How did you get into gaming?

[Mech Man]

How did you guys get into gaming? I first got into it when i played the first command and conquer (which i bugged my brother to allow me to play :P) , i was like 3 at the time and i have been gaming ever since. :afro:

[Pesmerga]

My dad got me into Doom.

[elrasho]

I had no freinds as a child and so computer games were my only entertainment.... for the best I suppose coz I turned out just fine <begins to polish AK47 whilst sn1ggering>

[Shippi]

My brother. I used to watch him play x-com and some Alien sidescroller thing.. he encouraged me playing, I remember some strange DOS games, Doom, then many happy hours on X-Wing, Dark Forces and Quake ^_^

[Lucid]

My dad... had a sweet DOS set up, he was actually a programmer and would go to these Computer Shows(they were conventions where new hardware/games/programs in general were shown off) and bring back demo discs called Most Valuable Software <Year> and even full games.
He was there when they first unveiled Quake, got me the original box, cd case, and a shirt.

Anyways, I first got into gaming with Wolf3D... my first FPS ever, shortly afterwards I was introduced to Dune... thus my love for RTSes was born.
Somewhere in between I had my SNES and played that religiously, it was actually my sister's but we played almost all of the games together.(Mortal Kombat ftw)

Those were the good ole days, gaming in that sweet garage set up... shelves lined with programming books, manuals, software, games... walls lined with autographed pictures, shirts, and concept art.

Too bad around 1998 all of that fell apart after my dad broke his hip and ended up falling into a deep depression, being a 'Nam veteran all of that pain reminded him of what he did back there every day.
He refuses to talk about it though.
So, every now and then I drop by and bring him a game I just bought and let him play.
He's a huge Blizzard fan so when I told him about Starcraft 2 he almost shit himself.

Anyways, that's that story.

[elrasho]

they should make a movie about your Dad

[Seppo]

my dad bought a comptuer, i found games. then i played them.

[Fishlore]

My parents bought me an Intellivision for christmas back around 1979-1980 maybe. It wasn't too long after that when my parents got themselves an Apple iie which I proceeded to turn into my first gaming rig.

[Cormeh]

All of my mates had a NES or a Disaster System. I was the only one who never had anything close to a video games console, PC or handheld. If the weather was bad (Scotland - helloooooooo) we'd go to a friends house and play all sorts of games.

Eventually, my Father splashed out on a Gameboy..... for my old dear. That was one Christmas morning I was actually stunned into silence. Noting my rather disapponted coupon, I was treated later that year to an Atari STE - awesome! After we played that into the ground (shot after shot after shot on Last Ninja 2, Wizball, F16 and Afterburner) our beloved Atari bit the dust.

Many a year passed, with me reverted back to stealing time at friends houses playing a SNES or Mega Drive games. Sometimes I'd have to look after younger cousins who had a Mega Drive, they'd get bored of it before me so I was always finishing their games and soaking up as much time as possible. On some rare occasions, my friends and I would take the arduous bike ride to a mate far away... a mate who had a gaming PC loaded with DOS goodies. It was here we were all introduced to treasures such as Monkey Island, DooM, Quake and eventually Half Life.

Eventually, after some years of darkness where life changed and things were not as they once were, I was gifted my first console. You guessed it, the N64. This is where my love of games such as Pilotwings 64, Mario 64, Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Turok, Turok 2, Space Station Silicon Valley, Body Harvest.... well I could go on, but that's where it really developed.

Aaaaanyway, I got into gaming due to minimal time playing games, witnessing games being played, helping people play games and desperately wanting games of my own.

I like stories.

[Kula Meenur]

GTA: Vice City

Nuff sed.

[Norn]

my brother got me into it
I found it a way to explore what others see
it was design by other people so why not see it?

[Mr Stabby]

Duke Nukem 3D

[dfc05]

My dad used to play Wolfenstein, Doom, etc. so I got to play those when I was a little kid. He also got us sidescrollers like Commander Keen. We only had the shareware "first episodes" of everything, but I sucked at games so that was enough to keep me occupied for a long time.

