MY STORY...whats yours..history of a gamer

[MrKasualUltra2000]

HAHAHAHA, a comment in another thread inspired me.....
my story::::

when i was 6 years old...

my brother was a tester in the SF Bay Area for Atari, he brought home with him revs of 2600 games with no cases, just the chips and stickers of the rev # and game were on top of the chips, he brought me huge posters, including ET and Atlantis posters amongst tons of other goodies. I still have the Kangaroo, Pole Position , and Dig Dug screen marquees that he once brought home, he got them from a friend of the arcade division.

when the 5200 was released he brought one home, i was in awe, the cinemas of Super Pac Man and my definitive favorite Moon Patrol entranced me, to this day i play these damn games. he then left to college just as the vg industry died, all of the majors collapsed, Colleco, Intellivision, and Atari.

5 years later

when the NES and SMS were released i wanted an SMS so BADLY, when my aunt gave me an NES on my BDAY i was pissed off, I just loved how the SMS looked, the game boxes, i thought the graphics were better (mind you I was like 10) than the NES, but she got me one so her son (my cousin) and I could share games...look what she started.

when the Genny and TG16 were released i bought a TG16.....
-keith Courage and legendary Axe reminded me of the 5200

when the PSX and Saturn were released i bought a Saturn.....
Panzer Dragoon reminded me of the 5200

i bought a DC on 9.9.99, i held out on the PS2 for well over a year in hopes of a DC resurgence....Soul Calibur reminded me of the 5200


when the GC and XBox were released i bought a GC.....
Star Wars and Wave Race reminded me of the 5200.

I was born hardcore.

i am the official harbringer of a systems deathwish, the ones i chose....lose.

whats your story?

[MechDeus]

My mom placed the Atari controller in my hands when I was two years old, and soon I was able to figure out how to hook it up myself. As she tells it, I never cried when she left to go places, I'd just kind of wave and keep on playing Space Invaders. The more things change...

It was a couple years after the NES came out that I finally got one as a birthday present, and was so excited! Before that I'd go over to friends houses to play, and was known by many to be a videogame addict. Again, the more things change...

I was gotten a Game Gear for Christmas, and it became a ritual for the next few years that my final Christmas present would be whatever was the latest Sonic game for it.

After that, I began buying my own systems used, though it always took lots of saving up, and generally relied on holidays and birthdays for new games. I got a 32X for X-mas one year (when it was released) because I was so desperate to play Star Wars Arcade, and loved every minute of it. It always acted screwy, it wasn't until last year I found out that it was because it did that with a certain model of the Genesis, which was the one I had.

Now, I spend far more on my habit then I should, and always look forward to new purchases and new games, despite my need to go back and play all that I missed. Truly, there is not enough time in anyone's life to play all that I want to. Even today, a friend of mine who knows how much I love games invited me over so I could hopefully provide some decent challenge to him in Rune Warrior: Viking Warlord (no one else that lives around him will play against him in any of his games, they're all too sick of losing continuously). The final score was 3-2 me. He was frustrated that for my first time ever playing it I kept beating him more then he ever had been before, so he turned to me and said, "The next time I see your mom, I'm going to yell at her for placing that damn Atari controller in your hand!"

[Tracer]

My family had a 2600 in the living room, I liked playing it, if only for River Raid (the only one I found particularly interesting). However, I was very interested in seeing how it works... I ended up breaking 2 of them :/ Atari meant games and it was one of the first things I was excited about.

The Pizza Hut near our house had several neat games on it, Gauntlet bein one of them... I had always been fond of the game and I really wanted it at home, but I was really quiet as a kid... middle child syndrome perhaps. I understood the phrase "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" but I didn't like it. Besides, one of 4 kids in a family of limited income courtesy for my mother (belive, I'm a big mommas boy... for some time I was afraid I would end up like Principal Skinner) I never complained or begged for stuff. I DID ask for an NES though... I had played Zelda at a neighbors house and was pretty much sold. I asked and my dad delivered on Chistmas day... wih a Master System... heh... belive it or not I wasn't disappointed. I figured it would play Zelda too (heh, come on.. I just played the games.. I wasn't totaly on top of them). I never got an NES and its Zelda... but I did get a fair amount of SMS games and was more than satisfied with it. In fact... I perfered it. Maybe that was simply because it was mine (it didn't go in the Family Room, it went in a small room right next to mine.. which I later, under the cover of darkness, moved into my room with my skinny skinny arms. No one said a thing about it so it was, in effect, mine.

