How did gaming come into your life?

Fatesealer

Fatesealer

CAGiversary!
Two words: Christmas 1984. Atari 2600 with 10 games. Thus began the long and storied 'career' of yours truly. Truly kicked into gear when I was able to purchase my own system (PS2) and appreciate the time it took to to get the money for it. Now at age 27, my gaming has slowed somewhat due to real life and adult responsibilities, but I don't forsee a retirement anytime soon :).
 
Christmas '83 (maybe?) I got an Intellivision from my uncles along with a couple of games. My mom and I would stay up till 4am playing Lock 'n' Chase and Burger Times. Ah, the good ol' days.
 
Summer of '87. I had to get surgery on my right arm, when I was in the hospital, my parents got me an NES, with Lengend of Zelda. I was hooked and the rest is history
 
I'd have to actually go back and ask my parents what year it was, but Christmas. Woke up to an NES with Mario/Duck Hunt. I didn't get to "open" it though, cause my dad had hooked it up and hid it in the TV cabinet where he played it the night before. Probably a better surprise though, since I was looking forward to it, and thought I didn't get it once the last gift was unwrapped.
 
My parents would take me to this swimming lake resort kinda place in the summer, and one summer they had a Space Invaders machine in the snack bar. I think I went to this place every weekend for the entire summer and I never got a tan, cos I was inside playing Space Invaders all day long. This was sometime in the late 70's.

Then my Uncle bought me this Coleco Telstar Tank Combat console. It only played combat (no carts) but it had fat tank-like joystick controls and I remember playing the hell out of it every day. That was probably like 1980-81ish.

At around that same time I started to find small arcades near me and play games like Vangaurd, Galaxian, etc. I remember the days new games would arrive and we all got to try out games like Donkey Kong, Congo Bongo, and Q*Bert.

Then one of my friends got an Atari 2600 and I used to go over his house and play it all the time. Then finally, one magical Christmas morning, I got 2 huge boxes. One had a 2600 system in it, and the other box had about 30 games in it! I was in HEAVEN!

The first console I ever bought on my own was the NES. I remember saving every penny from the first few paychecks of my first real job until I could afford that NES.

The 32 bit generation was the first gen that I had enough money to have ALL the systems. So instead of choosing, I had a PS1, a Saturn, and an N64. I also have all the systems from this last gen. But at the prices Microsoft and Sony are charging for their newest systems, those days of owning every console are over for me. The only console I plan to get this year is the Wii, and by time GTA4 comes out, I'll get either a 360, or a PS3. If I had to piick right now I'd get a 360, but theres a lot of time between now and October of 2007, and it'll be interesting to see what each console offers by then, and at what price!
 
Technically, started with the 2600. My mother bought it "for the family," but she and I were the only ones that really played it. It really started with the NES though. My uncles had received one on Christmas of '86. I thought it was amazing, but I had to wait until the following Christmas before I could get one of my own, and it was mine alone. It was the full set, with the zapper and R.O.B. The first games I owned (besides Duck Hunt and Gyromite) were SMB and Kung-Fu.

The Genesis was the first console I purchased on my own. Can't remember when it was, but I know it was years after its released. Bought an N64 not long afterward. Sold both and took a few years off before buying the PS2 and Gamecube.
 
1984.. I was only 4, and started playing Combat and on the 2600. The next year, "Santa" brought in a NES (back then came with a zapper, 2 controllers, and Super Mario/Duck Hunt) with Joust and Top Gun.

As for PC gaming, my uncle introduced me to Chuck Yeager's Flight Simulator and Microprose's F-15 Strike Eagle (we're talking pre hard drive PC gaming here, on an old Packard Bell with 2 5.25" floppy drives). Believe it or not, I've kept the two old bastards ever since.
 
I think it was in 85 witht he Atari and later on 86 I got the nes. Ever since i've had the super nes, genesis, then i got the 64 and ps1. I have all current gen and the 360. Planning on getting my ps3 later this year.
 
My dad had an atari way back when, I remember playing the tank game. And i dont know about you guys but in elementary school I used to love playing Oregon Trail.
 
I guess it started on the 2600 even though the only person in my family that owned one was my grandfather who lived 8 hours away. I would get there and go straight in the basement to play until we left 4 days later. I lost so many hours to Warlords, Adventure and Kaboom.

