What Game Turned You Into A Gamer?
By William on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 9:42 PM PST In Gamer Life
Everyone has a great story about their first game or a specific game that basically turned them into the gamer they are today. Here’s my story. Feel free to add yours in the comments. I’m definitely always curious what turned someone into a gamer. Without a doubt it my mind, Dragon’s Lair was that game for me. I was only 6 years old at the time, but it turned me into the gaming machine I am today. While most kids spent their entire allowances that summer on candy or movies, every last quarter I could get my hands on went into Dragon’s Lair.
1983 was the first year I was introduced to the world of video games. I was 6 years old at the time. I would beg my parents to take me to the arcade all the time. I even had my 6th birthday party in one. This was also the year of the great video game crash that lasted over 3 years. This was fortunate for me in ways, because the price of the Atari systems fell through the bottom and my dad bought me one. This was also the year that I found the game that blew my mind at the time. The game was the arcade hit Dragon’s Lairâ„¢.
This was one of the first laser disc games ever made and completely stood out from every other game in the arcades at the time. We would often wait in endless lines to get a chance to play. This was the first detailed game that didn’t use sprites as characters that I ever came across. You basically play as Dirk the Daring, a knight attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil Dragon Singe. What was strange about the game was that instead of controlling his actions, you controlled his reflexes. This was very similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. Although nowadays the game wouldn’t get very far, back then the cinematics and story line alone set it apart from the rest of the playing field for a very long time.
“Dragon’s Lair: The fantasy adventure where you become a valiant knight, on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon. You control the actions of a daring adventurer, finding his way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, your odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose your efforts to reach the Dragon’s Lair. Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits.â€
While I started on an old floppy disk DOS setup with Number Munchers and Q’Bert, I got hooked when Nintendo Power offered a free copy of Dragon Warrior with a subscription. I asked for it for Christmas, and played that game for hours on end. The ‘rents attribute it to me really wanting to and learning how to read.
Halo 1.
First game I bought with my own money: Ultima III for the PC (that was 1986 or 1987). Before that i got hooked by Bard’s Tale playing for months at a friend’s C64.
Gosh, I feel old now.
Commando……
The first one I can remember playing was Combat! for the Atari 2600, but it wasn’t until The Legend of Zelda that I was truly hooked.
Dune, that was the best strategy ever! Then Fallout.
I would probably think Super Mario Bro.’s. Now I know that sounds cliche, but that was the first game I really played hardcore back in the day. I mean, we(my family), owned a Atari 2600 and I jammed out on Pac-Man and Pitfall, but that was just me gettin’ my foot in the door. So when Nintendo came out and threw down some hype ass side scrollers. Thats what got me down.
I must be older than most of you.
Donkey Kong – yes, the original, got me in to gaming. Pac Man was great but I really excelled at Donkey Kong for some reason & that became MY game.
PC gaming? That would have to be Duke Nukem 3D.
Diablo II and Starcraft are the games that turned me into a Gamer.
Donkey Kong was the game that originally got me into the fray. Super Mario Brothers netted me my first NES. The Bard’s Tale was my fix for PC. Sonic the Hedgehog got my goat for Sega. After that it was an unstoppable line of RPGs with names like Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, and Legend of Zelda. My favorite among them has always been Planescape: Torment.
Mine would have to be back in the glory days of Sierra: All the “Quest” games – Space quest, Police Quest, and King’s Quest. I learned how to spell and type with those games – I remember being six when I would get up at like 5am, figure out how to launch the game from DOS and then try to spell the various commands: “xamn grnd” – Crap! “examn grond” – Crap! “examin grond” – Crap! “examine grond” – So close! “examine ground!” – Yay!
True “edutainment” before there was such a concept!
Gauntlet was it! I had 2 brothers so it was hard to find a game all three of us could play at the same time. And since we played D&D it was the best game ever!
I also remember liking the game Rampage because it was 3 player
Either King’s Quest VII: The Princeless Bride or Grim Fandango. I’m a pretty young fellow so eat it.
“My scythe–I like to keep it next to where my heart used to be.” – GF
Pitfall II for the Atari 2600. I was maddeningly frustrating, but I just wanted to get a little further each time I played.
My parents had bought the Atari for them, but they quickly found that me and my brother were the ones who were enjoying it the most. For multiplayer we loved Bowling and Combat. (Why is my comment being flagged as spam?)
Wow, i cannot believe no one has mentioned the original Final fantasy for NES?!?
i started really really really early into my childhood. i think i was in preschool or maybe earlier. i used to go to my cousins house and we would just play duckhunt and i remember being obsessed with the original street fighter. at my friends fourth birthday street fighter was all that was on my mind!
The Original Nintendo Gameboy and Age of Empires 2. Those were the days!
Hmm.. The game that got me hooked into gaming would have to have been either Kings Quest 4 or Dune II. The latter didn’t run so quick on our 286.
Sometimes I think that my parents got me hooked on adventure games as a kid just to get me learning how to read at an early age.
I still remember getting REALLY scared playing Manhunter: New York.
captain midnight on an apple computer. must have been 1986-7
Three games back for the sega genesis. Mortal Kombat 2, Sonic the Hedgechog, and ToeJam & Earl.
Zork.
