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[flabberghastly]

So, after failing to recall my first memory of seeing a video game, I decided to call my parents. The earliest ones I had - of the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt duo and Tetris being played in my childhood living room - were apparently slightly misleading. According to my father, I fell in love with Duck Hunt at a neighbor's house, and my father, seeing my enthusiasm, decided to purchase an NES. He says we played exclusively Duck Hunt for about a month or two before we ever played Mario. After that, we began to get additional games like Tetris, The Legend of Zelda, etc.

 

[Syril]

Hells yes.

 

[dab0ne]

Just watched this: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J4sAE8QWBMY

Nostalgia hit me right away, you were right after all. Thanks dude, I like good ol' nostalgia moments

You and me both brother.

 

[ss-hikaru]

I think it was called Fruity Frank and came on a floppy disk.

 

[eyeball_kid]

The Magnavox Odyssey. I must've been about 5 or so, but I remember them putting the silly cellophane overlays on the screen. Even at the time, I thought the overlays were kind of odd, but I was entranced by the graphics. They were playing a Pong-like game, and I think a baseball game. The people with the console must've had it a while, because I'm not old enough to have seen it when the Odyssey first came out.

 

[Warm Machine]

Arcade Stunt Cycle by Atari. Probably late 70s

 

[Glass Brain]

It was either Metroid or Legend of Zelda. I was about 4 years old, and it blew my goddamn mind.

 

[Possum]

Being only 19 now, the first ever game I saw was Spyro the Dragon running on the original PlayStation. You guys are making me feel young.

 

[Naked Lunch]

River Raid on Atari.
and Space Taxi on Commodor 64. "Hey Taxi!"
I was so young that my cousins didnt allow me to play either but I vividly remember watching them and being blown away.

 

[tazz3]

Yup I had the Atari 2600,back then the gfx where awesome

 

[HueyFreeman]

If you don't remember the first time you saw a video game, how would you know that you don't remember it?

Cuz you don't remember it? This is not complex.

 

[hoos30]

PIX. PIX. PIX. PIX.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

Got introduced to it by a pair of brothers that ended up becoming convicted rapists.

Yeah.....

 

[Charade]

Being only 19 now, the first ever game I saw was Spyro the Dragon running on the original PlayStation. You guys are making me feel young.

Same here. Slightly older than you, but I believe the PlayStation was probably my first experience with video games. Looking back at release dates, I think Battle Arena Toshinden was the first game I saw/played.

 

[Buttermilk]

Adventure, 2600. My mind was blown.

 

[Atomsky]

When I was 5, some dude got an Atari and I played a game in which you control a turret to shoot down planes. It felt pretty hard, either because of the awful controller or my undeveloped fine motor skill. But it definitely put me on the road of gaming.

 

[Gintoki313]

I was 6, it was Christmas, and my first game I ever saw was Mario Kart 64.

My brother played it and I just sat there staring at it. I thought it was the coolest thing ever that he could control what was happening on the screen, with this weird looking controller. Then I played it and got hooked.

I had gotten over 5 games that Christmas so I had a lot to play at the time.

 

[Mik2121]

The very first memory I have of seeing a TV displaying a game is this...

Showing on the tiny 15" TV in my room (shared with my older brother). I still remember the TV used to sit on a small table but this time it was on the ground surrounded by the NES and a couple games. I was.. dunno, 3 or 4 years old maybe? Maybe a bit older? Can't remember well, but yeah, we had Excitebike, Mario and Zelda, afaik. Later on Duck Hunt and a bunch of other games too.

 

[JordanN]

There was a NES in my brother's room. I never questioned what the thing was (to my knowledge). I just picked up the controller and started playing it.

I can't remember what was the first game I saw/played. There was Super Mario Bros/Duckhunt, Ice Hockey and Super Spike v'ball.

 

[manhack]

Yes, it was when my dad brought home a weird box with 2 controllers with twistable knobs on it, it was PONG!.

I was hooked onto gaming for life.

Bought this machine at a flea market for $5 sometime in the 80's.

Loved it for months.

Then I got a hand me down Atari and TRS-80 from my cousin.

It only got better from there

 

[TripleT1]

I was at a cousins house and they were playing mortal kombat 1 on the genesis. They were playing as scorpion in the stage where shang tsung sits on a throne in the outside arena.

 

[Serrenn]

I must be the only one who had this.

It had tetris and something loosely resembling a racing game.

 

[CharminUltra]

The first game I ever laid my eyes on was Robotron for one of the Atari systems, don't remember which one.

 

[Swissie]

We didn't have much in the way of videogames in the house when I was a kid (I came to gaming much later), but we did have this.

 

[Roulette]

I remember an uncle gave us some kind of system in the early 80s. I assumed it was a knockoff, because the only two games it had were a Pacman clone (instead of ghosts the enemies were spiders, I believe) and a Space Invaders clone.

