When and on What did you start gaming?

BenTSG · July 24

I started on consoles, the PS1 to be exact. Watching Dad play DooM and Syhion Filter (However you spell it), then me playing Doom, Oddworld, Duke Nukem. Moved onto the PS2, Then the original Xbox, then spent some time quickly bouncing between a 360 and PS3. Somewhere in there I did play, probably only Minecraft, on a really bad netbook. At some point afterwards, I got a bog standard store PC, and that was the start of my PC career as I kept upgrading the parts in it to get what I've now, and have long dropped consoles since.

ellmarie · July 24

In the 70s, our family's first gaming was the Coleco Telstar series, pong-like games, tennis. Then later the Ataris, 2600 and 5200. We had all sorts. I loved that my parents loved games for the family.

Remember this hand held? I still have one!

and another throw back, loved 2XL!

The_Boggart · July 24

Spectrum 1st , chipped up to 32k by sperry engineers
Atari St , their civilsation better then Ms dos Version

MS DOS machines leading to WoW

Kicked WoW when morrowind came out
ESO eversince

belial5221_ESO · July 24

I started on a Lloyd's TV Sports 802 in late 70s,when I was about 6.Was neat using rifle to shoot the tv,lol.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour · July 24

SickleCider · July 24

I have fuzzy memories at about 3 years old circa 1989 about an ancient Macintosh with some dinosaur game on floppy disk (perhaps Designasaurus?), as well as an NES with cool stuff like the OG Zelda. My brothers were a little older so I mostly played with their assistance. A little later on I started playing by myself on the SNES. I remember losing hours to a game called Actraiser. Played a lot of Turok on the N64. I don't think I really became a "gamer" until about 1997, when I really sank my teeth into Final Fantasy. Then Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Castlevania happened, Devil May Cry, Skyrim got me for a while, then I got Demon's Souls and I've had a very particular strain of brain worms since. Bloodborne remains my favorite game.

SilverIce58 · July 24

In the early-to-mid 2000s, I'd say my first actual gaming system was the Game Boy Advance. I was a pretty young kid then maybe 6 or 7.
My first time playing games was probably when I was younger (5-ish maybe) on the family computer or on my late grandfather's computer when we visited him and grandma. We had tons of CD-ROM games growing up. Still have actually, somewhere around the house lol.

jaws343 · July 24

Definitely early 90s, like 91/92, NES Mario/Duck Hunt combo.

AnduinTryggva · July 24

Started out with Pacman, Missile Command, Space Invader on this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600

Upgraded later to C128 of which we used the C64 for gaming together with the joysticks from the Atari console which were really unbreakable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_128

On this we first had cassette tapes and later the 5 1/4'' floppy diks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_disk

As I was a kid with only little money I bought them single sided and cut out a piece on the edge that allowed using it double-sided.

Played all sorts of video games on that (Monty on the run, Defender of the Crown, the best space game ever Elite, Uridium, my all time favorite on C64: Master of Magic)

Then while at university the internet hit the town and I played a text-based MUD via telnet. Ah memories....

Oh and I forgot. The most awesome Spy vs Spy on C64:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_vs._Spy_(1984_video_game)

ProudMary · July 24

I still love a good pinball machine. My first gamebox was an atari 2600 though.

Ulvich · July 24

1972. PONG

SkaiFaith · July 24

Personally in the '90s with PS1 and the first Game Boy (I think), the big grey one with purple buttons. My brothers played on other machines before but I was too little.

First experiences were Demo discs, then came the games - fond childhood memories, especially with FF7, Metal Gear and Armored Core.

The journey continued on PS2, original Xbox, Xbox 360 (so many good games... Halo3, Oblivion, Fable, Mass Effects, Gears of War), Xbox One and now Xbox Series X.

I've had experiences on PC, and I have a decent gaming one assembled by myself to play VR, but... PC it's not really for me (neither is VR), too much of a hustle, I want less friction possible - I love how instantaneous is the experience on Xbox Series.

