N4G Contest - Day 1: Your First Time

For information on the "20 Days of..." contest, please see https://n4g.com/user/blogpo...

***

On the first day, the question we have for you is "What was the first video game you remember playing that made you want to turn video games into a hobby?"

For me, it was The Black Cauldron. It wasn't the first game I played, which technically were the BASIC ski and dungeon games that required you to code them first. But, I had never truly experienced a real video game until then and I don't recall why my father bought it at all, but he did and I got to play it two years after it originally released, but it felt like a whole new world to me.

What I loved about the game was that it was the first time experiencing a game that combined story, world interaction, and the fear that clicking some random thing would suddenly result in death. For some reason, the frustration of trying to find that one thing that I needed after an hour of going through the same screens over and over just got me hooked. I couldn't let the game win and it drove me to finish the game eventually and then save up money for other games in the same genre, from King's Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest, Bard's Tale, and beyond.

[cl1983]

Duck Hunt on the original NES.

[Fullmetalevolust]

Duck hunt is definitely one of my first memories. I remember playing it at my cousin's house.
It wasn't til we got a Sega Mastersytem that I truly got sucked into the world of videogames. Alex Kidd was everything to me. Also owned Wonderboy. Games were so tough back then, brutal to kids my age lol

[bigmalky]

Wonderboy in Monsterland brings back good memories.

[rainslacker]

Loved that game, but hated that dog.

[lxeasy]

Super Mario World, I remember taking turns with my cousins in their bedroom early mornings.

[Leeroyw]

Probably the same. There was this new game that had every world be different to the last. You could go in different directions, short cuts. You could finish it but not really. It had super elements that you could only do on the second play through... Fantastic.

[anonymousfan]

I would do that too once a year but my turn would only last a few minutes... I kept dying. Damn I used to think that game was so hard :P (I was really bad at it)

[luckytrouble]

The first game that captivated me and made me truly want to be a gamer? The kudos could probably go to a few JRPGs back on the PS1, but I'll give major credit to The Legend of Dragoon. It encouraged me to explore other JRPGs and led me to many other noteworthy titles. To this day, my most fondly remembered games all share JRPG roots, but it caused me to seek games with similar themes, battle systems, general game play styles, and more that expanded into my highly varied tastes today.

[Parasyte]

Super Mario World. That was what started it all.

[anonymousfan]

I didn't own a Nintendo console until the Wii / DS but damn Mario is sooo Nostalgic, especially because of Super Mario World. I can't wait to go to Osaka once Nintendo Land is built.

[HylianMigz]

until i was 6 years we lived with my grandma who was extremely jehovahs witness, and i wasnt allowed to play video games or do much of anything. my older brother and i found my uncles snes in the closet downstairs and would wait until super late at night and play LoZ A Link to the Past.

[ziggurcat]

Pong was the first, but things took a turn the moment we got the Intellivision. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Burger Time, Lock & Chase were probably the games I played the most.

[FloydianAndroid]

Burger time was so fun!

[notachance]

it was Tom and Jerry on Sega Mega Drive
I didn't have any console back then nor I wanted to to have one, but one day my friend got one with only that one game with it. We played that game over and over again and from that point on, gaming has been an important hobby of mine.

[SheenuTheLegend]

Smackdown Pain, we were 6 friends playing together beating the hell outaa each other and were having the best times of our life.the pace of the game, the music, the reversals and Goldberg were just another bonus. Not just me it got all of my friends into gaming. now we all have ps4's and pc's etc and still play together via online to this day.

[Elwenil]

I'd have to say The Legend of Zelda on the NES. I had played my Atari 2600 years before and pumped an unknown amount of quarters into arcade machines but playing Zelda, sitting in my bedroom, on a console that was "mine" and not a "family" entertainment device made it much more a thing for just me. After comparing notes with friends also playing the game we figured out how to make it through the quest, how to defeat boss enemies and where to find hidden secrets. It wasn't just about a score or points anymore, it was a quest that made me feel like I had accomplished something when I completed it. I knew I needed to experience more of it after that.

[Lore]

Kingdom Hearts

[anonymousfan]

what platform was the first game on?

[Blank]

My first game was a DOS game called Overkill it is a shoot em up but what really cemented my love was Gradius 3 for the SNES.

[oasdada]

damn i remember overkill ! i actually forgot the name cuz i was so young back then.. thanx for sharing

[robtion]

Tenchu Stealth Assassins on the ps1. First time I had ever seen stealth in a game and I was addicted. Plus ninjas and quirky Japanese humour. What's not to like?

[strayanalog]

Cliche by now, but Super Mario Bros on the NES. I didn't have much of a connection with my dad when I was young and since he played video games that title would become our common ground. It was with this game's imaginative fun and power to bring people together that I felt these pieces of plastic should stay a part of my life.

[manaxknight1]

Playing that game with my brothers and cousins with the lights off

[annoyedgamer]

Age of Empires. Watched a family member play it on a PC. Was captivated by it ever since.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Hmm, well it was either in 1979 or 1980. Asteroids 1979 or Pac-Man 1980. Yup I'm an older gamer :D Was 5 in 1979 hehe

[SegaGamer]

Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage. I had played games before these two, but once I started playing these two, I couldn't get enough of gaming.

[Srelhow]

Wow hard one. I loved my Atari 2600, but I didn't get serious about gaming until Final Fantasy NES.

[ISHU]

Super mario bros. on NES. What a game that was man!

[captaincow]

Techno super bowl on NES. Also bayou billy and life force. Good times.

[Skankinruby]

I remember bayou Billy on those little handhelds, good times

[Tross]

Super Mario World. I was four years old and my older cousin had a SNES and that game. The first time I played it, I walked into the first Goomba in the first stage and died...but I was hooked. I did better each time I played it. I looked forward to visiting my cousin, and didn't want to go home when my mom said it was time to go. Two years later I got a game system of my own...although curiously enough it was a Sega Genesis.

