How old were you when you started to play video games

[hiccupleftovers]

I started probably about 5 way back in the days of the atari 2600

[Jaket]

when i was 2 i got an nes...... it was all downhill from there

[scsg75]

You're kinda putting all these gamefaqs-esqe threads in the wrong forum. Not really gaming and industry news.

[Rich]

I was probably 1 or 2. I remember quite fondly playing Ikari Warriors with my brother when it originally came out.

[SneakyPenguin]

Aye, I was a wee lad when is all started. I would hafta say I twas of the ripe young age of 3 or 4. And what a cute lad was I.

[hiccupleftovers]

A. They are not gamefaq-esque threads in the wrong forum and B. In the description it says gaming in genaral

[6669]

I started about a year and a half ago, so I'm a little behind.

[pimpinc333]

HAHA scsg75 punk'd out u aint no moderator so dont try plz and hiccupleftovers is right its gaming in general HAHA

[hiccupleftovers]

thanks pimpinc333

[alongx]

A. They are not gamefaq-esque threads in the wrong forum and B. In the description it says gaming in genaral

I'd say this is more of a lifestyle/offtopic, but that's besides the point.

I think I was about 5 when I started, it was on Super Mario Bros. with my uncle. I owned my first console when I was 7, I got an NES and Magic Johnson's Fast Break for Christmas. Shitty game, but I couldn't have been happier.

[pimpinc333]

No problem...i hate it when non-moderator's want to try and moderate the site cuz it makes them feel good and important............and cuz they are lonely ppl without lives....lol no offense to anyone other then scsg75 lol

[KingNES]

4 years old, I started with pong

[defender]

Since the beginning of gaming. I am 34. You figure it out.

[daddiebigbig]

about 4 or 5 me and my sis got a NES with duckhunt, mario and the lightgun we played that thing all day and night for like 3 months and we did not want a new game we were happy with those 2 now it seems i "need" a new game ever other day.

[Indiana]

I was 5 when I started playing the Atari 2600 I received for Christmas.

Defender...you must be a lot older... the first computer game was made in 1961.. Title Spacewar.

But the first quater game was Periscope in 1966 from Sega.

[desuaveone]

I must have been around 4 or 5 with the atari 2600.

[daphatty]

I won the first video game I ever played. It was a game similar to tempest where I had to dodge and shoot badguys. It was called swim to the ovaries.

Da dum dum tishhhhh

*cricket* *cricket*

Ok, it was a stretch.

Seriously though, I started in the arcades with Pacman and Joust and then moved to home consoles starting with the Atari 2600

[FunkMachineX]

Whenever my bro got a nintendo, I think I was like 3 or 4......I'm not saying i played the games WELL ...i'm just saying i PLAYED THEM.

[epobirs]

I was 5 when I started playing the Atari 2600 I received for Christmas.

Defender...you must be a lot older... the first computer game was made in 1961.. Title Spacewar.

But the first quater game was Periscope in 1966 from Sega.

Let's try to be realistic here. A very small number of people even heard of Spacewar until well over a decade after it first written for the DEC PDP-1 at MIT. If you want to be such a nitpicker you can go back to 1952 when Higgenbothan made a precursor to Pong with an oscilloscope display.

For 99% of the world you can only measure the start of gaming with the advent of the first commercial applications of interactive video displays. I can remember playing Pong and variants on a unit so large that a 17" TV rested on top of it. This was probably around 1974 or 1975. My aunt was pretty well to do and her husband was one of those people who needed to display his success by having the latest gadget. He probably spent less than ten minutes playing with the thing. From then on it was there just to be seen by guests in the house.

For most folks, if they're old enough, the beginning was the Atari VCS 2600. Sure, everybody saw the ads for the Magnavox Oddysey but the total number of those manufactured was very small. Others like the Fairchild F Channel or Bally Astrocade verged on non-existent in most parts of the country. It was the Atari that first put video games in so many homes that it was the first brand name to become synonymous with gaming.

[Tricky]

I do not remember how old I was. My first video game system was the Clecovision.

[zewone]

i was playing atari when i was about 3 or 4. Anyone remember how crappy Superman was on 2600? Man, i played that game alot .

[scdoanintendo]

About 5 when my aunt bought my sister and I an NES for Christmas. Since then I've been hooked.

[sj41]

I think I was 4.

[willardhaven]

I played in arcades in the late 80's and got a gameboy when that came out... I played my very first games however on a commodore 64, including DK, Pitfall, etc.

I was around 3 or 4.

