Oh God, the hours spent on SMB3..

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1. Benny
  
  September 27, 2012 at 1:25 pm
  
  Point Blank arcade was also an obsession. So many coins spent.
  
  Reply
Matthew K

September 27, 2012 at 1:13 pm

I’ve having trouble, now, remembering what games I first played and when my interest with them grew into the near-obsession I have today.

I recall playing games on a Sega Master System (and got one for Christmas later that same year) but I can’t remember if that was before or after I played games on a C64. Well, the C64 isn’t really worth mentioning it because getting stuff to run on that thing was a chore. I’d say a lot of my childhood gaming experiences on home PCs such as the C64 or a friend’s Amiga were fairly forgettable. I certainly enjoyed Alex Kidd in Miracle World on my Sega Master System, but part of the enjoyment was finding friends and comparing our accomplishments. I was the first in my circle to beat it, and possibly the only one to ever do so. I didn’t so much love the gaming in that it was something I was definitively better at than my friends.

I’d say my love of gaming came from around the time my uncle for a “real” PC for his home. He mainly used it to play simulations like Harpoon 2, but he also had F117-A Stealth Fighter 2.0: Nighthawk, which my friends and I played obsessively, competing for high scores, the highest rank, and an impressive medal tally.

But there was a moment that it really clicked over into my love of games as an isolated experience, the game in and of itself rather than the metagame of casual competition among friends.

My uncle had bought a graphics card for his PC and there were two discs packed with it – a Demo of Star Wars: Rebel Assault 2, and something called “The Dig”. I assumed the plain print on the CD, the fact that it didn’t sound exciting, meant it was probably some utility or something, some worthless junk software.

I checked it out due to sheer boredom, something to do on a Summer afternoon when all my neighbourhood friends were away, either out for the day, or at a camp, and it was too damn hot to go outside to amuse myself.

The opening cinematic was beautiful, the greatest thing I’d seen done on a PC. A rocket launch! And I was in spaaaaaace! I had to click on things, move around the screen, figure out puzzles. It was magical! But I thought – this cannot last. I was reminded of the Rebel Assault 2 demo, that lasted only a couple of missions. I thought about the demo I’d played of “Ripley’s Believe it or Not! The Riddle of Master Lu” where you solve the puzzle in the first screen and hop over the wall – to some text inviting you to order the full game. I thought, what could happen next? I’ve stalled Attila, and Earth has a second moon. But now we’re exploring. And there’s a cave here… surely the demo will end now? Here’s some objects, and another cave. Ok, demo nearly over right? Stop teasing me! We put the objects here and OMG THINGS ARE HAPPENING AND THE GAME IS STILL GOING.

I don’t think I finished the game in one sitting, but I also don’t remember taking a break from it. Maybe I finished it over the course of a week, it’s hard to say. But it was excellent from start to finish. Fully voice acted, a great sci-fi story, beautiful art.

I’d be hard pressed to say I’ve found anything quite like it since. There’s a lot of games I like, and enjoy, and love, but the closest I’d say I’ve come to the level of engagement with a story and urgent fascination with “what next?” is probably the first Mass Effect.

But if I weigh them side by side, The Dig comes out on top every time.

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garnet 23

September 27, 2012 at 1:15 pm

I had a snes which I played for a few years and was fun. But shit got real when we went to Toyworld one day and walked out with a n64 with mario 64 and mario kart. Spent so much time with friends and fam on mario kart multi. That was probably the time

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Luminaries

September 27, 2012 at 1:34 pm

Since I was about 6 or 7 years old, sitting for hours watching my dad play Quake, Doom, Rise of the Triad, Quake II… etc. I’m particularly drawn to highly plot-driven games like KotOR or Mass Effect, but I love a challenging FPS just as equally. I’ve always loved the way you can engage in a completely different world through gaming, so I guess that’s what keeps me coming back.

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Edward

September 27, 2012 at 1:50 pm

I had those educational games as a young’en, but real gaming, Age of Empires II

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ODEED

September 27, 2012 at 2:00 pm

1985.
Ultima IV – Quest of the Avatar on Commodore 64.
Before that it was Atari with Pong or down to the fish and chip shop with 2 bob to play a pinny.
It is all Richard Garriott’s (aka Lord Brittish) fault.

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On Targett

September 27, 2012 at 2:11 pm

I’ve always played games in some form or other, but for me the first game I fell in love with was Final Fantasy VII. It was my first ‘grown-up’ game and made me realise that games could affect you as much emotionally as books or movies. I still play it every so often, just to renew the relationship.

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Gusman

September 27, 2012 at 2:22 pm

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is where I truly began to get obsessed with video games. The music from it still gives me goosebumps of nostalgia!

These days I miss games, I still play as much as I can, but work gets in the way what with it’s soul-siphoning qualities and such.

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Oedipus salad

September 27, 2012 at 2:26 pm

My grandad bought day of the tentacle on release when I was 2 and I used to sit on his lap moving the mouse for him.
I would kill even to have an iOS release of this today.
My next would be….who would of guessed it…Loz:oot

I would stare at the box everyday at the local retravision in Northam until one day it wasn’t there and the guy told me it was sold.

When I got home I was devastated and went into my room only to find my mum bought it and it was already set up in my room with a Zelda blanket set.

And that’s how I fell in love with my mum….wait.