My parents refused to buy any videogames for me no matter how bad I wanted them (not for Christmas - nothing). "You will rot your brain and there's no future in it so why don't you go outside and do something productive?" Great advice - it's only a multi-billion dollar industry. :roll: Anyway, the summer between 6th and 7th grade (1986) I started a little lawn mowing business (3 lawns a week for $8 each!) and was able to save up the $80 to buy myself an NES with Super Mario Bros.
 
Wow, I can't believe how many posts are from NES or before days here.

I got an Atari 2600 in 1983 I believe (or early 1984)(I believe it was part of the $50 sale which had the catchy commercial). My brother was being born, and my parents believed that I should get something so that I still felt special. It's hard to imagine one gift that may have shaped me as much as that one. I got 3 games with it (Ms. Pac Man, Pengo, and Kangaroo).

What is funny is that, it would take years and years of begging and price drops before an NES would evetually be purchased, a Genesis soon followed, and here I am today.
 
[quote name='botticus']I'd have to actually go back and ask my parents what year it was, but Christmas. Woke up to an NES with Mario/Duck Hunt. I didn't get to "open" it though, cause my dad had hooked it up and hid it in the TV cabinet where he played it the night before. Probably a better surprise though, since I was looking forward to it, and thought I didn't get it once the last gift was unwrapped.[/QUOTE]
Oops... I just realized as I was thinking about it that the NES was purchased as a result of our fun with the TI-99. THAT was my intro to gaming, with such classics as Jungle Hunt and Parsec.
 
I used to play Intellivision and Atari at my neighbor's house, back in '82 or '83. The following Christmas, Santa brought me an Atari 2600, complete with Pac-Man and Combat. My neighbor got bored with the Atari, and gave me a huge box of games a few months later. Some of the titles included: Spider Fighter and Eco the Dolphin.

As soon as Nintendo came out, I had to have one. I didn't ask for that stupid robot bundle, though.

The rest, as they say, is history.
 
My parents owned a convenience store when I was young, and we had a circulating pool of video arcades which would cycle through the store (we didn't own the machines; a company which owned them would come to collect the quarters.)

My first games were the arcade machines for Popeye, M.A.C.H. 3 (I loved that sit-in model,) Defender, Beserk, Time Pilot, Karate Champ, Joust, Pengo, Donkey Kong, Zaxxon....the list goes on and on.

Many evenings, after we had closed down the store, my Dad would grab a few handfuls of quarters and the two of us had our own private arcade gallery in the darkened store for a couple of hours. What memories.. :)

..needless to say, an X-Arcade and a "well-stocked" installation of MAME were a must, once they came along.

:joystick:
 
No one's going to believe me, but my first words were "pac man." We had a pac man board game and one of those pac-man mini-arcade things and somehow it just caught on :)

Next thing I remember was the Atari 2600 "Under $50" commercial and my brother having me beg my mom to get it. That was pretty cool, but like a lot of people, my gaming was solidified by SMB on the NES.


[quote name='Electrox3d']My dad was VP of Atari so I grew up sleeping next to an Atari.[/QUOTE]


whoa! That's pretty cool.
 
The oldest gaming memory I have is being like 8 years old and restoring a game on the hard drive that had been deleted. I was a bad kid, I wasn't going to let my parents get between me and gaming.

Old computers were so easy to use, now I can't even get on the damn internet at the college half the time...

But yeah, I was a PC gamer from the beginning. No NES for me.

=p

I'm going to find an old computer and install DOS on it just for old times sake. Maybe run dwango.exe, hehe.

I will, however, concede that the internet sucked back then...
 
[quote name='Quackzilla']The oldest gaming memory I have is being like 8 years old and restoring a game on the hard drive that had been deleted. I was a bad kid, I wasn't going to let my parents get between me and gaming.

Old computers were so easy to use, now I can't even get on the damn internet at the college half the time...

But yeah, I was a PC gamer from the beginning. No NES for me.

=p

I'm going to find an old computer and install DOS on it just for old times sake. Maybe run dwango.exe, hehe.

I will, however, concede that the internet sucked back then...[/QUOTE]

Noob...

My earliest memories were of handheld football (the one with simple rows and columns of red lights) and some console (the name of which I have never been able to remember) that had a sim game where you had to avoid disasters and build some sort of civilization. Those goddamned hurricanes would wipe out my civilization and I couldn't figure out how to stop/avoid it!
 
