you guys are lucky

[The Glider]

I'm 34 in June, so I was born before electricity was invented !

I think my first gaming experience was on a huge mainframe computer (that took up 5 rooms) in the 1970's. I think I played Chess or Draughts or it could've been noughts & crosses.

Then it was Parker Brothers' Merlin & Grandstand's Scramble in the late 1970's early 1980's followed by a bright orange Donkey Kong Game & Watch, which was then followed by a ZX Spectrum.

Those were wonderful days - buying the new issue of Crash before school & getting your rich mates to fill blank C90 cassettes full of games for you. Then buying a new game at the start of the summer holidays to last you through those 6 weeks.

[lettuce]

Was just saying to my bother the other day, of how i used to come home from school, and play on my NES for hours, playing through games such as Bionic Commando, Rygar, Batman etc all in one sitting, ill be lucky these days if a game holds my attention for more than 10 minutes! Defently the 8-Bit & 16-bit era for me

[Wools]

My best school gaming memory must have been the SFII craze, way back on the Snes.
Now that was a cool time, everyone rushing home to practice so they could go round to their mates after tea to show off their new sKilLZ. Trust me to think Dhalsim was the best, while everyone else was picking Ryu and Blanka. ^0^

It depends I guess when you were brought up. Imagine the kids who are growing up today and have memories of Ico, metal gear, metroid and shenmue.

When I was a young kid it was Street fighter 2 Vs matches, as a young teenager it was GoldenEye 4 player matches every day over my best mate's house and as a teenager it was Soul Calibur.

All of them were my favourites but it's supprising how much games were tied into my life as a kid. So for example with the N64 era I rember playing football with friends after matches or with the SNES era going round the loacal shop with two pound my mum and nan had given me and buying Sonic the comic and some football stickers with ?1 and using the other for sweets! Then we would cycle back and play SFII untill 5pm when I had to go home. Happy memories

It'sone thing picking up a console and game for ?20 on eBay and going round a mate's house and playing one when it was released.

It's also suprising how much Digitiser has in my memory of past consoles and my childhood.

Im going to ring my mate and have a chat about this!

[Baseley09]

When I were 12 Shubbinman 2 was miles better than any Megaman.

Still is.

[Kubrick]

32, was playing coin-ops like Space Invaders, Asteroids, Defender, Pac-Man, Scramble etc before I reached double figures, and these are what got me hooked. Looking back, yeah it was cool to "be there" during the early days, but YOU guys (the youngsters) have also got it made...imported games & consoles are all yours with just the click of a mouse. Practically any game is obtainable for a reasonable price thanks to the internet. Not to mention emaultion etc...an arcade-perfect port was just a pipe dream in the 80's!

[Zentazuken]

True, but with that it loses its nostalgic-ness.

[Peekay]

First console I got, or used, was my brother's NES he got in Christmas of '91 or so... He must have been about six, I was nine. I thought Mario was pretty awesome, but really hard - I always used to get killed by Bowser's hammers, or else run out of time on that level where you have to jump up and make that "ping" noise - what were you supposed to do there again? I remember waking up a few times and hearing my dad playing on the NES secretly. My brother told me the new Mario game on the new console had a little dinosaur that Mario rides on (he saw it on Gamesmaster) and I didn't believe him. Then he got a SNES for Christmas with SF2, and I got Probotector to play on it. SF2 wasn't in with the game box for some reason, we went and got a copy a few days later from the toy shop, but there was no manual with it so I've always been a bit behind the times moves-wise - only found out how to do a fireball about three years ago, and how to do a dragon punch three days ago. Probotector was unbelievable, rock hard but such a great game - the sense of desperately defending the earth was unmatched. Rock hard - only got as far as the boss where you have to hang onto rockets in the sky whilst shooting him. Playing Mario 64 though has to rank as my best gaming experience ever. I remember seeing early screens and thinking "but how do you know where to go?" The answer was, anywhere you liked! Nothing since has really captured my imagination in quite the same way, although Resi 2 was pretty special (first import I ever bought - had to play it in black and white through an AV connection). Whatever happened to C+VG? 96-99 it was unbelievably good.

[UnclePadda]

Hmm, when you're able to play the games later anyway, I would think that age doesn't matter.
I played Zelda III for the first time on the SNES a few month ago and I'm 17 now. I only remember the "mainstream era" of the Nintendo 64 and PSOne.

[Rankles]

I was lucky enough to grow up with the megadrive, Shining Force 2 shaped my childhood, its my fondest memory. Seriously that game is so big a part of me I wouldn't be the same person without it. I don't play much now, I rarely buy new games and only play my megadrive occasionally but I still collect. I missed out on the Saturn as I had other things going on, I was about 12.... I don't think we had the money. I have one now though.

[the_joker360]

Reading through this thread just makes you realise why you got in to videogames and love and respect they deserve.

My first console was a NES back in 1990. Me, my Dad and brother went up to Selfridges (London) to pick up one with Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. I can't remember actually being there in the shop, but I remember that evening. Round my Dad's flat, trying to complete the bomb disposal water level and eating a Pizza Hut. That evening I was a hero turtle. That was a special time that can never be taken away from me.

