General Gaming What got you started in gaming

[Mercury33]

Parents got me an NES with the Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/Track and Field cart along with a light gun and pad. Haven’t looked back since. 

[GameDadGrant]

I seem to recall playing arcade cabs at the local Chuck E. Cheese, and then later being blown away when my buddy across the street had the Atari 7800 and we could play Pac-Man on that. Later came:

 

Pole Position

Chop Lifter

Centipede

 

Loved these games, but it wasn’t until I played Super Mario Bros. on another buddy’s NES that I *truly* fell in love with gaming. 

 

Been gaming pretty much ever since.

[darkness35]

Before my mother received custody from my deadbeat, playing C&C Red Alert when I was around 3rd grade while visiting my mother and my eventual dad, and then subsequently playing it later on a lesser machine during the summer while living with my deadbeat.   That might have been one of my first forays into gaming.

 

Also oddly enough as a 5 year old, I  couldn't pass stage 1-1 on Super Mario on the NES because I was afraid of dying to a goomba . I think that perfectionism gaming has still stuck to me since then

[nublood]

14 hours ago, Mercury33 said:

Parents got me an NES with the Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/Track and Field cart along with a light gun and pad. Haven’t looked back since. 

 

Same.

[Dodger]

I remember getting an NES for either my 4th or 5th birthday. Been hooked ever since. I got it the triple back with SMB Duck Hunt and Track and Field. I played the absolute crap out of SMB.

[nublood]

I've procrastinated, stayed up way too late, been late for work, gotten a speeding ticket because I was trying to get home to play, gotten in heated arguments with family, (RBI Baseball, Mario Kart, Double Dragon, Street Fighter and MORE!) etc. Good times. Thanks Mom and Dad!

[atom631]

My older brother had an Atari 2600.  Frogger and Pitfall hooked me. 

[bladimir2k]

There wasn't one source for me that I can recall that got me into gaming but a couple of experiences:

 

1 - Vectrex Console - we would go to my 2nd cousins house from time to time and deep in their dark basement full of junk they kept a Vectrex. This is the first experience into gaming that I can recall. We played minestorm, hyperchase, spike, cleansweep and a football game.  This was around age 8-10.

 

2- NES - At one point an older cousin of ours rented a room in our apartment, for whatever reason he had a used nintendo and he let us play it for a few weeks, the only problem was that he didn't have any games or just the original mario. At one point I think my older brother opened up an account at a local video rental place to rent a back to the future game for the weekend. Games were hard back then and as kids we couldn't pass the first few levels! lol That was short lived though he took it back after like 3-4 weeks.

 

3- PC/My brother - My older brother really got interested in computers during his early high school years. He got my mom to buy him a packard bell (at the time buying a computer for us was a big expense) It came bundled with a slew of software including Mega Race and Old dog McCree. His interest of computers kept going, eventually he would go on to build his own computers and we would look for more games.

[Duchess May]

My step father had a C64 and C128, then I got an Atari 7200. After being mesmerised by my uncle and his girlfriend playing Super Mario Bros, got an NES. Once I got to play the original Sonic at someone's house at eight years old, I was hooked for good. I still game more than anyone else I know.

 

Most of my friends from online and irl seem to have moved on...I could never do that.

[Anzo]

My parents bought a used Atari 2600 with some games. The only game I remember was Jungle Hunt. 

 

Fast forward to Christmas 1986 or 87 when I received the NES combo pack already mentioned with the pad, Mario/Duck Hunt and Track and Field. Been a gamer ever since. 

[Bloodporne]

My mother's best friend's daughter, who was probably like 6 years older than me at the time, had an NES with Mario on a tiny TV in front of a giant black-painted wall with a white AC/DC logo on it.

 

All my future guilty pleasures in a nutshell.

[JosephManderley]

22 hours ago, bladimir2k said:

There wasn't one source for me that I can recall that got me into gaming but a couple of experiences:

 

1 - Vectrex Console - we would go to my 2nd cousins house from time to time and deep in their dark basement full of junk they kept a Vectrex. This is the first experience into gaming that I can recall. We played minestorm, hyperchase, spike, cleansweep and a football game.  This was around age 8-10.

 

2- NES - At one point an older cousin of ours rented a room in our apartment, for whatever reason he had a used nintendo and he let us play it for a few weeks, the only problem was that he didn't have any games or just the original mario. At one point I think my older brother opened up an account at a local video rental place to rent a back to the future game for the weekend. Games were hard back then and as kids we couldn't pass the first few levels! lol That was short lived though he took it back after like 3-4 weeks.

 

3- PC/My brother - My older brother really got interested in computers during his early high school years. He got my mom to buy him a packard bell (at the time buying a computer for us was a big expense) It came bundled with a slew of software including Mega Race and Old dog McCree. His interest of computers kept going, eventually he would go on to build his own computers and we would look for more games.

I know what you mean about PCs being expensive back then.  I got my first PC when I was 17.  My grandmother died and left me some money, on the condition I spent it on something "useful".  I got a 486DX 33mhz PC, with a 14" monitor and a massive 4MB (not GB, MB!) of RAM.  It cost 1600 pounds!  Mind you - it was built like a tank, I used the case and keyboard for the next decade, just swapping out parts every few years.