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[Orta]

Bit hazy but it involved Pong, early 80's (I was born in 79).

I remember looking on as my brother and dad played it on the tv. There were two controllers (it wasn't the Atari paddle if I recall correctly) one had a video out and plugged directly into the tv, the second was powered from the first via a connecting cable. I think there was a slider on the first that selected three or four different games and a side button that reset the unit.

I was hugely impressed, in hindsight however what a pile of fucking shit it was!

First real memory was playing River Raid on a friends Atari 2600 on a 14" black & white tv, again early 80's. I thought it was amazing. Got one for Christmas soon after (£50 it was, with a copy of Centipede) and Santa was kind enough to throw in a second game too, Desert Falcon.

Behold.....



Makes you wonder how I stuck with gaming after being treated to such masterpieces.

 

[lachesis]

Pong was my first experience. I was visiting a friend of mine (rich one) whose father did a lot of deal in U.S. market - I think it's probably 1979, or 1980.
I sucked at it - having seen nothing like it before (as interact anything shown on TV) - but it was a fascinating experience.

My real love for the video games began in 1984, though - I had a chance to borrow Famicom from my neighbor along with few cartridges - Super Mario Bros, Pooyan etc.... although I had played Pitfall on Atari from another neighbor of mine's place - it really didn't captivate me as much as SMB.. just like Pong didn't, or any other games before like Space Invader or Pac-Man. I loved the fact that you could explore and there are so many hidden stuff you could find. (And that.. was by trying to break every single blocks, etc.. as I had no other input other than doing it all myself)

Then in 1986, I had a chance to learn Apple II+ at local computer school - and gamed on it pretty often - but my real first gaming console/pc of my own, was MSX2 in 1987.

 

[SegaManAU]

I can't remember which one was first but it was either Tetris on the Gameboy or Alex Kidd which was built into my Master System 2.

 

[Moogle11]

Atari 5200 with a Star Trek game, Frogger, Popeye and a few others. Couldn't play most games after a bit as the button on the controller broke. Didn't really get serious into gaming until getting and NES with SMB and Duckhunt when I was in 4th grade.

 

[StylishMGTOW]

I was exposed to good games when I was a kid:

These are the earliest games I remember playing as a child. Playing Super C with my cousin was a memory I'll never forget.

 

[Die Namek Ability]

My dad randomly brought home an NES when i was like 6 and i played a video game for the first time ever. The game was Galaga and i was really bad at it so my older brother would bully me and not share when it was my turn haha.

 

[Die Namek Ability]

My uncle owned a couple of pinball joints back in late70's, early80's. The day these two came in.

To then 6yrs old, and the life was never going to be the same again.

Lol what a similar story to mine!

 

[nkarafo]

Must have been some crappy handheld electronic game, similar to the Game & Watch ones.

 

[Tschumi]

We had a dos computer in the early 90s, it had commander keen goodbye galaxy... But the earliest game i remember - can someone help me figure it out? - is a pixellated side scroller in which my character, who may be wearing a beanie, or have a big head - walks around a haunted school, or something, killing ghosts by taking photos of them.

Also played Oregon trail on school computers as early as '94.

Can't remember when i first played broken sword, or Carmen sandiego, but they're both real early,too.

 

[joedan]

 

[pab]

As a Commodore 64/128 kid, it'd have to be:

LOAD "*",8,1

It's burned into my memory.

 

[reforen]

Plugin in the atari 2600 (I'm not that old, 1985) with my older brother to play some defender

Also the atari tv switch

 

[Kev Kev]

 

[Fret Runner]

Playing this on a, even back then it was considered old, CRT TV. Thing was like trying to move a boulder.

 

[JLB]

Commodore 64, cassettes, a pen to rewind and playing with a joystick that moves 1 millimeter at the most on each direction.

 

[Alex Anderson]

I was playing Atari 2600 Pac-Man in the living room. The sun went down and to keep from getting scared I just kept playing til someone came in the room and cut a light on or something. I don't remember who saved me.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Playing Q*bert in the arcade and having no fucking clue what I was doing.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Nowadays kids are so spoiled when we settled for this graphical marvel back in the day.

 

[DinoD]

Nowadays kids are so spoiled when we settled for this graphical marvel back in the day.

Hahah. No. Console games were shit compared to Arcades and home computer games on C64,Speccy, Amstrad etc). It wasn't until Nintendo and Sega entered the ring in mid 80's. Things just got so much better from there on.

