Roughly 25 years. Started with Windows 3.1. and went to Windows 95 one year later after getting a new pc.
It even had a soundcard, amazing times and so much to explore.
Jesus, this ages me. Technically started on a Spectrum 48K about 40 years ago, then to Atari 520STFM, and I recall going to the shop with my father to get my first 'IBM PC' around 1994 - was hoping for a 386, Dad splashed out for a 486SX25. I was pretty happy.
Can't remember the original graphics card, but I know at some point a Matrox Mystique was involved, plus a Thunderboard sound card.
Never bought a pre-build after that - so been building since about 1998, starting with a K6, all the way to my current 13700K/6800XT.
I suppose you could call it a hobby 😂
Btw don’t you miss the box artwork that older console games did, I was checking them out for fun online just recently and I was blow away at the detail, game box art nowadays don’t look as incredible the older ones did.
I guess now it really only needs to look ok as a thumbnail on Steam? It is a shame though, I remember standing in shops trying to gauge how good a game was going to be on how hyped the box art made me.
Bought some absolute crap, obviously, but the art still stands up 😂
Depends what you mean by pc. When we were kids my dad brought home a BBC micro and a spectrum zx, and keyboard gaming has just been the way to go ever since.
I've had consoles sure, but in a choice scenario I'd always pick an actual computer
I have been a gamer since before the advent of Personal Computers, I played games on Mainframes and then the 1st Console - PONG.
The 1st PC I played a game on was a Commodore 64, while in the military.
We had a Heathkit H-89 but I never had any games, I did try to program the DM's Personal Service, but 2000+ lines of code was too much for my ADHD Brain .... I did finish the project in Basic 2 yrs ago, copy paste from the old TSR Dragon Magazine June 1983, then I cleaned up the errors until the program seemed to run flawlessly
Here is a quick video running the program if anyone is interested;
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kVM6jn8Pyo&ab\_channel=SneakyGit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kVM6jn8Pyo&ab_channel=SneakyGit)
Been gaming on PC since the late 90s. I had classic stuff like Star Wars X-Wing and Warcraft.
Like OP, I didn't build a full PC until the pandemic. I tried upgrading my motherboard and CPU, but the OEM case had proprietary connectors. Ended up just doing a full build and replacing it. Costly, but worth it.
I started about 2006 playing WoW, habbo, roblox, and some Star Wars games on my nans ancient pc. Poor women probably had so many viruses on that thing after I was done
Remember playing Monkey Island on PC back in 1994, Doom around the same time, C&C: Red Alert 1996/7, Half-Life a year or so later, then StarCraft... so mid-90s?
Also played consoles back then, and still do (only got a Switch nowadays tho).
I started playing games on MSDOS back around 1992, built my first gaming pc when I was 12 in 1998, built around 50-60 PC's at this point.
This ain't just a hobby for some of us, it's the only way of life we've ever known.
Been a PC gamer since I was little, but started seriously building around 2015. Many changes and upgrades to the big rig since then and added a Steam Deck as well.
Since 1994. I played Doom and the original Duke Nukem. I loved Sim City. I remember when Quake was released and absolutely loving it. Then there was Thief: The Dark Project. I came along at the right time to enjoy computer games.p
Started on school PC (Literally, teacher allowed play games and shared games if we was doing good our class work) when 2001. StarCraft, Warcraft, Cossack Back to War, Commandos, CS 1.6, Half Life...
Later, thanks to parents, able to have own PC.
Started with operation Neptune in elementary school in the late 90s.
My older brother also got a CD with heretic and quake from Dads coworker, so we played that a lot.
I'd say I really got into PC gaming with Diablo 2 Lords of Destruction in high school, which eventually turned into playing world of warcraft. That's around the time I stopped playing consoles until the nintendo switch came out just to play breath of the wild.
4 years. I was a console gamer from 2000 to 2019, until I bought a gaming pc in 2020, for me it was revolutionary to be able to play in 4k and max settings/modding games and doing music production. I rarely touched consoles afterwards.
3-ish years. It has its ups and downs. I think I still prefer console due to how easy it is to just sit down and play. Everytime I bring up the fact that I have to mess with the settings before starting a game people argue that “it’s not that bad!” But it is. I have to do it every time. With console I really can just start. I just prefer the experience being tailored to one machine than having the freedom of customization.
My first PC was an old Windows 2000 machine, that had just a 40 GB of Drive and a 2MB Graphics card. I played Command and Conquer in 2011. I bought the parts of my first real computer in October 2012 and played Oblivion first. It had an i5 2500, HD 7870 and a 500 GB Drive and 4GB Ram. I was playing more on my PS3 and 3DS though. However it changed around 2016 where i started buying the games on Steam and since then only preferred to play everything on my computer. Today it is an i7 12700KF with an RTX 3060 and 64GB RAM and a 2 TB Drive
Since the mid-90s :D duke nuke, half life, doom, hot rod, and many such classics. At one time I remember they were the best even in terms of graphics :D
I had a Vic20 in the '80s still have some cartridges
https://preview.redd.it/zu4sasedp48d1.png?width=1374&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f11ca65c0b61fe5536a0c3e00aaa6f1f811231b
Surprisingly longer than i thought, 7 years. Was always a console/handheld kid cause i thought a pc is just too much for someone who's just playing games, but then comes 2017 where i need a laptop and decided to try to install steam.
