Getting into gaming

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I thought it would be interesting to get to know how who all here got into video games, whether it be growing up or even just recently. What was the first game you ever played? Or the first to ever leave any significant impact on you, if any? What good or bad memories do you have?

I'm not certain of exactly what age I'd started at, but it must have at least been before I was 5. My brother and I spent lots of time with Super Mario World on the SNES. We failed at it horribly, and yet somehow had fun anyway. I can recall getting stuck because we didn't even know how to open doors(who woulda thunk you'd have to press up???). Eventually we did get a bit farther, until about the third castle, in the Vanilla Dome, and the stupid Magikoopas would always find a way to get us. To this day they still anger me, though I've gotten a lot farther since then. Games like the Donkey Kong Country series, Street Fighter 2, Uniracers, Beavis & Butthead, etc., were also fun, but didn't get as much time.

The first 3D game I played, as well as the first I finished, was Donkey Kong 64. My brother got it bundled with a green N64, and we both became obsessed with it. Others came and went, such as Cruisin' Exotica, Super Smash Bros., Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Kirby 64, Goldeneye - but none had near the amount of massive content this game had. Guess you could say I didn't finish it completely, since we had to have a friend help out with Hideout Helm, but I did at least beat K. Rool myself, which took a ton of attempts.

Getting into the Zelda series was a bit significant. I only ever got games for my birthday or xmas, so it was one of my only chances to try to find Super Mario 64(which I wouldn't end up even bothering with until downloading it on the Wii). The store we went to didn't have it in stock, so I picked what looked closest to it, not realizing it had a big M sticking out right on the front of the box: Conker's Bad Fur Day. Fortunately(or unfortunately?) the clerk was responsible. He suggested Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and while I was convinced a game about a guy named Zelda could not be any good, they had nothing else. I'm glad I was wrong.

So my brother and I were once again obsessed with a new game. It was a big adventure game with big open 3D areas to explore, like DK64, but it also wasn't a platformer, so we had to get used to some very different concepts, like not having a designated jump button, or that there weren't necessarily levels. Puzzles were also new, it the answers to them were often either far less or far more convoluted than we'd thought. I'm ashamed to say it took us maybe two years to finish. Especially when you have speedrunners who can beat it in maybe 4 or 5 hours? Because of this, I guess it's where my brother sort of stopped playing as much as I did as he began to be much more social, whereas I was much more an introvert.

I suppose you could say that Zelda: The Wind Waker was the first game I played entirely on my own(and eventually 100%ed. last year) We'd moved, so I'd lost the few friends I had, and being homeschooled I wasn't forced to be around other people too much. I can remember feeling lonely, and this game offered a sort of escape. I do think it's a great game that can stand on its own, but I think that maybe the fact that I felt empty while playing it for the first time would have to do with why I'd say it's my absolute favorite game ever.

My brother did eventually get into another game. We would play Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for hours and hours on end, whether it was trying to play the godawful multiplayer(due to the camera and no splitscreen) or taking turns doing missions or just screwing around in general. Of course, it would not have been as fun without cheats. I do have fun with it myself sometimes. I'd even managed to find a way to get into a building otherwise not accessible outside of the very last mission - you have to take a specific type of firetruck all the way from San Fierro to Los Santos in order to smash through the front door..

Killer7 was the last to really challenge me as to what could really be considered as a video game. By then I'd already played No More Heroes, of which I had a lot of fun with, and if I had not been interested in Suda51, I probably never would have heard of this much more serious work of art.. Despite games like Zelda or Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy, I thought that it would have been unrealistic to ever expect such a complex and meaningful story to come out of a game. I'd rather not say anymore about it so as not to spoil anything for anyone else.

Okami was also a work of art, and probably would have been a missed gem if not for the fact it was ported to the Wii. I feel this game is much more "traditional", however, as in it is not particularly strange or abstract. In fact, it is relatively straightforward. The art comes in the actual art style itself, as well as music and excessive cutscenes. It is interesting in that, while it is a Zelda clone for all intents and purposes, it is still very different in a lot of distinct ways, and I often wonder what would be better or worse for the Zelda series to take from it.