[quote name='daphatty']Noob...

My earliest memories were of handheld football (the one with simple rows and columns of red lights) and some console (the name of which I have never been able to remember) that had a sim game where you had to avoid disasters and build some sort of civilization. Those goddamned hurricanes would wipe out my civilization and I couldn't figure out how to stop/avoid it![/quote]

Haha - I used to have that football game... I also had a great baseball version that had red lights at all 9 positions and the batters box. You got to swing and even decide what pitch to throw (curve, fast, slow). Damn that was fun.
 
I always played in the arcade with my Dad. If I was really good he would give me the options of: staying home from school for a day, getting ice cream, or going to the arcade - I always chose arcade. ;)

I think I got an NES on Christmas of 1991 or 1992. I've had just about every major console since.
 
In 1991, I was four, and at my daycare someone brought in an Atari for us to play. I didn't realize what I was playing at the time, but many years later, I came to find out my first experience with gaming was Custer's Revenge. Did I mention this was a Christian daycare? I guess no one realized what they were seeing. A few months later, the janitor at my daycare GAVE ME an NES with a ton of games, including Mario/Duck Hunt, Zelda, 3D Worldrunner, Section Z, and a bunch of others that I don't really remember now. His daughter had gone off to college and they were trying to get rid of some of her old junk. My life was never the same.
 
1988 - friend got an NES for his birthday. I played it. I loved it. My family couldn't afford to get me one.

1989 - I got a package from a company that let you earn prizes by selling their crappy greeting cards. I was only 6 at the time so my mom and I went door to door and sold 60 sets of cards so I could get my own NES.
 
I first started out...I want to say 1988 with an NES my parents got me for Christmas. Duck Hunt and Mario are the only ones I remember having with the system, but my addiction kicked in once I got a hold of Mega Man 2.

Aside from that, I remember some basketball game that I used to play with my father (he'd start to win and I'd throw a tantrum...now I just swear at the tv :))

All in all, thanks go to my parents, the NES, and the blue bomber.
 
[quote name='botticus']I'd have to actually go back and ask my parents what year it was, but Christmas. Woke up to an NES with Mario/Duck Hunt. I didn't get to "open" it though, cause my dad had hooked it up and hid it in the TV cabinet where he played it the night before. Probably a better surprise though, since I was looking forward to it, and thought I didn't get it once the last gift was unwrapped.[/QUOTE]

Hahaha, same thing happened to me I was dreaming of Zelda all Xmas eve. night. I later found out my dad and his friends were playing Zelda all night. It was Christamas of '86 or '87. Before that I would play my dads 2600 Space Invaders, Missile Command, Maze Craze, ET and Mario Bros were my favorite Atari games as a lad.
 
mix of two things. Atari 2600 and arcades. :)

my parents got an Atari 2600 for me as a present (my first video game system). in general I think it was also for the house, since they played it too. also when I was younger there was an arcade on almost every other block and in every mall. so part of my video game exposure outside of the house was due to arcades.
 
Oh man I had that! Tiger Electronic head to head football. Each person grabs one end of the machine (it had controls on both ends). It looked like two dogs fighting over a chewtoy.

[quote name='daphatty']Noob...

My earliest memories were of handheld football (the one with simple rows and columns of red lights) and some console (the name of which I have never been able to remember) that had a sim game where you had to avoid disasters and build some sort of civilization. Those goddamned hurricanes would wipe out my civilization and I couldn't figure out how to stop/avoid it![/quote]
 
I can't remember too well, but got an NES packaged with World Cup Soccer/Super Spike Volleyball and that's how it began. :) I'm probably one of the few kids who didn't start with Mario/Duckhunt or a ROB w/ stack up. I didn't even buy Mario/Duckhunt or a zapper at places like Funcoland until later on when they were sold used. Still have never seen a ROB in action in person!
 
Arcades initially. Remember being about 4, oldest gaming memory I got, playing Mario Bros. When I was six I was given an NES Action Set. Been going since.
 
Gaming is a long family past time. My grandfather(dad's dad) had an Atari, which led to his ultimate demise while playing Frogger. My uncle(dad's brother in law) hada commedore with a ton of games. My friend got an NES, then we had to get one. We got an Intellevision some how. I have been gaming for longer than I can remember.
 
