Who Really Grew Up With Games?

20 here. Started mostly with a commadore 64, but I had a 20 and one of the earlier atari systems. Not long after, I had moved to bbs gaming - trade wars was like a daily ritual. From then on I had a steady mix of pc and console gaminig until the playstation and nintendo 64 came out, where I steadily moved more to the PC (mostly because I discovered command and conquer).
 
35 here and I definitely grew up with games. I remember when the first arcade's came out and we dropped quarters...hell at least I think it was quarters in them like they were mad.

First console was an Intellivision.....I weep for you poor bastages who had to play with an Atari 2600 or worse yet Colecovision. Intellivision had the first talking games....B-17 Bomber, Bomb Squad...and something else my old ass cant remember.
 
Im 34 and grew up with Pong and a TI 99/4A home computer. Pacman, Centipede, etc were in the arcades. Sorry to have to burst your bubble but its my generation that was the "first" gaming generation although ours weren't quite as immersive. All of the original studies showing that people who played computer games as kids were done on my age group...
 
32 - same story as so many others. 2600 straight through to PS2. And more quarters dropped at my local arcade than I care to think about. I still remember having kids there watch because I could beat Dragon's Lair on a single life :) L33T!!1!
 
KidzMD said:
32 - same story as so many others. 2600 straight through to PS2. And more quarters dropped at my local arcade than I care to think about. I still remember having kids there watch because I could beat Dragon's Lair on a single life :) L33T!!1!
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Holy crap...I sucked at that game.
 
I'm 17, i got a genesis for my 6th birthday and i was playing old donkey kong and mike tyson's punchout at my dad's friend's houses since before that. I definately grew up with games. Now that i have a job and stuff i've been able to build a nice PC of my own and buy consoles when they first come out. I definately grew up with games, and still am.
 
I grew up on Atari mainly and then played Genesis and NES. And then started going to arcades when I could when they were the big thing. I have had just about every console released in the US since I was a kid.
 
34.

Handheld football (which you can still get at Target BTW. Gotta love it.) Atari 2600, Intellivision (a friends), Commodore 64, Nintendo, SNES, Sega Genesis (a little), PS1 and then the reward, PC gaming. Happiness is realizing all the hours spent gaming instead of doing something more productive. I can't wait 'til I retire. 32 years, 9 months, 0 days and 3 hours, 4 minutes, 10 seconds from now. Roughly. Then it's serious gaming/modding time.
 
I'm 27 now..
-Pong / Commodore VIC-20 at Age 5
-Atari 5200 at age 7
-Nintendo 8-bit at age 11
-Super Nintendo at age 14
-Sega Genesis at age 16
-Playstation at age 18
-TurboGrafx16 at age 20
-Atari Jaguar at age 20
-PS2 at age 22
-Dreamcast at age 25

I currently own the PS2/Playstation/Dreamcast, I went stupid and sold off all the other retro stuff :(
 
26

Started with atari, it was my parents

Got a nintnedo the christmas they came out.

Played a lot of the original Final Fantasy-ah...good memories there

Brother had a genesis

I got the snes the christmas it streeted

had an N64

Bought a dreamcast

Got a Saturn much later in life (like 22 off of ebay)

Bought a PS1 for FF9 solely

got a PS2

Got an Xbox

Got a gamecube

Got a PC, been playing since 93. First pc was a packard bell 486sx/25
Wolf 3d, betrayal at krondor, Wing Commander 2 with voice pack, sam n max, doom. All bring back fond memories

Still going. Can't wait for Ps3, revolution and xbox 360

YAY for games!
 
28.

My earliest confirmable memories of gaming are from 1981, and gaming has remained pretty much my principal recreational interest ever since. (except for a brief period in my late teens/early 20's where it took second place to a thorough and vigorous exploration of sexual depravity).
 
a little update on my reply. I called my dad yesterday for his 46th birthday, knowing he'd know about the xbox360 and ps3 I asked which one he'd get, he said he'll probably end up getting both.
 
im 15 and i can honestly say i grew up with video games. the first game i played when i was like 4 or 5 was this game where you made a pinball machine and got to play it, that was on an apple IIc. i could boot it up and to everythihng by my self. then i moved onto turbografx-16 (pc engine) and i remeber playing bonk, bomberman, and some racing game, i would leave bonk on over night so i could still play where i left off the next day. then i went onto mario through super mario 3 i did the same thing i would leave that thing on for days trying to beat it. all these things were my uncle's (but he lived with us) and i played them alot
 
