Probably Math Blaster: Search for Spot. But then I had one of those “1000 games” “demo” (Most were full games) discs that the guy at the computer shop included with a hard drive. Played the crap...
But then I had one of those “1000 games” “demo” (Most were full games) discs that the guy at the computer shop included with a hard drive. Played the crap out of these:
What was everyone here's first computer/video game? The first game that I can remember playing was a really rudimentary Doctor Who ASCII game, on either the IBM PC 5150 or Commodore 64 (can't...
What was everyone here's first computer/video game?
The first game that I can remember playing was a really rudimentary Doctor Who ASCII game, on either the IBM PC 5150 or Commodore 64 (can't remember which, but we owned both). You controlled The Doctor with your keyboard, represented by a smiley face character (the modern unicode char is not the same since it's round, whereas the old ASCII character was square E.g.). And you had to make your way through a maze made up of box characters, while fleeing from Daleks (¥), to get to the Tardis (▮) to reach the next, more complex/difficult level.
I have tried searching for the game multiple times over the years, but I've never been able to find it. The closest games I have found to it are Escape MCP and Drelbs, but they're much more complex in both graphics and gameplay than the game I'm talking about, and also lack the Dr. Who theming.
It was 40ish years ago, so I honestly don't remember many C64 games off the top of my head, except for Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken, even though I'm sure I played many others.
It was 40ish years ago, so I honestly don't remember many C64 games off the top of my head, except for Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken, even though I'm sure I played many others.
Two that I'd always heard of and never played! I remembered Legacy of the Ancients - an rpg that I really enjoyed that should have been on my original list. Takes me back!
Two that I'd always heard of and never played! I remembered Legacy of the Ancients - an rpg that I really enjoyed that should have been on my original list. Takes me back!
My first computer game was probably Raptor or Where In The World is Carmen San Diego for MS-DOS . I remember putting the floppy/CD in, typing 'dir D:/' then like.. 'run start.exe'.
My first computer game was probably Raptor or Where In The World is Carmen San Diego for MS-DOS .
I remember putting the floppy/CD in, typing 'dir D:/' then like.. 'run start.exe'.
The first that I remember were NIBBLES.BAS (1991) and GORILLAS.BAS (1991) played at my dad’s office on Take-Your-Kid-to-Work Day. The former is a Snake variant. The latter was a PvP artillery game...
The first that I remember were NIBBLES.BAS (1991) and GORILLAS.BAS (1991) played at my dad’s office on Take-Your-Kid-to-Work Day. The former is a Snake variant. The latter was a PvP artillery game where you and your opponent were gorillas at opposite ends on top of a city skyline and chucked exploding bananas at each other by entering angle and velocity. Gravity was also a configurable setting with amusing results.
I got a Super Nintendo shortly after release (aside: went to Toys R Us for just a Game Boy, but left with SNES. Great birthday). It is blowing my mind that the SNES and Super Mario World hit North American shelves also in 1991. The difference in quality and complexity compared to those bundled MS-DOS 5 games from the same year is staggering.
Yes! Qbasic on an 8088 (?) and somehow I ended up bricking the computer. Fortunately, my dad had a friend that worked for Cyrix (the chip maker) who traded us a 286 for a 24 pack of Budweiser....
Yes! Qbasic on an 8088 (?) and somehow I ended up bricking the computer. Fortunately, my dad had a friend that worked for Cyrix (the chip maker) who traded us a 286 for a 24 pack of Budweiser. He’s the same guy who told me that Dragon Warrior on NES was a joke compared to this game with amazing graphics called King’s Quest on the computer.
It was either Number Munchers, Pong, or Pitfall, I can't remember the order in which I had access to them. For some reason I remember Number Munchers as Math Muncher, I wonder if I had a teacher...
It was either Number Munchers, Pong, or Pitfall, I can't remember the order in which I had access to them. For some reason I remember Number Munchers as Math Muncher, I wonder if I had a teacher who called it that.
Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot at least its the first one I can remember playing. I think one of the first games I really really enjoyed playing was either the original Sims or Red Alert 2
It was Doom. My dad got a shareware copy back when that was being distributed, ended up buying the full game, and I would sit and watch, then eventually play. I was five years old when that game...
It was Doom. My dad got a shareware copy back when that was being distributed, ended up buying the full game, and I would sit and watch, then eventually play. I was five years old when that game came out. While all my friends were mostly restricted from even using a computer (provided they had one; some didn't), I got to play what was at the time the goriest, wildest thing, and it was fucking awesome. I absolutely loved that game. My dad taught me cheat codes, so I could skip levels and wander around without getting hurt, which I'd do endlessly until deciding one day I was gonna do it for real.
I think it took me six months to beat it. My dad often had to work late into the evening at his office, so I'd go with him sometimes and with his help, got Doom installed on the office computer so I could play while he worked. That game occupies a very special place in my memory, because it functioned as a conduit to my dad at a time when it was very hard to see him. It was something we could talk about together, share stories and tactics. And I got to enjoy a little bit of being the "cool kid", because I got to play the game everybody's parents thought was evil.
What do you mean by "Computer"? Where do we draw the line between early consoles and computers? If we're talking about PCs specifically, the answer is fairly easy: Prehistorik 2 on a 80286, with...
What do you mean by "Computer"? Where do we draw the line between early consoles and computers?
If we're talking about PCs specifically, the answer is fairly easy: Prehistorik 2 on a 80286, with also a shoutout for Bumpy's Arcade Fantasy..
PCs at school had Supaplex installed in them for some reason.
Before having access to PCs I'd played games on an Apple Macintosh (the OG), ZX Spectrum, Atari 2600 and Famiclone (Famicom).
(I'll watch the video tomorrow to see if it mentions any of this stuff.)
They don't really make a distinction between console and computer games in the video, despite the title and their question to everyone specifically saying "computer game". And regardless, quite a...
They don't really make a distinction between console and computer games in the video, despite the title and their question to everyone specifically saying "computer game". And regardless, quite a few people in the video answered with console games anyways.
But that's also why I asked "What was everyone here's first computer/video game?" in my comment to make it more clear that I don't really care about that either. I was just curious to hear about everyone's first gaming experiences, regardless of if it was on a console or computer.
Airborne was our first game on the Macintosh, my first non-console game, and either my first or second videogame ever played tied with Combat. I had never actually managed to find the name of this...
Airborne was our first game on the Macintosh, my first non-console game, and either my first or second videogame ever played tied with Combat. I had never actually managed to find the name of this game before today.
Here's a gameplay video. For some reason, the videos I checked on youtube don't seem to have sound, but the game did have it (as the menu screen proudly proclaims). I'm fairly certain a highly compressed excerpt of "ride of the valkyries" played during the title screen.
EDIT: Feeling like an idiot now. There was a problem with my audio setup, which is why I couldn't hear the audio!
Hah, no need to feel like an idiot. I don't know if it was the same on Mac, but getting audio drivers to work properly for games was the bane of my (and I'm sure many other people's) existence...
Hah, no need to feel like an idiot. I don't know if it was the same on Mac, but getting audio drivers to work properly for games was the bane of my (and I'm sure many other people's) existence back in the day on DOS/Win 3.1. :P I don't miss the days of having to spend hours troubleshooting issues, and tinkering with HIMEM.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT every time I wanted to play a new game.
I set up one of those (my own) complicated config.sys menus with all kinds of presets for those situations. The most annoying time was when games could already use extended memory, but game...
I set up one of those (my own) complicated config.sys menus with all kinds of presets for those situations.
The most annoying time was when games could already use extended memory, but game installers only ran on base memory (640kb) and required most of it to be available...
I didn't learn about config.sys for an embarrassingly long time, but even afterwards I couldn't be bothered to learn how to set it up properly. So for the most part I just kept a ton of himem.sys...
I didn't learn about config.sys for an embarrassingly long time, but even afterwards I couldn't be bothered to learn how to set it up properly. So for the most part I just kept a ton of himem.sys and autoexec.bat files that I knew worked for specific games stored in separate folders, and swapped them in/out as needed. :P
...at the library, adventure or lunar lander for the commodore PET 2001; at home, don't fall or lemonade for the apple //e we bought several years later... ...actual, dedicated...
