What turned you into a gamer?

[[JiF]Rhykin]

Based off of a Digg post.. (Digg is down ATM but the link for the article is: http://news.filefront.com/what-game-tur ... o-a-gamer/)

I remember when my brother started playing Wolfenstein 3d back in around 1994. That was my first PC game I played (probably around when I was 6 or so), which ended up getting me hooked into PC's and First Person Shooters (leading me into DooM, Duke Nukem and Quake (including threewave, tf and dm)). My brother also used to play Final Fantasy & Zelda a lot on the Nintendo, which also got me hooked on that system as well. While I was never a big console fan, I've been here playing PC games since. I actually didn't start played TFC until 2002 or so because due to the fact that it so different from qw:tf, I didn't think I'd like it. Of course, that is not quite the case anymore and still enjoy playing it.

[[JiF]Stepovich]

I suspect it was a combination of genetics and my environment

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Its been so long I can't remember
It was just a fascination with computers way way way back. I remember typing programs out of a magazine into a little homemade computer that was in a plywood case. Spent hours typing it in, played a text game for an hour shut the thing off and would have to type it back in next time it was turned on
The next major improvement was a standard audio cassette player that I could dump the file to so it could be loaded in again.
You could put multiple files on the cassette and just listened to it to tell where one program ended and the other began.
Probably the thing the got me most into it was the arcade games when they first came out, but were only in bars

I was at Quinsigamond Community College when they got their first TRS 80 computer and nobody really knew what to do with it
Text based lunar lander baby, it rocked
You have created a 3 mile crater in the moons surface

[[JiF]Stepovich]

Okay, serious answer (although the previous one was probably true)
I remember my best friend getting Pong, we thought it was the best thing ever...then
it got boring, really, really boring.
After that it was anything i could get my hands on

As far as FPS- Wolfenstein was like a dream come true...then of course Doom and
DukeNukem. My first interactive FPS was when my roommate and I figured out how
to hook up our computers to play Doom, that was sooo much fun.
BF1942 was the crowning achievment, in my book at least....and the fact that it's
still enjoyable now, after all these years really says something.

[[JiF]AlbieDamned]

What turned me into a gamer was my Atari 2600, since that was the first gaming system I had. What turned me into a PC gamer was the original Civilization, which took up the majority of my freshman year of college.

[[JiF]KellysHero]

There's a pretty long list...a console game from the mid to late 70's, it was just a black box with a couple of controls and it had pong, breakout, and I think one other game on it. Followed by another console game I can't recall, then an Atari 2600. There was also the Nintendo (16?), Gameboy, Playstation 1 and Playstation 2, then my PC.

First PC game I was really into was on my Apple IIe, one of the Dungeon and Dragon's game they had. No HDD, you had to use 5.25 floppies for that one.

The first online multiple player game was Empire Delux. A war/strategy game, we played over a modem. You started out with one or two cities, and each city could produce infantry, armor, bombers, fighters, and if it was on the coast line, battleships/cruisers/destroyers/carriers and transports. The screen was black and you had to explore the area to find new cities to attack, nuetral and opponents. Very basic graphics, but was fun nonetheless. It was also the first time I used a hack/exploit, although not really sure it was one... There were shortcut commands, and one that would bring up what each of your city was producing. The maps were randomly generated and I was on a huge land mass, my friend was on an island and was trying to get off it. I had a very early advantage and was able to explore the entire map. Come to find out, the production key shortcut not only showed what I was producing, but what my opponent was producing... Since he was on an island, he needed transports, and they took 30 rounds to build. I'd send my bombers on one way runs to take out his transport producing cities, then started to time when the next production run would be completed and would send bombers when he was just a couple of rounds to completing his next transport. That went on for about an hour until all of a sudden we lost the connection...a minute later my phone rings and my friend's yelling at me, "Everytime I had a f'ing transport ready to come online, you'd f'ing bomb it, you F'ning SOB. How the heck did you know within a round or two when they were coming online???" I did tell him about "my spies" via the production shortcut.

Then there was Castle Wolfenstein, Doom(s), Descent, Mech Warrior, BF'42...

[[JiF]rIot]

Well obviously consoles got me into gaming early on w/ the Atari. I had way too many Atari games! But as far as computer gaming goes, it was primarily my uncle. Actually, I don't remember not gaming every time I went to his house. It started back in the days when games ran from DOS...I was just a mere child. I remember the glow of the black screen and having to type cd\ (enter) and doing something along the lines of c:\duke3d. I used to play games like Hell Cab, Doom, Duke Nukem, Heretic, Blood, Shadow Warrior, and the list goes on. My uncle pretty much led the early development of my jedi training. We used to duel each other on Blood and Duke Nukem into the wee hours of the morning over the 56k. Oh the golden days of calling each others houses via pc and crossing your fingers for a successful connection! After that, all the classic games started to come out. I remember my Uncle raving about Half-Life and me absolutely hating the game. Later I learned to love it! One of my old favorites was Dragons Lair...I never did beat it, but the game play was unique. Thats pretty much how I got into gaming!

[[JiF]Mentat]

The grappling hook in the original Quake.

[[JiF]Squeaky McSqueakums]

Monopoly led to risk led to Civilization III and it went downhill from there, and now, im here typing on a forum at 2:12 in the morning, considering bed for a fleeting moment, then i realize, when I've got the world to conquer, whats the point of sleep! thats what the afternoon is for.

[[JiF]AlbieDamned]

Monopoly led to risk led to Civilization III and it went downhill from there, and now, im here typing on a forum at 2:12 in the morning, considering bed for a fleeting moment, then i realize, when I've got the world to conquer, whats the point of sleep! thats what the afternoon is for.

What are you playing?

[[JiF]Rhykin]

The grappling hook in the original Quake.

I agree!