The downside of getting older is that in many surveys the bottom options are a steady reminder of that fact.



It's 20+ years for me. I got my first computer at 12 or 13, and I'm forty now. I had an Atari 2600 and some Pong device (to be connected to a TV) before that, so I guess it's about 30 years for me. (Maybe a year more if you want to count those LCD games with a built in alarm clock.

27 years old. Started playing when I was five or six years old, so around 20 of gaming for me. Very first game I rememeber well was the original SMB. My parents got me a 8 bit NES for christmass present. It had that triple game cartridge with Tetris, SMB and that crazy fun soccer game. I managed to beat SMB couple of times and that felt amazing. Later got and beat SMB 3 several times. Man, the world 8 is so, so horrible. Still remember it very well.



I had some old console before NES, but I have only hazy memories of it. It had some tank game, space shooter and some kind Pac-Man clone. After doing some research I think it may have been Philips Videopac G7000 (Magnavox Odyssey). The "Videopac" ringed the bell.

Holy S***, I just realised that my parents may still have it stored somewhere. Need to find it! My precious nostalgia!



After NES I got PC and started to play all the awesome Apogee games and other 90's classics, Commander Keens, Dooms, Rise of Triad, Dune 2, Strife, One Must Fall, System Shock, TIE-Fighter and many, many, MANY other classics.



To sum up all my gaming platforms: about 5 PCs, NES, Gamecube, PSP, XBOX 360, Wii and PS3. PC is still easily my favourite platform. My friends had other consoles to fill up the holes. Amiga, SEGA, PS1&2 and XBOX are very familiar to me too. The only major console I've missed is the Super Nintendo. Kinda shame, as I watch gameplay vids of old 16 bit SN games and they still look quite damn good.

Now that's a lot of time. My vote: 20y + and I have to admitt I started playing on a console: Atari 2600

First games were: Pitfall / Keystone Keepers / Solaris / Donkey Kong and so on...

Nice thread and time to feel sentimental...

Played my first games as I was 4 years old, cant even remember the name of those

so it has been 14 years of playing for me then

Started gaming when I was like 6 lol, Good times.

15 years my guess

I am 45 now and Ive been playing since I was around 12 in 1978 - first with a rubbish TV console thing that my dad got, playing a terrible pong like tennis game etc. Then I got my own ZX81 when I was around 15, a Spectrum 48k when I was 16. I got myself an Amiga 600 after a break for university at 26. Finally got a full blown PC at the ripe old age of 29. So I have been gaming for 33 years!



By far the best games were on my Amiga and early PC - F117 Stealth Fighter, F16 Fighting Falcon, M1 Tank Platoon, X-Wing, Wing Commander, Frontier Elite, EF2000, Gunship 2000, UFO, Syndicate, and Civilization. The last game to get my full attention for literally months on end was Falcon 4 around 11-12 years ago.



Since then my game playing has dropped to a trickle because of real life events and because of the load of sequels and, I think, a drop in quality and originality. But I still really enjoy the odd Flight Sim and strategy game now and again. I rarely play any one game for more than 50 hours these days before getting fed up. Probably the only recent-ish games I have played much longer than 50 hours or so are Halflife 2, Call of Duty 1, Batman Arkham Asylum, Flight Simulator X and Rise of Flight.



I cant say it was time wasted as I do remember all those games with fondness and its never completely got in the way of my social life - I didn't really get into games until I was 26 (games weren't all that addictive before that) and I had lived it up a lot before that. I did go through a time where I hardly did anything but work and play games for a few years after that so I am wary now. I think kids have got to be careful not to get too addicted to games playing these days. I see my kid spending a lot of her time playing stupid Facebook games and I have to pry her away. It can destroy your social life if you let it. Its important to have a balance and spend time out making/keeping real friends and doing other things in the real world, as well as spending time playing computer games.

I would say I have been gaming for like 10 years. Can't remember exact year of start, but it's a long time. Does it ever feel like time wasted? Not really.

A 'gamer' from the early nighties. The first one I played though can't remember the name of the game but it was on my dad's 386 PC and you threw banana's about and blow things up! Then he removed it to stop me hogging the PC the bastard!



Then the megadrive and countless sonic games with Sonic & Knuckles being my fav... followed up by my first PC game addiction that was Civ. Then like all teens at the time with the Playstation was hooked on FFVII and my love for the whole rpg genre stuck and a few years down the line had Morrowind; being most likely my most played game to date.



And now Endless Space amongst others

Gamer since 1978



... Phillipps G 7000 was my first experience in the world of gaming

Started playing games when i was still in kindergarden, barely understanding my own native language, so you can guess about my english knowedge at that time ^^

If I'm not wrong, my first games was Doom and Age of Empires I and II . Mostly played RTS games (still am :P)

Played my first game in my 4th year, i am 23 now and been addicted since...

I am 22, and I can remember playing computer games as far back as the mid 1990's, so about 17 years, starting with Computer, and branching out to Miniatures at this point. I don't play on consuls, for the simple reason that my parents had decided well before I could argue against it to not allow them in the house. Can't really complain to much though.

I have 20+ years as a "gamer" (not that you would know if you met me), but most of that has been playing strategy games. I enjoy the occasional Shooter, Simulator, RPG, and Action/Adventure games.

Ive played board/family games all childhood. Got first gaming computer called Sinclair ZX81. Long long time ago. Played my first strategy/manager game on the next computer Sinclair Spectrum with rubber/erazer type keys. The game was F1 manager game where the player did all decisions and on race day compeeted with who can swap tyres fastest. Lovely game. some 25-30 years ago.

Started to play when dad got his first computer (windows 98 was the OS) I remember that it was a packard bell.

One of the first games I played was Star Wars: pod-racing(During my time as a gamer I have also got the luck to play the arcade version of that game) and I also played some other educational games.

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I played games earlier on dads nintendo too so I have played since the age of 4-6 (from what I can remember) and now I'm 17 getting 18 later this year.

I don't know the exact number of years, but it must be about 18-20 years. (I'm 25 now.)



I remember playing my first games like Blockout (a kind of Tetris in 3D), Stunts(racing game) and the "Robot"-Series (kind of adventure-game) on the old 286er Intel of my dad.



And I still love gaming today, if I find the time for it! =)

Considering I am 14 and I first played a game when I was 3,that's 11 years for me.

Been playing games since I was 5 or 6, I am 20 now. So about 15 years.



Doom baby.

My first pc game was Doom2 on 486SX2 in 1996