Early Gaming Memories

[Lord British]

Let’s go way back here! You will show your age here, but tough titties. You can use my survey-style template or completely ignore it and make your own:

1. First Console Played:
2. First Console Owned:
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression:
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get:
5. Reasons for #4:
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing:
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?:
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play:
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play:
10. First game rented:
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories:

[Lord British]

1. First Console Played: Magnavox Odyssey 2
2. First Console Owned: Magnavox Odyssey 2 – brought home from my Dad because he won it in a raffle
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: KC Munchkin, KC Munchkin’s Krazy Chase, Football, Golf (many more)
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: ColecoVision
5. Reasons for #4: Seeing Donkey Kong and Venture at friend’s house
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: I’m sure I played several before it (Pac-Man, plus many Space Invaders clones), but Galaga was the first that had me transfixed. Watched older kids do the capture/rescue trick and that blew my mind. Seeing Matthew Broderick play it in WarGames cemented that further
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available? Ms. Pac-Man, Popeye, Centipede, Kung Fu Master, Satan’s Hallow, Super Cobra, Tron, Arkanoid, Rastan, sucking hard at Zaxxon, Elevator Action, 1943
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: None around the eras I’ve mentioned so far, but later a NEO GEO w/ Fatal Fury in it.
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Dragon's Lair and Star Wars (cockpit) – Street Fighter 2 much later as a runner-up
10. First game rented: Life Force (NES)
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories

- Playing River Raid on neighbor's Atari 5200
- Being envious of 2600 Pac-Man even though it kinda sucked
- Playing damn good arcade ports on the Atari computer at a friend's (Donkey Kong and Joust especially)
- My dad buying a perfectly working Missile Command Arcade machine from a second hand shop for $50. I would later put this in my dorm room.
- Seeing Super Mario Bros. at Montgomery Ward circa '87 with jaw dropped
- Seeing Zelda at friend's home. Made Venture look like Pong.
- Playing Master System at friend's house and led me to asking for it for Christmas, but I wound up getting an NES instead. I was disappointed for about two whole seconds.

[XoPachi]

whew...Jesus. Gonna have to dust off some synapses for some of these...

1. First Console Played: SNES

2. First Console Owned: If by owned, you mean my own money and counting handhelds, the DS

3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: Gradius 3 because it was the first game I ever played in my life and got me into games and STG's and then DoDonPachi 1 in 2009 because I couldn't believe a game could be that insane. It completely flipped what I knew about difficulty and shooting on it's head.

4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: Ignoring aftermarket emulation devices like Retroid/Anbernic/Aya, honestly, none. I own every main piece of hardware I really ever wanted. While I of course didn't get everything immediately as a kid, I got them eventually as either rare gifts or just working for it. For the things I didn't get ever and still had interest in, my desire for the actual hardware fizzled as emulation improved. I know people look down on that, I just don't care. And I don't care to get a new PC until mine is *really* at it's limit which it won't be anytime soon.

5. Reasons for #4: N/A

6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: In person? Probably L.A. Machineguns. But just actual arcade titles in general, this definitely wasn't it, but I can't remember playing anything prior to Gradius II. I don't even remember how I played that because I didn't play it in an arcade or emulator.

7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: I used to frequent Otakon and they'd have arcade cabinets set up. One year, that weekend I played a lot of F-Zero AX before going to the Gamecube setup with GX and tormenting people on it.

8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: None. :(

9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Never had to wait for a game.

10. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: When I was about 6 with my dad at an arcade, I have a very blurry memory of playing some weird first person sprite based railgun game. I always remember a boss or something that was some huge green face in the back of a city that you had to shoot at while being attacked by mooks. It looked like a virus or like a smaller green sun or something . It was basically the entire horizon and looked kind of creepy. To this day I've never seen it again nor found it and it might just be mandela effect.

[Lord British]

2. First Console Owned: If by owned, you mean my own money and counting handhelds, the DS

Not exactly your own money, just owned period.

10. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: When I was about 6 with my dad at an arcade, I have a very blurry memory of playing some weird first person sprite based railgun game. I always remember a boss or something that was some huge green face in the back of a city that you had to shoot at while being attacked by mooks. It looked like a virus or like a smaller green sun or something . It was basically the entire horizon and looked kind of creepy. To this day I've never seen it again nor found it and it might just be mandela effect.

We need to figure this out!

[XoPachi]

It honestly is likely a misrememberance...is that a word? I searched every possible game that fit the description that I could find and scrubbed through a ton of longplays years back. Didn't find it.

[BulletMagnet]

Hmm, time to test the ol' memory banks...

1. First Console Played: The NES, my cousin had one.

2. First Console Owned: The SNES, my parents got it for me back in early 1992. First one I bought with my own money was either a Saturn or PS2, not sure which one I eBayed first...though a couple of friends and I also split the cost of a used Dreamcast at one point.

3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: Probably Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World, respectively; the latter, in particular, is still the first thing to enter my mind when someone mentions "video game". Both systems also helped to plant the shmup bug in me early - Twinbee on the former, Space Megaforce and Axelay on the latter - though I wouldn't truly venture down the rabbit hole until discovering DoDonPachi via MAME years later.

4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: The Genesis is probably the one I begged for most.

