Post by @kims@mas.to

2026-10-23 21:57 UTC

There's a thread over on Bluesky asking about the first video game you remember playing. I can't help but think the answers would be more interesting here Mine was _Tank_, a sit-down two-player arcade game made by Atari. Our family used to go skiing about an hour north of Montreal every year and we stayed in Le Chantecler Hotel. There was a Tank in the hotel lobby It was 1974 so I was 7. (I had a LOT of pinball under my belt by then.) Between me and my brothers, we probably dumped $50 into that game even though we only had a window of ~4 hours every day to play, and it was in strong competition with the indoor pool. Plus we needed to talk my dad out of parting with $5 for each of us every night. I think we lied and said we needed it for the jukebox in the bar/disco that we were somehow allowed to hang out in at night So... what was yours? #firstvideogame https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OsBUzYBJgU

Replies (11)

@gedeonm@mastodon.social 2026-10-23 22:00

@kims@mas.to Loved Tank. This is one of my first too. We had an Odyssey game system before Atari that had Pong and that’s the first one I really remember. Was SO glad to ditch it when the 2600 came along. 😅🕹️👾

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@extradreams@musician.social 2026-10-23 22:21

@kims@mas.to i remember Tank! First video game? Maybe Space Invaders truthfully. But, I realy loved Major Havok!

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@fedward@distraction.party 2026-10-23 22:12

@kims@mas.to we had a Super Pong home console. I think I had probably played arcade Pong before we got it, but I would have been like 6 and I can’t be specific. I definitely played as much Breakout (1978) as I could get quarters for, but my mom thought it was dumb so that wasn’t much. #FirstVideoGame

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@effika@mastodon.social 2026-10-23 22:35

@kims@mas.to Adventure on a Tandy... I can't remember which one. I had so much fun just exploring, even if I never finished the game! The duck-looking dragon things made a big impression. Imagining what those must look like set me up to enjoy Infocom games once I could really read.

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@MCDuncanLab@mstdn.social 2026-10-23 23:38

@kims@mas.to Memories are weird. I’d say Pong on the Atari at home. But very likely I’d played pong or other games at the pizza place. I doubt we got the Atari before 1978, interesting question for the fam. Maybe we have photographic evidence, it was probably a Christmas present to all the kids.

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@elle@kzoo.to 2026-10-23 23:40

@kims@mas.to for me it was Burger Time in the Intellivision. I absolutely loved that game.

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@darwinwoodka@mastodon.social 2026-10-23 23:51

@kims@mas.to definitely pong in a bar.Then Pac Man in a bar. Arcade games after that.

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@lastrobot@writing.exchange 2026-10-24 01:20

@kims@mas.to I think it was Oil's Well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil%27s_Well What a trip down memory lane!

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@smokedpixel@mastodon.social 2026-10-24 05:33

@kims@mas.to Pong at Sydney Airport. They had a couple of free pong games in the departure lounge. My dad travelled a lot and my brothers and I would always play when we went to see him off.

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@elazar@phpc.social 2026-10-24 14:07

@kims@mas.to An Asteroids variant of some type on the Commodore Amiga. I also have fond memories of Dig Dug.

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@masek@infosec.exchange 2026-10-24 19:43

@kims@mas.to I saw this game the first time in a summer camp in the cantina. It impressed me so much it became one of my first coding projects once I got my C64. The first video gam I ever played was Pong (~1974) at Madam Tussaud in London.

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