Your gaming lifespan

[Ed_Gein]

i was a casual gamer for a while. started out with fantasy zone, alex kidd, california games etc... every now and then. started playing a bit more on the n64 when my bro got one with golden eye, duke nukem, extreme g and some f1 game. but when i got championship manager 01/02 that was the first time i was really addicted to a game. and then had periods where i haven't played at all. i could count the number of days on one hand where i didn't play cm01/02 at all for about 12-14 months. played different games here and there like vice city a fair bit. but the next addiction was gears of war 2. played that very solidly for about 2 years when it first came out. now it's been about 2 years since that and have only played the likes of new vegas a few times etc...

 

[zimma]

Started off fairly young probably about 3 or 4 playing games on the family Commodore 64, don't remember much but mostly typical kiddy games to do with spelling and maths and remember playing and sucking at tennis... Around the same time my oldest brother had a NES which he gave me when i was about 5, sank so much time into metroid, mario bros, hoops, california games and duck hunt. Never could beat my brother at california games but i still have the badge of beating mario bros 1 when he can't get past about 8.2

Brother briefly had a SNES, used to play Karate and Kirby using the supergameboy on it, also obviously had a gameboy and played a heap of Kirby. Got a n64 not long after, from there spent a lot of time playing Mario Kart, Wave Race and eventually Super Smash Bros. against friends / older brother. Remember i got the new tetris and my mum got massively addicted to it, ended up unlocking all the bonuses etc. Other fond memories include almost being late for a basketball match because i just had to beat Wizpig in diddy kong racing. Ocarina of time took me probably 10 years to beat, ended up finishing it in high school, would get into it, get stuck again and shelve it, screwed up massively once in the water temple to the point i had to make a new game, then did it again in the spirit temple.

Pokemon was massive in my time, remember saving so hard to get yellow version just for it to eventually go missing when i lent it to somebody, still have the box and instructions somewhere... Through birthdays etc i got all the games, eventually a GBC and used to trade with myself (god i was cool) ended up getting the 150 in red version and eventually got all but mew and celebi in gold. Borrowed my brothers playstation and final fantasy etc. off mates, got up to nibelheim on 7 and the disk was corrupted, don't think i've ever wanted to break a controller more, ended up beating 2,6,8 eventually as well as suikoden.

Got bought a ps2 by my parents when my nanna died... From there wasted many many hours on the frankly terrible afl games as well as about 10 seasons of nhl 2k6, beat ffx, x2, xii, 100% on gta vice city, many hours wasted on san andreas, think i racked up about 400 odd hours on vice city alone. Used to make agame out of it with a mate, see who could chainsaw the most hookers before getting killed etc.

All in all i've owned a fair share of consoles still have most... have had;
Nes (given back to brother)
Snes (bought in high school)
N64
Gamecube
Wii
Gameboy
Gameboy Colour
Gameboy Advance
Gameboy Micro
DS
3DS
Ps1,2,3
Xbox 360
Psp Go

Trying to hunt down a working NES at a reasonable price as well as a megadrive... Think i have a problem

In saying that lately i find myself barely playing, when you end up adding up how much time you've spent playing games (especially something like say WoW...) it makes you go damn... Really got into Saints Row 3 though, still love some TF2 and well Assassins Creed series i love for the storyline, same for Mass Effect but really can't get into games like Cod.

 

[FootyJunkie]

I'm 30

1989/90, had a friend that lived in the same flat complex as my dad's... he had crap loads of NES games... I'd play a bit with him, but was no where near a fanatic as he was, at least not to the point of getting an NES myself...

I began to frequent Myer 6th floor in Melbourne, 1991-93 and would head straight to the Nintendo gaming area... old man would take me to the city, would usually get a feed at the underground Hungry Jacks that used to be there off Swanston St, and then I'd make my own way to Myer and he'd come by and pick me up hours later, it was a virtual baby sitter on school holidays, ha ha... fell in love with the italian plumber and then began to bug my parents in getting me a NES... which I got midway through '91... some of the games I had were Mario Bros, Mario Bros 3 (got this game for Xmas after come back from Europe) Donkey Kong Classics, Bart vs The Space Mutants (was an absolute pro at this game, but sucked at it royally only a few years later playing again on someone's Game Gear), TMNT, probably a few others. Made a friend from school who lived just down the road and would often trade NES games with eachother, as well as the polynesian kid next door who I wasn't really friends with, but traded games with him anyway. 6am starts to play a bit of NES before school was all too common, and was probably why I was late to school so often, ha ha.

