looking back before shining on the future

[Alex Bock]

Well as the next wave of new consoles are coming out, lets look back on how we even got into video games.

For me it all started when my dad bought a PlayStation. I had never really thought much of gaming so I went into it with a blank outlook, that's when I got introduced to the Battle Arena Toshinden franchise. With it's unique colourful cast of characters and exceptionally great 3D graphics(at the time) I got sucked into it's magical fighting world. Sadly though it got tossed into the forgotten world called bargin bin, when games like Tekken and Street Fighter got really popular in the fighting genre and overshadowed it.

Another game that turned me into a gamer was called "Rayman"with It's odd looking characters, weirdly themed levels, and colourful landscapes(not forgetting the strange little noises the characters made) made me fall in love with it. A bad memory though was when I was at school and my dad beat Mr. Dark and the candy level the two things I were dying to see :'(. With the announcement for Rayman Ravving Rabbids premiering on the Wii, I can only anticipate with excitement and joy.

 

[Linkachu]

Hmm... Having a bad memory does not help with topics like this, but I'll mention the games that made the biggest impact.

I started gaming back in the days of NES when Super Mario Bros. was released. Probably wasn't all that good at it, but that didn't stop me from trying. The game that really changed my life, though? Final Fantasy (duh). That game made me the fantasy-obsessed, day-dreaming geek I am today. Supposedly it also taught me to read, because before it I kinda... didn't. Wasn't interested in reading, thus was no good at it.

I voted both RPG and platformers because Mario + Duck Hunt had just as much impact on my gamer-ness as FF (FF just had impact in other ways, too). Other notable games that really got me obsessed were things like TMNT 1, 2, and 3, Faxanadu (a cookie to anyone who's played it), Captian Skyhawk, Dragon Warrior 2 & 3, Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular! (dude! I

 

[Alex Bock]

Your lucky you were brought up with a nintedo system. For some reason we never got one but we did borrow one from my dad's friend and that's how I got introduced to mario in the game super mario 64(everyone finds out about him sooner or later..... he's evil that way ) but yah honestly my first nintendo system ever was a GCN because after passing the nintendo rentals rack a 1000 times at Rogers, I snapped. Right now I'm currently trying to track down old playstation games I use to play. I have Battle Arena Toshinden 2 and Tomba: Return of the evil swine. My next one is Battle Arena Toshinden 3.

 

[Doctor Oak]

First game ever was on my very first console ever, the Master System, at the age of 5.

It was Sonic.

That got me into games AND Sonic. So like I recently said on STC-O, God knows where I'd be now if I never got that Master System that Christmas.

 

[Prof. Cinders]

When we first got our first computer (out of the 5 we have now) I was all over games like Diablo, and considering I was only, what, 8 or so? It's lucky I got a go at all. That's what first introduced me into the fighting aspect of any game whatsoever, and made me a little bloodthirsty tyrant over my sister. Other than that, I got my GBC literally just before we got on the plane for Florida, with Pokemon Blue bound for hours of play as I finally discovered how to get out of the house. >.>

 

[Alex Bock]

First game ever was on my very first console ever, the Master System, at the age of 5.

It was Sonic.

That got me into games AND Sonic. So like I recently said on STC-O, God knows where I'd be now if I never got that Master System that Christmas.

Same goes with me and Ellis from Battle arena Toshinden (who you can see as my avatar and signature). I'm probably one of her biggest fans(or at least still existing). In fact my Ellis fandom got so bad at one point that it started to drive my friends more insane then they usually are 0.o

 

[NonAnalogue]

I started off with Tetris 2 on the Game Boy. That basically made me say, "Hey, video games are cool." I went to my friends and asked them what other games I should get, and they responded with something to the effect of "That new Pokemon thing's pretty good." The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[QuagsireQing]

I also managed to botch my first game as I couldn't find a pokemon that could learn cut. God, that was frustrating.

Lol. The first video game I recall playing is Donkey Kong Country 2 (I know, it's recent). My cousin owned an SNES and we used to play the minecart stages in the co-op mode. Of course, I was terrible, so we probably spent hours before beating a single level, but it was a blast.

I'm a relatively recent addition to the video gaming community, having not owned a handheld system until 1999 when I got my Game Boy Color with Pokémon Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition, and my first home console was the GameCube in 2002!

So, from before I ever GOT any systems...it was RPGs (I'd played my cousin's Pokémon Red Version for a half hour) and platformers that got me into it. I've been at it with a vengeance since.

 

[RLRL]

My brother had an atari when I was very young (like pre-school) which I used to play on (and broke), and when he got his first computer (can't remember what it was, it ran dos rather than windows though) I played 2 games for literally hours, Cosmo (some wierd alien game) and Crystal caves (amazing game!) and that had me hooked.
My parents didn't know where to quit really, and my dad bought me a sega megadrive the summer between my first and second years of school, and I played a game called Quackshot (which I have still not completed hehehe) followed by sonic 2 a few weeks later... ^_^

 

[Doctor Oak]

Quackshot was awesome.

And also pretty easy.