[BlueStorm781]

The earliest I can remember when I was 5, and I would play games such as Marble Madness, Ms. Pac Man and some other games on my grandpa's Commodore 64 computer. That probably goes all the way back to 1986 or so. My first console was an Intellivision I had got from my grandpa (guess he didn't want it anymore) for my 8th birthday, and then later that year for Christmas me and my brother finally got an NES. I've been gaming for a long time, probably for a good 15-16 years or so. God, now that I think about it, I can't believe I've been playing games THIS long.

[Graystone]

4 or 5

[King Bahamut]

3 years old...I still remember the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge I had...

[hunter_d]

5 or 6, I reckon. My father didn't allow video games in the house, though. So I rocked our 1337 IBM box. I pwned at Reader Rabbit, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and then later at King's Quest IV and that surgery game. I didn't own a system until I bought a gameboy at a garage sale when I was like 10 or 11. And I had to call my dad for permission. heh.

[ElfAngel7]

i was 3 years old when i got my Nintendo w/ Mario and Zelda. I have fond memories of staying up till 12:30 at night w/ my mom playing Zelda and the giant gatherings my fam would have and we'd all play Mario brothers for hours.

[pimp_daddy_smurf]

i was 3 years old playing doom on a dos computer......then i got hooked to cosmo, and wolfenstein...........those are my roots in FPS and platformers

[moe11888]

my first system was the n64

[Snake2715]

Great thread! Shows the age variance of the board. I started when I was 2-3 years old on the old atari system. I dont know the name anymore but the race car game (pole position?) and the castle game where you had to find the keys. So many of those games I remember. My grandma owned it and was addicted to space invaders. From that point it was intellivision Tron rocked, and when it came out the NES. The rest is history although I was in the 15-16 year range and really not into gaming when the N64 and playstation really took off. I skiped that generation only to pick up a PS1 when Metal Gear hit as I remembered it so fondly on the NES.

[mcwilliams132]

I'm 31 and started gaming with the Odyssey system - I think I was bout 8 or 9 at the time.

[Squirms]

Chrismas 1985, I was 8. My parents got me an Atari 7800, plus about 50 games. I hooked that badboy up and havent stopped since.

[Aryss]

My first system was a Fairchild. 8 tracks ruled in those days. I found it in the attic at my parents with 4 carts recently. It still works but the crazy controllers are messed up. The addiction started.

That superman game on Atari ruled. My all time favorite on the old systems was Tron on Intellivision though.

[Cornfedwb]

Great thread! Shows the age variance of the board. I started when I was 2-3 years old on the old atari system. I dont know the name anymore but the race car game (pole position?) and the castle game where you had to find the keys.

The castle game was adventure.. what I easily consider the best of the Atari games. I remember playing that game daily for months (I was probably 5 or 6). Btw, its included in that Atari joystick that has 10 Atari games built in.. I bought it just to be able to play Adventure again. (Also the first game to have Easter Eggs/hidden areas)

[Snake2715]

/\/\
Thats what i remember is teh hidden areas near the botom of some of the castles. It showed the name of the programmer or something...

Thanks for the memories.

[hiccupleftovers]

An oldie, but a goodie. Plus there's a ton of new people since back then so it gets a bumparoo.

[Amano]

I remember playing Frog Bog (Intelevision) for the first time when I was two. Almost 19 years later, I'm still at it. Well, maybe not Frog Bog, but you get the point.

[soulvengeance]

I think the first thing I played was a vectrex, or an atari 2600. I loved star trek for the vectrex. I think I'll go play it now in fact.:)

[gunm]

I must have been 10 or 11 yrs old. It was my first "Atari" system, the Sears Video Arcade II. I remember the set came with Space Invaders bundled in and I played the crap out of it. IIRC I had Pac-Man, a bunch of Activision classics like Pitfall, River Raid, Enduro, Freeway, and Laser Blast. Even Indiana Jones and the infamous E.T. I kept the boxes and everything for the longest time. Ahhhh, the memories. Shit, I wish I had kept that system, except, I think the damn controller buttons got fucked up thanks to a cheap design. That, and I eventually got an NES as a gift from my parents, so we just gave it away to a family friend.

[Blind the Thief]

My first was the good ol' NES, when I was around 3 or 4 years old. It's been there for as long as I can remember.

[Scorch]

2. My brother put the NES controller in my hand and I took it from there. I beat Mario 1 on NES when I was 2. I can't even beat that freakin' game today.

[asianxcore]

I think I was 3 or 4, started with an Atari 2600. that thing was badass

[kakomu]

My First video game was some sort of handheld racing game. I'm on an endless track and I'm supposed to dodge cars, and weave as traffic sped up. I think I was 5 or 6, and I thought it was the greatest thing around. About a year later, I bought a Game Boy. Well, that's in dispute. I remember saving up a lot of money, but my mom says that she spent a majority of the money on it. I can't remember exactly how much I saved up.