Super NES came out, but the line to play it at Myer was always so damn long I never got to play it in Australia, not once! Was trying to save up the $300 bucks to get it as "Super Mario World" ads were getting flogged on TV (remember the one that had the guy that looked like Emperor Palpatine)... but could never quite reach my target, and then I moved to the States....

Shorly after arriving in the States, my mum got me Super NES. Thought the purple buttons were pretty funky compared the to the red/yellow/green/blue in the Oz version/Super Famicon. "Super Mario World" was obviously a favourite and beat the game in a few months, loved NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat II and would always had to go to the magazine sections of stores to write down all the latest cheat codes there were released, writing them down on any single spare paper I could find... got into gridiron, so I naturally ended up getting Madden '95 and was a fan of the NBA even back in Oz, so ended up getting NBA Showdown too. I had a generic game as well that was simply called 'NFL Football', but the difficulty level of that game was insane, I hardly ever played it. Loved TMNT IV: Turles in Time, especially throwing foot solidiers into the screen for the 3D effect.

Then came N64... by this point, my interest in gaming started to wane big time... I played Mario 64 in stores and I just didn't like the constant 3D effect, also was frustrated that I'd need to get yet another console.... would play games at friend's places, but didn't have the urge to get an N64 of my own... hated the ugly N64 controls with a dozen buttons and weird joystick.... was just over video gaming really.

As you can tell, I was pretty much a Nintendo fan boy from day one and was very indifferent to Sega... didn't mind playing the original Playstation in stores, but it wasn't enough to get me back into gaming.

About 10 years later, was at a mate's place back in Melbourne and he let me have a go on his PS2... ok, why not.... ended up playing GTA: San Andreas.... it was a game I was imagining they would do 10 years earlier and loved it right away, to the point that I'd get a PS2 just for this game... of course would end up getting Madden, Star Wars Battlefront... but GTA: SA was my new love. There was even a game or 2 that I bought but never actually opened it and played.... it was all GTA for me. Ended up getting all the other GTAs that were available too and completing all those.

Did a stint in London and my flat mate brought his XBox from the States, so I had a go with GTA IV.... found it to be too realistic and not as fun as GTA: SA... eventually I came back to the States and my gf just got me a PS3 last Xmas, so naturally started playing GTA IV and don't find it too bad. I have a few other games the gf got me, but all i play is GTA IV. Looking forward to GTA V, whenever it comes out.

 

[Cynic]

I've gone from a rather heavy gamer (RPGs, strategy games, 100+ hours) to only playing games on my iPhone or DS. I still buy PS3 games as I'm in denial about the amount of time or enthusiasm I have but based upon the 20 or so unopened games in my collection I know my interest in gaming is basically dead.

I want my youth back

 

[dav3]

Started with the C64 when I was 5, and played that till I was about 12 and the family picked up a new 286-16 PC. From there I've pretty much only played PC games, dragging the PC (which I slowly upgraded myself piece by piece) to friends houses for LANs till I was able to afford a dialup connection and played online. Quake 2 was massive back then and I ended up getting pretty good, and met up with a few guys in real life. From there I started lanning a bit more and ended up helping out at Adelaide biggest LAN event (at the time) for a few years. Once I hit about 25-26 it all started to die off and I lost a lot of interest in it all.

I'm 32 now and have started playing Battlefield 3 a bit in my spare time, and occassionally pick up another game for a bit, but they rarely hold my interest for too long.

Can't say I ever got into consoles, I've only ever owned a Dreamcast, original XBOX, and Wii. The DC was ancient when I bought it and was mainly to entertain an annoying girlfriend, the XBOX was cheap (old) and modified so it could run XBMC, and the Wii was a $99 "why the hell not" purchase All of them have seen little use (for games). I may look at getting one of the next-gen consoles when they drop in price a little, but PC gaming is where it's at for me.

 

[Childish Gambino]

Spent too much of my school life gaming.

Early on it was Goldeneye/Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64. Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 and Gran Turismo 2 on the Playstation.

Then was introduced to Counter Strike. Was in a clan that was ranked top 10 in Australia for a little bit on the old Game Arena rankings. Went to MGL and beat XR (number one clan in Australia). It was early on Sunday morning and them being mostly over 18 I'm sure they were nursing their hangovers.

