Silverspoon's Sunday Discussion Topic #14: What was the very first video game you owned?

[SilverspoonGaming | 366]

Were not talking about what console, although listing what console the game was on will be helpful.  If you were handed down a system with games, can you name every one?

[SilverspoonGaming | 366]

Mach Rider - NES

I went into Toys R Us when I was like 3 (1988) wanting Excitebike but not knowing the name and unfortunately bought Mach Rider.  The game is garbage, but since it was my only game for like a year, I played the hell out of it.

[Reed Rothchild | 10,009]

Christmas 1993:

SNES w/ Mario World

Battletoads Double Dragon

Madden NFL '94 w/strategy guide

 

We also had an old PC with a random smattering of games such as all of the Commander Keens and lots of Apogee shareware.  The only boxed stuff was F-15 Strike Eagle II and Mega Man.  Not sure when exactly we got those.

[cj_robot | 559]

On Christmas 1990 I got my NES w/ Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt, plus Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, DuckTales and TMNT. It was a damn good start to my NES collection, and probably the best Christmas haul I ever got.

[MegaMan52 | 2,653]

I got Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt and Rad Racer around the same time, in 1990. I still have my original copy of Rad Racer 30+ years later:

[Hammerfestus | 4,155]

I was an NES SMB.  I don’t recall which other games we got at the same time.  Would’ve been some time in 89. 

[AstralSoul | 523]

The first game I owned that was mine was Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt which I got on Christmas of 1989 which came with the NES.

My dad however owned an Atari 2600 which I guess technically he passed down to me. I played Atari for a bit before I got my NES, with games like Pitfall, Pigs in Space, Haunted House, and Combat. I never liked the Atari though and once I got Super Mario Bros I never looked back. 

[RH | 5,325]

We got a 2600 right in the middle or end of the gaming "crash". I think it was around 1986. Sure, the NES was out but it was expensive and believe it or not, they were still trying to peddle 2600 stock.

I know my parents got a console and a bunch of games for dirt cheap and, in fact, we might have picked it up from my kid-Uncle (he was about 3 years older than me) so for whatever reason, we got about 6-7 games. The ones I remember we're.

• Pac-Man
• Pole Position
• Combat
• Boxing

So, not an exciting lot but for an intro to gaming at home, I loved it. Pac-Man and Pole Position were by far my favorites. Both my brother and I were so good at Pac-Man, we could play it until we were told to cut the machine off, or simply got bored with it.

[Tulpa | 3,770]

Atari 2600 versions of Defender, Centipede, Demons to Diamonds, Swordquest Fireworld, and a few others, all at firesale prices due to the crash.

NES came later, like Christmas 1987 thereabouts.

[JamesRobot | 6,184]

Mario's Cement Factory Game & Watch.  My cousins gave it to me for my birthday ~ '87.  This particular one I received from @Foochie776 for Secret Santa a few years ago.

[Robot_Ninjutsu | 122]

I don't think my brothers 2600 technically got handed down to me. My parents put that in a garage sale in 1989, and the money went to him.

So NES X-mas 1990.  SMB/Duck Hunt was bundled, but SMB3 was the game that made me want one.

 

[Tanooki | 5,185]

I know before Tiger handheld LCDs existed I had a Mattel Electronics Hockey I got at a garage sale.  Yet the earliest thing I can remember, despite you said, no console, IS just that.  Christmas 1985 got the (then unbranded) NES Deluxe Set and on top of that, +2 games too for some variety.

I never had any of those early handhelds or stuff, my mom did have this one really old console, never knew it in the 80s though, her friend had one as well (fairchild channel f2) at her place, but I know for a fact I touched that after the NES.

So I guess for me it's a 4-way for first game: Gyromite, Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley and Super Mario Bros. because I can't remember which was tried first exactly.  I know we didn't set the ROB up immediately, impatient Christmas kids, had to be one of the other three.

[DarkTone | 1,038]

Double dragon- Nes

[Sumer | 221]

The 2600 games of Space Invaders, Combat, and Donkey Kong (and a few others) just showed up one day.  I think Dad got a deal from Columbia House or something at the end of the "Crash."  Because we also had a Coleco Gemini as opposed to an actual 2600.  I believe Columbia House distributed the Gemini.

It was either those games, or the Mattel electronic Baseball and Basketball handhelds...but those aren't technically video games, I suppose...those are "electronic games."    Looking at you Simon.

Edited June 14, 2021 by Sumer

[nrslam | 495]

It would have been any one of the dozen or so games that came with the Atari VCS (2600 name came later) I bought used in '79.  Combat, Pong Sports, Space Invaders, Circus Atari and other common early titles were there, but I'm fairly sure the first one I played was Video Chess, since that's what I bought it for.

Had the Mattel Football (and later, Baseball) handhelds before that.

[JeremiahJT | 76]

Pole Position II came with the 7800, but I bought Asteroids (the 7800 version) along with it.

[DefaultGen | 5,765]

Not 100% sure, but maybe Sonic 2 around Christmas 1993.

[mbd39 | 2,131]

This was actually pretty cool for the time. Nice color display.

 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

First ones that were MINE-mine were a bulk lot of 2600 carts that came with a friend's 2600 Jr I bought from him for $10 when he was trying to get money together for a new NES game, probably in the summer of '88.  Got a small B&W TV later in the year so I could play it in my room without bothering anyone else.  Those were the days.  Everything else prior to this was for the family, so it was something else to finally have my own games and the ability to play them whenever I wanted.

[T-Pac | 8,440]

My first video game was a Namco Plug-N-Play with Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Rally X, Bosconian,, and Galaxian. Those are still some of my favorite games to this day - classic Namco stuff is the best.

-CasualCart

[RH | 5,325]

17 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

First ones that were MINE-mine were a bulk lot of 2600 carts that came with a friend's 2600 Jr I bought from him for $10 when he was trying to get money together for a new NES game, probably in the summer of '88.  Got a small B&W TV later in the year so I could play it in my room without bothering anyone else.  Those were the days.  Everything else prior to this was for the family, so it was something else to finally have my own games and the ability to play them whenever I wanted.

This is a good perspective.  As I mentioned above, the family got a 2600 around 1986, but the first system I got that was my own was a Game Boy, and I remember getting a couple games with it.  My first, personal games were then Tetris, World Cup Soccer and Alleyway.

Now, the first games that were 100% mine that I bought with my own money were likely Game Gear games, after I saved up ages to get it.  I couldn't wait to get that system so I barely had enough to buy one without a pack in game, so my brother bought me Sonic 2.  That doesn't count.  I think the first game I bought with my own cash when it came around was either Jurassic Park or Star Wars.  I have fond memories of both.

[Strikezone1 | 157]

Got my NES on Xmas of '89, was was my first gaming console. Excluding the SMB/DH pack in cart, I also got Bubble Bobble & R.C. Pro-AM that same Xmas, so those would be my first ever video games I owned.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,126]

SMB/Duck Hunt came with my NES Action Set, but Excitebike was the first standalone game that I owned. It wasn't the same as the arcade game that I put so many quarters into, but it was still amazing to be able to play it at home.

[Tanooki | 5,185]

That post up there a few got me thinking about ownership.  The NES I co-owned it with my brother as it was a Christmas gift in 85.  It wasn't until the Gameboy in 1989 for that Christmas I had one I didn't have to share as it was mine alone, though around that time it wasn't much after he fell for the trap Sega spun with their pack of media bs and got the genesis so it effectively was mine at that rate.

[Tabonga | 2,533]

Ignoring an ancient pong clone I had way back when the first console games I bought were Final Fantasy II and Tetris that I got when I bought an SNES in 1991.