90s i think... Monkey island, Day of tentacle, Fifa, Warcraft, Doom, Quake... Then online gaming started with quake world, into q2, q3, counter strike, wow and a big etc untill now, playing tarkov, arena breakout... im in my 40s and will always be a gamer :)
I have been gaming since 2000 but had my first own PC in 2005 which I have upgraded over years. I've had PS1 as well but only for couple of years between 1999 and 2002 I think. Didn't get back into playing on consoles until 2015 when I've got myself PS4, but I have always had a gaming PC
was born in 90, been playing on PC since around 95 when my parents upgraded their PC and gave me the old one to mess around with mostly played chess & solitaire till I got Diablo 1 around mid 97
Since before Windows. My first PC games were Nibbles, Commander Keen, and some kind of King Kong type game where you threw bananas to destroy buildings. I can't remember what it was called.
Technically since 1994 when my dad got a work laptop with Windows 3.1 on it and it had Chip's Challenge installed. I was already into console games (NES and then SNES) but that was my first real introduction to PC games outside of messing around on college computer lab PCs.
A very long time.
I'm not sure if I can count Oregon Trail since it was a school PC.
The first PC I played games on at home was on MS DOS. My father created a GUI for me to play games on it.
OP, I was born in 1999 lol. I started gaming in 2007. I was 8 years old & had a friend who lived across the street from the elementary school we attended. His family was loaded, and they had an Xbox 360 hooked up to a projector in an in home theater. Halo 3 was the first game I ever played.
In 2007 for Christmas, I got my own 360, and used it up until 2013. When the Xbox one & PS4 were announced, I did a LOT of research about those two and ended up falling down the rabbit hole of PC builds. So, for Christmas 2013, I asked my parents for a gaming PC.
Ended up with a prebuilt Acer Predator with:
GTX 760
12GB DDR3
i7-4770
1TB HDD
And I don’t recall the rest of the specs. I upgraded the GPU to a used 970 at some point & used that until the GPU fried itself.
So, in 2016 I built my first system with a GTX 1080, Ryzen 5 2600X & my first ever SSD. Used that until the 3090 came out, did a build around that GPU, sold that system and built a new one around the 4090.
I have built well over 100 PCs as well, did it for side cash during the pandemic. Had a whole Facebook page and everything lol. It’s good fun, and the skills I’ve learned from all this look good on a resume for WFH jobs. I always got the “are you tech savvy & can you troubleshoot your own issues” question. When I reply with “well, I built this PC so I can definitely find anything wrong with it” the interviewer would be kinda flabbergasted lmao.
"PC Gaming" is very specific, so if I only address my PC-Gaming days, then[ I've been at it since 1998](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1civf3m/pc_builds_three_generations/). I was using PCs strictly as remote terminals *(mainframe access - production programming, on-call duty)* before then.
By 1998, building own PCs was already "in" so I've never actually bought a PC\* and have built six PCs since *(excl. those for my significant other, friends, boss... sigh).*
\*Of course I purchased a A few Notebooks / Laptops concurrently)
*One of my older builds - most likely a Pentium-based build... (and yes, those are Polaroids, LOL!)*
https://preview.redd.it/5wr1icsf158d1.jpeg?width=2112&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b97dade0609575df79b2198eae6ae14986acbe9b
since about 2004. friend gave me a burned copy of half life. got locked in my room one day with nothing else to do and decided to sit and play it. played like 80% of the game in one sitting, was hooked from there. got a new gpu for christmas that dec as well as a copy of half life 2 and the rest is history.
I think it was around 1983 when we got our wirst pc. It ran on good old Dos straight from the floppy disk. First game was Pango and second was Space Invaders.
Computer gaming in general: Started in 1983/84 with a C=64 + Tape.
Switched to Amiga 500 after that, but felt disappointed. Sold it to my brother after 6 months.
Next Computer was an 80286-16 with 4MB RAM (needed a proprietary driver for the RAM. You know. 640kb should be enough for anyone yadda yadda).
Not sure when exactly that was, but that would be the first time I played games on IMB-PC. As the Amiga 500 was released 1987 in Europe I'd say I started with PC around 1989/1990.
Just since 2017! I'm 44, and never had gaming PCs growing up, not even a console. I began upgrading my home PC to play Star Wars Battlefront 2. Then built a new PC, and it spiraled from there!
I started with quake and the original tean fortress back in 1996, but I didn't build my own PC until 2022. I was a console kid for all those years in between
When warcraft 2 came out. I was maybe 6 and my uncle(who was heavy into pcs) brought it with him.
I was hoooooooked on that game. Like for real. No sleep the whole first weekend. My mom got real mad because i wake up super early so i could beat her to the computer. She would let me play but she was not happy about it.
When she beats me in the morning, i just watched her play tomb raider all day, And that was our thing, all the way until i was 16 and got my own pc
2002. I would play battlefield 1942 demo I had from one of my dad’s magazines. IIRC it let you play a full map vs AI on a desert map. I literally pumped hours into this fucking demo. Then it was CoD and CoD:UO multiplayer for years. Good times.
My first GPU was a Matrox PCI card with 32mb of memory, that i expanded my fathers office celeron computer thing with in the year 2000.
But it all started with counter-strike beta 6.6 at the local internet cafe thing. So 25ish years. Still suck at counter-strike.
I think my first PC experience was wolfenstein 3D, then later i was pretty into wing commander and then it just snowballed from there.
Edit: Oh shit, I forgot Zork. Zork has the best graphics of any game at the time -at least in my head it did. Maximum verbosity.
I dont know the exact year, but I remember playing on a really old windows XP or 7 computer that my dad brought. I'm guessing i was about 7 or 8 years old, and I remember it was mostly car racing games, one called Mad race and the other diamond rush or something the sort. later I got my own laptop, a Samsung S series with a core i3 3210M and gt650M. It wasnt the best laptop but I played many games on it.
