A couple of weeks ago I was reminiscing about Contra, the first video game I ever beat. I was curious as to what the first games were that you, the readers had ever beaten. Much to my surprise, I was inundated by readers telling me not only the first game they had finished, but the stories behind each game as well. I'd like to share some of the comments and emails here.

It seems I'm not the only one who counts Contra as their first. Thanks to the "Contra Code" many of you guys saved the world too:

Donkeljohn:
"I think Contra may have been my first too! None of the 2600 games I had were of a finite nature despite getting 6,000,000+ points in Asteroids."

Erik Olfson:
"I am right there with, as the first game I ever beat was also Contra for the good old NES, that is as long as it counts if you can use the lives cheat"

DiGiTaL_SiNs:
"Contra is probably my first game too, I beat it with my sister WITHOUT CHEATS after hundreds of hours playing and failing at the hanger level (Didn't know the cheat code, the Internet didn't really exist as far as I knew back then), but we finally beat the game! I remember that day clearly, the day I 'considered myself to be a hero'."

Of course many of your responses were about games other than Contra, and there were some pretty interesting stories to go with the diverse list of games:

Shasam712:
"The first game I ever beat was Super Mario Bros. 3. I got that game on the NES when I was about 6, when the NES was all but gone. Being young, I was pretty bad, but a couple of years later and I could jump on Goombas with the best of them. That was the first game that I took the time out to go and find out the secrets, get all those whistles and beat all those Hammer bros. It was awesome, and I enjoyed it. I guess that's what makes it a classic, huh?"

mYTH_2k4:
"The first game I ever beat was Contra as well. I still remember that a friend of mine gave me the Contra code and I beat the game (all by myself) in about 40 minutes. I was totally ecstatic when the game announced that I'd "succeeded in destroying the Vile Red" and I literally had goosebumps when I saw the credits roll. At that time it didn't matter whether even the worst player on the face of this planet could beat the game...what mattered was that I, a mere seven year old, had managed to destroy the Vile Red!! Ahhhh...Those were the days!!"

Rasgueado:
"suppose the first game I ever beat could have been a text adventure for the TI-82 called pirates that took both a cartridge *and* an audio cassette to load."

Kamicolo:
"My first game prolly was Sonic for the Genesis. I remember getting the Genesis with Sonic and Mortal Kombat. Stayed up all night when I got it. Boy was I selfish, my cousin wanted to play and I wouldn't let him."

Remy_Labue:
"Believe it or not, the first game I ever beat was Eureka's Castle (NES), based off of a puppet TV show on Nickelodeon back in those days."

Korubi:
"I don't think I ever beat Super Mario Bros. when I got it when I was only six or so years old. I think my first game was probably Crash Bandicoot."

CanadianEh:
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES. All it took was a case of the chicken pox and a mother feeling sorry for me to get this game. If my NES still worked, I think I would play through it again right now."

MoDeS13:
"I can remember playing Dungeons & Dragons for the Intellivison and getting up to the dragon at the end but don't remember if I actually beat it. To answer the question, I think the first game I beat was Kung-Fu for the NES. Either that or Super Mario Bros.

Elsenorted:
"The first game I ever had was the old 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/ World Class Track Meet. I focused on the magic of the power pad in Track Meet. I used the player one side so I had to jump over hurdles and I eventually defeated cheetah and beat the game. I immediately ran one victory lap around my house and laid down gasping for air since real life running was way harder than World Class Track Meet."

TheRadiator:
"For about 2 months, every night for a half hour my family would gather around and try to make it to the second 'area' of Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, over and over again (We couldn't figure out the save system quite right. Point and laugh, but the manual was since long gone. To this day I can't figure out exactly why, but we didn't get it). Then I figured out the save. Suddenly, I could get to a certain point, then - *GASP* come back to it later. Now I played the game during the day too. Then I got to the third area, and got stuck on the underwater level there. "Coral Capers" I think it was called. I was stuck there for years. Then, one day when I was 10, I dusted off Donkey Kong Country and beat the whole thing in one day. When Kaptain K Rool fell off that deck, I've never felt so happy in my life."

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to share their stories. If I didn't use yours, rest assured I did read your response, but there were just too many great emails to share.

Well, that's about it for me, it's time for vacation. As you may or may not know, today's the last day of work for us here at GameSpot, but fear not, we'll be back on January 2nd. How are you supposed to get by without daily updates? Play more games, of course!