My parents had two paddles hooked up to I-don't-know-what to play this game. I want to say it was on the Atari 2600, but I could be wrong. Anyway, everyone had some kind of Pong game in their house when I was a kid.

My first 2600 game.

Pitfall was my first realization that games can be more interesting and persistent than something like Space Invaders.

An amazing game on the C64 that I still get the urge to play (emulated) every now and again.

1-on-1 karate action. When my dad sold the C64, I cried.

This was my dad's substitute for Karate Champ, but it was on an IBM PC with CGA graphics (cyan, magenta, black, & white). It was an inferior game system, but I ended up liking Karateka a lot.

This game was a revelation, and while our family never bought a NES, I went over to my friend's house every chance I could get to play this.

An amazing educational game that makes you use deduction and geography to put some losers in jail. We played a lot of this one.

My first flight sim.

This is a text adventure game akin to Zork, but not as popular. I'll have to do a write-up of this one one day.

A revelation of a game and I remember when my dad brought it home for that CGA PC we had.

Probably my first exposure to an RPG? We had the Sega Master System, but this game was actually owned by a friend.

Likely my first fun experience in a co-op game (at home at least).

The classic that again pushed the adventure game forward.

My first beat-em-up. What a great classic. Even the NES version was fun in its own weird way.

This was the game that got me completely hooked on CRPG gaming. Most had the Bard's Tale, but for me this was the game that captured my imagination.

Probably my first exposure to empire-building. This one was an eye-opener for me since I knew next to nothing about strategy video games.

Sega made a big leap forward with this game launching with the Genesis. There was nothing that looked like it at the time, and it was a fun co-op beat-em-up. A timepiece.

Yeah, I played Gradius and Life Force prior to this game, but this one made me a fan of the genre. Gaiares was my other favorite on this system.

Another one of the those "revelation" games for me. I knew nothing about Phantasy Star, but when I played this one, I became a JRPG fan for life. There was no adventure/RPG as good-looking and sounding, and as deep as this game. It's crazy to think that Final Fantasy came out after this game. Phantasy Star II is probably the reason why I had no idea FF existed for quite some time afterward.

I was always a fan of space games, and this was one of the most significant ones to hit the PC, sparking my interest in space sims with cinematic storytelling, and kind of a choose-your-own-adventure aspect to it.

1 vs. 1 fighters were cool again, and SF2 was light-years ahead of anything that came before it. It's still my favorite fighting game of all time.

Probably the Sierra point-and-click adventure that made the most impression on me.

Games should be funny?

I hesitated to put this one on here since it's a sequel to MM2, but the systems in the series were improved so much, and the story and setting was better than ever. A hell of a game.

I probably had more fights with my brothers over this game than any other times in our lives. This was a game that made hockey fun to play on a TV screen.

I realized how awesome and addicting turn-based empire building can be with Civ 2.

Loki's Minions CTF (lmctf) throwin' it down! My first online multiplayer shooter. I haven't looked back since...

No surprise here. Square wowed everyone with this one.

Imaginative storytelling in a Quake-style game. Sign me up.

My first class-based multiplayer game.

The game that got me into a wargaming kick in the early 2000's.

More of a trip than "fun," but Silent Hill does a great job experimenting with horror and gameplay.

This game showed me what is possible with console games that PCs could not do in those days. The game is a masterpiece.

My first dose of a non-RPG open world game.

The game that made horror fun for me.

The first MMO that consumed me.