First game you remember playing

[Serah]

I grew up with it as Gateway to Glimmer as well!

It's funny how often game names were changed for the European market. I remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being change to Hero Turtles and Ninja Gaiden being changed to Shadow Warriors because the word "ninja" was considered too violent for children xD Similar deal with Contra which was localised first as Gryzor for the home micros and then Probotector on console with new protagonists.

[Squid-Died]

It's funny how often game names were changed for the European market.

yeah XD another one i had was Monsters Inc. Scare Island for PS1 but it was called Monsters Inc Scream Team in other places

[kurohaato]

Lego Star Wars II. We got an xbox 360 for christmas when I was in 1st grade and that was one of the games dad got for me and my brother. I was 6 so I didn't really understand it that well but I really liked shocking stormtroopers as r2d2.

[AlienFromPlanetZorg]

I honestly don't know if it even qualifies as a game but I had one of those little plug-and-play consoles from a mcdonalds happy meal, it was a digital coloring book. Failing that, probably Anbot or Abuba the Alien, point and click flashgames.

[TheSolitaryGamer]

This is a funny one for me because not only is this my first game i remember playing but my actual earliest memory as well



I still love Super Mario Sunshine so much

[marginalia]

First game I remember playing (and also first game I played) was Commander Keen. Was like 7 years old. Amazing I was able to navigate DOS despite basically just having learned to read

Good times.

[forks]

man, i'm reaching back real far for this one. i don't think i'd be able to fully place an exact game, but i definitely remember doing some gaming on the n64 as a barely conscious toddler. i think there was a sesame street game that i played?

but fwiw, the 2 games that i really remember - the ones that really sold me on video games - was pokémon pearl and sonic heroes on ps2. granted, the only one i actually owned was pearl. i played sonic heroes on my friend's ps2.

[Starfighter]

The first game I remember playing was SkiFree, in 1991.

[rubber cat]

probably skifree or rodent's revenge

[Yukari]

wow reading the replies here jogged my memory!! I was going to say my first game was Pokemon Yellow on my uncle's GBC (I gave up at the first gym), but the earliest I remember was Microsoft Hearts. I didn't know how it worked, but I liked clicking random cards and seeing how far it would take me. I also liked FreeCell, because the King card at the top of the screen would look left or right depending on where you played the cards.

[rocktype]

this answer's gonna make me sound way older than i am but it would be adventure on the atari! my dad still had one (he'd play on it as a kid) so we'd play games on it together. i never figured out adventure 2 though lmao. was also a fan of centipede and millipede

i didn't play this one but my first exposure to a game that was from a current console at the time would have been super mario sunshine on my cousin's game cube. my uncle ended up giving me the game so now i have it! still haven't beaten it though lmao

the other would be wario world for the ngc which he also gave to me and i've played through it several times! it's one of my fav games and i plan on making a shrine for it once i replay it (again)

the first console i had at my house (besides the atari) was the wii, so the first videogames i had were wii sports and smash bros brawl. you KNOW i was a big fan of subspace emissary

[nine-moonbeams]

i think the first game i remember playing was The Land Before Time: Kindergarten Adventure (had to google to find its name), i remember i messed around in the painting minigame the most

the first "real" game i was introduced to was either Myst 3 or 4 (i think it was 4?) either way i certainly didn't complete any puzzles but i really liked just wandering around and pushing buttons and pulling levers and stuff haha

[atKingMSPFA]

For me it was World of Goo (2008). I could never get past the third chapter...
But damn, it is such a good game, especially considering its time. Holds up really well. I just wish it got more attention.

[sacrebisous]

Well... it's either Toontown Online or A Bug's Life for Playstation. Funny story about both of those. My grandpa had ACTUALLY been playing Toontown long before I had even heard of it! He was a real gamer back in the day (still is, although only Diablo II these days) and was absurdly maxed out. The entire time the game was being run by Disney, we shared an account, and I (apparently) ended up using some of his character slots for my own characters, but I ALWAYS kept his main Toon intact. If you ever played with a blue dog named Rollie Beanpop back in the day, that was my grandpa!

As for A Bug's Life, I actually don't even remember if I picked the game myself or if my mom got it for me. But this was the one game I was just unbelievably good at. That might not sound like much, but you can just check my Backloggery to see how many games I haven't completed. I actually unlocked all the secret stuff in A Bug's Life without cheat codes, which is still quite possibly my greatest gaming achievement to this DAY. It's an absolute favorite of mine.

for me it's chicken invaders, which is basically like space invaders, but actually fun...
instead of aliens you shoot chicken but you also get weapon upgrades in the form of presents and there's a boss you need to fight after every 10 levels



btw, the first game I saw was probably doom 1&2 which my father absolutely loved playing

Ohmigod.... Chicken Invaders was so GOATed. I loved playing this game when I was a kid and I was super proud of actually making it all the way to the end.