5. Reasons for #4: Some of my friends had one, and I liked some of the exclusives, though there's no doubt that the marketing of the day that painted the Genesis as more "edgy" than Nintendo's offerings also managed to worm its way into my impressionable brain. In retrospect I do think the SNES was overall a better "fit" for me overall, though, so it's a bit embarrassing to look back on now.

6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: Hmm, tough one...I remember a Pong variant called "Off the Wall" from a diner we used to frequent, as well as a tabletop Pac-Man machine at a local restaurant going a ways back, though I doubt either one was the first. Not really sure, to be honest...maybe even a pinball machine of some sort, if that counts?

7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: My sister and I would tool around on Tekken 2 and War Gods at one particular place in Florida, which also happened to introduce me to 19XX, which I suspect helped to reignite my shmup instincts to some degree and remains a personal favorite.

8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: There was a pizza joint within walking distance of my house that had Killer Instinct 2, I'd occasionally kill some time by strolling over there with a pocketful of quarters. At some point they replaced it with some racing game or other, though, and that was that.

9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: On occasion I'd do the "leave your quarters on the machine to reserve a spot" thing on certain fighting games, but none come immediately to mind as always having a particularly lengthy queue in my neck of the woods.

10. First game rented: Ack, no idea...definitely something from the early SNES days. Xardion? SmartBall?

11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Getting a PS1 as a gift was a pretty big moment, as it was the first non-Nintendo system I'd had in the house, and as a yearslong Nintendo Power subscriber it "opened up new horizons" for me gaming-wise, as they say. Later on getting my first handful of imports for the Saturn (DoDonPachi and Cotton Boomerang, if memory serves) was a milestone as well...especially since they weren't quite so stupidly expensive at that point.

My most personally shameful memory, however, is crying and pleading absolutely obnoxiously, after having seen it in Nintendo Power, for my parents to get me Super Adventure Island, the first addition to my library after Super Mario World as a pack-in. They eventually relented, but if adult me had encountered kid me back then, I would have slapped myself silly, not only for what a brat I was being but for the fact that the game wasn't even anything special in the end. I can't deny that SAI does still hold a tinge of nostalgia in addition to the humiliation, though, for some reason.

[NYN]

You will show your age here, but tough titties.

Sounds like the web, alright.

All answers given without a certificate of authenticity.

1. First Console Played: PAL NES. The one owned by the stereotypical, obese, rural cousin.

2. First Console Owned: SMSII, used. Very good condition. Still have it. Still very good condition.

3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: SMB3, before SMB, which felt less "detailed". Dig SMB2, too. It's so different to formula.

4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: Always the one that was current, as I got only the by-gone gen to play.

5. Reasons for #4: Parenting, plus big ignorance. Which now amuses me to no end, with a younger gen enthralled in not-video but web games. I find it ugly.

6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: Uh, I will need hypno-therapy for that...

7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: Some poker game. Parenting strikes again.

8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: No, but I remember riding the bike invading few toy stores that featured "free play" and droves of kids. DKC. And SMW2. Starwing/StarFox. And I remember the older bullies who would go around and reset games. Almost forgot these creeps.

9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Standing in line to play? No. Sounds funny to me. I never camped before cinemas, too.

10. First game rented: Tenchu? I was at least one year underage for that. Punish the Evil Merchant!

11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Never wanted a Dreamcast. That felt like a loser out of the gate, not to talk about Jaguar, Virtual Boy, etc.

[Lord British]

11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Never wanted a Dreamcast. That felt like a loser out of the gate, not to talk about Jaguar, Virtual Boy, etc.

On the contrary, that was my most anticipated system and I drove almost 90 miles out to get it on 9/9/99. The only system I ever bought on launch day.

[MintyTheCat]

1. First Console Played: : SEGA Megadrive.
2. First Console Owned: : SEGA Megadrive.
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: : Sonic The Hedgehog.
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: : NeoGeo AES : Of course, we all wanted one. I bought my first NeoGeo AES when I was 19 and another at 30. It was completely out of everyone's league back in the 90s.
5. Reasons for #4: : Because : NEOGEO!!!!!!.
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: : Double Dragon!!!!.
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: : Warriors Of Fate (Capcom) in the hotel over in Crete. We used to visit Llandudno each Summer and there we'd play lots of games. I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the arcade game, SFII, Final Fight, Splatterhouse and I saw my first ever, in-the-flesh NeoGeo : an MVS that had Magician Lord. Magician Lord was the first NeoGeo game that I played followed by Ghost Pilots.
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: : Nothing in my locality as we were living in the countryside/suburbs and back then, we didn't really have that sort of thing in the UK in those places.
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: : .Probably Summer 1992, Llandudno Pier for Street Fight 2 - it was all the rage at that time. I actually started playing Fatal Fury on the MVS as no one was queuing for it and then I played Mutation Nation.
10. First game rented: : Crude Buster / Two Crude Dudes, japanese Megadrive. Back then it was still in the VHS era and we had loads of video rental outlets and they tended to include videogames too - good times.
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: : It ruled - the BEST time ever back then.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

1) First Console Played: Does Commodore 64 count? My dad had one he used for work, I remember playing a ton of OutRun, Paradroid, and Ghettoblaster on it. I was too young to really know how to program on it or use the file system for anything other than loading games.

