I would like to know: how long have you been into playing video games? What was the game that got you started? How are you now?
22 years.
Super Mario Bros.
I’m fine, thank you. And yourself?
Since my dad bought a computer back in the early 80s.
Aztec, Lode Runnerand Ultima IIIwere my three favourites.
I’m too busy now to play much any more. When I do it’s been World of Tanks for the last year.
Bless your heart, do you ever post about anything else? My stars.
30something years, and Centipede. We also had Jungle Hunt and Frogger, but I wasn’t nearly as good at those. That was on an Atari model with a keyboard, which could also be programmed in BASIC. Mom got it for us because it was educational.
Later, we got an Apple ][e, and had every game ever developed by the Minnesota Educational Computing Company, plus a couple of other educational games and King’s Quest.
Then, when I was in my early teens, I very carefully saved up my babysitting money, and bought my very own Nintendo Entertainment System. I had Super Mario/Duck Hunt, Tetris, Dr Mario, and Final Fantasy, plus whatever else I could borrow from friends.
I received a Colecovision as a Christmas gift the year it came out so that would have been 1982 when I was nine years old. I know I played some game systems at neighbors earlier than that (Intellivision, Odyssey) but we’ll just call it 1982. Since then I haven’t been without some means of video game play be it computer or console.
Commodore vic20 in 1981. My favorite game was called Shamus. Then we got an Atari 2600 in 82 or 83. Nintendo in 86. So… 33 years? I am 37.
I played Pong on a machine in the Disneyland Hotel in '73 or '74. So, that would make it at least 40 years now. I was very into coin-op arcades in my teens, but I kind of stopped playing in my 20’s so I missed out on the NES/SNES era. I resumed playing in the 90’s with PC games like Sim City and Civilization.
I’ve been working in the industry since '95. Now that I make video games, I play a lot less.
My Dad brought home a Telstar Deluxe in 1976, my brother and I played it obsessively.
We then saved up our paper route money and bought an Intellivision in 1979-80.
I remember it was $400 and came with 4 games:
Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack
The Electric Company: Math Fun
Armor Battle
Major League Baseball
How long have there been video games? The first game I remember playing was Pong, I don’t remember when but I know it was in the 70’s. The first game I owned was an Intellivision in '82. Beat my brother’s butt in Football from the start. I have owned pretty much every console that has come out since then except PSIII and PSIV, and the new Xbox. I have a working Atari 2600 and a Super Nintendo attached to my TV in my man-cave, as well as the Xbox 360. On another screen we have the WII-U and my son has a Wii in his room.
Atari 2600, had tons of games and don’t remember what the “first” one was. I’m 36.
I’d guess close to forty years. I still have the Magnavox system 300 or whatever from about 1972. And the 2600 that followed a few years later. And some code listings for the HP proto-PC I learned to write BASIC on ca. 1973. Ah, “Star Trek.”
Too long. See the answer to the next question.
Functioning normally as a middle-class American, with a wife, career, mortgage, and two cars. No kids, though. Fuck 'em. A dog is enough.
I got started playing pinball, then Pong. Later came a tank battle game, which may or may not have been called Tank Battle. Played these at the store - they often had areas as you came into the store where games and such were set up, sometimes they sold hotdogs and soda there as well. Later, we got Pong & Tank Battle at home, eventually moving up to the Atari 2600, Vic-20, C-64, and so on.
First console, NES, second grade or so. Before that we had a computer (8088?). It was originally B&W, then we got CGA and later VGA (skipped EGA and its 16 color glory). I remember playing Castle Adventure, Alley Cat, several text adventures. And Leisure Suit Larry! Is that really so bad when all the innuendo went over my head, and the age check was bypassed through trial and error? The computer did not initially have a hard drive, everything was disk loaded.
Over 30 years. Honestly I could not tell you precisely when.
We had a Pong game, but one of my earliest really cool recollections of gaming was when my Dad took me to an arcade and we played a version of “Space Wars.” We had a great time. That was the beginning of the great golden era of arcade games - I can remember when Space Invaders, Asteroids, Battlezone, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong etc. were all the rage. Arcade games were very, very big back when home computers and consoles were not so common.
I played a lot of games on early home computers like the Apple IIc, TI-99/4A, and the like. I still remember how happy I was to get the Atari 2600 as a Christmas present in… 1981? 1980? 1982? Beats me, but I loved it. There would be major arguments over whether the Intellivision was better or not. (It generally was.) My uncle had a Vectrex, which was cool.
I’ve played 'em all, really.
I got to use my first computer when I was six at school. I don’t remember what games I played (they no doubt would have been educational and as someone mentioned earlier MECC was big back then). I do remember being exposed to Logo programming language at that time.
I never really had my own system until I bought my own computer in 8th grade in which case Wasteland was my favorite game at the time.
So yeah, gaming for 33 years or so.
I believe my brother and I had an Atari 2600, then a Nintendo. By the time the Super Nintendo came out, he was interested in other things (like causing mayhem in real life).
I remember getting so stuck in Shadowgate that I had to call the hint line… I was, what, 16?
Played games through college and into my 20s, and have continued ever since, even referring to one game as my “new boyfriend” (was it Parasite Eve?).
Got a 3DS in 2011, then a PS3 in 2013. From Sept to Dec 2013 I was crazy for Skyrim. Since Dec 2013 I’ve been obsessed with Pokemon Y. I think I have 617/718 Pokemon.
Pokebank is a godsend. Once my strep throat clears up I’ve got do to some serious Poke-organizing!
When I was 8 my cousin took me to the bowling alley near his house and introduced me to Space Invaders and Asteroids. I was hooked. Shortly after dad brought home an Atari 2600. Played it till it broke and when dad went to exchange it the guy sold him on the just released Intellivision. A few years later I bought a Colecovision with paperroute money.
The first video game I remember playing was Sea Wolf, which was released in 1976. The first game I remember getting into was a text adventure called (I think) Pyramid on the TRS-80. I still play video games, although I have had periods where I got kind of sick of them and did other hobbies.