Finally we have Zelda: Skyward Sword. In a lot of ways I feel it's similar to Wind Waker, from aesthetics to some gameplay elements, down to my own specific experience and mood I was in while playing it. As I said, I'd 100%ed the former game just before this one released, in part in anticipation, though also because I suppose I wanted some form of closure? Not that I haven't though of going back to it again and doing a 3 heart run. Anyway, I felt lonely again at the time, perhaps more to do with one failed relationship rather than just being alone in general. Regardless, SS has been the most fun I've had in a while as far as games go. I understand it seems to be controversial, but I find the motion controls to have been the best part, and was surprised to learn that some seem to hate the idea of motion controls altogether - maybe because as a kid I'd preferred to play with friends pretending to have sword fights and such.

So enough about me and my boring life story. I honestly didn't intend to write so much. Guess I can get carried away. I won't hold it against anyone who doesn't take the time to read all of that. But please feel free to write about your own experiences in just as much detail if you wish.

I played my first game when I was around 7 or 8 when my mom and I moved into her boyfriends house, it was a copy of Super Mario Bros. that I found there. He had that game and Dr. Mario, I later found a Sega Genesis with Sonic 2.

Later, I got my first game that was actually for me. My grandpa got me a N64 with Mario 64. Then I got a Gameboy Pocket with Pokemon Blue, such a great game.

Let's just say that I am a big gamer now. I have an Xbox 360, a PS3, a Wii, an Alienware gaming laptop, a Nintendo DS, a PS2, a Gamecube, a Gameboy Color, I still have my Gameboy Pocket, and my N64 and I have a collection of around 90 physical games and a bunch more downloaded games on my 360 and PS3.

I love not only playing games, but collecting them too. Many of my games are special editions, so my room is cluttered with the statues and other things they come with.

To see a general overview of my taste in games, here's my top 10 in no particular order of importance:
1. Devil May Cry
2. Devil May Cry 3
3. Silent Hill 2
4. Mass Effect 2
5. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
6. Star War: Knights of the Old Republic 2
7. Batman: Arkham City
8. Psychonauts
9. Star Wars: Battlefront 2
10. Halo 2

I Just Watched Other People Play And Just Played A ATV Game One Day And Loved It Then I Played Fable Really Awsome Game On Xbox Really Big World And Good Or Evil Sides! Then I Just Sort Played Other Games And Thats Pretty Much It How I Played Video Games

I was playing Pong, and Asteroids and Pac-Man and Ski on my first system, Atari 2600. My uncle had an NES a bit after that, with Mario 3 and Contra and Metroid. Then I got an SNES, Genesis, N64, Saturn, PS1, Gamecube, etc. I don't play half as much nowadays as I did when I was a kid. But I remember playing Contra III and Gunstar Heroes to death during the summer going into third grade. Totally torn between the two and which I should spend more time playing. Awesome times.

I started quite young, I played a few PS1 games and then a lot more on the PS2.
Now I play a variety of games, present and past.
The way I see it, completing the story means that I finished the game but one game I did get 100% on excluding treasure and paintings was Assassin's Creed II. I Platinum Trophy'd it.

My oldest borther gamed pretty much everyday in his younger years. He gave me his NES when he got a SNES so it pretty much went from there. My first game properly played was Kirby :3

Got into it on PC before the NES, then the NES, Genesis, SNES, SegaCD, TurboDuo and so on.

I think The Legend of Zelda and Metroid really cemented things for me that I LOVE games and have a huge passion for them. (Though unfortunately I don't like the Zelda games released after Wind Waker, and I really prefer the 2D mainline Metroid games. (Where's 5 already!)

I was a Sega Genesis kid. In fact, one of the consoles I have nowadays is a model 2 Genesis!

I don't remember what my first game was, though. I think it was either one of the Genesis Sonics or ToeJam and Earl.

@Wolfpup:
If you liked Zelda and Metroid, you'll love Shantae. Trust me on this one.