My brother had a bunch of games that I would play sometimes, but my first actual game that I got myself was LEGO Rock Raiders. It was like a LEGO RTS, having to mine materials to create buildings...
My brother had a bunch of games that I would play sometimes, but my first actual game that I got myself was LEGO Rock Raiders. It was like a LEGO RTS, having to mine materials to create buildings and vehicles, and achieving a goal. It was almost like a LEGO Warcraft or StarCraft. I wonder if I can find a download for it somewhere...
I remember playing educational games where you would count and do simple math but I couldn't name those. The earliest games I remember that I can name would be Chip's Challenge.
I remember playing educational games where you would count and do simple math but I couldn't name those. The earliest games I remember that I can name would be Chip's Challenge.
Came here to say the same. The earliest games I have memories of would be Chip's Challenge and Freddi Fish. They must have had some sort of charm to stick with me 25 years.
Came here to say the same. The earliest games I have memories of would be Chip's Challenge and Freddi Fish. They must have had some sort of charm to stick with me 25 years.
We had a local small business PC store in my area that would rent out DOS games. You'd rent the installation floppies and it kind of operated on the honor system with the expectation you'd...
We had a local small business PC store in my area that would rent out DOS games. You'd rent the installation floppies and it kind of operated on the honor system with the expectation you'd uninstall them afterwards. Of course, neither me nor anyone else that we knew that shopped there actually uninstalled them. I think my first was Commander Keen, but some others I spent a lot of time on were Skyroads, Wacky Wheels, Lemmings, The Lost Vikings, Wolfenstein, and Jazz Jackrabbit.
Commander Keen was also my first game. You can now play it online for free on various sites that are easy to find and I must say that it's still okay-ish to play.
Commander Keen was also my first game. You can now play it online for free on various sites that are easy to find and I must say that it's still okay-ish to play.
Pitfall or Missile Command for Atari 2600! We also had the OG Pong system (probably still do) so I am sure I played that. It's wild how big the console is, now that things are so much more advanced.
Pitfall or Missile Command for Atari 2600! We also had the OG Pong system (probably still do) so I am sure I played that. It's wild how big the console is, now that things are so much more advanced.
Probably Mah Jongg Solitaire for DOS while sitting on my mom's lap when they first got their hands on a PC. After that probably Grand Prix Circuit which we got through our neighbor's son on a 3,5...
Probably Circus Atari on the 2600. A cousin had it and I remember, as a little kid, laughing hysterically at the clowns face-planting when you miss the see-saw.
Probably Circus Atari on the 2600. A cousin had it and I remember, as a little kid, laughing hysterically at the clowns face-planting when you miss the see-saw.
I don’t actually remember the names of the first few PC games I played. They were platformers for DOS. The first few PC games I do remember are Raptor(1994), Myst(1994), and the game that is truly...
I don’t actually remember the names of the first few PC games I played. They were platformers for DOS.
The first few PC games I do remember are Raptor(1994), Myst(1994), and the game that is truly responsible for my love of PC games: Duke Nukem 3D(1996).
From there it was Quake II, Starcraft, and Half-Life.
Heck yeah! I definitely played Raptor, forgot about it until I saw your post. I also remember a Duke Nukem sidescroller, but I don't think it was the original.
Raptor
Heck yeah! I definitely played Raptor, forgot about it until I saw your post. I also remember a Duke Nukem sidescroller, but I don't think it was the original.
My Dad had a BBC Micro so the first games I played were on that. The 2 I remember most are: Repton - http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=266 You move through a maze clearing a path as you go. If...
My Dad had a BBC Micro so the first games I played were on that. The 2 I remember most are:
Repton - http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=266
You move through a maze clearing a path as you go. If you go under something it will fall. Eggs crack releasing monsters (which chase you). Falling rocks kill you or the monsters if you can lure them under. Passwords were animal names. I could spell chameleon at a young age because of this - I think it was only the password for the 2nd level!
Chuckie Egg - https://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=25
I could get through the main levels (8?) comfortably, but then the big bird would be released out of the cage and chase you around which I found pretty scary when I was little!
I'm pretty sure Chuckie Egg was on the C64 too, and I played it on that system when I was a kid. I definitely remember being the yellow man with the silly hat. :P Repton doesn't look familiar though.
I'm pretty sure Chuckie Egg was on the C64 too, and I played it on that system when I was a kid. I definitely remember being the yellow man with the silly hat. :P Repton doesn't look familiar though.
I remember Chuckie Egg as part of a game called Lazy Jones, which was a game that had the player walk from door to door, each door entered had a different classic game. Memories are flooding back!
I remember Chuckie Egg as part of a game called Lazy Jones, which was a game that had the player walk from door to door, each door entered had a different classic game. Memories are flooding back!
My grandma was super into computers before I was born, so in the 90s she already had multiple systems. She set up a DOS PC for me with a ton of games.. The old 2d Duke Nukem games come to mind...
My grandma was super into computers before I was born, so in the 90s she already had multiple systems. She set up a DOS PC for me with a ton of games.. The old 2d Duke Nukem games come to mind when I think of that era. Also Putt Putt, my favourite meme car.
Honorable mentions go to Math Blaster, Backyard Baseball, and StarCraft (first online game, was hilarious getting sworn at when I was like 10)
For me, it would either be Frogger on the Atari, or a computer game called 13 ghosts on a Tandy TRS-80. 13 ghosts was fun from what I remember, it was a side scrolling shooter that took you...
For me, it would either be Frogger on the Atari, or a computer game called 13 ghosts on a Tandy TRS-80.
13 ghosts was fun from what I remember, it was a side scrolling shooter that took you through wild west style towns and desert landscapes, shooting all the ghosts as you went. I don't remember what the controls were but it had to be all keyboard based since there was no mouse on the Tandy.
Nanosaur. Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/NvmByXPbF2I?si=GH52j3ZjuIs5WAca The plot is that "you have been sent back in time to rescue the last dinosaur eggs before the meteor crashes into the...
The plot is that "you have been sent back in time to rescue the last dinosaur eggs before the meteor crashes into the planet and the dinosaurs become extinct. It's up to you to save them!"
I never got far, but I enjoyed it for the most part.
I don't think I ever realized I could kill the other dinosaurs, but I'm not sure. Maybe it didn't happen very often because I was bad at aiming while panicking.
Had a 286 with some version of lunar lander, asterodids, tank wars, and a few educational games like ernie's big splash and some version of jeopardy. Later, I think on the same machine, games like...
Had a 286 with some version of lunar lander, asterodids, tank wars, and a few educational games like ernie's big splash and some version of jeopardy. Later, I think on the same machine, games like treasure mountain, number munchers, stuff stuff like that.
My dad built or bought the 286 and I was pretty young using it in the early 90s.
A little later on I got into doom/wolfenstein, rise of the triad, Duke nukem, test drive, and early flight sims.
Hmm. It’s hard to say. The earliest memories I have of games would probably be a boulderdash clone for the TI-99/4a. But I remember more time being spent on a program called ABC-talk because I was...
Hmm. It’s hard to say. The earliest memories I have of games would probably be a boulderdash clone for the TI-99/4a. But I remember more time being spent on a program called ABC-talk because I was amazed that it could talk.
My first computer was a TI-99/4a, too! I don't remember exactly which game I played first, but it would have most likely been one of these: Alpiner A-Maze-ing Car Wars Hunt the Wumpus Munch Man
I don't think it was necessarily because it was super amazing; just that certain aspects of it sort of get stuck your head. Especially the slight jump scare and "Funeral March" that plays when you...
I don't think it was necessarily because it was super amazing; just that certain aspects of it sort of get stuck your head. Especially the slight jump scare and "Funeral March" that plays when you get eaten.
If you are interested in a little indulgent nostalgia and run Windows: https://www.99er.net/download2/index.php?act=category&id=15
(You probably just need the V3010 x64 version. Look around there a little and you'll find a zip file of cartridges for that emulator. Once the emulator is installed, find the installation directory and put the cartridge files in the appropriate folder. Have fun!)
The first computer game I remember playing was Rocket Factory for the Apple II on a school computer. That game is the main reason why I loved and put so much time into the first Kerbal Space...