After that it'd be NES, played Mega Man 2 at a cousin's place. I also had an uncle with a large set of NES games including the various Super Mario games, Golf, a big beanbag chair, and such. He had that NES stick too but I remember I didn't like it much because it was hard to use when sitting on a beanbag (home use sticks really have improved a lot since then!).

2) First Console Owned: NES, parents got me one, I was quite fortunate. I think it was back when the SNES was around that I was given one for Xmas, I was fairly young at the time.

3) Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: I received a large number of hand-me-down games somehow (was too young, don't remember the circumstances other than knowing they were used). I really enjoyed Final Fantasy, Ultima IV, and Startropics, especially the huge manuals that came with the first two. We didn't have a manual for Startropics so my mom somehow managed to help track one down at the one chapter that requires it! I didn't dislike the Super Mario games but I didn't think it was as cool as other games were.

My uncle had a copy of Rad Racer which I was only able to track down much later, I remember it having a major impact on my love of sprite scaler/arcade racing games.

4 / 5) Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get and why: Playstation. I did, foolishly as a kid who didn't really understand how nasty capitalism was, eventually get one, under regrettable circumstances.

When the N64 was being advertised, I asked my parents for it for Christmas. And lo and behold they got me a brand-spanking new N64 for Christmas. It was magical, owning a brand new console, with amazing games. I played the heck out of Super Mario 64, which is still one of the best 3D platformers ever made.

But I was young and stupid.

Years later, with a large collection of games, I tried out a Playstation at a friend's place. I fell in love with the large scale environment of Grand Theft Auto as well as Twisted Metal. On an impulse, I sold my N64 and all the games (including the racing ones I played with my dad - I'll never forget that look of disappointment) just to get a Playstation.

It was really, really stupid, and in all honesty was probably the dumbest mistake I've made ever. Not just because of the nostalgia of selling The Console My Parents Bought Me but because I still liked the games and obviously wanted to play them again, so my short-sightedness made me re-buy the games I used to own out of sheer guilt along with another N64. I still feel really guilty for doing it in the first place, like serious gnawing pangs.

Don't sell your entire console collection on a stupid whim; you'll probably want to replay them again. Same goes for good books; it's satisfying pulling them off the shelf and rereading them again. Video games are not "well I've played it once and now will never touch it again" kind of experiences to me, and I got to learn that the hard way.

On a softer note: There were a lot of games I wanted I saw in Nintendo Power I wanted but couldn't get that I had to be patient for and only picked up later as an adult. I knew games were expensive and realistically I couldn't ask for them constantly as a kid.

6) First Arcade Game you remember playing: Turbo OutRun while my mom was shopping in a mall. It was too far to walk to and I was too shy to go by myself, hahah.

Even when I was a teenager, I was too shy for some reason to play in public when I saw a Giga Wing in a cab I was curious about.

7) What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: I once went to a convention in Las Vegas and the hotel had a Tekken 5 with a busted left kick on P1 side. I nearly 1CC'd it, made it to the final boss with a left kick button that was stuck held down!

8) Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: Didn't have any arcades in walking or bike distance from me. :(

9) Game you remember having the longest line to play: I remember one time when I was young an arcade had an early VR setup that seemed pretty popular, I never tried it myself and I can't remember the game for the life of me but it looked a lot like Dactyl Nightmare, might've been it.

10) First game rented: It's likely an NES game like one of the Mega Man games, but the rental that stuck with me the most was Gunstar Heroes. I had somehow gotten a used Genesis with only 2 games, Evander Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing, and the X-Men game. Gunstar Heroes was mindblowingly good and it was coop! It played multiplayer far better than X-Men did honestly.

It honestly is likely a misrememberance...is that a word?

I wonder if it's Beast Busters or that one Aliens game with rail shooting segments?

[NYN]

Ha, given the shared memos, it seems that a *NES Cousin* was a real thing for more peeps growing up! I also remember the reverse to the obese one: a blonde, slightly older, in early teens, with a SMSII. No blood relation.
Nicer overall combination, though.

[TransatlanticFoe]

