What was the first game console to WOW you?

[segadude31]

I remember being 2 years old and my parents came home with a box and I was kinda curious. So my dad opened the box and there was the intellivision and he hooked it up, popped in Star Strike, powered on the console and WOW I thought! Great titles and lots of fun. I was hooked instantly on video games and began the journey. Eventually I got older and my intellivision disappeared and then Atari came into my life, then Nintendo, etc. But I own an intellivision once again and this time its gonna last and I can relive old memories again.

[+DZ-Jay]

Then you need to change your name to "intellivisiondude31."

 

When I was a child, my Father had one of those "multi-pong" machines from Sears, the one with the light gun (I think it was a "Telegames" thingy). However, I consider my very first console to be the Intellivision that came a couple of yours later.

 

I think Star Strike was one of the first games I ever played (being a Star Wars freak, and fan of all spacey things), and I was equally amazed by it!

 

Welcome to our ranks, "intellivisiondude31"!!! Glad you could join us.

 

-dZ.

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600 here. I was 7, I think. It came with Pac Man at that time. In hindsight, I am stunned that THAT game was capable of fascinating me so much back then. Played it all night that christmas, and rose at 6.30 the following morning, to play again.

 

(edit) I did have contact with a Pong console or two before that, via my uncle. But those really didn't impress me so much, I must admit.

Edited December 12, 2012 by karokoenig

[Ransom]

Hmm. Boy, hard to say in retrospect. The first few systems I had were (in order) the Coleco Telstar Arcade, the Atari 2600, the Colecovision, and then the Atari 5200. While I had the 2600, I swapped the system and all my games for the summer with a friend who had an Intellivision. Each of those systems was very impressive to me when I first got them. But probably the one that blew me away the most was one I didn't own until just a couple of years ago --the Vectrex. I remember seeing one in Macy's and being completely blown away by it at the time. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before (as far as home systems).

[maximebeauvais]

Played it all night that christmas, and rose at 6.30 the following morning, to play again.

 

Same here, when we got your atari on Christmas. Combat was coming with it and we had 2 extra game. Tron deadly disc (mattel) and baseball (mattel).

 

So great memories......now I just hope that my child will have the same memories with their games (xbox, wii, ds...etc)

Edited December 12, 2012 by maximebeauvais

[+Gemintronic]

Treasures of Tarmin wow'ed me but that was just a game. The Genesis was the first system that had %99 percent arcade quality (for me). It was like having an Amiga without a keyboard.

[Kefka15]

The first time I ever saw Donkey Kong Country in action I nearly shit.

[IntellivisionDude]

It has to be Intellivision and Burgertime that i got for Christmas. I had seen a few Atari games prior because i got to play my cousins and friends Atari, but none of those Atari games graphics i seen even came close to Burgertime. It was so bright and colorful.

 

I always like when you bring up how colorful Intellivision games are some Atari fan corrects you and reminds you that the 2600 had more colors and more colorful. Take Demon Attack for example, i guess if you want to get technical and define colorful as just the amount of colors then maybe you are right. But i'm defining it as how bright, vibrant, the colors are. The 2600 version may be using more colors but they are all dull dead colors, just lots of them. lol

 

And before anybody jumps me from behind saying i'm just an Intellivision fanboy, i love the 2600 very much and praise it's games all the time.

 

But let's be real. Out of the following examples, when you hear the word colorful what which one would you choose?

 

Ya i having some fun with photoshop.

 

 

 

 

[sqoon]

NES.

 

My wife bought it for me Christmas of 1985 and it was amazing to be able to play Super Mario Bros. at home. I had a VCS since 1981, but the NES simply brought the arcade home like none other for me.

[pimpmaul69]

Then you need to change your name to "intellivisiondude31."

like "Highlander" there can be only one "Intellivisiondude"

[nukeshed]

Uh.... Dreamcast.