41 just this May.... do I win a prize?? :D

I have literally owned most every type of game console since they debuted. Starting in 1974 with the JCPenney VCD Pong system (Played 4 different versions of pong I believe), 1977 Atari Video Pinball (with flipper buttons!), Coleco, Atari 2600, 5200, C64 C128....etc. Also was a D&D goon in the 80s in high school and college (along with Adventure and Zork on the Honeywell Mainframe).
.
The glory years to me was the 1986- 91 Amiga days... back then us Amiga Users were playing Hi Rez(for then), full color, games when everyone else was playing low rez crap. Games were fresh and original; not the same "me too" junk we now see recycled all the time. It was during that time a lot of gaming genres were born, ie God games, FPS, Platformers, Flying/Racing Sims, RPG, etc..... a real good time to be a gamer. I cried a little the day I finally had to trade my Amiga for a Wintel PC (486 dx2 66, 8 mb mem, 2 mb Ati Graphics Xpression) It was also very cool being some of the first dudes to multiplay Doom on LAN and Quake on the net in the mid 90s; those were the days (and nights!)

My kids definitely have grownup around games, my 11 year old son has had his own PC since he was 2 and currently has a Dad custom built PC (P4 [email protected], 1GB mem, ATI 9600XT), Logitech Momo Racing Wheel (PC), LE Halo XBOX, Gamecube, Gameboy Advance(both versions), DreamCast, and now a PSP (well it's actually mine but he gets to use it sometimes). I've corrupted him well.......he's my Nerd Padiwan... and a FPS fiend (kicks my ass all the time). My 13 yr old Daughter is more a Sims/Sims2 type of gal and has a Dad built PC with a AthlonXP 2500+@3200+, 512mb mem, GF4 Ti 4200. Both my kids fondest early memories are watching Dad play Tomb Raider on the PS1 (my then 2 yr old son called Lara "girl with the pow gun") and Legend of Zelda on the N64.

Gaming has definitely been a way of life and I luv every minute of it.....
 
I remember getting a nintendo when it first came out. i had to be 5yrs old or so. i still remember jumping with the controller to the right, thinking it would make mario go farther. :D. havent stopped playing since.




J
 
I have had almost every console since the Atari 2600. Well almost....I never had any of the Nintendo ones. I even had the Atari Lynx and the 3DO. In fact...I still have my Atari Lynx and my 3DO case is home to a linux box.
 
Lantano said:
41 just this May.... do I win a prize?? :D

I
Click to expand...

You win the prize, but barely I'm 40 turning 41 in August.

I just have to say you're never too old to play video games and I'll plan to play games well into the future. The first video game that I came across was a friends Atari 400 computer and it was a text adventure called "Zork" the original version. I remember skipping school to go to an arcade to play Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man, Defender, etc... and owning an Atari 2600 gaming console. I remember all kinds of games from various systems, Atari 400, Commodore 64, Amiga and Odysessy Console.

I laugh now today when I read gaming forums and people comparing gaming consoles or different PC configurations and stating such-an-such system has better graphics. I rarely ever read on how the gameplay is or how they conquered the game.
 
I'm 34, my friend owned an Atari 2600, we grew up with games but it was ARCADE games. I remember putting so many quarters into Space Invaders, Pac-Man, etc.

My family bought us a Colecovision and that was the only game system we had until I was older and bought myself Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo.

People who are older wonder why you are still playing games? They don't understand since it was not a phenomena with them, now children are surrounded with games, from mobile phones, portable game machine, home game machines and arcade game machines. These children when they become 30-something will not have the stigma as we currently do. Techonology will be so intergrated with their lives that games, movies, television, listening to music will be considered the same thing.

This is an industry that makes more money than movies for crying out loud, I don't believe there will ever be another video game crash as bad as 1986.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a crash quite soon personally. With all this complete crap EA and Vivendi are shoving through their doors, they will usher it in.
 
I'm 18 and I started playing games at the age of 3. My first game I ever played was the classic, "Super Mario Brothers" for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
 
I'm 20. I started early in life like most others but my family didn't have a lot of money so I never had a lot of games for each system, (still don't).