1. First Console Played: ZX Spectrum, which might be cheating a little but otherwise #1 and #2 are the same. Damn thing only ever got used for games anyway!
2. First Console Owned: Sega Master System II
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: For the Speccy, it was Raid Over Moscow. Crazy Cold War era stuff as you set off to stop Soviet nukes and blow up a secret nuclear reactor. It blew my mind that a game could have different styles for each stage - most of it is Zaxxon-ish scrolling shooter but it switches to 3rd person, on foot and a bizarre final stage.... all if you can work out how to get your planes out of the hangar! On the Master System, it was the reason my parents bought the console for me - a home port of Operation Wolf, which I loved in the arcades and we knew was on the Speccy but could never find it or the light gun
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: As a kid I really wanted a Sega Saturn, having played shop demo units and it had Virtua Cop 1+2 ports, but I picked one up later as an adult. I guess the true one that got away was the N64, another shop demo love playing Mario Kart 64 at a similar time to not getting a Saturn, but I never picked one up later
5. Reasons for #4: We got a PC around the time I was wanting to upgrade from a SNES, so switched my gaming to that. While I got a Saturn later as a postgrad student, I never picked up an N64 because most of the games worth playing had a release on something else
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: This is a tricky one because I don't remember the first time I played an arcade game, but arcades were big at seaside towns in the UK - the earliest games I remember playing were Atari Star Wars, 1942, Star Force, Space Tactics and Space Invaders
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: Generally seaside arcades had a tonne of titles in them with loads of different arcades across the seafront, so there was never a case where selection was limited. One seaside town though, a standard family day out destination, had Flying Shark in a fairground area - the only place I ever saw it. I loved it because I was a boy obsessed with tanks and warplanes - standard for the demographic really. There were three arcades on site and it was never in the same place twice, first thing I did when arriving was find where that game had been moved to and stuck £1 in (10p a credit) - never did get off the first stage!
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: I was rural UK, arcades weren't a thing outside of seaside towns and the occasional travelling fairground. Though in the early 90s a new pizza shop opened in town and it had a cab in it - I remember playing Final Fight, Captain Commando and Sky Soldiers... then they converted it to a Neo Geo in the mid-90s, only really remember Metal Slug from that period. But it was strictly customers only, so you couldn't just go hang out - you needed to be waiting for a pizza!
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Because seaside arcades were plentiful and had loads of games in them generally you'd have one person waiting maximum, everyone else would go find something else to play - it was mainly kids and dads. Stuff like Daytona and Ridge Racer always had someone waiting, mind you. The frustration when the kid already on it put another credit in though!
10. First game rented: God I actually remember this! It was Super SWIV for the SNES. Blockbuster was an affordable way to play different games, and by the time I got a SNES I was in my early teens and generally good enough to beat a game in the 3 day rental period.... or be glad I'd not spent £45 on the fucker because it was crap. Coming off the Master System where games were £30-33 new but old ones £10-20, SNES games were £30 for old hat and £45-50 new. Renting was great
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: In my later teens I occasionally drew a crowd at Virtua Cop 2 and The Lost World arcade machines. I'd played them enough that, if the game had been set up with a decent number of lives, I could get the 1CC.... which usually left two credits in the machine to John Woo the hell out that bastard. The younger kids bloody loved it - and to be honest, I did too From the kid who needed a stool to hopelessly heave the Uzi on Operation Wolf and rarely make it off the first level, to the twat showing off with a gun in each hand (and the machine on an easy setting ).

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Speaking of shop demo units, I remember playing as a kid on an N64 at a large department store (Zellers? K-Mart?) and they had it setup somehow so I think it reset itself every 5 or 10 minutes, so there was no way to really make progress past the first level of Star Fox 64. Was this a common thing they did, did they ship modded units out that would reset themselves periodically?

God I actually remember this! It was Super SWIV for the SNES. Blockbuster was an affordable way to play different games, and by the time I got a SNES I was in my early teens and generally good enough to beat a game in the 3 day rental period...

Great game, wish they had more platformer centric stages than just the lava one. A purely jeep-focused game I think woulda turned out really well. They only allowed you 3 day rentals? Lame, I seem to remember getting a week out of them (but maybe it differed based on if it were a new release or not).

[BulletMagnet]

Speaking of shop demo units, I remember playing as a kid on an N64 at a large department store (Zellers? K-Mart?) and they had it setup somehow so I think it reset itself every 5 or 10 minutes, so there was no way to really make progress past the first level of Star Fox 64. Was this a common thing they did, did they ship modded units out that would reset themselves periodically?

I recall a Mario 64 demo in a local Toys R Us from way back when that did that; moreover, whenever it cut you off, the Mario voice would pipe up and chirp "Thank you for playing Nintendo 64! Who's next?"

[TransatlanticFoe]

In the UK at least, shop demos were typically just the console in a sealed unit so you could play whatever was on for as long as you want. I played Lylat Wars in an HMV and that might have been my "meh" moment with the N64, I walked away before getting close to game over. I know demo kiosks exist for the Master System where several carts can be plugged in, the user selects a game and they can play it for a couple of minutes before it resets.

God I actually remember this! It was Super SWIV for the SNES. Blockbuster was an affordable way to play different games, and by the time I got a SNES I was in my early teens and generally good enough to beat a game in the 3 day rental period...

Great game, wish they had more platformer centric stages than just the lava one. A purely jeep-focused game I think woulda turned out really well. They only allowed you 3 day rentals? Lame, I seem to remember getting a week out of them (but maybe it differed based on if it were a new release or not).

The heli was easier but the jeep was more interesting, stage 3 it turned into a boat and had slight inertia. The final stage had a few obstacles but they definitely could've done more with it. While I cleared it on my first rental period, I got it out a couple more times because it was fun before.

I think Blockbuster for games was the same as films - limited to 3 days, you could extend by popping into the store and end by dropping it into a hatch... but it was dirt cheap at a couple of quid for most games, ideal for a weekend.

[ryu]

I grew up on the Gameboy and Mega Drive. Don't remember which one I played first. Nemesis (Gradius) and Sonic left the most impression on me. Although I find it hard not to mention Mega Man and Dynamite Headdy given the chance. I remember really wanting a Dreamcast, but at that point I was old enough to understand that it was stupid expensive and never even asked my family for one. Also I didn't get to play on an arcade cab until just two or so years ago.

