First video game you ever played?

[Angular Chap]

Been gaming for as long as I can remember.

I'm told that I was like 3 when I started? My parents had an Atari 2600 for reasons I've never been able to understand, and that's what I started with.

To this day I still play those frequently. Though, by emulator, not via original hardware.

Some eye candy for you! My Atari 2600. Don't have any games for it since I'm a dirty emulation user, but I use the joystick with a USB adapter to play the games via emulation. I modified the stick by soldering in clicky tactile switches, the original dome switches were too spongy and unresponsive (sorry purists!)

 

[Metalhead]

Q-bert.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I grew up with the early video games. I remember pong, and my frustration at it being so very hard to play. Space Invaders too. We had Pac Man and the E.T. game on the Atari. We had a Commodore computer with all kinds of fun games. Um.. an Arcadia system too. I distinctly remember tooth invaders being a fun one. There was a text rpg on one of the systems, I think it was the Commodore. Mario and Duck hunt on the NES were mind blowing when they came out. And then Mario 3- wow. That was futuristic! When I finally got to play Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe... Dang, those seemed practically 3d and realistic.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

In the late 80s, early 90s, outside of the local Circle K, there were arcade games. I think I remember Street Fighter, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mrs. Pac Man. I loved those games.

 

[MildredHubble]

Some eye candy for you! My Atari 2600. Don't have any games for it since I'm a dirty emulation user, but I use the joystick with a USB adapter to play the games via emulation. I modified the stick by soldering in clicky tactile switches, the original dome switches were too spongy and unresponsive (sorry purists!)

View attachment 115308

I'm getting the new Atari 2600+. It's an emulation based system but I really like the way it looks. It's upset some purists too! I'm currently watching a Pat the NES Punk video where they are really tearing it apart. I think they are being a little too pessimistic about it. Sure it's not 100% compatible (right now at least) but damn! It's a nice looking machine and it's official hardware. The price is pretty good too for a cool little thing like that. Some people just want the moon on a stick!

 

[RemyZee]

Asteroids.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Asteroids.

Oh my gosh! Yes! We had Asteroids too! wow

 

[Misery]

I'm getting the new Atari 2600+. It's an emulation based system but I really like the way it looks. It's upset some purists too! I'm currently watching a Pat the NES Punk video where they are really tearing it apart. I think they are being a little too pessimistic about it. Sure it's not 100% compatible (right now at least) but damn! It's a nice looking machine and it's official hardware. The price is pretty good too for a cool little thing like that. Some people just want the moon on a stick!

Honestly, they're probably a bit jaded from the previous one. The VCS *really* didn't do well. It was hyped left and right by the company and then was a colossal dud upon release. Barely any support, tiny game selection that hardly expanded, and so on. The only good thing that could be said was "it wasn't vaporware".

This is one of those cases where I'd strongly suggest waiting until reviews have come out. Specifically reviews from people who aren't completely overtaken by nostalgia. As it is, I went and had a look at the site, and there are red flags that immediately popped up. I saw that compatibility chart with games that either A: work, B: are untested (???) or C: outright can't work. That isn't a good sign. There's no excuse for ANY of those to not work, particularly considering how simplistic and primitive the original hardware is... it should be child's play to get any of these, even bootleg carts, to work.

Unfortunately, the old Atari is dead and has been for decades. The company as it exists now is not actually Atari, it's a different one having simply bought the name/rights. Worth keeping in mind. Doesn't mean they won't put out a decent product, mind you. They just might. But one way or another it's an expensive device, and it's worth being careful with your hard-earned money.

Also, the horrible mess that is the Intellivision Amico likely probably soured them on this concept as well. What a disaster THAT is. And it's not even out yet.

 

[Misery]

On a side note, I wonder if anyone here is at all familiar with this game:

This definitely is not the first game I ever played, but I've got memories associated with it. I used to play this at my grandfather's house, where 2 of my aunts (who actually arent that much older than I am, so they still lived there and would babysit me for a time every now and then) would play it with me. I was definitely a little kid at the time, long enough ago that I really shouldnt remember that, but I do.

Also this game is like digital anxiety. If you've ever played it, you probably remember The Spider. Not seen in the video. The escape sequence is anxiety-inducing enough.

