How did you acquire rated M games before you were 17?

Or if youre not into games, liquor/cigarettes/something youngsters cant have. I used to ask my big brother to accompany me to get rated M games since he was apathetic about whatever I was getting. It was like pulling teeth trying to get my parents to get stuff like Halo or Devil May Cry. Especially Devil May Cry. Had to convince em that it wasnt some crazy satanic shit.

I didn't? I had more than enough E- and T-rated games to tide me over until I was eighteen. Then again, I owned a Super Nintendo, so. . .

Internet..............

Dad would buy M rated video games. Never smoked or drank. But I know my friends used to either ask someone to buy for them or stole it

My mother was good enough to trust in my maturity. She knew what kind of kid I was because she spent time with me. She was even picking up my Explicit Content LPs back in the day too. I was a lucky kid.

My parents would let me play M15/R16 games and movies, but nothing R18, because boobs are far more damaging to a child's mind than violence as I'm sure you're all aware.

Well, yeah. Boobs are poke-y and they could squirt in your eye.

The M rating came out around three years before I turned 17, so it wasn't like I had that long to wait. Most of the games I played were K-A (the rating that preceded E) or T, I didn't look at too many M-rated games. Back then not that many stores enforced the rating anyway, since ignoring the rating wasn't punishable by law and was enforced by store policy. I was 17 when Resident Evil 2 came out for the PS1 but I wasn't asked for ID when I went to pick it up.

So before you were 17, you had a debit card or access to bank accounts?

Wasn't relevant to me as I was pretty much 18 by the time they really started using it.

They never really "carded" people until I was basically "of age" anyways. Though in the last few years, if there were games that I thought my mom would find questionable, I'd rent them from Blockbuster and then buy them that way. No box art, means no rating.

Not sure about Judas_, but my mother thought it a good idea for me to be financially responsible. I knew exactly how much I had, when it was gone, it was gone. I learned the value of money and what was really important.

Walked right in and bought it. They're lax in game rating regulations here.

I bought them or got them as gifts. People were way more lax about the ratings back in the late 1990's.

I didn't get them. I really only cared about a few games like pokemon and whatever nintendo game was coming out until around 2008 or so. My older brother got Halo and stuff with my dad though, he didn't care much.

My dad bought many of them while others were given to me as gifts. I attempted to buy a few myself like REmake but the store clerks said they can't sell an M-Rated game to a minor...

As far as drinks and smoke, when I did smoke back when I was 16, I simply walked in a bought a pack. Only a few ever asked for an I.D. I don't drink alcohol so I never had a problem there...

Internet, or family/friends. Age restrictions are silly.

Pretty stupid how you have to be 21 to buy alcohol, but you can buy it online with a debt card.

Stupid America.

My mother would buy me m-rated video games, because she knew i wasn't stupid, and i knew the difference between fantasy and reality. Physically harming someone in real life for entertainment value makes about as much sense as smashing random objects looking for ammo, or just to admire the damage.

She also bought me cigs, because she smoked and was tired of me calling her out on it, and she bought me booze under the prerequisite that i told her when and where i was drinking, when i'd be home, and of course, call if i was going to be any later.

Usually internet, but the few times I went into a store, I never was asked for ID.

I don't remember ever being asked for ID, but...I guess in some cases I just asked my parents for them?

My Dad, then my mom told me to return a game with blood in it.

I never did and she could never tell the difference between games, so I'd go into a non graphic part of the game until she left.

Bing bang boom, we all win

I walked into any store and bought them.

ESRB ratings were new when I was a teen back in the 90's. People working at stores didn't know what the ratings meant, and nothing was enforced.

M rated games didn't really exist until Mortal Kombat and even then I was never carded for a game and they didn't really start enforcing ESRB ratings until I was old enough to buy them for myself anyways.

My parents didn't really pay attention to ratings. Besides, my brother used to buy some games for himself which I sometimes ended up playing as well.

My parents.

My dad didn't give a shit about the ratings. He knew they were just games only meant for fun.