Oh man, Sonic and Toejam and Earl were great! Toejam was like this Nethack style game, only done with sort of cute/wacky environments and characters. Great two player game...geez, REALLY good two player game.

Thanks for the suggestion on Shantae, unfortunately I actually didn't like it I think I got stuck or something. I really wanted to like it. I've liked some of WayForward's other games though, like that Batman: The Brave and the Bold I liked the Wii and DS versions, and I assume I'm going to love their Alien game that came out in the past year for the DS. It's Alien, it's WayForward, and it's a Metroid style game...sounds great to me! I own it but it's in my backlog.

EDIT: Seriously, thank you again for the Shantae suggestion!

I think I started playing quite young, I must have been around 4 or younger, over my baby sitters place I would on rare occasions be able to play games like Star Wars and a few I have trouble discerning, my guess is it was a SNES. But I was able o play game much more often when my family bought a NES, I remember it around when I started so about 5 years old, The game I most played was Super Mario Bros., which despite playing so much I never really got very far, I gues it was the start of gaming but a lot of the games were pretty mature, or were Battle toads, I never did accomplish much. The next timeline is a bit harder to figure out, over the next few years I got a SNES and a Gameboy, my younger brother also became older so it was a social thing between us, my favourite SNES game was one called The Firemen, again I did not finish much, largely just playing leveks akready unlocked by previous owners in games like Donkey Kong Country games. But I could play at any time with the Gameboy and Kirby's Dreamland was probably the first game I beat. As well as having pokemon GB games, my fist attempt though was a failure in Yellow as not even knowing how to swap pokemon with the PC so I could not cut, game also got damaged.

When I moved to a new place when I was about 12 we got an N64 with Mario 64 and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, I basically begged to get Banjo Kazooie which I had played at sports clubs, the sequel became probably one of the games that I have played the most, largely due to cheats making it not very threatening, now I am against cheats. But I also played Pokemon Snap, Stadium, and moving on more of the games. Between a year or so I got PS1, and Crash Bandicoot 3, racing games were among my favourite. When I was around 13 my cousin lived with us for a while and had a PS2, it became obvious that I was much more of a better gamer, we got a PS2 not too far down the line that I could use. But my 15th birthday I got an XBOOX which was the first consoel that was just mine, I still play Halo which was one my first games on it, first time I had my own tv so I could play the game in my room.

I am trying to remember when I got to around 16 I started to recieve a pension, and with spending money I was able to buy my own games, and with the X360 recently coming out I wanted to be in the loop for once having a new console at the same time as most others, and the X360 has really been my focus of a gamer since, now I am 21. I also had DS games, Pokemon one of my favourites, pokemon games among my favourite, and I have got rather proficent at them. Family also has a Wii, but I rarely play it (reminds me that for a bit my bro had a gamecube) mostly played Smash Bros. on those consoles. Also recently got a 3DS, I am getting a handheld game right at the begining this time.

So that is it, I could also mention games that had influences, but that would take too long., I much prefer playing single player games instead of recent shift to online, with the rare game I can play split screen with, as long as playing single player does not mean thing are unacomplishable, damn multiplayer requiable achievments.

I was just a baby when I started playing, so I couldn't say what game(s) I started with, but I know it was on the Atari 2600.

Wow, you must've been a smart baby o.o

The first good games I got were Jak and daxtar series and ratchet and clank (original) series. Still the best games I have played.

I think my first game was crash bandicoot. or hardcore 4x4,
but shortly after that I got really into twisted metal 4 and vigilante8 2nd offense. as well as the first vigilante 8

I've always loved a good violent vehicle killing game . Hooray for violence!

Nah, I'm sure I had no idea what I was doing, though with only one button, there's not really much to have to figure out.

I remember when we got the NES, I'd always have to stop and look to see which button was which.

My first game was at 3 yrs. old., Sesame Street on Nes. I also had Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt but Idk when I started playing those. My mom would show me the buttons and eventually I would play it on my own. Now that I think of it I still like that game lol.