How did you get into gaming?

[SaintPsycho]

i started around the age of 9-10...
before Windows... played Pacman on Dos.
then moved to the original PoP, then 2 the original Simcity and Castle Wolfenstein.
good ol' days....

[SilentScythe]

seven years old, parents buy sega genesis and sonic 2, rest is history.

[Mr. Matt]

I think the first time I ever played a video game of any kind was on a system called the 'Dragon 64'. We still have that thing in the loft somewhere. With a 0.9Mhz processor and 64kb of RAM, it was... actually pretty old and crappy by the time I used it. Still, it had things like Space Invaders and Pacman and the like on it. We're talking very, very young here, though, so I didn't spend too long on it. I think I was something like 3 or 4 years old.



I guess the next computer I used was an old Nixdorf laptop -- A.K.A. 'The Lapcrusher'. It was more of a portable PC than a laptop, really. It had a normal glass screen (with amazing 1 colours!), a printer on the top and a full-size keyboard, with two old-style floppy disks. This is a picture of an IBM computer of similar design. It's not the same as the Nixdorf one, but it's similar. I tried to find a picture of the Nixdorf one but I couldn't.



That had games like virtual golf on it, not to mention Zork. As it couldn't really render very much in yellow, it wasn't very interesting. So Pacman, Zork and golf were pretty much the only things I did on it, as well as using the incredibly simple word processor it had installed. A very old version of WordPerfect I think it was. I was still in primary school though, so I had the attention span of a chicken. We still have this computer somewhere in the loft, as well...

Not long after, my dad later brought home a 486 PC which was, at the time, extremely powerful. That had all sorts of cool games on it, from a Chuck Yeager flight simulator to Out of this World (A.K.A. 'Another World', over the pond). OotW was, and still is, one of my favourite games. It took a while, but I finally got bored with this computer as well, primarily because my folks never bought any new games for it. So I went off and did what all young boys still in primary school do -- I started to break things again. And discovering louder ways to break things. We still have this computer too, actually. I'm starting to see a pattern.

Anyway, a while after that I played on Sonic 2 at my cousin's house. Multiplayer mode on that game leaves an impression on you that is unmatched by any game before or since, and I was hooked. I got a Mega Drive 2 for Christmas that year. That was probably the first time I actually spent potentially unhealthy stretches of time playing on a computer game. I played on that thing for ages, loads of games, before I finally got bored with it too. The release of the Playstation 1 saw Mega Drive games slowly stop being produced, and as I was only just starting high school by then, I didn't have enough money to upgrade to the Sega Saturn. The Mega Drive still gets used surprisingly often, though. It's hooked up to the TV downstairs right now, in fact.



And then I went into a computer gaming dark age, of sorts. Until one day, my parents bought a brand new PC to replace the ailing 486. Star Trek: Generations game with it, and thus because the first FPS I ever played, to my knowledge. I'm sure this historical account changes somewhat every time I tell it... I played that game for hours, and I loved it. I then moved on to Worms 2, which was fun for a time, and assorted other things. But I got bored of those too eventually.

Until finally, I saw my dad and my sister playing a demo of a game called 'Urban Assault'. They couldn't figure out how to fly the helicopters, or even drive the tanks without crashing into things. And they were only on the training missions. I'm sure you all know the sense of frustration that gives you, so I commandeered the computer and figured it out for them. And then I got hooked. And then I bought the full version.



Being hooked, I then started playing other game demos, modern game demos, until I finally hit upon a demo called 'Half-Life: Uplink'. And I obviously bought the full version of that as well. And it went from there, until I finally got my own PC and thus had the freedom to install stuff and do whatever I wanted. So you can technically thank 'Urban Assault' for me being here, as that was the one which finally lured me in to become a full-time member of gamingland.

P.S. This post was sneakily copy-pasted from the last thread on this subject that I posted in, with minor modifications. Because frankly, I couldn't be arsed to re-key it .

[Revenga]

Quake 3 Arena/Urban Terror, took me awhile of getting use to a mouse and a keyboard but Q3A got me hooked.

before that I usually played my N64 all day. Now adays I don't play consoles that much.

[Captain Blade]

I first got into gaming when I was, well probably before I can remember. I remember playing Atari and Sega Genesis when I was about 6. Probably before that though. We played Top Gear 2 mostly, but we had other games. My family then got our first computer in 1999 when I was... going to turn 8 in a few months afterwards. Now we have 6 computers, Sega,Nintendo,Nintendo 64,Gamecube. A computer for me, 1 for another bro, 3 for another bro,(he's 19) and 1 for Dad...

I have 114 stars on Super Mario 64. (I'm not trying to brag, it just came to my mind, that's probably not impressing anyway)

Super Mario 64 is probably my favorite console game.

[colonel_bob]

Mmm, good thread.

Well, when I was about 11, I think, my friend who lives down the street gave me the second CD of Red Alert so I could play with him. We both had modems back then, and there was an option to direct dial the person's house to set up a game. We kept the line tied up for hours. :lol:

So I played Red Alert, and then when C&C: Tiberian Sun came out, I bought that and played through all the single player missions. Then, one night, I discovered that you could play other people over the internet. I was hooked, instantly. I think I was about twelve or thirteen at the time.

I've been playing games ever since. It used to be just strategy games like the C&C series, but then I found Battlefield 1942...

[Pethegreat]

I rember playing "The Bernstien Bears" on an old 286 when I was 5 or 6. After that my family got a 486 and I played a few kid-friendly games on there. My first real PC game I can rember was Sim city 2000 on the then blazing fast pII 350mhz HP we had. I did not get very involved with PC gaming untill I got my current PC in 2003. 3 years later and I am here

I started playing Console games when I was around 6. My mom got me a PS1 with 3 games as a birthday present. I then got a gameboy color when I was 8 to play Pokemon. I also got an n64 around the same time. In 2001 I got my PS2 for GT3. Got my xbox in the christmas of 2003 and my gamecube around the same time. Going though 2 generations of consoles and seeing how much they have changed is amazing. I went from low-poly 3d and mono sound to the 5.1, HD ready consoles and PC's of today.

My first shooter was MOH: Allied Assult on the PS2. I then got Halo and it has been downhill ever since

[FB Productions]

I really can't tell my own story very well. Too vague now. Basically, back when I was 3, I started on the Atari 2600. I don't think I can go much deeper, since I honestly can't remember that very well.

[*The.Doctor]

I first got into gaming when i got a SNES that one of my dads friends gave to us, i'm not sure how old i was at the time, maybe 6-7? After that, we got a Sega Genesis/Megadrive, that thing was actually one of my favorites. I had all the Sonic games for it. After then sega we got a N64 and i had that until i got my Xbox.

As for PC gaming, i got into that about 3-4 years ago. the first PC i gamed on was my 633Mhz Celeron rig that i still have, after that i got a Athlon XP 2400+ system from a guy my uncle works with, but he took it back. After that i got the dell that i'm using now.

For portable gaming, i got into that when i got my Game Boy (the original one), a long time after i got a GBA SP, and now i use my DS.

[Chafferz]

I first got into gaming when i got a SNES that one of my dads friends gave to us

Lawl. Same here bud.

~Caz