 

/hides under the LART shelter

[segadude31]

I love to play burgertime. It was the first game I played on a home console.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Honestly, I would say SUPER NINTENDO, I say an import store with Super Famicom playing Super Mario World on display and I was really impressed with the colours and big sprites. BUT I have to say the BIGGEST "WOW" I got was DREAMCAST, I had only heard about it and was walking in a mall and from far away I saw a DREAMCAST DISPLAY but the thing is I didn't realize as I looked on the screen in the distance I thought "OH GEEZ even the game store is showing a damn Football game on the TV? It was only after I approached and got close up did I even realize OMG! That Football broadcast is actually a videogame! Then I looked down to the floor of the display and saw it was a DREAMCAST playing the Football, I could not care less about Football or most sports in general but I was so blown away and impressed by the Dreamcast graphics I just had to have one knowing what the Dreamcast was capable of visually I was interested to see what other games would be like.

[pimpmaul69]

Honestly, I would say SUPER NINTENDO, I saw an import store with Super Famicom playing Super Mario World on display and I was really impressed with the colors and big sprites.

same story here. this was the biggest wOw moment for me. seeing smw playing on the super famicom for the first time was so cool.

[OutlawTorn71]

Mine was the Intellivision, but later on.. I don't remember which birthday (83 or 84)?? But I got The Dreadnaught Factor and it still one of my all time favorites!

 

I played that game like no other... hours upon hours... kinda crazy as I look back on it !

 

OT71

[segadude31]

Its so amazing how far video games have come. But my one problem is there is no American game company that produces home consoles or do they? In a semi-controlled world gaming has shifted from America to other parts of the world. That's why I stick to my roots like Atari and intellivision.

[nukeshed]

But my one problem is there is no American game company that produces home consoles or do they? In a semi-controlled world gaming has shifted from America to other parts of the world. That's why I stick to my roots like Atari and intellivision.

 

... Microsoft?

[+thegoldenband]

The Atari 2600 was exciting to me simply because it represented video games, in my house, that I could play anytime. That was pretty wow-worthy.

 

That said, I remember a friend of my father's who brought over his ColecoVision, and seeing the bright, crisp graphics of B.C.'s Quest For Tires impressed the heck out of me. So that was the first time I really saw something that made me go "Whoa, this is a big step forward."

 

But it was the NES that really changed my gaming life. Upon seeing the NES in action for the first time in the late 1980s, I was blown away by the graphics, the sound, the level of polish, and the depth of gameplay. That was something I'd never encountered before -- games like SMB, SMB 2, Gunsmoke, and Castlevania, where you weren't just playing for high score. Games with secrets, and narratives, and a sense of mystery and exploration. So to me, that's the one that really counts.

[nukeshed]

You know, I thought of something earlier.

 

I had a NES, and yeah, I was excited for it, but I had seen better computer games at the time, and it really didn't jump out at me, and even then, the computer games I saw, while better looking, were boring (hey, Carmen Sandiago and Classic Concentration are crap when you are like, 5). Nothing really stood out to me. One day, my dad, coming home from a long haul in his truck says to me 'Theres a guy in (somewhere in the US) that has a Nintendo game with 50 games on it. Would you want something like that for Christmas?'

 

My eyes widened. 'Uh-huh!'

 

Next time I saw him, he comes back and says 'Well, bud, they don't have ones with 50 games, but he had one with 250 games.'

 

'I totally want that'

 

Next time I saw him, he was holding this black cartridge. 'Well, it doesn't have 250 games on it... it's got 2000'

 

My mind exploded.

 

Oh, and then I found the Strip Paper-Scissors-Rock that was on that one, and my mind exploded again.

[OutlawTorn71]

... Microsoft?

 

Some of us in the midwest consider the northwest another country

[Rev]

It has to be Intellivision and Burgertime that i got for Christmas. I had seen a few Atari games prior because i got to play my cousins and friends Atari, but none of those Atari games graphics i seen even came close to Burgertime. It was so bright and colorful.