Later I got a Genesis w/ Sonic and the legacy of Sega in my house continued. By the time SCD was released I was what could pretty much be called a ravenous fanboy. Sega was everything, this was when Sega was poised to "take over home entertainment as we know it" to quote a source... I think from USA Today or something like it from the time. That quickly faded as I found other interests. The Saturn was expensive and the PSX wasn't much better (64 wasn't out yet) so I began to dive into music (I will note that the Sega CD helped with that as it was my first CD player). That then became my focus, and games were running far behind. I did a lot of writeing and bad drawings and listened to a lot of Metallica, I would every so often fire up the Genesis for a game or two.

Then, some of my friends I had just met from HS (which today are the best friends in the world *"shout-out" to MarsKitten and Station82o*) introduced me to PC games, primarily Doom and Duke 3D and later Quake and Tie Fighter. I never had a PC so I just played at school and at a friends house. MarsKitten (who seldom posts here) gave me a SNES and I played Final Fantasy 3(6) upon recommendation. Later He would bring his PSX (with Armored Core and Einhander) to my house and play we would. I guess it made an impression on me. The Saturn dissappeared as an option (save for a few fleeting shots of Sonic Extreme I saw in a Mag). I got a PSX in 1997 with Wipeout, Tomb Raider 2, FF7 and several others. That was pretty cool... but I still didn't dive right back into games. I was really having a good time messing with the PC (another new addition) and seeing what it was I could do with it. Evetually, I sold off some Genesis games and got a PSX game... Star Ocean 2. I played that game to death... by now it was August 1999. I was out of HS for awhile and unemployed... just sitting at home and trying to clear the Cave of Trials in SO2. I needed help though. So I grabbed my backpack (with a pen and some paper) and a sack of some pocket change I had collected over time and went to Barnes & Noble. I found a SO2 strategy guide and began writeing down some tips. I spent the majority of my day there in that area (a mall was near there) and I used the change I had to buy drinks and some food. I went to that mall, got some food with the last of my money and ate... rather depressed thinking that this is pretty much what I do... I make a day of finding tips for a Game I have already effectively beaten (top that off with being piss broke and seeing all these well-to-do people haveing a damn fine time all around me). I was eating outside and I spied a table of guys all talking. I didn't know what, but I recognised that one of the guys was the Manager of the Babbages in the mall. I decided to walk back into the mall and I chose the entrace right by their table. As I passed by, I overheard them bad talking the Saturn (you will note that I had just gotten one second hand and was very much enjoying it). I came to it's defence which was a taste of what was to come for me (with DC while working). The manager guy said I didn't know what they were talking about... said that they were doing a group interview and if I wanted to join, to grab an application from his store (he asked if I knew where it was... HA!). I did and later that day I took home the W-2 forms and an employee handbook... I was to help with the Dreamcast launch. Our store had more reservations (426) than any other location in the state of Texas. 9.9.99 came and went.. I worked 14 hours without break (my first day working ANYWHERE) and I loved every minute of it... the energy was incredible. Not since then has a system launched with so much energy. When I got paid I got a DC for myself with Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur. I was back into Games, full-force. I quit that job eventually and went to Funcoland instead... then they both became Gamestop and I was back where I started :/

I quit there evetually because I was moving out of my parents place and I was going to work for Mercedes of Houston. No dice. I still moved out, but had no job. After a few months of just barely making rent (and doing some bad editorial work at Hardcoregaming.com) I went back home and got my old job back. I'm still here... FADS have come and gone... Linux, PSX , Metallica and Rezio's Gyros but I still think nothing but the world of Sega.. heh.. sounds sappy... but it's the way I was raised... like a religion of sorts... hard to shake and I don't know if I really even want to.

There were other moments, lots of them... and each one could be a poorly written novel. But I'll spare you. That's my story in reguards to games... I can't sat my primary (or even secondary) interst is games even now... but it's something that occupies much of my time.

ºTracer

[Lordmrw]