[Lord British]

1. First Console Played: Magnavox Odyssey 2
2. First Console Owned: Magnavox Odyssey 2 – brought home from my Dad because he won it in a raffle
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: KC Munchkin, KC Munchkin’s Krazy Chase, Football, Golf (many more)
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: ColecoVision
5. Reasons for #4: Seeing Donkey Kong and Venture at friend’s house
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: I’m sure I played several before it (Pac-Man, plus many Space Invaders clones), but Galaga was the first that had me transfixed. Watched older kids do the capture/rescue trick and that blew my mind. Seeing Matthew Broderick play it in WarGames cemented that further
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available? Ms. Pac-Man, Popeye, Centipede, Kung Fu Master, Satan’s Hallow, Super Cobra, Tron, Arkanoid, Rastan, sucking hard at Zaxxon, Elevator Action, 1943
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: None around the eras I’ve mentioned so far, but later a NEO GEO w/ Fatal Fury in it.
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Dragon's Lair and Star Wars (cockpit) – Street Fighter 2 much later as a runner-up
10. First game rented: Life Force (NES)
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories

- Playing River Raid on neighbor's Atari 5200
- Being envious of 2600 Pac-Man even though it kinda sucked
- Playing damn good arcade ports on the Atari computer at a friend's (Donkey Kong and Joust especially)
- My dad buying a perfectly working Missile Command Arcade machine from a second hand shop for $50. I would later put this in my dorm room.
- Seeing Super Mario Bros. at Montgomery Ward circa '87 with jaw dropped
- Seeing Zelda at friend's home. Made Venture look like Pong.
- Playing Master System at friend's house and led me to asking for it for Christmas, but I wound up getting an NES instead. I was disappointed for about two whole seconds.

Really enjoying these responses. I did not anticipate me being the oldest so far, seriously. What I listed above with my answers are all experiences before I was 11 (pre-owning an NES). I'm going to do another extending out into the 90's, adding a shitload of hyperlinks.

Part #2

1. N/A
2. Second Console Owned: Texas Instruments TI99/4A<---If it's endorsed by Bill, it's sure to kill

I wanted to list this too because I got this no more than a few months after the Odyssey 2.

This was a home computer but had cartridge based games, as well as floppy disks and, believe it or not, cassettes (see Tunnel of Doom video below). So through eight years of the 80’s I only had these two systems. You bet your ass I was ready for a new console by the end of the 80’s.

3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression:

The system actually had a really fun arcade port of Star Trek. On the shmup side you had Parsec, which I remember playing at Sears a few times when they had the system on display. The game a good sound for the time and used the speech synthesizer well ("Alien craft advancing"). Super Demon Attack was a pretty good shooter and Tunnels of Doom was a pretty good Ultima style RPG of the time.

4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get:

Really wanted a TurboGrafx16. The NeoGeo we didn't dare dream of (to this day my hands have never touched an AES).

5. Reasons for #4:

My friend two doors down had one and had Legendary Axe 2, Ninja Spirit, and Dungeon Explorer. The system got a price cut at the end of 1990 for $159 also with a voucher of two games of your choice from a list. Asked for it for Christmas but got a Miracle Keyboard instead . Santa was evil that year. Another friend brought over his with the CD-ROM (pitched a tent in the back yard and hooked up a TV) and I got to witness that amazing intro of Y's Book 1&2. Kinda disappointed about the actual game itself though at the time.

11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories:


- Went to a game swap event held at a local community center circa '92, looking to trade good NES games for shitty SNES games because I was dumb. It was here I saw a TurboExpress with a PC Engine adapter in it with SF2CE plugged into it. Wow, the holy fucking grail. I now have the TE with an Everdrive in it.

- Went to the CES show in Chicago in 1992, the first time open to the public. This was when you got to play the SNES version of SF2 before it was released. This was the longest line you ever had to wait to play a game. The winner got to keep playing like in the arcade, and there was no guy working that booth to un-enforce that, which was annoying.

- Toys R Us had this coupon for $30 off and I got a Sega Nomad for like $70 after haggling with the manager because the clerk said the Nomad was ineligible for the coupon. This was my first Genesis, only had to wait 8 years.

- Wound up in Portland, OR w/ my family in July '98 and decided to buy a Saturn there. My brother and I already knew how rare Panzer Dragoon Saga was, and would you believe it, THERE IT WAS. Got Saturn Bomberman and had 7 controllers, but only got a max of 6 to play at a time in college, and that was only once. Suprised I got that many because that was a time where if you played anything besides Madden you were considered gay. Did my first import order ever and bought Marvel Vs. Street Fighter + the RAM cart, and Radiant Silvergun. Also picked up Magic Knight Rayearth at Babbage’s and played it for a day and got bored with it. My brother wound up selling it without telling me.

- Seeing a video tape looping a demo of Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast in December ’98 at an independent game import store named Cyberzone (run by a guy who reminded me of Steve Buscemi). That created an obsession like no other. Later rented the system the following summer from Hollywood Video a few months before it was released, and bought a Japanese VMU so I could save my game.

