First experiences

[string555]

How old were you when you first played video games?

I can (surprisingly) clearly remember first playing video games at age 3. The main ones I remember playing were Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros., and Megaman 2, all for the NES.

My dad described how it was actually kind of scary how good I was at Duck Hunt, at only age 3, using the NES Zapper (Or whatever it was called). :P

I wasn't all that good at Super Mario Bros., but I remember how my parents taught me that in World 1-2, if you are in Super, you can break some blocks early in the level and jump up to the very top. Then if you keep running up there, eventually you can drop into a warp zone and go to later levels.

Lastly, as mentioned, is Megaman 2. I think this will always be my favorite NES game. The game was almost always frustratingly difficult, but that made it really satisfying when you beat the stage's boss. Also, my parents had a bunch of notebook pages full of those dot arrangements (The 'save file system' for that game). You youngsters don't know how good you have it with your memory cards and whatnot, many NES games didn't even have a save feature. Either you beat the game in one sitting, or start it all over again another day. :P

 

[Sawsbuck]

I think I was 9 or 10, playing Mario Kart for the Wii
I was really really bad at it and I couldn't even finish a race

 

[Desert Stream~]

First game was New Super Mario bros. And then after that Oblivion and skyrim lol

 

[Juno]

I've always said that my earliest memory of playing a game was Tetris, but I also remember that I had a bunch of those early 90s PC educational/point-and-click adventure games, so I'm not sure which one came first. I know I had a bunch of Disney PC games, stuff like this:

Does anyone else remember these?

But yeah, if we're talking about "real" games, it would be Tetris for me - not that a 5 year old knew how to actually play Tetris, but it was the only game we owned for some time and it was my mom's favorite, so I just kinda stacked blocks randomly when she let me play.

 

[TY]

If I have to believe my parents, I started on the age of 2 playing Red Alert 1... but I highly doubt that and the furthest I can remember is on the age of 5 beating my dad consistently in the sequel: Red Alert 2

 

[string555]

but I also remember that I had a bunch of those early 90s PC educational/point-and-click adventure games, so I'm not sure which one came first. I know I had a bunch of Disney PC games, stuff like this:

Does anyone else remember these?

Any familiarity with the Putt-Putt (various ones starring a purple car) games or one called 'Busytown'. I had almost forgotten about those games, good times. Of course, at that young age, I was also playing Wolfenstein and Duke Nukem 3D. "I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum!" XD

 

[Juno]

Any familiarity with the Putt-Putt (various ones starring a purple car) games or one called 'Busytown'. I had almost forgotten about those games, good times.

Definitely remember Putt-Putt! Steam actually has all the Putt-Putt games for sale - I remember a while back Humble Bundle was also offering them and a friend (curelixir) gifted me some keys, so I played them again for nostalgia's sake not that long ago, haha.

 

[Imperator161]

I was either 5 or 6. I can't quite remember the year, but I know it was one of those Christmases (thinking probably the one when I was 5, because I think it happened before we got a computer I could play games on, and that was for Christmas when I was 6). I received a GameBoy Pocket for Christmas, initially without any games. My parents had played Tetris at a gathering with their friends, and thought it was a lot of fun. They didn't seem to be aware that the system didn't come with Tetris, nor did they know that other games were available.

I remember going to Toys 'R Us to get the game, and being amazed by how tall the aisles with the games were. (In retrospect, they probably weren't that high, but I think they may have gone up over a story, and I wasn't very tall myself.) My parents didn't know anything about the other games there, so they just bought me Tetris, as planned. I enjoyed playing it, but I didn't get hooked on it.

I got Kirby's Dreamland 2 sometime in the next year, which was my first "real" game. (Finally beat it on VC a couple of months ago, after all these years!) I had a few other games, but my GameBoy didn't become a major, constant part of my life until the Pokemon craze hit. I was a "late" Pokemon adopter, so I picked up Red about a year after it came out. Since then, I doubt I've gone more than a couple of weeks without turning on something gaming-related.

 

[Zeostar]

There's a picture of me at 2 years old sitting with my Dad playing an NES. It surprises me because...I don't remember any of it. I don't remember having an NES, and I don't remember him being a video game person.

As far as games I can remember, it was Super Smash Brothers Melee. It was the first thing I binge played, and I was only about 4 years old. I played it off and on for years to come. Nowadays it feels dated, especially since I don't care for competitive Melee too much.

 

[NightKrow]

Any familiarity with the Putt-Putt (various ones starring a purple car) games

OMG THAT'S WHAT IT'S CALLED!

I have memories of playing a game with a purple car when I was little but I couldn't remember the name of the game for ages! thank you so much!

idk what age I was when I played this though. I think it was way back when we still had a Mac of some sort. I don't remember when we got rid of the Mac though so I'm gonna guess age 3-4? Pretty sure my parents have a picture of me at 6 months old sat in front of the Mac in a high chair, but I doubt I was playing anything on the Mac at that age.

I had a ton of those educational games like the Reader Rabbit games and Learning Ladder games, but I don't remember most of the content from those.

the best one was Zoombinis though. it's always been my favourite educational game :)

my first console was the PS2 I think. I don't remember what I played first on there but I do remember playing a lot of Sonic Heroes, Ratchet and Clank 3 and this Monsters Inc. game that I couldn't save because it was for PS1 so I'd always have to try and complete it in one sitting every time I played it. This was definitely after I'd started going to school so I'm going to guess about 5-6+?

I didn't have a Nintendo console until the Nintendo DS, which was released in 2005 in Europe so I'm going to guess I was 8 when I got it. I'm pretty sure my first DS game was Rayman DS. My first Pokemon game was Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, and my first main series Pokemon game was Pokemon Diamond.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

7 or 8 when me and my sister got a Mega Drive. Remember playing all of these games bar Revenge of Shinobi which was too hard after the first level.

Got given a Nintendo 64 at around the same time. Played all of the obvious games. OOT, Banjo, Goldeneye, Pokemon Stadium and Snap.

Playing OOT until I got stuck and then letting my mum take over to beat some puzzles is a good childhood memory.