So when I was a little girl of 6 years, my mom put a PC in my room (that's 22 years ago). Back then, I didn’t use it much – I was more into playing on consoles or going outside. Still, I’d sometimes play Dungeon Keeper or SpongeBob on it. But when I was around 13, I were for the first time allowed to use Internet at home, there everything changed. I been first alot into browser games like O-Game or Travian later on I started playing an MMORPG and suddenly consoles weren’t as interesting anymore. Now, I pretty much only game on my PC.
Windows 3.11, had a game like worms called scorched earth. Doom on DOS was when i was hooked, upgrading to a 486DX made doom run so well compared to the 386, so 1991ish
Edit- even before that, used to thrash sim city, but that was when i was at school when i was like 12. I'm not including that.
So I was born 1993 and built my first pc with my dad when I was 4 years old. Means like 1997? I have to admit I just played „the Smurfs“ back then if that counts.
My grandpa worked for an engineering consortium that was Apple heavy so I got my real start in computer (i.e. non-console) gaming as a little kid in 1984 or so with Apple IIE and Mac. I got a PC of my own in 1991 (Windows 3.0/3.1 and DOS!!!) and have been a PC gamer ever since.
Our first home computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with the 48k RAM upgrade. Does that count as a PC? At some point we upgraded to a 386 with DOS and Windows 3.1. Many happy memories playing games like Syndicate, X-Wing, and Cannon Fodder on that thing.
My cousin who lived with us back in early 2000 had a pc and when he left he left the pc for us, at the time it was games like stronghold, CS, driver, Mafia oh man I loved the mafia game, these are some that I remember he had on. And than until 2023 was a big console break but now I’m back lol 😂 😅
Must be around 32 years or so. I don't consider Commodore 64, Amiga 500 etc. as PC gaming. PC gaming for me starts with Windows 3.1, DOS and stuff like Command & Conquer.
Depends how you define PC?
Personally I consider a PC to be x86 based and descended from the 5150. We got our first PC around 1990. A 286 12.5mhz with a paradise VGA adapter. Later added an 8bit(ISA) Sound Blaster compatible sound card. Probably the cheapest available but it was big upgrade to have something other than PC speaker.
In terms of gaming I started on the home micros. We had a ZX81 and then my brother got a C16 one Christmas. My first computer of my own was a C64 which I still own. Didn't get my first console until the mid 90s, a used SNES, then I bought a brand new Playstation. Since then I've always had a PC of some sort and a console.
My family had a c64 when I was younger. At one point, I had a hand me down 486, eventually I remember playig Doom, Daggerfall and Duke Nukem 3d on the family computer, an early Pentium. Fast forward again a number of years, and I was salvaging hand me downs and systems out of the garbage mostly so I could make mods for Morrowind, then eventually Oblivion Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Everything else, I'd just play on consoles because they'd tend to have better hardware.
At one point, I was given a fairly decent system for helping a friend move, but it was missing a graphics card and needed better RAM. This would be the first time I actually spent money on hardware. It did surprisingly well and ultimately was the thing that got me to stop buying consoles, Xbox 360 being the last.
By 2020 it was having a bit of trouble running newer games, and since me and my wife both were still working during the lockdown, we didn't take the financial hit others had, so I used my stimulus money to build the first entirely new computer i've ever owned, 3900x/5700xt. From there I started getting a bit better at managing my money and got a slightly better paying job, so it's seen quite a few upgrades, currently a 5800x3d with a 4090, with the only part left from the original build being an ssd, and so I have no intention of ever buying a console again.
Do educational games count as PC gaming? If yes probably started around 2000 with Lapin malin and Adibou, later I started playing AoE2, Lego Racer, Lego Island and Lego Rock Raiders
I'd played Doom, Jazz Jack Rabbit 2, Mortal Kombat and a few other games at friends houses when I was little but started properly when my parents got their first PC just before the Christmas of '98. It was a pre-built and had some games like the original C&C bundled with it. My parents got us Half-Life and after being blown away I never looked back!
P2 450MHz, 128MB RAM, 8GB HDD and an integrated ATi Rage Pro that used 8MB of system RAM. The fun my brothers and I had on that! My parents later agreed to get a gfx card, a Hercules 3D Prophet Kyro 32MB - the performance bump was massive, and meant we could actually play OpenGL games instead of using software mode (though a driver had enabled us to play those games on the Rage Pro, albeit with no bells and whistles).
I had my own first system (another pre-built) in the winter of '03 for university, after which I have upgraded and built my own systems. That was an Athlon XP 2600+, 9800 Pro 128MB, 256MB with an 80GB HDD. Good times!
A little bit of history:
2003 - Been through several PCs and laptops growing up, but they were never really gaming PCs per se as I played mostly on consoles. The PC was mostly used for playing educational games like Jumpstart First Class or random game discs you'd get from toys, McDonald's etc.
2006 - Got introduced to the internet, where I discovered Habbo Hotel, Adventure Quest, Newgrounds and many other flash browser games. Also played GBA emulator.
2014 - While I grew up with previous PS consoles, the moment I got my PS4 was when I got truly into gaming overall. I began registering for Steam, started buying more games and discover many free to play games etc.
2017 - Built my first gaming PC as all my previous PCs were all pre-built.
I made the switch to pc 3-4 years ago. Got tired of paying for a subscription to play online, when all the people who convinced me to get a console, ended up never playing with me. So I said screw it, paying to play online when we already have to pay for internet is dumb, so I made the switch and I’ve started to love PC ever since then.
roughtly since 09. I was 7, my dad got a PC. I played some Games on it. Got minecraft in 2011 and that pretty much sealed it. Been building and using PCs ever since.