The first computer game I remember playing was Rocket Factory for the Apple II on a school computer. That game is the main reason why I loved and put so much time into the first Kerbal Space Program so many years later.
But the first computer game that I owned was Prince of Persia for DOS. My mom had been given a PC to do some work at home and I was explicitly told that it was for her work and school work only. A few months later my father got me Prince of Persia for Christmas... naturally he got in a bit of trouble for that one.
Oh, memories!!! The first console game I played was probably Pitfall for Atari 2600. The first computer game I owned was Sea Wolf and Circus for Commodore VIC20. I'm old.
Oh, memories!!!
The first console game I played was probably Pitfall for Atari 2600.
The first computer game I owned was Sea Wolf and Circus for Commodore VIC20.
Money Town on Windows 3.X A game where you collected money by playing various minigames to buy stuff to improve your park. I am sure that it wasn't a good game by any stretch, but occasionally...
A game where you collected money by playing various minigames to buy stuff to improve your park. I am sure that it wasn't a good game by any stretch, but occasionally being able to jump on the computer that was otherwise only to be used for work to play any game was a treat when I was young.
My dad bought an IBM in '83. It had some floppies with a few games (and a lot of Turbo Pascal disks), and so ... my personal memories are a match game that let me win a "Winnebago" if you matched...
My dad bought an IBM in '83. It had some floppies with a few games (and a lot of Turbo Pascal disks), and so ... my personal memories are a match game that let me win a "Winnebago" if you matched enough, and also taught me the phrase "nice try, but no cigar"... a craps and euchre game... but the pinnacle was the poker game. I learned at 7 how to play poker.
The unfortunate thing was that I've never had a poker face or good luck, and that the mechanics didn't stick.
Had some friends with a Commodore, and another friend with a Mac, so I learned the "proper" games like King's Quest (Mac friend) and some others I can't necessarily title (Commodore), but yeah. Also my Uncle (who lived a ways away so I only got to visit during rare holidays) had an Atari. Also when I learned that "Grand Prix"i is not pronounced "grand pricks".
I still have flashbacks of the Commodore games and would love to find what they were, but I'd never bother with them again... so, doesn't really matter I suppose.
Buck Rogers Planet of Doom on Adam computer. It was a cassette tape. LOVED that game. We got Congo Bongo and another game that involved climbing vines. Also a math game where the character bounced...
Buck Rogers Planet of Doom on Adam computer. It was a cassette tape. LOVED that game. We got Congo Bongo and another game that involved climbing vines. Also a math game where the character bounced on a pogo stick and you had to hit the button when you bounced on the right andwer.
Likely Galaxy played on a Sanyo brand computer with two 5 1/4 floppies and 640k of ram. No graphics card, so text only display. The only other thing I remember doing on that computer was word...
Likely Galaxy played on a Sanyo brand computer with two 5 1/4 floppies and 640k of ram. No graphics card, so text only display. The only other thing I remember doing on that computer was word processing in Word Star. In the fifth grade, I wrote a "book" called The Great Fungus Escape and printed it on our daisy wheel printer which accepted form feed paper.
I don't remember the name or if it even had one. It was a maze solving game in DOS that came as printed BASIC code in a magazine. Lots of old games and programs came that way. Fast forwarding to...
I don't remember the name or if it even had one. It was a maze solving game in DOS that came as printed BASIC code in a magazine. Lots of old games and programs came that way.
Fast forwarding to games I didn't have to compile, maybe the first zork? Some of my early favorites were Jones in the fast lane, Chuck Yeager Air combat, Odell down under, return to zork, and rocket jockey. Also Mario is missing and Carmen San Diego.
Civilization: Call to Power. My grandfather had a copy, and between that and his train set I'd always be entertained when I visited. Being young, I quickly found the cheats menu, gave myself...
My grandfather had a copy, and between that and his train set I'd always be entertained when I visited. Being young, I quickly found the cheats menu, gave myself near-infinite resources, and set about just building an empire. I'd spend my time placing a terrible network of roads/rails and working every possible tile I could to extract the maximum amount of stuff. My cheated technological superiority dissuaded my neighbours from being aggressive, but if they ever got brave enough they'd be dealt with quickly. With my infinite resources I'd reshape the terrain to my liking, though I'd usually just flatten everything because is had no creativity. I especially loved sending resources and units up to space, because there's an entire other layer of tiles up there. I'd actually love to see space gameplay like the Call to Power games in mainline Civ.
Having a turn-based strategy game as my first real gaming experience was great. It gave me an opportunity to be strategic with my cheating choices, and gave me the opportunity to learn that style of storytelling that comes with the genre. My grandfather also had this A1 or A2 sized poster with the tech tree on one side and unit summaries on the other. I loved looking at those and thinking about human progress through this simplified and gamified lens.
When he passed, my mum asked if I wanted the disc. It's sitting in my drawer, since I don't have a disc drive in my current PC, and I don't think it even runs. Last time I tried to play it I could only open the tutorial, couldn't save, and cutscenes wouldn't play so eventually the game would lock itself. I suppose I could try running it in a VM running Windows 98 for the nostalgia factor and see if that works.
The first I can name with absolute certaincy, and the first one I really got into, was Impossible Mission which I played back in boarding school. I didn't understand all that much about the game,...
The first I can name with absolute certaincy, and the first one I really got into, was Impossible Mission which I played back in boarding school. I didn't understand all that much about the game, other than I was to collect things and avoid dying. The audio puzzle flew past me and I had no idea that there were actual gameplay rules behind when the sinister laugh kicked in and I was game over. Also, operating the in-game computers was pretty much guesswork as I recall.
My first "proper" video game was certainly Mario Kart for the SNES, which I played at my grandma's house when I was very young (must have been 5 or 6?). Before that, I might have interacted with...
My first "proper" video game was certainly Mario Kart for the SNES, which I played at my grandma's house when I was very young (must have been 5 or 6?).
Before that, I might have interacted with some kind of drawing program---Kid Pix? But I distinctly remember playing it on the TV, not a monitor, and I think there was some kind of special-purpose hardware, too. I guess that's not technically a video game, but it activated the same neurons.
The first games I played on a PC were a series of Knowledge Adventure games that came with my family's old Packard-Bell CD. Included:
3-D Dinosaur Adventure, which came with the old red-and-blue glasses so that you could see rendered cutscenes in 3D.
3-D Body Adventure, which let me have the experience of "WebMD tells you that you have cancer" at a tender young age. I'm pretty sure my lifelong terror of heart disease can be traced directly to a scene in this game depicting a heart attack.
The thing I remember most about these games is weird emptiness of the spaces and the presentation. I've only ever been able to experience an approximation of that feeling in a select few horror games, or in the "liminal spaces" community.
For me it was likely a text game for my father's CP/M Kaypro PC but it didn't hold my interest for long. However my friend had an Amiga with a bunch of fun games of which Firepower was by far my...
For me it was likely a text game for my father's CP/M Kaypro PC but it didn't hold my interest for long.
However my friend had an Amiga with a bunch of fun games of which Firepower was by far my favorite. (that splat sound when you ran over a soldier always made me laugh).
I didn't really get into PC games at home until I saw a friend at school playing F-19 on a MS-DOS PC.
After I got that game working at home I had a friend help me get connected to a local BBS to play Legend Of the Red Dragon and my love of multiplayer and PC games was solidified.
My first video game was called robotower. I think. I remember I used to have to play it through DOS and if I ever got far enough (a rare occurrence for ~7 year old me) it would tell me I’d need to...
My first video game was called robotower. I think. I remember I used to have to play it through DOS and if I ever got far enough (a rare occurrence for ~7 year old me) it would tell me I’d need to buy the full game. This would have been late 80’s to early 90’s so if anyone knows what I’m talking about please link me in a response
I think that it was 3D Ultra Lionel Traintown. I still have good memories of it. Because I was a little twerp and couldn't understand English at all, I never got around doing any of the missions,...
I think that it was 3D Ultra Lionel Traintown. I still have good memories of it. Because I was a little twerp and couldn't understand English at all, I never got around doing any of the missions, and instead just played in sandbox mode.