[TheOnlyMastrx]

Mario Bros games on NES are up there but I think the biggest influence was Gauntlet on NES with a 4 controller adapter. Our group of players usually consisted of myself, my cousins, one or two of my uncles, sometimes my parents, and sometimes even my grandmother. I don't care how old I get, I don't think gaming will ever not be a part of my life.

[darksied]

Blake Stone Aliens of Gold on PC. Not the first game I played, but the first that was interesting to me (had a gun that didn't use ammo, that was awesome at the time).

[Glphy77]

Pokémon Blue. I was literally four and just loved catching Pokémon. I also thought you could only use water Pokémon to battle while surfing so when my Blastoise fainted I thought I was going to lose the game.

[Garethvk]

It was Pong. Any time I had a Quarter I was eager to play.

[porkChop]

The first games I played that had a real effect on me were Doom and Super Mario World. Both were fantastic and gave a glimpse of what games could be. I was hooked.

[UCForce]

My first time ? Well, it was a long time, so it not easy to remember which one. But it was Rachet and Clank Deadlock that got me into video game.

[Petebloodyonion]

The Pac Man arcade machine in the back of a burger joint!

[Palitera]

Epic Pinball, back in the pre Pentium days. Neverending competition with my brother.
Soon after, Winning Eleven was a major turning point as well.

[stefd75]

Manic Miner on the ZX Spectrum back in 83

[DreadGara]

Pitfall on 2600

[PoopsMcGee]

Kings Quest and Archon are the two that first really stuck with me. As for my first console I had a Calicovision with Donkey Kong but I don't recall much else from that...

[EDKICK]

Donkey Kong Country and Mario Bros 3 are two of the earlier games I played. Even though I didn't know much about games in general at that point, I probably didn't even know how Mario 3 was regarded as one of the greatest games of all time. I could still tell those two were something special.

[e3kehoe]

Pong... damn I’m old lol

[blade206]

Pong from sears

[knickstr]

Final fantasy 7 for me. That was the first game that made me realize that games could tell just as great of a story as any book or a movie and I was hooked after that.

[bluefox755]

For me it was Super Mario Bros., even though I'm not a huge Mario fan these days, the original made me a fan of video games.

[Chris092]

It was Mario bros on my grandfathers NES that made me want to own my a console and games.

Playing Mario gave me a special joy that i wanted to have regulary and thanks to it i wished for a N64 with Mario and pokemon for christmas. I got a PlayStation 1 with Digimon and my parents said they where The same thing. XD

But in the PlayStation games are the ones that have given me games mostly for me with final fantasy, Spyro, Kingdom Hearts, shadow of The colossus and so on but Mario started it all.

[TheSaint]

Pong, like an old man. My dad brought home the console when I was about 3 or 4 I think, spent hours playing it with my family, was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen and got me hooked on gaming there and then. Then had a wood finish Atari 2600, then worked up to Nintendo, Sega and then PlayStation.

[EpicFruityPie]

Super Mario 64 that was the best so many memories

[Imalwaysright]

The 1st game I ever played was Prince of Persia but the game that got me into gaming was Streets of Rage.

[oasdada]

dave on dos.. that little pixel guy took me on adventure never imagined i could go on..

[Jorjk]

God of war 2 😍 i remember buying the disc bcz kratos looked cool and an hour into the game I was like "how did i miss this!" - "video games can be like this!" ...finished it then went and bought god of war 1 😂

[LLCoolDroid]

He-Man and Combat! on Atari.

[Newmanator]

Crash Bandicoot! Classic.

[Platformgamer]

uhm, my first game was final fantasy 8 on the first playstation at my grandpa/uncles house, i was fascinated by the adele's cutscene (first boss of the 4th disc) and i wished to have a playstation of my own, aside of the commodore 64.

[TheGoodestBoi]

Alex the kidd on Sega mastersystem

[MasterofMagnetism]

Street Fighter II on the SNES. That game got me hooked even though I sucked at it and kept losing to my brothers. lol.

[Snookies12]

Bionic Commando... It was my older brother's game, and I was way too young (considering I'm only 27...) That and Final Fantasy 1. Either way, I've been gaming as long as I can remember.

[pabadamus1]

The first games I ever played were on the Atari 800XL...Jungle Hunt, Choplifter, Mr. & Mrs. Pacman, Star Trek and Frogger. The 2 games that thoroughly blew my mind and made me a gamer for life were Super Mario Bros and Duckhunt for the NES. Writing this makes me come to grips with the fact that I am a dinosaur.

[Nikjames]

The 1st game I can remember playing was Ninja Gaiden, but the 1st game that made it into a hobby might have been Twisted Metal. But that was a time when I was still mainly playing outside with friends.

The game that made me realize "This is my hobby" was Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast. I was 13 when it came out.

[blackblades]

Can't remember what game tbh, all I know was that I've played since nes normally as a child. I might have started getting serious with n64 and dreamcast from games like powerstone, sonic, r2r. Then the next level was ps2 which I started off with small games like surfing h20 and orphin. Later on it really build my gaming hobby with different types games amd just continued with ps3 and on. I cant remember the first game really.

[ninsigma]

Super mario land on the original game boy. That game had me hooked!

[BioDead]

Super Mario 64, it was the first 3D game I ever played and it felt magical.

[Necron]

Super Mario Bros. for the NES is what got me started.

[syedharoonbinmazhar]

Metal Gear Solid (PS1) make me true gamer before this game I never take games seriously in my hobby :D

[THC CELL]

Doom for ps 1 broke me to become a full on gamer, I played mega drive sonic mj and Nintendo turtles and so on but doom and assault rigs loved em.
When resident evil one come out that was it I remember been on my best to get that game hahaha

[ILostMyMind]

I'm a gamer from Atari time and through Master System. But I would say that the game that addicted me for the first time was Golden Axe on the Mega Drive. I couldn't resist the shocking audio of the game and the fantastic world of warriors with swords and spells hunting legendary creatures.

