mhg83

The first time i remember playing a game was at my family's first house with the Atari 2600. The first game i played was Galaga or Galaxian.

My grandmother also had an Atari system but had a keyboard and acted like a computer. There was some circus game on it. I also had lots of fun playing against her in Kaboom.

In school we had a racing game that had you solve math problems. But Oregon Trail took up most of our class time

For X-Mas one year we finally got an NES with SMB 3.

And on PC my Dad got a copy of DOOM from one of his co-workers. I think it was on four floppy discs

taffer

I remember playing Atari 2600, although I can't remember what game I ever played first. My cousin had a Colecovision instead of an Atari, and I always made fun of him for that.

I was six years old when the NES released. I remember getting it for Christmas. That was easily the best Christmas I ever had.

I remember playing Oregon Trail in elementary school on an Apple II. There was an after-school computer club I joined, and all we did was play games like Oregon Trail and Number Crunchers. I never actually beat Oregon Trail though because I would spend all my starting money on bullets and spend all my time hunting buffalo. My family and I always died in winter.

brainee

Playing Pong at my godparents' house (must've been sometime in the mid 70s).

Alan Smithee

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Trevor

We had a pong console a couple years before the Atari 2600 came out.

edstein

Pacman on Atari 2600. It was amazing to me that I could play games that good at home.

Dan

Super Mario Bros.
A cousin of mine had a NES, and a bunch of the cousins were playing it, taking turns. I wandered in (I was young... under 5 years old, I think), and wanted to play. I remember doing decently, if that, but I was mesmerized. I vaguely remember the overscan on the TV being a bit of a problem, because it was kind of hard to see the ground in the game, of course I had no understanding of WHY that was the problem back then.
When we got our own NES, my dad set it up while the rest of us were out. When we came home, the screen was flashing on and off, and he said something about it not working. I turned the NES off, pressed down on the game so it was properly inserted (as was required by the NES), then turned the it back on. Success! We played a ton of SMB and Duck Hunt.

Music

Groucho?

DthRdrX

Omega Race on the Commodore 64

The Cow

Yep, me too. Still have it, and it still works.

Matt

Atari 2600, 1981-ish.

Still remember playing Space Invaders, Combat, and Football with my dad on that thing. Still have it, too.

shizawn

Playing Pong at my dad's house.

Brack

Atari 2600 - Asteroids, Donkey Kong, and E.T., easily the worst video game I have ever played.

taffer

I liked E.T. 2600. Of course, when you're five years old every game is a good game. I didn't know it was supposed to be a bad game until I read about it 20+ years later on the internet.

TGM

I remember playing pong at a neighbors house.

I also fondly remember "flipping" Space Invaders on the Atari 2600.

Decker

My dad got me some sort of Pong system made by Sears for Christmas one year. Must have been 1977 or 1978. I hadn't asked for it, but it was kind of exciting for a week or two.

shizawn

I also liked it. Looking back, it was a silly game with some dumb gameplay, but I'm pretty sure I've played worse games since then.

wlj

i had to have been only 3 or 4 years old, but I remember Mom and Dad giving me an Atari 2600. Obviously being that young, I was like: what the heck is this thing? What does it do? I had Pac-man, Space Invaders and Tank. I was hooked. Video games have been a part of me ever since that day.


I remember getting E.T when it was released. It didn't come across as a bad game to me at the time, I was a little kid -- no video games were bad to me.

RichC2

I was born in '83 so:

Remembered but not clearly (don't remember the games): Playing Atari at my Uncle's house, playing NES at a neighbor's house.

Hazy: Mickey's Space Adventure on the Commodore 64

Remember clearly: My dad bought an NES and hooked it up to a TV on our pool table, it was playing Super Mario Bros when I got home from school. He purchased the system and Simon's Quest and it was awesome.

mattysemo247

Atari for me as well. I remember Pitfall being hard as hell and not knowing WTF to do in ET (which makes sense now)

Rob V

I remember doing that Space Invaders trick on the 2600 where you could flick the ON/OFF switch real fast and from time to time you could "dobule fire" a missle if it worked.

And mattysemo --- the ET thing is freaking hilarious! I was in the same boat... what a cruel trick to play on little kids.

Noonan

My dad had a Colecovision, so any combination of Centipede, Time Pilot, Pitfall...etc.

xmiyux

This. 70s, played Pong on a machine my grandparents had.

dvdjunkie32

My brother letting me play his handheld football game. I wanted one of my own so bad.

Adam Tyner

I honestly can't remember a time when I wasn't playing video games. I grew up with the old wood-paneled Intellivision in my living room. I remember going to Showbiz Pizza and playing the heck out of Popeye, BurgerTime, and Q-Bert. (Those three and Dragon's Lair were my go-tos.)