 

[Catphish]

I was 4 years old when Dad brought this home in 1977. Thus began an addiction that continues to this day.

 

[Catphish]

It was Outrun at the local fair for me... and I fell in love with videogames...

I was so enamored with this. I put so much money into it, and was completely hooked on Magical Sound Shower. I wanted one so bad. The guy who ran the arcade said it cost him $5,000, but that didn't stop me from asking for it for Christmas.

Never got it.

 

[Zero7]

Playing Super mario All stars and Micro machines at my cousins house

 

[Zelent]

 

[namekuseijin]

either 79 or 80, playing some platform game at my cousin's Magnavox Odyssey 2. Some time later my dad would give me an atari 2600

 

[Kaachan]

Suikoden II

My grandma used to play for me while I was staying over every weekend. I think I must have been 3 or 4 years old. It was the Japanese version and I remember granny passionately trying to explain the story and characters to me throughout the whole game

Eventually as I got older the story finally started to make sense and we’ve replayed the game many times together since then

 

[k_trout]

 

[I Master l]

 

[Kumomeme]

 

[Wesleyalucard]

Playing Super Mario World when I was 6 years old in a Friend's house while my mom was fucking with his father

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Magnavox Odyssey pong

 

[gaming_again]

Super Mario Bros on the NES round my neighbour’s house in maybe ‘87? I was four. It was love at first sight.

 

[GymWolf]

I was very little, like 2 or 3 years old, and i catched my father playing meat saber with my mother in the bedroom.

Strangely enough neither of them was wearing a vr device.

 

[tronied]

On PC (Armourgeddon):

On console (Super Monaco GP - Megadrive):

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[winjer]

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

And this one:

I don't even know if these games are known or were huge back then tbh, lmao.

 

[Exede]

Running into the first Goomba in Super Mario Bros. on NES

 

[Drell]

Playing some black and white games on a macintosh classic. Then being something like 3 years old and having my cousines making me play Mario Bros. 3 and telling me where the flute is in the first bowser's castle.

I never played this game without knowing that secret.

 

[RaduN]

This ^

Used to go every saturday down town to this arcade with my dad, who loved to see the game in action, and i'd play a single credit, just one. I think i managed to reach the twin bosses on the helipad, if memory serves.

I was ~ 13 or 14 at the time, and these are some of my most cherrished memories.

 

[gaming_again]

What about standout early memories?

I was on holiday in Italy when SFII hit the arcades and every night the hotel resort arcade was RAMMED. Within the three weeks we were there, somebody had already emerged as the champion and he was seeing off everybody who dared challenge him. It was so epic. Honestly, if you played a video of it now, with kids cheering and whooping over that arcade cabinet, all sunburned and wearing baseball caps way too big for them, people in the cynical world of today would write it off as way too cheesy to have been real.

The fucking 90s, man. When fun was the number one aim.

 

[DrumNBassDanTTV]

Playing Pong with my Dad and not long after he bought me a commodore 64 with loads of games!

 

[Kupfer]

Probably my sister playing Disney's Aladdin on the Mega Drive or my father playing Tetris on the Gameboy DMG-01.
I must have been 4 or 5 years old when this digital world captivated and enchanted me.
We also had a Pong video game console from 1978 that my dad and I played with, but that wasn't the first time I remember coming into contact with video games.

 

[tvdaXD]

The first big jump in Rayman 2, it seemed impossible back then, took me forever.

 

[Chronicle]

Asteroids on Atari many moons ago.

 

[Deerock71]

I remember Pong. I mean actually playing it when it first came out. I don't know how my mind could top that one.

 

[Gp1]

River raid and Keystone Kapers

 

[emivita]

This, I was like 3 years old and used to play it with my brother. I was also a super fan of the cartoon.

 

[Games of Today]

Playing what was probably Ace Combat 1 on the PS1 and not knowing how to play. I remember I couldn't find the enemy. My parents definitely returned it. But I still have other original PS1 games such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and Monsters Inc.

 

[_Ex_]

Back in 1982, my parents had some friends who owned an Odyssey², and also owned Smithereens! They let me play the game, and even though I was only three years old at the time, I still remember that moment. The moment I realized it was possible to control what I saw on TV. That moment was revelatory, and immediately cemented video games as amazing in my mind. I haven't changed my mind about video games in the forty years since.

 

[Mitsurux]

Earliest gaming memory for me was playing a pong clone system at my aunts house, was so cool at the time. Not long after my uncle got a super cobra arcade machine somehow and kept it in a back room. Great times.