Your first gaming experience.

[Sharky]

Most of the people in the Armchair enthusiast are gamers. Some like Play Station and such consoles and others (like myself) love PC gaming. But we've all had a first experience with gaming. Be it with the Nintendo or the Frogger machine at some fast food joint. Can you guys remember which was your first experience? Any game in particular perhaps?

I do remember my first experience. I was 5 or 6 years old and my parents bought me an Atari 2600. I do recall 4 games in particular. One was of a tank that blew up other tanks. Another was "Space commander" in which you were (literaly) a cursor and you had to place the cursor beneath a lighting ray or something and kill it. Another was "Bobby's going home" in which this kid had to jump over bridges and avoid scarecrows. And las but not leas "Grand prix" in which you just kept going and it turned to night and then back to day and then night again and day......needless to say that these games didn't have any kind of ending. You just did it for the score.

Well, so how about you guys?? Atari??? Nintendo??? SuperNes??? family??? TVbolito???

[Minardi fan]

There were several 'first experiences' for me because they all happened around the same time, when I was about 8 or 9. First there was my cousin's NES on which I played MegaMan about twice.

Around the same time I started playing on an Atari which a family friend had - my favourites were Joust, Moon Patrol and some dungeon game.

I was also given a little LCD game called Ghost Hunter, along with the classic Zelda and some UFO shooter.

From there I moved onto my mate's Megadrive upon which I spent copious hours playing Ecco The Dolphin, Lotus Turbo Challenge and Streets of Rage 2.

It amazes me at how good those games were and still are - the original Ecco The Dolphin is quite possibly one of the greatest games ever made, and featured the most amazing music ever heard in a game - so amazing that it has a heavy influence to this day on the kind of music I write myself. Lotus Turbo Challenge was also superb - both on the MegaDrive and the Amiga. And two-player Streets of Rage 2...

Aaah, those were the days...

[Toth]

The first computer we had was a Commodore. Not a Commodore 64, something older. We had I think 4 or 5 tapes with games. The only game I remember was I think "space buggy" or something like that. You had this little buggy that automatically drove on this 2-dimensional lunar surface and all you could do was shoot forward or upward. I never really liked those old computer games that much, I only got into gaming when I got Wolfenstein.

[R]

"Moon Buggy", Toth, "Moon Buggy"! I remember that game! I had a Commodore 64 when I was younger (early 80's), and we had several tapes with games on them. In fact, we were a whole bunch of friends who all had Commodore 64s, so we ended up copying and distributing games to each other. We had several hundreds in total. In the beginning, we could only have two or three games on each tape (taking 10-15 minutes to load), but then something called "turbo loading" was introduced, and we could have 30 games on each tape (taking only a couple of minutes to load).

My first experience was with "Frogger 64" (I later played it on the machine at some fast food joint as well, in Denmark actually, but I first played it on my computer). Among those early games I remember a game called - "Panic" I think, it was all about blowing holes in floors made of brick, in order to kill some two-legged murderous strawberries by making them fall down the levels. (They could also be killed if they got caught in the explosion.) I also remember having a racing game (can't for the life of me remember what it was called) - this was long before I became interested in motor racing, and the game wasn't really that exciting. There were two different circuits to chose from (I can't believe I remember this!), the Atari Grand Prix and the Malibu Grand Prix. (Yes, it was an Atari Grand Prix even if it was on a Commodore 64!) The most difficult part in this game was to set pole position, that was actually quite challenging. Regardless of whether you set pole position or not, the best way to advance through the field after the race started was to crash into your opponents! (There were no limits on how many times you were allowed to crash, you lost a little time, but it ensured that you got by the opposition!) Winning the race was not really difficult, but if you didn't win, you got no information on where you finished in the order. And even if you started at the front - or near the front - after you had crashed away all cars surrounding you in the start, you still would catch slower cars even before you had completed the first lap! So it was an OK game to play every now and then, but it could hardly be called realistic, and it certainly didn't spark any interest in motor sport in me! (That wasn't to be for another few years...)

My favourite game back in those early days, and a game I've thought about, and actually missed since then, was a game called "Dino Eggs". I found it to be a very exciting game, you had the task of igniting fires under little Dino Eggs in order to hatch them, and when the little cuties had been hatched, you had to make some sort of "cage" around them to protect them from spiders, gigantic legs from grown-up dinosaurs stomping through the ground and so on. I still have my old Commodore 64 stashed away in my old closet back at my parents' place, never sold it, but haven't used it for years. I also have most of the tapes with the old games still on them, but unfortunately a couple of the tapes were ruined for some reason unknown to me about 12 or so years ago, one of them of course being the tape containing "Dino Eggs". (And by that time, Commodore64 was out of fashion, and none of my friends could help me with a copy, because they had all sold their games as well as their computers.) I don't know if I accidentally exposed the tapes to a magnet or whatever, but something happened to the turbo loading, and most of the games wouldn't load anymore. Still, those are fond memories for me, back in the days when we were playing those games.

[Minardi fan]

Speaking of Ataris... How could I forget the gaming LEGEND that is...

