# What was the first video game you owned? Share your experience with it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757 "2005-11-19T02:43:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/21 "2005-11-19T05:31:13Z")
My first video game was Super Mario Bros for the NES. I was too young for it. I just kept walking into the Goombas, dying, walking into the Goombas, dying, walking into the Goombas, oh hey game over. There was also Duck Hunt, but I didn’t get to play that because my mother didn’t want me aiming a gun at anything, even if it was just a light gun. I probably would have sucked, anyway, so no big loss there. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/22 "2005-11-19T05:42:38Z")
> [@drm](#): > > Is it just me or did I see an Atari - like system on sale at Best Buy. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? [Atari Flashback System](http://www.atari.com/us/games/atari_flashback2/7800) There a version for the 7800 system as well. ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/23 "2005-11-19T05:46:55Z")
That’s the one. I’m tired of my Gamecube, maybe I’ll trade (seriously. I don’t like these fancy new games). My cousin actually recently picked up an actual Atari 2600 for his brother to play while he was recuperating. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/24 "2005-11-19T05:54:23Z")
Colecovision. And for some reason my sister could kick my ass at _Ladybug_. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/25 "2005-11-19T06:01:28Z")
I got Pinball and Bump n Jump with my NES for Christmas as a kid–I’ve never been able to get past level 5 on the latter, though I’ve had scores of 300k and up on the former (I should check what my current is–it’s annoying that the original couldn’t save scores between games, but I have an eReader version which does, yatta!). I wish I still had my NES, so I could get some old cartridges and play them–but the darn thing gave up the ghost a few years back ☹ ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/26 "2005-11-19T06:16:58Z")
I played other games, probably earlier… I had an Atari 2600 and played PacMan and Breakout, Missile Command… things like that. But the first game I remember being just obsessed with is kinda funny… from 1985 for the Commodore 64, Mail Order Monsters by Electronic Arts. ;\> ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/27 "2005-11-19T07:06:51Z")
The first video game I ever had, like many of you, was the Atari 2600. Combat (three biplanes ALWAYS beats bomber), Asteroids, Star Raiders, Bezerk, Defender, Raiders of the Lost Ark (with what is probably the worst rendition of the Raiders theme ever), Laser Blast, Activision Tennis, Pitfall (1&2)…and, believe it or not, Pac-Man AND E.T. Yes, both of the games that killed off the 2600, and the first videogame boom, and we had them both (and still do, actually). The first videogame system that I ever bought myself was a first-generation GameBoy. It got stolen from my dorm room one day when my idiot roommate didn’t bother locking the door. Although I bought various other GameBoy systems, I resisted the urge to buy a console until I moved to Japan. Then I bought a PS2, and that proceeded to eat my brain. I’m fairly certain that getting the PS2 was a major contributing factor to my failing the Japanese proficiency exam. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/28 "2005-11-19T07:18:35Z")
Lessee…It’s probably either Frogger (you had to load and play it from a cassette tape, kids! And it took about 5 minutes to load…) or Garden Wars (on cartridge) for the VIC-20. From what I remember I think Garden Wars came first. But I liked Frogger better. Both were pretty fun. But then, I was wee little at the time. If my old VIC rose from the dead, I’d probably play them again, to see if I still enjoyed them as much. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/29 "2005-11-19T07:27:01Z")
_Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle_. Hey! I was just a kid, and the setup was interesting: Me and the gang got a hold of an Atari 2600, virtually free because the unit was missing the power adapter, the cartridge also came with the unit, and we experimented for hours with power supplies. But, we were not lucky, the only power adapter that we could use had the wrong tip. I did manage to find an adapter on an electronics store after much walking. It worked! I still remember that my buddies and I jumped with joy that the thing appeared on the TV screen… The joy only lasted 5 minutes; it was that fast that we all realized the game sucked, sucked, giant monkey Donkey Kong balls. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/30 "2005-11-19T08:04:34Z")
