The Video Game Critic

[QUOTE=voor]4? 3? 5?....Man, I didnt think parents (even gaming parents) let their children play VGs at those ages.  I think I was 9 when I got my first NES.  My brother was around 11 when he got a 2600.

Makes me wonder....I started relatively late (apparently) and I'm not that big of a gamer to this day.  Actually never really was, I played average of about 1-2 hours a day at the height. 

So....are kids that start gaming at a real early age more like to become hardcore, obsessed gamers (and ya'll know they're out there...don't deny it)??
[/QUOTE]

My god! My parents really messed up! I had no idea!

Actually, I only play games maybe an hour a week. I'm a college student, and I get A's and B's. It's not a matter of when you start, but in how much your parents let you play when you grow older. My parents raised me to make good choices in balancing school with my gaming and social life, and I think I turned out just fine thanks.

My god, GAMING CAUSES CANCER!

Actually, it does not depend on starting early. I started late and because I tried to be THE OPPOSITE of "normal kids" in my day who LIKED Videogames, I said they were dumb, stupid, idiotic. But once I got my own TANK game I was hooked like a fish. PAC MAN was the one that Addicted me, Colecos handheld that is (I had not played the coin-op at the time but read about it.) I started Gaming for life at about 14. I was OBSESSED, I bought every magazine and book I could find, and never paused a moment during "the crash", like others I simply switched to Computer video games until the NES came out! Actually that was the most fun time for me, carts for sale at $1.00 clearance, and my Adam computer brought me back to COLECOVISION games...and my C64C and disk drive let me get HUNDREDS of games for pennies each! Fun times indeed! All I lacked was someone to talk to about my hobby, then I discovered the 2600 Connection! I was one of Tims first contributors on that and soon Super Mario brought a new generation back to the fun!

BUT before then I always loved GAMES, I like Chess and Cards and Board Games but had no one to play with. I think an interest in games,sports or paper puzzles(like Crosswords) is how many start. I know many Elderly people here, being into crosswords and the like have bought handheld HANGMAN, SCRABBLE, and POKER/ BLACKJACK or other card games. Mankind in general loves GAMES!

Video gaming as a....habit/hobbit started for me after I got my N64. I started spending less time outside, though not enough to warrant a health concern, I'd say. even though on occasion (twice a year, tops)  I can play a game literally all day,  my "addiction" was at its peak during my younger years. I could easily get my school work done in 10 minutes, and would spend the rest of my time playing Goldeneye or Rogue Squadron for hours and hours. I can also thank gaming for impressing my 3rd grade teacher. By that time, I had learned what the word "parasitic" meant, thanks to Ocarina of Time. In fact, OOT encouraged me to learn more big words and read more complicated books, and as a result I had a college reading level by 5th grade. THANKS VIDEO GAMES! Of course...old habits die hard....and highschool homework is less forgiving

I'm also living proof that Violent games don't directly influence behavior, as the first PC games I ever played were Risk and Wolfenstein 3D....I have distinct memories of telling my Kindergarten classmates how fun it was to shoot those NOT-C's , only to have my teacher stare at me questioningly

A thread with classic voor, alienblue and others.

Not sure my first, but I am going with Atari arcade Night driver of 1976 at a local pizzarria. I steered while on a stool, my father handled the accelerator (no gear shift lever that I recall). A born prankster, my dad would rev the car up or down at the worst moments.

Of course, at the same time were electromechanicals like Sega Sea Wolf, which were awesome, so the line from one tech to another was blurry.

I also have fond memories of Atari home Pong and lightgun consoles, and the later Breakout/Pinball/Basketball console. I still have a few versions. Those lightguns would be on a list of most dangerous toys these days, looking too real.

The first video game that wow'ed me was arcade Asteroids on a cocktail setup in 1979. While there had been games like Lunar Lander before, this was one that just clicked for me. Pong could come and go like pet rocks and gee your hair smells terrific, but Asteroids said video games were amazing and lasting and please take my money one quarter at a time sir.

My first time was playing one of those all-in-one Pong systems at my cousins' house.  I was enthralled.  Even after everyone else was tired of playing it, I kept on, turning both knobs to play as both sides.

Later a friend of mine named Bill who lived down the street kept bugging me to come over and play Atari.  I didn't know what that was so I kept putting him off.  Of course, once I experienced that I was hooked.

Probably Pong. I remember my grandma had one in her attic, brand new in box. Or it might have been Galaxian on one of those Coleco mini arcades that hogged up 4 C batteries. I do remember the first arcade I ever actually got to play was Yie Ar Kung Fu

GI Joe- A Real American Hero (NES) is the first game I remember playing when I was a kid. I was about 3-4 and I remember the first stage and sucking really bad at it. I don' t remember a ton about the game (I probably never even beat the first stage) but I do remember the bright green forest and the plane coming down to attack. I also remember my dad throwing away our NES because I was 3-4 and bit a hole in one of the power cables for the system... He could have got a new cable....

My first time was with one of these, which I owned when I was probably 3 or 4 years old:

 

My first experience with a real arcade game was when I was about 5, most likely at a birthday party at the local roller rink. It may have been a monster truck game called Power Drive - at least that's the earliest one that I can remember. The first time I tried a console was around the same time - my Mom went to visit a friend and brought me along, and her teenage son sat me down in his room and put a couple of games on his NES for me to play - first Super Mario Bros, then Karate Champ.