 

I always like when you bring up how colorful Intellivision games are some Atari fan corrects you and reminds you that the 2600 had more colors and more colorful. Take Demon Attack for example, i guess if you want to get technical and define colorful as just the amount of colors then maybe you are right. But i'm defining it as how bright, vibrant, the colors are. The 2600 version may be using more colors but they are all dull dead colors, just lots of them. lol

 

And before anybody jumps me from behind saying i'm just an Intellivision fanboy, i love the 2600 very much and praise it's games all the time.

 

But let's be real. Out of the following examples, when you hear the word colorful what which one would you choose?

 

Ya i having some fun with photoshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Job DUDE! The atari versions of most games suck.

[Carl Mueller Jr]

For me it was definitely the Intellivision. (Big surprise!)

I remember walking into a store when I was about eight years old, where they had an Intellivision with Major League Baseball playing on display. An older kid was playing the game and he handed me the controller. I had absolutely NO idea what to do or how the controller worked. He was really patient with me and explained how it worked, how I could select the fielders and run around to pick up the ball, etc. I still didn't get it, but was blown away nevertheless! I told my parents that this was definitely the system I wanted.

I have no idea if I had actually seen another home system at that point. Just that I was fascinated with arcade games and the idea of being able to play video games at home was mind blowing in and of itself. All the neighborhood kids, after playing my Intellivision, begged their parents for one as well. My two next-door neighbors both had Intellivision.

The NES was kind of after my time. I did get a Sega Master System when I was about 14 or 15, and while I certainly had some fun with it, I don't remember ever feeling blown away by it (though the 3-D glasses were pretty impressive at the time). At the time I was more into home computers, and had a Tandy 1000 which I spent most of my time writing programs for.

Which reminds me… I remember Kmart being the most phenomenal store as a kid, because besides having an Intellivision kiosk, they also had a huge computer section. You could go around to any of the computers, which were all booted up in basic, and start fiddling with them. I remember they had several models out by Commodore and Atari, and probably several others. It was fascinating to see what different capabilities each computer had. Those were definitely the days…

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Intellivision was my first (I think I had played Atari like once until I was in my 20s). We had an Intellivision when I was around 4 or 5 and I loved it. I used to play baseball with my dad, who also loved it. I also remember playing Triple Action and Utopia with my brother. Also some late nights with Night Stalker and Astrosmash. It broke when I was still a kid and I remember my parents saying that it was pretty much unavailable (no new ones in the stores - mail order only). I pretty much lost interest at that point. Sometime in high school I gave away my ~25 loose carts and overlays to a friend.

 

Then I tried the NES! A friend had one and I begged my parents for one until my mom finally broke down and took me to Venture to buy one for my birthday. I got the Action Set and was allowed to choose one game. Easy choice....Metroid. I went through a huge phases playing tons of Dragon Warrior, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Faxandu, SMB 3, Zelda, Link, Kid Icarus, Megaman, and Dr Mario. I never had a Super Nintendo, and finally played one for the first time this year . I don't remember which game (it was kinda like Lifeforce on steroids), but it seems like it was everything the NES was but upgraded to 2.0

 

After NES, I was pretty much on a video game hiatus (girls and skateboarding) until PS2 with Grand Theft Auto 3. Killed me a lot of hookers

 

For the last 10 years or so, ironically, my game of choice is Unreal Tournament 2004 on PC. That's right, an online FPS

Edited December 13, 2012 by JasonlikesINTV

[karokoenig]

...his ColecoVision, and seeing the bright, crisp graphics of B.C.'s Quest For Tires impressed the heck out of me.

 

Since you mentioned that game... only a few days ago when watching a comparison video, I thought "Was this ever ported to the Atari 2600?". If not, I think it would be worth a try. It would look like shit, of course. But the gameplay could be ported well enough, I assume.

 

Sorry for the Off-Topic.

[Rev]

Pong, and then intellivision, then Atari 2600, then Nes...and so on....