Welcome to AceGamez' latest and most ambitious feature to date! Once Upon A Time: The Games That Started It All may not be what you expect - this isn't a Top 10 list of the best games of all time, and neither is it games that have made a huge mark on the industry over the years. No, this is something a little more personal.

We've gathered as many of AceGamez' writers as we could pull away from their controllers, keyboards or handhelds, sat them down and asked them one simple question... what game brought you here? What game truly set it in stone that you wanted to live for video games and pursue it beyond just playing them? What game sparked the fire inside you that has continued to burn to this day? We don't want their favourite games, we want their first favourite games! So without further delay, here follow The Games That Started It All!

The game that started it all, huh? I'm tempted to say Sonic the Hedgehog on the Megadrive, which blew me away for graphics and gameplay like no other game had before it. I could argue that it was the unbelievably addictive Super Mario Kart on the Super NES, which kept me and my brother coming back time and again to its Battle Mode - for years on end! Perhaps it was The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, which my brother lent to me (along with his Nintendo 64!) just so I could experience it - but choosing between Ocarina and Majora's Mask would just be too heartbreaking. It could be Sonic Adventure, which persuaded me to buy the tragically short-lived Dreamcast, or perhaps Ecco the Dolphin, which remains a firm all-time favourite to this day - I think I've been blown away to the extent that Ecco blew me away probably only three times in my entire life (by a game!) The first time was Zelda, the third time was Halo. Maybe Jak & Daxter is the one - after all, I bought a PlayStation 2 primarily because I loved the look of that game so much (and indeed I bought J&D several weeks before I had chance to pick up a PS2!) Or it could be Oddworld - I loved Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus on PSOne so much that I bought an Xbox just because of how amazing Munch's Oddysee looked - and I wasn't disappointed! The only disappointing thing about the Oddworld series is the contemptible lack of interest on the part of the consumers that led to its premature demise. Maybe it's Halo, a game I've completed over fifteen times and clocked up countless hours of multiplayer in, one-on-one against my brother, or Halo 2, which I haven't completed as many times in single player only because I've spent so many hours on Xbox Live, shooting it out against buddies and morons alike!

There are many other games that I could single out, but to select any of them would be a lie, because the simple fact is that I was hooked from the very beginning. At the tender age of seven years old, my dad bought me a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k home computer (yep, a whole 48k, 8 colours and a tape deck with up to ten minute loads and plenty of crashes!) From the first time I played a computer game, I was addicted. I'd browse the store shelves, looking at the dozens of Speccy games on offer. I'd rush downstairs to see if the latest mag with demo tape attached had arrived. I spent thousands of hours over the years playing hundreds of games, as I grew up and the industry grew up with me. So, I'm going with the first game I can actually remember playing. I'm not totally sure which one that is - possibly it's Manic Miner, the predecessor of the impossibly difficult Jet Set Willy, both of which older gamers out there may remember. But I think I played Maziacs before Manic Miner, so that's my choice.

Maziacs is a very simple game, featuring a huge (randomly generated if I recall correctly) maze that's viewed from overhead but with sprites that are viewed as if from the side. You have to work your way through the maze, grab the treasure at its centre and get back alive. However, the monstrous Maziacs are waiting for you and could end your quest prematurely if you're not careful. As you work your way into the labyrinth, you need to keep your strength up by eating the food you find (your energy is constantly ticking down) and you can use swords to kill Maziacs, but you can only carry one sword and use it on one Maziac - so you'll often have to backtrack and search for more swords, and food, as you progress. It is possible to survive a battle with a Maziac when you're unarmed, but it's a big risk to take (and you won't get away with it a lot). You can sometimes avoid the Maziacs, but it's best to kill them as you go, because they'll only cause you trouble on the way back, once you've got your hands full with the treasure. Prisoners that are chained up in the maze help guide you to the treasure and to your starting point on the journey back; they highlight your route in yellow for a short time, so leg it before you forget where you're going and the route fades!

As a kid, Maziacs, despite its very basic graphics, was pretty scary! Your pixellated character is all black, like a silhouette, as are the Maziacs, which look like giant two-legged scorpion/spider things. The animation isn't bad for the time and the fight animation is hilarious - you get stuck in fighting with the beast and fists/swords fly as you attack and it tries to savage you. There are no buttons to press - just walk into the Maziac to engage it and wait for the result… very tense when you have no sword! They're quick blighters though and can pounce when you're not ready if you get too close. Collecting food, swords and the treasure, as well as talking to prisoners, is also done by simply walking into them. It was a tough game, but I won it many times and still came back for more. Basic, simplistic and by today's standards irretrievably retro, but it was the work of pioneering programmers in a newborn industry that has led to the wondrous graphics and gameplay we have today, thanks to ever-improving technology. So, thank you dk'tronics, for awakening a thirst for gaming within me that I imagine will never be quenched until the day I die. Here's hoping they have Xbox in the afterlife…

So, I was asked to write a little something about a game that influenced me more than any other, a game that I can talk about in pubs and play at the drop of a hat. It took me a little while to identify that game. At first I was going to give the accolade to Altered Beast on the trusted Megadrive, as it was the first game I ever owned and played through, and it is largely responsible for my addiction to games today. Another option would have been Grand Theft Auto III; I'll never forget the moment I turned that game on in my room at university and stepped into the 3D world that was Liberty City. Yeah, that game and its cousins took over my life for a long time. But my final choice holds a very special place in my heart. I recently wrote a review of the film set in the years following the game and if you read that you'll get a taste for my enthusiasm toward it.

Final Fantasy VII opened my eyes to a great many things. I couldn't quite understand how good it was. I was completely immersed in the universe that Square created, completely hooked by the storyline that spanned over sixty hours and completely attached to the characters. Sephiroth in my opinion remains the greatest 'bad guy' ever created. The sociological, political and economic messages that are hidden within the game are undeniable without being preachy. The graphics were groundbreaking at the time - I remember being completely blown away by the pre-rendered cut scenes and the look of the game as a whole. The music was fantastic - the whole package was fantastic! I still struggle to put into words my feelings for this game and the sequels that followed it, which had me equally as hooked. Over what must now be a decade I have dedicated more hours of my life to the Final Fantasy series than any other game and I wait with baited breath for the next one to arrive. After playing Final Fantasy VII I was left awestruck, mouth open, tongue lolling, eyes wide, and that's why I've chosen it as my game of choice. Thank you Squaresoft.

I saw it at the arcades plenty of times, but I didn't dare step up and challenge players who were pulling off every special move with lighting quick reflexes, not having to even think about it. It wasn't until I got my very own copy of Street Fighter II: The Championship Edition for my beloved Sega Genesis (or Megadrive as it's known elsewhere), that I truly fell in love with one of the finest video game franchises ever.

