The Game That Made You A Gamer

[Toriver]

What would you say is the game that did the most to bring you into gaming as a hobby you spend much of your time on? In other words, as the title says, what game made you a "gamer"? For me, that game was the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I had a Sega Genesis before that, and spent some time on it, but there were other hobbies that ate up more of my time. On big occasions, my parents would rent a Nintendo 64 for us kids and we would get a game or two for that. One of those rentals changed everything. After renting Super Smash Bros. one time, I decided that I was curious enough about the games Link came from that I would rent OoT next time. When I did, I just couldn't put the thing down like I could before. I was hooked on gaming from then on. A few months later, we got an N64 as a Christmas present with 3 games, including OoT, and I was swallowed whole in (at that time) current-gen gaming. Soon after, Pokemon came along for the Game Boy, and so on. In short, Sonic was a great gateway, but Zelda sealed the deal.

How about you? What was the first game where, when playing, you knew, "I'm a gamer now"?

P.S. This is search-bar approved, as far back as I would go into the results, so sorry if you feel it isn't.

 

[Vrex360]

Well for me, the first game that ever 'blew me away' enough that I wanted to do more than just play casually and wanted to seriously get into games was still Halo: Combat evolved.
I loved the action, the cinematic story telling and the general atmosphere. Seriously, it's one of those games that I just loved and couldn't get enough of.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Well Metal Gear Solid was my Gateway and the deal sealer. If I had never played that game, I would have never have taken up Gaming as I have now.

Calumon: Shame he spends most of his time on Forums rather than Gaming now! ^^

Jack: Just trying to save money...

 

[Flamezdudes]

I'm not really sure, earliest games i played were Crash Bandicoot, Mario and Pokemon. But the ones that made me really get into gaming were probably Halo 2 and World of Warcraft. Then i got an Xbox 360 and started playing games like mad.

 

[angel34]

It's tricky tricky tricky tricky tricky HUH!

Yup, SSX Tricky introduced me to the madness that is the gaming universe. Before I knew it all I did was play that game until I discovered Max Payne which really made me "a gamer".

 

[ActionDan]

I'll count the entire Sonic 1, 2, 3, 3 & Knuckles series. I played them non-stop when I was a kid.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Made me a gamer? I was born a gamer!.

Also, Sonic the Hedgehog.

 

[Lullabye]

Super Smash Brothers.
I was eight, and near one handing a 1 on three match vs the hardest computer enemies. It wasn't my first game, but it sure as hell was my first hardcore one.
Also, I think Spyro was the one that let me be a platform gamer without shame.

 

[jthm]

It's threads like these that make me feel like the oldest goddamn person on the site. Qbert and Frogger on the Atari 2600 introduced me to gaming and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past sold me on it for life.

 

[Jaythulhu]

*snip* the best game of all time hands down

Sorry champ, not quite. This is:

Spoiler

It's also what started me on the gamer's path.

 

[Tartarga]

Spyro the Dragon. I first played it in a store and at that moment I knew I was a gamer.

 

[tjarne]

Red Alert 2 or Age of Empires I/II I think.

 

[Pink_Pirate]

It's threads like these that make me feel like the oldest goddamn person on the site. Qbert and Frogger on the Atari 2600 introduced me to gaming and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past sold me on it for life.

heh i know how you feel m8.
I got into gaming around the NES era, a friend of mine had the console and i was over there pretty much non stop playing super mario 3. It wasn't until the SNES came out that I managed to convince my parent to get my a console, Megaman X was one of my first games on that, it was probably that game more than anything that hooked me for life.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

Call of Duty. I'd played games before then, when my brothers weren't playing them, like Pokemon and Crash Bandicoot. But the first CoD was the thing that got me hooked and United Offensive just sealed the Deal. I have my Dad to thank for that.

Spoiler: Call of Duty

I've always loved the box art.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Easy, a PC Game called Quarantine... probably the first sandbox ever, which is funny in retrospecive, since I don't like sandbox games that much

 

[Loonerinoes]

Man this is tough to answer...

...mainly because I literally grew up amongst all kinds of early 90s games. Right around the times when Windows 3.1 was still the newest thing on the block and DOS was used for all games and pirating games still involved smuggling foreign CDs loaded with hundreds of games into the country.

I played all kinds of games back then I suppose for something like 5 years or so, but none of them really impressed me a whole lot...but then I think three games really caught my attention in the mid-90s. Little Big Adventure from Adelaide, Syndicate from Bullfrog and last but definately not least Crusader: No Remorse from Origin. I guess with those three games I kind of got the feeling that videogames really could mean something a whole lot more than just a past time...

EDIT: And goddamit, how could I forget UFO: Enemy Unknown (or X-Com UFO Defense for you americans). Best goddamn game design of the times.

 

[MrLS]

It was probally Rune.

Spoiler

My first ever online multiplayer experience and still my favorite game of all times.

Oh and it also got me crazy in Norse Mythology.

 

[linwolf]

Warcraft: orcs and humans, had played good games before this. But this was the game that made me love games.