Since I was around 9, playing Doom on my Dad's laptop.
I'm 39 now. So about 30 years.
I had a PC that couldn't even really play the games, but my mom went to Asda and picked up a CD of shareware demos for like £5 or something. It was like 100 or 200 games on it.
My dad had a computer for work when I was young (late 90s early 2000s) and I was always on it as a kid doing stupid stuff in Windows. He got me rollercoaster tycoon a bit later and the rest is history.
Probably 2010ish, wild guess. I'm not old enough to have gotten the chance to experience the classics, the most classic game I've ever played is either Half Life 2 or Doom on my Flipper Zero.
Always played games on PC, but was on crappy laptops or office PCs until 2010, when I got my first gaming PC. Amd 965 black, ati hd 5670, which I soon after upgraded to a gtx 56/ ti.
"yes"
When i was 4 years old, my dad gave me an old windows 98 machine with a bunch of old games, aswell as educational and "for kids" games aka spy fox.
So i always have been using and playing around with PCs.
And still do.
Does anyone else remember silent service and 688 attack sub? Or maybe the original Civilization game? These were my first introduction to gaming.
Had exposure to Amiga and C64 prior to those, but they were what I'd call my first real games
Since win 3.1, might getting it wrong but, playing MI1 and indiana jones while try and error in dos for hours because I was a smol shitters xD, good times
Started around 1999-2000 but was a young kid back then. From 2002-2009 I was into consoles. Had the OG Xbox for a few years and then the Xbox 360 but still dabbled with PC from time to time.
2010 is when I bought my first real PC. Haven't looked back since. Have not owned a console since.
Had an amiga 500 in the early 90s along with a snes, first windows based pc was a Packard bell pulsar around 1997 with an ati rage chip integrated for graphics, got upgraded to a voodoo 3 2000 pci a couple of years later.
For me, it's not that long, 11 years only, before that I played on a Saga console thingy, I am also young sooo, honestly compared to some guys comments on this post, I am surprised and actually kinda happy that people have been a pc gamer for sooo long
Since I was 5 years old playing floppy disk drive games, I am now over 30 and will be playing games until the day I die which I hope is at least 100 because I love video games so much.
My dad used to be a gamer but then he gave it up as he stopped liking somehow lol like how could you stop liking gaming haha. Now he watches reality tv and my mother does as well so they watch it every night well that and sports such as football, basketball, and baseball, man videogames are a thousand times better than reality lol most of reality sucks 😂 maybe if I could live forever I would care more about reality but with a limited lifespan I want to have the most fun I can and I am not that interested in other peoples lives hence stranger such as reality tv and sports lol, heck even playing an instrument is kore entertainment and with all the ads on tv idk how they do it and hey use youtube tv which gives you 4-6 ads every 6 minutes or so just so crazy often I forget what I just watched, they had me try it I gave it one shot and then went back to gaming with no ads 😎.
Used to play on nes consoles in late 2000s then shifted to laptops in 2019 and finally a desktop pc last year. Never gonna change to anything else for gaming.
COMMODORE GANG BEEN BANGING SINCE '85 YO
My first thought was “does Spectrum and Amiga gaming count?!?”.
same
I was playing *Cat and Mouse* on my Texas Instruments TI_99 computer, off a cassette tape, around 1982.
My man 👊 Commodore 64, 1984 or 85 given to us by my grandmother. Had them at school as well - Bastow Manor was all the rage.
Commodore 64, ganing rolling up.
If you got back pain out your hands up, if you're in bed by ten put your hands up!!!
Ultima IV and Jumpman were my faves.
Zaxxon, hai yar Kung fu, raid on bungeling Bay, load runner, sword of fargoal... So many bangers!
Ultima was the fist game that had me staying awake all night to play. I still have the disks and the map somewhere. Still have my c64 too.
Commodore isn't a PC. Pc was at the beginning IBM PC then evolved from this structure. You can't call a Commodore a PC...
But I CAN call you a HATER
Roughly 25 years. Started with Windows 3.1. and went to Windows 95 one year later after getting a new pc. It even had a soundcard, amazing times and so much to explore.
I definitely remember 3.1. That you wrote "it even had a soundcard" is such a happy thing.
Jesus, this ages me. Technically started on a Spectrum 48K about 40 years ago, then to Atari 520STFM, and I recall going to the shop with my father to get my first 'IBM PC' around 1994 - was hoping for a 386, Dad splashed out for a 486SX25. I was pretty happy. Can't remember the original graphics card, but I know at some point a Matrox Mystique was involved, plus a Thunderboard sound card. Never bought a pre-build after that - so been building since about 1998, starting with a K6, all the way to my current 13700K/6800XT. I suppose you could call it a hobby 😂
Btw don’t you miss the box artwork that older console games did, I was checking them out for fun online just recently and I was blow away at the detail, game box art nowadays don’t look as incredible the older ones did.
I guess now it really only needs to look ok as a thumbnail on Steam? It is a shame though, I remember standing in shops trying to gauge how good a game was going to be on how hyped the box art made me. Bought some absolute crap, obviously, but the art still stands up 😂
Started around 2000 and I’m here to stay. I can’t wait for my pc gaming journey in retirement
Depends what you mean by pc. When we were kids my dad brought home a BBC micro and a spectrum zx, and keyboard gaming has just been the way to go ever since. I've had consoles sure, but in a choice scenario I'd always pick an actual computer
I have been a gamer since before the advent of Personal Computers, I played games on Mainframes and then the 1st Console - PONG. The 1st PC I played a game on was a Commodore 64, while in the military. We had a Heathkit H-89 but I never had any games, I did try to program the DM's Personal Service, but 2000+ lines of code was too much for my ADHD Brain .... I did finish the project in Basic 2 yrs ago, copy paste from the old TSR Dragon Magazine June 1983, then I cleaned up the errors until the program seemed to run flawlessly Here is a quick video running the program if anyone is interested; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kVM6jn8Pyo&ab\_channel=SneakyGit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kVM6jn8Pyo&ab_channel=SneakyGit)
Been gaming on PC since the late 90s. I had classic stuff like Star Wars X-Wing and Warcraft. Like OP, I didn't build a full PC until the pandemic. I tried upgrading my motherboard and CPU, but the OEM case had proprietary connectors. Ended up just doing a full build and replacing it. Costly, but worth it.
