How did *you* get involved in gaming, personally?

[Gay Tony]

Anyone on this forum and part of the community on here has a thing for video games, enough to make an account on here and likely has an even bigger thing for GTA in particular. I'm intrigued for your stories. So please share.

 

Here's my example.

 

For one thing environment played a role, I was born second to an older brother who already had tons of games and a few consoles laying around the house. Grand Theft Auto was one of them, interestingly enough.

 

I had a few friends when I was younger who were into the same thing so that social bond must have strenghed it.

 

and last but not least.....my brain itself is turned on by gaming

Edited November 7, 2014 by mr toasterbutt

[Dottie]

 

Still have it too

[t3h PeNgU1N oF d00m]

I got a Playstation 1 for Christmas in 1999 and constantly got "new" games for it from friends of my mom. I've been hooked ever since.

 

I started collecting retro games around 2006. My mom's boyfriend at the time had a small collection of old Atari games and a Pong system, which got me interested in them.

[Vanto]

I saw a friend with a console. I bought a PS2. Then everything happened until I bought other consoles.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Vanto

[GN 92]

cousins and friends

 

dad gave me a PS1 in 98.. 99, can't remember...

[Doc Rikowski]

I was 8y old and my best buddy had just bought this new "thing" to play with a TV, I thought it was awesome.

[headmetalbanger]

My father and my brothers I was introduced to the games world.

Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Country was my first games in this beautiful machine.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2014 by headmetalbanger

[universetwisters]

Shouldn't this be in the gaming section?

As for the topic, I was visiting my brother once and he showed me GTA 3 on his Playstation 2, since it just came out. It was great fun.

[Panz]

I grew up with older brothers who always asked me to watch them play video games. Then my brothers kinda got me into playing N64 with them (usually Goldeneye, where they'd just chase me down and blow me up repeatedly and little me would scream and cry and run out of the room), and once I saw my brother playing games like Driver and GTA: SA when I was a bit older, I decided to start playing on my own because they seemed pretty cool.

 

And now I'm a dweeb.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Panz

[ChumCrumpet]

I saw a gameboy but thought it was called Playstation so I asked for that. For my 7th Birthday I got a PS1 and was slightly disappointed. Oh, how I was a fool.

Edited November 7, 2014 by MrPeteyMax

[DeafMetal]

My parents picked up a used Atari 2600 really cheaply from a friend or something for my brother, sister, and I. We played the crap out of it and asked them for a NES. Then we got a SNES, then a Gameboy, then a PS1. Basically it was something my siblings and I would do for fun. It was pretty casual and more of a social thing. Then we moved to the US and my parents got super over protective with us because we were strangers in a strange place. My brother and sister moved out and did their own thing within two or four years. So I was left with my overprotective parents alone and still too young to make too many decisions of my own. Hanging out with friends out of school was pretty rare; when I tried, sometimes they wouldn't show up and my parents would get angry on my behalf and wouldn't let me invite anyone for months. Video games were a great way to have fun on my own. It stopped being a casual and social thing and became a hobby.

[ByePolar]

I

 

^ This is the game that started the addiction. It was a time when kids flocked to arcades for entertainment.

 

Anyway, when I settled down and my wife spit out a couple of rug rats, I bought them a Wii console for Xmas. After about a month, when the newness wore off, they stopped using it and move on to better things. I wasn't going to let the console suffer the same fate (collecting dust in garage) as all the other things that they'd lost interest in, so I rescued it from the garage and went out and bought COD 4. Eventually I bought an xbox and the rest is history.

[KarimNTerr]

I've already written something about this subject in the "What makes you feel nostalgic?" topic, but I though I would share it here too:

 

When I was a young kid I received the best gift a young kid can ever receive: a Crash Team Racing customized PlayStation 1 Console along with a big box full of video games. I've already had a Nintento Entertainment System, a Sega Mega Drive and a Game Boy back in the day, but that PlayStation 1 was just pure gold.

 

I was 8 years old, anyway.

Edited November 7, 2014 by toxluv

[a20characterusername]

I don't even remember exactly how. I have an older brother so I just used his Atari instead of watching TV. Then we used our cousin's NES, then I saved up and I bought an SNES around the time they came out in the US. My first "expensive" purchase. I don't really play much anymore, on again off again, but I still like programming and modding them.

Edited November 7, 2014 by gtarelatedusername2

[El Dildo]

I've always had consoles, like when we were growing up our parents got an NES, Genesis, Snes, etc.

but I never really considered gaming a serious hobby until I got into PC games.

 

and my introduction to that world can be traced precisely to Unreal Tournament.

released in 1999, Unreal Tournament is the first game I got on PC that made me realize there was this whole world of online competitive gaming, COOP play, and people making mods customizing the game however they wish. that was really eye opening. before that I thought games were just straightforward time wasters you played alone.

 

from that point on I was sold.

the amazing thing about Unreal Tournament is that the modding tools were so easy to use that anyone could build any kind of experience they wanted from the base game. so many good memories with UT...

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2014 by El_Diablo

[Kiffster]

I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. It all started with the original Prince of Persia in the early 90s, which was pre-loaded on my mom's IBM computer along with (I think) Wheel of Fortune, which I never played. I also can't remember that I ever finished POP. We got the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis) soon after, as well as some other Japanese console I don't know the name of.

 

Got into pc gaming when I got my first pc in '97. Been a pc gamer ever since.