To this day it holds up as a great fighting game, taking us back to a time of simplicity in fighting games. No massive combo attacks to memorize, no huge super moves to remember - just six attacks; weak, medium and strong punches and kicks. Players had to combine these buttons to create their own combos, adding in special moves to seal the deal or counter enemy attacks to truly excel. It's so simple that anybody can pick it up and learn how to play it, even able to compete with better players as they didn't have to learn long strings of attacks, and as they played more and more they'd eventually learn how to use the weaker attacks with the stronger attacks and become a better player with experience and not through the use of guides, unlike some modern fighters. And don't forget the characters! Some of the most memorable videogame personalities of all time can be found in the Street Fighter series, including the unmistakable and often imitated Ryu, Guile and M. Bison.

Street Fighter defined my love for the Genesis, and thinking back the only other games I immediately remember when reflect upon that console are Mortal Kombat II, General Chaos, Toejam & Earl and - of course - Sonic. I love them all, but Street Fighter is the game that really set it in stone that I wanted a PlayStation over a Nintendo 64. I can remember just sitting in my room filled with insane anger that the Super Nintendo got Street Fighter Alpha 2 but the Genesis didn't... I had to have a PlayStation so I could experience that game! Memories of exceptional consoles such as the Genesis, PlayStation and Dreamcast are all shrouded in great Street Fighter moments for me, including a time when I was once so angry with the Sega Saturn version of Street Fighter Alpha that I accidentally kicked the cords straight out of the back of the rental unit, much to the dismay of the my parents, the company, and myself... after all, how could I play with a broken system?! The series lives on in some form on every console and handheld out there; it is legendary, almost always absolutely fantastic and is responsible for my ludicrous addiction to video games.

As a hardcore gamer-from-the-womb born and raised in the early 1980s, the NES system and its many wonderful offerings is far and away what got me into gaming. Metal Gear, Mario, Zelda, Tetris, Bionic Commando, Mega Man, Blaster Master, Cabal, Castlevania, Contra, Excitebike, Final Fantasy, Double Dragon, Ghosts 'N Goblins, Metroid - these are but a few of my all-time favorites. But as hard as I try, there's really no one game out of any of them that I can single out and definitively say is the game that started it all for me.

Because of that, when Chris first came to me with his idea for putting this feature together, I decided to go in a little bit of a different direction compared to what I'm sure most of the other contributors have [The games each reviewer selected were not revealed until the feature went up! - Chris]. I have been gaming ever since I could pick up a controller, but only recently (as of only a few years ago or so) did I ever begin considering pursuing a chance to become a part of the gaming industry as a journalist, and for one reason or another it all came to me after I played one game - ICO. I'm not sure what it was, but after experiencing and loving what ICO had to offer more than any game I had ever played, something clicked inside of me that said, "This is exactly why I love gaming and I want to share how much I love this and other games to everyone."

Everything about ICO impressed upon me like no other game before it; a feeling that only the game's 'spiritual successor' Shadow of the Colossus has come close to matching. Maybe it was the gorgeous art style that finally proved that game design was indeed a true art form [despite what a certain film reviewer might say! Chris]. Maybe it was the unmatched emotional bond I formed with the memorable characters and the subtly told but fully captivating narrative. Or maybe it was the heart warming feeling I got while leading poor Yorda around such an enormous environment, watching as she was helplessly tugged along and protected by Ico. All of these factors (and many others) sucked me in right from the opening intro sequence all the way to the satisfying conclusion, and the many, many subsequent trips I've taken through ICO ever since. Hell, after writing this I feel like playing it all over again right now…

Strategy games of the late Nineties - what a nice bunch they were! Sending those little tanks round micro battlefields to secure resource pockets, build a base, build a few tanks and have a nice little ruckus with the neighbouring factions. It was all rather nice, real Sunday evening stuff. Then came along Total Annihilation, a game that ploughed through the current Real Time Strategy traditions, set fire to its wife's lovely dress then blew up the picnic they had set up with a few handfuls of dynamite!

Total Annihilation was, and still is, one of the most colossal strategy games ever made. No one had ever attempted an RTS on such a scale before and few have attempted it since. It was a game in which you chose to fight it out as one of two futuristic robot armies, the Core or the Arm. You were given free reign over an epic assortment of units (around 150), perhaps the most impressive collection ever assembled in a strategy game, covering land, sea and air. Battleships, submarines, bombers, fighters, tanks, multi-legged artillery-carrying robots - all of it yours to command over maps on a continental scale.

And it was its scale that made TA special. For once I found myself adopting strategies that I could never have used in existing strategy games of the time; I was forced to learn the advantages of each unit, develop strategies that would involve vast armies over absolutely huge maps and work out how effective my sea and air units could be when working in unison with those on the land. I actually felt like a commander, toying around with real armies in real battlefields.

When it all came together it was simply amazing; armies met in some of the most epic battles I've ever fought and the at-the-time groundbreaking 3D graphics showcased the devastating destruction of every unit - planes, ships and tanks didn't just blow up, they exploded in a shower of burning debris. Even better was that base building never felt like a chore; it was as diverse as the units you could train and I have vivid memories of the first time I managed to build a Big Bertha, a giant cannon that could shoot for miles in any direction, picking off the enemies defences to soften them up for my attack. Cruel, but immensely satisfying!

Total Annihilation has one of the most dedicated communities for any game I've ever played, still providing downloadable content to this day - there are hundreds of units, maps and mods to download, people still play it online and over LAN and you don't have to look far to find stories of some those games lasting up to eight hours. I have played few games that I can get as much enjoyment out of now as I did when I first played them and almost ten years later, Total Annihilation still manages to hook me back in. It's not just a great strategy game - its one of the best damn strategy games ever made.

The game that started it all for me was Sonic The Hedgehog. Originally I didn't even own a copy myself - I used to make sure I could go round my mate's house after school. He lived down our road, so it wasn't hard to rush over to his and play on his Megadrive for hours. We would take it in turns - when you died it was time to regretfully hand over the controller. Because it was his game, obviously he was a lot better than me and got a lot more time controlling the blue speed freak. Early on I only got a glimpse of my addiction to gaming.

However, soon enough I was treated to a Master System II for a birthday (the waiting seems like a lifetime when you're a kid though) and I got the watered-down version of Sonic The Hedgehog for it. I knew it wasn't the same, but I still played it over and over until that cartridge was red hot. Although my heart really lies with the original Megadrive version, this Master System Sonic was the game that set in concrete my love for gaming. I knew I would be gaming for a long time and I don't intend on giving up any time soon.

To further cement my habit, I used to get Sonic The Comic, the fortnightly publication that had comic strips of Sonic the Hedgehog and various other Sega games. I even started drawing my own comics featuring Sonic, Tails, Dr. Robotnik [Now stupidly called Dr. Eggman for those not in the know! Ed] and eventually Knuckles. They were well drawn, but the plot would hardly have Shakespeare quaking in his boots. Sonic the Hedgehog to this day remains the single most doodled drawing to ever be inked from my pen. Okay, so I admit it - I'm Sonic The Hedgehog's stalker - are you happy now? But this does prove that it had the biggest influence on me and that I might not have been such an avid gamer if it wasn't for the folks at Sega implementing such a fantastic idea.

