Early Gaming Memories

[tactical_nuke]

I was just reminiscing about very early memories about video games, as I usually do... Back in the times when I was tiny and impressionable...

I loved going over to my cousins' house because I always had my mind blown by something cool every time I went. I remember seeing just the menu screen of Super Mario All Stars and thinking how amazing that alone was, with the digitized scans of the various cover art over the vibrant blue background. Truly they had some magical games I couldn't wait getting a copy for myself one day.
I also set eyes on the first gray Gameboy there along with Mario Land and I would die repeatedly cause the screen was so dark and I couldn't figure out the contrast wheel.
Another time I had the luck of testing out a Virtual Boy, playing Wario Land and wrapping my mind around how you could jump into the background. Once again, just the file select was incredible to me, being able to turn Wario into a bomb. (I hope I didn't erase anyone's file)
Just a tad bit later on I would see Mario RPG and 64 and remember them to be the same game for some reason. Also Mario Kart 64 and being amazed at how trucks would be alongside you on the freeway course.
Being a child truly makes everything you see all the more wondrous. Something as small as seeing the Megazord on screen while someone had Power Rangers for SNES paused became a memory.

Anyway, go ahead and share your stories etc.. I love reading that kind of stuff.

[shaggy]

I was actually thinking about this yesterday and was going to post something similar.  I remember going over to my buddy's house across the street and playing NES and Genesis and being amazed at all the games.  It took years before I was given a NES for Christmas.  It was probably 1989 when I got mine and would play the crap out of a few games.  At that age I couldn't afford to buy my own games and only had a few but I knew those games inside and out.  Taking a look at today, it sucks.  I can afford and do buy games but now I have no time to play and it doesn't feel as special as it did when I was a kid to get a new game.  I often go back into that memory bank and feel this rush of happiness, joy, and relaxation.  Now, I'm in a rush to finish the game because I have so many to play.  Ahhh, the memories.

[FatherJack]

My earliest memories of gaming was playing on the family Atari 2600 for a few years and a handful of games which were Combat, Pac-Man, Indy 500, Space Invaders and my favourite Asteroids. I lived in a bubble when it came to gaming and wasn't aware of other platforms or games and being an 80s kid,  majority of my time was spent outside with friends. Gaming just wasn't a part of our lives then.

It was a move to a new area and school that I came across a C64 at a new friends house and loved playing games like Decathlon, Action Biker, Summer Games II and International Soccer before I finally got one for Christmas. Jet Set Willy was impossible but it was all about finding new screens or getting the fastest times on Kikstart.

Once I discovered gaming magazines this opened not just C64 games but so many platforms and their games.

[Boshamp]

M.A.D. on the 2600 with my little brother.

Watching my cousin play Kid Icarus, Bomberman, and SMB3.

Getting a TG-16 and playing Bonk's Adventure non-stop for like a week. I even had three other games for it and I wouldn't put Bonk down to try them.

100's of hours put into Kirby: Super Star with my little brother.


Just a few off the top of my head.

[Pam]

I have a pretty long history with PC gaming, but for the first half or so of my life I was always a little behind with consoles. When I was maybe 8 or 9 my nextdoor neighbor Wade, who was a year younger than me, had an NES. I used to be over at his place all the time, playing Super Mario Bros. Eventually I got my own NES, I don't remember if it was for my birthday or Christmas, though I do remember snooping around and finding it in a closet beforehand. From then on, we could go to each others places to play games. One of my favourite games was Felix the Cat. Every weekend my mom would take me to the video store and after looking at all the games I'd pick up Felix, yet again, and play it for the weekend. After many weekend rentals, I found the used copy of Felix in the sale bin. My mom bought it for me. I excitedly ran over to Wade's house when I got home to show him what I got only to find... he had just gotten a SNES for his birthday. *sad trombone*

[MetalFRO]

^^ I was super excited when I got my Genesis, and a couple weeks later, a friend got a SNES and thought he was the coolest cat alive

Fond gaming memories:

1.  First playing my uncle's Atari 2600 at my grandparents' house over Christmas vacation.  Playing Combat, Battlezone, and Pac-Man was a revelation to me at the age of 5, and Christmas of 1982 was when I discovered electronic gaming for the first time.  That weekend set me on a course to seek out such entertainment whenever and wherever I could find it.

