How did you guys get into PC gaming ?

[sanquin]

At first I only had consoles. Nes, after that N64, and finally the Ps1. My dad ran a family business in accounting back then, so he wanted decent pc's. Eventually, on my...11th or 12th birthday or some such I received his old pentium 3 pc. Back then there was no internet apart from a single dial-up modem for my dad's PC, though, so I started out saving up for bargain games or what I would get as gifts.

Then at age 15 we finally got ADSL for the entire house. And boy did the flood gates open. Tons of games, tons of websites, mmorpg's, anime, newgrounds (and later early youtube), you name it. I was hooked pretty quickly. My first mmorpg was Ragnarok Online, and my first 'large' games were HalfLife 1 with expansions, CS 1.4, and Morrowind.

That's not to say I didn't own any consoles after that. I've also had, in order, the GameCube, PS2, Xbox360, and I currently have the PS3. (no intention to get the newest generation though.)

 

[Cowabungaa]

A shitty early-90's PC my mum or dad got from work was the only thing I had until about 2001, and thus the only thing I could really play games on. So for a long time the only games I really played were early 90's classics like Commander Keen, Duke Nukem 1 and 2 and some old boxing game I lacked the 2nd floppy disk of. I always hated that.

But yeah we were always behind with tech and I never got expensive gifts as a kid so I didn't have any consoles. Only a few friends had a console of some kind actually, so I never played much on them either. So you could say it was out of necessity, which then later changed into love for the platform.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I decided I wanted to play New Vegas with mods. So I saved some money, did a lot of research, ordered the parts, and put it all together. Learned a lot about computers that way. Been using them (sometimes gaming) since I as a kid, but never knew the inner workings. Haven't used my consoles in years.

 

[Jeroenr]

I was a kid in the early 90s with no money.
The systems in the house were an Atari 800 and 2600, and a 286 PC.

The 286 played a lot better games.

//Didn't own a "current generation" console until the Saturn

Though now that I'm an adult with money, I pretty much own any system that I want.
Way too many good console games to ignore them.

Ah yes, the good old Atari 800 XT.
Must have driven my parents to madness because of the music loop of Pittfall II.

Also played River Raid and Fort Apocalypse a lot.

Later had a MSX-1, also a lot of fun, still have books full of code for games to type over.

 

[Callate]

Early exposure to the Atari 800 (my sister's college computer), the Apple II at school, the Commodore 64 at home; eventually having a 386 at home and a friend who ran a BBS. And so on.

I understand those who say that consoles are a better value for money; if all I did on a PC was play games, I might feel the same. But as the PC is a remarkable and versatile creative tool, it becomes the difference between being able to explore others' creativity and being able to do that and express my own.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well I pretty much used to "lets play" with my bro like Quake, Red Alert and The Sim etc and I used to played those games sometime later when he wasn't using the pc.

I only got into proper pc gaming once I build my own pc years ago. It's the sole reason why I wanted to build one since premade pc can't run any games.

 

[MoltenSilver]

Playing StarCraft with my father when I was 8 or so, and just kinda carrying on from there

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I'm not completely a PC gamer, but...I've been playing on a PC a lot more since my 360 quit working. My third one. At some point, I'll get an Xbox One so I can play Rock Band 4 and maybe some other stuff, since my computer isn't up to current specs by any means. Now that I've gotten a taste of PC gaming, I will probably always have a place for it, though.

 

[EMWISE94]

honestly I was kinda just herded towards PC gaming, I had just started Uni overseas and obviously couldn't take my consoles (Wii and PS3) with me so all I had was my faithful laptop... which i then spilled pepsi twist on, got a new one and from there it was my only source of gaming until I got a 3DS. Don't really play on my 3DS that much though, its mostly just when Im on the can.

But yeah, ever since 2013, PC has been my main platform, I feel my laptop might be getting left in the dust at times though, or at least i got that feeling when I bought DMC 4 SE and even on the lowest settings the framerate drops... but then again it could be that the games poorly optimized cause graphically its not that different from vanilla DMC 4 and I can run that just fine... heck I could run DmC just fine at higher settings with no framerate dip.

But yeah, one day I wish to own a rig... I'd say its cheaper but considering I'd have to import most of the parts and my current country of residence has a sick idea of customs, it wont be that cheap.

 

[kris40k]

Phantasie [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasie] on the Commodore 64. That game and system was my gateway drug. Never gotten clean since.

I wouldn't say that I am a PCMR type though, as I currently have a XBone, 360, PS3, WiiU, and Wii all still hooked up around the house, but most of my gaming is done on the PC these days.

 

[MHR]

As a child I was a console pheasant. Then I slowly opened my eyes to the increased complexity and greater selection of games available on the PC. Once my console became "outdated" and I would have to buy another one to simply go on being a mere peasant, I wisely decided to join the master race.

 

[Thurston]

By parental decree, no consoles allowed in my house. I'd visit friend's house, and play on their Intellivision and Atari 2600. One of my friend's dads brought a Commodore PET with tape drive. Game over man.... game over...