[Gray Fox]

grandfather used to take me and my cousin to the arcades all the time.

[Blackthorn]

It all started with GameBoy, first game was Link's Awakening. Soon after came the SNES, then N64, PS1, DreamCast (urk), GameCube, PS2, PC then PS3. So I've been at it quite a while, most my life has been spent in front of a TV. Comparatively new to PC gaming though.

[Gunner]

Older brother had a c64, I'd be watching him play and beg him for a turn all day.

[Hazard.Squared]

Got started on Doom when I was really young, like 4 or 5

[AHA-Lambda]

I played my dad's genesis and played sonic the hedgehog 2 but I didn't really get into gaming until I played the PS1.

[Jintor]

Doom or Duke Nuken 3D or Tyran or Terminal Velocity when I was, uh, 4.

[RyanG]

My dad used to play Doom every day after he came home from work.
I was only like 4 at the time but I remember a lot of it.

[Absinthe]

I'd already been playing a lot of side-scroller games on the PC since I was little, but two things probably got me fully cemented in it.

1.) Dad and Doom. I'd watch him play in the late hours of the night and I distinctly remember being frightened out of the room by the appearance of a Hell Knight. Or was it a Cyberdemon? I remember how cool it was to watch all the carnage unfold on the screen. I would only play it on God mode.

2.) Being turned onto Warcraft in grade school. A friend of mine would wax on and on about it, so I went out and hod Mom and Pop pick me up one of the battle chests they had released for it. I got so into the games I'd actually write fanfic in my spare time... :|

[AiM]

When I was like 5 or 6 I remember visiting a friends house and everyone would gather there to play what he had on the PC at the time, Doom. I was also introduced to porn there but I was a little older then and that's an entire different story...

[CyberPitz]

My father took me to work one day, sat me in front of a TV, popped in Burger Time....the rest is history.

Then he got Doom, RoTT, Hexen, Heretic, Duke Nukem 3d, Police Squad, MARS, etc etc etc...

[DEATHMASTER]

Gaming in general - got a Sega Genesis in 93' $100 for that and sonic 3 and sonic & knuckles. PC - friend gave me a bootleg copy of UT and NHL2002 (This was in 2001)

[Saturos]

Watching my cousin play Super Mario Bros. one day when I was on my way to pre-school with my aunt.

Immediately I knew that I wanted an NES for Christmas, so I got the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt bundle package that same year. (1988)

Mmm Duck Hunt. Looking back, I feel good that I've killed so many of Samon's people. :E

[Xendance]

Opposing Force was my first game, I think.

Maybe Serious Sam.

[CR0M]

Primitive arcade machine at some fairground, 1978 -> Atari 2600 -> Hand held electronic games -> ZX 81 -> C64 -> Arcade boom of the 80's -> Amiga 500 -> Pentium 75 -> many many PC variants -> Current PC

I spose it was space invaders that got me hooked, even if I was rubbish at it. The technological jump from board games to games you could actually play on TV was just too damn futuristic to resist, back when everyone looked like this
http://feelgroovy.idv8.com/pinups/osmond/osmond-bros.jpg

[Sainku]

My parents, they were gaming well before I was born and I can't really remember a time I didn't play video games. My dad worked in an arcade and my mom was introduced to it by her dad who was always tinkering with computers.

[Kyorisu]

Arcades, nuff said. The early CD piracy scene was interesting too.

[TheAntipop]

My friend got a Nintendo 64 for his birthday with Goldeneye, I went round his the day he got it and was pretty much amazed by what I saw. We didn't get past the gate with the padlock on Dam, natch, but I still left feeling blown away by what I had just played. I got one soon after with Mario, Goldeneye, played them to death, soon got into Zelda.

Good times.

[Cornerstone]

Pitfall on Atari when I was sick in hospital.