[BrayanA]

Lode Runner on PC

[MorkTheFork]

Probably the first game I’d ever played, Shrek 2 for GameCube. I was really into animated movies, so my parents had chosen that one to get me. Whenever I would come across a movie tie-in game I would get it and have fun playing it even though many weren’t all that good.

[Bourne414]

For me it was Mortal Kombat 2. I was only 4 at the time hahaha, but my dad instilled on me early on that it was just a game. He still brings up how frustrating it was to lose to a 4 year old while he was in his prime as he says lol. It was a simple concept, punches, kicks, jump, and block. Figuring out how to use your moves to win sucked me into gaming. My tastes in certain genres has changed since then, I prefer an RPG these days and the occasional shooter. But gaming has been apart of my life for 26 years now, and I dont plan on ever giving it up. As my dad says, "I'm just waiting for my neck plug".

[Tzuno]

Oh where shall i start, one day my cousin took me to a arcade room in town, i remember seeing games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Rolling Thunder and some racing games cabinets, i was insta' hooked, later my dad bought me a Atari and played few games on it then upgraded to the NES, oh now were really starting, games like Mario, Mega Man were out of this world for me back then but the real thing that made me feel like a gamer was later when i had a Super Nintendo and Secret of Mana cartridge, don't know how i finished that game, no internet access back then, nothing, funny thing the game was on German and i still have the original cartridge :) but oh boy when i saw the credits roll it felt amazing, so to answer your question the game that made me turn gaming in to a hobby was Secret of Mana.

[SilverDemon]

There are many but the most memorable one for me was vigilante 8 second assult. My and my brother spent countless hours playing that game. Co-op through the campaign. Unlocking all the cars

Good times

[Stanjara]

First Wolfenstein, but that was on my moms job comp. For me was PlayStation 1 and Resident Evil.

[iamsorakh]

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, PS1. My first platformer that has kept me interested in the genre, all the way up to NSW platfotmers

[King_Noctis]

For me it was Duck Hunt. I used to really love the gun, but too bad I accidentally threw it away a few years back.

[optimus]

Pong...the one with it's own console. not only was it a form of electronic tennis but it had a variation of the same game that YOU could switch....

That gave me a taste as it was owned by my downstairs neighbors...but the one that hooked me a year later and reeled me in for good was the atari 2600 and it's slew of included games in a single cartridge called Combat....tanks, planes, etc. just wow....little did i know that something called the NES was on the horizon and would rock my world for good.

[william_cade]

Can't do one but Simon's Quest started and then it went itnto Nobunaga's Ambition, and Glogo 13. From here I played until the end of the PS1 cycle. Then started again with PS4.

[hermsgerms]

Super Smash Bros 64.

[TheGamez100]

Gotta be Ocarina of time on the n64. Cant remember much before that game lol.

[Szychan]

Although my history of gaming goes as far as C64, GameBoy, NES. it is PS1 which inspired me to Play Games.
First there was Spyro The Dragon which I enjoyed, Metal Gear Solid which I loved. but the game that started it all was one and only Final Fantasy 7. this game was so good I played it over and over again. searching and looking at every inch of the map. wich each game there was something I did differently that overall made impact on the game. after this I moved back to the roots and played all Final fantasy games. and that started urge to look for more :) this urge is still alive!

[aconnellan]

Had to be the original Doom - my brother and I would either take turns playing or would share half the keyboard to play at the same time (one controlling movement and the other shooting)

[raidensnake]

Sonic on mega drive :)

[Strangeface]

MYTH on the ZX Spectrum. Yes I'm that old! But since those heady days I've always been a gamer and always will be.
For me, MYTH was the first title that really seemed like an adventure. Its graphics, for the time, were fantastic and really transported me to another world.
As a form of escapism it brought magic and excitement to otherwise dreary Sunday afternoons.

[Xspawn69]

Pong!

[SNACK_SHARK_TROLL]

This is a tough one, because there are many that I really enjoyed, since PS1. But I'll say Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, is what really grabbed my attention, and made me ever more of a gamer. This game was like nothing I've ever played before. It had bike races, battle arenas, rail grinding, space fights, upgrading weapons to the point that they'll take on a new look, and new have abilities, gadgets, and more. Mind was blown, I've ran through this game many times over.

[SaveFerris]

Boulder dash on the 800XL. I remember playing for hours trying to beat the game. There were a couple of other earlier games that hooked me in, but I sadly can't recall the names.

[BrettAwesome]

"bubble bobble" on Commodore 64

[Nacho_Z]

The first game I ever played was called Brilliant Bouncing Boffins, I was really bad at it but at the same time I couldn't get enough and it instantly awoke my interest in gaming big time.

[Andryanto1973]

King's Quest.

[KevDro22387]

Super Mario Bros NES

[TheEspiownage]

My first game was special. It was Christmas and I was 4. My Dad surprised me by bringing me a Nintendo Entertainment System bundled with Super Mario Bros. 3. I was too young and too sheltered to have even seen a video game at this time, so I didn’t know what to expect, but from the music, the gameplay, and the imaginative premise, I was able to see that not only did I want to play more games, I wanted to eventually make them too. Not quite there yet, but hopefully someday, I can make games that give people around the world the same smile I had when I first played Super Mario Bros. 3.

[aleccherkov]

Desert Strike Sega Mega Drive

[RioKing]

Sonic 2 on Sega Genesis.

That game, without the ability to save it, was far more challenging and rewarding to complete back then than it is now in the re-released versions.

[IRetrouk]

It was a cowboy shooting game on the Atari 2600 called outlaw, you had to shoot through objects in the stage to create paths for your bullets to try and hit your opponent, was addictive as a kid and was 100% the reason I started trying other games.

[Ninver]

Speed Freaks PS1. Parents had bought me a ps1 along with the game during Christmas 2001. I had the game on repeat for months before moving on to Gran Turismo. Never had I felt such enjoyment and adventure.