Started playing World of Warcraft in 2005 in my first year of uni which basically took over my life.

Now days I'm just a casual gamer, playing NBA 2k12 at the moment. Never really got into strategy games I'm more of a FPS/sports type.

 

[kaysee]

Would take too long to fully list, so briefly:

SYSTEMS
Commodore VIC-20
Assorted hand helds
Commodore 64
Assorted PCs
Assorted Arcades
Super Nintendo
Assorted PCs
XBOX
Assorted PCs
XBOX 360

CORE GAMES
Silkworm
Impossible Mission
Rambo
Mega Giana Sisters
Bubble Bobble
D&D Pool of Radiance series
Defender of the Crown
Gunship
Battles of Napolean
Guantlet
1942
Street Fighter
Double Dragon
TMNT
Galaga
Super Mario Bros
Mario Kart
NBA Jam
Killer Instinct
Star Wars series
Donkey Kong County
Championship Manager
Doom
Civilisation
Warcraft 2
Red Alert
Diablo 2
Forza
Project Gotham
Halo series
GTA series
Fable
Jade Empire
KOTOR
WOW
Age of Conan
COD MW series
Skyrim
NBA 2K12
Mass Effect series

 

[kBuck]

Started playing games when I was about 9. I'm 23 now.

Does anyone else remember playing Hugo's house of horrors?

I spent so many hours of my life during primary school on multiplayer GoldenEye!

 

[SnakePlisskin]

Commodore Vic 20
CBS Colleco Vision
Commodore 64
Sega Megadrive
Nintendo 64
PS1
PS2
PSP
Sega Dreamcast
Xbox 360
PS3

 

[MadTigerFan]

Other than the Commodore 64, Xbox 360 and ps3.... i basically got each console towards the end of their life span. We had the Commodore Amiga not long after the Commodore 64. The NES was a birthday present, the Mega Drive II was a christmas present in 1994, Playstation a christmas present in 1996, PS2 a christmas present in 2000.

I have owned 5 Xbox 360 consoles: my first was a gift, the second was purchased by myself as a replacement console when the first one was taken away due to flood damage and an insurance claim (the console itself was fine, the power pack wasn't!!). Funny story is that i purchased the second console the day after the damage in the lounge room, but because of the damage in the lounge room i didn't use the console for a few months while waiting for it to be re carpeted. And another funny story, the insurance company didn't replace the console that was taken away until 6 months later. The other two consoles were new replacements - 1) from GAME (i used their warranty exchange back in 2009 when the console i purchased finally died) and the other from Microsoft themselves. Both are still working, i won't get my sixth console (thus upgrade to the slim console that has been out for ages now) until one of my current 360's dies.

Have had my ps3 since June 2008, still works.... but probably because of how often i don't use it vs how often i do.


In terms of my buying habits, i spent some pocket money on NES and Mega Drive games... but once in a blue moon. I had a friendly competition with some friends from school during my playstation days - who could buy the most games and finish them, but also buying the same games so we could system link our consoles and play against each other. Even so i mostly stuck with the Platinum titles due to them being cheaper (my copies of the Tekken series are all platinum... well except for Tekken 5 on the ps2 and Tekken 6 on 360, Tekken 6 on ps3 is a platinum copy ). My best purchase on the Playstation is no doubt NFS III: Hot Pursuit, didn't even buy it at full price when it came out .

It took me a while to get started with buying games on the ps2, i mostly relied on birthday and christmas presents during the first 2 and a bit years to get my ps2 gaming fix. In 2003 i started buying games willy nilly, no matter the price. Built up a solid collection of games. Late 2003 was the first time i purchased 5+ games in one swoop (Fifa 2004, NBA Live 2004 etc... the only game i regretted buying at the time was NBA Live, i thought it sucked!).

My 360 collection has grown since December 2006, if i didn't start cleaning out my collection back in 2008, i would easily have 500 games, possibly more. It currently sits at 350 or so. I started off slow, but from late 2007, it was ULTRA RARE that i would go a week without buying at least 1 game. I sometimes would buy 5 or more in one swoop.

Money down the drain.

 

[Xtreme]

Money down the drain.

Maybe so, but i had fun doing it and the thrill lasted a lot longer than Joe Blow playing the pokies at the pub and watching his $$$ evaporate in seconds.