I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was seven or eight years old and my dad brought home what I thought - at the time, at least - was the most amazing thing I'd ever clapped eyes on: a Commodore 64. We only ever owned one cartridge, consisting of Klax, International Soccer, the sublime and insanely difficult Flimbo's Quest and Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O' Fun - my "game that started it all."

Released in 1990 (though I didn't get my pre-pubescent hands on it until two or three years later), Big Top O' Fun was, in a word, ridiculous. The player owns a circus, which owes a corrupt businessman an in-no-way-whopping amount of $10,000! The businessman plans to build a luxury hotel on the terrain, but the showmaster organises a set of events in an effort to raise money - diving, juggling, trapeze, knife throwing, tightrope and the human cannonball. The player's performance in each event is judged by five judges (all of whom are clowns), who offer money depending on the quality of the show. However, the businessman has zero intention of letting the circus raise the cash and sends Fiendish Freddy to the circus to prevent them from doing so.

I'd played on videogame systems before at friends or relatives' houses and was a casual fan of games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Alex Kidd, but with those types of games you generally knew that what you saw was what you got. Big Top O' Fun was set out like California Games, where you would be presented with different mini-games and you genuinely never knew what crazy shenanigans would happen next. Fiendish Freddy would forever be popping up (often with hilarious consequences) to scupper your task of earning the $10,000. This, I think, was what really grabbed me, as the game was surprisingly graphic and its humour deliciously dark for a title of the early Nineties.

In the juggling event, Freddy would throw babies at the juggler, which had to be thrown back into their prams, or hazardous objects such as bombs, which would result in the player being blown to bits if not thrown back before they exploded. In the tightrope event he'd throw razor sharp blades at the walker, cutting him in two if you didn't react quick enough to deflect them! And in the diving event you had to keep diving off higher boards into smaller and smaller containers - eventually into a jug of water - all while Freddy pops up on screen with an enormous hairdryer to blow you off course.

Looking back, it's weird that I loved this game so much, because even for the period it wasn't a technically impressive game. The characters were super blocky and incredibly low in detail and the joystick control - particularly the responsiveness - was atrocious. However, the other thing that drew me in was the multiplayer. My dad, my brother and I spent countless hours fooling around on it. Up to six players could participate, taking turns in an event before moving onto the next one, the winner obviously being the one who earned the most cash... although I remember that not one of us ever managed to earned the required amount - subsequently, we saw the game over message accompanied by the picture of the "Freddy Towers Hotel" every time we played.

However, we could even excuse that fact along with how poorly it controlled because it was still so much fun. And while subsequent games helped nudge me further into the realms of obsessions - Sonic 3, Doom, Super Mario World and Duke Nukem 3D all spring to mind - Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O' Fun was undoubtedly the catalyst that initially sparked my true interest and sheer love for videogames. I'm even tempted to get myself onto eBay or down to my local Gamestation to see if I can pick myself up a C64 with a copy of the game. Nostalgic is not even the word here.

I've been around gaming for a long time, having a father who was very interested in new technology. We had an early VCR that cost tons of cash, had PONG in the mid-Seventies and got an Atari 2600 in 1979. While many hours were spent bouncing the little white square back an forth, it was disposable as a hobby - I'd just as soon have been doing something else. The same thing is true for the Atari 2600 - I honestly remember programming BASIC on it as much as playing Space Invaders. It just didn't make that much of an impact, but I was already in high school and was involved with many other things.

What changed the situation was the Apple ][+ and Castle Wolfenstein. The Apple ][+ was the mainstay computer system that got me through the end of high school and through my undergraduate years of college, and there was no game that kept me occupied over the course of years like Castle Wolfenstein. I shared it with friends and my best friend got the Beyond Castle Wolfenstein sequel when it came out - and we played the heck out of that as well!

What was it about that game that hooked me? I'm not sure, but I just kept going back for more. It seems quaint now, but twenty-five years ago it was a total blast - the combination of killing Nazis or using stealth or sneaking to avoid them, exploring areas to find new items and taking different approaches through the levels... it was just pure fun. And the voiced effects - the German guards asking for your papers or screaming when they died - was quite something back then.

The legacy of Castle Wolfenstein has shadowed my gaming ever since - a dozen years later I hotly anticipated the release of Wolfenstein 3D, which in turn led to my love of first person shooters. That love stuck with me when I didn't have the money or time to keep up with things - while we were buying a house and having kids. And soon after things started to loosen up for me again, my wife got me a nice Christmas present - Return to Castle Wolfenstein. As it turns out, that was the game that kicked off my resurgence into gaming as a primary hobby, one that sticks with me to this day.

There was never really one game that turned me into a gamer; I have always been a gamer since I got my first console. However the one that provided the turning point that converted me from a casual gamer into this husk of humanity we call a game reviewer was Space Quest VI, the last great adventure game and possibly the funniest game ever made... scratch that, possibly the funniest thing ever made!

Space Quest VI has stuck with me for eleven years and still has me quoting from it on a near daily basis. For those of you who haven't played it, you play Roger Wilco, a bumbling halfwit janitor who is inadvertently the cause of events that lead to him saving the day. Then there's the narrator, who is the wittiest character in a game ever. He's like that kid in the arcade who always said over your shoulder "I bet you can't do ..." and then it turns out you can, like fitting a plank of wood into your pocket. The narration constantly lapses over from actually narrating to ridiculing you when you click on something wrong, generally "You missed, ha!" or "You poke it, and prod it, and generally make it feel like a piece of meat," whenever you click your hand by accident.

The main reason I love it, and this isn't a rose tinted memory, is that it didn't need to try to get you to play. It wasn't flashy and it didn't have stunning fifty-four dimensional graphics, it was simple and was just fun to play through. The game had length; you couldn't complete it in one sitting like most shooters and it made you really think, unlike most adventure games now that have focused on mini-games thanks to companies aiming it buckshot at all markets to improve sales.

What made the game for me was that it didn't try to be the next big game; it made fun of sci-fi at every turn (the whole demo is a parody of Star Trek) and was just itself, a funny game. Today there aren't any purely funny games, and the largest market, FPS, has little originality, with the only differences being in the graphics, which don't really interest me, and I see most as Wolfenstein 3D (released in 1992). I'm not shamed to say that I'm waiting for the day when the market changes and games like Space Quest and Escape from Monkey Island see a return.

What game started it all for me? Was it the very first game I played? (since I can't remember which one that was, probably not). Was it some of the Commodore 64 classics I used to play as a kid on my second-hand unit? Well, they bring back fond memories, but as for being the pivotal game… nope, not them. Neither is it one of my favourite games from the Amiga. I was still young when I had it and at the time games were still a thing that kids played with. So what game brought me to here and now? What game made me save my money for months and drive forty-five minutes to a deserted GAME shop at 8:30 in the morning just to be one of the first to own a PlayStation 2?

That question plagued me for ages; I made lists of games I had once played, but they all got knocked off as being simply something fun to play but not groundbreaking (for me at least). Then it dawned on me - it wasn't about the game that first introduced me into a world of pixels and control pads, it was the first game that defined the way I played games. Simply put, it was the first game that I completed from start to finish. It sounds silly perhaps to use that reason to find my pivotal game, but up until then I was a hit and miss gamer. I might play for a couple of hours with my cousin or brother, then drop the game and find something new. I never completed a single Commodore 64 or Amiga game, and when my cousin got her first PlayStation, we would dip into games with that too, never getting to the final cut scene.