RESCUE ON FRACTALUS!!!!!!!!!!

Magic.

[Hobson]

I have only been playing games for 10 or so years, so my first game that I remember playing is: ALTERED BEAST on the Sega Megadrive. It was a game that put you as a dead warrior that was brought back to life by God to rid the world of an evil guy. Who could forget the classic phrase at the very start of the game on the first level:
"RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE" !!!!!!!!!

[DAVID PATERSON]

1981, I was 11 and my sister was 10 and we were watching people move into the house next door. After a while we got bored looking at all thwir furniture and went back inside to watch TV. A little while later, there's a knock at the door. I answer it and there's a kid about 8 or 9 and he says, "Hi my name's Owen, I just moved in next door. Do you want to come over and play Atari?"

Well, we'd seen it but never tried it, so we were off there like a shot. It was a 2600, which was all the rage then and he had about 6 games, easily the best of which was Space Invader. Pacman was pretty cool too.

[mtpanorama]

When i was a kid we had a few friends that had commodore 64s and i used to play on them a bit.
The first machine that me and my sister got was an INTELLIVISION. It had most of your comon games, I remember playing the good old paddle tenis on it.
The best arcade game that i have played was called GALAGA. Simmilar to space invaders but more advanced. You could let them capture your spaceship and then get it back so you would have double the fire power for the special stages at the end of the round.
I have stilll seen a few of these games around, it would have to be at least 15- 20 years old by now.

[Damon]

GP1 on the Amiga, I'm only a little wipper snapper!!

[hypo]

The game that i can most remember would have to be Revs and its sequel Revs+ on the Commodore64, writtten by a young Geoff Crammond ,who of course went on to produce the Grand Prix series 1,2 and 3.
another mention should go to International Soccer which was a cartridge game for the C=64.

[R]

Originally posted by hypo
another mention should go to International Soccer which was a cartridge game for the C=64.

Yes!! How could I forget that one. Playing against the computer became too easy, even on level 9, but boy did we play some tournaments against each other on that one!!

[Maisie]

My first real computer experience was when my father, who was a teacher, brought the school's BBC B home for the summer holidays I got very fond of the Welcome tape/disk, especially playing Kingdom "Everyone's dead, and it's all your fault" sort of thing, and Chuckie Egg, Hopper, Killer Gorilla etc, etc. My best friend got one, and we played for hours and hours. Then I requested a computer of my own, and got ... a Commodore VIC-20 With 2 games. One of which, Pirate's Cove, has got to be the most pointless game I've ever played. It was a text-based adventure, and at one point where you were standing on a window ledge, you were supposed to say "please" and be transported to treasure island. If you jumped, though, you got "Welcome to Never Never Land. You are dead. What shall I do now?"

Me: "Go west"

VIC: "I can't. I'm dead. What shall I do now?"

Me: "Go north."

VIC: "I can't. I'm dead."

Hit reset button

Since then I've only had PCs, apart from a slight Tetris and Super Mario addiction on the Gameboy! I don't "do" consoles - the games have never grabbed me (not into racing games or 1st person shooters), and the games themselves are stupidly expensive - you might as well get a PC with similar graphics capability and multi-functionality. My fave games are Red Alert type strategy games, and puzzles, so a PC suite me fine. Oh, and I can come here from my PC too

[Minardi fan]

I can't stand the hassle of PC games - if I play Rollercoaster Tycoon and alter the volume it crashes; it took me ages of fiddling about to get The Sims to run; Grand Prix 3 won't work full-stop.

However, with a console, I just slap the disc in and we're away. Thank goodness.

[Mekola]

Originally posted by Minardi fan
Speaking of Ataris... How could I forget the gaming LEGEND that is...

RESCUE ON FRACTALUS!!!!!!!!!!

Magic.

Please me... What is this LucasFilm game "Rescue on Fractalus"??? I only have references about this game on Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken games.

[Minardi fan]

Rescue on Fractalus was indeed a LucasArts game and is quite possibly one of the greatest games ever thought up.

You had a spaceship which you used to fly across a planet's surface, seeking out these stranded astronauts. I think there was some sort of radar system or something. When you found them you had to carefully land. If you landed close enough, you'd here the footsteps as they walked up to the spaceship door and then knock. This was the REALLY cool bit - most of the astronauts were green, some were purple called Aces (they were worth more points or something), and some of them were ALIENS!!! So it was up to you to decide whether or not to open the door. The aliens attacked you or something. I can't remember all the details.

The game was genius - simple idea, nice graphics, and LOADS of fun.

[Victor Broccoli]

I was seriously spoiled as a child. One of the many things my father did was to be a distributor for arcades. A middle-man. Basically, companies would send him arcade machines and he'd sell them to arcades. Lacking a warehouse, he had to store them in our rather large den. And, of COURSE, we HAD to make sure that they worked. So, my den was a giant arcade (and the envy of EVERY kid in the neighborhood) until he passed on in '97.

Still, in keeping with the tangent of the thread, just so many games and pins to remember. Addams Family Pinball was a huge favourite, as was The Simpsons arcade. Galaga was fun too.

