When were you introduced to

[Mad_Jack]

As I was born in 1972, my parents practiced the sort of free-range parenting that was popular back then, and, being what you might charitably call "precocious", I was exposed to a lot of things at a somewhat younger age than those things might have been meant for, heh...


D&D and Star Wars, about when I was 8, or so... 1980 (?)

D&D - one of my little brother's friends came over to our house to hang out, and the friend's older brother had his driver's license so got stuck having to drive him over and stay the whole time. Older brother brought his blue box Basic set with him and ran a game for us. I got my own copy of the magenta box when I was 10.
Star Wars - I know I saw the original film before seeing Empire, but apparently the first one wasn't released until '84 on vhs and Empire came out in '80.
Since I also know that I saw both of them at the local drive in, either A) My parents went to see it when I was 5, which seems unlikely, B) the local was showing A New Hope at some point long after it's original release, or C) I saw them as a double-feature when Empire was released. I remember having some of the original Star Wars toys, but I'm not sure when I first picked them up.

It was also around the same age, 8 or 9, that I began reading comic books - I used to have whole shoe boxes full of X-Men comics from as far back as the late '70's, and a handful of older stuff (mostly war comics) going back to the '60's.

Star Trek - I was aware of the original series but had only seen a couple of episodes of that and the animated series and probably read a comic book or two when I finally got around to seeing the first film on HBO or VHS sometime in the very early '80's.

Battlestar Galactica - I had a bunch of the comic books and toys, and saw a number of the original series episodes in reruns in the early '80's.

Dr. Who - I was vaguely aware of its existence in the '80's - I saw maybe three or four episodes in reruns, but never got into it.

CAR WARS - I was introduced to the game by a guy I met in college in '90.

M:tG - I started with the Revised set not long after it came out - the previously-mentioned college friend and I had been introduced to it during our short-lived participation in the local SCA.

I got involved in Rocky Horror back in '97, although I'd first seen it in '91.

D&D video games - my first PC D&D game was Baldur's Gate in 1998.

Elder Scrolls - the first game I played was Morrowind in 2002...

Never read Earth Sea, but I did read the first two Potter books on plane flights, coming and going from a Rocky Horror Picture Show convention in 2003.

 

[cranberry]

AD&D: 1979
Star Wars: 1977
Earth sea: n/a for me
H.Potter: 2002, but never read any of the books, or took an interest in it.
Magic The Gathering: n/a for me. But I was introduced to Yu-Gi_Oh in the early 2000's by my son.
Marvel/ D.C: Early 70's.

 

[overgeeked]

D&D. Somewhere between 1977-1979. Though I didn’t play until 1984.

Star Wars. 1977.

Earth Sea. Never read it.

Harry Potter. 1998 or 1999.

Magic: The Gathering. 1993-1994. I was already playing when Arabian Nights launched.

Marvel/DC. 1976.

Doctor Who. Sometime between 1984-1986. I watched episodes on the local public broadcasting station. I didn’t really get into it until the 2005 relaunch.

 

[the Jester]

So, what year were you introduced to the big following things:

D&D
Star Wars
Earth sea
H.Potter
Magic The Gathering
Marvel/ D.C

D&D: 1980.
Star Wars: 1978.
Earthsea: Sometime in the 80s.
Harry Potter: Must have been about 2002.
MtG: 1994.
Marvel/DC: Approx. 1975-6.

I am old.

 

[JAMUMU]

A to the D to the A to the D: 1983? 1984?
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, so 1981 by the time I saw it
Earthsea: 1990 or thereabouts
Harry Potter: 1997 working in a bookshop and I hated it the minute I saw it
MtG: Eh....early 90s? Was on holiday in the USA and brought back a big box of them a guy in a comic shop gave me for free cos I liked Cerebus the Aardvark.
Marvel/DC: 1979? 80? Thenaboots.

 

[deganawida]

D&D: Awareness was probably 1983, as I think the cartoon was out, there were action figures, and some of the older kids at Seminary Village in Louisville, KY played it. I mostly was interested in the cartoon and figures, though my parents forbade me both. First time playing was an ad hoc BECMI game on a long trip back from Centrifuge camp. Still wasn’t allowed to play, so did TMNT instead publicly, and snuck in AD&D 2nd edition on the side when I could.