[DarkOcelet]

While i don't remember the name of game since I was 3 years old, I do remember that it was on the Atari 2600. It was a platformer like Super Mario but you controlled a Panda, wish i knew the name of the game. But the game that truly made me want to turn video games into a hobby was without a doubt the first game I played on Playstation one and that was Resident Evil 3. It blew my mind back then by its graphics and the fact that you explore a whole city and scared me so much because knowing that the Nemesis can drop everywhere. I remember staying at the save rooms for hours and praying he leaves XD

[RebelWAC]

I was blown away when my friends father brought us to his study room and used a tape to boot up Renegade on his Commodore 64. But I truly got hooked playing the arcade (neogeo) version of Double Dragon when it came to our little kiosk where I grew up. Good times... lot's of coins spended.

[ThePsychoGamer]

Probably Spyro for me, while they may have not been the first game I played, it the one I have the most memories of.

[johndoe11211]

Combat on the atari 2600. Will always be one of my favorite video games.

[Kurisu]

It has got to be Final Fantasy VII. I was only about 7 or 8 when it released in the UK and I didn't physically own the game myself at the time, but I watched people play it and I knew it was something that I really wanted to get my hands on. I asked for it for Christmas that year and boom...I was hooked.

[status404]

Tron: Deadly Discs (Intellivision) I had many hours in that game along with Night Stalker. But Tron was my favorite at the time.

[P_Bomb]

Some kind of Pitfall game on PC at my cousin’s neighbors in Europe. Those old game’n’watch portables like tennis/racing/plumbing. Then Atari at my friends’ houses. I remember a Smurfs 2D platformer in particular and Donkey Kong, Asteroids.

Then the NES came home for Xmas.

[arbi]

Pitfall! One of my schoolfriend had an atari and used to play this game a lot! I wanted my parents to buy me an atari and they went and bought me a Sega master system! Lucky me the master system was years ahead of atari!

[Zerotino]

Oh man, I remember my first exposure to video games was when I was about 5 years old and I would sit on my Grandfathers lap while he booted up his Windows 95 system and loaded up the original Duke Nukem 3D. Like I said I was only 5 but I LOVED watching him play it. My mother would always tell him off for letting me see such a vulgar game and that's when she bought me a Playstation with some more family friendly games... Until my Grandfather bought me the PS1 port of Duke Nukem without her knowledge and she FLIPPED. But to this day Duke remains one of my favourite games due to the fact it was what I was brought up on and one of my best memories of my Grandfather.

[DemonChicken]

This was the very first game I ever played on my very first gaming platform when I was very young

Incidentally this was the Game Boy and the game that came with it, Tetris. Wasted so many hours getting continuous beating my high score. Then this prompted me into begging my parents to get me a SNES

[mockzer0]

Super Mario Bros. On the NES.

[Emilio_Estevez]

For me it was playing Golden Axe at my Uncles house on the genesis.

My runners' up would be Duke Nukem 3D and Mario 64.

[bigmalky]

Moon Patrol on the Atari 2600 at a friend's house. I asked Santa for one that year, and it magically arrived, hooked up to the TV on Christmas day. I still remember the pain of using the stiff as hell joystick haha.

Simple gaming, but I can't remember a day since without playing a video game of some description.

[The 10th Rider]

Its hard to pick just one, but I would have to say Dragon Warrior on the NES. I was just a little kid without a big grasp on video games, but it just hooked me. We had Castlevania, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Mario Bros, and more . . . But Dragon Warrior is the one that really grabbed me.

[Skankinruby]

Ahhhhhh dragon warrior, my very first rpg. That game was awesome

[The 10th Rider]

It was my first RPG too. I was only like 4 years old. I remember I could do alright in the first one, but with the second one I couldn't get anywhere at the time. I just liked all the leveling up and buying new equipment and all of that. That pulled me in more than any of the other games we had did.

I didn't even know the series continued until years later I was at a friend's birthday party and he got Dragon "Quest". Found out it was the same thing, haha.

[UltraNova]

The "rabbit" crossing the high way (cant remember the name) on the Atari 2600. But the gane that hooked me was Mario 64.

[Blackwalt]

Well. Played a game called Adventure on the Commodore PET desktop. I remember fighting a giant ASCII spider.

[-Foxtrot]

Sonic the Hedgehog - Megadrive :3

...and no this dosen't relate to the username or profile picture XD

[Automatic79]

Centipede for Atari 2600. I remember my older sister owning the system and I began to take control of it as her little brother. The game brought hours of enjoyment and was instantly the game that led to me enjoying gaming as a hobby.

[Shadowtaster33]

Has to Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo. God, unwrapping that on Christmas has to be one of my favourite childhood memories

[ABizzel1]

We had a computer that had games on it, but it was Mrs. Pac-Man on Sega that really turned me into a gamer. I remember playing through all the levels together with my uncle, and when I was a little kid and the accomplishment of actually completing a game and sharing that experience with someone to this day I still game with online and care about, is what turned me into a gamer.

[Skankinruby]

Original super Mario bros, first game I owned with the duck hunt combo

[Demobot]

Moon Patrol Atari 2600

[crazyboom]

legend of zelda ocarina of time n64

[salmonade]

Pitfall on the Atari 2600 blew my very young mind. I was an adventurer in an extremely dangerous jungle. I sat right in front of the TV and my eyes were like big round dinner plates, just filling up with the graphical food that I happily gorged on lol. I'll never forget it.

[KentBlake]

It was actually Pong, in a wooden console at my grandfather’s house in the late seventies....I never stopped since then.

[coolbeans]

Hmmm...that's a strange & tough one to remember in respect to "that made you want to turn video games into a hobby." B/c I feel like I remember some arcade cabinets at a bowling alley, but having a take-it-or-leave-it attitude during these short spurts. The memory that's burned into my memory would be Mario Kart 64. N64 was my first home console and I think that came bundled. After that, I loved the idea of hauling a home console around and playing games on a TV. Still remember taking it to my mom's client's/friend's house and playing there before going to an Air Show.

