When Did You Discover You Enjoyed Video Games?

[Seil]

When I was young, I lived in Hagersville, Ontario. It was a farming community that was pretty small. It was a big area, but there was more acres of plants than there was people, and those people were separated by acres and acres of plants. Thankfully, next door there was a boy named Michael Michaelson, and a few acres over there were two brothers, Burns and Waylan. My older brother fell in with a kid named John, and we all fell in with Sam and Jim.

(I changed their names.)

Anyway, all of these guys used to have a video game system - this was about 15 years ago, so these were ranging from Atari to Super Nintendoes, to Sega Genisis', and when we hung out with our friends, we got a kick out of playing with the games. As I grew older, my parents were slightly condescending about games, "We don't really need those." Likely due to my dad's school costs. But I did game a bit on the school computers, stuff like SimAnt, and this great pizza delivery game. I mostly kicked around on the family computer with stuff like Metal Gear Solid and the Legacy of Kain series, and a decent SNES emulator got me into a lot of JRPGs.

After a few years, I earned some money from staining a fence for a lady we knew from church, and got a hold of $70. The first time having so much money, I didn't quite know what to do with it, I bought a GBA SP at a pawn shop. I was so nervous that I was going to get chewed out by my folks for it that I tried to take it back, but the clerk wouldn't let me. I did get a game with it, however - Link To The Past. I loved this game, and was excited for it.

Anyways, now that I'm older, I'm playing pretty much solely with Sony - I have a PSP and a PS3. I would like to pick up a cheap DS somewhere down the line, if my bill collectors let me.

What was your first, and what are you with now?

[Kyanbu The Legend]

When I was six.

Though my first console was a turbografix 16. I always loved my second console the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Ah good times. Ever since then I've been a Sega Fan boy. though I did buy a PS2, N64, and Gamecube. I have a Dreamcast, but I never did get a chance to buy a Saturn. May buy one some day when I get a chance. I loved sega so you can bet that I was torn when I heard Sega dropped out of the console wars in 2001.

To this day I still believe that Sega will throw their hat back into the ring. Till then, I'll hang out with Sony and Nintendo (screw you MS!). I'm not fond of the X-Box but 360 has really grew on me (mostly because it reminds me of the Dreamcast). I may buy one some day.

[DFM]

I don't enjoy video games they're awful.

[Julford Hajime]

My dad has always been a huge nerd at heart, though he has lost interest/won't admit he still loves nerdy things since I was little.

Anyway, as for when I fell in love with video games; I was three, and didn't have the motor skills to handle a controller. To remedy this, my dad used the VCR to record himself playing Super Mario Bros. for about an hour, then played the video as I played the game.

And no, I didn't honestly beleive that story when they told me it happened. Then they pulled out the goddamn video of them recording me "playing" on the NES.

[Premmy]

My Great Grandpa bought me a Sega Genesis and a Gameboy(Brick) around six or so, Sega had Sonic, and A Lame tennis game, Gameboy had Tetris, Megaman, and Donkey Kong (The one with the Big-ass key puzzle levels)

[Green Spanner]

Probably when I was 4 or 5, watching my brother play 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'Biggles'. Can't remember what platform they were on though. Probably the Commodore 64.

Not that I was any good by the time I got a go.

[Satan's Onion]

Used to watch/join in with my cousins, who played on their old NES (I distinctly remember Megaman 3 and Snake Man's level) and whatever system it was had that Lawnmower Man video game, on an old black-and-white TV. (It might be the same system--hell if I remember now.) A bit later, I was happily playing away on the SNES at the house of some friend of the family, and my parents, in their infinite wonderfulness, decided on the strength of that to get me an SNES too. It came with, I think, Super Mario All-Stars, Mario Paint, and Super Mario World. And now I play Disgaea DS for hours on end, because that SNES is what got me hooked on vidjamagames good and proper. (I got into jRPGs after one of those very same cousins got me a used copy of Chrono Trigger from a supermarket that was liquidating their video rental section. Neither of us had any idea at the time what he'd just given to me.)

[greed]

Always. My earliest clear memories are my parents taking me to buy a Master System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_system), and then going home and playing Alex Kidd. I was 3 and a half. Even before that I have dim memories of playing edutainment games with my dad on the old PC. Old as in no Windows still had DOS.

[Mirai Gen]

When I realized I was playing games more than my brother who is 8 years my senior.

This fact hasn't changed in 11 years.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Similar to greed, mine was a Master System, bought for me by my mum for christmas one year. I had never played any console before, nor had I ever suggested I wanted one. It had Sonic built in. It was awesome.

From there I moved on to the Megadrive, and my friends at the time had, respectively, a SNES, another Megadrive, a Megadrive and SNES, and a PC (Red Alert was the first PC game I ever saw).

Then in 97 for another christmas my mum bought me a PS1 and Abes Oddysee (her then boyfriend had bought one himself and that game was on the original demo disk, which I loved). I've stuck with Sony since then.

So yeah I've pretty much been surrounded by games my whole life.

[Krylo]

I don't enjoy video games they're awful.

This.

I just hate myself so much that I keep 'playing' them.

[EVILNess]

I was a latch key kid growing up, so while my single mom was out working 3 jobs to make ends meet I stayed at home locked inside. Hell, I've been mostly self sufficient since I was 5, and not a single time did I start a fire. (Well, once some poptarts got stuck in a toaster...)

There was an issue with me being an evil little shit who made my sitters cry and never come back or be destructive and wandering off when I was alone (I was ADD and ADHD, and very, very bad.) and my mother didn't really know what to do about it so she sat me down in front of an NES I had gotten for a birthday from my dad and went to work. It kept me busy.