Funnily enough, I downloaded and played it recently. It's abandonware and easily findable online. It might be nostalgia, but I believe it still holds up.
Zork on our middle school computer lab's Apple IIe terminal, loaded in with an external 5.25" floppy disk. Back then we had a dedicated keyboarding/typing class, complete with the little blinders...
Zork on our middle school computer lab's Apple IIe terminal, loaded in with an external 5.25" floppy disk. Back then we had a dedicated keyboarding/typing class, complete with the little blinders you had put over your keyboard so you couldn't see your fingers while practicing touch typing.
We had a deal with our teacher that we could play when we got done with the typing practice program: once we were done, he'd come around and inspect your work. If he signed off, you'd close the program, eject the floppy, and he'd trade you for Zork. We thought he was being nice letting us play a computer game, but little did we understand at the time that we were still practicing typing... :)
Gorillas or Nibbles for qbasic on a Tandy 1000 had to be first, I seem to remember having some sheets of code to type in for them. I was pretty young, so I was probably only "helping" my dad type...
Gorillas or Nibbles for qbasic on a Tandy 1000 had to be first, I seem to remember having some sheets of code to type in for them. I was pretty young, so I was probably only "helping" my dad type them in.
My first video game was the original Sonic the Hedgehog. My family still talks about how after christmas that year, they could hear the near constant sound of collecting rings. For actual computer...
My first video game was the original Sonic the Hedgehog. My family still talks about how after christmas that year, they could hear the near constant sound of collecting rings.
For actual computer game on PC? The one that captured me the most was a game called G-Nome That catapulted me head first into mecha video gaming and was a huge influence in what kinds of games I would play in the future.
something on a SNES, a helicopter game on an AMSTRAD/commdore 64 something like https://gamesnostalgia.com/game/silkworm, and command and conquer red alert on a pc running windows 98.
something on a SNES, a helicopter game on an AMSTRAD/commdore 64 something like https://gamesnostalgia.com/game/silkworm, and command and conquer red alert on a pc running windows 98.
As far as computer games, I played a lot of text adventures on the IBM PCjr (usually ranked worst PC ever in polls lol) but I would be repeating other comments here. Instead I will mention the...
As far as computer games, I played a lot of text adventures on the IBM PCjr (usually ranked worst PC ever in polls lol) but I would be repeating other comments here. Instead I will mention the Fairchild Channel F video game system and games since that's the oldest I remember (although I heard there was Pong in the house, I was too young to remember playing it). The Fairchild had a drag racing game, a casino game with a few different kinds of poker, a tank game and similar Berserk-style alien invasion shoot-em-up. Several others (12 total) on the first EPROM game carts. The joysticks could be pushed, pulled, twisted, and moved forward, back, left and right which is like nothing ever except in a Cronenberg movie. Very cool for the Seventies!
Watching that now, and it's pretty good! Lady on phone: "My machine's humming, do you know why?" Jerry Lawson: "Because it don't know the words, lady! Bye!"
Watching that now, and it's pretty good!
Lady on phone: "My machine's humming, do you know why?"
Jerry Lawson: "Because it don't know the words, lady! Bye!"
The oldest memory I have of playing games is "playing" Warcraft II on the family computer while sitting in my dad's lap when I was like 4 maybe. After that probably Call of Duty: WW2 when I was 8...
The oldest memory I have of playing games is "playing" Warcraft II on the family computer while sitting in my dad's lap when I was like 4 maybe. After that probably Call of Duty: WW2 when I was 8 or 9.
A platformer called Gods, but not on my PC. After I got a PC, my first games were X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Command and Conquer and Wing Commander. Spent a lot of time with XWvTF, not much with the...
A platformer called Gods, but not on my PC.
After I got a PC, my first games were X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Command and Conquer and Wing Commander. Spent a lot of time with XWvTF, not much with the other two.
I had a CD of shareware games called Giga Games 4, it had something like a thousand games in it. This was an absolute wonder for young me. Those weren't my first games, but they were the ones I spent the most time with when I was young.
It's gotta be some educational game. Our first family PC was a hand-me-down computer from our relatives, a Tandy I'm pretty sure, when I was like 5 or 6 in the early 90s. Some people have...
It's gotta be some educational game. Our first family PC was a hand-me-down computer from our relatives, a Tandy I'm pretty sure, when I was like 5 or 6 in the early 90s. Some people have mentioned Math Blaster, and that name sounds familiar, but looking at screenshots, it doesn't look familiar. Same with Reader Rabbit games. But I specifically remember my mom buying, and me playing, some language games with super basic graphics.
For first purely entertainment game, it'd probably be Mario Paint (along with Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past). I was in kindergarten when I got an SNES. Though my parents played it more than me! (And those are basically the only games they ever played)
On the PC side, it was probably Sam and Max, Command & Conquer, or Warcraft. My cousins had those and when I'd stay with them over the summer, I'd watch/play them.
The earliest computer game that I can remember playing is Descent. I was surely too young to have set it up myself, I can't even remember what OS the family computer was on, but I've always...
The earliest computer game that I can remember playing is Descent. I was surely too young to have set it up myself, I can't even remember what OS the family computer was on, but I've always remembered the name of the game and how fun the 6 axis controls were. Funny how at this point I've spent thousands of hours in Kerbal Space Program. I wonder if Descent primed me for KSP.
I have fond memories of playing Descent back in the day too. If you can look past the rudimentary graphics, Descent and Descent 2 actually still hold up reasonably well too, IMO. They're both on...
I have fond memories of playing Descent back in the day too. If you can look past the rudimentary graphics, Descent and Descent 2 actually still hold up reasonably well too, IMO. They're both on GOG, in case you or anyone else wants to give them a try again.
p.s. Overload is more modern (released in 2018), and was made by the original creators of Descent, Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas, after their successful Kickstarter campaign. I haven't played it yet, so can't vouch for it, but I've heard good things.
Think Quick! You had to solve puzzles to get through a castle without getting eaten by weirdly smiling giant caterpillars called Slime Worms and being forced to dodge intestinal bacteria to climb...
You had to solve puzzles to get through a castle without getting eaten by weirdly smiling giant caterpillars called Slime Worms and being forced to dodge intestinal bacteria to climb back out. You gathered magical items to create a Knight Golem you then use to defeat a terrible dragon by, like, kicking him in the side a couple times till he flies away. The End.
I think my first one was a racing game that I must have played in 1997 or so on my dad's computer. I don't remember what game it was, but it was definitely not a 3D game (though it was from the...
I think my first one was a racing game that I must have played in 1997 or so on my dad's computer. I don't remember what game it was, but it was definitely not a 3D game (though it was from the cockpit view of the car). The graphics were similar to Super Hang-On (another great game I played as a kid, the music from the bike upgrade screen is still burned into memory). I don't think I played it very much or knew what I was doing, but it was my first PC game at age 5, ha.
Possibly Superfly, but the computer was a hand-me-down from my dad with quite a few shareware games already installed, so it's kind of hard to tell which one I played first. He got himself a...
Possibly Superfly, but the computer was a hand-me-down from my dad with quite a few shareware games already installed, so it's kind of hard to tell which one I played first. He got himself a Pentium system, and by my estimate the one he gave me would have been a 386 or 486.
Aside from that, a bunch of Apogee and Id games were on there. Notably, Doom, but was a bit too hard and scary for me. My dad taught me some cheats. I remember disabling wall clipping to walk past the outside perimeter of the level, hoping that you could see more of the landscape that was clearly present in what I hadn't yet fully grasped was just a background image. I was of course disappointed when the weapon just started leaving trails on the screen as it bobbed and I realized it was all a trick, but I look back fondly on the sense of wonder that I felt exploring these games.
I think my first computer game was Choplifter for Apple ][+. It was on a floppy disk with Super Puckman (sic) and another game that I loved but can't remember the name of - some kind of space...
I think my first computer game was Choplifter for Apple ][+. It was on a floppy disk with Super Puckman (sic) and another game that I loved but can't remember the name of - some kind of space invaders game, but then the next level was shooting dots that got bigger until they turned into a gorilla or something and came flying down the screen.
