Early/First game experiences

[miyabi95_]

Pretty self-explainatory, just tell whatever you can remember.

(Try not to write full-page stories, but short, simple and to-the-point recounts of old memories, thanks!)

For me, I didn't really grow up with games the same way other kids did. I never had a PSX with Final Fantasy 7 or a Nintendo 64 with Ocarina of Time. I was pretty much occupied by just a NES with a bunch of shovelware (along with some classics like Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda). Eventually, my older brother and I did aquire a GCN and usually played Luigi's Mansion, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Wind Waker, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. I did also have a Game Boy Color (the purple transparent version) and have fond memories with the Game Boy Camera and Super Mario Bros. DX. Then my Sonic obsession started in about 2002 when I started playing S3K Collection for PC.

I've always been a retro gamer since then. Besides, thanks to being a retro gamer, I dodged modern travesties such as Sonic 06!

[psychospacecow]

First PC game was Raptor.
First PS1 game was the twisted metal game where they were toys. (name escapes me.)
First PS2 game was ATV Off Road Fury 3

[Maxpphire]

When I was about 3 years old I really enjoyed playing the Sonic games on the Sega Genesis.

When my sisters got a PC, I then played a lot of After Dark, this weird sprite Sailor Moon dress up game, and Warcraft 1 and 2.

Regarding the Warcraft games, I could never win s the humans but only ever as the orcs and I used to use the bloodlust ability on the sheep because I didn't understand what it did.

[Dolphman]

I grew up with a MS DOS computer more than game consoles. So I played a lot of underrated gems and classics.
Commander Keen being one of the first I played. My dad was one of the few people in Australia who got Wolfenstein 3D and DooM early.
Reason why was because he did a lot of game testing, having subscriptions to certain things. Including the internet when it was brand new.
We also still have an Atari 2600 with a massive collection. Including the infamous port of Pac-Man.

The first Mario game I did play was an unofficial freeware port of Mario Bros. Funny way to be introduced to Mario, isn't it?

[DarkGrievous7145]

Yeah, my memory of this is almost totally non-existent ... /:

I think playing Ocarina of Time , before I really knew what the full game title was, or understood the plot. I can't say they were the fondest of memories. I sucked, totally. I just didn't understand the controls (in fact, wasn't properly taught how to use them, or it didn't stick...) It was satisfying after grabbing the rom recently to finally DESTROY Gohma. If I ever had a childhood nemesis, it was one or more of the following: Queen Gohma, Ocarina of Time, lack of understanding the controls for Ocarina of Time.

[miyabi95_]

The first Mario game I did play was an unofficial freeware port of Mario Bros. Funny way to be introduced to Mario, isn't it?

YAAAAASSS!!! those Mario DOS games were like magic to me back in the day!! I think they pretty much introduced me to the concept "You can use a PC for things other than typing shit"

[NICKtendo DS]

My first game experience was with Alex Kidd built in the SEGA Master System II. I remember playing a lot of Sonic 1 on the MS and Sonic 1 and 2 on Mega Drive. My parents eventually bought the Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World SNES bundle and from there on out, I was a hardcore Nintendo kid, though I played a lot of NES at friends and aqcuaintances, usually Super Mario Bros. 1, 3 and Duck Hunt.

[puggsoy]

Warcraft 2 and 3 are some of my best gaming memories, one of the reasons I enjoy Hearthstone as much as I do.
Old PS1 games like Tomba and Crash Bandicoot, Gameboy games like Pokemon Yellow and LoZ: LA, and Mega Drive games like Micro Machines 2, Alien Storm and the inevitable mention of Puggsy.

[Koh]

Genesis and popular titles (Sonics, Golden Axe, Streets of Rages, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine), Gameboy/Color and popular titles (Pokemons, Zeldas), PS1 and popular titles (Crashes, demos of Tomb Raiders, Bloody Roars), PC and unpopular titles (Speedy Eggberts, Galaxy of Games Red, Millenium Gamepack)

Emulation years, and emulating a bunch of older games, from GBA and before. Puyo Puyo series die hard.

[miyabi95_]

My first emulator (after trying to emulate on my own at a young age) was Visual Boy Advance. One of my dad's coworkers put together a disk with probably over 1000 roms. I mostly played Megaman Battle Network and Golden Sun, among a few others. I owned a GBA with quite a few games already so I used the emulator to play games I couldn't find at the base exchange.

[psychospacecow]

Did anyone else play Starcraft Brood War? I was terrible at that game, but I love it so much. I think most of my memories of it honestly come from the arcade bit, back when it had awesome tower defense games and those "strip" games that I didn't understand at the time on account of being 7.

[DarkGrievous7145]

My first emulator (after trying to emulate on my own at a young age) was Visual Boy Advance. One of my dad's coworkers put together a disk with probably over 1000 roms. I mostly played Megaman Battle Network and Golden Sun, among a few others. I owned a GBA with quite a few games already so I used the emulator to play games I couldn't find at the base exchange.

I also started emulation with Visual Boy Advance.
My best friend at the time introduced me to emulation, and how it all works, at least enough to play the games. Nothing about cheats or such, though. At the time, this whole thing was a mind-blowing concept to me.

[~Axis~]

My first game was Sonic Advance 2. Oh my god, the feel i had for the game brings tears to my eyes. The first character i played as was tails, and i remember looking at his two tails facinated. I thought it was one tail moving so fast it made a second after image (even though i was only 7 and had no concept of such speeds lol). It belonged to my 14 year old cousin at the time and i would beg him for his GBA SP every night to play it until i got my own. Oh man.

[Dolphman]

I tried emulation because I was interested in ripping sprites. So in 2003, I went on a download binge one night until the next morning.
Have an Amiga emulator as well, but it sure sucks setting it up. Even ripping data looks complicated judging from that one forum doing that.
Most of the time, I keep the emulators to try out ROM hacks. I wish the Sonic ones were more interesting like the Mario ones, though.

There are times I wish GOG.com would get more classic games that are still unavailable, like both Jazz Jackrabbit games for example.
Bethesda even released DooM in its original DOS glory, with none of that bullshit they did with the BFG Edition release.
What, you may ask? Consider the following video: [LINK]

[Fawfulthegreat64]

As a kid I was a huge SpongeBob fan (still am, but not as much as when younger) So when I looked through one of my mother's flyers and saw ... something... with SpongeBob on it I begged for it. Thus I got my first video game: SpongeBob Supersponge for the GBA. Later I also got Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, Battle for Bikini Bottom and the Movie game all for the same system.

Then later I got a N64 with Super Mario 64. That game blew me away. I remember beating it for the first time and being amazed at the awesome credits music. I just HAD to beat it one more time while recording to a blank VHS tape so I could listen to that music whenever I wanted.