I started out with the NES. I can't remember when I got it but I was probably 4 or 5. I played that a lot (and my dad and uncle did as well). Played Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, a few other random games but those were my favorities.

I got a 486 33mhz computer, 4mb ram, 1mb Trident video card in 92 or 93. I played Wolfenstein 3D, Legacy, Decent, Doom and many many random demo games I got from my grandfather (he was subscribed to PC Gammer magazine).

Then I got Sega Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog and Echo the dolphin... Sonic was pretty fun and the graphics were better than the NES but I never remember playing any truely great games on that console, it got the least use of all the consoles i've had/family has had.

My dad got us an N64 with 007: Goldeneye. We played that one to death (beat it multiple times, played multiplayer for hours). Played through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Donkey Kong.

Later I got a K6-2 300mhz machine with 128mb ram, RIVA 128 graphics and played some NFS 3: Hot Pursuit, tons of other random demo games and eventually convinced my dad to upgrade the video card to a Voodoo3 2000 and got Unreal Tournament, I played the crap out of that game! Haha.

I did some other various PC gaming, few upgrades where neccessary.

My brother got a PS2, so I played hours of Grand Turismo, beat Metal Gear Solid 2 and played a couple other games.

I then moved out on my own and did some PC gaming while going to college (and keeping my marks up). I purchased a Game Cube a few months ago and I beat Zelda: Wind Waker, played some Sims2: bustin' out, About half way done Metroid Prime (maybe more, i've got all the suit upgrades, just need the artifacts now), and i'm working on Super Mario: Sunshine.

Your never too old to play video games. I love video games, even some that some would consider kiddy games (see: Mario Sunshine haha). If they are well made and have good gameplay that's what i'm looking for. Nice graphics are a bonus but the problem in the last few years has been that the games are way too short (or maybe i've just gotten better or something but they seem shorter).

In the last little while I have prefered console gaming because of the smooth framerates. It's hard to keep a computer up to date to play the new games smoothly (I have a laptop right now so that makes it even worse). I love the computer for online games with some guys i've met online but I think Xbox is going to start cutting into that market in the next Gen even more than they have now.

I agree with some of what others have been saying. Game quality has gone down hill in a lot of cases. There are a crap load of crappy games out there and you really have to weed the crappy ones out. I rarely ever buy a game these days without checking out reviews, checking out various screenshots and videos before I go to the video game store. One nice thing about having the Game Cube right now is that there are lots of great games available for like $30 as opposed to like $70 when they first come out.
 
I'm 21, and I was raised with games. The first console I played on was an Atari, and the first console I owned was the Nintendo. After that I played on both consoles and computers. Eventually I got into computers because they were much more expansive than consoles, and so much more you could do on them. I remember playing Wolfenstein 3D when it came out, and being blown away. I also remember nearly going deaf when I had the volume up too loud the first time I fired the gattling gun in Wolfinsten 3D.

Ah, good times. :D
 
22, will be 23 in late November.

I started with Atari (Tennis, Pong, Galaxian)
Arcade bowling alleys (Pac Man, King of all Monsters, Galaxian)
Apple II at school (Number/Letter Munchers, Oregon Trail, some bombing game thing)
NES (Mario/Duck Hunt cartridge, TMNT games, Jackal)
75Mhz Acer Aspire (Jazz Jackrabbit, Tyrian, Descent, Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, Doom 2, Wolfenstein 3D)
Playstation (Resident Evil 1-3, Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer, Primal Rage, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Tekken 3, Wipeout)
700Mhz Celeron HP Video Cards added: Voodoo 4 4500 PCI, GeForce 4 MX 440 PCI (Unreal Tournament, Max Payne, Deus Ex, AVP, Descent 3)
Playstation 2 (DOA 2, Gran Turismo 3, Resdient Evil Code Veronica, Gran Theft Auto Series, Tekken 4, Kingdom Hearts, James bond Everything or Nothing)
2.4 gig P4 OCed to 3.0 gig Custom Built Video Cards added: 9600 Pro 6800 GT (UT2004, Doom 3, Half Life 2, Prince of Persias, Max Payne 2, Deus Ex 2, Splinter Cell 2-3)
Current Rig (All the games I played with my P4 but a lot nicer. Also Doom 3 RoE)
 