[AceThaCreator]

AND

[Jonesizzle]

My dad was a gamer and passed it on down to me. I vaguely remember playing SNES with him, Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter II was our games. He was also a pc gamer (mind you I was in between 5-7), so I was blessed to play games like F-22, Nascar Season, Redneck Rampage and MDK... I remember when I was even younger playing Reader Rabbit. I was finally able to get my own gaming system for christmas which was a ps1 and WWF Raw as my first game.

 

Ever since those days I've been gamin'..

Edited November 7, 2014 by DOOM!

[Xyn]

 

 

Literally the earliest memory I have in my life. And it's only built up ever since.

[Coin]

Shigeru Miyamoto personally held me hostage in a room, gun to my head, and forced me to play SNES titles until I became a gamer.

[AnderSander]

I think it was when I got a PS2 with Sonic, then i got LEGO STAR WARS II The Trilogy, and at school i knew a dude who really were into gaming and we became greatfriends and my interest about gaming just grew.

 

 

Sorry for my sh*tty English

 

-AnderSander

 

Edited November 7, 2014 by AnderSander

[RedBull FM]

My uncle gave me my first PlayStation1 for Christmas (think it was early 2000s) I've been addicted to games ever since.

Edited November 7, 2014 by RedBull FM

[Lelouch The Zero]

I started gaming on Super Nintendo in 1998 or so from what I remember, think I was like 5, and I played Streets of Rage 2 on it. But then, later on down the line in 1999, my dad bought me a PS1 and it came with a Demo disc that had all kinds of demos on it, a Spider-Man game demo was on it and I was hooked ever since. Then I bought the full game of a lot of the demos on the disc. Spider-Man being one of them, that was the first game I ever beat too. Then my dad bought me FFVII but for some reason I never got past the bombing mission because I would always run out of time ans lose. There were probably more games I played before that but I can't remember everything, being so long ago and all.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Lelouch vi Britannia

[Cripto136]

When I played my brother's PS1 with Megaman X4.

[dingodile_r89]

Sort of in this order:

 

Super Mario bros at my friends place. Got my own NES after a few tantrums. Battle City. Stuff I don't remember.

 

Doom on PC. Then Prince of Persia 1, god, what an awesome surge of nostalgia here. MS DOS had some incredible games. Wolfenstein came next, and then Quake 2.

 

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 / Mortal Kombat Trilogy, gosh, so many memories here. One of my all time favourite games. It stated my fighting game fascination.

 

Then, I got a PS1 as a gift, got addicted to Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, NFS Porsche Unleashed. Tekken 3 gets a special mention.

 

Then, came one of my favourite games of all time, Unreal Tournament. I don't remember the hours I've put into this game. Then Quake 3 Arena.

 

Around this time, I got heavily into Age of Empires and Age of Empires 2. I still play them to this day.

 

My friend then got a PS2. Hours upon hours of Tekken 5, GTA VC and GTA SA.

 

I got into NFS Underground. I hated Underground 2. Most Wanted was amazing.

 

Got into Warcraft 3. Then played hours and hours of the DotA maps in Warcraft.

 

World of Warcraft took over my life after that.

 

Then I finally got a job and got my PS3. Tekken 6 was my first game. Rediscovered my love story for Naughty Dog through the Uncharted series. Got into simulation racing, Formula One series by Codemasters and of course, Gran Turismo. Got heavily into Mortal Kombat 9. Got myself a Logitech G27 for racing. Bought a PS4.

 

Waiting for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End & Mortal Kombat X, now.

 

Damn, the feels and nostalgia while I was typing all that. *wipe away manly tear*

[HoleInTheSky]

My friend had a PS1, and I'd frequently visit his place to play some of his sports and TOCA racing games. That following Christmas, I got a PS1 myself along with a copies of Driver 2 and Ridge Racer Type 4.

[TheGodDamnMaster]

I actually don't remember my very first gaming experience, but I'd wager it was either Donkey Kong Country or Super Mario World. We had an unfinished basement with a wooden-frame television set where my brothers, friends, cousins and I would play Super Nintendo all the time. It was always dark down there but it created a chill atmosphere to game in and was pure bliss. Life was so much simpler as a kid in 90's suburbia as a child, I would give almost anything to go back and relive those memories.

[X S]

My mother bought my sister and I an NES system with the first Mario. Gaming back then was something that kids did.

 

Today it's more than that. As my generation got older, gaming evolved into an adult hobby. Now it has become even more legitimized by the entry of big corporations, massive budgets, and the dawn of the modern tech era. Even competitive e-sports helps further legitimize the industry. When Dwight Howard and Victor Cruz show up at COD championships, you know it's penetrated the mainstream. Just wait until it hits ESPN like poker did in the early 2000's.

[E•MO•TION]

The first game that I recall playing was Mario Kart 64 of course. As my parents never purchased a video game console for me, I grew up playing on the PC (which was occasionally supplemented by various consoles thanks to friends and relatives). While I do have dozens of disks laying around, my childhood "gaming" memories mainly consist of SimCity, RollerCoaster Tycoon, and of course GTA.

[Theodore93]

Can't recall the specific first time I played a video game or what it was but I'm pretty sure it was my dad who introduced me to computer games on his ZX Spectrum and Commodore when I was about 3-4 years old. Then I got a Gameboy when I was 5. My dad has always been into computers so there's always been plenty of PCs in my family's house. Unfortunately that guy I used to play Half Life Deathmatch and Gran Turismo with for hours on end seems to have gotten old and thinks gaming is just "a waste of time" now.

 

Also I was in and out of hospital a lot when I was a kid but they always had plenty of consoles and games there so that was some er... consolation.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Waldie