The first video game you remember playing?

[Spike]

This is so hard to answer because it was a million years ago. I'd die to know what was the first game I played!...we'll never know the answer to that
I had a "famiclone" pretty early, so it was most likely Super Mario Bros. (this one..)

I also have vivid memories of playing these titles:

• Adventure Island 1 and 2
• Elevator Action
• Road Fighter
• City Connection
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Monster in My Pocket
• Dick Tracy
• Mappy
• Formula 1 Sensation

My niece on the other hand I can tell you exactly what was the first game she played.
She was born in 2020, at age 3 without knowing what a console was or how to work a stick she picked up my always dusty Wii U and got into Super Mario 3D world...

At first she tried to use it as a tablet (the only thing she knew) after explaining to her she was supposed to use physical controls she started trying to move the character, it took her weeks of every day practice but she can now play the game.
She also played Super Mario kart 8 and sometimes, she isn't even the last one...this is incredible to me. She has no concept of winning or losing, she would randomly stop racing to admire the cows crossing the streets or to say hi to the NPC mushrooms spectating on the side of the road.

She's now WAY into Yoshi Woolly World, she can actually finish levels and see secrets I don't even notice (remember she's 3 years old!) but she does get scared of enemies and hand over the console to me to take care of them, I explained to her they can't harm her but she's still not sure.

I'm convinced that by age 5 she would master any game I can throw at her (maybe I'm ruining her life idk lol)


What about you guys?

 

[Octopus]

The first game I have actual memories of playing is probably also Dick Tracy on the NES funnily enough, but it's a pretty faint memory. I also remember playing the NES TMNT a lot and never being able to get past the infamous water level and getting 6-year old pissed at it. We got a SNES pretty quickly after the NES, so most of my most vivid early video game memories are of the SNES. I was addicted to Street Fighter 2 and Mega Man X, and weirdly enough Super Conflict which was a pretty weird game for a 6 year old to play in hindsight.

There was also this other NES game I have this vague memory of that I have not been able to name since; I remember that you were a dragon and it was a vertical shooter. I want to say it was probably Dragon Spirit as that seems the most similar to my vague memory, but as far as I know there was never an NES port of it and I definitely didn't have a TurboGrafx-16 and as far as I'm aware that was the only home console version of that game. Could be a false memory or something, it's only driven me slightly insane over years trying to identify it.

Your niece sounds like a future video game master for sure, that's adorable.

 

[Spike]

Woah you had some killer games early on, looking back Dick Tracy is pretty awful but as a kid I was fascinated by it.

Could this be your NES game?

 

[Octopus]

That's the thing for sure is that when you're a kid everything is great, and bad video games didn't exist because everything was great. I was just flabbergasted to play as Donatello even though the game was objectively terrible and my 6 year-old brain didn't know what 'quality' control meant.

We didn't have a huge collection or anything but my dad was also into video games so I'd really just play what he had at the time which explains Super Conflict. He'd usually just trade games with his friends at work, so I guess I lucked out a little bit compared it most kids and had a decent exposure to a bunch of stuff.

And holy shit yeah I think that was the game. In all my research, I never found out that here was an NES Dragon Spirit port just under a subtitle. Damn, that brings me back man thanks.

 

[Agustina]

I think I perfectly remember the first game I ever played in my life and the first one I rage quit too lmao. It was Viewtiful Joe 2 when I was 5 years old, it came with my PS2 so I tried it and I was horrible (even to this day) at platforming, I remember a waterfall with logs falling down and you had to jump over them in order to get to the other side, I don't know how many times I died there but where a lot.

I think the furthest I got was to a boss that was some kind of big tank and that was probably 12 years ago, I really should replay it and complete it this time because the game wasn't bad in any way, funny one.