[rekanochi]

oh yeah, only the BEST of the BEST-

CERTIFIED CLASSIC. OH YEAH. /s
but yeah, this is like, one of the earliest memories i have. i don't remember how many years old i was, but it was definitely before i could read, and it was on this like... daycare/school/whatever computer, and all i remember is this screen and seeing a bunch of weird animated foods or something walking by and not knowing how you were supposed to progress.
which is fair, honestly, because it's not super clear even if i was literate.

[Cobra!]

First game I remember playing was the original Sonic the Hedgehog on Mega Drive

[OppositeKeith]

it could've very well been either wii sports or mario kart wii.

[GaryStu]

No idea of the chronology of my play (too long ago to remember in which order I played games first) but like I had a selection of DOS games I played. Crystal Caves, Jill of the Jungle, Zeliard, Ports of Call, there was the rougelike game I remember playing and I'm pretty sure it was Angband but I can't remember (no I wasn't good at it). Some DOS Solitaire game I don't remember which one there were a ton of those things. That's what I've been able to remember. There's other games I can't remember.

Look there's a chance my first computer game was Windows Solitaire, and I'll never remember lol.

Anyway my first console game was either Super Mario 64 or Tetrisphere. But I don't know which one I played first! Yeah!

It's funny how often game names were changed for the European market. I remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being change to Hero Turtles and Ninja Gaiden being changed to Shadow Warriors because the word "ninja" was considered too violent for children xD Similar deal with Contra which was localised first as Gryzor for the home micros and then Probotector on console with new protagonists.

Lylatwars.

[lain]

probably freddi fish and putt-putt...although i can't remember which one specifically. had some barbie games i enjoyed, although my favorite was barbie explorer aka barbie tomb raider so that's the only one i really remember

the first game that really got me "into gaming" was sonic adventure DX and uhhh the rest was history. still love SA1 to death. happy to see other people mention the DX pc port!! switching over to betterSA on steam when i bought the game again even made me kind of sad since i grew up with the DX textures and models. but, i can't lie, the dreamcast version definitely looks and performs a lot better than its DX counterpart.

EDIT: oh god, i totally forgot to mention the browser games on everythinggirl dot com that i used to be obsessed with. those were the days

[nikkiana]

I was never particularly adept at video games as a kid, or even as an adult... but at some point we managed to acquire a Sega Master System and a whole set of games for it from my uncle who didn't want it anymore. I believe the first game I ever tried to play was Alex Kidd in Miracle World, but I just couldn't get the controls right and got frustrated so I never made it past the first level. I would, however, beg my mom to play it and she was a fair bit better at it than I was... However, I never saw her get past level 5.

She much preferred to play AstroWarrior and Quartet.

The only game I ended up really latching onto for the SMS and being somewhat successful at was Parlour Games, a suite of games that included billiards, bingo, and darts.

Around the same timeframe, we were also playing computer games at school where there were a bunch of Apple IIe computers.... Oregon Trail and Chivalry were the favorites there.

[Myrmeform]

i remember in the 90s my dad bought some kind of console and had some kind of war game and had little 5 year old me try to play it. i was controlling a helicopter and apparently i bombed my own guys or something haha. no idea what console or game.

the first games i consciously played was a frogger game on a computer at a friends house, and then years later my sister got a gamecube and we played super monkeyball 1 and 2 for so long our thumbs went numb. we also loved a couple 007 games, we never played the real game, just the little multiplayer games hahaha. our older brother got resident evil for the gamecube and played that a bit and we loved to watch but were much too scared to play ourselves. i remember he got stuck at the part with the big snake and thats all i ever saw of that game until i found full playthroughs on youtube.

[GoonyBaloney]

I can't remember what exactly was the first ever video game I've played, but I can recall very first experiences with them. I was around 3 or 4 years old and I usually saw my siblings playing the PS1 and often times they would hand me the controller to play for a bit (Obviously I sucked because I was a toddler) and we'd often play same games over and over again like Crash 3, Pepsiman, 102 Dalmatians, and A Bugs Life.

[yokaikai312]

I can't remember which exact game it was but I know it was one of those old facebook games that I played on my mom's account

[Rynn]

Wow, some of y'all are making me feel old. The first game I remember playing would have been Pitfall, on the Atari 2600 before I was even attending school.



The next few I remember playing after that would have been, in no specific order:

• Galaga
• Double Dragon
• Super Mario Bros
• Contra
• Rampage
• The Legend of Zelda
• Gauntlet
• Metroid

[RogerMexico]

Wow, some of y'all are making me feel old. The first game I remember playing would have been Pitfall, on the Atari 2600 before I was even attending school.

