WingedKagouti on 15/7/2016 at 14:55
My first experience with video gaming was visiting one of my aunts when I was 5 or so. They had an Intellivision, or something very similar, which had me and my brother enthralled. In my early school years I got a few Game & Watch (or knockoffs) which kept me entertained for a couple of years. I didn't get anything to replace them (and my parent's were reluctant to frequently replacing batteries) until my teenage years when I got a C64, I basically buried myself in that as a form of escapism and have been gaming ever since.
froghawk on 15/7/2016 at 15:16
I grew up with it, playing Lego Island, Lord of the Rings, etc.
Renault on 15/7/2016 at 15:19
Right around 77-78, I was 9, and we had one of these:
Inline Image:
http://www.southquarter.com/merlin.jpgand one of these
Inline Image:
http://www.southquarter.com/mattelfootball.jpgand one of these
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http://www.southquarter.com/simon.jpgAnd pong too, of course. But the Atari 2600 - that was the shit, it started the addiction. Combat, Space Invaders, Adventure, Pac Man, Stampede, Asteroids, Pitfall, Pole Position, etc. I'm sure we had already started playing arcade games by then too, but there was something awesome about being able to play at home and on an unlimited basis.
Starker on 15/7/2016 at 15:45
Quote Posted by demagogue
I think a version of that Soviet era naval game made it to the US that I played (a church had gotten it somehow), or perhaps it was the Western version that it was modeled after or vice versa, or it's possible it was just convergent evolution because I mean there's only so many games you can make out of simple vector graphics, but I distinctly remember it.
There were a handful of Russian games like Tetris that got copied by the West, but when it comes to electronics or machines, it's pretty unlikely. The naval game (Морской бой) was pretty certainly a knockoff of this game:
[video=youtube;xnQ9R8fpSdc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnQ9R8fpSdc[/video]
SD on 15/7/2016 at 17:04
My cousin had a home computer around 82/83, I can't even remember what model but they were quite well-off so it could well have been a C64. I was only about 5 years old but I was blown away by it. He was making things move around on a screen in his bedroom! So my mum and dad got me an Acorn Electron, and that was that.
I couldn't tell you what game I played at my uncle's house, though I have a vague recollection that it was space-themed and sideways scrolling, so perhaps Defender? My very first games were a bunch of Acornsoft titles that came bundled with the Electron, most memorably Arcadians and Hopper, which were clones of Galaxian and Frogger respectively.
faetal on 15/7/2016 at 18:57
Just realised I posted in the wrong thread earlier (thought it was the gaming revolutions one). HL1 wasn't what got me into gaming, that would be my cousin's Atari Game system:
Inline Image:
http://www.toyhalloffame.org/sites/www.toyhalloffame.org/files/toys/square/atari-2600-game-system_0.pngAfter that, I had to beg my older brother to let me use his C64, which I later inherited along with a huge box of games on cassette. Then later I had to secretly sneak into his room while he was out to use his Amiga, then later on again, sneaking in and using his password (which I overheard him tell his girlfriend of the time so she could use it) to get in to his PC and play Doom.
Finally got my own PC at the age of 18 in 1997 and that is about it.
heywood on 15/7/2016 at 19:35
It was the period around 1980-1983. First my friend got an Atari 2600 which got me interested. Then my parents got us an Atari 400 computer for xmas which started me playing games at home and writing BASIC programs. Other than Star Raiders, which I liked, cartridge games were just ports of arcade classics like Space Invaders, Missile Command, Pac Man, Pole Position. I got bored of them quickly. Then another friend got an 800XL with a tape drive, and I got a tape drive, and his Dad got a bunch of pirated disk/tape games that we played the heck out of: early Microprose sims, Archon, Cypher Bowl, and Shamus. That's what got me firmly hooked.
Stingm on 15/7/2016 at 19:51
I started with a Magnavox console. It was like 4 different versions of pong. Then it was the Atari 2600 and that's when the addiction started. I played a bunch of games on it including the ones listed above and yes Superman too. It was the best at that time although my favorite game was Adventure which had the worlds first easter egg in it and yes I found it too.
Then my dad threatened to trade in my Atari as some store was giving credit twards a computer. I kept the Atari and got the computer an IBM PC Jr. It had 256k of ram and was upgradable to 512k..lol I played text adventures and then Sierras Graphic adventures.
Then a few years later I got a 386xs with 1meg ram upgradable to 4meg. I really took off into games from there. X-Wing forced me to upgrade to 4 meg..lol It pretty much took off from there and only got worse. yes I'm that old and still love games and so does my wife.
Zerker on 15/7/2016 at 20:17
My experience is somewhat stereotypical, actually. When I was 7 or so, I was over at a neighbour's house and they had... an NES. With the Super Mario and Duck Hunt cartridge. My first reaction was, of course, 'why would I want to play something called Duck Hunt?', not realizing that it was actually two games.
Suffice to say, I was rather blown away by Super Mario Bros and pestered my parents to get me an NES after that :) .
Jason Moyer on 16/7/2016 at 04:00
I was born in the late 70's, so inevitably the thing that hooked me onto gaming were the prevalence of arcade games in the early 80's. Didn't matter what it was, if it had an attract screen and took quarters I was begging my folks to let me play it. I was too young to remember a specific game doing it; the local Acme grocery store had Pac-Man and Donkey Kong machines, I can remember going to bars with my dad and playing the original Black Hole pinball machine and Stunt Cycle. One of the local pizza shops had Turbo when it came out, and another had Time Pilot (I can remember still regularly shoving quarters into that Time Pilot until the early 90's). The diner my family regularly went to in the 80's seemed to always have whatever the latest Mr Do game was. The mall had an Outlaw machine and was the first place I can remember seeing/playing Zaxxon. Sears, of all places, had a Pole Position II machine in their layaway area, so while my mom spent what felt like hours window shopping my dad and I would stuff a few dollars into it. Around 82-83 a Showbiz Pizza opened in the area, and this quickly became birthday party nirvana. I'm remembering it from the perspective of a 7 year old, but the place was dark, enormous, and full of every videogame that I knew existed. By 84 I'm pretty sure they had all of the popular laserdisc games (Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Firefox, etc), and it's kind of hilarious thinking about how impressive they seemed at the time. Anyway, the 80's and early 90's were all about the ubiquitousness of arcade games. Everyone who was alive then has fond memories of arcades, but really the games were everywhere.
I'm not sure it's the first arcade game I ever saw, but the oldest one I can remember seeing regularly (at a Hill's department store!) was this mechanical guy, which my dad would play everytime we were there and which, for some reason, scared the hell out of me with its visuals/sounds:
[video=youtube;i1WSYdn1b8I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1WSYdn1b8I[/video]
