I thought up an idea for a little informal poll about when we all first got into games. I thought it would be interesting, so I'll go first.


What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you? The Three stooges for the NES. I was 5 when I played it. Man, that game was horrible, but at age 5 just the very concept of it got me excited.

First game you remember buying? Magmax for the NES. I bought from a local video store, which has since closed down. The opening theme is burned into my memory:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBS8GJKjBqI

First game console you owned/bought with your own money? The Game Gear. I bought it mostly for Sonic Chaos and Garfield:Caught in the act. Great system, provided you always used the AC adaptor and never tried to run it off batteries.

First game played: Pac-Man, at a pizza place, when I was three.

First game bought: Metroid for the NES from a friend at school.

First console bought: The SNES.

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you? Super Mario Bros. I was probably 4 or something.

First game you remember buying? Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. Up until that point I was either given games or rented them. I saved up my allowance for that one.

First game console you owned/bought with your own money? The Wii. Yes, up until that point I had relied entirely on birthdays and/or Christmases for game systems. Unless you count a PC as a game console, but I rarely use them for games.

Edit: Actually, in retrospect, I did actually buy my Game Boy Advance, but I bought it with birthday money. Does that count?

1. Spyro the Dragon for PSX. I was 6.

2. No idea, actually.

3. I have yet to actually buy a system with my own money, as I'm still in high school and no one seems interested in hiring me.

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you? A Simpson game where Bart was fighting space aliens. It was for the NES and I got that game plus the console for Christmas. Up until that point, I had only seen computer games in PCs owned by these teenagers who would never allow me to play them. Not until many years later did I realize that one of those games I remember observing was the original Leisure suit Larry.

First game you remember buying? That's a tough one. I can't fully remember which game I bought for myself first. Most of the NES games I received I believe to be gifts. It was probably a NES game and could have been that game called "Robin Hood: The prince of thieves". Probably the most sophisticated NES game I've ever seen (if memory serves me right).

First game console you owned/bought with your own money? Play Station 2. I loved that console. Didn't think much of the original X-Box or any other consoles that came around the time when Sony dominated the market but I got the X-Box 360 at a later date, which I currently use.

Otherwise I use primarily PC.

Hawk
First game played: Pac-Man, at a pizza place, when I was three.

Funnily enough that's almost exactly mine too, except I must have been closer to five. (We had pac-man for Atari but we didn't get that til I was six or seven.) I'm pretty sure it was a Brass Lamp pizza. The one that used to be on Boise Avenue :]

First game bought: Super Mario on SNES. What was the first one called? Super Mario World or something? Up til then it was gifts and rentals.

First console bought: SNES (same time as SMB, they came together). Again, other people bought the NES and others, but the SNES I wanted so I bought. I remember saving up my money and buying it at the ShopKo and everything. I must have been about... twelve?

Also the rule about the SNES was that since it was mine, my older sister had to ask before she could play it. Turns out she didn't want to play it anyway. :[ Still, at least there were no fights about "You played this when I paused it and went to the bathroom and I TOLD YOU NOT TOOOOOO"

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you? Super Mario Bros. for the NES. I think I was only 5 or 6 when I first played it.

First game you remember buying? I think it was the original Quake for the PC. Technically, I was still a minor, but this was before anyone really payed that much attention to the ESRB ratings.

First game console you owned/bought with your own money? XBox, which I had primarily bought just so I could deathmatch on Halo 2 with my friends. All the other consoles I've received before and after that have been birthday or Christmas gifts from friends and family.

First game I played was Super Mario Bros. for the NES, and I was too young to really remember.

The first game I ever bought... I'm really not sure, but it was probably some Gameboy game I no longer own that I got from one of those game-swap places.

I've never bought my own console. :(

First played: Pac-Man
First game bought: Burger Time
First console bought: Gameboy, oddly enough. Every other console was a holiday gift.

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you?
Duck Hunt of course! And I was... little.

First game you remember buying?
Super Mario All-Stars for SNES!

First game console you owned/bought with your own money?
Gamecube when it dropped to $100.

1) according to my parents, when i was 4 or 5, i got addicted to tetris and wet myself

2) the first game that i bought with my own money was Doom 2 for the pc, same thing before anybody really cared about the ESRB.

and my dad thought it would be better than the other games because of the mature rating, compared to the E, which he thought it was girly. he wouldn't let me get croc!

i had a snes at the time, but my dad got me one of those crazy rom things so i didn't buy any snes games. i still have that thing.

3) the ps3 a year after it came out because everybody was selling theirs for dirt cheap.

i never got the n64 or playstation, and my ps2 was handed down from a friend who didn't know how to take advantage of warranties.

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you?
I can't really remember... at all.

First game you remember buying?
I think it was Medieval: Total War, but I could be wrong.

