DKC Atlas Forum

[Stone]

I've seen some "first gaming experiences" on the Smash Bros section and thought that this may be really interesting

There might be some errors, I cannot ask parents at the moment...

One of my first experiences was at the age of approx. 4-8 on an Arcade machine. That's funny, because Arcades were already banned in Germany in all shops etc. kids could get in.
So there is no way it could have happened at home, it actually was on our holidays in Hungary. We went there 3 times through my childhood, 2 times we stayed at the same town.
What games I've played? I can't remember everything, but I've seen the obligatory Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter Arcades, as well as a cool Terminator flipper and a jump 'n' shot game named Rolling Thunder (it lasted until this year to finally find out what game that was, because the only thing I was sure about were the color combination of the hero's clothes).
Most of my money I spent for Final Fight, together with a boy from Germany I met there. Unfortunately, I cannot remember his name and luckily I also cannot remember how much money the Arcade sucked out of my pockets. Damn thing!

A bit later (1993?) I've had a friend who owned a SNES, we were playing Street Fighter, Mario Kart, Aladdin and Mickey's Magical Quest a lot.
After that, it was clear that I had to beg my parents for buying a SNES. (Without him, I probably wouldn't have heard of Battletoads, too)
For the sake of completeness, my parents bought the SNES package that included Mario World, Super Soccer and F-Zero.

I'm going to ask my parents when we were in Hungary exactly (although I could at least find errors by watching the Arcades release dates), but there may be some additional events I've forgotten (like even earlier experiences).
Watch out for an update

[Rodent]

I think mine was when I was 3 or 4. Mum bought a Sega Master System with a few games. I remember racing, shooting, Mickey Mouse and the Fires of Hell, Sonic and Wonderboy. We bought an N64 a few years later. I think the Sega was my first experience, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Kowbrainz]

I was in the first grade of school, and there was a games day at school. Most kids brought in board games, but one particularly spoilt child brought in his Game Boy. So I sat in the corner with my friend watching this guy play through super mario bros and some karate game while this kid played. Two hours of watching him, each time we asked if we could have a go, he replied with the all too well known 'just a minute' or 'after I beat ____'. But yeah, it was a nice introduction I think. Later that year I played Banjo Kazooie and Ocarina of Time on the kiosk machines in a shopping centre, before getting a Game Boy that christmas and a Nintendo 64 the next, after I rented one out with a friend to play BK and Diddy Kong Racing.

That same friend introduced me to Donkey Kong Country 1 and 3 on his SNES that year, and the next year I played Donkey Kong Country 2 briefly at a vacation care place with some friends while my parents were working.

Jeez... those were the days.

[Jomingo]

I can't really remember my first experience with gaming, as I don't remember a time in my life in which I wasn't gaming or watching some one else play. Donkey kong Country, the first three Mario Bros., and SMW were some of the earliest. My nephew had a Sega Genesis for a while, and we played Sonic 2 a lot. I also remember playing Space Jam on the Genesis at a friends house. At some point in time something happened to my nephews Genesis, and sometime later he got an N64, on which we played Goldeneye 007(with pretty much every kid in his trailor park waiting for a turn). I also remembered playing DK64 and Banjo Kazooie(we rented them).

Also at some point in time they owned a PS2, and eventually sold it. Then one day someone set there trailor on fire, and they moved out of town to another town pretty far away(though I'd still come over to stay every few weeks). I remember he still had an N64, though now all I remember playing was SSB(I don't know when he got this, or where his other games went).

Also sometime around that time my brother got DKC2(and DKC3 a year or so later), and a PSX(on which we mostly played the Crash Trilogy).

[Qyzbud]

I don't know if anyone here can identify with this, but I've grown up with parents who were firmly opposed to video games. This meant that I didn't have any gaming consoles of my own during my pre-teen years, but due to my family travelling a fair bit, I was fortunate enough to find opportunities to play video games at friends and relatives' places - which made for some truly memorable occasions.