Man o man...

i would be the ripe old age of 27...my dad was an engineer at DEC, way back when they fought with IBM as to who was the shizzit...he always had computers around the house so it was a bit natural for me...heck I don't remember getting a computer they were just always there :D

So although my Dad was a big tech nut, he wasn't into games, but some of the guys he worked with would be like, "you have to check this out" and he bring home some cool stuff and I would end up with it. I can remember playing around with equipment that I don't even remember what it was...I do remember playing chess and checkers on a fugly green screen...talk about graphics...and then I got an atari..and then pretty much every game for it, my dad used to pretty much come home with a new game every other day...then the NES, and the SMS, and the TurboGrafix16...

I'll never forget my dad came home one day and handed me a floppy...he said here a guy at work said to check this out...Wolfenstein 3D..my friend and I sat there all day until we beat it...that game got me back into PCs.

I guess I was lucky, cause my old man always had access to the latest hardware and software...he went from DEC, to Comcrap, to other companies you would recognize...

still have my DEC Alpha sitting here on my desk (paperweight)...friggin huge chip with horns...or as I like to call it...the devil chip. :D

Problem is now, as I am sure is the case with many...work, family, and life in general start to take over and games end up taking a backseat. But everyonce in awhile I have to put things in perspective...by killing a crapload of peeps online. ;)
 
29 going on 30
I too grew up with all of the favorites, I remember my uncle had a pong then an atari. It's funny the memories you associate with video games, it sometimes helps me think of things that I have forgotten about. God I remember hanging out at my uncles house and seeing his old reel to reel audo player and his atari, playing on his HUGE 25 inch CONSOLE Tv, you know the one surrounded by an entire tree! Good times.....phew! So anyways I eventually got the atari (2600 and 5200), then the colecovision, intellivison, bally midway (dont think many people had that game system). After that I went onto the commodore64/128 and had a ball, it helped that my best friend was a phreaker/bbs fiend so I had access to thousands of games.
Then the NES came out, god I remember the box for that game was HUMONGOUS, it came with the friggin robot that didnt work. I loved that system, sega too( I have a soft spot in my heart for sega)...good times! It seemed to me that for some reason I went back to commodore 64 games in between NES/Sega times, but I digress. The snes and genesis wars were awesome, I just loved it all and the games were just unbelievable! I got back into PC games probably late middle school towards high school, my friend got me a home grown 286 with a 40meg hard drive and 1 meg of ram, BOOYA! Again the same friend that was a phreaker had an awesome BBS and I was able to get the best games.....boy what a time! I used to spend hours using my 2400 modem downloading games, friggin slow!
WOW what a rant.....anyways I love games, still do and will always. I have to say PC gaming still holds more appeal for me, but it's fun getting your hands on the original metroid or pitfall that brings back some good memories! I vividly remember loosing track of eveything while playing super mario brothers.

-Rikus
 
Count me in on the group that grew up w/ games. I played atari 2600 when I was 4+.. got a nintendo played the crap out of it for MANY years. Finally got a pc 486 sx ibm desktop w/ 4 megs of ram! the 250meg hd was impressive too w/ it doublespaced i had over 450megs of hd space rofl. Anyways... Got doom... then doom2, then Rise of the Triad, then Duke 3d, Quake, quake2, Quake3, UT, etc etc.. I basically own all popular fps's..

OH letz not forget our RTS! Warcraft, Starcraft, Dawn of war, omfgzor ...

gaming ftw.
Check system in the sig to see how much i spend on my stuff rofl. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.. sing it w/ me folks..

you......do we doooo.. are not alone...

yeah that song sucks
 
21, grew up with my parents atari, then got a nintendo, played super mario 1 for hours and hours. Wore out my running pad for that track game. Still play games to this day, I don't see really "growing out fo them".
 
I am 28 gaming by 6-7.

Remember those Zeinith Data Systems laptops? 8086 with a monochrome screen and built in 1200 baud modem?

My dad got one from work and it replaced the Atari 800 and its 300 baud modem.

We used to whip out the RGB cable and plug that zeinith in to the TV for some sweet 16 color action. Anyone remember the ollld platform game called Quake?