In '78 or 79, I was 6/7 years old. My father who was an accountant did taxes for his friends and family on the side but NEVER charged any money for doing them. Well, one friend of his was determined to pay for his taxes, so instead of giving my dad the money, he bought my family an Atari 2600. I've been hooked ever since. I still have it to this day still working, box and all. $199.99 from Clover.

Turns out that a few years before, my father was asked by this same person if he was interested in investing $5,000 in a new company called Atari. My father declined, as not to risk his families' wellbeing and this person went on to be a millionaire. Fortunately he got out before the crash, but died some years later.
 
Pinball and arcade games sometime in the late 70's. Got a Commodore Vic20 in 1982 when I was 12. Helped the older brother of one of my friends do his paper route to save up the money. It was $299, a heck of a lot of money for a 12 year old in 1982! Used to type in games from Compute! magazine and others. Didn't have any backup device for the first year I had it so I had to type in the programs each time I wanted to play them. Had a lot of cartridge games too though.
 
I think it was about 1987-88 that my dad bought me an NES. I don't even remember if I asked him to, I just remember him coming home with it one day and hooking it up to my sister's TV (I didn't have one). He'd also take me to the arcades by the beach and give me like $30 in quarters every Saturday.
 
When I was about 5 years old ('84/'85ish), I was given an Atari 5200 by a neighboring older kid who was no longer into games I guess. He gave me several cartridges as well, and I bought several after that. The games were only TEN BUCKS back then. Is still one of my favorite systems ever (5200 version of Star Raiders = perfection), but those controllers were just really bad. Something always crapped out on them within a year or two, it seemed. Having a keypad built into a joystick with two fire buttons on each side had too much potential for something to break down I guess. We'd buy at least one new controller per year, and as time went on they became harder to find.

...then around early '88 I went to my rich friend's house. He had a Nintendo with, among other games, SMB and Pro Wrestling. My poor 5200 went pretty much neglected after I got an NES that Christmas, and was assigned to "in the basement in a box" duty for the rest of existence.
 
When I was about 5 years old ('84/'85ish), I was given an Atari 5200 by a neighboring older kid who was no longer into games I guess. He gave me several cartridges as well, and I bought several after that. The games were only TEN BUCKS back then. Is still one of my favorite systems ever (5200 version of Star Raiders = perfection), but those controllers were just really bad. Something always crapped out on them within a year or two, it seemed. Having a keypad built into a joystick with two fire buttons on each side had too much potential for something to break down I guess. We'd buy at least one new controller per year, and as time went on they became harder to find.

So I guess it was just coincidence that I first got into games right in the middle of the "crash" era.

...then around early '88 I went to my rich friend's house. He had a Nintendo with, among other games, SMB and Pro Wrestling. My poor 5200 went pretty much neglected after I got an NES that Christmas, and was assigned to "in the basement in a box" duty for the rest of existence.
 
Mine is pretty simple:

When I actualyl started forming memory at 3 years old, my dad got a commodre 64 and bought a stack of games for it. In fact I still use my commodre 64 screen when I play my current-gen consoles. It's still in great shape and almost as old as me.

Also, I never got a nintendo, but a close friend of mine owned one. He lived in biking distance, so I would pretty much bike over whenevr I wanted to play.
 
i started gaming when i was about 2 or 3 years old. and i remember that first game it was a spiderman arcade machine and you controlled him with 2 diff joysticks and you basically climbed up the side of a building and dodged attacks from people dropping flowerpots off their windowsills at you and when you got to the top you got to fight green goblin.


it was probably while arcades were starting up and machine was just sitting in the middle of the local mall against a column and i pulled my mom towards it and she gave me a quarter and i died so she gave me another and i died again. in the end i dont know how much money i spent but after a while she got tired of me wanting to play and had to drag me away from the machine and i kept trying to get away from her to go play it.

mind you im damn near 30 now and i remember that game like it was yesterday hell i even remember what i was wearing it was the late 70s and thats all it took to make games a part of my life forever.
 
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NES. Nuff said, though I may have gone to the arcade before. This bodies memory doesn't remember terribly much in the younger years.
Shit I also remember the old PC days, when a VGA monitor was considered a luxury. Also speaking of old PC games I remember "Secret Of Monkey Island". GREAT fucking game. Wouldn't mind seeing that on the XBLA.
 
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