[Ravioli]

My dad played Half-Life 1, and then my sister played counterstrike. Then it spread around school so thats how it all began. That was when i was 6, but before that i would play 2D games on a Mac we had.

[Ennui]

One of my dad's friends pretty much got us into videogames, playing sonic at his house when I was 3 or so is my earliest memory of gaming, and he sent us Wolf3d, X-COM, Dark Forces, Heroes of Might and Magic and a bunch of other old classics back when they were new and I was 5-6, otherwise I would have never played them. He was responsible for my acquiring Starcraft as well, he sent it to us for Christmas in 1998 :D

Playing Wolfenstein as a little kid was scary as hell, I was always so nervous about opening doors when I knew there were Nazis and their attack dogs on the other side, so I would just sit in the room before it for a minute being scared and then finally go through the door and frag all of them :D

[Dog--]

My sister always played Tomb Raider and Resident Evil games, so when I was little I'd always watch her.

[Pesmerga]

so when I was little I'd always watch her.

Perv.

[highlander]

doom, or aoe1.

[ailevation]

went over to my cousin's and they had the NES set up with Duck Hunt chucked in.

[Dalamari]

Asteroids on my parents Atari, but I got seriously into it when I started with EverQuest, then I went to Half-life, TFC...and so on

[Pesmerga]

>but I got seriously into it when I started with EverQuest

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/3961/1211215597748pa7.jpg

[Dalamari]

gb2bnet nub

[Moto-x_Pat]

My parents bought a crappy Gateway computer for my little brother because he broke his collarbone and needed someting to do. We were in Best Buy one day and my brother picked up a copy of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault which had just come out. He had played Frontline on PS2, so he wanted to try Allied Assault. My mom bought it and we both played through single player. Then my brother tried to play it on our dial-up modem and it was so amazingly fun when it worked. We both got hooked.

[SamuraiKenji]

Super Smash Brothers :|

[Saturos]

went over to my cousin's and they had the NES set up with Duck Hunt chucked in.Doesn't sound much different from my story. :>

[Asus]

Dad always had a PC with some games which is how my interest in gaming was started. You might say I have been a gamer since I was like 4. Played PC and NES/SNES/N64 games with my brother and friends growing up. I had played single player Wolf3d/decent/doom/quake quite often but I didn't play multiplayer besides a random dialup or LAN game with a friend. It wasn't until I went to college that I really got into this gaming scene.

[Bad^Hat]

Well, first I started playing games, and then I kept playing games, and then I didn't stop.

That's pretty much it.

Edit - More specifically, probably either my nextdoor neighbour who had an Amiga, or a friend down the road who had a Master System. Also our cousins gave us their Atari with a buttload of games (some of which worked!).

[Krynn72]

I only got into the gaming scene at the end of the SNES era. It was only casual until the N64 came out, then I went from a kid who only played games when he was bored, to a gamer who played games as a major source of entertainment. I turned into a PC gamer during my middle school years when my dad bought a $2000 Compaq PC and I could play Decent 3, Delta Force, and then Ultima Online. I'd say UO was what made me a hardcore PC gamer.

[Nibwoddle]

Dad played HL1, Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart did it for me.

[chimpmunk]

I got the NES as a kid.

[Darkside55]

When I was 2, my mother put a zapper in my hand and told me to shoot all the ducks.

[ktimekiller]

When I was 3 or 4, my dad played some DOS games, and I THINK my first game he introduced me to was warcraft 2, im not certain if that was the very first, but quickly, i became a gaming fanatic.

I remember I would sit on my dads lap while he played warcraft 2, T_T good times... good times.....

[ray_MAN]

My dad gave me all the kiddie games like Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear from Humongous Entertainment, then I was slowly let onto real games.

[Hellrider]

Doom\C&C\hundreds of other games.

[Lone Wolf]

All my older brothers played computer games so it was pretty much just instinctual for me.

[TwwIX]

My dad got me into arcades, way back in the late 80's. I've been addicted ever since.