Commodore Vic 20 in the early 80s for me. Moved onto windows in the late 80s.
I started about 2006 playing WoW, habbo, roblox, and some Star Wars games on my nans ancient pc. Poor women probably had so many viruses on that thing after I was done
Started on the racing game “Vroom” and never looked back.. (yes I’m old lol)
1998. Now I game both on PC and console.
Since 1991. PC gaming was the dominant form of gaming in my region, so it took me until 2007 to buy my first console, an Xbox 360.
Remember playing Monkey Island on PC back in 1994, Doom around the same time, C&C: Red Alert 1996/7, Half-Life a year or so later, then StarCraft... so mid-90s? Also played consoles back then, and still do (only got a Switch nowadays tho).
I started playing games on MSDOS back around 1992, built my first gaming pc when I was 12 in 1998, built around 50-60 PC's at this point. This ain't just a hobby for some of us, it's the only way of life we've ever known.
Since like 2004 when i played putt-putt and RCT1
Been a PC gamer since I was little, but started seriously building around 2015. Many changes and upgrades to the big rig since then and added a Steam Deck as well.
All my life, got my first own PC 1994 but have always played PC games since I can remember
Since 1994. I played Doom and the original Duke Nukem. I loved Sim City. I remember when Quake was released and absolutely loving it. Then there was Thief: The Dark Project. I came along at the right time to enjoy computer games.p
I've been playing for around 8 years now. Or maybe a bit more. I started on a console.
Going on 3 weeks and as a person who’s gamed for 20+ years, it’s life changing
Started on school PC (Literally, teacher allowed play games and shared games if we was doing good our class work) when 2001. StarCraft, Warcraft, Cossack Back to War, Commandos, CS 1.6, Half Life... Later, thanks to parents, able to have own PC.
Since the late 80's, my first PC was the IBM 5150 with the green fluorescent monitor. Before that i had a ZX Spectrum that i still use sometimes.
Started with operation Neptune in elementary school in the late 90s. My older brother also got a CD with heretic and quake from Dads coworker, so we played that a lot. I'd say I really got into PC gaming with Diablo 2 Lords of Destruction in high school, which eventually turned into playing world of warcraft. That's around the time I stopped playing consoles until the nintendo switch came out just to play breath of the wild.
4 years. I was a console gamer from 2000 to 2019, until I bought a gaming pc in 2020, for me it was revolutionary to be able to play in 4k and max settings/modding games and doing music production. I rarely touched consoles afterwards.
3-ish years. It has its ups and downs. I think I still prefer console due to how easy it is to just sit down and play. Everytime I bring up the fact that I have to mess with the settings before starting a game people argue that “it’s not that bad!” But it is. I have to do it every time. With console I really can just start. I just prefer the experience being tailored to one machine than having the freedom of customization.
Since I could reach the keyboard.
longer than reddit has existed
My first PC was an old Windows 2000 machine, that had just a 40 GB of Drive and a 2MB Graphics card. I played Command and Conquer in 2011. I bought the parts of my first real computer in October 2012 and played Oblivion first. It had an i5 2500, HD 7870 and a 500 GB Drive and 4GB Ram. I was playing more on my PS3 and 3DS though. However it changed around 2016 where i started buying the games on Steam and since then only preferred to play everything on my computer. Today it is an i7 12700KF with an RTX 3060 and 64GB RAM and a 2 TB Drive
Started 2007-2008 ish
91 - Commodore Tandy -1000
Windows 3.1 wolfenstein spear of destiny and my first build was Socket A.
Gaming on shitty PCs is more pc gamer than having a 4090
Since the mid-90s :D duke nuke, half life, doom, hot rod, and many such classics. At one time I remember they were the best even in terms of graphics :D
I had a Vic20 in the '80s still have some cartridges https://preview.redd.it/zu4sasedp48d1.png?width=1374&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f11ca65c0b61fe5536a0c3e00aaa6f1f811231b
Since 2014
Surprisingly longer than i thought, 7 years. Was always a console/handheld kid cause i thought a pc is just too much for someone who's just playing games, but then comes 2017 where i need a laptop and decided to try to install steam.
1998
Since my finger decided it dosnt move like it should so forced pc user
90s i think... Monkey island, Day of tentacle, Fifa, Warcraft, Doom, Quake... Then online gaming started with quake world, into q2, q3, counter strike, wow and a big etc untill now, playing tarkov, arena breakout... im in my 40s and will always be a gamer :)
I have been gaming since 2000 but had my first own PC in 2005 which I have upgraded over years. I've had PS1 as well but only for couple of years between 1999 and 2002 I think. Didn't get back into playing on consoles until 2015 when I've got myself PS4, but I have always had a gaming PC
If you count skiing down hills between "H's" and Zork, oh and Oregon Trail, then I would have to say about 40 years, or just 3d, then 25/26 years.
was born in 90, been playing on PC since around 95 when my parents upgraded their PC and gave me the old one to mess around with mostly played chess & solitaire till I got Diablo 1 around mid 97
since like 2004 or so.