Playing Super Mario Bros. on my cousin's NES was possibly my first gaming experience - actually I think I mostly enjoyed watching it, as everyone else was better at the game, so it looked better when they were playing. My cousin lived in a town called Ceduna which was several hours drive from my place, and (in my opinion) there was nothing interesting to do apart from playing my Nintendo. Thankfully, playing Mario was more than enough to keep me happy; I got so engrossed in the game, and was really reluctant to go to bed when I was told to... I kept hearing the sound of going down a warp-pipe in my head when I was trying to sleep, and I remember getting up and going back to the games room because I thought I heard them playing Mario again.

At another time, my family and I were in the United States visiting one of my mum's friends (my mum's American), and I happened upon a Game Boy with Super Mario Land. I played the first level, and loved it... but I remember seeing a sphinx in the level's background, and was so scared of it that I jumped to the top of a pyramid formed out of blocks, and waited there until my time ran out.

I had lots of other fun and interesting gaming experiences while travelling, including playing Mortal Kombat and Super Mario World in Hawaii, Duck Hunt and Aladdin in California (I loved playing Aladdin), and I even had the good fortune of being given a free game on a Mortal Kombat arcade machine once - the guy in charge noticed me watching the demo mode for half an hour and took pity on me.

Eventually, my dad got a job managing the local landfill, and would bring home old consoles like the Atari 2600, Sega Master System, Coleco Vision and that sort of thing. They were great fun! I loved Pitfall 2 on Atari, Alex Kidd on the Sega, and Mouse Trap on Coleco... Good times.

[CaptainEddie]

What? Who would throw away perfectly working game system? I've never even seen a landfill...

My first game experience was a long time ago....and I don't remember it. But I think it was SMW. If not, then definatley a SNES game. I also remember watching my dad play Orcarina of Time a lot...

[Gnawzooka]

Donkey Kong Country was actually the first game I played (as far as I can remember). My uncle gave us his SNES with that, DKC2, Super Mario All Stars, some crappy Golf game....I think there were others too. And later I got Starwing, Stunt Race and.....BOOGERMAN!!!!!
Much later on I got a GBC with Pokemon Silver, and later on Croc, DKC (again - Funky's Fishing FTW!!!) and Crystal.
I'd also watched a friend play Banjo Kazooie and Mario 64, but I never played it.
And then eventually we got a PS2 (yeah, skipped a generation there) which we still have now.

[Jomingo]

Ah, how could I have forgotten Pokemon? Surely they were almost as influential to me as DKC was.

I don't remember who had it first, me or my brother, but I do distinctly remember going to a faraway store in the city close to my town and picking out a Game Boy color game for my birthday. I chose Pokemon Blue Version, though strangely enough I don't remember playing it until years later. See, my older brother would play it for me, and I would watch in amazement. I collected the cards, watched the show, bought the plush toys, etc. I even had every pokemon memorized in numerical order all the way through the Gold/Silver generation!

Eventually I got a yellow version, which I found a lot harder to get into(because the first boss was a rock type, and you had to start with Pikachu, and electric doesn't effect rock type , though I later figured out that I could evolve a caterpie all the way into Butterfree in very few levels, and then learn Confusion, which helped me kick the Gym Leaders ass ).

I remember the days where all the kids on the play ground would bs eachother on how to get Mew, and make up all these fake tricks(the one I remember was that you had to get a Magikarp in a certain place, and take it to a guy who would trade you for a Mew; another one was that you had to do something and then go to the S.S. Anne, where another boat would trail behind it (which would take you to Mew's Cave)). Ah, kids with there imaginations.

What I liked best about Blue was all the secrets my brother new that I could never hope to comprehend(at the time). He did this thing(which has long ago slipped from my memory) with MissingNo. at Cinnebar Island that would allow you to duplicate items. He would use this to get infinate Rare Candies and level up all his pokemon to Level 100.

Then I got Gold, and my brother got Silver. They are probably in the top 5 greatest games I've ever played. I absolutely loved those games. I remember the trick that would allow you to clone your pokemon. If you were clever enough to figure this out, you could also make your pokemon hold an item before cloning it, and the clone would have that item too. We used this to get a bunch of Masterballs(as I believe there was only one legitamate one in the game). Also, my brother would trade his level 100. Mewtwo from his Blue version, and clone it on his Silver to get a team of 6 of them!

