What games were you raised on?

[badgersprite]

Tell us about a few of the first games you can remember playing, and how it helped you become a gamer. Were your parents into video games? Did you pick up your first light gun at an arcade? Or are you relatively new to video games?

I'm a young whippersnapper, so, I grew up in the '90s with that console generation and the earliest 3D games. But, before I got my Playstation (I still have Jumping Flash, 3D Lemmings and Tekken, which came with the console), my Dad would let me play his games on his PC. I think the first games I played were the original Quake, Doom, Dark Forces, King's Quest VI & Myst - mind you, I think Dad had finished the last one by the time he let me play so I couldn't screw it up for him. I also used to play with my cousin who was four years older than me, since I was too young to really understand a lot of the mechanics.

When I was a bit older I started playing Sim City 2000 & Starcraft, but, before that, I think the first game that I was able to start and finish completely by myself was Final Fantasy VII. I can definitively say that was the game that made me a gamer, but I was certainly brought up in a climate where playing games was something I enjoyed with my family.

So what's your story?

 

[HardRockSamurai]

The Monkey Island games, and Mario 64.

 

[A Weary Exile]

Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, THPS, Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 the classics.

 

[Chancie]

Heh, I had a demented childhood if we're going off of this. I never played games when I was young, though I always watched my dad play and there were some that I got mad at him about if he dared to play without me there.

American McGee's Alice, Doom, Duke Nukem, Max Payne

These are the only ones I can really remember right now.

 

[General Recluse]

Mario 64, super mario world, Donkey kong country and 64.

 

[Andantil]

This sounds kind of messed up, but the first game I ever played was Turok the Dinosaur Hunter on the N64. It was rated M and I was 5 years old at the time.
Other than that, I grew up on Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Banjo Kazooie, and Starfox 64.

 

[Olikunmissile]

The 64 and Metal Gear Solid I guess... And Command and Conquer

 

[BOX oDAVE]

ahhh yes the super nintendo my memory might be a bit sketch because i was only 2 years old but i played super mario world, yoshi's island, and super metroid
my dad changed my entire life that year
little scamp wasent i?

 

[LeeHarveyO]

Killer Instinct and the Mario games on the Super Nintendo, and the Sonic games on the Sega Genisis.

 

[QuirkyTambourine]

Sonic 1 and 2, The Ren and Stimpy Game for Genesis, SimCopter, Streets of SimCity, Tony Hawk 1&2...well that's what I remember most from my childhood

 

[Joe Matsuda]

it was this 4x4 game for the ps1

and then there was twisted metal 2

...never did get to play twisted metal 1

 

[RetroViruses]

Let's see- I went from Pokemon Blue, Orcarina of Time, Pokemon Stadium/Snap, Pokemon Yellow, Twisted Metal 4, Final Fantasy Tactics, Legend of Dragoon, Crash 1,2,3, and Bash, Spyro 1,2,3, Warioland 3, Megaman X, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon

That's all the great games I got when I was young, in rough order, on Gameboy Colour, N64, PSX, and PC for the first 9-ish years of my life...That was over a 2-3 year period...I got freakin' lucky.

This is, of course, not including Reader Rabbit...

 

[Sonicron]

First game I ever played was Super Mario Land, first game I owned was TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan. Both on the original GameBoy. My first console was the NES, with games such as TMNT, Mario Bros., Zelda, Duck Hunt, ...
Christ, I'm a fucking dinosaur. :\

 

[The Brewin]

Well I grew up playing sonic when I was about 7 onward....then I really hit my groove into the PS1 with Metal Gear and Resident Evil...even Command and Conquer Red Alert. Those are the games I think of most when I think of my childhood

 

[Radeonx]

Pong, Mario Bros., and Sonic.

 

[Versagen]

Mario Bros, Sonic, Twisted Metal, and Spyro.
I think that's it. Then I went through a stage where I didn't play any games, and then all of a sudden I started playing video games like crazy.

 

[Sassafrass]

I grew up playing Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot and FF VII.
They were happier times.

[sup]Before FFX-2 made me into a psycho...[/sup]

EDIT: Forgot to put Pong in my list.

 

[SultanP]

The first game I remember playing extensively was some ski sports game. The menu screen was a map of a ski resort where you would walk to the discipline you wished to play, like choosing a level in some of the Commander Keen games. I don't remember many of the disciplines, but I do remember the one where you had to go down the slopes on a rubber ring. I told a friend about it, but he confused it with another ski sports game, which had ski shooting, tobogganing, slalom, ice skating, and ski jumping. I can't remember the names of either, but those were the first two I remember playing a lot. Later came Red Alert, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, and the first Grand Theft Auto.

 

[JohnWaynePagliaccio]

I remember playing a good bit of fighters before I could walk, mainly Mortal Kombat. Granted, I wasn't really playing-just pressing random buttons and watching my father pull off fatalities-but it still helped get me interested in gaming.

I have fond memories of a good bit of 2D fighting games released in the early 90's, Alien Storm for SEGA Genesis and vehicular combat games on PSX.