Backloggd's First Game
This is a list made for YOU! Yes, YOU! What was the first video game you ever remember playing? Tell me in the comments, and I'll add it to the list. Feel free to add any anecdotes related to your first game, and I'll include it with your entry. Don't worry if your game is already on the list, you will be represented separately.
54 Games
73 Comments
roberta williams' 'mixed up mother goose'
played it at the computer lab with those giant over-ear headphones and felt like I was in another world. don't think I understood what videogames even were at the time, but seeing these events unfold and solving them in a direct way was almost akin to magic. was hard to believe something like that even existed
second game was either streets of rage or chip's challenge, but they were much easier to wrap my head around
played it at the computer lab with those giant over-ear headphones and felt like I was in another world. don't think I understood what videogames even were at the time, but seeing these events unfold and solving them in a direct way was almost akin to magic. was hard to believe something like that even existed
second game was either streets of rage or chip's challenge, but they were much easier to wrap my head around
Great list idea! Mine is Joust; I was with my dad in (I think) a pizza place back when all of them had a few cabinets and I remember him telling me that it was a game he liked, and how to play, and how the pterodactyl was super hard. He gave me a few quarters and I had a blast. I still think of Joust as a "quality game" because of it hahaha!
Banjo-Kazooie or SM64, but I always loved the former far more.
The furthest I can really go back to is Mario Golf on N64. I know we had a couple of other games at the time, but I can vividly remember some of the animations, courts, and even splash screens due to leaving an immense impression on my already developing mind, and it helps it was one of the first games I remember playing with my family.
Hard to recall but it has to be Sonic Adventure 2 Battle or Super Mario 64, but I honestly remember SA2 way more than 64 as a child.
Played it on my purple GameCube and was blown away by how cool it was. Got pretty far in it untill the space levels where I had to get my dad to do them. My sister and I were crazy about raising chao though we never found out about the dark chao garden until a lot later. That, the multiplayer mode, the game’s music overall, the speed stages, and everything about Shadow always stood out to me, and made me a sonic fan for a long while until I dropped in high school and came back with Frontiers and Mania.
Played it on my purple GameCube and was blown away by how cool it was. Got pretty far in it untill the space levels where I had to get my dad to do them. My sister and I were crazy about raising chao though we never found out about the dark chao garden until a lot later. That, the multiplayer mode, the game’s music overall, the speed stages, and everything about Shadow always stood out to me, and made me a sonic fan for a long while until I dropped in high school and came back with Frontiers and Mania.
the 1997 Frogger game on PC. i played the ever loving shit out of it and my dad says I was really good at it too. I don't know if I believe that because the game is nightmarishly hard.
@sleepytitan I don't think I knew the Dark Chao existed until my teen years, I was blown away.
Spyro on da PS1. I recall making it as far as the Dream Weavers' world. It's funny for me to look back on, but as a kid I was scared to death of everything in the game. Levels would take hours because I would be reluctant to approach an enemy or the edge of a platform. My dad recently told me that when I first booted the game up I'd have to ask for his help to get me out of the pause screen.
The furthest I can remember is sitting around the TV playing Super Metroid with my stepdad. That intro was fuckin spellbinding to me especially as a child.
That game and Mortal Kombat 2 on SNES huddled around our little TV in a tiny bedroom we had in our house doing all the fatalities are very core first video game memories for me and I'll always cherish both of those games a lot for that.
That game and Mortal Kombat 2 on SNES huddled around our little TV in a tiny bedroom we had in our house doing all the fatalities are very core first video game memories for me and I'll always cherish both of those games a lot for that.
Pokémon Pearl. By this point, I had already known about Pokémon through the anime and the card games and during a trip to Delaware to watch a Nascar race, watching a family friend play his Pokémon Pearl cartridge and later being able to play on it when he let me blew my child mind. I remember being so proud of catching a Hoothoot (since owls were and still are my favorite animal) only for him to tell me he already had one. From that moment, I knew that when Christmas rolled around, I needed to ask for a DS and a copy of Diamond.
Great list idea! My first ever console was the Game Boy Color, and I only had 4 games: Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge, Kirby's Dream Land, Pokemon Yellow, and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. If I had to guess which one I played first, my choice would probably be Pokemon Yellow since I loved the series as a kid. I played it from childhood up to late high school, so I got a lot of mileage out of that game. Until one day a rat entered my house, and we trapped it inside a cabinet where my Game Boy was with the Pokemon cartridge on... , and the rat took a piss all over it. Yup... that's my anecdote to go with it, lol.
My parents owned a Famicon since shortly before I was born, and when I was old enough to coordinate button pressing well enough they let me get a go at it, with supervision of course, I was probably around 3 or 4. It's a very warm memory, those days with that tiny tv and the sunlight coming through the window. They had a couple of games but my favorite and I'm pretty sure the first one I remember too was Antarctic Adventure, with Ice Climbers as a close second :)
I was in the Pokémon zeitgeist as a child and as a Christmas present got me a Gameboy Color. However he didn't actually get me Pokémon. Maybe he forgot or it was too expensive or he bought it cheap second hand. Didn't matter I was happy with the Gameboy. I got 3 games with it. Super Breakout, Super R.C Pro AM, and Metroid 2.