[sampsonon]

Galaxian 1979 did for me. i was in the arcade almost every day as a kid after i played that game. a lot of quarters spent, rolls and rolls of quarters. we then learned a trick. we would take a string and some tape and attach the string to the quarter and place it into the slot slowly. if you hit the wire that confirmed the payment lifting the quarter up and down you could ring up as many credits as you wanted. the staff caught on after a while because they would see 50 credits and look in the machine and the numbers didn't add up lol. good times :) https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[LOOK_AT_THIS_I]

PAC Man when I was about 6. It was at a pizza restaurant that had the game as a tabletop with glass over it. Remember always checking vending machines/laundry machines for quarters to be able to play games as we were broke when I was younger.

[Relientk77]

Spyro the Dragon, on PS1

[kevinsheeks]

my mom was a pac-man champ she was skillful and made it look simple the first gamer girl in my life hahaha

[BlackDoomAx]

Combat on Atari 2600. First time I play it at a friend's house. Couch coop combat multiplayer game. Tank, jets, biplanes, it was fun as hell. I was addicted since the first try. To this day, it's still the kind of game that are my favorite. I never realized till today that maybe it is because of this :)

[Dirtnapstor]

I still remember the Christmas morning we got Donkey Kong for our Atari 2600. My brother and I played forever. Pitfall, River Raid, and Adventure were the three games that truly sucked me in.

[The_Sage]

Pong.

[LeeFender]

I will never forget when I lived in Russia when I was 7 or 8 years old. My dad would buy me packs of Russian game discs.

There was this one game that had a man's face on the cover and on the back of the jewel cd case it was images of cool looking aliens and some creepy zombie looking scientist.

The game's name was called Polu Shizni which in Russian translates to Half Life. I booted the disc and installed the game. I jumped in and couldn't get past the first area of the game when the head crabs popped. I was a kid and was terrified of the headcrabs along with the headcrab zombified scientists were just plain scary.

It was the first fps game that gave me an emotional feeling. It took me a long to cope with ny fear of headcrabs but eventually I pushed throgh and played this amazing game.

This game made me realize I was obssesed with video games and this was my path of life. And today I am a journalist and an owner of a website and a fun youtube channel. I love it!

[Thatgrammar]

The first game that really got me interested was the Wii version of Call of Duty World At War. I spent hours after school and during summer playing the online mode. The game that really cemented me into the hobby was the Uncharted 3 online beta after I finally saved enough money to buy the PS3 for myself so I could stop using the family Wii. It was my first uncharted game and my introduction to Naught Dog. It was unlike anything I had played before. Nothing on the Wii nor any previous console had the graphics or the engaging narrative or the cinematic fun gameplay. It was my favorite game all around until The Last of Us came out and became my favorite mass media production of all time. Finally, a game that could stand next to big budget films and provide far more entertainment (in my opinion). With fun gameplay, an exceptional narrative, and an online mode that I still play to this day; The Last of Us has kept me within the expensive hobby of gaming.

[capjacksparrow]

Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis when I was 6 years old. Maybe not the best choice for a kid that young, but my mom bought it secondhand. Suffice it to say, I loved Sub Zero, I enjoyed freezing my enemies over and over. When my cousin would come over, I'd show him all the cool characters and we'd play against each other.

Since I didn't have a computer back then, and since games were new to me, I didn't know anything about fatalities nor did I know about the blood code. Adding excessive gore to an already violent game breathed new life into the fighter, for me at least.

[darthv72]

If Pong was the first game I ever played, then it would be Adventure that made me really see there is more to depth and imagination than just the back and forth of a square blip on screen.

Traversing the castle, looking for the key, hidden rooms and that dragon. Lots of great memories built from that game and those around it.

[Fullmetalevolust]

It was Alex Kidd on the Sega Mastersytem. I am truly showing my age lol
Then it was that New Zealand Kiwi rescue game and Sonic, among other games.
Also played the Legend of Zelda and Duck hunt at my cousin's.

[Eonjay]

The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening.
I loved the sense of storytelling though gaming as a medium and I always wanted to improve my playthrough. I got so good in fact that I was able to beat the game from start to finish in one sitting over the course of about 5 hours.

I am a computer programmer and this game inspired me to make my first games while still in high school where I built a Zelda clone and a Zelda map maker.

[anonymousfan]

Mario Kart on the SNES... used to play it at Christmas at my cousin's took another 15 years before I bought myself a console but always loved gaming. I always had a weak spot for local coop games :D.

[Strafe]

Star Chess. It was a game that came on it's own console/machine/whatever. Had a couple of controllers, and I think the sound actually came from the console (can't quite remember exactly, it was in 1980, so quite a while ago). Was great fun for the family, I've got some good memories of it.

That led me to the atari and zx81, so was the start of my gaming hobby.

[Yi-Long]

Probably THE moment where I realised I'd forever be into videogames, was seeing and playing Sonic the Hedgehog on the Megadrive at my nephews' house.

It was on one of those big old CRT TVs, so you had those gorgeous sharp scan lines, and back then, it just blew absolutely everything away. The colours, the speed, the scrolling, the incredible music, and of course Sonic himself.

I grew up poor, and I knew we were poor so I never asked for much, but I don't think I shut up about the Megadrive that day to my mom when my uncle drove us back home.

I took my money, bought gaming magazines like C&VG, Mean Machines, and saved up enough to buy the Sega Megadrive and of course Sonic. Was lucky enough to live to my Chinese neighbours, so I could sometimes borrow games from them and when they'd visit Hong Kong, they brought me back some games which were cheaper over there.

I never ever looked back. I had played a few games before that, and liked it, but just that moment of being blown away by Sonic on that big CRT screen, I -KNEW- this was something that would stay relevant, in the world of entertainment, but especially for me personally.