It didn't matter that we never completed a game - we didn't really care. While my cousin had her PlayStation I still had my faithful Sega Megadrive - and it was a Sega game that changed everything. When I got the console I received Castlevania: The New Generation with it, and for the first time I had a game I was really addicted to. I can't remember how many times I played the game, clawing my way to the third level then dying through some stupid mistake. It drove me crazy, yet though I would (and did) throw other games aside when I couldn't get past a level, with Castlevania I didn't want to. I needed to complete that game - it was important and other games didn't matter, just this one. So I played it and played it and then one day it all slipped into place, the long hours, the sore fingers, finally it was all working and triumphantly I finished Castlevania!

It was the only Sega game I ever completed - I came close with others, but usually something else would come up and the console would be turned off. However, since I completed my first game I now wouldn't dream of leaving a game unfinished like I used to; it just didn't seem right any more. There is another reason why Castlevania is so pivotal to me, because it was my first horror game and since then I have become a self-confessed Survival Horror fan - anything that involves zombies, vampires, or psychological weirdness is for me! Up until Castlevania I would have considered myself a platformer fan or maybe a fantasy RPG fan, but since then I've found my dark side. Yes, give me blood, gore, a ghost or two, perhaps even some ravens from the original Resident Evil. Without Castlevania I might never have discovered my love for the gut-wrenching, scream-inducing, hide-behind-a-cushion, survival horror gaming genre. Thank you Castlevania - now where did I leave that whip and spear…?

How simple a thing gaming is today - put in your game, wait a few seconds and the next thing you know you're knee deep in Covenant forces or battling Ganondorf for the fate of Hyrule. It wasn't always like this though, of that I can assure you. Back in the long gone age of the Commodore 64, one truly required a commitment to gaming that simply isn't needed in these days of casual gamers and high-speed technology.

Each time you put your cassette (yes, cassette!) into the separate tape player of the Commodore 64, you were committing yourself to an extended session with that particular videogame. Not because each and every game on the Commodore 64 was a masterpiece of video gaming brilliance, or because everyone who owned one was a hardcore gamer of the highest order, but put simply it was down to the wait. Each time that cassette was slipped in, a wait of almost epic proportions followed, with only a fuzzy screen of pastel colours to keep you company while your sweaty palms remained still in earnest of a chance to test your skills on the latest videogame to grace the market.

This may sound like sheer madness to those raised on a diet of PlayStation and Xbox, and maybe it was, but what other choice did we children of the Eighties have? Every so often though, a game would come along that would be worth the wait - heck it would be worth waiting twice as long, which sometimes was the case when the game crashed! One of these games was the original Turrican; not only was this game worth sitting through the epilepsy inducing loading screen but, for me at least, it was a life changing experience. It was while playing Turrican that I realised for the first time what could be achieved in videogames and more importantly that I would be involved in videogames in one form or another for many years to come.

Turrican was created by Manfred Trenz and saw its first release on the Commodore 64 in 1990. It was this game that introduced me to a truly expansive level design in the shooting genre and a level of detail and graphical accomplishment that I had never witnessed before. No longer was it simply about blowing everything onscreen to smithereens; there was now the added joy of exploring the levels, finding every hidden nook and cranny in its labyrinth of tunnels and debris along the way. That's not to say that there wasn't shooting to be done however, as the enemies in Turrican were as fierce a foe as you were ever likely to come across, with a difficulty that would test even the most ardent of gamers to their limits. Luckily then, your little hero was packed to the hilts with the kind of firepower not seen since Arnold Schwarzenegger took to arms in Commando.

One aspect of Turrican that truly stuck with me while simultaneously justifying the game's huge arsenal of weaponry were the truly epic boss battles; it was here that my jaw found the floor in a rather abrupt manner. The bosses were often too big to fit on the screen and attacked you from all angles; it was here that the scale of the game truly hit home. Combine this with a soundtrack, created by Chris Hulsbeck, which was simply in a different league to nearly everything on the market at the time, and you were left with a game that redefined a genre and changed my perception of videogames forever.

Sonic the Hedgehog is the most wonderful platform game - the first one was a breakthrough in level creation and action, then Sega pushed the line even further with the sequel. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 followed Sonic's adventures as he once again fought Dr. Robotnik and tried to recapture the Chaos Emeralds. These were gained in the new improved Special Stages, and by special, I mean special! Even today, over ten years on, this looks amazing and plays wonderfully, kicking the ass of Sonic Heroes or anything else Sonic has been in since.

Sonic 2 is also the greatest two-player platform game ever, thanks to allowing a partner to control the new character, Tails, during play. This means that there's none of the usual scenario where you have to wait for your brother to finish his turn and then must play the same level over, with him shouting, "No, do this! Not that way! Oh, give it here!" After finishing this amazing game you have a number of bonus rounds for two players, a wonderful extra to keep you playing for a long time to come. Even fourteen years later, I simply cannot think of one platform game before or since that can compare with this - not even Mario, and as such, it's the game that started it all for me.

The year was 2000. Since my recent acquisition of a PC and PlayStation, I had been toying around with a few games here and there, but nothing that etched strong memories of pleasure into my brain. Then one glorious day, someone gave me a PC game called Unreal Tournament and suddenly a whole new gaming universe was opened up to me. You get your strategic thinking games, your mindless shooter games and your agile adventure games, and then you get Unreal Tournament, which manages to combine all three of those styles into a heady mix of gaming bliss.

To a new player, Unreal Tournament was astoundingly enjoyable, but the true, overwhelming satisfaction came from mastering the weapons and gameplay modes it offered. The ecstasy of an exquisite plasma shockwave, the unsurpassed satisfaction of anticipating your enemy's movements with a devastating hail of rockets and the shiver of unbridled glee at the timeless roar of "M-M-M-M-Monster Kill-kill-kill!!!!" To become a master of Unreal Tournament required unerring aim, dextrous leaping and hopping around the map to dodge your opponents' firepower, and some shrewd tactical thinking to outwit them. You could start to navigate the maps blindfolded, flip backwards over death-defying jumps with ease and anticipate the Shield Belt respawn to within a fraction of a second.

Unreal Tournament remained my favourite game for many, many years, and even seven years later it still retains a heavenly balance and purity that no other game has managed to fully replicate. Sure, I played Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004, and they were great games, but the memories that I hold dearest in all my gaming career are those glory days of the original Unreal Tournament - and even now it brings a tear to my eye as I recall the complete and utter bliss of playing such an extraordinarily enjoyable game. Unreal Tournament started my gaming career and it will live on in my heart forever.