2.  Playing 2600 and NES at my next door neighbor's house.  When I was 9 years old, my family moved to a small house just 2 blocks from my grandparents, and my next door neighbor was a kid in school a grade below me.  His parents didn't have a great reputation, but my folks trusted me, so we went over and spent hours playing everything from Missile Command, E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, and a bevy of other 2600 games, to the latest NES hits like Double Dragon, Castlevania, Jackal, and more.  We plugged a lot of hours on his gaming systems, in between watching MTV and playing with G.I. Joe toys in his basement.

3.  The summer between 6th and 7th grade.  I had made a new friend during 6th grade, a new kid who moved to town, and hadn't really made any other good friends that year.  He got Super Mario Bros. 3 at the end of the 6th grade year, so we spent the entire summer pouring over that game, discovering every secret area, playing through every level, and really exploring everything the game had to offer.  I've never been a hardcore completionist, but with SMB3, I'm fairly certain I saw everything the game had to see.

I have more, but these are some of the fondest memories I have as a kid.

[Vectorguy]

I can afford and do buy games but now I have no time to play and it doesn't feel as special as it did when I was a kid to get a new game.

With each newer video game system I get, even though they're a step up from the previous one (if not several!), they feel less and less special to me.  That's how it goes once you age though, you get grumpy and things aren't as good from back in the day, despite numerous technological advances.  And plus hardly anything is original any more too.

Too many tons of memories to go through right now, as I played with friends' Commodore 64s, Atari 2600s, went to many arcades and such.  As for now though, my arcade memories are posted here (mostly as a kid, and it's huge!): http://arcadepreservation...rylb500's_arcade_blog

I might add more to this later in regards to 2600 memories and the like.

[Lendorien]

My first video game memory is from the very early 80's. My family had gone on a trip out east and had hired a friend of a friend as a babysitter while they went out site-seeing. This family had a video game console. I know it had carts, but I can't tell you which one it was. I remember playing it a bit. It had tic tac toe on it... but the version I recall was not the Atari 2600 3d one. I was REALLY young, so I only have vague memories.  I do remember they had a swimming pool and it was hot as hell that week, but I didn't get to swim.

The second memory is of late 1985 or very early 86.  My Dad was a member of a computer club (yes, they had those in the 80's) and he'd taken me with him to a guy's house to pick up some software.  The guy must have had some money because he owned an NES (he must have been an early adopter) and a rear projection TV.  I distinctly recall Super Mario Brothers being played. It blew me away. Granted, I was only 8 or so at the time, but I'd never seen anything like it.  It wasn't until many years later in the early 90's that I saw the game again, and I instantly recognized it. That may be one of the reasons that the memory has stuck so firmly in my mind.

Most of my memories are more computer based. I still recall the first time I played Adventure. I was 8 and my Dad had gotten the 550 point version from some guys at his club. I spent days trying to figure out some of the puzzles in that game. To this day spotting a reference to Advent gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

[Lendorien]

I was actually thinking about this yesterday and was going to post something similar.  I remember going over to my buddy's house across the street and playing NES and Genesis and being amazed at all the games.  It took years before I was given a NES for Christmas.  It was probably 1989 when I got mine and would play the crap out of a few games.  At that age I couldn't afford to buy my own games and only had a few but I knew those games inside and out.  Taking a look at today, it sucks.  I can afford and do buy games but now I have no time to play and it doesn't feel as special as it did when I was a kid to get a new game.  I often go back into that memory bank and feel this rush of happiness, joy, and relaxation.  Now, I'm in a rush to finish the game because I have so many to play.  Ahhh, the memories.

