I honestly don't remember because I was too young. However I do remember growing up on all the classics like Keen, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Rise of the Triad, Test Drive (1 or 2? definitely 2), Street Rod 2. The list goes on
Pokémon Blue, you could say.
Also, RPG Maker. It's wholesome seeing what people make.
Oh yes, the golden era of Horror RPG Maker Games. Ib, Yume Nikki, The Witch's House etc
Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Elite back in the mid-90s. Jagged Alliance 2 and Fallout 2 a few years later got me finally hooked.
Super Mario Bros. A game that’s nearly as old as I am, that fully stands the test of time. From the very beginning of my gaming days, this and Duck Hunt got me into it. Dig Dug 2 was the first game I ever got angry enough to flip the tv the bird. Sonic and Tails probably was the second major influence on my life, from a video game perspective. After that I was a gamer and will never turn away from the cathode-ray light!
I once stumbled into my parent's computer room as a little 6 year old and saw my older brother playing Sim City 2000. That moment literally changed my life.
Before that, I had seen my parents on the computer, but they were always just emailing or faxing stuff. I thought computers were boring machines for adults to do paperwork on.
The day I saw my brother playing Sim City on the computer was the day I realized it could do something awesome.
That was well over 20 years ago, and I've been a PC gamer ever since.
We have a Home Movie of me at 3 years old playing Tetris on my cousin's Gameboy. I don't remember a time that video games weren't a part of my life.
The first game I remember realy clicking for me was Donkey Kong Country. I can still play that game off muscle memory alone.
Can't remember if it was Baldur's Gate 1 or Morrowind when I was a kid.
Mario 1, 2, & 3 on the NES
Also Bible Adventures on the NES
My mom worked for the church part-time and she'd park me and my brother in the youth group room with the NES. Someone had stolen all the games (except Bible Adventures) but not the console. Our grocery store would rent you a game for a three days for a dollar, and we rotated between the three Mario titles until we mastered them all.
Crystal caves, doom, Duke nukem 1, commander keen.. the incredible machihe, legend of kyrandia. Those are the earliest games I can remember playing. Fuck crystal caves I spent way too much time trying to beat that game.
Gaming in general would be the original Far Cry, Fallout 3, Battlefront 2, the Sims, and Age of Empires.
You can trace a lot of the games and genres I play today back to them.