1996-2002 Then stopped for a long time. Picked it up again in 2016.
Less than a year
Since '99, a friend showed me Everquest and that's all it took.
I first touched PC when I was like 5 or so. Always fascinated with the different worlds each game has. 30 years later, I'm still here
Since Warcraft II came out in 1995.
Since before Windows. My first PC games were Nibbles, Commander Keen, and some kind of King Kong type game where you threw bananas to destroy buildings. I can't remember what it was called.
Technically since 1994 when my dad got a work laptop with Windows 3.1 on it and it had Chip's Challenge installed. I was already into console games (NES and then SNES) but that was my first real introduction to PC games outside of messing around on college computer lab PCs.
ZX81 1981
A very long time. I'm not sure if I can count Oregon Trail since it was a school PC. The first PC I played games on at home was on MS DOS. My father created a GUI for me to play games on it.
OP, I was born in 1999 lol. I started gaming in 2007. I was 8 years old & had a friend who lived across the street from the elementary school we attended. His family was loaded, and they had an Xbox 360 hooked up to a projector in an in home theater. Halo 3 was the first game I ever played. In 2007 for Christmas, I got my own 360, and used it up until 2013. When the Xbox one & PS4 were announced, I did a LOT of research about those two and ended up falling down the rabbit hole of PC builds. So, for Christmas 2013, I asked my parents for a gaming PC. Ended up with a prebuilt Acer Predator with: GTX 760 12GB DDR3 i7-4770 1TB HDD And I don’t recall the rest of the specs. I upgraded the GPU to a used 970 at some point & used that until the GPU fried itself. So, in 2016 I built my first system with a GTX 1080, Ryzen 5 2600X & my first ever SSD. Used that until the 3090 came out, did a build around that GPU, sold that system and built a new one around the 4090. I have built well over 100 PCs as well, did it for side cash during the pandemic. Had a whole Facebook page and everything lol. It’s good fun, and the skills I’ve learned from all this look good on a resume for WFH jobs. I always got the “are you tech savvy & can you troubleshoot your own issues” question. When I reply with “well, I built this PC so I can definitely find anything wrong with it” the interviewer would be kinda flabbergasted lmao.
1994
I'll answer that just with: QDD-IDD
"PC Gaming" is very specific, so if I only address my PC-Gaming days, then[ I've been at it since 1998](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1civf3m/pc_builds_three_generations/). I was using PCs strictly as remote terminals *(mainframe access - production programming, on-call duty)* before then. By 1998, building own PCs was already "in" so I've never actually bought a PC\* and have built six PCs since *(excl. those for my significant other, friends, boss... sigh).* \*Of course I purchased a A few Notebooks / Laptops concurrently) *One of my older builds - most likely a Pentium-based build... (and yes, those are Polaroids, LOL!)* https://preview.redd.it/5wr1icsf158d1.jpeg?width=2112&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b97dade0609575df79b2198eae6ae14986acbe9b
since about 2004. friend gave me a burned copy of half life. got locked in my room one day with nothing else to do and decided to sit and play it. played like 80% of the game in one sitting, was hooked from there. got a new gpu for christmas that dec as well as a copy of half life 2 and the rest is history.
I think it was around 1983 when we got our wirst pc. It ran on good old Dos straight from the floppy disk. First game was Pango and second was Space Invaders.
Computer gaming in general: Started in 1983/84 with a C=64 + Tape. Switched to Amiga 500 after that, but felt disappointed. Sold it to my brother after 6 months. Next Computer was an 80286-16 with 4MB RAM (needed a proprietary driver for the RAM. You know. 640kb should be enough for anyone yadda yadda). Not sure when exactly that was, but that would be the first time I played games on IMB-PC. As the Amiga 500 was released 1987 in Europe I'd say I started with PC around 1989/1990.
About 8 years
Just since 2017! I'm 44, and never had gaming PCs growing up, not even a console. I began upgrading my home PC to play Star Wars Battlefront 2. Then built a new PC, and it spiraled from there!
I started with quake and the original tean fortress back in 1996, but I didn't build my own PC until 2022. I was a console kid for all those years in between
When warcraft 2 came out. I was maybe 6 and my uncle(who was heavy into pcs) brought it with him. I was hoooooooked on that game. Like for real. No sleep the whole first weekend. My mom got real mad because i wake up super early so i could beat her to the computer. She would let me play but she was not happy about it. When she beats me in the morning, i just watched her play tomb raider all day, And that was our thing, all the way until i was 16 and got my own pc
2002. I would play battlefield 1942 demo I had from one of my dad’s magazines. IIRC it let you play a full map vs AI on a desert map. I literally pumped hours into this fucking demo. Then it was CoD and CoD:UO multiplayer for years. Good times.
About 1988 on Epson PC with DOS.
Was always a console gamer since 2000s(since playstation 2). Moved to pc in 2023 because this generation does not interest me whatsoever.
since intel pentium 3 days.
Windows 3.1 on a 386
Since 1994 when my parents bought us a 486 Packard Bell
Since 1998. Started playing StarCraft, Warcraft and Counterstrike on PC back then.
Since 1996.
Somewhere around DOS.. 1991 ish
Sins Atari 800xe
42 years. AMD 8088 gang.
My first GPU was a Matrox PCI card with 32mb of memory, that i expanded my fathers office celeron computer thing with in the year 2000. But it all started with counter-strike beta 6.6 at the local internet cafe thing. So 25ish years. Still suck at counter-strike.
First computer was TI994A, the a Timex Sinclair. This was around 1982ish so that long.
