What popped your gaming cherry?

[madmanjox]

For me, I have a half brother a few years older than me who brought a Master System 2 round at the weekend when I must have been about 3 or 4 years old. I remember seeing Alex the Kidd in Miracle Land (or whatever the built in game was called) and thinking it was the coolest thing ever, even although when I played it I found it hard as nails and super frustrating.

Later he brought round Teddy Boy, Action Fighter and Speedball 2. I was blown away by these simple but addictive games.

A year or two later I got a Megadrive and started my addiction to this stupid hobby.

 

[StevenK]

Bomb jack on the speccy

 

[HellioN]

I remember having various pong consoles and even a 2600.
Neither one really started anything for me, just something to do when we couldn't go outside.
We got an NES and I started spending more time with it.
I guess that was the beginning.
First time I saw SF2 was when the doors blew off and my life has been downhill ever since.

 

[neo_mao]

Same here. We had some weird brown and beige pong console that nobody gave a shit about.

At some point we went to a family friends house and they had an NES. Pretty much played Kung Fu and Excitebike all night and within a day or two my parents got us an NES.

I think we got Super Mario/Duck Hunt, Kung Fu and Balloon Fight as our first games.

 

[Johnny16Bit]

My older brother had a Thomson MO5 (an exotic French 8bit home computer, with a cassette player, a cart slot - and a scart cable!), and I played my first games on it.
Stuff like

All awesome

 

[HellioN]

Our NES was just the control deck.
We didn't own any games for maybe the first year or so.
Just rented.
Local supermarket rental place had a blowout sale on new games one weekend.
The first game we officially owned for NES was Xevious.
Didn't even know or care what it was about.
We just knew it was ours for only $15 in Lew of our allowance for two weeks.

Same here. We had some weird brown and beige pong console that nobody gave a shit about.

At some point we went to a family friends house and they had an NES. Pretty much played Kung Fu and Excitebike all night and within a day or two my parents got us an NES.

I think we got Super Mario/Duck Hunt, Kung Fu and Balloon Fight as our first games.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Amiga 500 or the european version of the odyssey 2.

 

[@M]

I had a battery-powered Pac-Man unit when I was a little kid, then, while the NES was all the rage, my Stepfather proudly brought home an Atari 2600 and a shitload of games instead.

 

[HornheaDD]

Had a cousin who was like 8 years older than me who had a 2600. I remember playing stuff like Combat on it. Uncle got me one for Christmas in probably 83 or 84.

Didn't get a NES until 87, I think? Just remember my grandparents gave me and my sister $100 for Christmas that year, my mom took me to Kmart the following Sunday. Got the action set with SMB/Duck Hunt and a grey zapper.

 

[yagamikun]

My dad at the time (another story for another time) had a 2600 and Atari 800XL PC. My earliest gaming memories were from 1983/4ish with Qix, Pitfall, Frogger, Donkey Kong, and others. We had a good smattering of games and even a cassette player for the 800XL. Even at an early age, I remember doing some fun programming stuff with my sister. Qix was on the 800XL and I was OBSESSED with this game as a toddler oddly enough. I still play a lot of Qix, come to think of it.

I don't have a ton of nostalgia these days for this old Atari stuff, but if it were not for Atari I wouldn't have life-long knowledge on many of these classics.

 

[city41]

My neighbor had a 2600, and my Dad got an Apple 2. Played loderunner on that Apple till my fingers bled, still a favorite game to this day.

 

[herb]

My grandmother had an atari 2600, nes, and Gameboy which I played a ton of in the early 90s.

 

[NeoSneth]

atari 2600 and commodore for a while.
When we finally moved back to the US and saw my older cousins playing NES. After some scolding, they were forced to let me play.

 

[Tarma]

Not sure if it was Space Invaders in the arcade (or Galaxian) or a Speccy game of some description.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/index.php?threads/what-is-your-coolest-raddest-whateverest-video-game-item.267465/post-4391277

 

[sirlynxalot]

I think the the first game I ever played was some learning game on a monochrome monitor in dos around 1989. Might have been Amy's First Primer. I also played some atari 2600 stuff early on.

But what made me really interested in games was playing NES and then SNES/Genesis games at friends houses and playing early duke nukem and commander keen on the family dos pc in the first years of the 90s.

 

[fake]

My dad had an Intellivision and showed me how to play Space Invaders when I was 3. When I was 4 I saw Super Mario Bros. for the first time and it blew my mind.

 

[100proof]

My parents had one of those plug-n-play Pong setups that they'd let me play with when I was like 5 or 6. Seeing how much I liked it. they bought me a 2600 for Christmas that year and would bring home a game every now and then once they all showed up in the bargain bins post-crash.

 

[ratson]

Moon Cresta

 

[smokey]

The first thing I played was pac man on some Atari thing. I have a real vague memory about that. Next up we’re game and watch. These were really popular here in the late 80ties. We onlybhad one at home (climber) but used to swap with friends. Then around 1990/91 saw a megadrive with golden axe, Mickey Mouse and space harrier at a friends house and I was sold forever

 

[ggallegos1]

We had a hand me down NES from a cousin who had moved on to the SNES. I loved it and played it to death, even though my neighbor had a SNES and i couldn't imagine why my system couldn't have the same graphics. We moved straight from the NES to N64 when it released and i didn't get the SNES until college before prices got stupid

 

[SouthtownKid]

Space Invaders. Probably at some pizza parlor or something. Then Asteroids at a liquor store between elementary school and home. Then Defender and Pac-Man at the same liquor store.

 

[Fygee]

Uncle bought a C64 back in 1983. Played some kid friendly games on it at the wee age of three and four. He passed away all the way back in 1985. Kept the computer, monitor, tape deck, and the boxes and still have them all in good shape.

As far as proper ones, my first memory of playing an arcade game is Super Mario Vs. back in a Circle K in 1986 after seeing Disney on Ice. Got my NES for X-mas that year.

 

[Lagduf]

First memory of gaming is with the NES but I wouldn't say my interest in gaming really took off until SNES.

 

[terry.330]

I'm sure I played arcade games before this but the first time I remember actually being interested in video games I was probably 6 and went to a friends house, his family was Japanese and him and his brother had a Famicom with a whole drawer full of carts and we played Contra. I had no idea it was a NES and it drove me crazy for years. I did get an NES for christmas that year and loved it but never made the Famicom connection until I started using the internet in the late 90s.

Though after seeing that Famicom and all those different colored carts with crazy labels the NES always seemed so bland in comparison.