The first one I remember was Mathblaster in elementary school. Redneck Rampage and Commander Keen 4 at my cousin's house around the same time. The first I ever owned was Diablo 2 whenever it came out.
The first one I remember was Mathblaster in elementary school. Redneck Rampage and Commander Keen 4 at my cousin's house around the same time. The first I ever owned was Diablo 2 whenever it came out.
Assuming “Watching the pipes screensaver” and “drawing in ms paint” on my mom’s pc don’t count as a games, the first ones I got for myself were a handful of educational games, of which I only...
Assuming “Watching the pipes screensaver” and “drawing in ms paint” on my mom’s pc don’t count as a games, the first ones I got for myself were a handful of educational games, of which I only remember one by the title of Fürst Marigor und die Tobis, a puzzle game that teaches you german spelling and maybe some elementary math as well? I also played the sequel, a game that required ~8 year old me to memorize my first (and only) Alt code: Alt-225 ß (a letter used by the Germans who were the primary target audience of this game, but nowhere to be found on our Swiss keyboard layouts).
At home, on a computer, I think it was Zaxxon on a TRS80 clone from radio shack. I'm guessing there was an Arcade machine that predated that, but I don't really remember which one.
At home, on a computer, I think it was Zaxxon on a TRS80 clone from radio shack. I'm guessing there was an Arcade machine that predated that, but I don't really remember which one.
Ernie’s Big Splash (Sesame Street) on my Dad’s green only DOS Compaq Portable. We had a couple other big ole floppy disk games for it besides that one, but I can’t remember the others.
Ernie’s Big Splash (Sesame Street) on my Dad’s green only DOS Compaq Portable. We had a couple other big ole floppy disk games for it besides that one, but I can’t remember the others.
Not the first one I played, I'm sure (we had a Texas Instruments and an Atari-Coleco-- I suspect Hunt the Wumpus was the first console game I played), but the first one we had on our very first...
Not the first one I played, I'm sure (we had a Texas Instruments and an Atari-Coleco-- I suspect Hunt the Wumpus was the first console game I played), but the first one we had on our very first home computer - King's Quest 2. I played the series obsessively until VII or so.
Technically, the TI was a computer even though it had a cart slot built in. So Hunt the Wumpus is probably your answer. We actually had the floppy drive/hard drive combo for the TI, it was...
Technically, the TI was a computer even though it had a cart slot built in. So Hunt the Wumpus is probably your answer. We actually had the floppy drive/hard drive combo for the TI, it was gigantic and hilarious by todays standards.
I think my first game was Battlezone 2: Combat Commander. I still have the disk! Still easily one of my favorite games, RIP pandemic studios. It got a remaster a couple years ago and it runs...
I think my first game was Battlezone 2: Combat Commander. I still have the disk! Still easily one of my favorite games, RIP pandemic studios.
It got a remaster a couple years ago and it runs pretty well on modern systems now!
This is going to sound funny but my first memory of playing a computer game is chess. My parents got a Win95 computer back when my dad was finishing his doctorate. I distinctly remember always...
This is going to sound funny but my first memory of playing a computer game is chess. My parents got a Win95 computer back when my dad was finishing his doctorate. I distinctly remember always losing. I wonder now if there was a difficultly setting I never found. Part of me wants to see if I can find that chess version and see if I can win today.
Another formative gaming memory was playing 3D pinball on my dad's computer at the university. I went with him during the summer some days when my mom was unavailable at home.
And the last one was booting our machine in DOS to play Civ II, and some odd bomberman/Pac-Man knockoff. I was terrible at Civ, but I was 6-7 at the time.
Your "Pac-Man" ate his way through a maze, and you had to avoid bombs as you did so. Bombs fell downscreen if nothing supported them, and exploded the maze on impact. We got the game from my dad's friend, who I believe brought it over from Russia.
I know it's a long shot, If anyone knows what this game is/was called I would be eternally grateful. I've done a little bit of digging for it myself and turned up nothing. I wanted to dig it up to show my dad.
Its hard to say what was first, but it was one of these games on the TI99/4a: Moon Mine, The Attack, Burgertime, or some math "edutainment" game where you did math problems and it made a blocky...
Its hard to say what was first, but it was one of these games on the TI99/4a: Moon Mine, The Attack, Burgertime, or some math "edutainment" game where you did math problems and it made a blocky rocket shoot up into space. I got a C64 a few years later and got Questron, Kid Niki, and some bad Atari ports.
In theory, World of Warcraft. In practicality, FATE. Game holds up extremely well and I usually do a playthrough every year or so. Worth its $8 price tag in my opinion.
In theory, World of Warcraft. In practicality, FATE. Game holds up extremely well and I usually do a playthrough every year or so. Worth its $8 price tag in my opinion.
First game i played... pong. (looking at the dusk while slowly smoking a cigarette... ^^) but it was my uncle's The first videogame i owned was a clone of Pengo i used to play on the commodore vic20.
First game i played... pong. (looking at the dusk while slowly smoking a cigarette... ^^) but it was my uncle's
The first videogame i owned was a clone of Pengo i used to play on the commodore vic20.
The first game I can remember playing was Pacman, on a monochrome Olivetti M20 belonging to my parents. I moved to MUDs in the early 2000s, but aside from that, the game I played the most was...
The first game I can remember playing was Pacman, on a monochrome Olivetti M20 belonging to my parents. I moved to MUDs in the early 2000s, but aside from that, the game I played the most was probably Stronghold Crusader, which I received as a gift around the same time.
Probably Math Blaster: Search for Spot.
But then I had one of those “1000 games” “demo” (Most were full games) discs that the guy at the computer shop included with a hard drive. Played the crap out of these:
Woah! That was my first game too, I didn't even see your comment haha
It was very possibly mine, too. Something along those lines, at least. Either a math game or Humongous Entertainment.
A friend had Fury 3, loved that, I did buy its sequel Hellbender after that though.
What was everyone here's first computer/video game?
The first game that I can remember playing was a really rudimentary Doctor Who ASCII game, on either the IBM PC 5150 or Commodore 64 (can't remember which, but we owned both). You controlled The Doctor with your keyboard, represented by a smiley face character (the modern unicode char is not the same since it's round, whereas the old ASCII character was square E.g.). And you had to make your way through a maze made up of box characters, while fleeing from Daleks (¥), to get to the Tardis (▮) to reach the next, more complex/difficult level.
I have tried searching for the game multiple times over the years, but I've never been able to find it. The closest games I have found to it are Escape MCP and Drelbs, but they're much more complex in both graphics and gameplay than the game I'm talking about, and also lack the Dr. Who theming.
Loved our C64! What were your go-to-games? I loved Bagitman, Mule, Demon Stalkers, so many games of my youth!
It was 40ish years ago, so I honestly don't remember many C64 games off the top of my head, except for Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken, even though I'm sure I played many others.
Definitely going to google this for emulation! Back to the eighties!
Two that I'd always heard of and never played! I remembered Legacy of the Ancients - an rpg that I really enjoyed that should have been on my original list. Takes me back!
My first computer game was probably Raptor or Where In The World is Carmen San Diego for MS-DOS .
I remember putting the floppy/CD in, typing 'dir D:/' then like.. 'run start.exe'.
The first that I remember were NIBBLES.BAS (1991) and GORILLAS.BAS (1991) played at my dad’s office on Take-Your-Kid-to-Work Day. The former is a Snake variant. The latter was a PvP artillery game where you and your opponent were gorillas at opposite ends on top of a city skyline and chucked exploding bananas at each other by entering angle and velocity. Gravity was also a configurable setting with amusing results.
I got a Super Nintendo shortly after release (aside: went to Toys R Us for just a Game Boy, but left with SNES. Great birthday). It is blowing my mind that the SNES and Super Mario World hit North American shelves also in 1991. The difference in quality and complexity compared to those bundled MS-DOS 5 games from the same year is staggering.
Yes! Qbasic on an 8088 (?) and somehow I ended up bricking the computer. Fortunately, my dad had a friend that worked for Cyrix (the chip maker) who traded us a 286 for a 24 pack of Budweiser. He’s the same guy who told me that Dragon Warrior on NES was a joke compared to this game with amazing graphics called King’s Quest on the computer.