The only other thing I can remember about it was that there was some kind of setting on the space invaders game where you could change the mode (inverted controls, shots that changed direction as you moved your ship left and right etc.).

I've searched online for years. Never worked out what it was.

 

[LOLOMGWTFBBQ]

Yep. I was visiting my cousin when he turned this on

 

[Dr.Thunder]

My grandmother was awesome. She bought an Atari and an Nintendo for all of her grandchildren to play whenever they would visit. The first game I ever saw was actually the NES version of Q*Bert. Super Mario Bros. and War on the Atari are up there as well. One game I saw when I was very little and have not even seen an image or even thought of since then is...I can't remember what it's called but you would use the light gun to shoot clay pigeons.

 

[inm8num2]

I'm guessing it was Legend of Zelda. Can't quite remember.

 

[kogasu]

My parents told me that when I was about 3, they used to let me "play" Super Mario Bros. and that would keep me fairly entertained. I'm don't know if I remember myself doing that but I'm pretty sure that was my first video game.

 

[ShenmueNextGen]

It was with Atari 2600 and a game called Sneak n' Peek, which I were playing with my cousins. Pretty fun; closing your eyes to not see where your opponent is hiding and sometimes cheat in this and start fighting...

 

[mrback]

 

[Ivan]

 

[Fallout-NL]

Must have been around '88 or '89 for me, I was three or four years old by then. And my nephew, who's about five years older than me, was way deep into video games and programming all sorts of shit. Sadly, it never got me into programming, but man, video games... Can't remember the exact game, but it must have been one of those early Sierra adventures like Leisure Suit Larry or maybe Space Quest.

I remember being fascinated with that image. The idea of space travel and being hunted by some evil robot looking thing. It was fucking awesome being so young and not being able to see the seams or the confines of a particular game. I mean, you really bought it, in a sense. Been chasing similar highs ever since.

 

[mekes]

Mine was Frogger on the C64. It actually scared me as a young kid, funny to think, well the crocs did. Vivid memories of waiting for those cassettes to load as a youngster. My parents wouldn't get me a games console as a very young kid, we had C64 then Amiga 500. Street Fighter 2 was the turning point, I asked and asked until my parents caved. This gen will be the first time I wont own every system as I don't have the same time to commit to video games as when I was younger.

 

[Seth Balmore]

We had a ZX Spectrum when I was little so it was probably Jet Set Willie or Track & Field for me.

 

[Jinto]

Pole Position for the Atari 2600. I remember buying the whole system and games from the guy a couple of months later for $40. It didn't work by that time. I got ripped off. My mom felt bad for me, so she bought me a NES, and my brother's friends gave me a bunch of their games. My friends would all come over and play, but he wasn't allowed. It worked out well for me in the end.

 

[waby]

I was 1 or 2 years old I think.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

Not dead certain, but I'm pretty sure this was one the first games I saw and played

 

[KiteGr]

Like yesterday...

 

[HueyFreeman]

It was either Smurfs or Popeye for Colecovision.

(This still has a god-tier soundtrack btw - please to youtube it)

(Fuck that first fence, forever and ever, amen)

My first impactful experience though, was Fantasia and Sonic the Hedgehog for Genesis. Me and my brother were at my cousins' house, and we were just like, "Oh yeah. We're doing this. For life."

And we have.

 

[RockmanWhore]

I did play Game & Watch games before, but they didn't impress me that much. But I do remember a day when a friend of my older brother came to our home with a Gameboy with Double Dragon, some Batman game and Super Mario Land.

I first tried Double Dragon and Batman, and thought it was pretty cool, but I was blown away by Super Mario Land, it's the day I became a gamer.

 

[Azure Phoenix]

Sonic 1 sometime in the early 90s. I was round my uncles house and my cousin showed me his Mega Drive, seeing Sonic running around Green Hill for the first time was memorising. Ended up getting a Mega Drive with Sonic 2 on my next birthday.

 

[Dee Dah Dave]

I think for me it was a port of Donkey Kong round at my cousins house, I cant remember what system / computer it was on though.

The first game that really caught my attention was Outrun in the arcades.

 

[Tony91]

Mom and dad were playing The Secrets of Monkey Island <3

 

[Travis Touchdown]

Super mario all stars SNES

 

[iJudged]

Mom and dad were playing The Secrets of Monkey Island <3

Is that what they told you they were doing hhmmmmhhhh?

Spoiler

Hehe jk

 

[Otsukare]

This is normally where someone says Halo 1 and I feel really, really old!!

Mine is Atari 2600, Space Invaders

 

[mark1982]

I was about 4, saw this at a Kay Bee toy store (I think, can't really remember if it was Kay Bee) Berzerk for Atari.

My dad bought one soon after to play Tennis, Formula 1 and some other titles. About a year later my brother and I got a NES for christmas. Amazing times.

 

[badb0y]

Super Mario World for SNES, I was like 5 or 6 years old.

 

[DistortionOfReality]

Donkey Kong or Donkey Kong Jr on the NES, I can't remember which.