Christmas 1992-3 (can?t remember the year), me and brother got a Mega Drive 2 with Sonic 2 and Street Fighter 2 SCE. It felt like I was defecting from my Nintendo roots but I knew I could go back to my NES when ever I wanted to. Street Fighter really was a big chapter in my videogame upbringing. The highly detailed characters, the deep and tight gameplay mechanics, the amazing backgrounds, the catchy music (me and my best mate would hum the themes to school). Everything about this game was pure perfection.

After the MD, I moved across to the Sega Saturn. At the time, I had never considered the Playstation. You knew that the Saturn would have Sega's franchises (such as Virtua Fighter). To be honest I did not regret choosing the Saturn, I had many great memories of playing Sega Rally, Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, X-Men Children of the Atom etc.

Not so much a particular event but the 1995-1996 era will always stay with me. I remember reading about NiGHTS in Sega Saturn Magazine, the buzz that game produced was unreal. Also going to CEX in Harrow to watch the import Mario 64. The crowd was about 30 people deep. Yeah the view was pretty crap but we were all looking at the future of videogames.

Once the price came down, me and bro caved in and asked for a Playstation for Christmas. My mum was not sure what game to get with it so she bought Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha. She must have remembered us asking for Street Fighter 2 for the MD. It felt like the day we got our Mega Drive, the feeling of playing a '3D' Street Fighter. I still play it to this day.

I also remember the buzz when Resident Evil 2 and Gran Turismo came out in the UK. At school, me and my friends would get so hyper talking about Resi 2. The Lickers, the massive fecking spiders, Ada Wong's screw job on Leon, playing as Hunk. Only Zelda: OTT has recreated that feeling of trying to complete the game as a team.

As me and my mates have grown up, with the demands of adult life we have moved towards quick fix games (namely Pro Evo).

Despite this, my love for videogames will never change, even though the industry is.

[buckrogers]

I kinda know what you are saying. I got back into old 2D games because I wanted my nephews and my own kids to experience what I grew up playing.

But when one considers some of the goodies available now - online sports games, MMPORG's, occasional single player games worth playing (Riddick as an example?), incredible racing games, etc...

I can remember dreaming what the future of gaming would be back in 1989, and could not have imagined such progress.

I think the thing to take away from this thread, for all those "new" to "retro gaming", is that perspective is THE most important thing. To appreciate what games came before, and to assess new games with a broader picture of what gaming is about and can look like. My nephews would play SNES games emulated on their PS2, and not even know what they are playing, or how old the games are! INSANE.

I recently hooked up an Amiga 1200 with all the bells and whistles and played those games that I grew up playing, right off harddrive without pesky floppy disks. Well, now that I have it set up, I don't feel so compelled to play those old games so much. More inclined to play the newer Mega Drive games, and suspect that I will enjoy newer games over mega drive games once I get a newer console.

Its funny how we seem to appreciate what we don't have (or missed out on), sometimes more so than what we have.

[in5ane]

My best school gaming memory must have been the SFII craze, way back on the Snes.

Yep. I don't think gaming will ever be better than when SF2 and Mario Kart were out, and everybody was awesome at them.

I do feel kinda sorry for people who jumped into games playing FIFA on a PS2.

[hankwangford]

I remember when I fell in love with gaming; the exact point. Holiday camp arcade, being lifted up by my brother (wasn't even big enough to see the screen) and chucking hundreds of 10p's into Commando. The feel of it, this dark secluded spot with loads of teenagers playing 80s coin-ops, the buzz and the really cheap one tone sounds as well as all the memorable themes and visuals - there's no word for it.

Anyone getting into gaming now probably winds up starting with a GTA game or something from the comfort of their own home. There's such a gulf of difference there :/

[Ady]

For me it all started with the C64.

Playground battles with delusional Speccy kids (settled by showing them C64 versions of games they owned...), some of the best gaming music I have ever heard (the likes of which influenced my greatly), buying Zzap! 64 religiously, entering POKEs with a negligible success rate, gaming worlds that stretched my imagination...

My first proper console was the Megadrive, though my C64 memories will stay with me forever.

[Tsingtao]

My first love will always be the arcade games of my youth, galaxians, scramble, defender, 10 yard fight, gauntlet and more.

However my fondest memories will eternally be of the Spectrum 48k, the rubber key not working edition. I used al my savings at the age of about 9 to get one of these things and at the time they were having production problem. I had 6 of them before I got a working one, admittedly one of the failures I blew up myself messing around trying to make a joystick from wires.
I rembmer the other kids around having comodore 64s and in one unlucky chaps case a comodore +4 but what always stood out back then was game play. Lets face it it had to, there were no cinematic cutscenes or the like to lift you bland xxx clone to stardom the thing actually had to play well.

I remember sat wasting my youth in my bedroom playing football manager and later the Elite. This stuff kept me going from 9 to 18 when I went to uni and discover the SNES. At the time Street Fighter 2 was king and manysmokey nights and days were spent honing these tallents.

After that came my PSX and the the PS2, it wasn't till FFXI that I ever bothered gaming on my PC.