It was either Number Munchers, Pong, or Pitfall, I can't remember the order in which I had access to them. For some reason I remember Number Munchers as Math Muncher, I wonder if I had a teacher who called it that.
Strange, I vividly recall it being Math Muncher as well, maybe we had the same teacher...
Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot at least its the first one I can remember playing.
I think one of the first games I really really enjoyed playing was either the original Sims or Red Alert 2
It was Doom. My dad got a shareware copy back when that was being distributed, ended up buying the full game, and I would sit and watch, then eventually play. I was five years old when that game came out. While all my friends were mostly restricted from even using a computer (provided they had one; some didn't), I got to play what was at the time the goriest, wildest thing, and it was fucking awesome. I absolutely loved that game. My dad taught me cheat codes, so I could skip levels and wander around without getting hurt, which I'd do endlessly until deciding one day I was gonna do it for real.
I think it took me six months to beat it. My dad often had to work late into the evening at his office, so I'd go with him sometimes and with his help, got Doom installed on the office computer so I could play while he worked. That game occupies a very special place in my memory, because it functioned as a conduit to my dad at a time when it was very hard to see him. It was something we could talk about together, share stories and tactics. And I got to enjoy a little bit of being the "cool kid", because I got to play the game everybody's parents thought was evil.
What do you mean by "Computer"? Where do we draw the line between early consoles and computers?
If we're talking about PCs specifically, the answer is fairly easy: Prehistorik 2 on a 80286, with also a shoutout for Bumpy's Arcade Fantasy..
PCs at school had Supaplex installed in them for some reason.
Before having access to PCs I'd played games on an Apple Macintosh (the OG), ZX Spectrum, Atari 2600 and Famiclone (Famicom).
(I'll watch the video tomorrow to see if it mentions any of this stuff.)
They don't really make a distinction between console and computer games in the video, despite the title and their question to everyone specifically saying "computer game". And regardless, quite a few people in the video answered with console games anyways.
But that's also why I asked "What was everyone here's first computer/video game?" in my comment to make it more clear that I don't really care about that either. I was just curious to hear about everyone's first gaming experiences, regardless of if it was on a console or computer.
Combat?
Airborne was our first game on the Macintosh, my first non-console game, and either my first or second videogame ever played tied with Combat. I had never actually managed to find the name of this game before today.
Here's a gameplay video. For some reason, the videos I checked on youtube don't seem to have sound, but the game did have it (as the menu screen proudly proclaims). I'm fairly certain a highly compressed excerpt of "ride of the valkyries" played during the title screen.
EDIT: Feeling like an idiot now. There was a problem with my audio setup, which is why I couldn't hear the audio!
Hah, no need to feel like an idiot. I don't know if it was the same on Mac, but getting audio drivers to work properly for games was the bane of my (and I'm sure many other people's) existence back in the day on DOS/Win 3.1. :P I don't miss the days of having to spend hours troubleshooting issues, and tinkering with HIMEM.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT every time I wanted to play a new game.
I set up one of those (my own) complicated config.sys menus with all kinds of presets for those situations.
The most annoying time was when games could already use extended memory, but game installers only ran on base memory (640kb) and required most of it to be available...
I didn't learn about config.sys for an embarrassingly long time, but even afterwards I couldn't be bothered to learn how to set it up properly. So for the most part I just kept a ton of himem.sys and autoexec.bat files that I knew worked for specific games stored in separate folders, and swapped them in/out as needed. :P
...at the library, adventure or lunar lander for the commodore PET 2001; at home, don't fall or lemonade for the apple //e we bought several years later...
...actual, dedicated game-on-disk?..that'd be infocom's hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, an easter gift from my parents about a year after that...
My brother had a bunch of games that I would play sometimes, but my first actual game that I got myself was LEGO Rock Raiders. It was like a LEGO RTS, having to mine materials to create buildings and vehicles, and achieving a goal. It was almost like a LEGO Warcraft or StarCraft. I wonder if I can find a download for it somewhere...
I remember playing educational games where you would count and do simple math but I couldn't name those. The earliest games I remember that I can name would be Chip's Challenge.
Came here to say the same. The earliest games I have memories of would be Chip's Challenge and Freddi Fish. They must have had some sort of charm to stick with me 25 years.
We had a local small business PC store in my area that would rent out DOS games. You'd rent the installation floppies and it kind of operated on the honor system with the expectation you'd uninstall them afterwards. Of course, neither me nor anyone else that we knew that shopped there actually uninstalled them. I think my first was Commander Keen, but some others I spent a lot of time on were Skyroads, Wacky Wheels, Lemmings, The Lost Vikings, Wolfenstein, and Jazz Jackrabbit.
Commander Keen was also my first game. You can now play it online for free on various sites that are easy to find and I must say that it's still okay-ish to play.
CivII on Dos, I think.
Pitfall or Missile Command for Atari 2600! We also had the OG Pong system (probably still do) so I am sure I played that. It's wild how big the console is, now that things are so much more advanced.
Probably Mah Jongg Solitaire for DOS while sitting on my mom's lap when they first got their hands on a PC.
After that probably Grand Prix Circuit which we got through our neighbor's son on a 3,5 inch floppy.
A few years later and Warcraft: Orcs and Humans found its way onto our PC and the rest is history :)
Warcraft was a gateway drug. That and Command & Conquer. It all went downhill from there.
Probably Circus Atari on the 2600. A cousin had it and I remember, as a little kid, laughing hysterically at the clowns face-planting when you miss the see-saw.
I don’t actually remember the names of the first few PC games I played. They were platformers for DOS.
The first few PC games I do remember are Raptor(1994), Myst(1994), and the game that is truly responsible for my love of PC games: Duke Nukem 3D(1996).
From there it was Quake II, Starcraft, and Half-Life.
Heck yeah! I definitely played Raptor, forgot about it until I saw your post. I also remember a Duke Nukem sidescroller, but I don't think it was the original.
Raptor was so good. It was probably the best shootemup ever directly released for PC.
My Dad had a BBC Micro so the first games I played were on that. The 2 I remember most are:
Repton - http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=266
You move through a maze clearing a path as you go. If you go under something it will fall. Eggs crack releasing monsters (which chase you). Falling rocks kill you or the monsters if you can lure them under. Passwords were animal names. I could spell chameleon at a young age because of this - I think it was only the password for the 2nd level!
Chuckie Egg - https://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=25
I could get through the main levels (8?) comfortably, but then the big bird would be released out of the cage and chase you around which I found pretty scary when I was little!
Does anyone else remember these?
I'm pretty sure Chuckie Egg was on the C64 too, and I played it on that system when I was a kid. I definitely remember being the yellow man with the silly hat. :P Repton doesn't look familiar though.
I remember Chuckie Egg as part of a game called Lazy Jones, which was a game that had the player walk from door to door, each door entered had a different classic game. Memories are flooding back!
My grandma was super into computers before I was born, so in the 90s she already had multiple systems. She set up a DOS PC for me with a ton of games.. The old 2d Duke Nukem games come to mind when I think of that era. Also Putt Putt, my favourite meme car.
Honorable mentions go to Math Blaster, Backyard Baseball, and StarCraft (first online game, was hilarious getting sworn at when I was like 10)
For me, it would either be Frogger on the Atari, or a computer game called 13 ghosts on a Tandy TRS-80.
13 ghosts was fun from what I remember, it was a side scrolling shooter that took you through wild west style towns and desert landscapes, shooting all the ghosts as you went. I don't remember what the controls were but it had to be all keyboard based since there was no mouse on the Tandy.
Nanosaur.
Gameplay video: https://youtu.be/NvmByXPbF2I?si=GH52j3ZjuIs5WAca
The plot is that "you have been sent back in time to rescue the last dinosaur eggs before the meteor crashes into the planet and the dinosaurs become extinct. It's up to you to save them!"
I never got far, but I enjoyed it for the most part.
I don't think I ever realized I could kill the other dinosaurs, but I'm not sure. Maybe it didn't happen very often because I was bad at aiming while panicking.
Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II. I think this was around 1980, maybe a pinch earlier.
