I'm using Giantbomb and Wikipedia to run through all the games that have ever come out. I'm going to note every game I've ever played or finished. This was pretty fun to do if you want to give it a try, I learnt a lot about myself and it was really eye opening to see what came out when. I'm using a title's original release date for consistency. I was born in the late 80s and had few consoles growing up. I read nothing and knew nearly nothing of games until the years leading up to the launch of PS2.

1972

Pong - Didn't play this in arcades but had the home version. Pretty sure I had a clone game, but in any case: this is the beginning of game fights with my brothers.

1978

Space Invaders - I never really liked this game or others from this genre.

1980

Pac-Man - Loved to play this game when I came across it at arcades but I was terrible at it and still am. In all my years I've never made it more than a few stages in.

1981

Donkey Kong - Another game my feeble hand-eye skills can't master. Like many I went back to it after Fistful of Quarters, but immediately remembered: Oh yeah, I suck at this.

1982

Q*Bert - Jeez. Just realizing I'm terrible at all these games. Something about the perspective of this title always made it impossible for me.

1985

Gauntlet - Yep. Guess who sucked at this one? At least everybody thought this game was hard. Never got through it, not even close.

Duck Hunt - Hated this game. That damn laughing dog and that repeating musical track. Used to play with the gun just hovering off the TV as the sensor never seemed to work. I remember this game as being the one I would accidentally play if I pressed the wrong button when starting up that Mario/Duck Hunt two pack.

Super Mario Bros. - Not much to say here other than played it every day of my life for years. The first game on this list that I beat.

Tetris - Played this at arcades all the time but, you guessed it, never made it very far.

1987

Mega Man - I only played the first Mega Man last year. I was never really into this series growing up but I've always loved the music and I was a huge fan of 10 when it came out, though I couldn't beat it alone.

The Legend of Zelda - Played this one on GBA after the fact. It was my little brothers but he "lent" it to me so I could get through this. Link was my favourite game character until Solid Snake showed up.

Metroid - Had a family friend who played this on GBA all the time. Didn't like that kid at all but man this was a sweet game to see.

Contra - Always really loved the art in Contra but... yeah.. too hard for me.

Double Dragon- Played this a lot with a friend of mine in junior high. Really miss side-scrolling beat-em-ups and on the couch multiplayer when I think of games like this.

1988

Metal Gear: I didn't realize this game came out the year I was born (literally two weeks after) and now my whole life makes sense. Never had a chance to play this until a re-release - Snake Eater I think - but it's still great. Stealth benefits so much from simplicity, it's interesting there aren't more stealth games from this era. Like many I think a remake of MGS would be a dream come true.

1989

Shufflepuck Cafe: Almost forgot about this one. Screens for this game show it in colour but the version I had was definitely black and white. Loved the hell out of this game. That pig bastard was a real challenge.

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End Part 1. Thoughts:

Either games were harder then or I was really bad at them or a combination of the two.

Love the box art from this era, lots of high quality fantasy/sci-fi artists.

Wish I had played: Maniac Mansion, Prince of Persia, Sid Meyer's Pirates! and Bionic Commando.

I think the games back then were all about memorization, once you picked up the patterns/timing they get really easy, just very rare that someone would put in that time, especially now that there is so much variety in video games.

Pong - Never played it

Space Invaders - Loved it for some reason

Pac-Man - Never got into it

Donkey Kong - Loved it, don't remember ever getting past the third level, was there more than 3 levels?

Q*Bert - Never liked this one

Gauntlet - Awesome

Duck Hunt - Hated this game. yepp

Super Mario Bros. - Never liked it, never finished it, but I did like Mario Bros. quite a bit.

Tetris - Wore out my gameboy playing this, like Dr. Mario better though

Mega Man - Loved it, wasn't very good at it though.

The Legend of Zelda - Never played it...

Metroid - Favorite nes game

Contra - Boring

Double Dragon- the arcade cabinet at the local cornerstore for a long time, think my friend and I put a roll or two of quarters in it one day just to finish it.

Metal Gear Solid: Didn't this come out in 98? I liked Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid, but I've never been able to get into 2 or 3, never even tried 4...

Shufflepuck Cafe: Never even heard of it.

games were definitely harder (and shorter) back then. Few offered save or retry points so you pretty much had to have perfect runs which is tough to do over several hours of play.

Nowadays with enough effort I can beat nearly anything I try to, definitely not true of the NES era. Try Battletoads sometime if you ever want to feel bad about your ability at playing games.