/sips on his Metamusal and shuffles off to watch The Price is Right
I would have to say it was Cylon Zap on a Vic20, when I was like 6. Typed in out of a “Computer Gazzet” Magazine I believe. HAHAHAHA Yes they used to publish the basic code for you to type in yourself. HAHAHA
started gaming with CRASH BANDICOOT – very first game of the series when the ps1 what lik e ‘OMFG I JUST HAVTA HAVE ONE’ and i was like 7
currently -im a big metal gear solid harcore fan and lover of all things 1st person and im playing world of warcraft, waiting for warhammer age of reakoning because warcrafts becoming boring =p
A demo cd, Encarta, and Dangerous Creatures came with the first computer my parents purchased. Those two programs, and the demo of the game Hocus Pocus got me started. Then Doom (one) cemented my love for games.
It’ll be a DOS game for me – I think it’s a tie between Digger and Tomcat.
I’ll go a little off the mainstream.
The Dark Heart of Uukrul
Rise of the Dragon
and yes…Bards Tale 1, 2 and 3.
Sonic The Hedgehog was the game that got me into gaming. But FFVII was the game that made me really enthusiastic about it.
I stated gaming before i can remember anything, first game memories: quest for gory (in the middle east), kings quest 3?, DOOM (dads computer at work because mom wouldn’t let me play such a violent game, space quest3????, Mechwarrior2 (i have every one after that, 10 differnt games including addions).
Mine came form five different places.
1) NES with super Mario Bros. 1,2, and 3
2)Sega Master System with Sonic the Hedgehog
3)My moms old Mac with Doom 2
4)The PlayStation
and finaly,
5)Every GTA game on the PS1, PS2, and soon X360
Adventure – the original version on the PDP-10. That was over 30 years ago. Scary…
Donkey Kong JR. the Game & Watch version and Jetpac on the ZX Spectrum
Final Fantasy 1 for NES emulated on my performa 6100 with a gravis game pad.
As far as consoles go, the first game to get me into them was Super Mario World for the SNES, as I never had a NES
When it comes to PC games? Warcraft: Orcs & Humans was my favorite.
HI
i said super mario brothers before, but the game i’ve probably played the most has to be super mario kart for the super nintendo. holy. crap. so many countless hours spent in high school with my friends playing battle mode. if you want a true skill game, play the original battle mode with someone who’s played a lot. none of the others really compare being that the levels are more complicated, and the items changed, i feel, to make it easier. i still play it every so often.
Interstate 76′ I will never forget all that made the game so great…I still rock the “redbook audio” CD that came with it as the “play disc” Anyone else even ever heard of the game??
Final Fantasy VII on PSOne. I saw my big bro playing the game back in 1999 and i fell in love with the cut-scenes…. Still love em! Since then I bought every FF and many other games – but mostly RPGs… Just gotta love them games!
Has to be Zork I got me into the whole video game idea. But Ocarina Of time got me hooked, damn that was only 7 years ago..I was 11 years old..how time flies.
Wolfenstein & Spear of Destiny..
before that… cannot remember name but it was for the Atari 2600
In all seriousness…Police Quest; back in good old 1988 with our old XT – 16MHz with the turbo button on and something like 50k of RAM. Pretty sure if I looked hard enough I could find a save game right before the start of the poker mini-game (although wouldn’t have a drive to read the disk
).
look locker
open locker
get gun
After that I discovered things like Sim City, Pirates and Civ.
I used to play on the snes at my friends house, and loved it- zelda, and mario, and starwing etc.But Sonic 2, on the sega- my first console, was the game that realy got me into gaming. I played it for months before i completed it (i was quite young). It is still a brilliant game. And pitfall was a good one as well. And micro machines. And desert strike. man i loved those games! i wonder if i still have them?
Elite of course
BEST. GAME. EVER.
The old Star Wars games turned me into a gamer
Had to search for it; PGA Golf (DOS) and Shufflepuck Cafe (Mac);
http://users.pandora.be/mpq/software/screenshots/pga_golf.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shufflepuck_Cafe
First game with a keyboard: Arkanoid on pc.
First game to keep me awoken whole till 2am: Marioland on Gameboy.
First game to keep me from sleeping whole night: Diablo.
First game to ruin my studies (hopefully I threw my pc away after 10 months): CS 1.5
Bombermaaaaaaaaannn!!!!
Super Mario 64 turned me into a gamer. Rock The Classic’s!!!
Does anybody remember Pilot Wings for the N64? That game was damn addictive, I’ve been playing console and PC games ever since.
well it was on an 8bit computer and it was called MARIO!!!
Right on Corey….Zelda for NES. The first game I played ALL night long. 1987-Couldnt find the game ANYWHERE so I rented it. Fell so hardcore into it, I went back to the video rental store to report it: STOLEN FROM MY CAR WHEN I WENT INTO A 7-11 FOR A PACK OF SMOKES, HOW MUCH DO I OWE YA? The best 50 bucks I ever parted with. Oddly enough, the next game that had me up all night was Moto GP 06 for the 360. Some cool cats from the UK gave me set up tips on-line, and I was in another dimension. “Whats that wierd noise(Early birds chirpin)…Oh shit the suns commin up WTF? You guys gonna be on here tomorrow? Talk to you then “Mate”.
I wonder where it’s gonna go next?