Now, before all of this, I honestly can't remember when I played video games first. Anyways, i wasn't until I actually bought my own video games that I played them on a regular basis.

[vietgurl]

I was 4 and we got a donated NES system from our local church.

[sblymnlcrymnl]

I think I was about 5 or 6, and Super Mario Bros. was my first.

[mcgavin27]

3 years old with a genesis.

[cdeener]

I was 4 when I got a Nintendo for Christmas and my family wouldn't even let me play with it for about three days after Christmas.

[clockworkvictim]

Probably around 5, playing the original NES.... And Duckhunt/Mario and this other game I can't remember. Then I got a system when I was aroun 9 or 10.

[mr ryles]

I was about 5, It was alo the age I beat super mario bros. on the NES.

[pop311]

I was about 3

[crazytalkx]

4 or 5 with the original Gameboy, didn't get a REAL console until 1997, the Nintendo 64 + Star Fox=me happy

[tornadomann]

I got my NES for Xmas when I was 5

[Kuros]

I started at 3. My older brother begged for an NES for his birthday and he got it. He then played it for a week and was done with it.

On the other hand, I had just begun...

[j.elles]

I was 4 or something years old. And they were some old dos games. Text based adventure, etc. . . Probably why I still love PC games so much.

[Apossum]

all I remember is "Under $50 bucks! *turntable scratches*"

[2Fast]

I got an NES when I was 6 (but had been playing at my neighbors and friend's house since around 3). That still is the best Christmas gift I ever received, man was I excited. 14 years later, and I'm more addicted than ever (thanks in large part to this site).

[Spacepest]

One of my earliest memories I have of my childhood is pulling up a barstool to stand on, in an pizza arcade, to be able to reach and play Pacman and Qbert. So maybe since I was 4 or 5????

[Matt Young]

When I was 2 years old, I remember playing the Atari with my dad. This was back in 1986. I was a very advanced kid anyway. I could already read to an extent, and I knew my address, phone number, and basic colors, heh.

That makes me a 19 year gaming veteran. Wow. However, my skills have declined with age.

[niceguyshawne]

I remember being 3 and playing the TeleGames Pong machine that my grandfather bought for my dad in 1977. I still have that machine hooked up to a tv in my basement along with every other machine I have acquired since then.

[Javery]

I love people who say they started playing at 1 or 2 years old. Obviously you haven't been around a one or two year old lately because you would quickly realize that it's virtually impossible. Even three is stretching it but I suppose someone who was approaching 4 could maybe play pac-man or something else very very basic.

Anyway, I was raised on video games in the arcades starting in 1980 when I was about 6. My first console was an Atari 5200 that I had to buy for myself because my parents thought I should be playing outside. Everyone I knew had a 2600 except me and Santa disappointed me 2 years in a row when that was all I wanted for Christmas. Now look at me, I'm obsessed with video games - that little plan backfired...

[willardhaven]

I think I was 3 or 4 when I started on the Commodore 64. I played DK and Pitfall a lot.

[megashock5]

Can't remember exactly how old I was. I remember playing my cousins' Odyssey2 and asking for a 2600 for a couple of years because so many kids at school had them (one even had the Bally system).

Ended up getting Colecovision the first Christmas it was out. That system rocked so hard. Been playing ever since.

[niceguyshawne]

I love people who say they started playing at 1 or 2 years old. Obviously you haven't been around a one or two year old lately because you would quickly realize that it's virtually impossible. Even three is stretching it but I suppose someone who was approaching 4 could maybe play pac-man or something else very very basic.



It depends on your definition of playing. My 21 month old has been pressing buttons on my Xbox controllers since about nine months. Sure, she is really not goal oriented but she does interact and respond to the characters on the screen. Just last weekend, she pulled out a Gamecube controller and started "playing" while I was finishing Rygar on the PS2.

[flybrione]

4 - playing the Atari 2600 and Colecovision that both my cousins owned.

[$hady]

I was about 3 I guess... My parents were dealers at flea markets, my dad would go to one and my mom another on the weekends. I would always go with my mom and she got me a Atari 2600 and a lil tv set up to babysit me while she took care of the booth. :D I just liked pressing buttons and making the tv do stuff, I don't think I knew what I was doing. Kinda like now....:joystick:

[Javery]

It depends on your definition of playing. My 21 month old has been pressing buttons on my Xbox controllers since about nine months. Sure, she is really not goal oriented but she does interact and respond to the characters on the screen. Just last weekend, she pulled out a Gamecube controller and started "playing" while I was finishing Rygar on the PS2.

I guess my definition of playing a video game would probably be at least to know what is going on within the game. My daughter has also been "playing" with controllers since before she turned 1 but it's mainly just pressing buttons and mimicing her daddy (gotta get em familiar at a young age!). She also walks around with the phone to her ear babbling but I know she doesn't really understand what a phone is - she is just repeating what she sees my wife and I do.

