Daily Q: What started you on gaming?
Category: Features, Posted: 05/05/2008 at 01:16PM CDT by Frank Ling, Editorial Director
I was a casual gamer before the term even became popular. By that I mean I wasn't a hardcore gamer but still enjoyed the occasional video game now and then.
I really began some 'serious' gaming when I started playing the Sega Genesis. There was a game called Zero Tolerance, an FPS that most people would call lame by today's standards, but I remember playing untold hours on that game till my fingers ached.
But the incident that sealed my fate as a dedicated gamer was when I bought the original PlayStation and got into a couple of little games called Final Fantasy VII and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. These two games basically defined what I loved about video games - an alternate world to play in and lots of neat adventures and puzzles.
After that, I never turned back.
So, just what was it that started you on your road of gaming?
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I started gaming at two years old with my brother's Super NES. SMW hooked me from the start.
Gameboy. Super Mario Land.
The rest is history.
Super Mario Bros on the NES. That game opened up a whole new world for me...and I haven't left...
Combat on the atari 2600. There was nothing better then shooting those 3 little biplanes with a huge rectangular bullet and watching them spin in unison.
Played starcraft occasionally up until I was 15, then I didnt even care for gaming that much, partying all the time till I was 17, went jail for 3 months, and I got out and decided to be drug free and not party as much, so I got a PS3 and never looked back.
I've been playing games for 20 years. The first game i ever played was Space Invaders on the Intellivison. That was one quality piece of hardware. The NES rocked my world, but after a SNES and a very short stint with the PS1 i kind of fell out of gaming.
It wasn't until I purchased a GameCube that I became what you would consider teh hardcore. I don't think many people can say that. I have always been a Legend of Zelda fan and Wind Waker blew me away. I actually had already acquired an XBox and played Halo, but didn't consider myself a gamer until I played Wind Waker. Since then I have been back in the gaming space in a big way.
That's great, HellStaR. Glad gaming helped you turn it around.
I've had games all around me ever since I can remember. My mom loved the older NES/SNES mario games and my dad loved games like tetris, Dr. Mario and pac-man. But I remember playing Castlevania: Dracula's Revenge on the NES a lot, and it's just gone on from there.
Super Mario Brothers 3 on the NES. That is when I found my true love for gaming.
Super Mario World for the SNES. Since then, I never stopped gaming.
interesting to see how many people attribute Mario games to their hardcoreness.
Hungry Horace on the ZX Spectrum +
I don't remember which game exactly, it was somewhere between super mario 3, duck hunt, and DEFENDER!!! Either way, it was the NES that got me started. I've known about the white block trick in mario 3 since i was four or five years old. The rest is history...
Pajama Sam anybody? followed by Battlezone II, Diablo II, Starcraft, Freelancer, and eventually the Half-Life series.
i had a nintendo and snes in the household when i was little but i don't know if any of those got me hooked (rbi baseball 2 and 3 and super tecmo bowl (greatest football game EVER) for NES came close and super mario kart... and the original madden (the one without a year (SNES)...) are games that i sunk hours into but i sucked really bad at everything else...) then i got to playing sid meier's civilization 2 (a game that i still play) which led me to star wars tie fighter and from there i moved on to starcraft... i rode the starcraft train all the way to halo and LAN parties and mixed that up a bit with diablo 2... everything else is my personal history...
the funny thing is i don't play computer games that much anymore...
i bought the super mario world snes bundle and my life has never been the same
my brothers had an NES which we played endlessly for hours on end, my grandma also had an SNES which i would play when i stayed there
Golden Axe forced me to buy my first system. Not just as a present from my parents ala the NES. Street Fighter 2 made me a hard core, though. I remember playing with my friends for over 4 hours. The SNES game library sealed the deal.
My dad got me started on PC gaming. We've never had a console, but we had games such as Ceaser II, Simant and Flight Sim. I'd used to fly planes into the Sear's Tower; back in the day when it wasn't offensive to do things like that. :D
Wipeout 2097.
You know what? now that i remember it, my grandma had one of the original Pong machines hooked up to her TV in her basement. I would play that thing for hours on end...I was probably 3 or 4 years old. It had two knobs that moved either player's block up or down to block the ball. I remember the game's awesome attempt at different modes: Basic "tennis," "Hockey," which had four blocks: each player had one on each side. There was one more, but i can't remember it...good old Pong.
I don't remember what it was really... It might have been Mario 64, StarFox, or Hexen. Either way, it was the N64 that started it for me.