Various Atari 2600 games in the mid eighties. Especially _Space Invaders_, _Yar’s Revenge_, _Pitfall_, and _Adventure_. Man, did I love _Adventure_. I could just play that over and over again. But, all those worlds were so limited and got repetitious quickly. The only saving grace of _Adventure_ was that the objects appeared in different places every time, changing the strategy enormously each session. And then my parents got me an NES, and _Super Mario Bros._ just **blew my mind**. This world didn’t repeat, it just kept going. It had a definite ending (unlike _Pitfall_, _Space Invaders_, and (I think) _Yar’s Revenge_), but it wasn’t so short that you could even come close to beating it in one sitting (like you could _Adventure_). In fact, I never beat the game until I was much older. But man, was it fun. I remember the first time my dad and I finally got to the first level with the flying cheep cheeps. Mario just walked out into the world and a cheep cheep jumped up and killed him. I wasn’t even upset about dying, I was just thinking _woah… we’re THIS FAR into this game already, and there are STILL new things to find!_ ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/31 "2005-11-19T08:32:06Z")
Looks like we were one of the few TI-99 owners. Got it used at the swapmeet next to our house. We also got the cartridges “Tombstone City” and “Hunt the Wumpus.” That would have been about 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/32 "2005-11-19T14:11:55Z")
Mine was _Golden Axe_ for a 286 PC… ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/33 "2005-11-19T17:01:03Z")
Atari 2600, with Combat and Pac-Man. Christmas Day, either 1981 or 1982. Yes, Pac-Man was a weak-assed copy of the arcade version, but I didn’t care at the time. I have to say that I was glad to read several years later of how E.T. for the Atari was universally and famously considered to be a piece of crap; at the time I thought it was just me. ---
**Author:** ![Arien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arien)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/34 "2005-11-19T20:52:12Z")
My first game was the Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt cartridge for Nintendo. I remember that it took me almost until the time limit to beat the first level. I don’t think I ever beat it, actually, even when we got all the Nintendo Mario games together on the same cartridge for SNES. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/35 "2005-11-19T21:16:00Z")
The first game that my family had was the commercial release of Rogue. The first computer game that I bought with my own money was the first Civilization. My two brothers and I had split the cost of a Nintendo a couple years before that, but I don’t really remember what the first game I bought for that was… possibly Castlevania II or Mega Man 2. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/36 "2005-11-19T21:57:57Z")
We had a TelStar christmas of 1975. Had Pong, Hockey and HandBall. [This is what it looked like.](http://www.vidgame.net/PONG/TELSTAR.html) Jim ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/37 "2005-11-19T22:14:28Z")
Hm… it was either the first King’s Quest, or an assortment of other games my dad got through the IBM club at the time. We had a few disks; “hacker’s delight” one and two. They had games like Pango, Robotron, Dr. J. and Larry Bird 1 on 1, Hard Hat Mac, Zaxxon, Pinball, Flightmare, and probably a few others I can’t think of at the moment. Oh, Battleship or something like it I think. Maybe Archon was on there as well. Oh, those were the days. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/38 "2005-11-19T22:17:13Z")
First video game - Ooh, good question. I think it was one of the Shareware games on Mac. I want to say “Tetris” but I’m fairly certain that wasn’t it. First console - the SNES, birthday present when I hit 12. I didn’t have a clue as to how to play any of the games at the time (except Super Mario World), so it didn’t start getting that fun until later. ---
**Author:** ![Domokun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Domokun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Domokun)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/39 "2005-11-19T23:19:15Z")
Lord of the Rings, a text adventure on the BBC Model B. It had - wow - actual graphics to illustrate the scenes! Slowly drawn line by line then colour filled as you moved around. My favourite pastime was to “move house” by picking up all my crap from Bag End and taking it to Pippin’s dive. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757/40 "2005-11-20T01:53:38Z")
It would have been [3D Monster Maze on the ZX81](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Monster_Maze); it was an incredible game, considering that it was implemented in 16K of memory on a monochrome, low-res computer with no audio. Youy had to find your way out of a randomly-generated 3D maze, around which was stalking a T-Rex - it was actually quite terrifying when you got caught. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-video-game-you-owned-share-your-experience-with-it/331757.md?page=3)