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TrollFarmer

September 27, 2012 at 2:29 pm

I started out on the Commadore 16 and Acorn Electron. I think Citadel and Strikers Run on the Electron were my favourates. The Megadrive cemented my passion with EA Hockey and game you could only really play in the arcade at the time like Afterburner II, both of which I still play to this day. Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake got my blood going again, but the biggest game changer for me was Battlefield 1942, the mind bogglingly huge amount of things you could do in that game made me fall in love with it and the series (except 2142, I just couldnt get into that one). I really wish they would remake 42 properly, controls exactly the same etc. Pure magic.

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Luke S

September 27, 2012 at 2:33 pm

I was about 5, standing in a Toy World watching Super Mario Bros on NES with wide eyes and dropped jaw. When the kid playing had to leave I grabbed the controller. Something inside me changed that day and I’ve been gaming ever since. I have loved many games but you always remember your first.

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TrollFarmer

September 27, 2012 at 2:35 pm

Oh and Half Life of course. I remember a moment when the AI was trying to flush me out of my hidy hole with nades and flanking me, it was a real sh!t, I’m playing against this form of life that actually wants to end me and will use team work to do it. Brilliant!

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TrollFarmer

September 27, 2012 at 2:38 pm

Dammit and Unreal Tournament lol, I’ll be at this all afternoon…Daytona USA on the Saturn as well. Clocked 15.66 secs on the Daytona track. That was 4th fastest in Europe I think at the time.

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Ricardo

September 27, 2012 at 2:40 pm

I had no console or computer as a kid, and friends had Atari 2600, Colecovision, and the arcade/roller skating rink had Galaga, Defender, Moon Patrol, Centipede, Asteroids, Double Dragon, 1942 etc etc. I was hooked waaay before we got an NES in 88/89.

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Hiero

September 27, 2012 at 3:38 pm

I’ve been gaming for forever (since I was about 4), but I’d say I fell in LOVE with it in the mid 2000’s when I started playing games with my high school friends. Before that I played games with my family a bit but it was more like something to pass the time together, instead of something everyone was really into? Does that make sense?

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CJ

September 27, 2012 at 4:13 pm

When I was growing up in PNG and had nothing else to do because its PNG and thats how it was.

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SteveP

September 27, 2012 at 4:52 pm

I’ve loved games all my life. From when I was really young on a DOS machines to everything on the NES and Master System, up to the SNES, I played games ALL THE TIME.

Super Mario 64 though, absolutely blew my mind. When I first saw the demo at my local Big W, I could not take my eyes off it. Squishing goombas in 3D. Flying. Bowser. Even the music. It was everything I had loved about Mario on the NES and SNES, but just…absolutely new in a way I couldn’t ever comprehend.

I honestly think it was the first time I truly fell in love with anything. ever.

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Benny the Guard

September 27, 2012 at 9:21 pm

Baldurs Gate and BG Tales of the Sword Coast – Epic games.

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N0NEoftheAB0VE

September 28, 2012 at 12:20 am

Lets see – the love affair would’ve kicked off with Super Mario 2 on the NES (not that I had an NES, I just parked myself outside of some hapless electronics store back when you could play the store machines in the 80s!)

Then there was the Crystal Screen edition of Climber – simply the finest LCD game & watch that has ever been made.

The Game Boy – my first ever console and Super Mario Land which still has to be the record for the fastest (about a week) I’ve ever clocked a game

Yoshi’s Island (came with my SNES) as soon as you hit that level “Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy” that kicked off a major obsession with that game!

Super Mario 64 – just over a year later I got this at launch and played it to the point of exhausting every last peice of the game

Tekken 3 – first in the arcades, then I went and bought a chipped PSX just to play the Japanese version when it came out (back in the days when we really had to wait for stuff!)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – probably the reason I ended up offloading my Dreamcast is because I ended up going back to this game in order to finish it, I bought it again on the 3DS.

Wind Waker: I played this obsessively during my wife’s first pregnancy – probably in the knowledge that my playtime was about to be seriously curtailed…

Banjo-Tooie: When my oldest was about 4, he started showing an interest in video games so I (paid through the nose for) an old copy of this game for the 64 and we played it through almost to the end – until he accidently wiped my save file!

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas – up until this I’d really been a Nintendo fanboy – this was the game that brought me over to adult titles and rekindled my love of gaming.

Team Fortress 2: I reckon not a night passed in mid 2010 where I didn’t have this game running (in my xbox of all things so Vanilla TF2!) it was perfectly balanced bliss with strategy so clear it was easy to see how all the classes inter-related, the third stage in Dustbowl is still the most fun you can legally have without being drunk or naked!

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cookingmama

September 28, 2012 at 10:27 am

I’m going to sound REALLY OLD here, but I think the first video game I every played was Shooting Gallery on a TANDY TRS80 COLOUR COMPUTER. I was about 7 and my dad was a geek 🙂 The game was on a cassette and the joystick had one button. It was simple and great fun, and my mum was amazingly good at it. Then my next favourite has to be Kings Quest 1 and 2 on the PC. I also remember loving playing the Carmen Sandiego games both at school and with friends who were lucky enough to have an Apple computer.

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tsholl

September 30, 2012 at 9:18 pm

I started on some Mac II zoo game I don’t know the name of, and Kraken, then I saw Prince of Persia, Monkey Island, Ocarina Of Time, Tomb Raider, Half-Life, MGS, Starcraft, Killer7, and now mostly just Dark Souls.
It’s been a relationship of reinforcement over a quarter-century long. And there have been SO many others as well, but each of those meant something significant or introduced a new way of thinking about games and what they’re capable of.

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tsholl

September 30, 2012 at 9:21 pm

Oooooh, and the old side-scrolling Duke Nukem games. Ah, shareware….

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