Lets not for get Kroz, the ultimate ascii game. I used to play this game on an old Compaq suitcase computer.(Amber screen, dual 5 inch drives, "portable" :eek: ) I was forced to game on this beast when the other computers where in use by bigger siblings.

Not my site but check out this ole compaq: suitcase
 
I'm 30 and grew up with games. I played them, and had tons of fun. But, as a normal kid back then (doesn't happen much anymore), they weren't my babysitter. I was outside most of the time, playing in the rain, running, riding bikes, tree forts, just having fun. Games were there to do at night, or whatever. But, I still played lots of games. I had a Commodore 64 and made my own (have an on-going game STILL in development. Been updating since C64 to 8088 to now... :eek: ).

Games have always been with me, from the Atari, to my obsession during the 90's (owned every system made, from Atari 2600, 5200, Master system, Genesis, on and on, even paid $400 for a Sega CD...). Now I have an XBox and Gamecube.

But, with the old C64, the advantage was you could make your own games. Now, with a PC and the advanced programming needed, it's more difficult. I've made a few levels using level editors, but a whole new game!? From scratch?! With todays graphics? Damn. I'm an electrician, not a magician! :D
 
Im 31, and have been playing games since I was 6 w/ the old Sears Pong, Atari, etc. I was always too poor to afford anything up to and after the NES, till recently. But all of my friends had them and I played at their house. My dad was always a techie, and had bought PC's since the original apple. Then the TI99, w/ game cartridges(man that was a sweet system--still have it, too). Got into Gauntlet on our IBM PC, and Thexder. On the apple, it was Zork, space invaders, etc.

Games have really come a long way!!
 
i'm 21, started started on the atari cause all my cousins were older, and my brother..

but my true gaming memories start at the NES.
 
Pepster64 said:
You win the prize, but barely I'm 40 turning 41 in August.

I just have to say you're never too old to play video games and I'll plan to play games well into the future. The first video game that I came across was a friends Atari 400 computer and it was a text adventure called "Zork" the original version. I remember skipping school to go to an arcade to play Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man, Defender, etc... and owning an Atari 2600 gaming console. I remember all kinds of games from various systems, Atari 400, Commodore 64, Amiga and Odysessy Console.

I laugh now today when I read gaming forums and people comparing gaming consoles or different PC configurations and stating such-an-such system has better graphics. I rarely ever read on how the gameplay is or how they conquered the game.
Click to expand...


I'm turning 44 september 30th :)

as for the prize CASH would be nice !!! :D

My frist game was pong and that F%@KING noise is still ringing in my head ! :mad:

BOOP ! BOOP ! BOOP !
 
23. I remember the demo Nintendo unit that was one of the shining stars in our new KMart (back when the store wasn't a joke). I remember the Lake Geneva library, with the computer that had apparently been set up by a guy with all the shareware in the world. There was a strange 16-color GUI that was nothing but buttons that could be activated with keys as well as the mouse. Had Duke Nukem, Wolf 3D, Jill of the Jungle, Space Quest, King's Quest, some kickass Star Trek RPG that was all in ASCII. That effectively broke my cherry, but less than a year after, I truly became an 8 year old man when dad brought home a top-of-the-line 386 with an SVGA card and monitor.

I remember a time when at Maxwell Street Days a guy would have boxes full of 5 1/4" shareware copies that I just hoarded like a madman. First game on that computer was Robomaze. Ugh. Almost killed gaming for me right there...till I got Commander Keen. Bliss...until I got the sweet sweet nectar of B.J. Blascowicz. :D
 
I'm 23 and I grew up playing the old ghetto systems like Odyssey before I got a NES and PC games (for the family's Apple 128k and Tandy 1000ex). I probably started around 2 years old, but I obviously didn't know what I was doing. Probably wasn't conscious of what I needed to do in game until I was about 6 or so. I still play games quite a bit, but due to school I've definately slowed down.
 
Me! -

I grew up with the C64 - the KING of computers. More games that would make you scream then the last three years (2002-2005) combined!! (times 100) -

man, thats where I got my skillz from, still play them on my xbox - w00t!!
 
41 and will take Kyle on in Pong anyday!!
My High school voted me as video game champion of the world after graduation. I kinda let them down but did manage to get 2nd place at the world foosball championships twice.
Also held the Rubik's cube record at school at 17 seconds.
 
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