5.25" floppy games... Circa 1990-91
Oregon Trail on Commodore 64
King's Quest on Tandy 1000
Had a 286 with some version of lunar lander, asterodids, tank wars, and a few educational games like ernie's big splash and some version of jeopardy. Later, I think on the same machine, games like treasure mountain, number munchers, stuff stuff like that.
My dad built or bought the 286 and I was pretty young using it in the early 90s.
A little later on I got into doom/wolfenstein, rise of the triad, Duke nukem, test drive, and early flight sims.
Hmm. It’s hard to say. The earliest memories I have of games would probably be a boulderdash clone for the TI-99/4a. But I remember more time being spent on a program called ABC-talk because I was amazed that it could talk.
My first PC was the TI, so it must have been something for that. The first is more difficult to say.
My first computer was a TI-99/4a, too! I don't remember exactly which game I played first, but it would have most likely been one of these:
Alpiner
A-Maze-ing
Car Wars
Hunt the Wumpus
Munch Man
I must be the only kid that had a TI99/4a and never played Hunt the Wumpus. From what I gather it was the standout game that everyone remembers.
I don't think it was necessarily because it was super amazing; just that certain aspects of it sort of get stuck your head. Especially the slight jump scare and "Funeral March" that plays when you get eaten.
If you are interested in a little indulgent nostalgia and run Windows:
https://www.99er.net/download2/index.php?act=category&id=15
(You probably just need the V3010 x64 version. Look around there a little and you'll find a zip file of cartridges for that emulator. Once the emulator is installed, find the installation directory and put the cartridge files in the appropriate folder. Have fun!)
The first computer game I remember playing was Rocket Factory for the Apple II on a school computer. That game is the main reason why I loved and put so much time into the first Kerbal Space Program so many years later.
But the first computer game that I owned was Prince of Persia for DOS. My mom had been given a PC to do some work at home and I was explicitly told that it was for her work and school work only. A few months later my father got me Prince of Persia for Christmas... naturally he got in a bit of trouble for that one.
Oh, memories!!!
The first console game I played was probably Pitfall for Atari 2600.
The first computer game I owned was Sea Wolf and Circus for Commodore VIC20.
I'm old.
Money Town on Windows 3.X
A game where you collected money by playing various minigames to buy stuff to improve your park. I am sure that it wasn't a good game by any stretch, but occasionally being able to jump on the computer that was otherwise only to be used for work to play any game was a treat when I was young.
My dad bought an IBM in '83. It had some floppies with a few games (and a lot of Turbo Pascal disks), and so ... my personal memories are a match game that let me win a "Winnebago" if you matched enough, and also taught me the phrase "nice try, but no cigar"... a craps and euchre game... but the pinnacle was the poker game. I learned at 7 how to play poker.
The unfortunate thing was that I've never had a poker face or good luck, and that the mechanics didn't stick.
Had some friends with a Commodore, and another friend with a Mac, so I learned the "proper" games like King's Quest (Mac friend) and some others I can't necessarily title (Commodore), but yeah. Also my Uncle (who lived a ways away so I only got to visit during rare holidays) had an Atari. Also when I learned that "Grand Prix"i is not pronounced "grand pricks".
I still have flashbacks of the Commodore games and would love to find what they were, but I'd never bother with them again... so, doesn't really matter I suppose.
Buck Rogers Planet of Doom on Adam computer. It was a cassette tape. LOVED that game. We got Congo Bongo and another game that involved climbing vines. Also a math game where the character bounced on a pogo stick and you had to hit the button when you bounced on the right andwer.
Likely Galaxy played on a Sanyo brand computer with two 5 1/4 floppies and 640k of ram. No graphics card, so text only display. The only other thing I remember doing on that computer was word processing in Word Star. In the fifth grade, I wrote a "book" called The Great Fungus Escape and printed it on our daisy wheel printer which accepted form feed paper.
I don't remember the name or if it even had one. It was a maze solving game in DOS that came as printed BASIC code in a magazine. Lots of old games and programs came that way.
Fast forwarding to games I didn't have to compile, maybe the first zork? Some of my early favorites were Jones in the fast lane, Chuck Yeager Air combat, Odell down under, return to zork, and rocket jockey. Also Mario is missing and Carmen San Diego.
Civilization: Call to Power.
My grandfather had a copy, and between that and his train set I'd always be entertained when I visited. Being young, I quickly found the cheats menu, gave myself near-infinite resources, and set about just building an empire. I'd spend my time placing a terrible network of roads/rails and working every possible tile I could to extract the maximum amount of stuff. My cheated technological superiority dissuaded my neighbours from being aggressive, but if they ever got brave enough they'd be dealt with quickly. With my infinite resources I'd reshape the terrain to my liking, though I'd usually just flatten everything because is had no creativity. I especially loved sending resources and units up to space, because there's an entire other layer of tiles up there. I'd actually love to see space gameplay like the Call to Power games in mainline Civ.
Having a turn-based strategy game as my first real gaming experience was great. It gave me an opportunity to be strategic with my
cheatingchoices, and gave me the opportunity to learn that style of storytelling that comes with the genre. My grandfather also had this A1 or A2 sized poster with the tech tree on one side and unit summaries on the other. I loved looking at those and thinking about human progress through this simplified and gamified lens.When he passed, my mum asked if I wanted the disc. It's sitting in my drawer, since I don't have a disc drive in my current PC, and I don't think it even runs. Last time I tried to play it I could only open the tutorial, couldn't save, and cutscenes wouldn't play so eventually the game would lock itself. I suppose I could try running it in a VM running Windows 98 for the nostalgia factor and see if that works.
It barely qualifies as a game by today's standards, but mine was Facemaker for DOS.
The first I can name with absolute certaincy, and the first one I really got into, was Impossible Mission which I played back in boarding school. I didn't understand all that much about the game, other than I was to collect things and avoid dying. The audio puzzle flew past me and I had no idea that there were actual gameplay rules behind when the sinister laugh kicked in and I was game over. Also, operating the in-game computers was pretty much guesswork as I recall.
My first "proper" video game was certainly Mario Kart for the SNES, which I played at my grandma's house when I was very young (must have been 5 or 6?).
Before that, I might have interacted with some kind of drawing program---Kid Pix? But I distinctly remember playing it on the TV, not a monitor, and I think there was some kind of special-purpose hardware, too. I guess that's not technically a video game, but it activated the same neurons.
The first games I played on a PC were a series of Knowledge Adventure games that came with my family's old Packard-Bell CD. Included:
The thing I remember most about these games is weird emptiness of the spaces and the presentation. I've only ever been able to experience an approximation of that feeling in a select few horror games, or in the "liminal spaces" community.
For me it was likely a text game for my father's CP/M Kaypro PC but it didn't hold my interest for long.
However my friend had an Amiga with a bunch of fun games of which Firepower was by far my favorite. (that splat sound when you ran over a soldier always made me laugh).
I didn't really get into PC games at home until I saw a friend at school playing F-19 on a MS-DOS PC.
After I got that game working at home I had a friend help me get connected to a local BBS to play Legend Of the Red Dragon and my love of multiplayer and PC games was solidified.
My first video game was called robotower. I think. I remember I used to have to play it through DOS and if I ever got far enough (a rare occurrence for ~7 year old me) it would tell me I’d need to buy the full game. This would have been late 80’s to early 90’s so if anyone knows what I’m talking about please link me in a response
I think that it was 3D Ultra Lionel Traintown. I still have good memories of it. Because I was a little twerp and couldn't understand English at all, I never got around doing any of the missions, and instead just played in sandbox mode.
Funnily enough, I downloaded and played it recently. It's abandonware and easily findable online. It might be nostalgia, but I believe it still holds up.
Zork on our middle school computer lab's Apple IIe terminal, loaded in with an external 5.25" floppy disk. Back then we had a dedicated keyboarding/typing class, complete with the little blinders you had put over your keyboard so you couldn't see your fingers while practicing touch typing.
We had a deal with our teacher that we could play when we got done with the typing practice program: once we were done, he'd come around and inspect your work. If he signed off, you'd close the program, eject the floppy, and he'd trade you for Zork. We thought he was being nice letting us play a computer game, but little did we understand at the time that we were still practicing typing... :)
Thrust on the Commodore 64 is the first game I remember playing.