 

[Macca19]

Im 30. Started on C64 when I was 5-6. Got an Amiga 500 in 1989 when I was around 7ish. First PC & games when I was about 8.

Kept getting games for the Amiga up until 93ish but kept playing it a lot until about 2000when it broke. Played PC games from 92 through to a couple years ago. Got a PS3 earlier this year and play a few games on that.

Still miss the Amiga. Legendary machine.

 

[SugarShane]

Been a gamer as long as i can remember. Some of my earliest memories were family game nights infront of the Atari/ColecoVision/Amstrad PC. Mum and Dad eventually stopped playing but me and my sister flogged those consoles to death. Favourite games were Outlaw (multiplayer wise the Goldeneye 007 of its time imo), and Air Sea Battle.
Mates got Master Drives and SNES's, etc, while we were still stuck with the Atari or PC. Then after much badgering, Christmas 1997 came, and so did an N64. That was it. A PSX followed a couple years later, then after i got a job, my own money bought a GameCube, then PS2, then Wii, then PS3.
Long story short, can't remember ever not playing games, and at 26, can't imagine it happening any time soon either.

 

[The Filth Wizard]

I'm 30 and I remember games on tape. You could nap during loading.

Pretty sure I've had every console in my time, except the Wii but have settled on the PS3. I think pantskyle has my N64 lying around somewhere.

Never been into handheld though so never had a gameboy etc.

 

[Drummer_19]

I'm 24 and I've always played games as long as I can remember. First console I started playing was the Atari 2600 (which I actually still have along with a handful of games). Throughout that time I've had the nes, snes, N64 then I eventually traded that in the ps1 and havn't made the move back to nintendo or xbox and rolling with a PS3 now. Have also owned the Lynx handheld (that thing was quite large), original gameboy and gameboy colour, don't think I've owned a handheld for 10 years though.

All very nolstagic to think of all those times spending time playing Super Metroid on the snes or duck hunt on the nes. Or thinking back to how eternally frustrating Battletoads and the TNMT nes game was. Still infuriates me thinking of that water level and race level from BT.

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

this thread is terrible timing for an easter weekend holiday.

My poor kids won't see me.

It's your fault bigfooty.

 

[zimma]

Got bored at brothers and hooked up his snes and put on mario all stars... Forgot how frustrating level 8-3 was. Still nothing like a quick nostalgia session to make you get home and unpack your brand new snes controller and hook it all up to beat those damn levels again! Honestly though 8-3 by far the most frustrating level in the original mario bros, water worlds suck but man soooo many hammer bros.

 

[Dr Rockso]

I'm 31 and I didn't really have consoles growing up, but i had a PC in 1990 and remember playing DOS based games obsessively, namely Celtics v Lakers, Commander Keen, Monkey Island, Leisuresuit Larry and Prince of Persia. If I wanted to play the real good games, i had to visit my neighbour who had a C64, Omega, Atari and SNES (man that kid had it all).

Got a gameboy in '92. Black and Green screen. Tetris was a great game, but beyond that it didn't do much for me.

The first game I fell head over heels for was NBA Live '95. Damn I must have paid approx $85 for it back in '94. The only thing i really remember about it now is how Dennis Rodman's hair would change colour every game. I've always been a lakers fan, but i traded Rodman into my team just to see his hair.

Got a PS in '97/98 or so. Had it mod-chipped and had about 100 games, but never really got too far into any of them. Fifa was the only game worth playing. Metal Gear Solid was good too.

Now I only play on the PS3, obsessed with NBA 2K and Fifa. My Player mode is amazing. AFL Live was the only game I was almost unbeatable in, but I stopped playing it online when I kept coming up against kids who exposed the game's glitches and needed to cheat in order to win. I look forward to the day where that game is released glitch-free! AFL by wicked witch is pretty good on the iPad, but again you're limited with options there too, not that I expected it to blow my mind.

 

[mrjamierocks]

i have been on the gaming circuit for 33 years, starting with space invaders,asteroids and sprint,all the way to modern games modern warfare, mass effect and gran turismo.
Looking forward to the next 33

 

[_Mike_]

Been gaming on and off since the early 80's with my first Atari 2600 back in 1982 (or there abouts). After graduating to a C64 in 86 playing legendary games such as The Last Ninja series I went on to PC's in 91/92 (WC series is what got me)

Fast forward to the early 00's I played EQ for a little while before jumping on the wow bandwagon since vanilla. Now days with kids gaming plays a small part of life but I dont tend to invest a lot in games these days.