Then one christmas my parents completely surprised us by getting me and my little brother(my older brother had long ago gotten too old for the pokemon craze, as he was 6 years older than me) Game Boy advances with a Ruby version(for me) and Saphire(for my little brother)! This was huge because I don't know how your families were, but our money was tight and I didn't think there was chance I'd ever hold a GBA in my hands, let alone own one!
Unfortunately I found Ruby and Saphire to be very dissapointing compared to the others.

[Gnawzooka]

I agree, the series has been on the decline since 3rd generation. I only ever had Silver and Crystal though.
I remember I was fooled by one of those Mew tricks, it was one that said if you got a Magikarp to level 100 you would get a Mew. I got it to about level 70. Then I decided, screw this, and got a level 70-soemthing Gyarados with splash, tackle and flail.
I used to love cloning them too, but I accidentally used too many rare candies. Then I had none left, and had to train everyone the proper way.
By the way, it's actually ground that electric doesn't effect, but most rock types are ground as well anyway.

[Jomingo]

Ah yes, that's right. Ground type. All I remember was that Brock's Geodude and Onyx weren't effected.

I loved cloning, but if you ever did it wrong it could be a huge mistake. I once tried cloning my Ho-oh holding a master ball and accidentally did it wrong, and lost it.

[Gnawzooka]

I found it pretty easy to clone. Things only started going wrong when the game got corrupted somehow and wouldn't save properly.

[Cody]

When I was two, my father beat Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in one setting. Of course, I watched him.

My first time playing a game was none other than Donkey Kong Country - I specifically remember playing Oil Drum Alley.

[Tiptup Jr.]

When I was four my parents wanted to introduce me to the gaming scene, so they took me to Best Buy to get a Super Nintendo and a bunch of games. When we got home, I immediately picked up Donkey Kong Country and waited for my turn. And that's the first game I have a memory of playing. I also remember looking at the back of the box and saying, "Look at the monkey! HE'S GONNA FALL OF THE BRIDGE!"

Less than a year later I was introduced to Countries 2 and 3, and for my sixth birthday I decided I wanted the Donkey Kong 64 bundled with the Jungle Green 64. That pretty much set my Donkey Kong fanboyism in stone for the rest of my life.

[Swing King]

Super Mario Brothers was the first game I ever played, but I never got past level 2. Oh, and then DKC entered my life.

[SLY JO]

First gaming experience was on my Ampstrad PC.
Started with games such as:
- Commander Keen,
- Paginitzu
- The Incredible Machine,
- Wolfenstein 3D
- Aquanoid (spelling?),
- Word Rescue

Then I got a SNES when I was 5 (?). This really started gaming for me and my love to 100% every game I have.

My parents soon after bought a new PC on which I discovered The 7th Guest (one of my favorite games of all time).

[PotoGamer]

My first gaming experience was when I was just 3 years old, with my best friend,the SNES! I used to play a lot of Super Mario All-Stars+Super Mario World, and I would play DKC sometimes, but would later give up because Barrel Cannon Canyon was tough, so I'd start playing DKC3, where I would give up in the Belcha fight. (C'mon, even my older sister and my mom didn't know how to beat it!) My mom and my sister also played a lot of SMRPG. (Now we play a Mario RPG marathon every summer!) Later, I got an N64 along with Super Mario 64 and a few other games. Long after that, my collection increased, and my mom was HOOKED on Banjo Tooie. (in fact, we got 100% in it) And at one moment, my family got a PS1, but we didn't like it that much, (the only game we played a lot was Spyro) so in 2001, (or 2002) we got a GameCube bundled along with Super Mario Sunshine for my birthday, and unfortunately, this meant my mom couldn't play. (most of the games were 3D, and she said that she sucks at them, and that she enjoyed Banjo Tooie because it was a lot of exploring) But since my mom said that I didn't play SNES too much anymore, she gave it to my cousin because she missed it. In 2004, my mom got my sister and I a GBASP for each, along with Yoshi's Island and DKC2. When I played DKC2 on the GBASP, I didn't remember DKC or DKC3, so I didn't know DKC2 was part of that series. But then, in the summer of 2005, I missed my SNES a lot, so my mom asked my cousin if I could stay with the SNES for the summer, and she said yes. I was REALLY happy, and naturally, I started playing SMAS+SMW, but I saw DKC, so I thought maybe I could finally get further, and I did. I was really happy, I was HOOKED on it, so I checked it out on the internet, and found out all about DKC. But then I gave the SNES back to my cousin. But then I found out that DKC3 was coming to the GBASP just in time for Christmas, so my mom bought it. And in 2006, I was one of the people who got the Wii at the launch party! I LOVED it, I was hooked on Wii Sports. I was very excited when I got DKC on the VC, I cleared it once again, and when DKC3 came out a while after, I was even more excited! So, in the most recent summer, I got my SNES again, permanently! And of course, we did the Mario RPG marathon and I cleared DKC and DKC3, but I was really bored, so I checked DKC2 on the internet, and found out that many people preferred DKC2! So I took a risk, and bought DKC2 on the VC. It was AWESOME, it was like a mix between DKC and DKC3, it filled in the gap that made me wonder who was Dixie! And one of the places I found out DKC2 was good was...(guess)...DKC Atlas! Yup, thanks to this website, I found out about the greatness of DKC2! And that's the loooong history of how I became a DKC fan.

