The video game that got you into gaming

[orlandu4ever]

I've been playing video games for about 25 years now but living in a place where my gaming selection was limited to the desires of a high school football star meant that all i had to play were sports titles and fighting games.

It wasn't until 1998 when i was introduced (thanks to my best friend) to Final Fantasy Tactics, to this date my favorite game and the one that transformed me from a casual gamer that knew more about Madden and NBA Live than he wanted into an RTS and RPG fanatic.

 

[figday]

skifree and reversi... the year they came out.
yeah im old :3

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Twisted Metal.

And yes, I literally am giddy for the new Twisted Metal

 

[Flaming Narwhal]

Playing Super Mario Bros. 2 in the hot-ass summer of 1999 when I was four years old with my older brother. It was something he and I could compete in that didn't break anything, so mom couldn't mad when we broke something

Then Earthbound came along and that sealed everything. O, Earthbound, I love you so.

 

[Black-6]

Pong on the Atari 2600...

Yes I am old.

 

[Xan174]

I remember seeing Total Annihilation at a friend's house when I was 8 or 9, and just being mesmerised. Still one of the best game soundtracks I've ever heard, and the game has held up pretty well. Obviously I was too young to worry about occasional pathfinding issues (which they still hadn't fixed by Supreme Commander!) and dodgy A.I.

I also sunk an obscene amount of time into Pokemon Red on the Game Boy Colour.

 

[Killing_Time]

A master piece platformer, it had everything, jumping, boss fights racing levels, side scrolling sections and even a bit of third person shooting.

This.

 

[orangeapples]

Lots of stuff on our old Apple II, but I do not remember what they were... I just know we had a big book of floppy discs...

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

i was given pokemon crystal and game boy color as present by a family member

 

[JasonKaotic]

Well, I'm not really sure if it took a particular game to get me into gaming, I've been gaming since I was moreorless a toddler. I played Alien Trilogy a fair bit when I was 2 or 3 (first game I played), and I wanted to have the game at home, so my mum got me a PS1 and several games (including Alien Trilogy) for christmas when I was 3, and I've been gaming a lot since them.

 

[omega3711]

Tetris on the NES

 

[Commander Jack Rankin]

Odds are it was Pac Man. This was back when I had to stand on a chair to see the screen. Combat for the 2600 holds fond memories as well. Tank Pong FTW.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

Original Xbox. Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. Great game.

 

[themilo504]

rayman 2....i miss you old rayman

 

[TheDooD]

Started on Super Mario Bros on the NES yet Contra and Batman NES are what got me into gaming.

 

[kalt_13]

As funny as it would if I was, I'm not Eddie.

But you did have a friend who came on holiday with your family and ignored everyone while they played this game? Just not me.

Yeah but I played his game watches then ignored him so it was fair.

While it was far from my first game (I think Populous for Amiga takes that dubious distinction), Golden Sun for the GBA is what I believe got me into gaming.

It showed me that games can have a story with depth and weight and characters that I actually cared about. While it didn't really break the RPG mold at all, featuring your typical imminent apocalypse caused by mystical MacGuffins and you party of friends are the only ones who can stop it, it was my introduction into the genre and the deep world-building and strong characters really influenced the kinds of games I enjoy today: Namco's Tales series, early Final Fantasy, Baten Kaitos I and II, Zelda, pretty much any Shin Megami Tensei game, etc...

Golden sun was also the first game for me that blurred the lines between antagonist and protagonist.

Spoiler: I probably don't need spoiler tags for an 8-year old game but here goes...

And then if you played on through Golden Sun: Lost Age you realize the antagonists from the first game only set their plans in motion in order to save their village from being destroyed. What they were doing would not bring about the apocalypse, as you were told by your elders, but their actions would save the world. And you kill them at the end of the first game. Who's the bad guy now?

All-in-all, Golden Sun remains one of my favorite games. Not only for the childhood nostalgia but also for the fact that it opened my eyes to RPGs and indeed gaming as a whole.

Golden Sun sound pretty good. Would be nice if they made something like that again.

 

[The Gnome King]

The topic seems simple enough. What was the game you played that spiked your interest in gaming?

For me, it was the following. I'm 32 now and I probably spent my time "gaming" with friends from about age 8 until the current day... the games I played from about 8-14 (think 1987-1993) probably influenced me more than anything else - this was the heyday of the Commodore 64 and the original NES... a "Golden Age" of gaming for many of us in my age group.

The games that had the largest effects on me:

* On the NES, Zelda and Metroid. The originals. And Castlevania. I remember playing these titles in elementary school on my friend's NES until I convinced my mom to get me my own.

* On the C64, the SSI "Gold Box" games - I was a D&D nerd even way back then and when "Pools of Radiance" came out on the C64 I think it just about changed my life. The first game I really recall playing compulsively was even older than that, I must have been in 2nd or 3rd grade, and it was an adventure game called "Temple of Apshai" - not much in terms of graphics but it was a game that came with an accompanying "adventure book" where you would read text paragraphs out of an actual book that described rooms you entered. For example, if there was a secret door in a room the adventure text might say "You enter a 10x10 room and a slight breeze comes from the south..." -

So it was old turn-based computer roleplaying games at first and after that probably the classic action Nintendo console games.

 

[Aisaku]

I'm not sure if it was Deadly Duck on the Atari 2600 or a version of Dig Dug for an XT PC... I quickly moved on to Sierra adventure games like Manhunt (Which I never got anywhere with) or Leisure Suit Larry (Which I finished even though I wasn't legally allowed to play it XD)


Edit: The original Prince of Persia. It was pretty much the best 'console style' game in PC for a long long time.

 

[The Hero Killer]

I think Goldeneye was the game that made me and my friends prefer to pick up a controller instead of a toy. By the time I played Final Fantasy IX (my first console RPG) I was a gamer.

 

[SGDeath2]

Rayman for the gameboy color