The game that did it for me was Elite on the Acorn Electron - it was the first ever title to truly hook me, fire up my imagination and send me on a trail of destruction and piracy in the western spiral arm of a galaxy far, far away. For those of you not in the know, Elite was the first 3D free-roaming space shooter. The idea was to buy and sell stuff at each space station you dock at, while taking on all-comers as you made your way across the system. The graphics were fairly rudimentary, being simple lines connected to make 3D shapes representing spaceships and space stations, with a constantly flowing starry background. Attack a space station, sell illegal contraband and kill the local law enforcers, and you'd have police on your tail from one end of the galaxy to the other. However, opt for the more peaceful option of buying and selling legitimate stuff and you'd have pirates all over your backside.

Whenever you leapt from one hyperspace point to another there was still a trek through space on impulse power to the nearest station, so encounters were inevitable. Earning cash fast was the order of the day, so you could buy missiles, electronic countermeasures, smart bombs and even docking computers. Of course, the more you destroyed and the more you survived, the greater your reputation. The highest attainable was 'Elite' status, meaning that nothing could touch you.

Having been a fan of Star Wars since I saw the original film as a five-year-old, I had always wished to pilot my own spaceship, be it a bulky cruiser like the Millennium Falcon or a zippy little mover like an X-Wing. Elite was the first game I came across that offered me all those choices and more. I blazed a trail across the space created within the tiny memory of the Acorn Electron (32k if I remember correctly!) and often withstood the wrath of not only space pirates, but also my parents who would return home at midnight from an evening out to find me still playing.

After six months of solid play I finally hit the status of 'Elite'. For about four of those months I was 'Deadly', which gives you some idea of how the sliding scale of reputations went, and how I felt when I finally achieved the goal. No other game since has given me quite the thrill that Elite did.

I know, it sounds clichéd, but the games that started it all for me was the combination of both Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on the NES. In those days (around 94/95), both these games were packed onto one cartridge. I remember coming home from school, sitting down in front of the TV and sticking my then treasured cartridge into my NES.

Super Mario Bros. was the first game I had ever played, and it was the first time I had ever felt such euphoria; I was no longer a game virgin (although at the time, I didn't even know what a virgin was!) What I loved about Super Mario Bros. was the fact that it was a game that wasn't too difficult; all you had to do was jump on side-scrolling platforms while avoiding monsters. However, this was challenging and annoying to complete, so on many occasions I would get really frustrated and throw my NES controller on my mum's clean, carpeted floor. This was all right though because whenever I got tired of playing Super Mario Bros., I would press the reset button of my NES, stick in my special Zapper Light Gun, and select to play Duck Hunt.

Duck Hunt was just an amazingly fun game that let me take out my frustrations on the ducks that flew across screen by shooting them with my Light Gun (there's something for my psychiatrist's files). It was just a great point-and-shoot game, although, there was an annoying dog that I wasn't allowed to shoot! The brilliant thing for Duck Hunt is that you know that Nintendo are going to create a remake of this game on the Nintendo Wii (imagine shooting the ducks with the Wii-mote!)

Both these games were total classics and will always remain two of the most influential games in the industry. For me, these two games (but especially Super Mario Bros.) were the beginning of Nintendo's greatness in my eyes, as well as my passion for gaming.

Bean bags! Books! Cards! Key chains! Plush dolls! Tattoos! Spaghetti! Stickers! Fights! Distraught mothers! Robberies! Banning! TV shows! Movies! More bean bags! More key chains! More, well you get the idea. Mention the all-conquering phenomenon that is Pokémon to Mr. Average Joe on the street and he'll no doubt counter with a selection of the aforementioned associations. However, strip back the layers of such a media-exploited fad, past the perplexing level of parental hatred and past the overwhelming layers of 'cute', and you'll unearth a humble couple of cartridges that ultimately drowned in their own success, most probably under a pile of plush toys and bean bags...

It's no surprise then, with such a strong commercial appeal, that the franchise responsible for raising Pikachu to the same level of super stardom as burgeoning songstresses Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, would inevitably remain forgotten under a somewhat dizzying degree of media mix. The Pokémon phenomenon shook the world, but it was the original game that shook my world - in turn hurtling me towards the exciting world of games journalism! Hurrah! I had always loved games with a passion ever since the NES days (this is me trying to sound hardcore!), busting Goomba butt with Mario, pointing the Nintendo Zapper directly onto the glass of the television set in order to shoot my feathered friends in Duck Hunt (stop laughing! I was three!) and bursting bubbles with Bub and Bob in Bubble Bobble (now there's a mouthful!), but it was Satoshi Tajiri's miraculous creation that changed my life forever. Pokémon - I choose you! (Oh my God...)

I still remember powering up the game for the first time, watching in awe as Nidorino danced around the screen, avoiding the menacing grasp of an angry Gengar (yes, I still remember the names!). It held me paralysed (sorry...) in utter amazement. How could such a titchy device - well, it's reportedly seen from space nowadays, but the original Game Boy looked ever so tiny back in the day! - pump out such a beautifully cohesive world where you could easily lose hour upon hour training your Weedle? How could a single mono speaker emit such memorable melodies, melodies that I'm still humming to this very day? How could such a small device pioneer the way in which we interact with other gamers by way of the ye-olde link cable? Every question remains unanswered, as looking down at the scratched, somewhat smeared screen (with love, of course!), I'm still held in absolute awe.

The chief premise revolved around Tajiri's childhood fascination with bugs and insects, casting you as a young boy with the sole aim of becoming a world famous Pokémon Master, and to do so you had to traverse many of the monochrome, yet awe-inspiring towns in order to "Catch ém all!" as the rather enthusiastic slogan prompted. But despite the adventure being doused in a thick, gloopy coating of 'happy', the narrative ran so much deeper than that. Pokémon taught that good will always prevail over evil (Team Rocket anyone?), it taught dedication, it taught that dreams can be achieved and, more importantly, it taught that it's possible to come from nothing and, with enough persistence, eventually amount to something successful.

Tajiri's passion for gaming also meant that his creation borrowed a substantial portion of its make up from existing genres. At heart, Pokémon was a decidedly intuitive RPG, following in the footsteps of Final Fantasy and the likes. As such, its turn-based combat mechanics were easy to learn and worked beautifully, allowing newcomers to get to grips with the system immediately by way of stat screens being kept to an absolute minimum, while also providing veterans with a considerable level of comfort. But Pokémon was indeed innovative in its own right; the original concept itself was particularly imaginative, splicing the much-loved Tamagotchi craze with the existing RPG formula. But perhaps the most revolutionary aspect was that of the sheer width and breadth that Pokémon allowed you to explore. To say that it was huge is an understatement indeed. However, the largest contributing factor to Pokémon's rich and vibrant world was that of characterisation; each in-game NPC had something interesting to say that sparked your imagination, giving you handy hints about the game world while acting as an incentive to explore further into the mammoth, miraculous and downright magical world of Kanto. But perhaps my greatest love for Pokémon, and the reason I opted to become a journalist, was triggered by something of a personal affair.

