When I started gaming

Over at the excellent blog, James Maliszewki's "Grognardia", he has put up a poll to see how many of the people who frequent his blog started gaming. I put my 2 cents worth in stating:

"1986, grade 7, James Bond 007 by Victory Games. I had heard of rpg's before (going back as far as '84; mainly via comics & Starlog magazine seeing ads for JB) but never had the opportunity to play, or even know where to buy them for that matter."

 Now, that is all true. But then I started reading other posts and it seems that a lot of people (British readers it would seem) consider the Fighting Fantasy books created by Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone to be their first gateway into RPG's. While I am not British, I must admit, that I too was reading those before I started playing fully fledged RPG's like AD&D, D&D, James Bond, Top Secret, MSH advanced set etc.... The one I liked best out F&F was the first one I read: Deathtrap Dungeon. The first book was of course, Warlock On Firetop Mountain but i wouldn't end up reading that for a few years, not until I actually started gaming with more than just myself.