First time

[Hoopz]

Do you remember the first arcade game you played?  Mine was Space Invaders. 

It was sometime around 1979 and I was at an ice cream parlor with my grandparents, aunt and uncle and my sister.  After we got done eating, my uncle told me to come with him so we could play Space Invaders.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  I recall that I didn't last very long the first time I played.  I don't think we played more than a couple of games.   Good times though.   

[BadMouth]

First was probably Frogger when my grandmother took me to a surprisingly decent sized Arcade that was located off the dining room at Tasty Freeze.

My grandmother was a pacman junkie.
She'd take me to the arcade so she could play.
She'd give me a quarter.  I'd put it in frogger and watch the frog get run over.
A quarter would only last me about 20 seconds. 
I'd piddle around so she wouldn't know that I went through it that fast, then she'd hand me another while not looking away from her game.
I mostly played frogger and centipede.  Never did get much better.
The arcade had closed by the time I was old enough to actually understand the games.
My grandmother was also the first person I know to get an Atari 2600 and was known to stay up until 2am playing that awful pacman port.

[wp34]

I'm pretty sure mine was Space Wars.  That's the one I have the earliest memory of anyway.  They had one at the Adventureland theme park in Altoona Iowa. 

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9691

[Vigo]

I was very little, but have some distinct memories. The first machine I encountered was Tron. Didn't have quarters, but I stared that that screen for what seems like hours. The bright neon glows against a black background was purely mesmerizing for a little kid. I remember having the misconception from the demo screen that in the game you were suppose to be the grid spiders and your job was to kill the blue man to keep him from destroying the big rainbow Popsicle.

The first game I plunked a quarter into was Donkey Kong Junior. It didn't take me long to realize that those machines were designed to eat your quarters. I was a little kid, it gave me nightmares. I had a nightmare that the evil man in red  (which turned out to be Mario...I had no concept of Mario at the time) was sending those rope chomp creatures to eat off my arms and legs.

[Hoopz]

I was very little, but have some distinct memories. The first machine I encountered was Tron. Didn't have quarters, but I stared that that screen for what seems like hours. The bright neon glows against a black background was purely mesmerizing for a little kid. I remember having the misconception from the demo screen that in the game you were suppose to be the grid spiders and your job was to kill the blue man to keep him from destroying the big rainbow Popsicle.

The first game I plunked a quarter into was Donkey Kong Junior. It didn't take me long to realize that those machines were designed to eat your quarters. I was a little kid, it gave me nightmares. I had a nightmare that the evil man in red  (which turned out to be Mario...I had no concept of Mario at the time) was sending those rope chomp creatures to eat off my arms and legs.

That may be the scariest post I have ever read.   

[Vigo]

I was very little, but have some distinct memories. The first machine I encountered was Tron. Didn't have quarters, but I stared that that screen for what seems like hours. The bright neon glows against a black background was purely mesmerizing for a little kid. I remember having the misconception from the demo screen that in the game you were suppose to be the grid spiders and your job was to kill the blue man to keep him from destroying the big rainbow Popsicle.

The first game I plunked a quarter into was Donkey Kong Junior. It didn't take me long to realize that those machines were designed to eat your quarters. I was a little kid, it gave me nightmares. I had a nightmare that the evil man in red  (which turned out to be Mario...I had no concept of Mario at the time) was sending those rope chomp creatures to eat off my arms and legs.

That may be the scariest post I have ever read.   

  Happy Halloween

[Hoopz]

I was very little, but have some distinct memories. The first machine I encountered was Tron. Didn't have quarters, but I stared that that screen for what seems like hours. The bright neon glows against a black background was purely mesmerizing for a little kid. I remember having the misconception from the demo screen that in the game you were suppose to be the grid spiders and your job was to kill the blue man to keep him from destroying the big rainbow Popsicle.

The first game I plunked a quarter into was Donkey Kong Junior. It didn't take me long to realize that those machines were designed to eat your quarters. I was a little kid, it gave me nightmares. I had a nightmare that the evil man in red  (which turned out to be Mario...I had no concept of Mario at the time) was sending those rope chomp creatures to eat off my arms and legs.

That may be the scariest post I have ever read.   

  Happy Halloween

Looks like  you have plenty of things to cover with a therapist. 

[Vigo]

I was very little, but have some distinct memories. The first machine I encountered was Tron. Didn't have quarters, but I stared that that screen for what seems like hours. The bright neon glows against a black background was purely mesmerizing for a little kid. I remember having the misconception from the demo screen that in the game you were suppose to be the grid spiders and your job was to kill the blue man to keep him from destroying the big rainbow Popsicle.

The first game I plunked a quarter into was Donkey Kong Junior. It didn't take me long to realize that those machines were designed to eat your quarters. I was a little kid, it gave me nightmares. I had a nightmare that the evil man in red  (which turned out to be Mario...I had no concept of Mario at the time) was sending those rope chomp creatures to eat off my arms and legs.

That may be the scariest post I have ever read.   

  Happy Halloween

Looks like  you have plenty of things to cover with a therapist. 

I don't even want to go into what kind of demonic nightmares Mr. Do! had induced. 

[Player 3]

I was very little, but have some distinct memories. The first machine I encountered was Tron. Didn't have quarters, but I stared that that screen for what seems like hours. The bright neon glows against a black background was purely mesmerizing for a little kid. I remember having the misconception from the demo screen that in the game you were suppose to be the grid spiders and your job was to kill the blue man to keep him from destroying the big rainbow Popsicle.

The first game I plunked a quarter into was Donkey Kong Junior. It didn't take me long to realize that those machines were designed to eat your quarters. I was a little kid, it gave me nightmares. I had a nightmare that the evil man in red  (which turned out to be Mario...I had no concept of Mario at the time) was sending those rope chomp creatures to eat off my arms and legs.

That may be the scariest post I have ever read.   

  Happy Halloween

Looks like  you have plenty of things to cover with a therapist. 

I don't even want to go into what kind of demonic nightmares Mr. Do! had induced. 

Lemme guess, Mr. Do is your uncle and that makes it twice as scary.

[Zero_Hour]

Definitely remember. PONG, Christmas eve, either 1974 or 75 (which would make me either 5 or 6 at the time so forgive me for not being exact on the year. It was at the Greentree Holiday Inn in suburban Pittsburgh, PA. The machine was in a corridor off the main lobby, next to the cigarette vending machines (which I always used to love getting free packs of matches from). Through the years, my father gave me uncountable quarters for video games, but that is probably the only time he ever actually played a game with me, as the PONG machine was 2 player only.

[wp34]

First was probably Frogger when my grandmother took me to a surprisingly decent sized Arcade that was located off the dining room at Tasty Freeze.

My grandmother was a pacman junkie.
She'd take me to the arcade so she could play.
She'd give me a quarter.  I'd put it in frogger and watch the frog get run over.
A quarter would only last me about 20 seconds. 
I'd piddle around so she wouldn't know that I went through it that fast, then she'd hand me another while not looking away from her game.
I mostly played frogger and centipede.  Never did get much better.
The arcade had closed by the time I was old enough to actually understand the games.
My grandmother was also the first person I know to get an Atari 2600 and was known to stay up until 2am playing that awful pacman port.

That's really cool.  I'm surprised she liked Atari Pac Man. 

My mom is a big-time gamer.  Couldn't stand them when I was a kid but now she plays Bioshock.   

[SNAAKE]

xxx those black marketeers

[yotsuya]

My mom is a big-time gamer.  Couldn't stand them when I was a kid but now she plays Bioshock.   

My mom is the one who got me into games back in the day. She's the one who ordered our Atari and was into video games.