[it290]

1. First Console Played: Atari 2600
2. First Console Owned: Sega Genesis (though I had a Commodore 64 for a long time first)
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: Slot Car Racers and either Sonic 1, Flashback, or Shining Force. For C64 my favorite game was mail order monsters.
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: NES
5. Reasons for #4: My parents thought that video games rot your brain and only finally yielded in the 16-bit era.
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: I'm not really sure, possibly Pac-Man or TRON. Have early memories of Moon Patrol and Tempest as well.
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: Can't really think of one...
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: Fittingly, Paperboy. My friends and I would haunt all the bodegas in the neighborhood and played quite a few games this way, including but not limited to — Cadash, Shinobi, Rastan, Rampage, Toki, OutRun, Quartet, Time Soldiers, Aliens, POW, Double Dragon, Silkworm, Street Fighter II (including the Rainbow Edition!) and probably others I'm not remembering
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Definitely Mortal Kombat—I remember my best buddy racking up a 200+ win streak in the arcade!
10. First game rented: Not too sure on this one either, but probably something like Greendog
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Playing through Shining Force 1 the first time, I softlocked myself on the final boss because you have to have a promoted hero to equip the sword necessary to beat it; I kept my hero out of danger the whole game to avoid game overs and hence he was only like level 7 or so. This was on a rental so I never completed the game. Months later we got a nastygram from the rental place and they made us pay like $100 for lost game which my mom was angry about because she swore she returned it. Then several months down the road she found the game in her coat pocket, so I ended up getting to keep it and finally completed it from a fresh file that way.

[it290]

Speaking of shop demo units, I remember playing as a kid on an N64 at a large department store (Zellers? K-Mart?) and they had it setup somehow so I think it reset itself every 5 or 10 minutes, so there was no way to really make progress past the first level of Star Fox 64. Was this a common thing they did, did they ship modded units out that would reset themselves periodically?

There was a Software Etc at the mall in downtown Denver which was my first exposure to the Genesis. The reset timer was on a really short loop, like less than a minute. That was how I first played Sonic, Kid Chameleon, Road Rash, and Desert Strike. They had another store down the street with fancier demo units for things like the PC and 3DO and were always running weird games like Darkseed and Ultima Underworld.

[TransatlanticFoe]

What the hell can you do with Desert Strike in a minute? Just an endless loop of getting to the mainland

[neorichieb1971]

1. First Console Played: Megadrive - 1st game watched - Batman, first game played Hellfire.
2. First Console Owned: 3DO
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: ?/Road Rash
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: N/A I was working by the time I got into consoles.
5. Reasons for #4: N/A
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: Amidar
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: Had 3 local arcades. Dragons Lair, Shinobi, Paperboy, Moon Patrol, Outrun, Gaunlet, Super Sprint, Star Wars, Discs of Tron were favourites.
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play:
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Star Wars
10. First game rented: N/A bought everything.
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Getting to level 78-80 on Gauntlet on 1 credit, father said he was leaving without me it was a 30 minute drive. I had about 12 people watching me and I begged my dad if I could drain my health so I could put my score up on the board. He let me. The arcade operator asked what the fuss was about and I told him i'd been playing 4 hours on 20p, he was pissed off. Although 3 people joined the game in the early stages at different points and almost got me killed by running through the ghosts and pulling the screen all over the place. I made it through though. Weirdly the cab was switched to Gauntlet 2 after about 2 more years and my name was still on the scoreboard. Must have been separate from the game logic code. My dad gave me about £3, I still had £2.80 left that day

There was a bully at one arcade called Kenny who had the high score on moon cresta, I was reaching his score and he started twisting my ear to make it go red. My mother and father walked in and asked why my ear was red. I said Kenny was twisting it. Kenny was playing moon cresta after me at the time, Kenny had his head smashed into the marquee with force which smashed the marquee. Bouncers came and kicked us all out, Kenny never twisted my ear again. There was tape across the marquee until the arcade closed.

One of Kenny's friend had a wire to insert credits on certain games. Next guy to play it put his money in and nothing happened. When they opened the machine the wire was stuck inside. Innocent guy got banned and thrown out of the arcade. Only I knew the other guy had the wire.

My local arcades were rough places visited by bullies, thieves and cronies.

[BIL]

My mother and father walked in and asked why my ear was red. I said Kenny was twisting it. Kenny was playing moon cresta after me at the time, Kenny had his head smashed into the marquee with force which smashed the marquee. Bouncers came and kicked us all out, Kenny never twisted my ear again. There was tape across the marquee until the arcade closed.

Good dad. Ta richie - that's my new favourite UK game center anecdote Dethroning DEL's account of Mills dying somewhere in Truxton's fourth loop and punching the monitor out, which tbh was really just disgraceful - not that I'd tell Mills that to his face! ( )

[sunnshiner]

1. First Console Played: Cousin's Atari 2600
2. First Console Owned: Sega Mega Drive, but we had a ZX Spectrum 48k before that
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: 1- Spider-Man, 2- Streets Of Rage 2
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: Commodore Amiga 500
5. Reasons for #4: Game reason I wanted one?Stunt Car Racer and Rainbow Islands. Reason I never got one? Poverty.
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: Star Wars
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: New Zealand Story, Boulder Dash
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: Crystal Castles, Star Wars (stand up cab), both in our local newsagent (see #6)
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Super Street Fighter 2
10. First game rented: Not sure, it was probably an import from a local video shop, maybe Gaiares or Gynoug. Possibly Alisia Dragoon. They had some good games and I remember being awestruck by the Japanese Mega Drive box art.
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Getting a SNES to play Street Fighter 2. At home! Street Fighter! At home!!!!!1!111!!! Mind blown. Pre-ordering Star Wing (Star Fox for all of you outside the UK). Digitiser on Channel 4's teletext service.

