[blueoceans]

What was the first video game you ever played? Im sure this thread will recieve various answers based upon the difference in age demographics of chefelfers,..everything from Pong & Pac-man to Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario World.

If you cant remember with certainty the very first title, then what one of the first games you remember ever playing? If you have a special moment or experience that youd like to share about your first gaming experience then do so.

For me, I dont think I can remember the very first game. But I do remember in August of 1981 when my dad took me to Eckerd's Drug Store (now bought out by CVS) to buy my older sister's birthday present, which was an Atari 2600. I was but 5 yrs old then. My dad paid about $100.00 for the system, which from a 5yr old's perspective is a damn lot of money. I remember thinking that the system probably didnt come with a game, so I urged my dad to buy Pac-Man, which he did.

We soon took the system home, and surprised my sister with it. We were also surprised to see that the system actually did come with a pack-in game: "Combat". People in general in 1981 werent nowhere near as tech-savvy as we are in 2006-2007, and we were no different and had no idea how to hook up the atari, so we called upon neighbor assistance. Only after about what seemed 30 minutes of intensely reading the instructions did the system "come alive", and then screen was soon filled with pellets and dots and a "prehistoric Wal-Mart yellow happy-face mascot" named Pac-Man.

Pac-man for the Atari 2600 was a great game, but when nature called and you had to go to the bathroom, you had better find someone to take over the joystick controller and maintain your high score, as the system had no pause button. In fact, the only game that could be paused on the Atari 2600 was Burgertime, and you had to use the a/b difficulty switches on the back of the system to get the screen to pause. ahhh, what memories.

[David-kyo]

Hmm, wasn't there a thread like this already?

I vaguely remember playing a game called Giana Sisters (not sure if this was the title, it was about a blonde hedgehog-like individual on a rampage not unlike that of Super Mario) on my dad's Commodore 64 about 17 years ago.

...
Holy shit, I'm getting old!

[civilian_number_two]

I'm pretty sure in my case it was Pong or Breakout, or some version of tennis on the same sort of engine. Also, I would have been almost a teenager when that came out.

I think probably the first game I spent good money to play in an arcade (back when there were arcades, lol) would have been Asteroids. I loved it when we had Asteroids on this site; that's one nostalgia game that still holds up. Space Invaders, not so much.

A friend got one of those "Atari Flashback" consoles as a gag gift, and we tried to play those classic Atari games. They all suck, including Atari's Asteroids (you can't possibly die and it goes on forever), apart from Missile Command. That was still fun for about 3 hours.

[Gobbler]

The first system I've witnessed was an Amiga we bought second hand, with some games on it... I can remember some of them vaguely, but not their names. Oh no wait, I remember one: Dune II. I still have that. Lotsa good memories, I daresay that I was pretty good at whipping Padisha Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV's arse Harkonnen style for a seven year old.

This post has been edited by Gobbler: 14 January 2007 - 03:55 PM

[floppydisk]

Yeah, I started a thread of similar nature a while ago.

First game I ever played was either Rolling Ronnie, a game about a package delivery boy who destroyed enemies with fiery candy, or a treasure hunting game of which I don't remember the name.

[Slade]

I have the sudden urge to remake Combat in Flash, or as I like to call it "The Game Where Tanks Shoot Each Other".

I can't remember my first game, but it was probably either one of the old Atari games or Super Mario Bros. 1 for the NES. Maybe if we found the old thread...

[SimeSublime]

I vaguely remember playing a game called Giana Sisters (not sure if this was the title, it was about a blonde hedgehog-like individual on a rampage not unlike that of Super Mario) on my dad's Commodore 64 about 17 years ago.

The Great Giana Sisters. We used to have that on our old Amiga. Can't remember how far I got, though.

[Despondent]

I had the Atari 2600, purchased with the (lame) Pac-Man. The Ms. Pac-Man cartridge was actually based on the machine, with at least 3 of the same screens. PM was rushed, and when MPM came out the 2600 was an outdated system.

Standalone unit? Some Bombs away machine in 1978. Aerial assault on gunboats. First video game I Weally enjoyed: Crazy Climber. Atari football console was a fun, sweaty game.

[Egfu]

Not that old-school... It was one of my brother's Amiga games, but I don't know which one. I have faint memories of something with cavemen in it, but I could be wrong.

The first game I distinctly remember, though, was Settlers. I liked it, even though I didn't know how to play. But I was satisfied enough by all the little guys marching around. Last Christmas my brother gave me Settlers IV as a present, though, and it turned out to be absolute crap. Oh well.

This post has been edited by Egfu: 15 January 2007 - 09:53 AM

[Spoon Poetic]

I know the first video games I played were the big arcade games; I remember being as little as 2 and we went to this pizza restaurant that had a couple of games, and Dad would hold me up and I'd sort of play Galaga and Centipede and Asteroids and stuff. It was an old-school pizza place. We still go every once in a while, and they still have the same games.

But the earliest video game that made an impact on me was Bible Buffet, for the NES. It was made by Wisdom Tree, who had this notion that kids would like to play games based on the Bible, or games that made no sense at all but would be called Christian... Like this one, where it was set up like a board game. You spun to see how many spaces you went forward, and each space was a level. The board was split into lands - Veggie Land, Bread Land, Salad Land, Pizza Land, Snack Land, Beverage Land, Icebox Land, Dessert Land, Fruit Land, Barbecue Land, etc. And in the levels, you went around eating food that was laying on the ground, while sentient food with legs and eyes and maybe arms and a mouth came to hurt you. But when that happened, you threw a knife, fork, or spoon at them, and when they collapsed in agony, you ate them, too. When the players reached the end of the game, you got awards based on who got to the end first, and who ate the most (measured in pounds - we always thought it was how much you weighed, but I found out later that it was supposed to be how many pounds of food you collected for the homeless or something).

I still play it occasionally

[Gobbler]

And there goes my last shred of respect for christianity...

[TruJade]

Hmmm.....
first game...

i don't remember the name
(because i was like 4 years old)

probably that 'shooting ducks' game
on the original Nintendo.

Yeah it was either that or
the original Mario.

[Gobbler]

probably that 'shooting ducks' game
on the original Nintendo.

Did it by any chance look like this?

[Salamander]

I think mine was Duke Nukem 1, Commander Keen, Jungle Jill or Vinyl: Goddess from Mars.

I had a very educational childhood.

[Heccubus]

Like so many other 20-somethings, my first game was Super Mario Brothers, because it came with the NES my dad got for us for Christmas one year. I hated Duck Hunt at the time, so I refused to play it until I was about 14 or 15.