Do You Remember Your First Nintendo Experience?
Posted on March 04th, 2008 by Mark in Nintendo Co
I certainly do. It is a story I’ve told various times over the years, and it always helps establish my geek cred. I was relating the experience to someone this past weekend, and thought to myself “hey Mark, you write for a Nintendo blog these days. Why don’t you share this with Wii Centre’s audience?” And so I will. In return, I ask only that you share your first time stories with me. It’ll be like a sleepover gab-fest! (First time video game stories only, please).
My dad was a first generation video gamer. I learned to play the Atari and the Intellivision practically before learning to speak. Ms. Pac Man remains one of my all-time favorite games. I’ve claimed high score on at least 3 machines in my general area.
One Christmas, at the tender age of 7 years old, my father decided to spring for two major firsts for me. In my stocking was a genuine Swiss Army Knife — my dad belonged to the generation who believed that any boy who didn’t carry his own pen knife was a sissy. That was one of the very first gifts I opened. The very last gift I opened was at the end of a treasure hunt. Together with my younger brother I followed clues all around our home and eventually discovered a brand new NES system hiding under our bunk beds. Needless to say, we were ecstatic. You should see the home videos of my little brother pounding on the box, begging for it to be opened.
While my dad unboxed the Nintendo and hooked it up to our coax TV, I turned my Christmas shortened attention span back to my awesome new pocket knife. And quicker than you can say Mario, I sliced my left thumb open (I’m left handed). Not to be deterred, I flicked the sucker back open and — of course — sliced open my right thumb. After that, I surrundered my knife over to my mother (who felt vindicated in her “he’s probably not quite old enough to own a knife” yet) argument. I was done with that thing, and didn’t touch it for probably a solid year thereafter.
It took a few minutes to stop the bleeding and band-aid my thumbs. As soon as those bandages were on, however, I went right to the Nintendo. In went Super Mario Brothers, and I threw down on Nintendo action for the rest of the day. It hurt, particularly my left thumb, which was tasked with sliding around on that d pad. But man, it was one of the best days of my first seven years on earth. And from that day onward, I have been a 100% Nintendo fanboy. Mario and I are blood brothers.
Your turn. Tell me about your earliest Nintendo memories. Surely someone else out there shed blood, right?
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March 4th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I remember my first experience with the NES, i think i was around 8 years old and once a week i’d go go my Auntie’s house after school.
This one week however my Uncle had decided to get himself a NES. Incredible. I must have spent the best part of 4 hours swapping between Gradius and Mario Bros - those 4 hours soon flew by.
I was hooked from then on, good times
March 4th, 2008 at 11:19 am
My First Nintendo Experience isn’t like much, my first time was when I was only a little tod know more 3 yrs. old Sitting my bed watching my big brother play Super Mario Bros. Even at that young age I knew Nintendo was Great, But It wouldn’t for another 2 yrs before I handle a NES Controller, But a year after My True Nintendo Experience would be transfer period between NES & SNES. Most Kid growing up the ways my Brothers & Sisters would screw up you as adult, But My family has Nintendo for 25 yrs. It’s funny but every new Nintendo System a new member of my family was born within the same year. Like my older brother born the year of Nintendo Born, Me born the year of NES, My younger sister born year of SNES, My youngest brother born the year of N64 and My baby sister born the year of GameCube. As for The Wii……No bro…..No sis……….but………..Wii Play as a FAMILY and that my friend IS the NINTENDO EXPERIENCE
NINTENDO FOREVER!!!!!!!!!
March 5th, 2008 at 11:58 am
My first console was a N64,I used to play for hours with my Mum and Dad, good times.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
My first N moment was at Christams as well. I don’t recall having wanted a Nintendo, but the second the paper came off that box I knew my life was changed. Seriously.
My step dad hooked it up to the coax and my sister and I began playing SMB. I remember getting so mad that I couldn’t even jump over the first goombah! LOL! Then my step dad gets on it and got all the way to the first Bowser fight.. he tried the classic ‘jump right over his head’ trick and got nailed - I was confused because I thought he could only kill you with fireballs (apparently I was retarded) and asked him what happened. And I quote: “He horned me in the butt!”
I will never, ever forget how happy that little box made me - for years I lamented the death of games… then I just happened to remember a thing called E3 and tuned in for some news…
Just. Like. That. Nintendo put a smile on my face like it did so many years ago.
Lots of fanboys say they love Nintendo, but I can honestly say I really, truly do. They’ve done so much for me.
March 17th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
My first experiance was with a N64 then it was with a gameboy orginal not colored then I played Nes SNes and then the gamcube gameboy advanced and then i got the Wii.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
my first expirience whith nintendo was the n64. Get N or get out. lol
April 4th, 2008 at 10:59 am
It was 1986 in the early spring and I was new to town. One of my next door neighbors was a kid my age who was really rough around the edges. However we were 8 and hung out together due to proximity. One day he told me to come over and lo and behold, the NES was sitting beside his tv in their house. We played Super Mario Bros for 4 hours before I had to leave. Best system ever, bar none. Games were about gameplay first, graphics and sound next. It was like playing a book, where your mind got to fill in all of the creative details missing in the graphics. You knew what Mario and Koopas and Goombas looked like in your mind, fleshing out the 8 bit graphics into real pictures. After playing games with lesser graphics comparatively speaking (Rock Band, Guitar Hero 3, Resident Evil Wii) and enjoying them more than a lot of better looking games, well i am just rambling now.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:57 am
my first memory was playing my cousins nes, we were playing zelda for hours, how cool was the nes lol
May 19th, 2008 at 10:28 am
my first was the nintendo64 it was great crack at the time but now its not so good.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Ah, memories.
My pops had gotten the SNES before I was born. It wasn’t until a solid 5 years old I took a genuine interest in it. I would watch my dad try and beat Super Mario World. Then my older sister, who was about 8 or 9 at the time, would wake me up in the middle of the night and sneak onto the SNES, since I wasn’t allowed to touch it when my parents were awake. I eventually got the hang of it, and one night when my dad caught us laughing in the middle of the night, he sat down and watched me instead of getting mad. I actually wasn’t too bad! I was allowed then to play every morning before I went to Kindergarten. Since then, I’ve always been seen with a Nintendo Controller in my hand.
Nintendo has definitely brought my family together. Having my dad watch and cheer me on that one night is one of my earliest and best memories from my childhood.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
My first Nintendo experience? I was a kid of the 80s. I had the Atari 2600 and Colecovision back in high school - early 80s. I think it was around 1986 i had graduated and kind of grown tired of my video games. I had packed them away, sold some of the others and never really played them anymore. Well, i ended up getting a job at a local Sears department store. Around the time i started working there the Nintendo had just came out - they put the new Nintendo Entertainment System out on display in our store. After my shift one day i walked over and started playing it and was instantly hooked! I bought a Nintendo system that Friday on payday.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:52 am
It was Christmas 1986 and my 80 year old grandma bought us an NES and Zelda. I took it home, popped in the gold cart and i’ve been an otaku ever since.