Star Wars: Probably around the time trailers were being shown of The Empire Strikes Back. I recall ESB being my first theater movie; I yelled out, “What in the world was that?” when the giant worm appeared.

Earthsea: I was aware of it in junior high (88-91), but never read it. I did read the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander in ‘87, though.

Harry Potter: Late 90s, was dating my wife at the time.

MtG: Played one game in the mid-99s, hated it, and never touched again except to ogle the artwork.

Marvel: Old Spider-Man cartoons, Electric Company, and MEGO dolls. Didn’t read the comics until junior high, and stopped at Onslaught.

DC: Also young. Saw Adam West a lot. Friend got a Man-Bat comic and record for like his 6th birthday. I had some cheap B&W mega comics starring Batman and Robin that I think I was supposed to color, but never did. First actual comic book was a Batman or Detective Comics issue pre-CoiE where Bruce lets some thug think he killed Batman, and Alfred and his niece Julia mourn a tree (1985?). Got bigger into DC after Marvel, before dropping superhero comics for more indie stuff

Both superhero universes were dear to me as a kid, as I had lots of Underroos made like superheroes. My favorites were Batman, Robin, and Captain Marvel.

 

[MarkB]

So, what year were you introduced to the big following things:

D&D

Originally, in secondary school, which would have been early 80s. But I only stuck with it for a few years. Later, I played the Baldur's Gate games, became an avid member of discussion groups and forums, and when Bioware started developing Neverwinter Nights and had a forum dedicated to discussing how the 3e rules would be implemented, I was eager to join in. So eager that I purchased the 3e core rulebooks purely for that purpose. It was only several months later that it occurred to me "hey, I've got the books, I might as well try getting into playing the actual game." That would've been around 2001-ish, and I joined a local RPG club and just kept on playing.

Star Wars

Right at the start. I have very hazy memories of queuing to see it at our local cinema, and firmer memories of the VHS recording we made of it when it played on ITV at Christmas. My brother and I re-watched it so many times that we could recite the dialogue by heart, and that version is so seared into my subconscious that even now I find myself expecting it to cut to ads at specific moments.

Earth sea

No idea, I know I read the novel at some point and I watched the Ghibli movie when I was going through my Ghibli phase, but it's never stuck with me as a story or setting.

H.Potter

About the time it started to blow up in public perception. Goblet of Fire was the first novel I bought new on release.

Magic The Gathering

Never clicked with me. I've played a round or two with friends, but it didn't spark any real interest.

Marvel/ D.C

Comics-wise, I was aware of it from school age and would read occasional graphic novels. Went through a phase of getting into Batman around the time the BBC Radio version of Knightfall was on the air - 1994, according to Wikipedia. I read Spider-man for a long time, got really into it, then the Clone saga and the massive reset-button mashing that capped it killed my interest.

Watched Batman the Animated series and all its spin-offs, particularly enjoyed Batman Beyond. Watched and enjoyed the first two seasons of Young Justice.

Was into the Warner DC TV series, but never stuck with one beyond about the third season when the angst would inevitably rise to drown out any measure of joy.

Movie-wise, saw the 1989 Batman movie at the cinema, still pretty much my favourite version of Batman. Saw the first three X-Men movies at the cinema, my interest waned after that and I caught most of the rest on TV or streaming as they cropped up.

Saw pretty much all of the MCU at the cinema, up until Endgame.


The big one you didn't mention is Star Trek. That, I got into watching re-runs of TOS in the 70s and early 80s. Definitely saw all the movies and most of the series as they became available - TNG was a fixture on BBC2. I have strong memories of the triple-bill of Star Trek I, II and III that our cinema put on when the third movie came out. I think the projectionist fell asleep during the first movie, as there were about ten minutes during the V'Ger surface flyby where the image had got out of sync and was showing the top half of the image below the bottom half.