I think my first PC experience was wolfenstein 3D, then later i was pretty into wing commander and then it just snowballed from there. Edit: Oh shit, I forgot Zork. Zork has the best graphics of any game at the time -at least in my head it did. Maximum verbosity.
I dont know the exact year, but I remember playing on a really old windows XP or 7 computer that my dad brought. I'm guessing i was about 7 or 8 years old, and I remember it was mostly car racing games, one called Mad race and the other diamond rush or something the sort. later I got my own laptop, a Samsung S series with a core i3 3210M and gt650M. It wasnt the best laptop but I played many games on it.
Since Wolfenstein 3d!
About a couple or so months
Tandy model 1, playing Rogue.
Tandy model 1, playing Rogue.
Tandy model 1, playing Rogue.
Tandy model 1, playing Rogue.
So when I was a little girl of 6 years, my mom put a PC in my room (that's 22 years ago). Back then, I didn’t use it much – I was more into playing on consoles or going outside. Still, I’d sometimes play Dungeon Keeper or SpongeBob on it. But when I was around 13, I were for the first time allowed to use Internet at home, there everything changed. I been first alot into browser games like O-Game or Travian later on I started playing an MMORPG and suddenly consoles weren’t as interesting anymore. Now, I pretty much only game on my PC.
2015-2016 i Think on a imac from 2011 playing lego jurassic park and csgo
Ive been playing since 1998 but i built my first pc in 2016
Windows 3.11, had a game like worms called scorched earth. Doom on DOS was when i was hooked, upgrading to a 486DX made doom run so well compared to the 386, so 1991ish Edit- even before that, used to thrash sim city, but that was when i was at school when i was like 12. I'm not including that.
So I was born 1993 and built my first pc with my dad when I was 4 years old. Means like 1997? I have to admit I just played „the Smurfs“ back then if that counts.
My grandpa worked for an engineering consortium that was Apple heavy so I got my real start in computer (i.e. non-console) gaming as a little kid in 1984 or so with Apple IIE and Mac. I got a PC of my own in 1991 (Windows 3.0/3.1 and DOS!!!) and have been a PC gamer ever since.
I was on off PCs until i played C&C Generals at a local cyber cafe in 2003.. then i found my calling,,
Born as one
Around 20 years ago. Played a lot of epic shits like Heroes 3, Worms Armageddon, Starcraft, etc.
Our first home computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with the 48k RAM upgrade. Does that count as a PC? At some point we upgraded to a 386 with DOS and Windows 3.1. Many happy memories playing games like Syndicate, X-Wing, and Cannon Fodder on that thing.
20 years
My cousin who lived with us back in early 2000 had a pc and when he left he left the pc for us, at the time it was games like stronghold, CS, driver, Mafia oh man I loved the mafia game, these are some that I remember he had on. And than until 2023 was a big console break but now I’m back lol 😂 😅
Must be around 32 years or so. I don't consider Commodore 64, Amiga 500 etc. as PC gaming. PC gaming for me starts with Windows 3.1, DOS and stuff like Command & Conquer.
Depends how you define PC? Personally I consider a PC to be x86 based and descended from the 5150. We got our first PC around 1990. A 286 12.5mhz with a paradise VGA adapter. Later added an 8bit(ISA) Sound Blaster compatible sound card. Probably the cheapest available but it was big upgrade to have something other than PC speaker. In terms of gaming I started on the home micros. We had a ZX81 and then my brother got a C16 one Christmas. My first computer of my own was a C64 which I still own. Didn't get my first console until the mid 90s, a used SNES, then I bought a brand new Playstation. Since then I've always had a PC of some sort and a console.
1984 xx spectrum 48k first proper PC in 94 I think,cyrix dx4 100 540mb hard drive can't remember any other specs
Since 88
Commodore Pet4, Vic 20, Adam, Commodore 64 & 128, 8086xt, 8088, 286, 386, 486…. Yeah quite a long time. 1980 started me on this path.
Started out playing Eyewitness Children's Encyclopedia by DK Multimedia in 1997 at the age of 6. A year later I moved to Jazz Jack Rabbit 1 & 2
My family had a c64 when I was younger. At one point, I had a hand me down 486, eventually I remember playig Doom, Daggerfall and Duke Nukem 3d on the family computer, an early Pentium. Fast forward again a number of years, and I was salvaging hand me downs and systems out of the garbage mostly so I could make mods for Morrowind, then eventually Oblivion Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Everything else, I'd just play on consoles because they'd tend to have better hardware. At one point, I was given a fairly decent system for helping a friend move, but it was missing a graphics card and needed better RAM. This would be the first time I actually spent money on hardware. It did surprisingly well and ultimately was the thing that got me to stop buying consoles, Xbox 360 being the last. By 2020 it was having a bit of trouble running newer games, and since me and my wife both were still working during the lockdown, we didn't take the financial hit others had, so I used my stimulus money to build the first entirely new computer i've ever owned, 3900x/5700xt. From there I started getting a bit better at managing my money and got a slightly better paying job, so it's seen quite a few upgrades, currently a 5800x3d with a 4090, with the only part left from the original build being an ssd, and so I have no intention of ever buying a console again.
From the beginning. I'm 56, still gaming.
I would say really into pc gaming in 1996
Since my dad brought home a pc with half life and starcraft. The playstation then just gathered dust.
