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What game cemented you as a gamer?

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quake1

When I think back over my gaming life certain titles jump to the front and this got me to thinking whether or not one single title was more responsible than any other for turning me into a gamer and me identifying myself with the gaming community.

Thinking back now I can’t actually tell you which was the first game I experienced, I know it was on an arcade machine with my first home consoles being a ZX Spectrum with some truly terrible games.

After that we had the awesome Golden China games which took a lot of my life but the only ones I really remember are Darkwing Duck, some tank game and Circus Charlie.

Then after a brief fling with the Mega Drive and Ecco the Dolphin I moved onto PC’s.

My PC history that springs to mind is Prince of Persia, Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest and Alley Cat but then after that I can’t really recall many games that I played. This was the dark ages for me and gaming, heading into highschool and being more obsessed with sports and girls my gaming days were quite limited up until Matric really when Doom tempted me back into the world and then Quake 1 was released.

Quake 1 is my game that turned me into a gamer. I poured countless hours into that title at LANS, over the new fledgling Internet and even at one point being classed as good enough to tour the country and play games at Internet cafe’s scattered near and far.

I actually blame my wife for this one as she went to Au Pair in the states in ‘97 and I spent the entire year playing Quake, drinking and generally hiding from humanity… it was awesome. Mind you I stayed with her as a lot of our initial dates were spent behind a Gals Panic machine at the arcade in Northgate.

From then on I’ve been a gamer in one form or another and while FPS is still my genre of choice I’ve always been a massive fan of strategy games and sports titles while not being able to get into RPG’s.

A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS!

Darryn here. I’mma a let you finish boss, but I just want to say that Rise of the robots is the worst game of all time. OF ALL TIME! Seeing as how I happen to be the youngest member on the team here, you’d expect me to be raving about a PS2 title or something, but thanks to geographical hellholes and a lack of cash, I was still stuck in the past when it came to gaming.

While I loved my Sega and Golden China games, they weren’t always a priority to me, but it wasn’t until I received a Nintendo Gamecube, that I saw just how ambitious and beautiful a game could be.

And the game that flipped my upside down was The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Gorgeous, massive and brimming with secrets, Wind Waker still looks fantastic today, ten years later.

That’s the game that set me on the path that I’m on today, and I don’t regret playing it for a single second. Back to you G.

ASIANS AND GAMES

This is probably the wrong G – but I’m going to have my say anyway. Growing up as an Asian kid (I’m now a white protestant), games were just part of my childhood – which probably accounts for my ninja-like reflexes and horrendous eyesight. My gaming life kicked off with the fabled Atari 2600 – and I was proficient at Centipede and Asteroids before I could read or write.

From there, enamoured with man’s ability to use the latest in technology for videogames, I progressed to computers like some ancient Texas Instruments machine, English phenom the ZX Spectrum (sometimes, I still dream of the alternating red and blue loading lines followed by the thinner yellow and blue ones and that awful screeching noise) and the computer that gave me California Games, the Commodore 64. soon after, My videogaming life hit a fork in the road. Nintendo’s NES (yes, one of the dodgy Hong-Kong pirate Golden China machines) came along, introducing me to the series that cemented me, forever, as a gamer; yes, Super Mario Bros. – specifically Super Mario Bros 3. It was just such an incredibly well designed game – full of life and colour. Oh, and magical leaves that turn a fat plumber in to a flying racoon. How can you not love that? 

At the same time, I started tinkering with PC’s after receiving my first XT (with a turbo button!) – home to games like (but certainly not limited to) Sopwith, Defenders of the Crown, Ironman Off-Road, Prince of Persia and Sierra’s adventure games which at the time still required a ton of text input. 

At the same time, whenever I wasn’t home playing games I was in an arcade playing games – with games like Street Fighter II, Final Fight and just about every other machine that would accept my 20c pieces taking up my time. Since then I’ve owned or played on just about every gaming system worth a damn – with the SNES, Sega’s Megadrive and the Dreamcast being particular favourites. 

If I had to single out just one game though, It’s Mario 3. You beautiful fat bastard…I can’t quit you!

Games have been an integral part of my life since forever – and it’s likely they’ll stay that way.

PEACE!

So that’s our brief histories – and We’d love to hear yours, what got you into gaming in the beginning and then what hooked you and turned you into gamer?

Last Updated: September 18, 2012

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