[Lander]

Love it. Let's have a butchers then...

1. First Console Played: Sega Master System II
2. First Console Owned: The same SMS II; a christmas present from Mum and Dad. I still remember the sizzle reel of screenshots printed on the side of the box - Ghouls 'n Ghosts looked so cool!
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: Fantasy Zone II, Sonic 1/2, Ghost House, Transbot. Never did snag that copy of GnG!
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: Vectrex
5. Reasons for #4: Novelty. The whole thing being a CRT looked like the coolest thing ever at the time. Probably wouldn't have been worth it in retrospect, but it's an interesting curio.
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: A sit-down Daytona-a-like at the pier arcade a town or two over.
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: A ping-pong table manned by a friendly hotel barman.
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: None, they were all at the pier arcade.
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: None really, maybe Time Crisis or Silent Scope at a push.
10. First game rented: Extreme-G. It might actually have been Madden NFL '99, but I'd rather forget that particular mistake.
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Encountering the Fist of the North Star punch-pad machine at the local movieplex. KENSHIRO. (And double coining the Area 51 cab for some John Woo action )

[NYN]

Ghost House

Dang! Never even heard of this. Is it any fun? I smugly thought I know the few fun ones for the Master. Would be ready to go into it, if you could give a nod.

[Lord British]

Ghost House

Dang! Never even heard of this. Is it any fun? I smugly thought I know the few fun ones for the Master. Would be ready to go into it, if you could give a nod.

Yeah it's the only card game I have, so it's always half-plugged into my system. Also, it's basically a sorta-port of the arcade game Monster Bash.

[cj iwakura]

1. First Console Played: Definitely the Atari... 2600? My big sister from the big brother/sister program had one, got me hooked, the rest is history.
2. First Console Owned: NES
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: Don't remember on #1... Probably Super Mario 3 on #2, and yes, it was thanks to The Wizard.
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: Probably the Game Gear, never owned one, always had to borrow a friend's(and never for long).
5. Reasons for #4: Sega!
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: Donkey Kong 3 or Mario Bros, probably.
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: Ms. Pac Man, at an arcade in Acapulco which was tucked away on the side of the hotel.
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: Street Fighter 2.
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Either SF2 or DDR.
10. First game rented: No clue, but I rented NES games a lot, so probably one of those.
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Blowing away the final boss of Fast Draw Showdown and actually getting an audience for it, that bastard was a monster(a real life fast-draw expert).

[Randorama]

1. First Console Played: FC/Nes, since a friend of mine owned one.
2. First Console Owned: Dreamcast, because in 2001 I had no access to arcades, and I wanted to play Mars Matrix.
3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression: Console games of the 1980s left me unimpressed as a kid, sorry. On DC...Jet Set Radio blew me away, but then again, I never played a "closed world" style of game before because I was not into console games.
4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: Neo Geo!
5. Reasons for #4: My father couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, since my uncle had two six-slot Neo Geo cabs at his arcade. The whole idea of MVS (home carts?) being absurdly expensive and AES being relatively cheap drove both father and uncle crazy. Hey, they still cannot accept it now ("Hey, do you still want a Neo Geo? Since now it is reee-trooo cooo-oool and you earn goo-ood mo-neeeey!". Small scale riot ensues, of course).
6. First Arcade Game you remember playing: Sit down and take a deep breath, please...
   
   I don't know exactly which one, but I remember the place. It was a neighbourhood supermarket that doubled as a night bar from 6 pm onwards. They would close the grocery side by 8 pm and only leave the bar open for drinks, a talk, a credit at the games, pinballs and foosball tables. Picture Edward Hopper's Nighthawks with cabs, somewhere in a small town in central Italy in the 1980s. I remember that the owner was a guy who was born in Queens (yes, NYC) but migrated back to his ancestral homeland for business purposes. The supermarket/bar was one of his many (successful) US style businesses in town. I believe that the game was one 1980s sequel of Space Invaders, or Mighty Mouse (a clone of Pac Man with cats and mice, anyway), or perhaps Phozon. Memories are absurdly blurry, but I remember that the owner often played Donald Fagen/Steely Dan, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and more in general "cool late night Jazz music". The feeling that videogames are best played at night, during cold winter nights and within a safe space of tranquility started there and then. I am listening to Donald Fagen's The New Frontier right now, by the way.
   
   I also developed a taste for soft drinks/sodas with outside the whole and rather boring "Cola/orange Fanta/lemon Sprite" trinity. Vanilla cola and green apple Fanta? Yes please!
7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: Metro Cross, Space Harrier and Rolling Thunder 2, but I could write a whole squib about this very topic, I guess. Hey, how about "arcade summer flings"? The autobiographic parts would of course have very NSFW parts involving steamy sex-scapades and such, of course.
   