Over here though, restrictions don't technically start until MA+ which is 15 and over.

Frankly, I can't remember. A combination of mom buying them plus me just buying them? So strange.

Exactly the same as this

I went into the store and asked for them.

Nobody ever said anything to me .

My parents acquired them for me.They didn't even mind the violence.

Back when I was under 17 you could still buy them yourself...and earlier than that, we didn't have the M rating.

Mom didn't care about ratings. Only a few M games really appealed to me back then though.

No one cares about enforcing videogame ratings in my country so M-rated games weren't hard to buy.

I asked my mum to get me them (18 rated games, we don't have an M rating)

Parents for games. If I ever wanted anything else I wasn't old enough to buy I always had a few friends who were that could help me.

I just bought them in a store. The staff never seemed to care. My parents never really cared about the age rating of anything either. My remember watching Die Hard 2 with my dad when I was 6.

My parents just let me, in fact Wolfenstine 3D was the first game I played.

My parents, ever since I was 7. Cashiers certainly enforced it hardcore here in Seattle. They'd even try to convince my parents, who already don't mind the rating, to not buy the game....

My parents only vaguely cared I was watching R-rated movies when I was like 4. Playing the first Half-Life when I was like 8 and had an H.R.Giger artbook in the 2nd grade.

Ironically it was easer for me to buy them when I was under-age. Back then no where around where I lived ever asked for ID, because they where all self owned stores that couldn't afford to lose the sales.

Now I'm 25 and I get ID'ed not just for 18+ games, but for 16+ and in some places even 12+.

parents bought the games.

sister/sisters friends bought the alcohol and smokes.

Parents.

They actually did a very impressive thing by actually keeping an eye on me and checking to see if I was mature enough and knew the difference between fiction and reality. They actually started when I was 6 after I told them I had tried Doom at a friends house. Not only did they get that game for me but I also saved up money for a NES and several games. I think they found it a relief that although I played doom, I also would play Mario, Little Nemo and the like.

Not to mention my best friend got a Sega Genesis and they then saw how social those games could be when 8 kids sat and had fun.

So I suppose good parenting and me being able to show I was mature for my age enabled me to play 18+ Rated games, Although I didn't play many of them until I turned around 15 years old. Doom and Doom 2 was pretty much the only 18+ rated games I had until I turned 14.

I turned 17 exactly one year before these ESRB ratings like E, T, M, etc. began so it was never an issue for me. The first rated M game I bought that year was Mortal Kombat 2 for the SNES.

The first few M-rated games were my brother's. I believe I asked for my first M-rated game when I was like 11 or 12, and from then on it was never a big deal. I would ask for them for birthdays/Christmas or go online and buy them via eBay or something, paying my parents back of course since I obviously didn't have a credit card or anything.

My mother bought them for me, unlike some kids, violence, blood and killing in video games never really got to me growing up. The first M rated game I acquired as a child was Mortal Kombat II for the SNES back in the mid 90s, I don't think it was rated though since the rating system wasn't around yet I think.

I don't remember M ratings being big deal back then. I played mortal kombat and wolfenstien doom no problems. My parents or friends parents bought them

When i was 9, I got Duke Nukem 3d for Christmas.

Cashiers never used to care, and the one time they did (CS:S), I didn't even have to reply.
"Oh, you have to be 17 to buy this game...Ehh you look 17"
I think i was 15.

Ratings weren't a big deal when I was younger. As far as the liquor, we'll my family is German, so I was always allowed reasonable amount in the house.

Uncle Harry would buy M-rated games for me whenever I threatened to tell my parents about our ... special friendship. :D

From what I remember, I had several different methods...

The few times I bought them in store before I was 17, the cashier didn't care at all. Mostly though, I would have my mom buy the games online with her credit card, and then pay her back. She didn't pay much attention to the rating luckily, because she probably wouldn't have approved of the games if she'd known what was in them.

There were also a few occasions where I would buy them off of other kids as well.