 

[Sem]

What got Sem into gaming... Well, my first console was the Playstation which I got about ten years ago... I was already into Pokemon at the time, yet I only had cards and those toy figurines that I still wish I had, as the ones I had were discontinued.... Anyway I was really excited to get a Pokemon game for my Playstation... xD (I didn't know crud about game consoles then.) I was sad when I heard there were no such thing. So my dad rented me this Toy Story game. I remember getting stuck at a part where I had to fly from the kitchen table to the countertop or something. I couldn't and grew frustrated and stopped playing... Then my dad rented me Tetris... which I did not get at all. Then I we bought some Rugrats game that I managed to beat. Then we got Pac-Man World, but my parents ended up playing that more then I did. Then finally, I was shown Crash Bandicoot. Crash 2 to be exact. Man did I have fun on that game... and then... oh then we got Crash Team Racing. My favorite game to date. I owned anybody at that game. ANYBODY, no joke. I least, I use too, until my Playstation fell into disrepair and now lies in the infinite hall of darkness and evil that is my sister's closet... Don't go in there.... >.> You'll get lost. Another favorite Playstation game of mine was Spyro 2. (Crash and Spyro are the one's that really got me into gaming.)

Anyway in mid-2000 I got my first handheld... a GBC, the purple see-through one. I had no game though... so I would just turn it on and listen to the ding, wishing I had a game. Then, a few weeks later my parents bought me Pokemon Blue version due to my good grades in school. I played it up until I got to the SS Anne, thinking I had to use it to sail to Saffron City. (Cuz of the anime...) I would stay on forever waiting for it leave port, I kept checking the intercom thingy that always said "We will be leaving soon," or something like that... Then I would get off and a guy would say that the boat wont be back for a year. This was always where I freaked out and started the game over, thinking I did something wrong. Well after a while I gave up.

A while later, Gold and Silver were comming out, the same year to be exact. As I rember getting Blue only two or three months before the G/S release with was on Sunday, October 15 if I rember correctly. Anyway, I got Gold on launch day, which is my favorite Pokemon game to date, mainly cuz I got to visit Kanto in that game as well and the game was longer than the other Pokemon games. I managed to complete the whole Gold game and even the Kanto part. I played around with that game for a while.

Somewhere between ^ and V I got a GBA.

In late January of 03 I got my first Nintendo home console, the Gamecube along with Mario Sunshine, which is not what I wanted but I liked it anyway. Later that same day we went out and got Super Smash Bros. Melee, which is what I really wanted. Also picked up Sapphire a week or two after launch, I like Sapphire a lot, not as much as Gold, but pretty close. I've gotten many games for Cube after that, some favorites being Four Swords, Colosseum, DoubleDash, and Paper Mario 2.

I got an Onyx GBASP in January 04 and a DS for Christmas of 04 along with Super Mario 64 DS. I also got WarioWare, MarioKart, Animal Crossing, ElectroPlankton, and more recently... New Super Mario Bros.

And here I am, awaiting the new Pokemon games and the Wii. There's my videogame history. As for me being here on this site, It all started with me seeing an add for PokeSchool in a Pokemon Beckett magazine about five years ago, the one with a big Mew on the front.

Favorite Games List:
Crash Team Racing,
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage.
Pokemon Gold,
Super Smash Bros. Melee,
Pokemon Sapphire,
MarioKart DoubleDash,
Paper Mario and the Thousand year Door.

 

[Doctor Oak]

I played it up until I got to the SS Anne, thinking I had to use it to sail to Saffron City. (Cuz of the anime...) I would stay on forever waiting for it leave port, I kept checking the intercom thingy that always said "We will be leaving soon," or something like that... Then I would get off and a guy would say that the boat wont be back for a year. This was always where I freaked out and started the game over, thinking I did something wrong. Well after a while I gave up.

I'm sorry, but ROFL.

 

[kimishiro]

I should have put Shooter. Duck Hunt was my first game. ^^

Of course, it was just fun to watch the dog giggle when you missed. Platformers were my 'real' first genre. Megaman and Mario.

 

[Alex Bock]

l.o.l funny story about the S.S Anne sem. I actually forget two games. Pacman world and Mrs pacman maze madness. I had so much fun with those two! I first found out about Pacman World on a demo that we got in a playstation magazine. A few months later me and my dad ended up buying it, while browsing around at walmart. I don't know if I got hooked or if I just made it my mission but I ended up beating the game(the first game I ever beat) Mrs pacman maze madness on the other hand though got me HOOKED! for some reason. We rented it so I only had 7 days to beat it and...... I didn't make it :'( I had beat the last boss, when the game started going on about returning to all the levels and collecting the key hidden in each one. I was so frustrated that I vowed never to rent it again!

 

[baratron]

First games ever were Game & Watch type handhelds - the ones that took hearing aid batteries that cost about £10 and lasted.. not very long . I had Mini-Munchman (a Pacman rip-off), Mario Bros Cement Factory, Donkey Kong (on two screens), er, and a couple of others. I still have them somewhere, should dig 'em out.

We also bought a Phillips tv console thingy with two games, a Pacman ripoff and something else, but I wasn't very good at them and the console was pretty naff. Knowing my parents' tendency to hoard, this is still somewhere in the attic or garage of their house, and is worth all of 10p.

First computer game I ever had was Twin Kingdom Valley on the BBC Micro, although again, I wasn't very good at it due to being 10. I had a very large number of BBC games, principally published by Superior Software, including all the versions of Repton. Mostly I was only any good at those with cheat codes ;D. I also had Imogen, which is among the best adventure games ever. It's been remade for Windows.

Then I had an Acorn Archimedes, which was a sodding lousy platform for games. The problem was the cheapest one cost £1000 and the most expensive £3000, which put it out of the range of most people. We got PacMania and Zool (Ninja of the Nth Dimension), as well as a load of Acorn-only games like YAIG (Yet Another Invader Game).

I played a friend's SNES at university, mostly Bomberman and Super Mario Kart.

My first console was a PSX bought at the age of 22. The first games I bought for it were Bust-A-Move (the puzzle game, not the dance game) and Um Jammer Lammy. I still have the latter .