During the year of 1999 my life fell apart and collapsed before my very eyes. I had no hopes, no volition to do anything. In short, I was a mess. Pokémon Red and Blue's beautiful world initially allowed me to escape from the troubles in my life, but I was soon sucked into an engrossing, innovative RPG that helped me to make new friends by way of connectivity, and I began to appreciate the medium much more than I ever had done in the past. Pokémon furthered my lifelong passion, giving me the incentive to pursue a career in games journalism. It helped me to get my life back on track, to have a dream, and it helped me grow as a person. Behind all of the crazed intros, Girls Aloud gags and exclamatory sentences lies a very passionate gamer, a gamer who loves his job and a gamer who wants only to see the industry that raised him grow for future generations. And, more importantly, he hopes you enjoy what you read. So, Pokémon, I thank you.

Growing up with games as an expanding media, I've always been playing one game or another. The first serious experience I had was with Red Alert at my friend's house, playing on their old W95 because we didn't have a computer. Later on, LucasArt's excellent Jedi Knight series had a great impact on my gaming life, as well as their breathtaking Knights of the Old Republic. Despite such an amazing lineup of games, I was never completely hooked before I tried the third chapter in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series: Morrowind.

Just how long I've played this game for overall, I have no idea. For well around a half year it was all I played, for several hours a day. It's the grandeur, the overwhelming extravaganza of detail put into creating a huge world for the player to explore that kept me glued to my screen. Despite having traversed the world of Vvardenfeld many, many times, I still manage to uncover smuggler's hideouts, underground layers and hidden treasure. To this day, I haven't even completed the main game and I've only scratched the surface of the two expansion packs, Bloodmoon and Tribunal. Morrowind was, no doubt, the game that made me spend somewhere in the vicinity of £1000 on games and consoles alone. It's simply sublime, and despite first playing it a good two years ago, I'm full of nostalgia writing about it even now. Wonderful!

Earlier this year, my fiancé Bonnie, my childhood friend Jeff and myself were interviewed for one of the campus magazines at our college, Western Washington University in Washington State. This piece was on classic gaming (nothing past the 16-bit stage - though we fudged the bucket with that one, heh), with us being asked your typical "how did video games impact your life" questions. I'm not sure I've had that much fun just talking in a long time. There were so many memories to recollect - some I had long ago forgotten and some I didn't realize meant so much to me. As it has, more or less, come up here, it came up during that interview: what is your favorite game or the game that made the biggest impact on you? When I went to answer, I didn't have one. A long, drawn out "um" followed by a longer pause was all I could muster. It was like trying to read a sign with the sun reflecting off it directly into your eyes. So I sat there in a stupor as Bonnie and Jeff spoke, my brain swimming through memories, picking up involving games, weighing their endearment and tossing the light ones away.

Finally, it hit me with such a thud that I almost laughed out loud. It's fun being a moron - of course I knew the answer to that question. There is only one video game to exist that has occupied my fantasies, my mind, my dreams, my ambitions and my life. There is really only one game that I ever went hardcore nerd over. That game was known to me as Final Fantasy III.

My obsession started shortly after the Christmas of 1994, when my friend and neighbor Roger used his Christmas money to buy the game. For the record, I no longer have a clue what I personally received (sorry Mom and Dad). Once school resumed, Roger and another guy we hung out with, Ryan (who also received the game Christmas) would not stop talking about how awesome it was, how it was light years better than anything they had played yet (though as sixth graders, we didn't have much to compare to).

After hearing all this hype, and obviously not being happy with whatever games I received, I starting spending my time after school at Roger's, watching him play FFIII. Once the first post-Christmas Friday rolled around, he let me start my own game while I was over there. But when it came time to go home for dinner, I could not pull myself away from the Super Nintendo. I asked him, knowing there was no way he would say yes, if I could borrow the game; he said no. Thankfully, as I have already mentioned, Christmas had just passed, so I had actually had some money. I offered him 5 dollars to "rent it" for the weekend. He again declined. Finally, after raising my offer to 12 dollars, he caved in and sent it home with me. How I would have killed for a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video then!

My parents must have been busy that weekend, because I did not leave my room for anything other than to eat and use the bathroom. Before I knew it, I had logged nearly 25 hours of game time, which was more than either Roger or Ryan had managed! The story was deeper and more engaging than any book, TV show, movie or other game had ever been. The characters were fleshed out, with problems, fears, love, hate, dreams - it seemed like everything a human could go through happened in that game. The graphics were jaw-dropping, especially the Mode 7 effects, with every character detailed and original. The score could never hit a wrong note, always playing what felt like the perfect song for each situation. I am pretty sure that is what a drug addiction must be like, to have an insatiable hunger. When it came to give the game back on Monday, I forked out 8 more dollars for one more night. By Tuesday I was out of cash and had to give the game back for good. It was all I could do to keep it off my mind. I would daydream in class, on the bus to and from school, on car rides, whenever I could let my mind drift away into fantasy. It would be two more months before I was able to resume playing on my file and beat the game. Once I was able to tame the beast, I was able to step back and let my obsession fade into adoration, the addiction having been slain.

I was never the same after that first play through of Final Fantasy III. As silly as it may sound, without that experience I wouldn't be where I am today. Final Fantasy III gave me a desire to reproduce the sadness, happiness, anger and love that game awoke in me, which would awaken a creativity that manifested itself in writing. That path eventually led me to a Bachelor's degree in creative writing, with poems published in literary magazines and my own book of poetry. Where I go from here remains to be seen, but Final Fantasy III awoke a passion within me that simply will not be subdued - and for that, I thank it.

Happy memories of my introduction to video games are not very long lived! I bought a PlayStation in 1997, just to play Soulblade. Soulblade hooked me with its explosive gameplay and hint of a storyline. I later became addicted to Final fantasy VII, in my first foray into a RPG; I still play that game on my PC to this day! My love affair with the original PlayStation ended with Gran Turismo for the ultimate adrenaline packed finale! The PlayStation 2 came and went for me, bringing with it Gran Turismo 3, Wipeout Fusion and Red Faction to name just a few of my indulgences.

The death of my PS2 prompted me into my first PC purchase in 2003 (sorry, I know I am still a newbie!) I indulged in Sim City 4 and Warcraft III, but my real love for games came with Microsoft Flight Simulator, which I played late into the night on more than one occasion. I bought dedicated controllers, upgraded my PC beyond recognition, investing in multiple graphics and multiple monitors, I added Dolby 7.1 and many other add-ons in my quest for ultimate realism, spending thousands in the process. This obsession spawned my introduction to AceGamez; a gap in the Acegamez portfolio meant that there was a place for a Flight Simulator obsessive. With all the add-ons now available for this King of Simulators, I hope that my relationship with Acegamez will be long and fruitful - so keep reading for all the latest Flight Simulator and add-on news - and long live video games!

The year was 1991. The first Gulf War had begun, the Rodney King video was shown to the world, and I picked up a copy of Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny. Unlike most games now that barely come with an instruction manual to cover the basics, Ultima V came with 2 manuals, a reference card, a cloth map of Britannia and a large silver coin called the Codex. It also came on two 3.5 inch floppies!