[Kluv]

it was the original God of War on ps2. I played it at a friend's house having only played Mario games, and felt like I ripped open the lid to a whole new world. That was the game that changed me from someone who heard about games after they came out and became popular, to someone who looked up video game news to learn about games before they came out.

[lathspell]

It was a long time ago, my first video game was Adventure on Atari 2600.

[Goldby]

Final Fantasy 7 and my huge binder with the walkthrough, that got me hooked on RPG and deep stories

[otacon68]

Auto destruct on PS1. A forgotten game which i loved. Open world with armed car, pretty rad.

[AnubisG]

Very first video game I played?🤔 it was a game on the Atari 2600 that's for sure. But the first game that I remember that made me want to turn video games into a hobby was Tomb Raider (and Tekken 2). PS1...late 90's...magical time I wish I could relive again.

[CR7JUVE1897]

Atari Ultra Pong Doubles. I was 7 years old at the time

[metalgod88]

The first game I remember playing was Super Mario Brothers 3 with my mom, but the game that really got me into games was World of Illusions Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. It's level and boss designs were fantastic and the platforming was pretty solid as well. It had it's frustrating moments, but it was a beatable game, and back then, that was actually kind of rare.

[ninerguy1608]

Advanced dungeons and dragons. Intellivision. When you would hear that dragon in the distance...man. Was scary for 6 year old. Back then that is. Wouldn’t scare anyone today with the types of games out.

[Segata]

Superman-Atari 2600

[URNightmare]

Super Mario Bros.! I haven't stopped gaming since then.

[JLynn943]

Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first for me. Games like Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Pokemon Blue, and FF7 really drove it home.

[foster426]

The first Sonic the Hedgehog. I instantly fell in love with that game and video games in general. That was the only game we had for the Genesis at the time but I played the hell out of it.

[redniku]

mortal combat on ps3. My cousin and I used to sneak into my brother's room when he was out to play it. Weirdly enough, I haven't played a fighting game since then.

[LiamKreptic]

Super smash bros brawl on GameCube! I was only 6 and loved every moment of it!

[Stay-Toasty]

Definitely Duck Hunt for the NES. I had Legend of Zelda but was too young to really grasp how to play. So my cousin and I would hide behind the couch for "cover" and play Duck Hunt with that huge plastic orange gun.

[DaleCooper]

Pole Position in the arcades. I saw it at Chuck E Cheese when I was 5 and I couldn't believe that something like that existed. It's my first gaming memory and lead me to my favorite hobby.

[0hMyGandhi]

I'm a 90's kid, so I grew up playing n64 games. In that era, I'd say that Goldeneye was technically the first game that made me realize there was something intrinsically beautiful and utterly unique about interactivity. I loved the movie and it's massive set pieces and exotic locales and stunt work, but the game provided that clear distinction of actual player agency.

For me, this is the time of laser tag and raggedy old pop-up tents for sleepovers in the backyard with friends. It wasn't just that the game did a wonderful job at providing that recreation of "super agent" activities, it was also the ability to play insanely compelling multiplayer with friends reacting to their deaths right beside you.

Goldeneye did something that I haven't seen since Halo, which is to provide the player with a cinematic and cohesive single-player story mode and a tight, refined multiplayer experience that just works, using the same great mechanics and allowing the player to make a plethora of changes to its setup, tailoring each game cartridge to the needs of the player.

What so many people this day simply do not understand, is that Goldeneye just *worked*. It's multiplayer was born out of a secretive side project by one of its programmers mere weeks before the game was to ship, not because of some boardroom initiative, but because they found that the mechanics easily adapted into a thrilling multiplayer experience. It was at times, skill and luck based. You could bounce grenades off of walls with the grenade launcher, you could slap someone to death. you could destroy a crate, throw a proximity mine on the rubble, and watch the crate respawn, hiding the mine inside of it.

Developers love to boast about the concepts of agency and autonomy within game design; flexible rules and a solid foundation that encourages experimentation, with unique, often unpredictable interactions resulting from it, Goldeneye did it without knowing what it was doing. It focused on what is actually "fun", rather attempting to demystify the constructs that make up that concept.

[DaddyHodor]

Goldeneye on N64.

[Themba76]

River Raid atari 2600

[Theknightofnights]

For me it was Super Mario 64. See, I'd played Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog at friends houses. They were fun games, and I'd tell my mom about it. My mother decided to buy me my own games console, but by that time the Genesis and the Super Nintendo were on their way out. Instead, the retailer suggested the Nintendo 64.

I opened the console up on Christmas. I was excited to hook it up, but when I began to play it I was completely enthralled. I was fairly young, so it wasn't the graphics that impressed me, but the freedom I had. The controls just made sense to my young mind, and I wasted just about my whole break playing that game.

[Megaplaynate]

Super Mario World made me enjoy games, but Small Soldiers for PS1 made me a gamer.

[FloydianAndroid]

The first two games I remember are asteroids and combat for the Atari 2600. The first games that made me want to play as a hobby was definitely super Mario bros, kid Icarus, and excite bike.

[UNCHARTED2FANATIC]

Gta2

[matyicsapo]

Final Fantasy IX being the first Final Fantasy game I could play through on my own!
or Crazy Taxi or Phantasy Star Online (in offline) on the Dreamcast.
But I was hooked since touching my first games at around 1996 :|

[monkey602]

Aladdin on the Sega was my first game. I loved it. So did my parents who dont play games but I remember my mother one day getting so glued to the game she burned our dinner and we had to get a take away. Ha we spent the rest of the night on Aladdin afterwards and she refused to get into a game again until Buzz Music Quiz released on the PS2 and we nearly had a repeat event

[joab777]

Easily The Legend of Zelda. Waking up to a Super Nintendo and a gold cartridge is seared into my brain. And I spent an endless amount of time playing this game over and over, reading Nintendo Power and unearthing every secret.

