RF Generation Message Board

What was the first game that really sucked you into video games?  Was it the first one you ever played?  Something years later that just defined video games for you and made things different from then on?  An arcade game that you just HAD to beat before you could stop putting quarters into it?

For me, it was probably either Super Mario Bros. or Duck Hunt.  Super Mario Bros. was the first video game I remember playing, and I absoultely loved it.  The graphics and gameplay absolutely blew me away.  A couple years later, I borrowed a few of my cousin's NES games, The Legend of Zelda among them.  It took the mild addiction SMB had instilled in me and ingrained it into my inner being.  Damn Nintendo.  They made me the poor person I am today.

Well, the first game I remember playing was paratrooper at age 8 or so. I might have played games before, but I don't remember. That's also the game that sucked me into gaming. It's so awesome.

For me it was Pressure Cooker and Venture that sucked me in.  I was lucky as my parents liked Atari as much as I did, so i always had an influx of games to play.

Night trap... I rember seting up a videocam infront of the tv trying to beat the game so that i could just watch it later on if i wanted to ;)

The first 'proper' game I played (which I STILL haven't discovered the name of) was on I think a C64 when I was about 4, but I think the things that really sucked me into the whole scene were Game & Watches, which I played even before that.  The novelty & mystery that surrounded games just pulled me in.

Asteroids for the Atari 2600. It was one of the first Atari games I had and it got the most play of any I had period.

To this day it's the first game I play whenever I hook up the 2600. It's also the game I always use to test  Atari consoles or joysticks whenever I find them.

My history breaks down like this:

Computers: tie Adventures In The Macrozine I think is the name of the series. It was a bunch of choose your own adventure type things. That and Where in Europe is Carmen Sandiego both for Apple ][.

Consoles: first game I played and really loved is a tie between Moon Patrol and Galaga for the 2600. The one that really sealed my fate is SMB for NES though.

Arcade: Rampage is the first game I spend a zillion quarters on and beat. It really sucked me and my brother in. As far as pinball goes, Cylone ate more of my quarters than anyone else's in the city.

All great games.

I think there were probably video games before SMB for me, but that is the first one that really stuck out in my mind.  Another game I know I played a lot of was Dragon Spirit.  If I remember correctly, I got that game at the same time as my NES Action Set.  I remember my dad reading the instruction manual, doing everything step-by-step as I waited impatiently to play.  He "showed me how it worked" before I was allowed to do it on my own.  That was probably the first and the last time he ever played a video game.

Of course, the only arcade game I really got into much as a kid was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I didn't get to go to arcades much, but they had one of these at the Chuk E. Cheese's near my house, and every time somebody had a birthday party, I got to play that game.

Good times.

Well I'm old enough to remember Space Invaders coin-ops being introduced to the U.K

The game that first got me hooked, really hooked, and coming back for more was probably Manic Miner for the Zx Spectrum circa 1983. I'd had a Spectrum since April 1982, but only had a Spave Invaders rip-off (Spectral Invaders) a pac-man ripoff (Gulpman) and a few games that my dad programmed for me.

Then my dad started retailing video games in his shop, and he gave me a bundle of tapes to try, Harrier Attack and Manic Miner the only two titles I remember from the bundle, to play at my grandparents houes over the schoo holidays. The whole family got hooked on tryinh to do Manic Miner, we'd never seen a platformer (they were called Leve's & Ladders back then) game before, and it took us most the afternoon to clear the first screen.

Mortal Kombat for the genesis got me interested, Super Mario bros hooked me for good |D

I barely remember yesterday, let alone years ago.

I assume it was my brother's Sega Genesis and the games he had for it, the only ones that stick out are Road Rash II and Todd's adventures in Slimeworld.

Be very glad of this.  A good memory is something I wish I had not been cursed with.

Excitebike....end of story!

first game i ever played.  Spideroide (SP?) on the Atari 2600.

Mike Tyson's punchout really got me hooked for good

Can't blame you on that one.  I should probably add that to my top ten NES list, but I might not just because I was never into it as a kid.  (I would have been had I owned it though.)  How about the final boss?  Dude could probably beat up Jesus.

I've never beaten Mike Tyson.  I just don't have the
skill.

It's not too hard for some people though. My roommate in college did
it all the time plus one on my employees can beat every fighter without
losing a single round

I've never beaten him either.  Seldomly do I get good enough at a game that hard to beat it.  A friend of mine also claims to have beaten him, though I've never seen it with my own eyes.  He probably did though, because in spite of the fact that he bluffs a lot, he never lies.

Some random gaming/Mike Tyson related trivia.

You probably know in the Jap version of SF2 the names of Vega, Balrog & M. Bison are switched around, and they were changed to their 'proper' names before the game's release in other territories.  What's interesting was the reason for this - to avoid a lawsuit by Mike Tyson, who used to go by the name of Mike Bison.  Therefore, they switched the character names around, and renamed the new M. Bison, 'Major' Bison.

Somewhat unrelated, but nevermind :P

I was brought into collecting from when i got my first systems Genesis and SNES(X-MAS 94) originally it was just that i didnt want to get rid of watever i had related to videogames but 4 years(97-98) later i was 10 and just stared to really go for things that were special or limited and by 99 with a subscription to Tips&Tricks magazine the Collectors Closet section had me hooked for good.

was looking thru the old threads and thought this was a interesting topic to drag back up......combat for the atari 2600 got me back into video games since then ive been into collecting the classic cartridge systems

Received back in the days the NES action set including Ice Climber, got me hooked on a little while...

