I played Phantasmagoria 1 when I was 12-13 years old, but that was 3-4 years ago and lets face it, with films like Hostel and Saw, Phantasmagoria isn't that explicit now.
And well, it wasn't very irresponsible considering how many 10 year olds would understand the plot (Little to none).

I was a student of Arizona State at the time that the original Phantasmagoria came out, and I played it a few months after the release date. I did not play Phantasmagoria II until several years ago.

I first played it the day it came out. I got the demo free in one of those old pc mags that arent around anymore and so i saved my pennies and nearly crapped my pants from the pure awesomeness of this video game at the time.

Can't quite remember how old I was. Mid teens, probably. We found it in a book store together with a bunch of other Sierra/Blizzard games (they had a shared label for rereleases). It was actually the amount of CDs that tempted us to buy it, we basically thought "so many CDs! it must be great!".
I believe it was the first proper FMV adventure I played, so I was quite ready to overlook the flaws. It was just so fresh and exciting back then. After completing it I went back to buy Gabriel Knight 2 from the same store.

yesterday. and i like the second part much better than the first one.
mainly because of spoony's review :-D

Somebody was selling Phantasmagoria at the local market cost ten pounds for a classic big box game!

I first played it when I was 10//11//12 Dont specifically remember which age I was of the three I mentioned. But my father brought home a cardboard box of computer software he got from a coworker at work he left it in the computer room I went through it and found Gabriel Knight II The Beast Within and Phantasmagoria I and II I was very excited :D I am now 22 and I have several copies of each game :D

I first played it when it came out. I'd been waiting for it cause the teaser I'd seen in my Kings Quest Collection (or was it on one of the Gabriel Knight games...) was good and left me wanting more.
Still haven't finished it though. The last Chapter is a pain in the butt. I'd love to find someone's save file so I could WATCH the final chapter like a movie (as it's meant to be).

I bought it around the time of its original release date and finished it in a weekend. I really didn't expect a 7CD game to be finished that quickly, but I was really into it and burned through it.

I haven't touched it since and I missed the sequel when it came out, so at some point in the near future I'm going to put my GOG purchases of them to good use.

i bought the game the day it came out... after watching months of previews and being a massive fan of the genre, when i bought my first computer and played the 7th guest. i have been hooked on this game ever since and i adore the second one as well. wish the fmv era didnt fade. oooooooo gabriel knight how i miss you.

Probably 13 years oldish? 1996 maybe. I remember being fantastically creeped out. Was on our old Performa 575 if I remember right.

Geez, here I go, showing my age. I was... 27, I think, when it came out. I was in the Army, in Panama. Can't even remember what kind of computer I had. I loved it back then, even though I could never get the ending right. I bought it again here last weekend.

Think I played it first time about the time of release, a few weeks later probably.
My best friend and our mutual friend were sitting in his room playing when I came by to visit. Think I was 14 years or something. Remember one of the cutscenes where Zoltan kills one of his wives was scary as hell for all three of us XD

Of course, I fancied the game so much I think I've played it though about 50 times or something. Took me at least 30 correct finishes before my heart stopped fluttering in the chase-sequence in the end :p

I must've been 11 or 12 i reckon, definetly around 96/97. Was using my friends uber speedy pentium 90, i swear waiting in suspense for those cutscenes was half the fun haha.

Cant seem to get my original copy to play in fullscreen anymore though, how does the GOG package fair up?