First game console you owned/bought with your own money?
xbox 360. But I had owned a PlayStation, it was my uncles and he gave it to me (this was when PS2s were out) and I had a Spongebob game, and Colin McRay Rally. Before then I only played the PC!!!

I know, I know, I am a late blooming gamer.

First game played: "AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin" [en.wikipedia.org] for Intellivision [en.wikipedia.org]. It was actually the first factor that led me to start playing tabletop D&D. I am still a big fan of Intellivision; there were a lot of good games for it. I loved the number pad controllers and the little plastic number pad sheets that came with each game..

First game bought: I think it was "Food Fight" for Atari 7800 [en.wikipedia.org].

First console bought: We had an Atari 2600 and one day it broke. So we went out and bought a 7800. ...A few days later we learned that the 2600 wasn't broke, it just didn't have any controllers plugged in, so it wouldn't display anything on the screen. D'oh! ...A few years later we bought a Turbografx 16 [en.wikipedia.org] because we thought it would do better than Super Nintendo & Genesis. ...Boy were we wrong...

The first game I played... I'm not sure I played a few when I was little, but one I remember clearly is Galaxian at a stinky Chinese restaurant my parents always went to. It was a table style one. There were two of them. Those, the prawn crackers and laddie's fingers (sweet pastry thing made with honey and nuts), were the only reason I'd set foot in that smelly place. >.<
I must have been 4.

I wasn't interested in games for home use, I just liked playing arcade machines.
When I finally got a game and a console I got them together- it was a crappy old second hand Sega Master-System. the game came with it. It was called something like "Alex in wonderland" I dunno. It sucked.

ozoneocean
I wasn't interested in games for home use, I just liked playing arcade machines.

Yeah it's a shame that arcades kind of died. There was a cool arcade place in my old college town called "The Reagan Years", it was full of old 80s arcade games and everything still took quarters, unlike those $2.00 machines they have now. ...Although I have to admit that "Dance Dance Revolution" is worth the money.

1st game ever played: Space Invaders for my dad's Atari 2600, I was 5-6 years old.

1st game ever bought: The first game that my dad bought FOR my brother and me was Super Mario World for the SNES.

1st console ever bought: Again, we had an Atari 2600 but that was my dad's. He later gave us a SNES. I haven't buyed any console with my own money yet. Im still waiting the PS3 price droping or the 360 become more reliable

lastcall
Yeah it's a shame that arcades kind of died. There was a cool arcade place in my old college town called "The Reagan Years", it was full of old 80s arcade games and everything still took quarters, unlike those $2.00 machines they have now. ...Although I have to admit that "Dance Dance Revolution" is worth the money.

I'm also sad to see arcades go. Playing at home doesn't feel the same. You can get emulators to fake the gameplay, buy extravagant arcade-like joysticks to simulate the controls, and play online to be challenged by strangers, but it still doesn't really feel like the arcade. A bit of my childhood is still stuck in those mall partitions with their flashing lights and blaring sound.

When I'm living in a house with a bit more room, I hope to actually purchase an arcade machine or two. And maybe a pinball machine.

Hawk

lastcall
Yeah it's a shame that arcades kind of died. There was a cool arcade place in my old college town called "The Reagan Years", it was full of old 80s arcade games and everything still took quarters, unlike those $2.00 machines they have now. ...Although I have to admit that "Dance Dance Revolution" is worth the money.

I'm also sad to see arcades go. Playing at home doesn't feel the same. You can get emulators to fake the gameplay, buy extravagant arcade-like joysticks to simulate the controls, and play online to be challenged by strangers, but it still doesn't really feel like the arcade. A bit of my childhood is still stuck in those mall partitions with their flashing lights and blaring sound.

When I'm living in a house with a bit more room, I hope to actually purchase an arcade machine or two. And maybe a pinball machine.

I'm lucky enough to go to a college that is surrounded by farmtown, which is a great source of old games. There are two stores walking distance from my dorm that sell old games(atari on), and there is an arcade in town stocked almost entirely of 80's arcade cabinets, save for the Area 51 machine. They have a website:

http://www.starworldsarcade.com/

The website sucks, and the outside of the building is unassuming, but once you step inside it's like being in an arcade stuck in the time of the 80's. It is beautiful.

First Game and When:
-When I was 7, i got my first Gameboy, the yellow GBC, and I had Donkey Kong.

First Game Bought:
-I think it was Disgaea: Hour of Darkness for the PS2.

First Console Bought:
-My PS3, and I love her like a daughter

I feel so much younger than the rest of you, I wasn't alive in the first generation of games and people are over here talking about Gamegears and Pac Man and stuff. This is nice, I think I'll hang out here for a while.

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you?

Zelda 2, funnily enough.. I know I played Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda first, but that's the first game that comes to mind. I'm pretty sure I was six because I was in kindergarten, and it was my first taste of sitting somewhere I didn't want to be, and all I could think about was a game I couldn't wait to get home and play.

