The game that got you into gaming

[Sansha]

I got my introduction to gaming when I was a kid and some family friends got their first computer. The only title I remember was an 8-bit adventure called 'Granny's Garden', but they also bought a Donkey Kong machine from a closing arcade. They later got a PlayStation when they came out, and we played Twisted Metal and Crash Bandicoot naked. Because it was summer.

Other friends got their first games soon after, featuring shit like The Incredible Machine, Willy Beamish and the star of this story, Jazz Jackrabbit. Taking turns playing games, I poured so many hours into Jazz. When I got my first computer, I was absolutely delighted to see it on there. My first game purchase ever was the full version of Jazz. I was also introduced to Doom and various Apogee productions.
When they got their second computer, it came with The Sims. Now that was a big goddamn turning point for me. The Sims was one of the most definitive games of my childhood and early teens. I still play the hell out of it.

My second computer came with Age of Empires, which got me into the RTS, and Blood and Duke 3D which upped my lust for gore and action, and my purchase of Half-Life 2 introduced me to broadband internet and the glorious bloody thing that is Steam.

I still have my second computer, and while over the past sixteen years I've replaced every piece including the case, as a unit it's still with me. Sadly it's really dying now; still using Win XP, hard-drives are dying and there's really not much I can do to fix that.

I enjoyed that journey. I miss it.

 

[skaskunk]

It would have to be Stunts. I have no idea how it worked or why but when I was 4-5 we had a pc and when it booted the screen turned black with just some kind of white line of texts and when I wrote "AUTO" and hit enter the game would start. What kind of black voodoo magic that was I have no clue but it worked and it got me hooked.

 

[Frezzato]

Spoiler: click to expand

Did you get the Anchorage expansion mission? Man, stealth suit, plus the dart gun, you're invisible. Jesus, the stealth was the only reason I didn't mind "taking the subway". I imagine I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing the game without it.

I did, ultimately, get the expansions when they released the game-of-the-year edition. It is also the game that taught me to never get a PS3 edition of a Bethesda game. I say this as a fan of Bethseda's (so no intention to start a flamewar). To your point, that stealth suit was fun to use, especially with the other four expansions. I don't know if I would have made it off the Mothership without being near invisible.

I had't realized that bit about the dart gun...I'll have to try that with my pc character. It was also coming off the Mothership that taught me my lesson about Bethesda and the PS3...the game locked up about fifteen steps upon my return and will not let me reload without immediately locking.

A bit of warning about the dart gun. It can actually ruin the game. It kills really slowly, so I'm guessing there won't be much temptation to spam it.

Spoiler

You can literally shoot mutants in the face with it while cloaked, and as long as they don't walk into you, they'll never know you're there.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Donkey Kong Country: I had played one or two video games before, kind of, but this was the first game that was actually accessible to me(due to my friend across the street owning it) and pretty much got me raging about a Super Nintendo. My god though did it ever take me for freaking ever to actually become good at it though. It took me forever to actually manage to remember to jump on a Beavers' head.

 

[Bifford]

I suppose Doom. Or was it Quake? I don't remember, but those are the games that made me a hardcore gamer, around which I formed my first obsession.

 

[bificommander]

It would probably be U.S. Navy Fighters, an old flight sim. Red Alert comes a close second.

 

[Skaros]

For me it was Lengend Of Zelda and the Minish Cap for GBA that got me hooked on the concept of gaming.

 

[Berithil]

Let's see... my first game was Star Wars Rogue Squadron, way back in '98. The game(s) that really got me into gaming, though, was probably the Crash Bandicoot games.

But the game that totally defined me as a gamer would probably have to be Ratchet and Clank.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Good ol' Pong. That takes me back...

 

[Radoh]

Let's see then, that would be....
Myst, back when I was just a little Pup.
Thinking on it, I could probably recreate the entirety of Myst Island, being that it was the first locale I played.

 

[Kyrian007]

Vector graphics finally got me. As a kid we had a Sears brand Pong machine. And later we'd picked up a Atari 2600, but none of that really got to me. Then I found the vector graphics Star Wars. In the sit down cabinet... with the huge thumping speakers under the chair and behind you. Back in the day when the cabinet still had an ash tray bolted to it.

I fell in love... the arcade became a second home. A few years later (after getting a NES and getting hooked on Dragon Warrior and Nintendo and Capcom games) I got X-Wing for my (at the time) brand new 486 DX with a huge 66 Mhz processor... I've been a gamer ever since.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Diddy Kong racing! That shit was like crack to me. I remember always chasing the ghosts of my dad's best times around the track. He was a demon.

 

[Vigormortis]

I can personally thank three different games for getting me into gaming:

Super Mario Bros. sparked my curiosity with the medium.

Mechwarrior 2 started my fascination with the technology behind the medium.

Half-Life cemented my love affair with the medium and showed me the potential for unique story-telling held therein.

 

[Gothproxy]

Mine would have to be considered "Secret of Mana" for the SNES. That really brought my in to console gaming. The story, the mechanics and especially the music just made me fall in love with RPGs.

 

[Zeke63]

Super Martio All Stars + Super Mario World, and also Kirby's Dreamland

 

[comando0110]

The first game i ever played was this racing game game in chuckie cheese. I was 4 year old. the reason i picked that game was because i liked car racing, i would watch nasscar every chance I could. I have no idea what its name is, but it is also a nintendo 64 game. the game after that, was THE jarassic park game. you know, the one where you sit on a moving bench and you shoot the dinosaurs with your red or blue joystick depending on wether you were player one or player 2.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Burger Time or Demon Attack on the old Atari 2600.

I got an upgrade to the NES a few years later with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as my first game with it

 

[Thyunda]

Steel Empire and Sonic 2, both on my Sega Megadrive. The former's title I only found out recently from this very website after putting a description together based on the scattered, fragmented and really damn hazy memories I had of playing that game.
I was really quite young. I'm 20, and the game is at least as old as I am. Now that puts things in a weird perspective. The game that really made me a gamer is as old as me.