But my favourite of all was SNK Baseball. This game was beyond merely addicting. I played this game for hours on end. Also getting honours was "Hard Drivin'". This game had the seat with the wheel and pedals. Amazingly addicting. I actually cried when daddy finally sold the machine three months later (I was only 8). He actually sold it to the local bowling alley, where I spent many many dollars playing that game.

[Sharky]

Arcades. I recall that my favourite game in arcades was "Out Run". Although I never had the chance to finish it. But then I changed my XT PC for a super fast 386 and I got the game and I was very happy

[bella]

my first gaming experience was probably quite early. my dad had one of those compaq things that was basically a big red screen, with a keyboard that fitted in front of the screen.

my favourite game on that was rogue. i got really good at that. that and the almighty pacman, although my dad was better at that.

he also had this laptop thing (about 4 inches thick, a foot long and a tiny 4 inch by 5 inch screen in grey), which i remember playing digger on endlessly (remember the tune? do-do-do-do-do-do-do...).

my first ever attempt at a driving game was probably in france, and i got completely freaked out by grand prix, that classic dos-based game. there was about 6 or 7 circuits, wasn't there? i was best at monza.

[Sharky]

Originally posted by bella

he also had this laptop thing (about 4 inches thick, a foot long and a tiny 4 inch by 5 inch screen in grey), which i remember playing digger on endlessly (remember the tune? do-do-do-do-do-do-do...).

my first ever attempt at a driving game was probably in france, and i got completely freaked out by grand prix, that classic dos-based game. there was about 6 or 7 circuits, wasn't there? i was best at monza.

Ah, that digger. That was one great game. And yes. I do remember the tune

As for that grand prix I recall that was indeed my favourite game (along Test Drive which was more or less the same but with road cars. Both were made by Accolade). There were 8 circuits. Brazil (Rio), Monaco, USA (detroit), Germany, Italy, Canada, Suzuka and the UK. Perhaps you could relive some of the nostalgi bella by seeing the screenshots I took below.

Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3

[Sharky]

Argh!! Those ****** at tripod always changing the policy. Well then you'll have to use the good old copy-paste

http://ax_gti.tripod.com/homepage/gp1.jpg
http://ax_gti.tripod.com/homepage/gp2.jpg
http://ax_gti.tripod.com/homepage/gp3.jpg

[Raven]

I’m another one for the Commodore 64 pile, although my first proper experience was in the arcades at the seaside. They didn’t have loads of machines like they do now, but I can remember Space Harrier, Golden Axe, Afterburner and a driving game, maybe Hard Drivin (quite realistic). My folks bought me the Commodore 64 one Christmas, either 87/8/9. I was pretty lucky, since my cousin, who was a bit older than me, gave us a big suitcase full of games/tapes. A lot of them always crashed (did anyone else used to get that?) Although there was loads of good stuff that I can remember spending hours on… Double Dragon, Kickstart, Lemmings, California Games, Bubble Bobble, Robocop and the arcade classics, Power Drift and Out Run. My favourite game for a long time was operation wolf, the shoot’em up which came with a light gun.

I kept with the C-64 through the NES/Master System era, since the lead games (Mario, Turtles, Sonic) didn’t really grab me, but then I saved up my paper-round money for Mega Drive after I’d been playing Road Rash ‘round a mates house. This was just when Street Fighter 2 & Mortal Kombat were coming out on the consoles as well. I think I must have played damn near all games for the Mega Drive, swapping w/people at school and renting from the video shop. One I’d love to play again was called Skitchin(?), where you were racing on roller blades, grabbing onto cars, doing stunts & beating on baddies. Definitely one of my favourites.

[Minardi fan]

Did anyone else own an Amiga? I started out playing on Tourist's (yes HIM!) - we spent HOURS playing Grand Prix, Dream Web, Syndicate, and the greatest game ever created (except for Final Fantasy VII) The Settlers!

I also had a SNES - that was the first games console I actually owned - Mario Kart and Yoshi's Island remain classics to this day. FANTASTIC!!!

[Sharky]

The second (and last) console I owned was a NES. My favourite games were Contra and Super Mario Bros 3. I recall this one time when I had reached the 8th world of Super Mario 3 for the first time. Bowser's castle was just in sight.....at last, after many days and many hours I was going to finish the game....but just as I was almost there there was a power failture in my building. If you guys remember back in those day's there were no such things as memory cards so all my hard work was lost. You can say I was pretty upset

[Minardi fan]

I had Super Mario Bros. 3 on my SNES, when they introduced the battery-backed memory. I got as far as world 7, with all the tanks. Maaaaaaan it was IMPOSSIBLE! I was immensely proud of the fact that I basically 100%-ed Super Mario World though - I did all the Star Road bit. Very chuffed I was too. I never got 100% on Yoshi's Island though.

[Bononi]

I remember my son and me trying desesperately to finish the game, when my wife came and shout at us : "Are you crazy ? It's 4 AM ! Both to bed right now !!!"

Very addictive !!!!