This is gonna be a long one. Around the time I was four, all of my older btothers still lived at home. My oldest bro at the time, Preston, was 21, and had a job, so most of the time he bought the comics and stuff. I was too young to know what an atari was, but when my brothers brought one home something clicked when I watched then play it. My cousin moved to the first floor, and also had one with about 30(!) games, so we didn't need to buy more. Fast forward to 1985 (or was it 86?), and my brother comes home with the Nes and 3 games. I was the first on my block to have it, so you know it made my friends jealous. We had 3 games, Mario, Metroid, and Wrecking Crew, and we spent day and night playing them. From that point on, I was a game junkie. My friend Chip down the street got one not too long after, and there was a sort of competition going on to see who could get the most games. Somehow, even though his mom didn't work, he got a new game every 3 or 4 days. Hmmm. By the end of it, we had 34 games, he had 67. Most of the time I would trade games with people instead of buying new ones. A few times during the year, my father would send me and my brother Spencer money, and we would buy games with it. That's how I stumbled onto games like ninja gaiden, faxanadu, battle of olympus, guardian legend, etc. If we wanted to play the SMS, we would let this guy we knew around the corner use our nes for his sms. It worked out pretty well, and I got to play most of the major master system games that way. Around 1989, my nes and all my games were stolen, and for a short while i didn't have a system. My brother Spencer, instead of getting the genesis, got a tg-16, cause he said he got it cheap. For a long time all we had was Keith Courage(cuz everyone else had a genesis), but I found $20 bucks in a store and we got Side Arms. From there it snowballed. When we got Bloody Wolf and Blazing Lazers, everyone in the neighborhood began coming over to play them. Unfortunately, my idiot brother in a fit of rage broke the controller slot, so he tossed the system. From 1993 to summer 1994, I didn't have a system, but somehow managed to keep up with the latest games by bumming off other people. 1994, I finally got an SNES, and kept it as my main system until 1997, when I bought my N64. It was around this point that I really started to know what went on behind the scenes in the industry, as My friend Gerald got a computer and i hogged his internet access. I didn't like the Playstation lineup at the time, and the Saturn was still out of my range. The 64 kept me happy, even through all the delays. Around the beginning of 1999, my local EB began doing surplus sales, where all their extra playstations and N64s were being sold for $15 bare bones. I traded in two games(heh) and got a playstation. At this point, the playstation had a very good rpg list, which motivated me to get one, even though I still don't like it much. Also, reading gamefan and surfing on the internet opened my eyes to how many import games I was missing out on. Lucky for me, my high school buddy amish modded systems, so I got it modded for imports. I still don't have many imports, because of all the random bullshit that comes up whenever I have money. That playstation was also my last major purchase until 2001, because of paying for college and the fact that I didn't hae a job for most of 99 and the first half of 2000. I bought my DC in March 2001, which was pretty fortunate, as the majority of my games I've gotten between 10-25 dollars. I still have yet to buy a next gen system, but hopefully in July I'll get my Cube.

[Lordmrw]

Boy I wasn't joking when i said it would ba long one. I stopped to take a shit and shower before finishing that post!

[amerlop]

Well, my first experience with games was a Tandy 2000HX. Think Quick!, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, some football game...these where my earliest experiences. My mother hated video games with a passion so I was never allowed to have a system. But, she did allow me to go to a local arcade and play. I loved Altered Beasts, TMNT, Operation Wolf and a few others. I used to go over to the friends houses on occaision and drool over whatever Zelda or Mario game was out.
Then, out of spite, my dad bought me a Genesis. I was soooo overjoyed. But, I was still relegated to being a casual gamer since I only saw my dad on weekends and I still had sports and stuff to contend with. As I moved to Vermont and my mom pretty much pet me wander out of the house as I pleased, I was introduced to SNES and it's RPGs by friends. I never bought a SNES until after it's death but I played Final Fantasy, Chronotrigger, Secret of Mana, etc. for hours with my friends.
Then, to spite my mom (a reocurring theme in my history) I bought a PSX when I saw that first look at FF7 in GAMEFAN. I played and purchased many a game until around mid-1997 or so. I had some difficulties with drugs and alcohol and the law and such, so gaming was on the back-burner until 1999 or so. I injured my knee pretty badly, so being incapacitated for months gave me some nice perspective and clarity and also got my back into gaming. Grandia and FFT really restored my faith. It was just a bit later than this when I adopted a more multi-platform and a collector's/hobbyist attitude and that's pretty much where I am today.

[Metal_Slug]

I remember doing one of these threads...

Well, here we go.

When I was 5 or whatever my parents bought me and my sister a NES for Christmas... We were hooked... I don't recall much other than that, however, buy my mom told me we used to argue all the time playing...

I always had an interest in games since then but my next system was the Genesis--me, my sister, and my dad chipped in $50 each to get one. My mom wasn't happy at all... She was completely against buying games and systems ("one is enough!")... Therefore I didn't get many new games very often... I also think I would pick up an issue of EGM every so often to flip through back then but that was about it...