 

[Igloo]

Im 20, and got my first console (N64) when I was 12. In the years prior to that, I had begged my parents to buy me some sort of console, but they refused .
I got my N64 as a present from someone not related to me, so that was great. Spent a damn long time playing OOT, Mario Kart, all the usual titles.

Got a PS2 about a year later, also for free of someone not related to me. Lord of the Rings - Return of the King being my first game on it. Had every WWE title up until SVR 09 I think, so they got a lot of playing time.

My brother bought a PS3 about 3 years ago, so I played that, probably more than him. When he moved out though, I was left with nothing but a PS2, but I couldn't go back to that after playing on the PS3, so for a long time I was left with nothing, a large void left in my life .

I then bought my own PS3 (went half/half with my then girlfriend for a birthday present) about a year and a half ago. I play it very regularly, pretty much every day.

 

[SnakePlisskin]

Been gaming on and off since the early 80's with my first Atari 2600 back in 1982 (or there abouts). After graduating to a C64 in 86 playing legendary games such as The Last Ninja series I went on to PC's in 91/92 (WC series is what got me)

Fast forward to the early 00's I played EQ for a little while before jumping on the wow bandwagon since vanilla. Now days with kids gaming plays a small part of life but I dont tend to invest a lot in games these days.

Ahh the last ninja , played them to death , have you seen how bad they look now ,back then they were the ants pants.

 

[raven echo]

I'm 23 and started playing games around the late 90's.

N64 - first platform I owned and I would spend countless hours playing Golden Eye and Perfect Dark, either by myself or with mates. Also played a lot of Game Boy during this period. Pokemon mainly.

Game Cube - was a Nintendo fanboy at this point and went out and bought this as soon as it came out. Terrible console. Can't recall any games I enjoyed on it. After this had a period of a few years where I didn't really play any games on consoles, stuck mainly to PC.

XBox - bought this in late 2004. Played Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2 non stop. Loved those games. Halo and Halo 2 were also mainstays. Had a lot of fun with GTA: San Andreas as well.

PS3 - finally upgraded to this late last year. Uncharted series is fantastic. Also enjoy Modern Warfare 3. Am currently playing (and sucking at) NBA 2K12.

Sister also owns a Wii but I'm not a fan.

 

[picko]

I'm 33 and started on the C64 when I was 7 I think. Luckily had a few friends in primary school with one too so we would always be swapping (and copying) games. Remember how happy me and my brother were when mum and dad decided to upgrade from the tape deck to the disk drive.

Got a NES when I was 12, then my brother got a SNES when I was 15. Those got some serious workouts, as did all the different video stores around as we'd ride around until we found one with a game we wanted to play.

Family got a PC when I was 17, but never really played games on it other than Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis as someone put it on there for us.

Brother and I got a PSX in 96 which got a very good workout over the next 5 years.

Moved in with mates in 2002 and bought an Xbox which saw plenty of epic Halo 1 & 2, Basketball and Soccer matches.

Bought a Wii for the kids about 4 years ago and that used to keep me moderately entertained but finally upgraded to a PS3 18 months or so ago.

Will certainly be playing games as long as I am able to and am looking forward to when my son is old enough to be competitive with me. He could already take the odd Mario Kart race off me at 4 and he's 5 and a half now, so hopefully not too much longer!

 

[tesseract]

I was 8 years old in 1989 when I played Giana Sisters on the C64 at my uncle's place and fell in love with gaming.

I've owned: Sega Master System II, Gameboy, Atari, NES, Super NES, Mega Drive, Playstation, N64, Dreamcast, PS2, PC, XBOX, XBOX 360.

I was a late starter to gaming because despite my family being well off, my dad and mum are so far behind the times that they didn't even know about games consoles until coming toward the end of the SMS' time. When one of my friends mum told my mum about gaming, my mum went and bought us a Sega Master System II at the end of 1992, only because she didn't want us to continue to be the odd one's out, who amongst our group of friends, didn't have a games console.

Other than the Gameboy and Sega Master System II and the rare game, my brother and I saved our pocket money to purchase the consoles and games that came out during the mid 90's. Getting only between 2-5 dollars per week each for pocket money, we had to save long and hard for everything we got.

I never had a computer while growing up, and it was 2002 when I bought my first. I've been a PC gamer mostly since.