But the levels in Ice Climber are mainly the same...and things went boring...so I asked my parents to buy me a game...
Was the first Castlevania, and go me really hooked on for days...great game!

Looks like I've never posted in this thread before, either ;)

For me, there were multiple games that got me hooked...all on the Amiga.  I think Targhan was one of the first.  

The biggest hits back then IMO were the point-and-click adventure games from Sierra and LucasArts + a few others...I LOVED those games!  I guess they were what eventually brought me into the RPG hype when the SNES came out!

For gaming it was Lock 'n' chase & River Raid back in the early 80's. Then years later, the memory of Pitfall II - Lost Cavern's ( my favorite game ever ) made me go out and rebuy an old system. Ever since I've been into collecting.

If we're talking video games in general...Pong. Yes, Pong. I remember being about 9 or 10 years old and going into this bar-restaurant with my parents and seeing a standup version of it. I played it with my Dad for awhile and was hooked. From that point, whenever I saw an arcade video game, I had to play it. Battle Zone. Lunar Lander. Then the almighty Space Invaders.

So the natural progression led me into consoles as soon as I heard that that Atari Computer Entertainment System was coming out (a.k.a the 2600 today).  I wanted to play the arcade games at home as soon as I could. And when I got it one Christmas, I haven't looked back since.

The very first game that got me into video games was the Super Mario Bros. Yes, that was the first video game I ever played. What got me really hooked on video games, though, was Gunsmoke. I used to play that game constantly. As a matter of fact, I just found a journal for school I had to write back in 2nd grade and almost all of my entries had to do with how much progress I've made on Gunsmoke, the final entry being how I made it to Level 6. XD

For a couple years, I went on a video game hiatus as the real world started to catch up on me. I'm back in the saddle, though, and I only have Tales of Symphonia to thank for that. From there, I broadened my horizons to encompass all gaming companies, aside from Nintendo, because, when it comes down to it, a video game is a video game, regardless of its console.

Well way long ago I didn't have any video game systems while everyone else did. All I had was a pre-historic mac that had Falcon and Tetris on it. Those were probably the first games I played but I was probably hooked on gaming before that, just seeing SNES games at The Evil Leon's house got me hooked.

I can't remember what game it was but the 2600 was the first system I remember playing. I have been playing games ever since.

Dragon Warrior 4 was the game that hooked me for time to come.

Ken

I cant believe I have never posted in here.

The first game to really "wow" me and get me playing was probably Pitfall on the 2600. Arcade games such as Pac man, Centipede, Sinistar and many others had me coming back until I started playing the NES. Granted I was still an "arcade rat" though  ;)

Since my first time around i didn't give a real answer i should just clarify now:
No single game got me in to gaming/collecting.
Just the experience and fun as a whole did.

I loved reading/movies because i liked the entertainment or learning factors.
Same reasons i liked games.
Except games took it to a new level it as like a book but with visuals and it was like a movie you played thru.

Essentially games to me were/are a combination of my favorite parts of books and movies.

The game that got me hooked. Tough one...

Years ago when i was a little kiddo i got a Gameboy from mine sister (don't recall why) and i belive i got Super mario land and Tetris with it (and a bunch of crap games). I really played for years on mine Gameboy Tetris, Mario 1, 2, Wario (Mario land 3), etc.
Trully those were golden years snif. But that is not what got me hooked.

In 1996 (i belive) i got an Snes for mine birthday and with that i got hooked! From that point on i have been playing like an maniac. ;)

Metroid, no question.  I was always intrigued by this game, but my brother would never let me play it.  So once I got some cash, I started collecting all the NES titles to spite him I think.  No he wants to play, and guess what I tell him ::)
~~NGD

Pinball...

Yeah, I'm old enough to remember a time before most modern coin-ops.  I used to beg my mom and dad for a quarter..or a nickel...to play one of those old pinball machines with the odometer-type score keepers.  Or to play one of those old western-type machines that had a gun barrel on top and you shot at fast moving metal cut-out cowboys and indians.  They were in every laundromat that my parents went into.  So, they'd fill my pocket up with quarters and nickels so I could play the games they had at the laundromat while they washed clothes.  I still remember the day when they got rid of those old things and brought in a Space Invaders machine.  I was definitely hooked then.

Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, Metriod, and Zelda.

I played them all down in the basement of my grandparents house for hours.

I never, ever, understood why people liked Duck Hunt.

Metroid

What game sucked me in? I don't know really I always loved video games, no matter the gerne, or the system. Of course I did nto start collecting games till around the same time as Rejinx. Rejinx would have to be more of the reason I got in to game collecting. Althought at the time he was a NES collector and I was collected for whatever system I had. But now we both collect any kind of games.  

It wasn't really one game that got me. My gramps gave me a 2600 and about 20 games when I was 3 (which I still have), that pretty much started it...  Plus my mom worked in a truckstop 3rd shift when I was growing up, and instead of paying for a babysitter, I just stayed there during the night. They had a nice size arcade in there that used to be mine pretty much all night. It had about 15 games in it. I used to be up till 7am Playing Pac-Man, Popeye, Defender, Mr. Do, Spy Hunter, Asteroids, and all sorts of other shit...  pretty sweet when you're 5 years old.