I'm also old, Rynn.

The first game I remember playing was Empire Strikes Back on an Atari 2600 Jr.

I think the first game I remember beating was Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves for the NES.

[Starfia]

First computer game I can recall playing, that I can still identify, is probably Myst, the very original. Would have been like 1994? I think.

I did not get very far. XD

First computer game that I really got into, though, would be The Journeyman Project!

I still love the soundtrack to this game, it's awesome. :D

Even before those, though, I guess my first game was the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES!

SMB would have been my first console game – I remember it being played at some neighbours house down the street and just seeing it for the first time. Our house had an Amiga by that point, but something just struck me as different about it. Time seems to have shown there was.

I played Myst at more than one friend's house and tried to progressively chisel away at the puzzles. I don't know whether I can say I beat it single-handedly, but I did a fair amount of it, and insisted on completing the sequels in full isolation. I'd say the original or Myst: Masterpiece Edition (as opposed to realMyst) is the best version across many re-releases.

I played The Journeyman Project for the first time last year! I grew up with Legacy Of Time and only just gained the ability to play the first two. I played Pegasus Prime (your opinion?) – for me, it was great to see retrogressive continuity and still feel the lovable clunkiness of the history of the series.

[ch1rx30]

My first game was also Myst! My parents were super against video games but my dad got it for himself when I was like 5 and included me in his process of solving the puzzles (though I was obviously more interested in just exploring the world and the story). Then I found it in the house the summer before high school started and went through it again, and Riven. I still open it up from time to time just because I love the world and the soundtrack so much.

I want to play the remaster when I finish setting up my PC. And Cyan is designing their new games for VR which makes me want to get into VR just to be in those worlds...


There was also thing in the computer lab in elementary school called Nanosaur 3D i think? You were like a little velociraptor with a machine gun collecting eggs.

[lacrymosa]

there was this little flash game on the sesame street website where you could make your own bowl of oatmeal with bert and ernie. unfortunately i could only find a couple vids of it on youtube and the game itself seems to be lost.

[ThinkingOfAName]

I think mine was either animal crossing or legend of zelda: wind waker, both on the gamecube. my parents were the ones who originally got me into animal crossing, bc they thought it'd be a cute game to help teach me how to read, but then they ended up getting into it themselves . they had so many different memory cartridges for that game that they'd keep all their different towns on, and they used to do that thing where you can connect a gameboy advance and it'd give you access to an island. this is making me really nostalgic rofl

(both of my parents still play animal crossing to this day, which I think is cute)

[Laz1985]

Sonic 2 for Genesis/Megadrive, followed closely by Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion (the original, not the PS3 remake). Bro and I got the Genesis Model II as a gift "from Santa" back in 1993. It came with the game.

I think at some point I might have tried someone else's video games (I know my cousins had an NES) but I don't really remember. I do remember being terrified of dying in a video game because of my then-undiagnosed anxiety. I got better.

If we're counting PC games, though, then definitely Number Munchers and Oregon Trail. My elementary school had some Macs (the old-school ones with the monochromatic screen) with educational games installed on them. I remember being deeply confused by Number Munchers, because I didn't know what a prime number was, and the rules for what made a number prime aren't easy for a 5-year-old to guess.

[Calypso]

Some sort of jumpstart game that I can't remember, when I was 4 and using my dad's old desktop. It involved like this tube of multi-colored balls on the side, and like 2 (or 3?) robot-space people. They were green, and 2 were a guy/girl pair.

Have never been able to find the game until now. But the first one I can find and that's well known is properly the PS2 Finding Nemo game. So much fun!

[Harmonie]

In my early childhood, my family had an NES in the living room (although, I believe the SNES had come out by this time) and I remember playing a number of games on it, whichever was technically first, IDK. But here's a list: Mega Man 2, Bug's Bunny's Birthday Blowout, some Tiny Toons game, a Carmen Sandiego game, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, and there was some jet game where you flew over land with an overhead view, I don't remember the name. There was also Wheel of Fortune and a Sesame Street game I think.

[Laz1985]

In my early childhood, my family had an NES in the living room (although, I believe the SNES had come out by this time) and I remember playing a number of games on it, whichever was technically first, IDK. But here's a list: Mega Man 2, Bug's Bunny's Birthday Blowout, some Tiny Toons game, a Carmen Sandiego game, Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, and there was some jet game where you flew over land with an overhead view, I don't remember the name. There was also Wheel of Fortune and a Sesame Street game I think.

Oh man, Duck Hunt! I remember my cousins had an NES, and on the rare occasions we visited them (they lived very far away) we would try it. Stupid dog.