Which game got you into gaming?

[monkey puzzle]

For me it was Chuckie egg.
I had played the odd pong game and space invaders, but nothing ever exited me until I played Chuckie egg on the school's BBC. I think it was the thrill of getting further than anyone else in the class with half a dozen kids stood round the monitor egging you on. Then watching as some other kid beat you and the desperation of getting top again. It was this competition at an early age that really got me hooked. Now though, I just have to compete with myself.

[OriginalJax]

Probably Gorf on the VIC-20 and Atic Atac on the Spectrum (neither of which I owned - I played them at mates houses until I ended up with a C64)

I liked Chuckie Egg, too. And Miner 2049'er.

[GetDexter]

I guess this game could be re-phrased as 'First video game you ever played' as because, by definition, all of us here are retro-gamers it would not be such a wild assumption to make that the first game we ever played was the one that got us hooked!

Anyway, to answer your question. For me, I think Frogger was the first arcade game I ever played and realised that this new world of entertainment was a world that I wanted to be a part of sooo much!

But, MOON CRESTA was the first arcade game that made a big impact on me in the sense that I became very very good at it and my surname was in the high score table most days. It was in the corner of a shop I passed on the way to school, along with about three hundred other school kids, and I became known as a games player from then on.

[SirClive]

Galaxians on the C16. Played it at a mates and was immediately bitten.

Had played games before (on G7000 and ZX81), but that was the defining moment that made me start playing.

[Madge]

3D Monster Maze on ZX81!

[CrookedMouth]

In the off season at a local bar, the bartender would have me fill in at Space Invaders while she answered the phone or made a drink. She made it clear I was not to lose any lives. I was 8 or so. It was either Space Invaders or that girl who got me into gaming. What got me hooked though was being able to hold my own with Asteroids against older players.

[The Last Ginja]

My Dad used to drag me down the local club on Saturday afternoons and I hated it, sitting there with a bag of crisps and a coke, waiting for the old man to finish picking out his horses and playing poker. My highlight of the day was World of Sport and the wrestling.

Until one Saturday sitting in the corner were 2 cocktail cabs. One had Pacman on it and the other Galaxian. These 2 games ignited my love of gaming, 10p a go, 5p if you could spin the coin in right(I was a master of this!) I was gutted when they got rid of them, until I realised I loved Space Race and Baloon Bomber just as much, and Polaris, and Lunar Lander etc etc etc.

[HEAVYface]

i'd played a couple of games like space invaders and scramble when i was a nipper and i thought they were ok, but i wasn't hooked until i got to play atari's star wars sit down cab.

the first time i went down the trench and blew up the death star, i was luke skywalker. nothing comes close to that (apart from being han solo)

[Zorrobandito]

I played Space Invaders on a boat from England to Norway and it tickled my fancy. It was difficult to play with the roiling North Sea but it piqued my interest.

When we returned I got a Spectrum and Jetpac. That's what got me hooked.

Ah, Jetpac

[Antiriad2097]

I really have no idea. Probably one of the early mechanical LED handheld/tabletop games as they were more accessible to a small child in NE scotland than any arcade. Certainly I was hooked long before computers were commonplace and I recall several home Pong consoles passing through our house (we used to get returns from a local shop my uncle works in).

[pantal00ns]

Adventure on the 2600.

Was my oldest Brothers console but he would bring it back when he was on leave from the forces.

We did have an orignal Pong plug in TV thing with a gun but was'nt hooked stright away with that.

[Confessor]

Ever since I was a child, for some of the holidays (usually Easter and the Saint Patron), there is a small fair in my hometown, with games,attractions and an arcade. I was immediately exposed to videogames (and their mechanic precursors) from their beginning, so there's not a single special game that made me start... I remember Space Invaders, Galaxians,Breakout,Gunfighter and other lesser-known titles and it was love at first sight (and sound!).

[Antiriad2097]

That's a fair point, I also have vague memories of mechanical shooting galleries, coin-op remote control boats and mechanical 'flight simulators' as well as the 'rolling road' driving games at the local fair (we have a fixed one in Aberdeen). That would predate the silicon games that eventually moved in there and the later arcade next door.

[spikey_d]

Christmas morning, 1993.
Amstrad CPC464 wrapped up under the tree.

After getting over all the excitment, Spindizzy was eventually put into the Cassette holder, and played on for H O U R S.

Altough I've played better games, I'd probably say that Spindizzy was the one that REALLY started it all off for me! Thanks Electric Dreams!!

Spikey

[GetDexter]

SPIKEY WROTE:

Christmas morning, 1993.
Amstrad CPC464 wrapped up under the tree.

After getting over all the excitment, Spindizzy was eventually put into the Cassette holder, and played on for H O U R S.

Altough I've played better games, I'd probably say that Spindizzy was the one that REALLY started it all off for me! Thanks Electric Dreams!!

Spikey

An Amstrad CPC464 in 1993 ?

That's, er... a wee bit late !