 

[Octopus]

I think I perfectly remember the first game I ever played in my life and the first one I rage quit too lmao. It was Viewtiful Joe 2 when I was 5 years old, it came with my PS2 so I tried it and I was horrible (even to this day) at platforming, I remember a waterfall with logs falling down and you had to jump over them in order to get to the other side, I don't know how many times I died there but where a lot.

I think the furthest I got was to a boss that was some kind of big tank and that was probably 12 years ago, I really should replay it and complete it this time because the game wasn't bad in any way, funny one.

Oh yeah, I remember that part too. If I remember the tank flies out of the waterfall. I didn't get around to playing either of the Viewtiful Joe's until a little bit after they came out but I largely liked them, though I did get really frustrated at some points in both games. Classic Clover difficulty, man.

 

[Kakatsu]

When I was a child we had an Atari 2600, probably it was the first console I played. Funny thing, the first videogame memory I have actually is going with my father to an apartment of somebody who had purchased this Atari 2600 from us. The guy installed the console in a room and some kids gather up to play. The next console I had was already the Mega Drive, but in the mean time I played a few things in friend's houses.

 

[Don Patch]

I'm a lil' fuzz yon the very first game I played.
It was for sure something on the NES...
A toss-up between Batman, Dr. Mario, or Spy Hunter. Stuff my parents or cousins had.

On a relate note, I have clear, vivid memories of the first game I purchased with my own money:
Super Return of the Jedi.

Good times!

 

[DarcyT]

Mine is not really a memory (because I can't remember it), but I was looking through some old family photos last year, and I saw one of me when I was about three or four, 'playing' an upright cabinet of "Pocket Racer", which was an easier version of Ridge Racer intended for younger audiences. I say 'playing' with quotation marks because there's a good chance that no money was actually inserted into the machine, but as a small kid, you don't know the difference, so I dare say that I just pointlessly spun the steering wheel.

 

[Spike]

Mine is not really a memory (because I can't remember it), but I was looking through some old family photos last year, and I saw one of me when I was about three or four, 'playing' an upright cabinet of "Pocket Racer", which was an easier version of Ridge Racer intended for younger audiences. I say 'playing' with quotation marks because there's a good chance that no money was actually inserted into the machine, but as a small kid, you don't know the difference, so I dare say that I just pointlessly spun the steering wheel.

Cute. Haha. You know here on shopping malls we have 'racing games' for little kids and I'm pretty sure the steering wheel does nothing even if you insert money! (Bastards!) The intended audience really can't tell the difference so they didn't bother to implement that.
How about the first title(s) you remember playing?

 

[DarcyT]

Cute. Haha. You know here on shopping malls we have 'racing games' for little kids and I'm pretty sure the steering wheel does nothing even if you insert money! (Bastards!) The intended audience really can't tell the difference so they didn't bother to implement that.
How about the first title(s) you remember playing?

Wow, that sucks. I dunno, maybe I'm just too old school, but I prefer to get something I pay for. Yeah, don't even get me started on how crooked I think modern arcades are.

During my earliest years, I basically grew up on late 90s arcade games. My family spent a lot of time at family-friendly bars and pubs. I was always bored out of my mind, so I was slipped a dollar or two and told to go play. For some reason, most of the places had Daytona USA, so that game is basically tattooed on my brain, alongside Point Blank and one of the Golden Tee games.

 

[It's Thinking 2]

Operation C on Game Boy, Space Invaders on the Sears Video Arcade, Sonic The Hedgehog on Sega Genesis (or was it Columns?), Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on my cousin's NES... Not sure which I played first. I was like 4 years old for all of those.

 

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

There are a bunch of candidates: Super Mario World, Megaman X, Pilotwings, Lagoon (a game that continues to live in my head to this day), but in my heart it's Final Fantasy IV back when it was still called Final Fantasy II. I was stuck with just Cecil and Kain in the first area around Baron. I was afraid of going to Mist because I was scared of Titan.

