Poll: When did you first get into video games?
- Thread starter thejboy88
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I've been playing games for as long as I can remember, so early-90s. However, I don't think it was until the mid-to-late-90s that I began treating them as my main hobby. That said, my current level of enthusiasm (for lack of a better words) for them probably began more around 2010.
In other words, I certainly didn't just start loving video games. I enjoyed playing them, and they've always fascinated me from a design perspective, but coming to love them like I do now was more a gradual process that has spanned across pretty much my whole life, not a comparatively small window of time. However, based on the poll options, I'd say 1996-2000 is probably most accurate for me.
In other words, I certainly didn't just start loving video games. I enjoyed playing them, and they've always fascinated me from a design perspective, but coming to love them like I do now was more a gradual process that has spanned across pretty much my whole life, not a comparatively small window of time. However, based on the poll options, I'd say 1996-2000 is probably most accurate for me.
Pretty sure it was early 90s but it would have been somewhat borderline because it would have been the LATE early 90s so to speak. I'm pretty sure I was in school at the time.
Master System 2 was my first console. Still great even today. I got a PS1 a year or two after the release and since then I've always played games.
Master System 2 was my first console. Still great even today. I got a PS1 a year or two after the release and since then I've always played games.
Tricky one! I've played some tomb raider games and age of empires on my pc when I was about.... ten? twelve? something like that. But for a long time that was it, I never bothered to really get invested in games. Two years ago my SO introduced me to games again and now I play (albeit awkwardly) on a regular basis.
Played since near birth on my grandma's Atari. Then, as I was about to start Kindergarten, my parents got a NES. It was basically the carrot in the old carrot/stick routine in that if I did well in school, I got to play it whenever I wanted. Plus, and he'll never admit it, my dad was great at old school games. He's the one who showed me how to find warp zones on Super Mario Bros because he found them whilst dicking around trying to find a quicker way through 1-2.
I was born in the 80's, so I had an Atari and a NES in the 80's. I remember playing some sort of Sesame Street on the Atari as well as Ghost-busters (I was too young to understand that one). I also remember playing Ducktales (first game I ever beat), Super Mario Brothers, and Mega Man 2. I also had some cousins who had a Sega Master System, so I recall games like Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
I was born in the mid 80's and the first system in my house was a NES, to which I played tons of Super Mario Bros and other games starting at around age 4. Plus we also had a computers at the time and a little later, as I started to read and write I spent a lot of time on my dad's Atari 800XL and Commodore 64.
I'm born 1991 so I put 96-00 in the poll.
My dad had SNES/NES and I remember playing Mario and Tennis on them, then when the N64 and Gameboy came around I really started gaming with Zelda, Mario, Pokemon and so many more. But yeah, I games as early as 5, but I'd say when I was 8-9 (1999) I actually remember playing and understanding the games.
My dad had SNES/NES and I remember playing Mario and Tennis on them, then when the N64 and Gameboy came around I really started gaming with Zelda, Mario, Pokemon and so many more. But yeah, I games as early as 5, but I'd say when I was 8-9 (1999) I actually remember playing and understanding the games.
I was born in 1986 and I don't remember a time in my life when video games weren't a part of it. When I was born my parents already had a Commodore 64 and an Atari 2600 which I played with a bit, then in the early 90's I got my SNES and that is when my love of gaming developed.
Late 80s for me. Basically, one of my first memories is playing on a sega master console. My brother is six years older than I am, so that sort of stuff was in the house before I came along.
Basically, I've never not been playing video games. It was an interesting discussion when I tried to explain this to my mother at one point when she questioned why I love video games so much.
Basically, I've never not been playing video games. It was an interesting discussion when I tried to explain this to my mother at one point when she questioned why I love video games so much.
Started on a hand-me-down Atari 2600, then jumped up to a Sega Genesis and an old Windows 95 for MS DOS gaming. I'll still play a few rounds of Streets of Rage or Descent, though on emulator for the former as I can't be bothered to hook up my Genesis.
1981 or so. I would have been 3 playing my uncles Atari 2600 before my parent got me my own the next year.
Started with a Super NES in 1993 with the original Zelda and Super Mario Bros. 3. I used to sit in the kitchen while my grandmother would cut apples for me (because I liked to eat the skins) and then she'd make apple pie.
I wish she hadn't sold the house. I loved that house.
I wish she hadn't sold the house. I loved that house.
Everyone here has been playing video games for most of their life, whereas I kinda liked them since I was in kindergarten, but didn't really get into them until my second year of high school, which was about 3-4 years ago. I mean, I had an N64 when I was younger, and a Gamecube and a PS2 in elementary and middle school, but I didn't really call myself a gamer until I hit high school, because of my lack of friends and poor social skills. Ironically, those conditions usually entail people getting into video games to begin with, but before I called myself a gamer, I could always be found in front of the TV. It wasn't until I had actual friends that I found out about the very large world of video games and, soon after, found myself with a reliable source of internet access, i.e. my own computer, which further exacerbated my love for video games.
I started with the NES but truly never got into gaming until the SNES(I played outside a lot). I did have older systems that I played as well, but NES got most of my attention. That was when I was a wee little one.
1986 onwards sounds about right - my Dad came home with a ZX Spectrum +3 when I was very young (That's a whole 128k of memory, suckas!)... but couldn't tell you the exact year.
The UK hadn't suffered so much from the fallout of the Great Video Game Crash and microcomputers like the Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore, etc were king. I still get all nostalgic whenever I ring a fax machine by mistake...
In England it was actually surprisingly difficult to get hold of a NES for a while, in fact. I think only one retailer had them or something. There's a Guru Larry video that goes into some depth on that, but now I'm rambling again...
The UK hadn't suffered so much from the fallout of the Great Video Game Crash and microcomputers like the Spectrum, Amstrad, Commodore, etc were king. I still get all nostalgic whenever I ring a fax machine by mistake...
In England it was actually surprisingly difficult to get hold of a NES for a while, in fact. I think only one retailer had them or something. There's a Guru Larry video that goes into some depth on that, but now I'm rambling again...
I remember my folks had one of those Pong machines that plugged into the tv when I was young, around '85, but that doesn't really count as it wasn't my system that I could use whenever I liked. In that respect I suppose I got into gaming as an active hobby when I got my ZX Spectrum in '88.