[ryanbph]

I was 5 or 6...Atari 2600...

[gunm]

I guess my definition of playing a video game would probably be at least to know what is going on within the game. My daughter has also been "playing" with controllers since before she turned 1 but it's mainly just pressing buttons and mimicing her daddy (gotta get em familiar at a young age!). She also walks around with the phone to her ear babbling but I know she doesn't really understand what a phone is - she is just repeating what she sees my wife and I do.

Sorry a bit OT: I guess I have to agree with this: my 15mo old will walk around the house with a cell phone behind his ear babbling, too. I don't think he really understands what he is doing, but knows mommy and daddy do it.

[Matt Young]

I love people who say they started playing at 1 or 2 years old. Obviously you haven't been around a one or two year old lately because you would quickly realize that it's virtually impossible. Even three is stretching it but I suppose someone who was approaching 4 could maybe play pac-man or something else very very basic.

Anyway, I was raised on video games in the arcades starting in 1980 when I was about 6. My first console was an Atari 5200 that I had to buy for myself because my parents thought I should be playing outside. Everyone I knew had a 2600 except me and Santa disappointed me 2 years in a row when that was all I wanted for Christmas. Now look at me, I'm obsessed with video games - that little plan backfired...

Well considering the system I was playing, the Atari, was pretty basic and I was an "advanced" kid, I don't see why that's so hard to believe. I'm sure others were in similar situations, such as Scorch.

[psiufoxx2]

You're kinda putting all these gamefaqs-esqe threads in the wrong forum. Not really gaming and industry news.

BAH!

I thought we had resolved this issue. This thread is not "Game and Industry" News. It's "General Gaming" AND "Industry News".

See below. Cheapy ahs spoken.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69118

[CoffeeEdge]

Probably 2 or 3, with Defender on TI-99/a.

[6669]

I was 14. I just started a couple years ago.

[Danro]

I was 4 I think. My parents still have my original Pong machine stored away for me.

[itspaidgasterblaster]

I started in Mexico when i was 6 years old, i had the nes and was playing legendary guardian, thing is i did not speak english because i was in mexico.

[dyreschlock]

i was pretty young... probably around 5ish when my dad purchased a collecovision.

[botticus]

Probably 2 or 3, with Defender on TI-99/a.
Ha, man, I thought i was gonna be the first person to mention the TI. Jungle Hunt was the coolest, never thought swinging from vines could be so tough. Also remember Parsec, Alpiner, and TI Invaders (think Asteroids, mountain climbing dodging boulders and snakes, and Space Invaders).

Then sometime shortly after, the NES magically appeared one Christmas and I still whooped my dad even though he hooked it up and started playing Mario the night before.

[onikage]

I think I received my first system on my 3rd birthday, an Atari 2600. I never had many games for it: Circus Atari, Star Voyager, ET, Pac-Man and Mario Brothers.

[Msut77]

5 my NES assorted Tiger handhelds.

[Photomotoz]

Around 4 or 5, I played some old game on a computer. I never owned a console till I was 10 or 11, so computer was the way to go.

[thagoat]

i had an atari with a floppy disk drive. my uncle had a program to bootleg copyrighted disks so we had an ass load of em. he was one of the four fathers of piracy. god bless him!!

[the3rdkey]

I am video games and I was born playing them. 23 years and kicking fuckers!

[Javery]

i had an atari with a floppy disk drive. my uncle had a program to bootleg copyrighted disks so we had an ass load of em. he was one of the four fathers of piracy. god bless him!!

So did he hang out with the other three or were they scattered around the globe to ensure their survival?

[thagoat]

he was hidden in seclusion along with the others. his wherabouts to this day are still unknown. but seriously, the kid that he knew was using a modem to hack into the atari database. this was in the early eighties so its kind of impressive. i don't know if he ever got in serious trouble but atari knew him very well. lol

[steveinneed]

I was probably about 4 or 5 playing snes at my grandparents house.

[TheRock88]

About 4 or 5. My dad got an NES and Excitebike for my birthday.

[mietha]

3. Pac-man cocktail table.

[Rodimus]

Like most around 4 years old on my dad's Colecovision.

[Aleryn]

Four I believe, I have vague memories of looking very high up at arcade cabinets playing various games. Half of them I wasn't playing so much as thought I was while the attract mode ran =)

Around 5 I got my first try at the coin op version of Super Mario Bros, which lead to me asking for an NES and nothing but an NES every Xmas til I finally got one when I was 6. I loved that system, and still own the lovely thing. Sucker is in need of a cleaning something fierce though.