I remember hiding the memory card in certain places so my younger siblings didn’t accidentally erase my progress. While Mario and Duck Hunt and others were fun to play, Zelda was an obsession that created in me a desire to forever play games!

[sprinterboy]

Pong

[ocelot07]

Daytona USA I remember owning a Mega Drive as a child. I was about 4 years old at the time and I don't remember playing it much. It was when I played Daytona USA in the arcades that got me addicted. Then I got a Sega Saturn for Christmas 1995 with a copy of Daytona.

[Smokey55511799]

Legend of zelda and super mario bros were some of my favorite memories when i first started gaming. Duck hunt was always my favorite too easy enough that is came on the same cartridge as mario bros.

[kneon]

I started when Pong came out. But what really got me walking around with a pocket full of quarters was Asteroids.

[UltimateRacer]

Mario Bros on the NES was what I enjoyed most but it wasn’t until I got a PlayStation and Granturismo that gaming then became a hobby but over the years it’s become more like life.

[gobluesamg]

Played a lot of games prior but after I finished Syphon Filter on PS2 I knew it was getting serious and I have been hooked ever since.

[Razzer]

Zork. Text adventure on PC.

[Blobfish69]

Uridium on the Commodore 64

[JaimeMaussan]

My first video game that got me into gaming was Super Smash Bros. for my N64. Despite that I had inmmense ear pain that day, I remember that the flashy colors, characters and the overall aesthetic made me forget about the pain. Since then, I can't remember a single weekend which I didn't aspire to play video games.

[FullmetalRoyale]

My Uncle’s copy of Final Fantasy VIII that I wasn’t supposed to touch. I would load the game and just play to watch the summons when he wasn’t around. Specifically Ifrit and Shiva. I was enamored with it.

[Shinkus]

Doom, Sega Genesis

[dedicatedtogamers]

Commander Keen on MS-DOS. I played Super Mario Bros around the time but Keen was so much more colorful and vibrant. It blew me away. I wanted to get better at the game and explore every level.

[xHeavYx]

Super Mario Bros on the NES

[Spenok]

The Legend of Zelda was easily it for me. I had played games in the past, but they were so rudimentary that while yes, I wanted to keep playing, I didn't have any real connection to them until Zelda.

Fantastic graphics, a real story to get attached to, a huge world to explore, choices on how to tackle the issues, a SAVE state so I could return to the game later and so on. Such a fantastic game that had a huge impact on the industry.

[innocentrebel]

My brother was always around to buy the systems and games as I grew up, and in Winter '95 he decided to buy me my own Playstation system for Christmas so we would no longer have to argue about who would use his Playstation. From there my first purchase was Twisted Metal.

[milohighclub]

James pond: Robocod on Amiga i believe...?

[phoenixwing]

I would say spyro made me realize i just wanted to keep playing games. The playstation was my brother's idea to get at first and then i went along with it for our christmas present. Once we got that it was then I realized I'd always want to keep playing more games like it. Which is why it's such a shame nowadays that spyro wasn't made with a physical disc because i enjoy having the physical disc. So I refuse to buy it atm.

[Xaevi]

Pooh Bear for the GBC, got it along with a GBC on Christmas. my mum gifted it to me, and I've been playing games since. has a bit of sentimental value to me, also made me a lover of Pooh lol

[-Ghost]

For me, it was Super Mario Bros on the original NES. I was 3 years old at the time.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

Parsec on the Texas Instruments TI-99.

[Arty84]

Soul Caliber 2 on DC spent so many hours playing with my brother that i still remember the " tournaments"

[WilliamSheridan]

Space Wars on the computer. I loved playing this game. Also Zaxxon on Colecovision

[viperman240]

If my memory serves me correctly, I believe my first games was Wolfenstein 3D.

[Cyb3r]

Double Dragon 2 on the NES I was hooked on gaming ever since

[Dreamcatcher45]

I've probably played something else before, but what I remember playing first was Leisure Suit Larry, and I think it was Alex Kidd.

[ComradeCoffee]

Probably Super Mario World

[anonymousfan]

The first game I ever completed was COD1, was staying over my brother in law's place in, didn't sleep the whole night, just played on his computer until 6:00 AM LMAO. But otherwise yeah, Mario was really what started it all, especially Mario Kart/Super Mario World

[Riveted]

Combat on the Atari 2600.

[slang201V]

Definitely Metal Gear Solid on Psx..

[darklordzor]

Probably Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. I was almost always a generation behind due to my family's finances, so for the most part I just played NES and SNES games here and there. I loved it, but didn't think much until I played MGS at a friend's house and saw the storytelling potential.

[Cikatriz_ESP]

The original Zelda was the first, but Ocarina of Time was the one that made me realize gaming might be my thing.

[Einhander1971]

Atari missile command, Asteroids, Star raiders, were the first games I bought for my Atari 600XL. Not a bad start :)

[MrChow666]

For me It was the original Super Mario Bros on my neighbour's NES, we played a lot of Megaman and Castlevania too, I never owned a NES but then one Christmas I was gifted with a Sega Megadrive with Batman, Mega Games 2 wich included Golden Axe, Shinobi & Streets of Rage and of course Sonic 1...yep, BEST Christmas ever

[Fist4achin]

War Games on my Colecovision! Yes, there was a missile command type game based on that old movie.

[Vegamyster]

I first played Duck Hunt & Mario Bros but didn't start getting into games until i tried Super Mario World then C&C a little bit later.

[Vokun13]

It would havbe to be either Donkey Kong 64, or Ocarana of Time. I rememeber getting a new N64 (the black one replacing the broken green one) and it came with OoT. DK is an all time favorite though, the music, levels, characters. Stayed with me ever sense.

[Adamon1]

Duke Nukem 3D on PC.