So I played Metroid 2. It was too hard for me at my age but it didn't matter because I was playing something. I replayed the beginning a lot of the day before trying out the other two. It was only a couple of days before I got a copy of Pokémon Red but Metroid 2 will always be the first game I played
So I played Metroid 2. It was too hard for me at my age but it didn't matter because I was playing something. I replayed the beginning a lot of the day before trying out the other two. It was only a couple of days before I got a copy of Pokémon Red but Metroid 2 will always be the first game I played
If I remember correctly, it was Super Smash Bros. Brawl, played it at my cousins' and had no idea who 90% of the characters were. I recall thinking Samus was Master Chief, and I playing her for a game, and when I got into the zero suit state (still don't remember how that works in Brawl, was it a button combo or like a percent thing?), my jaw dropped and I exclaimed, "Master Chief is a GIRL?" Needless to say I was still very unexposed to the medium.
@fancyynancyy Oh no 😭😭 Pikachu used PISS
For me it was Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 5 (i just found out what it's called). I couldn't have been older than 5. I don't think I used the oldass computer I played it on for anything else because the one point-and-click game that I couldn't even begin to search for stopped working. I played the Shark Attack, Bug Windshield, and Grocery games. They all kinda scared me. Partially because I was 5 and sucked at typing. All these stressful situations moving on faster than I could ever keep up with. The shark attack game was, as I remembered it, me peering through a small window as I watched a shark continuously ramming into the glass. Really it was just that you were swimming with goggles on. The other two I remembered pretty correctly. In the bug windshield one you were driving and dead bugs would obscure your vision until I think you crashed. And the grocery game would pan over to a broken jar of something of something on the floor if you fucked up enough. And you could see someone's foot tapping. The disapproval shown there really stuck with me.
Extra note: I think that incorrect memory of the shark game game me multiple nightmares about some kind of creature trying to break through my computer screen, and the computer not turning off. Or maybe those nightmares affected that memory?
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, on the SNES. As a kid I really, really liked the Power Rangers, so it makes sense that was the first game my parents bought for me. Most of my first games were all based on movies and cartoons I enjoyed - like Lion King or Aladdin.
Link's Awakening DX. I played it with my uncle around 3 or 4. I have vivid memories of the joyful, but slightly sad sorrowful atmosphere. The scene on the beach is forever inscribed in my memories and I felt something magical when I finally finished the game. It was strongest than any of the stories I had known at this point and I dreamt about this for weeks. Quite strangely, I waited a long moment before diving again in the Zelda series or other Nintendo games, instead turned to adventure computer games. But Link's Awakening touched me so strongly and even replaying it today, I just fall even more in love with it.
Realistically, the true answer for me would be one of those old as hell educational games for PC and even a dedicated console for them, however, they are all pretty much lost to time and I can't even recall most of them or even their names; however, the game I do have a vivid memory of playing is Wii Sports. Back when I was a kid I preferred watching my cousins and even my father play rather than I actually playing myself, but after finally trying Wii Sports at my uncle's house, I knew that I really wanted to play more myself moving forward, so in a way, it was that game alongside others like Smash Brawl that really kickstarted my love for the medium, and as such I'll always see it as a very special work...
Fantastic list! Love this idea and seeing others share their experiences, it's super nice and heartwarming.
Fantastic list! Love this idea and seeing others share their experiences, it's super nice and heartwarming.
Probably a cookie cutter answer, but for me it was New Super Mario Bros. I don't really have a special connection to it these days, but I used to replay it again and again and somehow never got bored. Playing it on vacation is probably one of the first memories I have, so there's that. Also as others said, this is a really cool idea for a list!
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, specifically the remake/port of it on the GBA. Not sure if it was the FIRST one, but it is the one I have the furthest memories of playing first. I just remember me fighting the final boss against Baby Bowser and getting upset whenever I lost. Good times.
Pretty sure it was Webkinz. I remember playing it in my first house on the family computer. I never had any friends as a kid so i would always just play pretend with my stuffed animals, so a game that transferred your toy where you can interact with them digitally was insane to me. I had at least 60 of them... webkinz was cool.
Technically speaking the first game I ever "played" was some racing game on the XBox, but that was before I had any sort of memory and the only evidence that it had ever happened was a picture and word of mouth. What I do remember instead was that my first proper game was Super Paper Mario, who they sold the XBox to afford. I remember bringing the Wii from my house to my grandma's to keep playing it since I spent more time at hers, and getting really stuck at the tree level but really enjoying it. Could have been something else because I've been playing games since I can last remember; I played Mega Man 2 on a cousin's phone, Mario 64 on my grandma's N64, and Super Smash Brothers on the computer lab's Nintendo 64 emulator (don't ask me why my school had them installed), but I do consider it my root.
As far as I can tell, it was the first Commander Keen game (this one on BL). My dad brought the floppy home from work, he seemed to trade games and programs with his coworkers. Along with it was a dot matrix-printed page of tips and codes he must have pulled off a BBS somewhere. I got a lot of old PC shareware games like this, but I'm pretty sure this was the first.
Spyro the Dragon was my first game. I still really enjoy it. Looking back, it may be part of why I love 3D Platformers so much along with Mario. We didn't have a PS1 memory card so my brother and I had to try and beat it in one shot, which we never quite managed. When I was 15 I finally bought a PS1 memory card for myself and beat the game. I still have the original copy too.
Vee
6 months ago
The game was impossible after like six races, but the soundtrack stuck out to me a ton and was the most memorable aspect of it for me despite it being mostly jingles and short little tunes. Was kind of a sign, since the same person ended up composing the Donkey Kong Country soundtrack which was my most played SNES game during my super early years.