Are you like me, you've gone out and bought all the games you played at your friend's house? Haha. I had a friend with an NES. He owned Batman, SMB3, Contra and Shadowgate. When I got into collecting and got a NES, those were the first games I bought.

[-KRS-]

I remember that I always wanted to play SMB2 on the NES, since I only had 1 and 3. I had only seen pictures of it and thought it had a very mysterious vibe. Then one time I was at someones house and the guy had the game! He had played it so much though that he didn't really want to play it again. But I begged and begged, and eventually he said he'd put it on. He told me to close my eyes though. Then I heard how he inserted a game into the system, and when he turned it on I could hear the Ducktales theme song. Wait, what? So I opened my eyes and he had indeed inserted Ducktales instead.

He eventually put SMB2 in, but I can't remember what I thought of it. I think I liked how different it was.

Another memory I have is playing Goonies II at one of my uncles houses. I remember really liking it, but then I didn't play it again and couldn't remember what it was called. This bugged me for years. It wasn't until I started collecting games and bought Goonies II myself that I realised that this was the game I played back then.

[ReddMcKnight]

I can still recall the first time I ever beat a game: The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse for SNES. I was at my Grandmother's House (she taught me about games and how to play them), and I was just WAY too excited when I beat it.

[Vectorguy]

Onto my lot...got a few!

The earliest ones I have as far as arcade games go (I'm limiting those due to the earlier link to my page on that) include the small game room at a bowling alley down the street from my parents' house here in Houston.  I played Space Invaders there, along with the Atari Football game (rolling those trackballs was the best!), some Atari racing game (Sprint One or something), Stunt Cycle and the Flash pinball game, the latter of which had its volume turned up so loud initially it drowned out Space Invaders, pissing me off!

The earliest arcade I probably ever went to was Games, Games, Games at Memorial City Mall, as I recall playing Seawolf, Star Hawk and many pinball machines there.  Many games came and went as it was open for several years.  I remember seeing the explosion of Asteroids, how odd Gorf seemed when it talked, and sitting down in the cockpit of Star Fire.

On the home front, I saw the explosion of the Atari 2600 and Space Invaders for the first time at my friend Mark's house.  It was mesmerizing as hell just watching it, not to mention when your turn to play it came up as well.  I thought it was funny when he told of when his mom would say "there's the spaceship!" and then she'd end up getting killed trying to shoot it.  Moms don't play these games!  I remember when Activision first emerged and he got Skiing.  Not the greatest of games but it was neat seeing them do something different.

I also recall spending nights at my friend Steve's house who was practically rich as a kid delivering newspapers, which he had a big 2600 collection.  He had never beaten Stellar Track until he left it over at my house one night so I had to write down what the text message said at the end of the game once I did that (since my mom had gotten us a 2600 by then).  He had a big surprise when I called him one night when he invited me over to spend the night when, ta-daaaa, I had bought the just-released Asteroids at the time, beating even him to it.  Not all games were winners though, such as the oddness of Slot Racers and Human Cannonball sounded really funny at the time where the guy said "ouch" when you missed, but the game turned out to be fairly dull upon playing it though.  He would also get a ColecoVision, which we had fun with WarGames, Space Fury and Lady Bug, among several.

Well, just a few there...

[MetalFRO]

I remembered another I thought I'd share.  In the mall 25 minutes from where I lived, there used to be a restaurant called W. C. Franks.  It was a hotdog place (shocker!), and an arcade.  I distinctly remember going there with my parents and getting tokens, which was unusual, because my parents thought arcade games were a waste of money.  I remember playing Galaxian and sucking terribly at it, but having fun because of the food, the atmosphere, and the fact that my parents were actually paying for me to play the games.  In any event, I was probably only 7 or 8, but I remember that being a very fun day.