Asklemmy

First steps with Prince of Persia on my dad’s PC at work (we didn’t have one at home), then a GameBoy I got for Christmas, Tetris. Strengthened by hours playing on a friend’s NES (I still fondly remember Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, later the SNES (which I then also owned), Mario Kart, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore.

By this point we had a family PC at home, some German shareware football simulator, Lode Runner, Monkey Island, the DSA/The Dark Eye RPGs (these were the good old days of turn based before RTwP became a thing), Civilization 2, The Settlers 1 & 2. Then I became an adolescent and started playing teeny games like Quake, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, and it took until University for me to return to good games again with Neverwinter Nights 2 and later Civilization V.

sonic 1, first game i ever played

Sid Meier's Pirates and Minecraft

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life

Only because Sonic Mega Collection wouldn't work on the defective GameCube I had.

Dark Souls.

I remember the first game I played was Super Mario World on the SNES at my cousins place.

That game enthralled me because I was not good at it, but each time I played through after losing all my lives, I had the chance to get a LITTLE further, to DISCOVER something which I had EARNED.

Most games I played after that on Playstation 1 and 2 or Xbox had a lot more hand holding. There was not such a sense of achievement, though I learned to appreciate stories in games much more then.

Then I played Dark Souls 1. My BF at the time told me about it, and good god did I struggle with it. But like SMW, I found such a large sense of achievement as I inched further into the game. The non-standard story telling in the game was also really interesting, learning about this ancient lore from items and weapons and armor that I would find in the most desolate and obscure places of this dying world.

The combination of what I loved from high difficulty early games on the SNES in conjunction with what I loved from the story of games on later consoles were both present in Dark Souls, and to this day it holds a very special place for me.

Since, I think while Dark Souls 1 and 3, and Elden Ring have some of my favorite gameplay, Bloodborne has my favorite story of all time.

In Fromsofts games the world building is incredible and the difficulty is treacherous, so the journey is worthwhile.

flashgames if it counts

Memory, Monkey Island, Diablo 1 and Street Fighter 2

Pokemon games and older 2D Zelda games. I really got into it when I found Halo

The first game I ever really wanted to get good at was the arcade game spy hunter. The first time I got the speed boat was a dopamine high I've never recreated.

Mario Bros 1-3

Breakout, Sokoban, Prince of Persia, Command & Conquer, Tilt!, Space Invaders, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, Fallout, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, Wolf3D.

This was in the '90s but some of those games were already quite old by that time.

Runescape skill farming to get into tech stuff.

Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22 started it, Toy Story 2 for PSX detonated it.

Super Mario Bros 3. Never beat it until the Allstars version on SNES, but it's the first video game I remember playing. Or maybe it was Gauntlet, but SMB3 was the funner one.

I always clicked with it really hard as a kid, but my parents banned me from it, so I just wound up making friends so I could play OG Red Alert or Commander Keen or whatever. I also played Tabletop 40k from a pretty early age, which my parents were more permissive of. In tabletop I have a very good systemising mind, so I wind up being the rules person, but I'm not super obsessed about any one system (I am a little "obsessed" with how few people play something other than D&D systems).

I'd have to go all the way back to pinball, since I've always been fascinated with games.

But the very first video game that really sucked me in was Batman on the NES. I'm talking fully immersed; no awareness of my surroundings. Jacked in.

The music paired with the grim visuals was such a vibe. Just playing it made me feel cool. My parents had to drag me away from that birthday party haha.

Sonic 2. I was like 3 at the time.

Age of Empires II

Counter-Strike 1.3

Lemmings or Descent, I don’t remember.

Asteroids, the arcade game.

My dad bought us a multi game pong console, then an Atari 5200 years layer.

But we often went to arcades and got $20-$40 in quarters.

In later years I remember truly loving the Buck Rogers and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom arcade games.

First computer was an Apple II and I had about 500 floppies of pirated games by the end of its life.

Always always been a gamer. Also had a Merlin handheld game for car trips, which saw constant use.

The early 90s Lucas Arts adventure games. Most notably Monkey Island 2.

Pokémon FireRed

Motocross Madness 2, baby. That's when I knew...

For me it was more a system than an specific game. I got a second hand GameBoy when I was like 5 or 6 and have been gaming consistently since then. Probably the highlight of that period was Super Mario though.

Kingdom Hearts II

That game is the reason the X button stopped working on my PS2 controller when I was like 4 or 5

Link to the past

Daggerfall was the first game that really got its hooks in me. It had everything I wanted, a huge open world, tons of different items, getting to dress up my character :)
I must have spend hours just visiting every single town, playing tourist and just ignoring the story. It was all about exploring and role playing for me.

I wouldn't call it a hobby, just some entertainment to pass the time/hang out with friends.

It was Counter-Strike 1.6. I didn't leave the house the summer I discovered it as a kid.

Xmen arcade game

Monkey Island 2

first game I got into was Pokemon Blue, but Guild Wars is what turned me into a gamer

The first game I regularly played may very well have been Chex Quest. Unless you count Math Blaster. Or maybe Chip's Challenge.

Bubble Bobble on the C64 :)

Pokémon Gold, when I was 8, got it for Christmas. Technically my first game was Battleship, which I opened first, but I probably spent thousands of hours playing Pokémon Gold. :) I've played almost every Pokémon game since, up until Scarlet/Violet, which I haven't gotten yet, but maybe I will eventually.

Watched my dad play kings quest 2 when I was a kid.

Asteriods, Atari 2600

Super Mario Land on the Nintendo Gameboy, and Lemmings on PC/DOS.

Oh wow, this takes me back. I've thought video games were cool since the first time I saw a Space Invades arcade cabinet when I was like 4. But the game that got me really into video games? I dunno. It was either Donkey Kong or Ms Pac-Man.

Yes, I'm old. Yes, I've been playing video games since the 70s. No, I'm not particularly good at them. But ask me whatever I guess 😁

Half-Life. The first game I played was Mech Warrior 2 and I played a few others like Lemmings, Warcraft 2, and Falcon 3.0. In fact, Half-Life I played for about 10 minutes and put down. I hit the part right after the accident where you were supposed to go back to the lobby and go through the vent, but that wasn't obvious to me. So I got lost and didn't know what to do. I put it down for about a week until a friend came by and was like :o you have Half-Life?! That's a great game. I was like "I dunno, it doesn't seem great, I got stuck fairly early." They immediately went through the vent and I questioned why I didn't do that or see that at first. So I played the rest of the game and loved it.

BUT! It doesn't stop there because Half-Life had a huge modding scene and multiplayer. I remember playing and hosting a ton of different mods from my broadband internet. It was like I was a beacon for these mods where I'd just host the server as a listen server, play along with everyone, and moderate while playing. It was a very amazing time where I could really feel a community building up in games.

Am I a gamer? Not sure. But Oblivion really blew my mind. I pirated it not knowing anything about it, I just googled "best games of last year" and that thing was the suggested result.

I was hooked. Years afterwards when my situation changed I bought it on Steam, along with Skyrim. I don't think I've ever played the steam copy.

Neverwinter Nights and Roller Coaster Tycoon when I was a little kid. I watched my dad play Neverwinter and had to indulge in my own tiny fantasy to play as a "dragon." Still at it.

Age of Empires 2 on my parent's crappy old laptop.

Super Mario Bros. from the famicom

Pokémon then was reinvigorated but Minecraft.