Earliest memories of gaming?

[𝔸𝕣𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕔 𝟙]

I rarely post since this forum generally depresses me. Why not something fun and optimistic for once, that someone will possibly still view cynically/accuse me of being buzzfeed etc?
What are your earliest fond memories of gaming? What about your favorite games in those days?

My earliest memory is probably battle mode in Super Mario All-stars and megazord fights in Power Rangers on the SNES. Then I got a GBA when I was still in single digits, like most kids, and played far too much Pokemon Fire Red and then eventually Fire Emblem. Then on Gamecube I was obsessed with Need for Speed Underground 2 and Custom Robo- still love the former to this day, latter didn't age so well.

What about you? What was your gateway that started your gaming journey?

[GlaceonChireiden]

I would watch my dad and older sister play the ps2, and one of those days they left to go do something and left me alone.
So I played Sonic 1 through the mega collection. Didn't beat ghz, but I liked watching the silly blue animal (honestly I don't know if I even knew what a 'hedgehog' was at this point) run fast

Still adore sonic 1 as a result. Maybe it's nostalgia talking, but it's my favorite of the 2d games and a great comfort game.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Автор сообщения: agu

I think I learned English by playing through Pokemon Crystal in that language way too many times. Great game.

That was one of my first games! I got it when I was three years old for Christmas as a hand-me-down from my brother when he got a Nintendo DS. Played it regularly for eight years until the internal battery died.
Though my earliest memories of gaming were watching my brother play his games and explain to me that they were movies and books that you could take part in.

[Mark S.]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiRS37asHO8
When my dad bought the NES from Toys R Us :)

[Electric Cupcake]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD919Bb7E_s or maybe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIwiyqKU3hc

And a lot of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZSW2kIupck

[Mina]

Donkey kong nintendo

[ṼṏẌṏḭḊ]

I remember when I was like 4-5, my dad gave me his old Sega Master System 2 and a few cartridges and we spent an afternoon trying to get it hooked up and tuned into the TV and then playing it.

[Morkonan]

Автор сообщения: agu

I think I learned English by playing through Pokemon Crystal in that language way too many times. Great game.

I've seen a lot of posters over the years claim that they first learned English by playing video games. :)

[Schindler's Lifts]

I remembered my mum not allowing me to own a console as a kid, so my early gaming memories consisted of a lot of flash games. As I got a bit older I eventually got a steam account to play TF2, and I've been here ever since.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

sitting next to my 10 and 12yo brothers... as a small toddler watching them play text lemmings on commendore 64, and an text rpg and leisuresuit larry on the ibm 8086

and myself playing paperboy, tooth invaders, lemmings, boulderdash, packman, donkey kong, duck hunt, space invaders on the commendore 64 from like 6yo till 12yo...
having to type in lines to load games from casette tape..
and you came home.. typed lines of text (this was before harddrives, before mouses, before floppies, before mouses) and than went to drink a cup of tea with your mom and play outside a bit for it would take 45 minutes before your game was actually loaded...

my mom had to kick my ass behind that c64.. and sometimes our 8086 for some early lessons under brothers supervisions in basic and using q&8 and corel office.. (cause parents saw learning it skills despite the world still without computers as important)
I hated it.. I wanted play outside so sitting behind a pc 30 miniutes every schoolday was a chore.. well ok the games were fun.. buy playing outside was more fun.

[𝔸𝕣𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕔 𝟙]

Wow- a lot more mentions of the commodore 64 than I would have expected! Never touched one myself, haha.

Автор сообщения: Morkonan

Interesting age-defining bit: In the movie "Jaws," there's a panning shot during the July 4'th "crowd going to the beach" segment. In that shot, the camera briefly focuses on a small arcade and a kid playing a "Shark Hunter" type game. I actually played that game at a seaside vacation spot that year. :)

That's pretty cool!

Автор сообщения: Morkonan

The sort of rear-projection games using the "Ghost Mirror" trick developed for play productions on a stage for a live audience were all the rage for awhile. Most were "hunter" types of games where ghosted images were projected on the screen using mirrors and physical movement of the aiming device helped determine hits.

Hmm perhaps like that Time Traveler Arcade game? I'm not sure I understand the video. Reminds me of the Frontierland shooting range.

Автор сообщения: JustSomeLego

So I played Sonic 1 through the mega collection.

I forgot. I use to play sonic one at my cousins on his old Sega Genesis as well during family gathers. Classic. Have the mega collection as well, but on the Gamecube.

[Emurinus]

I found an old game of Pokemon Ruby in the parking lot of my old Sunday school. I distinctly remember resetting someone's Rayquaza at the pokemon league.

[Sigma Female]

I remember watching my mom play old Age of Empires on a CRT monitor.

For me personally it was mostly flash games on sites like miniclip and nitrome. Also I played lots of Spore.

Oh and space cadet and purble place lol!

[Γαῖα]

Since the very beginning and im grateful for it.

[De Hollandse Ezel]

Автор сообщения: Mistress Yaoi

I remember watching my mom play old Age of Empires on a CRT monitor.

For me personally it was mostly flash games on sites like miniclip and nitrome. Also I played lots of Spore.

Oh and space cadet and purble place lol!

i am getting old.. for me that was already college years / late highschool:)

I already had nearly 2 decades of gaming under my belt at that point..

[abcd]

uhh, mario on the american nes.

touching the knobs on an intelligence cruiser's radio missile detection system, adjusting frequency limits to make signals 'bounce' between them.

carving yu gi oh cards out of wood and hand painting them in the 15th century. the excitement when a local woodcutter had a precision-made wood block shaving horse able to make near-corkboard levels of consistency and thinness while still allowing painting. A once in a generation per province skillset to produce a precision machine like this, and a once in a generation acquisition for an island as small as Okinawa. Sure; we could tool up power armor with hand forges and small circuit prototyping setups. Make a child-portable wooden smartphone that lasts for 5 minutes on battery. Fish-powered nuclear reactors, flying origami giants, invincible crabs, genetic engineering and lightweight nanomachines. But cardboard? Do you know how hard cardboard is to make, the scale of industry necessary? The skills necessary to make a non-industrial analogue? Impossible. These were treasures. We might not see their like for hundreds of years.

bouncing mr poopy around a south park toilet in a browser game.

playing doom in 1963.

playing doom on a fridge com before calendars were invented, in gaia.

telling people tic tac toe was doom when they came out of the caves, because of ergot poisoning. and also because the assembly robot would only let us play doom, sowe had to call whatever we did doom.

playing dolphin games, with the tribal dolphins before the finvolution, and also in the dolphin city arcade. just, y'know, briefly teleported into it to play; did not involve myself in oceananiallofus after the hydra situation was contained and landmasses were allowed to appear again.