First game you remember buying?

Tetris for the game boy.

First game console you owned/bought with your own money?

Game Boy if Christmas/Birthday money counts, Playstation if not.

Wow, everybody seems to have started gaming at a pretty young age. I don't think I even got to go on a computer until I was 10 and I started gaming when I was 12-13. It was christmas and my dad got a PS2 with Primal and a football game packaged in. Can't remember which was the first game I bought with my own money and all my consoles are presents.

First game I played was Space Invaders when I was seven years of age. This game was inside an airport observation lounge.

First console I bought with my own cash was the Famicom with a game called "Mach Rider". That game was just hard...

The first game I actually bought was Afterburner. Yes, it came out on the Famicom even though it's supposed to be a SEGA game. As for Mach Rider, it a free game that came with the package when I bought my Famicom so I technically didn't buy it...

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you?

Super Mario Bros on the NES when I was 4, if I remember correctly. My dad borrowed the system from my uncle and I had to beg him to let me play. Then I died enough times to get a game over and went off and sulked =P

First game you remember buying?

The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening for the Game Boy... back when Gamestop was Funco Land. I think it was bought used and with my first ever chunk of allowance that I'd actually saved up around that time.

First game console you owned/bought with your own money?

I bought a Game Boy Advance SP with my own money when they came out... everything before that was a gift during a Christmas that my parents had actually decided to save up a bit of money for.

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you?
Humm hummm hummm, lets see. I do remember always playing the classic Sega console (still have it and still works like a charm). The games were...Wonderboy, R-Type, and Duck Hunt (ugh). I played that thing from the time I was four until my brother brought home the Sega CD and then Sonic dominated my life for a while.

First game you remember buying?
Oh, man I think the very first game I bought was....Kingdom Hearts? I've had a lot of other people buy my games for me for birthdays or Christmas because why use my money when others can use theirs? :D

First game console you owned/bought with your own money?
A Playstation 2, had it for years and it still works brilliantly. In fact, I'm playing it right now.

What was the first game you remember playing, and how old were you?
Either Railroad Tycoon or Wizkid for the Amiga. Must have been at least 5. My Dad had save file just for me to mess around with in Railroad Tycoon (which is good cause I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing). I remember Wizkid having a special warp zone involving men's and women's toilets. :D

First game you remember buying?
Pokemon Stadium for the N64

First game console you owned/bought with your own money?
Nintendo 64, for the aforementioned Pokemon Stadium, although I had to wait a few days before I could get it because they were sold out, but I had Starfox 64 (called Lylat Wars in PAL territories) to tide me over ("Do a Barrel Roll!" )

First game I ever played: Like Skoolmonkey and Hawk, Pac-Man, at age 3. Unlike Skoolz and Hawk, it was in a roller skating rink. (Remember those?)

First game I ever bought: I can't say for sure, but I think it was Fatal Rewind on the Genesis. Either that, or Altered Beast.

First system I ever bought: The NES, I think. Got it with good ol' Mario.

First game ever played: Pac-man on sega, about 2-3 years old.

First game ever bought: ATV offroad(big mistake)

First console ever bought: Wii. BIG MISTAKE. I bought it so I could play Zelda:Twilight Princess. The game broke 3 days after guarantee and I got stuck with a wii and not much games I like or can play(lack of space).

First game played: Well, first one I remember playing. I remember being confused about how the hell am I supposed to move the joystick without looking at it and at the same time look at the screen... Yie Ar Kung Fu on C64 (had to be... 6? 7?)



First game bought: my brother had a NES clone called Fenix (actually it was a clone of Pegasus which was a clone of NES but whatever) and a stack of game and later it was passed onto me... so I bought Monster in my Pocket


funny story about the game. I finished it with a friend. See, I was doing pretty well on the first few stages, but laterI really sucked at dodging some of the enemies. On the other hand he couldn't beat any boss starting stage 3 but did very well with the levels. So, we split the task, I defeated all the bosses (got their patterns of movement very easily) meanwhile he did the regular level (especially those damn annoying dragons or whatever flying around last stage). One of the few cases of me and teamwork :D

First console... hmm, I bought my own NES clone after this one broke (no idea what this one was named, came used without a box) but the guy selling it to me went all "oh, I'll give you rest of the cartridges and the gun later" and kept pushing it off so I went "ok, deal is off" and instead bought myself an Amiga 600 :D

First game played: Tetris or Super Mario Brothers (the original NES title) can't remember exactly.

First game bought: I think it was Final Fantasy 7

First console bought: The N64, but I bought it for my older Brother.

First Game Played: I think it was Showdown in 2100 A.D. [en.wikipedia.org] for the Magnavox Odyssey.

First Game Bought: Mega Man II for the NES.

First Game System Bought: NES which I co-bought with my brother's help.

Unless you count the Tiger Handheld games.