[DuckOnQuack35]

Pandamonium..... I believe that's how you spell it. It was an awesome game on ps1

[Rob Hornecker]

1979 magnovox odessey 2 Man have video games come along way!

[Soy]

Super Mario 2. I played the original Super Mario Bros. at a friend's house, and I was hooked. Parents bought me a 2600 for Xmas and while that kept me busy, I still wanted a NES. That came next Xmas, along with SMB 2........

[SpaceRanger]

I’d say age of empires 3. My dad had gotten a new laptop that had it pre-installed so that you could test it out before buying it. I remember asking him if I could play it for a few minutes after he’d finish his work. It was so addicting.

I think that’s what led him to buying me my first console (we weren’t so financially wealthy at the time, but not financially strained either so I had never had anything gaming related). I went all out from there when it came to gaming.

[DarXyde]

Not my first game, but the one that really got me into gaming as a hobby was Sonic the Hedgehog.

[Lasikiewicz]

Sensible world of soccer. Lost so many youthful nights to that game.

[EraGamer]

Super Mario 3 on the Gameboy advance. My brother and I had some good times hehe.

[Nyxus]

Super Mario Bros (probably).

[manaxknight1]

Gyromite with rob

[The_DFO]

The first game that really compelled me to play it was Dungeons of Daggorath on the TRS-80 Color Computer (aka the "Trash-80 CoCo"), in the early 1980s. It was an intermediate step between the old text-based adventure games and a 3D, first-person dungeon crawler.

I'd played other games on the CoCO and on the Commodore 64, but that was the first one that kept me up until dawn.

I came across a PC port of the game, some years ago. and it held up surprisingly well . . . or maybe it was just nostalgia?

[JRPGsAreTheBest]

I think mine was Pokemon FireRed. I remember finally getting in on the Pokemon crazy and holy crap did it become an obsession back then. I slowly got into other Nintendo from there and now love all different types of games.

[Uglyday]

Mastering Victory and Slurpy on colleco was the start. Being covered in chicken pox so bad I had to wear winter gloves to Cabage Patch Kids but still powering through. Playing Contra till I could beat it with one life.

Then I got Mono from the school water fountain in 4th grade and my Mom rented Final Fantasy 2(4) and pretty much corrupted me for the rest of my life. I wrote a strategy guide for it. Did speed runs for my own entertainment in 1988. Imported the Japanese version with a guide translating the spell names and all the text and started learning my second language.

I was addicted long before FF2 but it changed gaming for me and got me ready for one of the greatest decades of Anime to date.

[eNdeR_SiN]

starcraft 1 on pc, playing it as a kid on an uncles computer

[Caffo01]

My first game on gameboy Super mario world 2

[rainslacker]

Super Mario Bros. 3.

Played plenty of games before that, but got that one for xmas the year it released and was really blown away. After that, I tried to find games which would outdo what it had to offer for its time.

[thorstein]

Adventure Atari 2600

[Evolve]

It was Alien Attack, which my developed by Coleco.

[Angelin]

Speedball II Brutal Deluxe on the Amiga 600

[Pastemaniak]

For me, it was the original Castlevania. I was a kid and never really got too far into the world until I was older, but I never got tired of those first screens.

[e08]

I am an older gamer so for me it was playing on the Magnavox Odyssey 2 in 1977 that started it. As new systems released and games offered more content and better graphics I became more intrigued. Odyssey, Atari and Intellivision laid down the foundation but it was Commodore 64/Amiga 500/NES/Genesis that was my Golden Age of gaming. If I had to name a game from each it would be MicroLeague Baseball/Monkey Island/Super Mario 2/NHL 93. I should also mention that I was fortunate enough to experience arcades. So I should give a nod to those as well - Kung Fu Master, Space Ace, Cyberball and Mat Mania to name a few.

[thepatientgamer]

Pokemon blue

[DafunkyRebel]

Contra

[Lamusiqa]

That honor goes to Contra. I picked up the game at the same time as my neighbour got his NES console and we played the heck out of it every single day. The game provided a challenging co-op gaming experience on top of the singleplayer mode and it was super fun to keep replaying the game over and over again with a friend.

[voidviper]

Sonic the hedgehog

[QuePasa87]

I think it was metal gear solid 1. I think I beat it x13 over a summer at my grandma's house.

But maybe before that was world cup soccer on NES. I loved pulling off those bicycle kicks :P
And also SMB3 with finding the secret shortcuts

[Father Murder X]

I just had my 3rd beer and that fat girl started to look good so I asked her.......................wait a minute are week talking about sex or video games??

[alb1899]

Space Invader and Pac-Man were my first experience

[NSANiTY]

Mr Robot on Commodore 64. My Dad taught me how to put in the floppy disc, load the game (LOAD "*",8,1 still remember it), what the controls were and I was off. Fun little platforming game where you pick up all the little dots in the floor as you walk along and take out enemies with this shield power up that you can grab. Then after I had all kinds of fun just playing the game, found that you could actually build your own levels! My 4-5 year-old mind was blown and I've been hooked on games ever since.

[vcoxiv]

Halo: Combat evolved for me. I've played or had almost every system from the Atari 2600 until now but the first Halo brought true first person shooters to the console space when up until that time the best experience was only on dedicated gaming PC's. It showed the gaming world first person shooters could be just as natural with a controller as they were with a mouse and keyboard, ahhh the memories...

[dizzy74]

For me, it was a local mini market back in 1980 who in the back side in a small room have 3 arcade boxes.
Speed Race by Taito in black white display,Space Invaders with a membrane film with color stripes on front of tv display ,and Amidar by Konami (the first time i see color tv was in this arcade box) by i was only 6 years and spend most of my times waiting my turn by watching olders playing.
After some months the 3 boxes replaced by 4 new boxes , Rally X by Namco ,Galaxian by Namco (has a film over the screen with colored stripes on front of screen to create a color tv sense), Frogger by Konami was the first with color display , Defender by Williams Electronics ,i never stop playing video games after then.