Mentioned it elsewhere, but the heavy parchment tables in the original box sets were what caught my eye - but the content of those tables hooked me. I also liked the idea of a skill-driven system at a time when AD&D didn't really have any.
By the age of 12 I was going downtown to my local University Union and playing with the adults. Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls, and so forth. I've played tons of games, lost most of them in 2 moves. GURPS, Dirt, Paranoia, Lords of Creation, Boot Hill, Gamma World (the original), Fringeworthy, Traveller, The Morrow Project, a WW II squad rpg with deadly realistic combat that I don't remember the name of and wish I had, Palladium, Rifts, Shadow Run, TWERPS, Talislanta (an awesome setting - the guy who made the game held on to the rights, and after the market bottomed out on it he put everything online for free!
I really recommend checking out his game/setting), D&D (basic-expert-etc), AD&D (1, 2, and 3rd edition - never really did 3.5 and no point in looking at 4... did one beta playtest for the new edition and stopped participating), Chill, Changling, Mekton II, Villians and Vigilantes, Champions, DC Heroes, Marvel Superheroes, Vampire: The Masquerade, Call of Cthulhu, and so many more I can't recall, but I wish I still had all my games now.
Looking up at the shelf right now I can see HARP, RM2 (all companions, war law, sea law, character sheets, heroes and rogues, etc), RMSS and RMFRP (got the FRP for cheap and I collected all editions), Space Master (like the ship design rules better in this version), Privateers (like the robot design rules better in this version, setting was kind of bland for me), most of the Shadow World setting, Cyberpunk (still remember the firefight where the bodyguard couldn't hit the broad side of the barn, but a nerdy scientist with 1 rank in a energy pistol took out two attackers with kill shots and incapacitated a third... I twisted it into a "Bubble Gum Crisis" game setting.), and even a few of the Loremaster modules. No matter my moves, I tried hard to hold onto my Rolemaster games while everything else was lost (all my non-rolemaster stuff is from a coworker of my wife's who use to be a gamer that retired... mostly Rifts and superhero games).
I know I am getting old because I am getting nostalgic for the golden age of RPGs. I didn't care that it was geeky and the ultimate act of social pariahism. I remember roleplaying before work, coming home from work to staying up all night and day gaming, having to go back to work, drinking mountain dew and popping no-doze until my boss sent me home due to really bad shakes and inability to form cohesive sentences. I had a friend who worked as a janitor. He let us in after hours so he could take his breaks gaming with us - and we got to use the offices for several hours. I remember thriving game shops filled with wide eyed kids like me.
Now? Video games, movies, and the internet has replace so much. I shouldn't complain. My town has had a stable FLGS for quite some time, there was a second one I didn't realize existed (it focuses on miniatures and war gaming, but still does some RPGs), and one opened up in the last year that focuses on board games more than RPGs.
I miss the good old days of childhood when I could game all weekend, or the early days of adulthood before the evil of CCGs descended. However, through all my decades of gaming, I've always come back to Rolemaster. Even when not actively playing Rolemaster products I would buy them and read them. I wish the hobby would come back, but I don't think it will ever be the same. Still, nice to know it won't completely die off in my lifetime either.