I really wanted a PS for so long but of course, my mom was against me buying one... Never did get one... But I started to read EGM and I subscribed in 1998, I think... And I was always finding myself attracted to all the weird games and RPGs and that stuff... And I loved thumbing through the back pages where all the import ads lay... I was intrigued but I really never pursued anything, once again... I also sent away for free isues of PSM, Next Gen, PC Gamer, etc. ALL the time... So I always had stuff to read about games... Yet I didn't have any of the systems that were written about...

I was into PC stuff for a litle bit, but not too heavily... One of the first games I got was Ultimate Doom... Blah blah, later on I got a 3D card and blah blah, but who cares...

Anyway, in 1999, I finally got a summer job to make some decent money... I was gonna save for something nice... I didn't know about Dreamcast until I read about it in EGM... I was OBSESSED. There was no way I wasn't going to buy one. So I did. Preordered it and got it on the 10th. That really started my game fix.

I later got into imports after reading about them on IGN (the GOOD IGN... LONG gone)... My first import was Vampire Chronicle...

Oh yah, I got a GB Pocket before a DC I think... but, whatever. Insignificant.

Then I discovered the NGPC. The one game I HAD to have was SvC. I actually got a NGPC for Christmas in 1999 and loved the damn thing...


Well, the DC days were my biggest game buying days... I would get a new game so often that now that I think about it I wonder where I got all the $$ from... I was obsessed.

In 2000 I picked up a PS (one) FINALLY. Got it in December.

Then early in 2001 I got a Saturn... I was dying to play Radiant Silvergun. It was actually the reason I bought a SS, but ironically enough, I STILL don't have the @#$#$ game. I almost bought RS from gAmeChoiceClub one time before even having a SS actually...


Ok, I'm sorta all over the place.

Anyway, now I'm sorta not reading up on anything new and only obscure stuff seems to interest me anymore. I don't read news (other than on MMCafe) much and well, I don't get crazy about games much anymore like I used to in the good old DC days....

[Prince Planet]

Date: October 1973

Place: Lobby of the Sheraton Waikiki

What happened: The Hotel had a stand up Pong machine. I was 7 years old and I'd never seen a video game before this (and neither had my dad). It was $0.25 per play, and my dad and I played it over and over during that vacation, utterly enthralled. Well, I was, anyway.

Not long after (a couple years, maybe?), we bought a home system of "Pong" and its variations ("hockey" -- pong with 4 paddles; "racquet ball" -- pong with the ball only bouncing of one side of the screen, etc.)

To make a very long story very short, I've had tons of games systems and games ever since. However, I would point out the the biggest "boost" to my gaming hobby probably came with the advent of home computers. While I was certainly playing Atari 2600, it really paled in comparison to the gaming to be had on the Atari 800, circa 1982/1983. In fact, I still have my entire library of Atari 800 games (I don't know why, since I'm probably never going to touch them again.) Anyway, after the computer scene of the early- and mid-80s (including the next generation of Atari/Commodore computers), I dove into consoles full force and never looked back.

[Sqoon]

1990-1992: Started with the NES and countless summer days when a dozen neighborhood kids would cram into me and brother's room (and where the tempature would rise well into the triple digits).

1994: Rented Landstalker. The existence of video gaming is now vindicated.

1998: After years of searching (didn't have the Internet), I found Landstalker again.

[FuryFox]

Well, it was my parents' fault. Really. As a little tyke they'd take me to Aladdin's Castle Arcade, and while standing on a booster stool, I would proceed to die at Pac-Man over and over again in about 20 seconds or so, grubby little hand expectantly reaching out for another quarter.

My parents never wanted my to have a console, but a well-intending aunt bought me a NES one christmas (with Duck Hunt and Mario Bros). Of course, my parents would never by me other games, so I could only rent them sometimes. That Mario Bros. got a lot of play. I'd also borrow my friend's Contra, and then just sorta, not talk to him for a while

A got a SNES at some point...don't remember. Parents probably bought it. Arcade gaming was still generally cooler. The highlight of that era, for me, was going to the nickel arcade with my friend and deathmatching for hours on T-MEK and Killer Instinct, or racing Cruisin' USA (hey, it was cool at the time).

I got suckered by hype, and bought an Atari Jaguar. I didn't realize it sucked until PSX came out. DooM, Brutal Sports Football, Tempest 2000, and Alien vs Predator all seemed pretty cool to me. I was amazed when I sold it later, well after it's plummeting demise, for $150.

Nothing too special after that. Had my own money, bought what I wanted. But here's my historical recap:

StreetFighter 2: Made me love fighting games
DooM: Made me love 1st person shooters
Secret of Mana: Made me love RPGs
WarCraft 2: Made me love RTS