Ultima V was the fifth instalment of the RPG by possible multiple-personality disorder sufferer Richard Garriott. Although I can recall playing games in earlier times on a Tandy 64k, it was Ultima on the PC that assured my lifelong flight from reality and going outdoors. I played it on an Amstrad PC with a 8088 processor raging along at 4.7mhz, blasting full four-colour CGA graphics with heart-stopping internal speaker sound. My brother and I came to blows frequently over whose turn it was.

Unlike most modern RPGs, Ultima V was non-linear and had absolutely no hand in guiding the player along to the next goal. You started the game with one goal: rescue Lord British. Other than that, there were no clues and you had an entire continent to explore! That was what made it so brilliant; it was a true adventure. With little more than a cloth map to guide you, you had no idea where to go, how to get there, or what you'd find when you arrived. I remember staying up nights sailing across the ocean in a tiny skiff just to make it to a new island, the excitement and trepidation of what I would discover as tangible as if I'd sailed across the Pacific in real life.

Ultima V broke gaming ground in a number of ways; it was one of the first games to give NPCs daily schedules that they would follow, getting up in the morning, going to work, breaking for lunch, going back to work and then heading back home for dinner and to sleep at night. The realism for the time was breathtaking and probably still hasn't been done quite as well since. The plot and writing was brilliant, featuring philosophical and social issues such as fundamentalism and moral absolutism, as the citizenship groaned under the yoke of misguided ruler Blackthorn. All this was tied in with a logical and progressive plot, good character balance and a simple interface. Since I was barely in high school at the time, I didn't really appreciate the ideological nature of the game back then, but now I realise you could easily construct an entire university philosophy subject around it.

This was the game that killed any chance of a social life or marriage for me. Since then there have been a few truly enjoyable RPGs, such as Fallout or Arcanum, but nobody has yet to fill a world with the same thought, depth and life as Ultima V did.

Christmas morning 1990 saw my brother and I, although both suffering from severe sleep depravation, eagerly tearing the wrapping paper off our first computer, a Commodore 64 (C64). Unfortunately for my Dad, a man who was still struggling to come to terms with the metric system and colour TV, he was assigned the task of setting up this cutting edge piece of technology. Having misread the instruction manual, he spent the first hour trying to force one of the game cassettes into the keyboard, whilst using the tape machine as a coffee mat. By the end of the second hour he was sulking in the kitchen and so my brother and I retrieved our joysticks from the bin, reread the instructions and loaded up our first game, a football (if you're American that's pronounced 'soccer') management simulator called Two Player Super League (2PSL).

To say the game was a little basic was like saying that the C64 took a little while to load. No licences meant that all the player names were made up and each squad only had thirteen members. As for the matches, they were nothing more than a screen showing the team names with a clock in the top corner that ticked through a minute of game time every second.

The thing about 2PSL was that whilst a match was going on you could cut the tension with a packet of Pele's Viagra pills. Everyone sat in their newly adopted highly painful (but lucky) seating position watching the clock. Whether intentionally or not, it would ramp up the excitement even further by freezing for a second when there had been a goal before the game would flash up the name of scorer, sending one of us into agony or ecstasy. Although computers and consoles have developed so much since that Christmas Day, for me the way a great game can transport you from wherever you may be and envelop you in a completely different and exciting world is still the same - and it's still this that keeps me hooked to this day. (Now let's all crack open a Coke, join hands and sing together).

Which game utterly defines my gaming life? Which game truly made me a "gamer"? For me the game that fits the description is Sonic Adventure for the Sega Dreamcast. Now, before you collectively slap your forehead, I'm not talking about the current generation console remakes with their rubbish controls and dodgy cameras. I'm talking Sega, I'm talking Dreamcast, and I'm talking absolute brilliance!

Sonic's entry into the third dimension was not as successful as Mario's, but seeing as up until then I had never played a Mario game (shame on me), Sonic Adventure hit me pretty hard. Before that point I had only played on my younger cousin's N64, catching quick glimpses of greatness with games like Goldeneye and Mario Kart. So considering my previous experiences, it's easy to believe that Sonic Adventure quickly became my favourite game.

The total charm, guitar-solo soundtrack, bright and colourful locations, fast gameplay and gorgeous graphics made it excellent fun to play. But what surprises me now, looking back, is the strength of the story and how you expect it to be simple and generic, but instead it takes an alternative route, including multiple plots going on at the same time.

Sonic Adventure was a great game, but for me it was more than that; it was the game that made me realise that 3D adventures are fun, that made me realise that the Dreamcast was going to be fantastic and that, combined with its sequel Sonic Adventure 2, would make me judge other games very differently from then on.

The game that started it all for me was the first game that I played online - Microsoft's Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. As such, it is not so much the game but the fact that I played it online that makes it deserving of such an accolade. Having said this, it relied on the quality of the gameplay and its depth to make the online games enjoyable enough to hold my attention and stand a chance of being considered for the title. The variety of civilisations, unique tech trees, units and bonuses, together with the different maps and game modes and the simple yet effective interface, gave it a depth that few games, even today, can match, allowing for so much variety that even now it still holds my attention (and the attention of many others).

The importance I have attached to online gaming in my choice of The Game That Started It All is totally justified. The Internet culture of clans, community forums, websites and homebrew mods that has grown to surround it is the most important aspect of gaming to me, and arguably to the gaming industry as a whole, keeping a title invigorated and enjoyable for years after its release. Never has this been truer than now, with Xbox Live carrying on where the MSN gaming zone left off and carrying the mantle of online gaming onto the consoles. The Age of Kings' online games were not only my first experience of this, but they are also a textbook example. Clans and groups of friends allied up to take on rivals and collected individuals, forums were launched to discuss tactics, civ bonuses and swap hints, and the homebrew scene was busy at work on the scenario and map editor, creating unique games that would never have existed had Age of Kings not supported online gaming.

This then, is why playing Age of Kings online contributed to turning me from a casual gamer to a more serious one who would spend a Sunday morning writing this kind of article! Quite simply it opened up the gaming world to deliver a level of competitiveness and community that I had hitherto not experienced. As the first game I played online it was the first that came close to satiating my never-ending competitive streak and as such it touched places that other games hadn't reached! Had these things not been presented to me by The Age of Kings, I would probably not have discovered the wider gaming community nor the competitive possibilities inherent within it and not have developed my interest in gaming in general beyond that of the casual gamer. The game that started it all for me, then, was the one that held my hand into the wilderness that is online gaming - and I have never looked back since.

Having been around for ages, i could mention a few games off the top of my head. The first game I ever played was Gottlieb's Batter-Up way back in 1972. There's a story behind that, but I put that in a review of Pinball Hall of Fame for the PS2 a while back on another site. I also recall my Atari/Intellivision/Coleco/Vectrex years pretty well. But as to the game that really got me into gaming and eventually into writing about games, it's Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System.

