MegamanZ -
My gaming life started off awfully slow; my parents refused to buy me any full-blown consoles until I was 10. That being said, however, I would still play games at my friends' houses all the time. I remember one time I let my friends go outside and play in one of the few snow days around here, and I just stayed inside my friend's house playing games. Oh, the time we spent playing Pokemon Stadium, Star Fox 64, Super Smash Bros, etc... Good times.
My first personal gaming experiences came when I got my first Gameboy Color (which I still own, I'm letting a friend borrow it actually), but I don't remember too much from those times other than playing the Pokemon TCG game, a bit if Pokemon GS, and Super Mario Bros. My fondest memories come from when I got my Gameboy Advance. I was probably around 8 at the time, me and my friends would all get together with the old link cables (as long as it wasn't too dark~) to play some Lego games, as well as Pokemon when it came out when I was (I thinK?) 9. Not gonna lie, I was the king of Pokemon until my friends discovered hacking!
The next big turn in my gaming life came on my 10th birthday, when my parents got me a Gamecube. The very first game they got me was Sonic Adventure DX, which was a favorite among all my friends, right behind Sonic Adventure 2 Battle of course. Those last 2 weeks of summer before school started, I don't think I left the TV. My life was changed. Since my parents were so strict with ratings, it was a while before I got to play any games like Super Smash Bros. at home, but I still really enjoyed it.
Now, this may not be chronological necessarily, but around that time I also (somehow, multitasking I guess) got really into the shows they played on Saturday mornings, I think on Kids WB and some other channels. At the time I was particularly invested in Medabots. So one morning I was watching it and discovered there was a GBA game for it, so I immediately started begging my parents to take me to get it.
PLOT TWIST: The store didn't have it. However, what they did have that caught my eye was probably even better. Like I said, I had been watching those Saturday morning cartoons all the time, so I immediately recognized the characters on the cover of Megaman Battle Network 2. I don't know what exactly drew me towards it, whether I actually wanted it, maybe I just wanted a new game, or maybe I just wanted to spend my money for some reason. Whatever the reason was, I got it, and immediately fell in love.
Suddenly I found myself playing through Battle Network 2 for the next couple months or so (I got stuck on Raoul's part for a while, unfortunately) and once I managed to finish that I got Battle Network 3, then 4 when it came out, and so on. I got a good number of my friends into it too (although some of them thought I was crazy, lol), it was certainly quite the investment. Next thing I knew I was playing a ton of other Megaman games, one of my favorites being Megaman X Command Mission, which I feel was kinda forgotten. ANYWAYS I can't think of a good way to conclude the story (maybe I'll read over and edit it tomorrow) so yep that's my story.
LULUevil -
Before I started playing video-games when I was 7, I used to watch my dad playing PS1 games such as Resident Evil 3, Dino Crysis 2, Ace Combat Electrosphere, & other games as well. It was funny that when I used to watch him playing RE3, I got scared from Jill herself not the moaning zombies. But my first game was Crash Team Racing, this game is a really sweet memory for me, all my family would join to play this racing game at Thursdays' evenings when we gathered at my grandma's house & making funny bets to the one who loses, they'd all win alternatively except me, I was always behind them, so my uncle thought of an idea, once the race starts, he'd wait until I drive a pretty long distance & then he'd start the race after that. Even though that was pretty helpful, I'd lose again, but it was funny eventually, & practice does make perfect, after a while I was a pro driver too.
In a while I started playing the games my dad used to play, & they were all awesome games, which I still get back & play them again sometimes, & that's when I became a big fan of RE series. I also used to share my experience with my classmates, but they weren't fans of video-games cause it wasn't that popular in our country by then, maybe Atari games but not Playstaion.
Thank you everyone for entering the contest, and also congrats to the winners! Also as an added bonus, here's what two of our other writers had to say about their memories as well.
GlacialLeaf -The earliest thing I recall to playing a video game, is somewhere in my mall, where there were a few arcade machines. I remember loving to play that motorbike one. XD But I never really could try everything there or stay for long.
Then, when I was about three or four, my dad brought home some kind of a fake console, with gaming guns and had you shooting demons. Being the scardy-cat I was at the time - and still am, to some extent - I was too terrified to even be there while my neighbors played it. I ended up staying at their house while they played it at ours, and my dad took it back the day later.
I also remember watching my cousin, at his house, playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic R. That's pretty much how I got familierized with Sonic, but I didn't actually GET to play it at their house. I needed to wait a few years before playing a sonic game. T_T
Then, when I was at the second year of Kintergarden, my parents finally bought me and my brother a PC.
