How old were you when you started to play video games

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...
 
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.
 
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).
 
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????
 
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.
 
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.
 
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...
 
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.
 
[quote name='javeryh']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.

[/QUOTE]

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 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:
 
[quote name='niceguyshawne']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.[/QUOTE]

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.
 
[quote name='javeryh']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.[/QUOTE]

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.
 
[quote name='javeryh']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...[/QUOTE]

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.
 
[quote name='CoffeeEdge']Probably 2 or 3, with Defender on TI-99/a.[/QUOTE]
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.
 
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.
 
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!!
 
[quote name='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!![/QUOTE]

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