In the future? I would like being able to get rid of machines and to play via Cloud at a superb quality... But right now I have internet issues where I live, and only GeForceNow seems to have a good cloud service, aaaand I have years of time and money spent on Xbox servers of ESO soooo... Hopefully they'll find a way to not let me lose everything if I decide to play via GeForceNow, someday.

Necrotech_Master · July 24

i think the first gaming system i played on was an NES in the mid to late 90s, not too long after got a PS1 and would play an xbox at friends houses

also played old PC games (the oldest most fondest ones i played were the original carmageddon, and rollercoaster tycoon)

also had a gameboy advance to start off

Enemy-of-Coldharbour wrote: »

i actually had one of these too, i think my parents gave it to me, i might still have it in one of my memory boxes somewhere lol

Bradyfjord · July 24

Atari 2600 was my first, back around '86.

LannStone · July 24

Remarkable how many people here started out on consoles
My first game was King's Quest: The Perils of Rosella on PC in 1988, followed by Ultima VI on PC in 1990
Always PC, almost always RPG, ever since then

katanagirl1 · July 24

I’ve been gaming as long as you, OP. I think my Pong machine was called Telstar, it was enormous!

Next was Atari 2600, Commodore-64, then as a starving grad student with a Sega system, and a long gap until I got a PS2 slim, then all the PS after that.

I used to play a lot of arcade games too - Tail Gunner, Galaxian, Galaga, Star Wars, Space Harrier, Zaxxon, Xeviius, Tron, Gauntlet, and so on. I loved the ones that would let you keep putting quarters in to keep playing, though I generally watched others play and tried to figure out the patterns.

I had one of those old football handheld games too.

JB_den · July 24

Friend's Intellivision, second gen, I think. It was the 1980's and he lived across the street. Shortly later I got the Commodore 64 and played the cartridge and 5.25" floppy games.

SaffronCitrusflower · July 24

katanagirl1 wrote: »

I’ve been gaming as long as you, OP. I think my Pong machine was called Telstar, it was enormous!

Next was Atari 2600, Commodore-64, then as a starving grad student with a Sega system, and a long gap until I got a PS2 slim, then all the PS after that.

I used to play a lot of arcade games too - Tail Gunner, Galaxian, Galaga, Star Wars, Space Harrier, Zaxxon, Xeviius, Tron, Gauntlet, and so on. I loved the ones that would let you keep putting quarters in to keep playing, though I generally watched others play and tried to figure out the patterns.

I had one of those old football handheld games too.

I remember the first stand up arcade games fondly. I remember when astroids and space invaders came out. Then Pac Man and a few others like Galaga etc. Ahhhh, the good ol' days. If only we could go back in time and make better life choices...

LaintalAy · July 24

I've also had:
Nintendo NES (Total recall)
PS2 (Grand Turismo)
X-Box (1) (Morrowind)

I won't ever buy another console. Games were always too expensive.

DreamyLu · July 25

November 1972: Pong. I can recall how my father was so proud to have purchased it and how he was trying to make it work on our TV.

Later, I started to follow double ways in the gaming world:

1) Puzzles games. Myst world was/still is my world (but also Rhem and some others). I still replay them on Steam regularly and have done the most recent chapters like Obduction.

2) MMORPGs. Funnily, I came to them via a non-MMO: Tombraider. I did opus 1 to 3, but got enough of it and via forums, was led to give a try to the original Guild Wars: From there, my gaming life changed...

Decades later, I still play GW sporadically, even if my main game is since long time GW2.

I came to ESO only 2 years ago, as I was searching for a game to relax and chill solo aside of my main.