It was a Windows 98, with about the only thing I remember is it having
around 9 GB of HDD memory. We put some games we got along with the PC,
of which the only one I actually remember being Claw, and bought another
few later on, such as Rayman, which actually freaked me out quite a
bit. O.oI remember once participating in some weird game at my mall while my mom was shopping. I recieved a prize for participation - a game called 'Lemmings.' Me and my brother never figured out how to play that game. We couldn't understand a thing that went on! x.x
When we finally had internet, we downloaded a few games which one of the TV networking sites had for free, such as Dangerous Dave, DX-Ball, and a few games I'm still trying to find their names to this day, such as a 3D colorful interpetation to Alien Infaders. ><"
I remember playing these games with my cousin where he came to visit. One time, I remember him coming to visit when I was really sick, and had a hard time getting out of bed, but I still got up and played with him. XD
Moving on. When I was at the first grade, my mom went to the US to visit a friend of hers. I remember the day she got back. They let me out of school about half a day early, and my dad took me and my brother to meet my mom.
As
much as I was happy to see her again, it has nothing to do with the
story. Me and my brother each recieved a GBC - mine was torquoise, and
my brother purple-clear, and about thirty games along with that.I don't remember many of those, but I do remember Pokemon Silver, which was the first one I played out of these, Battle Arena Toushinden, PAPER BOY, a Wario game, Duck Tales, and Power Rangers: Time Force.
Pokemon Silver... now, that is one of my favorite video games of all times. I remember nights of playing it to the point of my battery running out, my saves erasing because of that, and starting all over again, never figuring out how to get past Sudowoodo, and getting stuck there. XD I remember my cousin borrowing my cart and giving it back to me a week or two later, with more than a few Pokemon at level 100, and Red easily beaten. XD
As time moved on, I had a neighbor who borrowed me Jazz Jackrabbit 2 once, and only later on we found out that it was still working without the disc. XD The cheats went around here, to the point where everyone knew about the flight, shield, and infinite armor cheats, but with the Hebrew keyboard keys. XD JJFLY became חחכךט, and that's how we all beat the game quite easily. XD
I also remember games coming with cereal and ketchup - there was a time when ketchup Heintz made a partnership with LEGO, and they distributed LEGO games, or demos of LEGO games, along with their ketchup, such as LEGO Island, LEGO Racers 2, etc.
With cereal, I remember getting sports games. The two I remember most vividly are a motorcycle racing one, which me and my brother really liked, and a soccer game, which we never did figure out how to play. Both teams just did whatever they wanted. In fact, I remember seeing my dad trying to play that game, giving up, taking a newspaper, and reading the newspaper in front of the PC while the game... just kept as it is.
And then came the third grade. I found two Sonic figurines - one of Sonic, one of Tails, and somehow remembered Sonic's name, after not being able to remember it when at my cousin's. That was one of the turning points of my life, because as I looked Sonic up online, I found two crappy sites in Hebrew about Sonic. Deciding to try and contact these site owners for more information and talk about Sonic, I downloaded an ICQ, which is an instant messaging software which was VERY popular in Israel at the time. Now no-one use it.
Cheerfuljochan -Well lets see my first time playing anything as far I can remember was when I tried my big brothers Commodore 64, and played the old settlers going around trying to take over other villages with my vikings. . . . . . I pretty much got beaten up.
I also had a old European casset game console (google it), which was a extra accessory for the Commodore 64 , I got to play the old NES Teenage mutant ninja turtles 1. . . . . Yeah THAT GAME.
But the real first gaming console that I ever got was the Game boy colour with Pokemon Yellow. I spent hours playing Pokemon yellow and the first time I caught a Pokemon I think I said "Mom! Look! I caught a bird in a ball!!!", ah the good old days.
When I actually got my real first home console was when my big brother's friend was selling his Nintendo 64 away with A LOT of classic good games like: The legend of Zelda Ocarina of time, Super mario 64, Super smash bros, Mario kart, 007 Goldeneye. I spent hours to hours playing Super smash bros with friends and my big brother, it just had everything: Link my favorite sword guy, Mario and freaking Pikachu! I was having so much fun with it that I could easily lose track of time. I also spent hours on Goldeneye on that one tank stage with cheats on so that I could blow up all the soldiers around me and drive over them with my tank and hear their bones break!!! (I was kinda weird like that when I was a kid).
And the last memory is that I got my big brother's old PS1 since he bought a cracked version of it (so that he could play pirated games). When it was my birthday I got Crash bandicoot 3 Warped, and that was another game I easily spent A LOT of hours on. . . . . . . Lol not much else to say xD
