Played SH1 when the demo disc shipped with Metal Gear Solid in 1999, so I suppose I've been a fan since the very start!

I played it back in 1999 on a whim. It was my first horror game and pretty much took over my life during the SH1-4 heyday.

>I guess we could say Capcom was sort of partially responsible for Konami ruining their series

I still don't believe Konami "ruined" its series. The latter games are different and not quite as powerful, but every one of 'em has brought something special to the table, I reckon.

Like a lot of people in the 90s, I was a huge Resident Evil fan. I was obsessed with RE1 and 2 and played them basically every day for quite a while. So obviously Silent Hill 1 caught my attention as being the next big thing in survival horror.

I ended up renting it from Blockbuster when it first came out and while I enjoyed it, it didn't really speak to me at the time. Which is hilariously because I know where I quit was JUST before the otherworld of Midwich and I had no idea. Man, if i played for another 20 minutes my whole world would have been rightfully fucked.

It wasn't until when Silent Hill 2 came out that I read a review in EGM that flat out said 'this game WILL scare you'. So hell yeah, I was in. I ended up buying it and they sure as fuck were right. Since then I became obsessed with the series.

And yet, here we are with fuck all to go on. Love you Konami!

Same here. You wouldn't believe how many times I replayed that demo. In fact, I think I still have Metal Gear Solid and the SH1 demo around here somewhere.

I played SH1 in '99 or possibly 2000. I was 13 and had recently gotten my own bedroom after my brother moved out and I was able to take his old room. He actually played SH1 first and then told me I should play it. It was so unlike anything I'd played before. It was my first time being scared by a game, and it took me like 22 hours of gameplay to beat, haha. I remember being on the phone with him about one of the puzzles, and I recruited my mom to come in and help me with turning the stupid valves in the school basement, LOL. So awesome remembering playing that for the first time on my little TV in my bedroom.

I'll forever be grateful for my brother introducing me to it. He never played any of the other SH games after that. I obviously did. He became less of a gamer over the years while I remained one and only became more of one.

I agree with Vixx! I'm one of the rare folks who has been a fan from the beginning AND has actually managed to enjoy every game in the series. I do full series play-throughs, but I also get the urge to pop in just SH1 or SH2 and do a play-through. There are qualms I have with some of the later games, but I don't need to 100% love EVERYTHING about a game to enjoy it. I felt that even the later SH games managed to have a Silent Hillish atmosphere to some degree and were enjoyable to play. They're way below the early games of the series but still worthy games IMO.

By 1998, I was a Resident Evil fan. My first and favorite game in that series was RE2. My first game was Silent Hill 2 in 2001. After graduating from college, my dad bought me a PS2 as a gift. My younger sister bought SH2 for me (I rented it first). I was instantly hooked. The game was disturbing, yet also accessible for me as my visual coordination isn’t the best. Before that, I was a fan of Silent Hill 1, especially after seeing the commercial in the US. After SH2, I bought SH3. However, I didn’t buy SH1 until SH4 came out, and I got both. I love the games for their rich lore, horror, atmosphere, music, sounds, and storylines.

I came in late. I'd always been a survival horror fan, and heard lots about Silent Hill. So I bought Silent Hill 2 back in 2004. I'd never played anything that had atmosphere like that and I was hooked. Everything from the monster design, the truly otherworldly architecture of the locations that James explores, and the fact that so much of the backstory and lore is pretty much left to the player's imagination. Then I bought all of the games up to that point. Silent Hill 3 is still my favorite.

I was in my early teens. One day my father came home with two games. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor's Legacy and Silent Hill 2. Got hooked since.

What an awesome dad, Mephisto.

I became a fan around the time Origins came out. My dad gave me his copy of the original game since he didn't really like it but thought maybe I would. Grabbed 2-4 off eBay about a week later and have grabbed every entry since on release day (except Book of Memories since I haven't and still don't have a Vita).

Another great dad!

It was Silent Hill 1, I played it with my older sister, though I was very young at the time. Probably a bit too young for it, it scared me a lot. Enough to leave an impact, for sure. A few years later she bought me Silent Hill 2 for my birthday and that was when I really got hooked.

The silent hill demo that was shipped with MGS, I remember Woolworths in the UK had a promotion on, when you bought the game you would get a silver MGS memory card.

Couldn't wait to play it, my friend had it imported from the states and he had it early as he had his ps1 chipped.

MGS was game of the year but that demo changed my life, been a fan since, and sh was one of the reasons i decided to move to japan some years ago