   ...Jokes aside, I remember spending 3-4 weeks per summer in holiday resorts with impressive arcades, in my childhood to early teens. In 2008 I even spent 4 days in Tokyo for a conference by giving my own presentation and then spending the rest of the time cooped up in Taito's Hey!, because I thought "now or never!". Details will appear in due time, anyway, but there might still be traces of that fleeting memory on this forum.
8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: The aforementioned supermarket/bar was five minutes by walking; my uncle's arcade was five minutes by bicycle...for those who can climb a 10% uphill road without warming up first. Hey, my hometown is quite literally "all uphill". The lowest point is at 721 metres, the highest at 802 metres. Yes, people generally have big calves, in my hometown.
9. Game you remember having the longest line to play: Street FIghter II is a given. At some point my uncle started calling the cops at closing time, so that they could just drag people away ("yes, yes, you were winning but it is f@#$ing midnight, kid! STFU and GTFH!"). I do remember that Double Dragon attracted considerable crowds, though.
10. First game rented: I believe that the friend of mine who owned the NES/FC forced me once to sleep at his place to play the newly rented Zelda. I fell asleep but he pulled off a one-nighter. His parents were not amused, but it was Christmas time after all.
11. Other/Miscellaneous Arcade/Console memories: Oh well... It's a work in progress. Marcel Proust, who? My 1-CC's will beat his madeleines into oblivion in no time. I swear!

[Lander]

Dang! Never even heard of this. Is it any fun? I smugly thought I know the few fun ones for the Master. Would be ready to go into it, if you could give a nod.

Yeah, it's an entertaining little game. I recall it feeling like a real puzzle box next to the more straightforward jumpers and shooters it shared the shelf with, and the years haven't entirely dulled that mystery.

Like British mentioned, it's got Monster Bash DNA, but expanded a good deal. On the face it's earnest Find And Slay The Count in a series of free-scrolling mansions, starring Alex Kidd's elfy cousin. Feels appropriately hostile by default since the environment is filled with tricks and traps, but they evolve into satisfyingly abusable mechanics with familiarity.

Dracula (and his clones) are tough fights too - oft best dealt with via preplanned application of overwhelming force, since he's got respectable stunlock while grounded, and can change into a bat to zoom around the screen with an active hitbox.

I don't know if it's any good for serious score play, but has a nicely-defined "perfect game" by way of precious stones that can be claimed from each boss for a hefty end-stage bonus. Charismatic set of supporting baddies too - Blagh Ghosts, Moonwalking Mummies, and the difficult-to-classify Hopping Mad Red Meanie!

[lpslucasps]

Awesome idea. I'd love to share my memories!

1. First Console Played:

Technically the NES, it was the first console my parents bought and I probably played on it. But the first one I remember playing was the Super Nintendo. And the first game I remember playing was Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

2. First Console Owned:

Well, as I said, my parents bought a NES and then a SNES when I was very little. The first console I bought with my own money, though, was a PlayStation 3, back in the early 2010s. At the time I was already mostly a PC gamer, so in the end I only played a dozen or so games on my PS3. For the most part exclusives like God of War 3, Demon's Souls and The Last of Us.

3. Games of #1 and #2 that made the biggest impression:

#1 is definitely The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. This game started a life-long obsession with the series and was literally responsible for me finding my best friends in the world (through an online forum, of all things).

#2 is Crusader Kings II. It's not an exaggeration to say that this game is partly responsible for my current career as a history teacher and researcher. It rekindled my passion for the field when I had just abandoned my previous career as a web-developer and didn't know what to do with my life.

4. Console (or PC) you most wanted but couldn’t get: Nintendo 64.

5. Reasons for #4:

I had a SNES growing up and loved Nintendo games, so of course I wanted a Nintendo 64. My parents promised to buy me one if I did good at school. And I did, I was even the best of the class. But because of some religious bullshit, my parents suddenly decided videogames were made by de Devil, so not only I didn't get my N64, I had to give away my SNES.

6. First Arcade Game you remember playing:

Metal Slug. I don't know which one specifically. I remember it had a train stage, so probably 2 or X.

7. What Arcade Games do you remember being in your hotel or on vacation that you got to spend extra time with because you only had several available?: None?

8. Arcade machine you could ride your bike to play: None. :/

9. Game you remember having the longest line to play:

Yeah, arcades were already quite dead in my country at the time (late 90s, early 00s, Brazil). At least where I lived. So I never had to deal with long lines and such.

10. First game rented:

I guess it was Donkey Kong Country 2 on the SNES. I played it so much that my mom even bought it for me afterwards.

11. First Game finished:

Super Bomberman, on the SNES. Fun fact, I beat this game in coop mode, with my younger brother. So the first game I've ever finished was also his first game!

12. First shmup 1CC'd:

ZeroRanger! I played a bunch of shmups before ZeroRanger, but it was the first game to make me really go for the one credit clear. Since then I 1CC'd another 10 games!

13. Languages learned in part because of videogames:

English and French. My English may not be perfect, and I can only read French, but for a "useless hobby" that's a lot things that I learned! Now I'm trying to do the same thing with Japanese...