 

[Michel Henzel]

My parents decided to get a PC in the early 90's, it played games.

Yeah that was it, no big story. It was just a match made in heaven so to speak .

 

[FFHAuthor]

Apple Macintosh. The first with an actual 'desktop' operating system. Back when a mouse had one button and the little point and click interface tutorial was mind blowing. Yeah, we needed a tutorial to get what a 'point and click' interface was back then.

SimCity.

The original SimCity.

 

[pearcinator]

Fairly recently actually.

Well, when I was young I had an N64 but still played some games on PC like Monkey Island and Star Wars: Dark Forces but mostly played N64. I upgraded to an Xbox and then an Xbox 360. I bought The Orange Box on PC in early 2008 (when I had a fairly shitty PC) and played the shit out of some other Steam games. However, when I read more about the Xbox One/PS4 the more I thought my money would be better spent on a gaming PC.

So, instead of buying a new console (apart from Wii U which I bought back in 2013 cos I love Nintendo games still) I spent $1500 on a new gaming PC (well, bought the parts and assembled it with the help of a mate cos it was cheaper that way). That was a year ago and now I just play PC with the odd Nintendo game here and there (Super Mario Maker is the latest game I've been enjoying). I just hold out for the Zelda/Mario games because they are so great.

I'll stick with the PC I got now (GTX 770, i54670K, 8GB RAM) for another year and might do a big upgrade at the end of 2016 (when some big games come out).

 

[hentropy]

It's always a little strange when I hear both console and PC gamers act like PC gaming is some kind of class distinction, because I got into PC gaming specifically because I couldn't afford consoles. Or at least my parents couldn't. I started looking at ways to upgrade the family PC to handle playing more modern games. Being able to click an icon on my desktop and play games, even on low settings, was a big deal to my teenaged self, and being able to aim a shooter with my mouse was another wide-eyed and beautiful revelation.

My computer became the Ship of Theseus from there, constantly upgrading until this day, 150 bucks from my birthday here, 100 for Christmas here... it was a lot easier than trying to get 300-400 dollars all at once to buy just one console, not counting games. At the time I never thought I'd care about computers, but that's how it happened. Even before that I had to replace the drive on my Xbox, something more technical than the vast majority of people had to encounter in order to play games.

That's why I always consider PC gaming the better option for lower-cost gamers, because while it is certainly easy to spend 2k on a super awesome gaming rig, it's also easy to spend much less.

 

[Silence]

In germany, consoles are ... or rather were looked down upon. So most people just got a PC. To do 'work'.

Ended up being the biggest market for PC games, and well, it's pretty much my story. My parents would not allow me a console, doesn't mean I could not waste away hours in PC games (first Monkey Island, Roller Coaster Tycoon, etc., then Warcraft 3 TFT, mostly funmaps online, then WoW ... and so on).
Wanted to maybe get a console with the new generation (but PC games take priority because, well, it's good, games cheaper and all), but nothing seemed worth getting. So I upgraded PC and am still playing on it.

 

[Barbas]

I was in a branch of KPS when I was just a little tiddler, and my Dad bought my friend and I a big cardboard box with Duke Nukem striking a pose on the cover. Boy did he cop some flak for that purchase, especially after Duke's saucier catchphrases started making themselves heard around the domicile.

 

[Windcaler]

It was the 90's back when many older PC gamers would say was the golden age. I was taking a computer programming class in high school at the time and our teacher hosted essentially LAN parties everyday after school for a few hours while he got other stuff done. I remember played Descent, Jedi Knight, Heavy gear, and Warcraft 2 everyday after school. Thats what got me into PC gaming.

Before that I was a big fan of the NES and SNES (I never got into the N64) but when I got to the age of 18 I went into the military and PC gaming was always difficult to do when in the field but it was the best thing while in the barracks. You could host LAN parties with everyone in the building and even a few of the neighboring barracks. Ive been playing primarily PC every since. Ive had my fair share of consoles in the past (Playstation, playstation 2, xbox 360, and playstation 4) but PC has been my primary platform for a lot of reasons, the biggest one is most likely the variety I get from the mass of games on PC.

 

[Random Gamer]

Got a few Game/Watch from my parents when I was a kid (stuff like Octopus and Donkey Kong).

Then upgraded to Commodore 64 a few years later. Some basic stuff obviously and some better, Winter Games, Saboteur, Zaxxon, Barbarian, Ghots'n'GOblins, Test Drive. Then a classmate gave me a copy of Sid Meier's Pirates! a few weeks before our exams - still wondering if it was an evil plot - and that was it, I was doomed and spent a shitton of hours on it.

Played SimCity on the college's computers in very early 1990s, then got a Mac a couple years later - again, got my hands on Pirates, and after some time on Civilization, which doomed me further, as well as other shareware games, like Zork, Lemmings, Exile, Realmz, Spectre, Wolfenstein, Syndicate, Populous.

Eventually shifted to PC in 2000, because there definitely was way more games on it.

Never had a console - except an oldie handed down the family line which had Pong on it