[SLY JO]

Barrel Cannon Canyon was tough

Tree Top Town in DKC and Toxic Tower DKC2 owned me for years =/

[DKCplayer]

I forgot what my first gaming experience was. It could of been a helicopter game I played on an old computer that takes tapes... yeah, old. I forgot when my family got the SNES. I was still small, so I accidentally erased the DKC files. Then I got banned from the game. When the family was at Big W, me and my brother could choose 1 SNES game each. I wasn't that much of a DKC fanatic as I am now, but I bought Toy Story while my brother got DKC2. (I was a bit of a noob to DKC then )
One of the stressing things when I was small was I could only play the SNES on weekends and holidays. My cousins had DKC3, so I had a taste of all 3 DKC games.
Then when I was about 7, we gave our SNES to a friend's family as they didn't have a game system. I think I cried.
In 2006, a friend gave me a a couple of PKMN ROMs. That was the first time I encountered a ROM. We got the net in either 2007 or 2006. Then finally, I downloaded ZSNES (SNES emulator). I couldn't find any games, but my bro found the games we used to have on the SNES. I was so happy.

In the start of 2008, I joined Youtube. A friend... OK, Kiddy14 became my friend on there and led me to a website which loves DKC. YUP, DKCATLAS!
And that's the story!

[The Guy]

I think the first game I ever played was possibly SMB, yet it was the Nintendo 64 times...

[Kiddy14]

In the start of 2008, I joined Youtube. A friend... OK, Kiddy14 became my friend on there and led me to a website which loves DKC. YUP, DKCATLAS!

That's so cool

My first videogaming experience was DKC, but I was still too small. My dad used to do all the job xD
After all this years, I noticed he hasn't improved a bit in the game ¬¬ And he says "pushing all buttons makes the kongs leap further when jumping" xP He never made it past Oil Drum Alley though.
So then we moved and my SNES got lost in the boxes in the basement.

About 8 years later, I saw a video in YouTube about a DKC3 (a game I barely remembered; I never owned the cartridge but I saw it for 3 seconds in a friend's emulator because he wanted to play some Kirby game ¬¬), I remembered about Dixie being in it, but I never got to see Kiddy in action. I got obsessed with it in the meaning of having to try it and eventually downloaded ROMs; and the rest is taking out my SNES from the basement and finding second (or even more xD) hand DKC2 and DKC3 cartridges.

[DKCplayer]

And he says "pushing all buttons makes the kongs leap further when jumping"

Even the opposite of the direction you want the Kong to jump?

He never made it past Oil Drum Alley though.

That level bugged me too. The oil drums at the end either hit and killed me, made me fall off the edge or... both. XD

Wait a minute... (Looks in cupboard) I remember! We had a spare SNES just in case one died or wouldn't work. I just found it. I wonder if it still works. Though I have no controller or games. Maybe I could borrow one from my neighbor or cousins...
If I can't, I can't.

[Rodent]

My cousin lived in a town called Ceduna which was several hours drive from my place, and (in my opinion) there was nothing interesting to do apart from playing my Nintendo.

We used to live at Ceduna years ago. My dad was a cop there... You could probably understand why we moved.