DS9 is still my favourite series, and the only ones I haven't seen all the way through are Voyager and Enterprise. I dropped Voyager after season 2, but have revisited later seasons a few years ago and caught the majority of the show. With Enterprise, I lost interest during the Xindi arc, and have only seen a smattering of the last two seasons.

 

[Ryujin]

DS9 is still my favourite series, and the only ones I haven't seen all the way through are Voyager and Enterprise. I dropped Voyager after season 2, but have revisited later seasons a few years ago and caught the majority of the show. With Enterprise, I lost interest during the Xindi arc, and have only seen a smattering of the last two seasons.

"Enterprise" was the Star Trek show that finally convinced me that I really don't have to watch all of something, if I'm not enjoying it, regardless of what the wrapper says. After I had forced myself to make it all the way through it, that is. Towards the end they finally started doing what they should have from the beginning, but only when they already knew that they were cancelled.

"Voyager", on the other hand, became better on later watches. At least the later seasons did. I finally got past my "Borgwatch" preconceptions and realized they were showing interesting viewpoints when doing Seven of Nine stories.

 

[MarkB]

"Voyager", on the other hand, became better on later watches. At least the later seasons did. I finally got past my "Borgwatch" preconceptions and realized they were showing interesting viewpoints when doing Seven of Nine stories.

It did improve, but still had the issue that there were only two characters I liked or cared about - Seven and the Doctor. Janeway got better, but nobody else really crossed that threshold.

I am really enjoying Kate Mulgrew's reprise of Janeway in Prodigy, though.

 

[bloodtide]

D&D- Way back in the 80's a read lot of Chose Your Own Adventure Books. But I ran out of Official books fast, but luckily there was plenty of Third Party Chose Books. And one such company was TSR, making D&D Chose Your Own Adventure Books. I read those books too.....and way on the back page was an add: "If you liked this book, you should try this game AD&D". So I did, buying that Red Basic box at Waldenbooks.....

Star Wars- I was a younling for seeing in the theater Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, though I was "there" with my parents. So my first movie was Return of the Jedi. And I got all the Toys, even lots of the Sears Exclusive ones.

Earth sea- We have not been introduced

H.Potter- My daughter came over one day obssesed with a new book: Harry and the Stone. And quickly we were brewing potions and playing quiditch and on and on.

Magic The Gathering- One day I was told this weird "card company" bought TSR....and have not cared about 'magic' ever, but guess it's like playing War with cards.

Marvel- I was a G.I. Joe kid. The grocery store Pick and Pay sold G.I. Joe comics with an action figure pack, so I bought them. The store gave me ten cents for each store receipt I turned in, er, for the citys schools or something, I don't remember. So when my mom went grocery shopping I'd get $5 from her to buy five things from our cart..and get five receipts....six plus the one my mom got for the cart full. Plus I'd get a seventh receipt for buying my mom her cigarettes.....as back in the '80's a kid could just say "I'm buying these cigarettes for my mom"...and they would let you buy them. Not long after g.I. Joe, I got into Transformers and their comic: Buying the first four issues in a special pack at Zaryes(it was like K-Mart, but worse). I took a Mythology class in school, to go with Astronomy. Then one day, I saw an issue of The Avengers, where they were fighting the Olympian gods. I picked it up, and was hooked.

D.C- At some point in the 80's I saw these and ignored them, Make Mine Marvel.

Doctor Who - Searching for sci fi content to watch in the 80's wasteland....I heard a rumor about a "doctor who" show that was only shown on Public Television. For me it was channel 45/49 that was on the edge of the area....so I had to Macguyver an antenna out of wire hangers and tin foil to get it to come in clear. Though it was also shown late at night, 10pm, so I had to pop in a Beta Max tape and hit 'record' before I went to sleep. So starting with the Third Doctor I watched them all.

Star Trek- I saw the original series a bunch of times on UHF channel 67, often on Sunday nights they would play three or four in a row. And, somehow, my station got the ones unedited for syndication so they always over ran the hour time slot by several minutes. As a kid, it was an ok show. But I really got on board when Star Trek the Next Generation came out.