Back when it came out, I had been away from games for a few years (real life has a way of kicking you in the pants every so often), but I went to visit my brother in 1989 and was knocked off my feet by the game he was playing. The story was engaging, the colorful visuals had me enthralled and that smooth scrolling first-person dungeon view (full screen!) was outstanding. We took turns playing the game over that summer, but there was one problem - we were hopelessly stuck late into the game. Baya Malay, of course. After a few days of falling into pits and making our way back up only to get lost again and again, I suggested we write Sega and see if they had a map or something. Eventually I drafted the letter up and sent if off, hoping for the best. About three weeks later we got a nicely sized envelope with a multi-page walkthrough and all the maps we needed to beat the game!

A week or so later, I wrote in and got walkthroughs for a few other SMS games and not too long afterward, Sega Visions magazines began showing up in the mail free of charge. At that time I had discovered Japanese Mega Drive games and while playing Shining in the Darkness, I did my first envelope art. That got published in Sega Visions and I later sent off a listing of import games that I thought should be localized for the Sega Genesis. Someone at Sega actually sent me a release form to sign and a note saying they liked some of my suggestions! Of course, that swelled my head a bit and I began playing games every spare moment I had, writing down things I noticed that were great, good and could have been better, not realizing where I was headed with this. A few years and a number of letters and art published in mags later, I self-published a few issues of a fanzine called Continue?, a combination of my artwork and freeform game criticism that drew a small, but loyal following. The rest, as they say, is history...

The game that started it all? Now there's a question! Accessing the dark recesses of my tiny brain to pinpoint the exact moment my interest in gaming became truly aroused is seemingly more difficult than I'd anticipated. When you're my age, games seem to merge into one - it reminds me of my wife saying stuff like, "Is that the film where the Titanic sinks and then they all get bitten by vampires and blow up the Death Star?" whilst we're trolling around blockbuster.

The first game will definitely be on the Amstrad CPC 464 though; it was the first machine I ever played a game on. My Mum and Dad bought it as a joint Christmas present for me and my sisters. They only ever wanted to play fruit machine or something naff like that on it, so it wasn't long before I copied over the cassette with Human League's Dare album to stop it loading.

A standout game I remember has to be Jet Set Willy - I was reminded of this game a few years ago when GTA III came out on PS2 and the magazines were saying, "It's groundbreaking, you can just go wherever you want!" I was thinking eh? You could do that on Jet Set Willy over ten years ago. Sure you couldn't drive, but you could turn into a small hedgehoggy looking thing with wings. You can't do that in GTA!

I was hooked from then on in, but there is one defining moment about seven years later when my interest changed from casual to hardcore. It was on the Commodore Amiga and it was caused by a game called Another World. It had (for the time) a movie-like intro and once you were thrown into the game, the graphics, sound, gameplay and variety astounded. Sure, it's not wonderful by today's standards, but back then it truly felt like an evolution. Every outcome had its own cut scene; every decision, every death, every win, every loss. To top it all, it was the first game other than a few graphic adventure thingys that had a truly captivating story. You connected with the characters and the game stirred emotion. I'm not ashamed to say that I shed a tear at the end.

The only emotion I'd felt from gaming until this point was the one where you feel compelled to launch a joystick at your wall with all your strength in sheer frustration, or the one where you pulled the disk/cassette out and jumped on it because it wouldn't load. But Another World was different - it took me on a journey and made me realise that from now on these could be more than just games, more than shooting, driving and plinky plonky sound effects. These machines had the ability to immerse you completely and take you on a journey.

Now I'm like a crack addict, still searching for a hit that'll be as good as that first one, sitting alone in a darkened room, all malnourished and pale, my hands shaking from the constant vibrating of the control pads and circles around my eyes from sitting too close to the telly. So far there've been a few contenders… the later Zelda games, the PS2 revamp of Prince of Persia, and Deus Ex, but as yet I'm still to be blown away by something the way I was blown away by Another World.

I'll keep searching though, and hopefully now my search should be nearing an end; my mouth waters at the prospect of what can be created once developers have found a way to truly harness the power of this next generation of machines. So I'll keep my fingers crossed. And meanwhile, if you want to experience the joy of Another World for yourself, you can download it here!

When Chris proposed a feature that asked me to pinpoint exactly what started off this godforsaken gaming addiction of mine, a floodgate of nostalgia opened and out poured dozens and dozens of Megadrive games. But that was the problem really - dozens of them. That's Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Landstalker - and Phantasy Star II. The truth is, I couldn't pinpoint what started it all off, because if I told you Altered Beast or if I said Shinobi helped me to get into the world of gaming, I'd be telling you a lie.

The Genesis as it's known in the USA, or the Megadrive over here in the UK, is what might have started off my gaming days. Dad actually bought the Megadrive for us both and it came bundled with Altered Beast, a six level side scrolling fighting game with the added bonus of being able to shape shift into six different monsters - and he was over the moon. I wasn't too keen on the whole affair when it first took up space in the living room; it became more of Dad's tool of pleasure than my own. Sonic was the first real game I took a shining to, running though levels at the speed of light, jumping on Dr. Robotnik and running some more. But still I wasn't a true gamer.

Then came the multiplayer boom. Games like Streets of Rage, which saw my cousin and I beating the living crap out of living crap, picking up apples for health, using shards of glass for weapons and calling the cops for extra firepower when things got tough - and things got tougher when we picked up Smash TV, probably one of the hardest games available for the Megadrive at that time. Golden Axe followed, a game that not only contributed into luring me into the gaming world, but started my fantasy lust, which led onto Phantasy Star, Landstalker and more recently games like World of Warcraft and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. The truth is, the Megadrive, over a period of time, gradually got me into gaming. It wasn't one particular game, because without finding Altered Beast a little tedious I would have never have picked up Sonic 2, and without my cousin controlling Tails while I played Sonic, I would have never have picked up multiplayer classics such as Streets of Rage and Golden Axe. But in a slight twist of fate, it was actually Wipeout for the PSOne that really got the ball of gaming rolling for me. After just warming up to my Megadrive, my Dad and my good old Grandad, who is no longer with us bless his soul, went halves on the first ever PlayStation for the first ever Christmas it was released. I could play that game for hours and hours, and as time went on, Dad, Grandad and I were all crowding the TV trying to solve Resident Evil puzzles.

In writing all this, I have discovered something about myself that I would never have known without this feature. It wasn't a game that started it all off, it wasn't that multiplayer classic in the form of Golden Axe - it wasn't the Megadrive, or the bloody PSOne - it wasn't what started off my love for gaming, but who. In actual fact, it was both my Dad and my Grandad's doing - was it not for their generosity and their curiosity for new gadgets, I couldn't see myself being where I am today.

So there you have it folks - straight from our writers' hearts, the games that mean something special to them, and not one writer picked the exact same game as another! These games are solely responsible for them having anything to do with this feature to begin with - but what about you? I'm sure you wouldn't be reading this had you not obtained a strong interest in video games... so, what game would you choose? We aren't done with this feature just yet, as the next chapter is yet to be written - and that's where you come in! We're taking submissions for a Once Upon A Time follow up featuring nothing but reader submissions, so get to typing and send your contributions to AceGamezFeatures@gmail.com. And thanks for reading our nostalgic journey through The Games That Started It All!

Feature conceived, compiled and illustrated by Christopher Martin
for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).