One of my earliest memories of gaming, occurred when I was either two or three years old. I can remember, having this big joystick, grabbing on to the stick with both my hands, pushing it forward and back, left and right, and watching this excitable yellow mouth on the tv run around a maze, chomping on other yellow dots, while colorful blobs chased him. I didn't know the name of the game, or even that was a game at the time, I just remember being fascinated that I could control something other then myself, and that it was fun.
I of course learned much later it was Pac-man, and I was playing on one of the original Atari game stations. My father, who was in College at the time, having gone back after serving a tour in the Navy, was never big into gaming or electronics, although he, like me was a great fan of science fiction. Being in Engineering College in California, in the late 70's, and early 80's, it was almost destiny that he picked up the Atari, to have when friends of his and my mother's were over for a "party". And it was almost destiny, that his son, being the next in a long line of engineer minded would pick up the controller, and find it just right.
Most of my impressions from that time, are colorful snap shots. One of which, was of various people, not my parents, watching me play Pac-Man, and then trying to beat my high score, but failing to do so. This was confirmed by my parents, who claim that frequently, when their adult friends came over, they would sit down and try to beat my score or ability, but very rarely being able to.
One would suspect that this early rivalry would have made me more competitive, however even at that time, I didn't rejoice at beating someone so much larger then me, but instead loved to watch, compare, even teach even with a three year old's vocabulary. Something I still do to this day, when I love co-op games, and teaming more then PvP.
Beyond Pac-Man, I would most later remember this air dogfight game, however even now, I'm not sure when they took place, other then by the time I was six the Atari had broken down again, and when we moved, I was left without another console or computer till the NES broke on the stage.