The game that got you into gaming

[DovaChiief]

Hey everyone, a new, wet behind the ears second-time poster here!

Look back and find the game that made you realize you truly wanted more of the medium. You may have played other games before, but this was the first one to draw you in and keep you there. I arrived fairly late to the party (mid-2000s). I'd played some Age of Mythology, Total War, Halo, and Battlefront 2, but only in passing. This changed when I was at a friends house and he was wandering the green forests of Cyrodill (Oblivion). He handed me the controller, when I asked what I had to do he said "Anything" for whatever reason, that was such a powerful moment for me and I was hooked. The rest, as they say, is personal history.

OT: The game that brought you into the madhouse...

 

[dimensional]

Super Mario Bros on the NES I had dabbled before but that was the game that drew me in such a superb game great design, great artistry and great controls plus it was extremely simple gameplay but so rewarding and it never felt repetitive. I didnt play it when it was first released though I think it must have been about 1987 when I first had a go and havent looked back since.

The fact thats its still as playable today as it was back then is remarkable and testament to its quality.

 

[squeekenator]

Back when I was a wee little thing I always used to watch my mum playing Age of Empires. Eventually I started to play it myself, and since then I've basically been playing games my whole life.

 

[Zhukov]

I was basically fascinated by games since the first time I saw them at age, I dunno... four?

There wasn't any "that one game" for me.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

That would be Super Mario Bros 3. Back when I about 5 I used to have to stay back after school at this after hours care program for a couple of hours because my parents worked late. At this program they had a SNES set up with Super Mario All-Stars and we all used to play Super Mario Bros 3 constantly. After that I convinced my parents to buy my brother and I a Super Nintendo and I've been enjoying games ever since.

 

[VanQ]

I always liked and played plenty of games since the age of about 5ish so I've liked them as long as I can remember. But it was probably either StarCraft or Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus or Pokemon Blue that really hooked me. I had played a bunch of PS1 games, GameBoy games and Sega Megadrive games before it but it was probably the combination of those two titles on PC and Pokemon for on the go that made me fall in love with games.

I think I was about 11 when I got StarCraft and beat the campaign with no cheats, even seeing the secret Hybrid Moons chapter by accident. I also managed to save all the Mudokons in Exoddus and Oddyssey. Without an internet guide. Only because I didn't know such a thing existed at that age.

Though mentioning the GameBoy, it may very well have been when I received my GameBoy Colour Pikachu Edition and Pokemon Blue for my 10th birthday that was the turning point. That is still the best birthday present I've ever gotten.

I still prefer PC and handheld devices over home consoles to this day. I have a PS3 but my PC and Vita/PSP still get most of my attention. It's funny how little changes over time.

 

[BathorysGraveland]

I remember it being some Monsters. Inc game on the PS1. I vaguely remember my cousin playing it when I was very young, and I started playing it and that more or less skyrocketed my love of video games. I also remember my first PC game, which is important as I only play PC's now, and it was Powerslide. A fairly old but enjoyable post-apocalyptic racer.

So yeah, Monsters. Inc (whichever one it is) overall, Powerslide for PC.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

Haha probably the one who joined video gaming the earliest,I got in to it when I got an Atari 2600 console with a cartridge that had like 100+ games in its built-in memory for Christmas.
You can imagine for how much time it kept me occupied...
Of course I can't tell you of a single game that made me say to myself that that's it,I like video gaming. With so many games available at the same time it would be hard to choose one out of them,let alone that their names weren't visible anywhere because at that time most games didn't even had title screens,and would just throw you in to the first level directly.

Ahhh.... These were good times,you would pay the full ordinary price a single game had,to buy a single cartridge,but which had like 10,40,100 games in it...

 

[Rawne1980]

Pong.

No, really.

I've been around, literally, since the dawn of gaming and had Pong on the Atari 2600 which was one of the first consoles.

 

[Eddie the head]

I played game before it but I think Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Did it for me, I still go back and play it and I still find fun.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

For me it would have been a mix of Donkey Kong and Super Mario Land on the Gameboy.
Used to spend so much time on Super Mario Land when I was younger but now I can essentially speed-run through the whole game in less than an hour.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

Snip

Hey man, welcome to The Escapist! Feel free to stick around and make yourself comfortable. Make sure to read the Rules [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/codeofconduct], play nice, stay out of the basement and maybe drop by the Pub Club and say hello sometime?

OT: Pokemon Red. Also doubles as my first game, back when I was like, 6 or 7? Got a GameBoy Colour one Christmas with Pokemon and Tetris and I was completely hooked from the second I started playing. Pokemon particularly got me thanks to the fact that there was this entire interactive world contained in the palm of my hand, and that was a pretty big deal when I was 7.

 

[xshadowscreamx]

super mario world on the SNES, many many hours playing that game and trying to unlock secret locations, like on that star world. that game has so much magic and dreams.

 

[deviltry]

Quake 3

Altho I've been playing since NES, but those games with tanks, rc cars, mario and controlling flying saucer never really got me hooked up. Now Quake 3 was awesums. And later Giants: Citizen Kabuto came out. One of my favorite games. <3

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It was probably either Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. I can think of a bunch of SNES games I played with a vengeance, but those two come to mind because they were some of the few where you could actually have a save file as opposed to a level-by-level password system, meaning you could enjoy the game "progressing". The fact they had a %%% to complete also added introduced me to the idea that a game isn't just a bunch of linear "levels" and the experience can expand in many different directions (i.e. sidequests, collectibles, completionist stuff).

 

[Andy Shandy]

Sonic The Hedgehog. As soon as I heard Green Hill Zone blasting away, I knew I'd be hooked.


Who knows what would've happened had I never played that?

 

[ZehMadScientist]

The game that really got me into gaming is not really one game, but several. Pokemon is most likely the first game I've played to addictive proportions though.

I also remember going to my cousins' a lot and gaming away on their N64. Every time we visited I wanted to play Pokemon Stadium and Super Mario 64. This is what got me begging to my parents to get me one a N64 as well, and when they finally broke, my gaming adventures began for real

 

[Jakub324]

I played Timesplitters on PS2 and suddenly I was in love with my console.