Hell, despite what people think I believe that video games made me smarter. I learned to read from early games with some text, and then by the time I got a SNES I was reading at a 12th grade level.

[Azisien]

I've pretty much been gaming out of the womb. Some of my earliest memories are playing this tank game on an Atari with my mom.

Fast forward a bit, we eventually got a SNES, and my mom and I would play quite a bit of Mario. I also had a PC, I think the CPU was 266Mhz, those were the days!

In my adolesence I evolved into the jRPG domain, picking up a PSX and eventually a PS2. I also got a better PC. I was PC gaming until the current gen, and now I own 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PC. I wouldn't mind a PSP but I haven't found one I deem cheap enough yet.

[CelesJessa]

I'm one of the people in the "always" category. Because I had two older brothers who liked games I got hooked early, playing Final Fantasy 1, the original Legend of Zelda, and Metal Gear before I could even read properly. :sweatdrop

It was a lot more watching my brothers playing, but I played too. All three of us would take turns playing and I remember I always got upset because by the time it was my turn both of them didn't feel like watching me play >:

But I remember epic marathons of beating Rampage and MCKids.

[BloodyMage]

Golden Axe on one of those really old things that looked like a personal computer but it's so long ago that I'm not sure I ever used it for anything other than playing Golden Axe and some other games that I don't remember. I maintain that playing Golden Axe way back when is what got me into games like Final Fantasy.

[Ryong]

I think I was 5~6 and me and my brother got a Sega Genesis. With Sonic 2 and Mortal Kombat 2. We had bought some 10 games for it, until, coming back from a trip, we forgot to change the transformer from 110V to 220V, which made said transformer burn. However, me and my brother constantly went to the house of our dad's girlfriend at the time, who had a son with a SNES. I don't think I ever won against them in Killer Instinct to date. We thought the console itself had burnt and we ended up never fixing it. Some few months later we bought a Nintendo 64, which we rented games for constantly, since we didn't have any - and they cost too much. 'Til, of course, a friend of my brother "forgot" ( and knew about it and never came get it ) Super Mario 64 in our house. Fast forward some years, got a PC, then a PS1, then sold the PS1 to afford a PS2, then a DS and now a PSP.

I probably started enjoying videogames either because of Sonic 2 and constantly renting Sonic 3 or later with Bomberman. But the first RPG I played was Paper Mario and I guess that's why I like it so much.

And I learnt English playing those video games.

[Viridis]

First gaming milestone I still remember is Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. My mom beat King K. Rool for us.

Another old memory is Mario Paint, with the odd music and mouse that plugged into the console.

[Aerozord]

when I was six we got our hands on a NES. At the time we had little access to games. Mario 1 & 3, RBI baseball, Duck Hunt, that was about it. Still we loved them. Me and my brother blowing hours on them while my mom would later nostalgically remember how in the original Duck Hunt you could shoot the dog, and we'd envy that. Still we were casual, even Mario Bros 3 can only be replayed so much.

Then we got a sega and SNES, which in itself was more of the same. But we discovered something, you could RENT video games now for like, 3 bucks. Now we didn't have alot of money, and games were short, so about once a week we'd get a game or two and that would be our entertainment for the weekend. For an eight year old with a free weekend that was more then enough time to beat most of them. We played so many games we started running out of things we hadn't already beaten. Thats when me and my brother got our gamer status and got every console since then.

Oh the days when finding good games was dumb luck. It was like going to the dog track. You have no idea what you are placing your bets on, you just pick one that looks good and hope for the best

[Yrcrazypa]

I don't remember what the first was anymore, but I was 3 when I started, and I haven't stopped for a good 17 years now.

[Donomni]

I was about 6 or 7 when my family got an NES, and it's all gone downhill since then.

Hell, I could have been 5, actually.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

I was 4, probably. When my dad brought his old NES with about 50 games. I played through games like Dragon Warrior even though I couldn't read.

Good times.

[Odjn]

I don't enjoy video games they're awful.

This lie is so colossal I don't even know what to describe it with. If we took the lienium this is constructed of and put it in one room a black hole would form and kill us all. This lie is so huge the only comparable thing I have that makes sense is my tremendous e-peen.

[Premmy]

A Clitoris is not a penis, Odjn.

[Odjn]

A Clitoris is not a penis, Odjn.

I beg to differ on my equipment and let's test it, bend over.

[A Zarkin' Frood]

A Clitoris is not a penis, Odjn.

That's true. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZJ1ENy5x6o)

[Magus]

Since I could first play the NES at...three or something.

Not quite born with a controller in my hand, but it's basically been a normal part of my life the entire thing. I've always spent too much time playing the things (or not enough! I'll never get a sequel to the King of Kong made about me at this rate).

[Ecks]

4 years old.
NES.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Legend of Zelda
Tetris
Final Fantasy

8 years old.
Game Boy Color (Pokemon Yellow edition)
Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow


12 years later...
Yeah, I'm still playing fucking Pokemon. Among other things.

[01d55]

I learned about video games at a Christian daycare center, where I also learned that "the finger" is rude, the vast majority of my peers were jerks who would exploit your naivete to get you in trouble, and authority would rather just punish everyone involved so you will shut up and not bother them than make any serious effort to figure out what actually happened.

Also they would tease a randomly selected victim with "gaylord" without having any idea what that even is (I asked, none of them could give anything resembling an answer).

NEEDLESS TO SAY, I was very impressed by the way videogames weren't stupid jerks.

[Mike McC]

Maze Craze. Atari 2600.

OR...

Sticky Bear. Apple IIe.

[Lost in Time]

I learned on Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. I must have been 6 or so. Shortly after that, I learned to hate video games with Battletoads. Two years later it was revived with a SNES and Mario Kart.