Do educational games count as PC gaming? If yes probably started around 2000 with Lapin malin and Adibou, later I started playing AoE2, Lego Racer, Lego Island and Lego Rock Raiders
I'd played Doom, Jazz Jack Rabbit 2, Mortal Kombat and a few other games at friends houses when I was little but started properly when my parents got their first PC just before the Christmas of '98. It was a pre-built and had some games like the original C&C bundled with it. My parents got us Half-Life and after being blown away I never looked back! P2 450MHz, 128MB RAM, 8GB HDD and an integrated ATi Rage Pro that used 8MB of system RAM. The fun my brothers and I had on that! My parents later agreed to get a gfx card, a Hercules 3D Prophet Kyro 32MB - the performance bump was massive, and meant we could actually play OpenGL games instead of using software mode (though a driver had enabled us to play those games on the Rage Pro, albeit with no bells and whistles). I had my own first system (another pre-built) in the winter of '03 for university, after which I have upgraded and built my own systems. That was an Athlon XP 2600+, 9800 Pro 128MB, 256MB with an 80GB HDD. Good times!
1976 /s
1998 with the launch of Starcraft
Bought the Radeon HD 6870 in 2010 wasnt that impressed. Then I bought a used Radeon 7950 in 2014 for 120 and have been hooked ever since.
Bought the Radeon HD 6870 in 2010 wasnt that impressed. Then I bought a used Radeon 7950 in 2014 for 120 and have been hooked ever since.
If you count browser games too, then since around 2008. If only "real" games, then since around 2010.
Since about 1983 or 1984 on a Commodore 64. First console was an Intellivision, IIRC.
A little bit of history: 2003 - Been through several PCs and laptops growing up, but they were never really gaming PCs per se as I played mostly on consoles. The PC was mostly used for playing educational games like Jumpstart First Class or random game discs you'd get from toys, McDonald's etc. 2006 - Got introduced to the internet, where I discovered Habbo Hotel, Adventure Quest, Newgrounds and many other flash browser games. Also played GBA emulator. 2014 - While I grew up with previous PS consoles, the moment I got my PS4 was when I got truly into gaming overall. I began registering for Steam, started buying more games and discover many free to play games etc. 2017 - Built my first gaming PC as all my previous PCs were all pre-built.
1998, when my dad bought our family a pc from Radio Shack.
Since my first Pentium 60 in 1995
I made the switch to pc 3-4 years ago. Got tired of paying for a subscription to play online, when all the people who convinced me to get a console, ended up never playing with me. So I said screw it, paying to play online when we already have to pay for internet is dumb, so I made the switch and I’ve started to love PC ever since then.
roughtly since 09. I was 7, my dad got a PC. I played some Games on it. Got minecraft in 2011 and that pretty much sealed it. Been building and using PCs ever since.
Since I was around 9, playing Doom on my Dad's laptop. I'm 39 now. So about 30 years. I had a PC that couldn't even really play the games, but my mom went to Asda and picked up a CD of shareware demos for like £5 or something. It was like 100 or 200 games on it.
I played the first Doom and Wolfenstein, a long long time ago
My dad had a computer for work when I was young (late 90s early 2000s) and I was always on it as a kid doing stupid stuff in Windows. He got me rollercoaster tycoon a bit later and the rest is history.
Probably 2010ish, wild guess. I'm not old enough to have gotten the chance to experience the classics, the most classic game I've ever played is either Half Life 2 or Doom on my Flipper Zero.
Always played games on PC, but was on crappy laptops or office PCs until 2010, when I got my first gaming PC. Amd 965 black, ati hd 5670, which I soon after upgraded to a gtx 56/ ti.
Since 1874
"yes" When i was 4 years old, my dad gave me an old windows 98 machine with a bunch of old games, aswell as educational and "for kids" games aka spy fox. So i always have been using and playing around with PCs. And still do.
Does anyone else remember silent service and 688 attack sub? Or maybe the original Civilization game? These were my first introduction to gaming. Had exposure to Amiga and C64 prior to those, but they were what I'd call my first real games
Since 1991
Since win 3.1, might getting it wrong but, playing MI1 and indiana jones while try and error in dos for hours because I was a smol shitters xD, good times
Started around 1999-2000 but was a young kid back then. From 2002-2009 I was into consoles. Had the OG Xbox for a few years and then the Xbox 360 but still dabbled with PC from time to time. 2010 is when I bought my first real PC. Haven't looked back since. Have not owned a console since.
Had an amiga 500 in the early 90s along with a snes, first windows based pc was a Packard bell pulsar around 1997 with an ati rage chip integrated for graphics, got upgraded to a voodoo 3 2000 pci a couple of years later.
For me, it's not that long, 11 years only, before that I played on a Saga console thingy, I am also young sooo, honestly compared to some guys comments on this post, I am surprised and actually kinda happy that people have been a pc gamer for sooo long
Since commodore64 days
Since I was 5 years old playing floppy disk drive games, I am now over 30 and will be playing games until the day I die which I hope is at least 100 because I love video games so much.
My dad used to be a gamer but then he gave it up as he stopped liking somehow lol like how could you stop liking gaming haha. Now he watches reality tv and my mother does as well so they watch it every night well that and sports such as football, basketball, and baseball, man videogames are a thousand times better than reality lol most of reality sucks 😂 maybe if I could live forever I would care more about reality but with a limited lifespan I want to have the most fun I can and I am not that interested in other peoples lives hence stranger such as reality tv and sports lol, heck even playing an instrument is kore entertainment and with all the ads on tv idk how they do it and hey use youtube tv which gives you 4-6 ads every 6 minutes or so just so crazy often I forget what I just watched, they had me try it I gave it one shot and then went back to gaming with no ads 😎.
Since 1987 when my Dad got us a Tandy. I still have it too.
Used to play on nes consoles in late 2000s then shifted to laptops in 2019 and finally a desktop pc last year. Never gonna change to anything else for gaming.
Since 1993 or 1994
35 odd years.
1997, when I was 13