 

[Gorse]

When I was a very young child, my family used to travel a lot for my dad’s work, which often meant we’d end up staying at some pretty cheesy hotels in Florida or California. At one of said hotels in Destin, there was a small arcade on the ground floor, which (alongside an airhockey table and a crane game) housed two machines:

• A three-in-one Namco collection featuring Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug. The former was the first game I ever played, the second is my father’s favourite game, and the third is my personal preference out of the three. I love all of these games dearly, and play them each at least once every few months.
• Lady Bug, a somewhat-interesting maze game made by Universal. It’s kind of fun, and has some unique mechanics based around opening and closing walls of the maze, but what I really remember it for is the delightful early-20th-century pin-up cabinet art, which I have immense nostalgia for:

 

[Spike]

I don't know if it's a US thing or an 80's/early 90's thing but seems like the arcades had a big impact on children, I was born in 85 and down in 'shithole land' the arcades weren't exactly children friendly it was a place were young adults and adults would hang, usually with a bar and pool tables. You would have to either be with your dad or at least a teenager to be there. And my dad wasn't gonna take me (this might actually be my problem). So by the time I got there I had already played my fair share of NES.

 

[PhrawzT]

My first game back in 1984.

 

[Tatsuya]

I think the first game I ever played was WIzardry 7 for pc.

 

[Silverlake]

My dad also had a famiclone (it might've been the same model from the picture). Like some of you, I can't say for sure which one was the first game I played, but one of the most vivid memory I have from my childhood with that console is of me with my dad playing Super Mario Bros., his favorite game.
At that time I also played some games mentioned here like Adventure Island games, Road Fighter, Mappy, Batman and Dig Dug. Along with many others (my dad bought a lot of cartridges).

 

[signorello]

i remember playing this with my teacher on a old white crt, i was likely around 4 to 6 years old.
for anyone who doesn't know what "pimpa" is, it was an old children cartoon first started as comic strips very popular in italy.
i think i might still have some memorabilia from my childhood.

 

[Silent]

Bushido Blade 2. I was five years old.

 

[Itto Ogami]

Atari 2600 was my first videogame experience. The very 1st game could've been Megamania or Riveraid.

 

[Inkingsama]

The very first game i remember playing was mario kart super circuit in the gba when i was 6. I might have played something else at an earlier age but super circuit is the earliest game i can remember. Maybe harry potter and the chamber of secrets on pc but i'm not sure about that one.

 

[Deleted-1]

Before playing my first video games, I had played 3 or 4 LCD games, such as the Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong. In 1991, a school friend invited me to play on his Atari ST. He had 4 games: TMNT, which was in the same genre as the first installment on the NES, but more beautiful. There was also Ghostbusters 2, which was strangely enough a horizontal shmup, and 2 gallery shmups whose titles I never knew, but one of them may have been an adaptation of Operation Thunderbolt.

 

[Spike]

View attachment 186My dad also had a famiclone (it might've been the same model from the picture). Like some of you, I can't say for sure which one was the first game I played, but one of the most vivid memory I have from my childhood with that console is of me with my dad playing Super Mario Bros., his favorite game.
At that time I also played some games mentioned here like Adventure Island games, Road Fighter, Mappy, Batman and Dig Dug. Along with many others (my dad bought a lot of cartridges).
View attachment 191View attachment 190View attachment 193View attachment 188

I never seen that particular model, looks rad!. My Famiclone (I wasn't aware it was a clone of anything btw) looked exactly like a a FAMICOM except it had detachable joysticks.
Pooyan...lol so good!
I don't think I saw the one with the submarine though what is it?

i remember playing this with my teacher on a old white crt, i was likely around 4 to 6 years old.
for anyone who doesn't know what "pimpa" is, it was an old children cartoon first started as comic strips very popular in italy.
i think i might still have some memorabilia from my childhood.

This I could use right now, but it would need to be ported to tablets, I swear they would make a million bucks!
Kids are so good with tablets now, it's unbelievable.

 

[NeroHackingRom]

Cobra Triangle and Double Dragon on NES.