Easily one of my favorite games on the console though, and one of the most advanced. I'm currently learning game dev tools, and one big goal of mine is to make something inspired by this, but with horror elements. Granted the original is already creepy.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

In school- The Oregon Trail

This is a dos emulator game, from a more recent version of Oregon Trail- from 1992 to be exact. The one I played was back in the mid 1980s, and was dos green.

https://arcadespot.com/game/oregon-trail-deluxe/

 

[Ken]

Have never had any interest in games, but my first was Pong. Not much if anything after that.

Once I did write a game on a Commodore 64. It was a lunar lander. I was really proud of it because I put in all the gravitational constants and mass to engine force movements. The game was to land the lander among boulders, mountains, crater rims, etc. If the landing was not level it would crash. I even had it where if it hit the side of a mountain, it would careen and roll down the mountain. I loaned my only copy of the game to a friend who lost it. Isn't that classic?

 

[Jonn]

Pong.

 

[NB79]

i think the first game was test drive, on my father pc.

i had a colecovision adam computer with a lot of games later i think, (my father used to sell them).
And more later i had my first pc, an 8086 or 88. I remember once going to the capital, and going to a place to buy games, i was shocked one of the game was like 15 mb size, i was like, "thats half the space i have!" lol.

 

[Magna]

Atari Pong

 

[Twilight]

The first game I remember playing is the first Super Mario Bros game. I probably played something like Pac-Man before that, but I don’t remember.

 

[Jonn]

Have never had any interest in games, but my first was Pong. Not much if anything after that.

Having cut my teeth on "Pong", I am continually staggered by the quality of modern game graphics.
"Elden Ring" is the most beautiful game I have ever seen, as an example.
I have to laugh at the younger ppl complaining about games these days.
As I said, my first computer game was "Pong".
Connect the dots.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I thought about it. Pong is definitely the first video game I ever played.

And there weren't controllers with little buttons, or even joysticks.

There were these little round knobs that you had to turn upwards or downwards. Really hard to operate. I think I was too young to understand and to have the muscle control. I was like four or five when I first played Pong. But my dad and male cousins really loved it.

 

[Misery]

Having cut my teeth on "Pong", I am continually staggered by the quality of modern game graphics.
"Elden Ring" is the most beautiful game I have ever seen, as an example.
I have to laugh at the younger ppl complaining about games these days.
As I said, my first computer game was "Pong".
Connect the dots.

Mostly the complaints these days are about cost VS quality (AKA, games releasing either ultra buggy or with very little content... usually both). Or scammy elements (MTX and loot boxes, as well as addiction elements). Elden Ring is an anomaly... most AAA games dont come out like that.

Heck I actually picked up Diablo 4 myself, figuring that I'd at least give it a try... hadnt touched a AAA game in years, mostly just followed the seemingly infinite progression of shady controversies that happen in it, but picked it up. Gotta "try new things" from time to time. And... yeah wow. It's actually on the high end of the AAA scale in quality and honestly it's still pretty bleh. Hardly any content or depth, it just came out and already the publisher plans "expansions" that are reportedly going to cost just as much as the main game (without having actually fixed any of the issues the main game has). This in addition to the already infamous cash shop, which... *sigh*. On the plus side it gets people to try other games in that genre, but that's another story.

Fortunately for everyone enjoying Elden Ring, From Software is one of the very few AAA companies that isnt trying to squeeze players like some sort of weird money sponges.

 

[Princess Viola]

Super Mario 64 when I was 4 years old back in 2000.

Don't remember if it was my 4th birthday that year or for Christmas, but I distinctly remember unwrapping my presents and there was a Nintendo 64 and a copy of Super Mario 64 and my dad got it all hooked up to the living room TV and plopped the cartridge in and turned the TV on and the console and well I was 4 years old and didn't really know what to do, but I do remember running around the outside of the castle and managing to figure out the game a bit more as I kept playing it, although I don't think I ever beat it as a 4 year old.

 

[Jonn]

Elden Ring is an anomaly... most AAA games dont come out like that.

One of the best games I have ever played.
I don't usually go "backward", but I have with Elden Ring's predecessor. Dark Souls III.
I am playing it right now.