JimFord047 · July 25

First Business SYSTEM, I ever worked on, belonged to the Ministry of Defence , and ran the Royal Air Force Engine Management System Worldwide (The Airforce Guys did not like the fact an Army Airborne Soldier was the Systems / Network Engineer, still LMAO to this day!!!!)

the picture left to right, 9 Pin Dot Matrix Printer , sitting on top of 2 10MB Disc Pack Drives, next to that on top are 2 TI Terminals sitting on top of a Tape unit used either for Backups or System Loading above 2 stacked Twin Floppy drives on top of 2 Stacked Disc Drives.

Next Rack , Controller unit on top of 2 system units on top of another Control unit

The Operating system was Texas Instruments DX10 , All the Software was Cobol , with the Joy of Write / Alter a bit of the code inn any part of the programs and type in INIT and the change went live instantly. Made mistakes a pain in the butt to fix lol

All of the terminal / Printer / external comms was run on 9 Pin Serial cables (which you had to make all the time)

The systems that I worked on at the time, Monitored / registered / Managed every Engine that the Royal Air Force Had either in an airframe or in Storage and Repair as a Live System Worldwide on 1MB of Memory!!!

AN EXAMPLE of just how useful they system was, the Engine Fitters could only draw from stores the specific parts for that engine, but during the First Gulf War , the engines were getting Killed by Sand! with he system we were able to find Alternative parts that were Correct for Specific Engines from other engine types, then allocate them as required, allowing the aircraft to keep safely flying....

JimFord047 · July 25

And Yes , we did play "Games" on them!!!

bmnoble · July 25

Those portable handheld Brick games sometime in the late 90's.

Orbital78 · July 25

I can't really remember that far back, but probably Oregon Trail on a school Apple II or the Atari at home. I don't remember if I went to the local arcade before that. Ah the joys of Aladdin's Castle early morning private sessions with friends on our birthdays. 386 or 486 systems were when I really started to game at home, besides NES and SNES.

GuuMoonRyoung · July 25

1990, Atari 512, I think. But I was never a gamer per say, I was more interested in how the things in the tv moved, how did it happen. I was not allowed to play much by the older cousins and when I played I sucked so they would punish me for being bad at video games! If I were a Gen Z I could complain about being a victim of toxic gamers, but since I am not, I call it character building.

LadyLethalla · July 25

Pong-like TV console with 4 different bouncing dot games...
C64
Nintendo Game and Watch, which I still have (2 of)
NES, which I had to trade into buy my...
SNES - which I still have
Custom PC or 3
I think I also had an original PlayStation, which probably got traded in on...
PS2
PS3
XBox360 - purchased during the great PS network outage of (I think) 2011, because I was completely addicted to ACB multiplayer
PS4
PS5
Custom PC.

Will probably upgrade the PC rather than buy another console, since my PS5 has basically been an expensive Blu-ray player since 2021.

LaintalAy · July 25

McDonnell-Douglas Sequel 9000 series.

Running the Pick OS as Reality 4.2.

*** VS minicomputer consoles all shipped with the 'Star Trek' text game for operators waiting for backups to finish.

LaintalAy · July 25

??? that's obscene?

Their motto was "*** Cares"

Zodiarkslayer · July 25

I was born on the other side of the iron curtain. So no fancy consoles or PCs until the wall came down, the prices of consoles dropped and the wages rose to western standards.
So, I started with a SNES in 1992 with Legend of Zelda and the original Winning Eleven.
Then came Playstations one and two with various versions of Tekken, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy and GranTourismo.
In 2006 I got a PC for University and found Oblivion and Morrowind. Haven't looked back since.

Grizzbeorn · July 25

Gah, I forgot about all of the arcade time in the 70s and early 80s. We spent more time in the arcade at the bowling alley than the time we spent bowling; Galaxian, Galaga, Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man, Defender, Stargate, Omega Race, Battlezone, Berzerk, and for pinball, The Black Knight, and Gorgar...
It took us hours to get home after school (we walked) because we spent at least two hours in the convenience store on the way home every weekday, playing Moon Cresta.