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What was the first video game you remember playing?

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Apple II Sabotage with paddle controllers at the school where my mother was librarian. I would go to her school after my school got out (we all used the same bus system in our tiny county school system, so it was a ride from one school to another) and on this day all the teachers were sitting around playing it.

I remember they laughed at how excited I got. They said I sounded like I was hyperventilating while I played.
 
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Biker Dave!!

I had the Commodore 64 version. I think this is a screen grab of the atari version but I don't think the graphical fidelity is compromised any. :lol
 
Atari 2600 games had the best box art ever.

I also have a soft spot for Sega Master System box art, but pretty sure that's nostalgia speaking. They were pretty minimal on the art side, or at least the early ones were.
 
Rei_Toei said:
Castle Adventure
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Good lord. This is a few years later in my timeline, but I remember just how frightening the monsters were.

Also 3-demon.

How about Cavequest, anyone? Captain comic? Or that game where you design cars, then put them in a wind tunnel or get test results? I think it was just called car. But I may be wrong.
 
oh man.. I´m 34 years old (even though I´m a Gaffer Junior :lol ), and seing all these games is a nice trip down memory lane... keep them coming..
 
Either Combat or Pole Position for the Atari 2600. Man, I miss that old thing. Even after I got the NES, I used to play it any time my family went up to the lake. Memories.
 
bob_arctor said:
Ah, the one that started my lifelong addiction. Played it on my Vectrex.
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Yep,good old Pong,I remember sitting down at those tables that actually had the game in them,the game was high tech back then hehe...
 
Something on the C64, not sure what though. Maybe Space Taxi, Jump Man, or Hard Hat Mac, though not immediately upon release.

And some of you either got into gaming late or are very young.
 
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I was five when I got my NES for Christmas, and this was the bundled game. I remember being very disappointed that it didn't quite work as well as I had hoped with ROB. Thankfully, my Grandma got my Super Mario Bros. to go along with it, and that's really the game that ignited my love for this hobby.
 
My first played game was Defender coin-op back in 1981. I was an arcade junkie, didn't get a home console until 1983... Atari 2600.
 
Man, I was 4... I don't remember. :lol Something on our Atari VCS (not yet called the "2600"!) My grandpa had one too, so it might have been at his house before ours.
 
It was definitely in the arcades. Probably Pac-Man or Q*bert. I must have been around 4 at the time because I remember getting the Atari 2600 at age 5 and being told that we don't have to pay a quarter per game at home.
 
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These are going waaaay back,theyre the first *arcade games* I ever played. My family use to head to Reno Nevada to try their luck with the one arm bandits every summer when school was out. I was so damn young,my older brother and I was amazed by all the arcade games at the Circus Circus arcade and amusement park. If we weren't watching guys on motorbikes doing 360's within these small circular cages then we were playing many games like the ones above. These two would more than likely be the first I ever tried since I have very vivid memories of them. Jesus Christ that was ages ago. :( Is the old Circus Circus facility still standing?
I'd like to go there and visit the place just to take it all in all over again. Wow those were early days of my childhood,geez.
 
Zengar said:
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This one. When I was 5 years old.
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Oh, I remember that, it was one of my first games, too.

I think my very first was Contra on NES. Also: Kunio Kun no Nekketsu Soccer League (also known as Goal 3), Micro Machines, Excitebike, Dizzy...
 
Technically, my first game was Alex Kidd, for the Master System.

Switched the console on without a cartridge in it, and to my surprise a game started up.

But for my actual first game (i.e. cartridge-based), it would be Sonic 1, also for the Master System.
 
Another Super Mario Bros. person reporting in. I was probably about 4 years old, and I had no interest in playing it. My parents basically forced me to play, since they had just spent so much money on the system. It didn't take long for me to become a dedicated gamer after that.
 
Beauty and the Beast on the intellivision. My brother had that and adventure, so either one of those. I still have the controller inserts.
 
wow.. thinking back about this brings up some good memories
arcade - pac-man in a coffee shop with my dad
console - forget which exactly, was either safari hunt/california games or wonder boy with my brother
handheld - tetris
pc - not too sure, think it was commander keen or something very similar
 
I might have played an arcade game like Pacman or Galaga before, but the first game I remember playing was Night Stalker on Intellivision.

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Super Mario Bros 1

I don't mean it in the cheesy "I grew up playing Nintendo / Mario!" Retro-nerd way. There is a home movie of me playing it as a baby. Since I have no videos or memories of playing games before that, I think it is safe to assume that it was the first time I played a video game.
 
probably super mario bros. or castlevania.

i was born in '84, my dad bought the nes in '85 after recovering from a car wreck that left him on worker's comp. i'm sure i played super mario bros. first, my earliest memories are interchangeable between them both, however.
 
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