With the visibility actuator. Disable the object on start, and when you want to play it again enable it.

Thank you, was not able to get it working at first. But that worked. Thanks!

If your try just controlling the rendering on a oneshot object then it plays while invisible. You got to control the object itself.

I have the same question, but need more detail in the answer. How do I enable/disable objects? I don't see any checkboxes or controls for that.

You need to place the object containing the animation, and the visibility actuator. Then hook the actuator onto the animation and a button to the actuator.

Then on the actuator use the settings:
Activation type:"Enable or Toggle". "Targeting object" .

Then another actuator that has "Targeting object"," Disable" and "Active on start" selected

please correct me if there are other ways to initially disable :-)

Thanks! got it. I did not realize that "visibility actuator" is a logic device, not a built-in function of the effects/objects. Also didn't know that I would need two of them - one to disable on start, another to enable on button press ( or in my case, lock open)

It looks great now!