Gorillas or Nibbles for qbasic on a Tandy 1000 had to be first, I seem to remember having some sheets of code to type in for them. I was pretty young, so I was probably only "helping" my dad type them in.
My first video game was the original Sonic the Hedgehog. My family still talks about how after christmas that year, they could hear the near constant sound of collecting rings.
For actual computer game on PC? The one that captured me the most was a game called G-Nome That catapulted me head first into mecha video gaming and was a huge influence in what kinds of games I would play in the future.
something on a SNES, a helicopter game on an AMSTRAD/commdore 64 something like https://gamesnostalgia.com/game/silkworm, and command and conquer red alert on a pc running windows 98.
As far as computer games, I played a lot of text adventures on the IBM PCjr (usually ranked worst PC ever in polls lol) but I would be repeating other comments here. Instead I will mention the Fairchild Channel F video game system and games since that's the oldest I remember (although I heard there was Pong in the house, I was too young to remember playing it). The Fairchild had a drag racing game, a casino game with a few different kinds of poker, a tank game and similar Berserk-style alien invasion shoot-em-up. Several others (12 total) on the first EPROM game carts. The joysticks could be pushed, pulled, twisted, and moved forward, back, left and right which is like nothing ever except in a Cronenberg movie. Very cool for the Seventies!
Speaking of the Fairchild Channel F, you may enjoy this video:
The Story of the First Video Game Cartridge
Watching that now, and it's pretty good!
Lady on phone: "My machine's humming, do you know why?"
Jerry Lawson: "Because it don't know the words, lady! Bye!"
The oldest memory I have of playing games is "playing" Warcraft II on the family computer while sitting in my dad's lap when I was like 4 maybe. After that probably Call of Duty: WW2 when I was 8 or 9.
A platformer called Gods, but not on my PC.
After I got a PC, my first games were X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Command and Conquer and Wing Commander. Spent a lot of time with XWvTF, not much with the other two.
I had a CD of shareware games called Giga Games 4, it had something like a thousand games in it. This was an absolute wonder for young me. Those weren't my first games, but they were the ones I spent the most time with when I was young.
Dangerous Dave (I'm a little surprised nobody mentioned it before)
It's gotta be some educational game. Our first family PC was a hand-me-down computer from our relatives, a Tandy I'm pretty sure, when I was like 5 or 6 in the early 90s. Some people have mentioned Math Blaster, and that name sounds familiar, but looking at screenshots, it doesn't look familiar. Same with Reader Rabbit games. But I specifically remember my mom buying, and me playing, some language games with super basic graphics.
For first purely entertainment game, it'd probably be Mario Paint (along with Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past). I was in kindergarten when I got an SNES. Though my parents played it more than me! (And those are basically the only games they ever played)
On the PC side, it was probably Sam and Max, Command & Conquer, or Warcraft. My cousins had those and when I'd stay with them over the summer, I'd watch/play them.
The earliest computer game that I can remember playing is Descent. I was surely too young to have set it up myself, I can't even remember what OS the family computer was on, but I've always remembered the name of the game and how fun the 6 axis controls were. Funny how at this point I've spent thousands of hours in Kerbal Space Program. I wonder if Descent primed me for KSP.
I have fond memories of playing Descent back in the day too. If you can look past the rudimentary graphics, Descent and Descent 2 actually still hold up reasonably well too, IMO. They're both on GOG, in case you or anyone else wants to give them a try again.
p.s. Overload is more modern (released in 2018), and was made by the original creators of Descent, Matt Toschlog and Mike Kulas, after their successful Kickstarter campaign. I haven't played it yet, so can't vouch for it, but I've heard good things.
Think Quick!
You had to solve puzzles to get through a castle without getting eaten by weirdly smiling giant caterpillars called Slime Worms and being forced to dodge intestinal bacteria to climb back out. You gathered magical items to create a Knight Golem you then use to defeat a terrible dragon by, like, kicking him in the side a couple times till he flies away. The End.
My brother had that. I used to make levels for him to solve. Usually though, it just became me making levels that I was the only one to play.
I think my first one was a racing game that I must have played in 1997 or so on my dad's computer. I don't remember what game it was, but it was definitely not a 3D game (though it was from the cockpit view of the car). The graphics were similar to Super Hang-On (another great game I played as a kid, the music from the bike upgrade screen is still burned into memory). I don't think I played it very much or knew what I was doing, but it was my first PC game at age 5, ha.
Possibly Superfly, but the computer was a hand-me-down from my dad with quite a few shareware games already installed, so it's kind of hard to tell which one I played first. He got himself a Pentium system, and by my estimate the one he gave me would have been a 386 or 486.
Aside from that, a bunch of Apogee and Id games were on there. Notably, Doom, but was a bit too hard and scary for me. My dad taught me some cheats. I remember disabling wall clipping to walk past the outside perimeter of the level, hoping that you could see more of the landscape that was clearly present in what I hadn't yet fully grasped was just a background image. I was of course disappointed when the weapon just started leaving trails on the screen as it bobbed and I realized it was all a trick, but I look back fondly on the sense of wonder that I felt exploring these games.
Earliest I can recall are Starflight, Space Quest, Arctic Fox, and Lemonade Stand (the last on an Apple ][).
I think my first computer game was Choplifter for Apple ][+. It was on a floppy disk with Super Puckman (sic) and another game that I loved but can't remember the name of - some kind of space invaders game, but then the next level was shooting dots that got bigger until they turned into a gorilla or something and came flying down the screen.
The first one I remember was Mathblaster in elementary school. Redneck Rampage and Commander Keen 4 at my cousin's house around the same time. The first I ever owned was Diablo 2 whenever it came out.
Assuming “Watching the pipes screensaver” and “drawing in ms paint” on my mom’s pc don’t count as a games, the first ones I got for myself were a handful of educational games, of which I only remember one by the title of Fürst Marigor und die Tobis, a puzzle game that teaches you german spelling and maybe some elementary math as well? I also played the sequel, a game that required ~8 year old me to memorize my first (and only) Alt code: Alt-225 ß (a letter used by the Germans who were the primary target audience of this game, but nowhere to be found on our Swiss keyboard layouts).
At home, on a computer, I think it was Zaxxon on a TRS80 clone from radio shack. I'm guessing there was an Arcade machine that predated that, but I don't really remember which one.
Ernie’s Big Splash (Sesame Street) on my Dad’s green only DOS Compaq Portable. We had a couple other big ole floppy disk games for it besides that one, but I can’t remember the others.
Not the first one I played, I'm sure (we had a Texas Instruments and an Atari-Coleco-- I suspect Hunt the Wumpus was the first console game I played), but the first one we had on our very first home computer - King's Quest 2. I played the series obsessively until VII or so.
Technically, the TI was a computer even though it had a cart slot built in. So Hunt the Wumpus is probably your answer. We actually had the floppy drive/hard drive combo for the TI, it was gigantic and hilarious by todays standards.
I think my first game was Battlezone 2: Combat Commander. I still have the disk! Still easily one of my favorite games, RIP pandemic studios.
It got a remaster a couple years ago and it runs pretty well on modern systems now!
This is going to sound funny but my first memory of playing a computer game is chess. My parents got a Win95 computer back when my dad was finishing his doctorate. I distinctly remember always losing. I wonder now if there was a difficultly setting I never found. Part of me wants to see if I can find that chess version and see if I can win today.
Another formative gaming memory was playing 3D pinball on my dad's computer at the university. I went with him during the summer some days when my mom was unavailable at home.
And the last one was booting our machine in DOS to play Civ II, and some odd bomberman/Pac-Man knockoff. I was terrible at Civ, but I was 6-7 at the time.
Your "Pac-Man" ate his way through a maze, and you had to avoid bombs as you did so. Bombs fell downscreen if nothing supported them, and exploded the maze on impact. We got the game from my dad's friend, who I believe brought it over from Russia.
I know it's a long shot, If anyone knows what this game is/was called I would be eternally grateful. I've done a little bit of digging for it myself and turned up nothing. I wanted to dig it up to show my dad.
Its hard to say what was first, but it was one of these games on the TI99/4a: Moon Mine, The Attack, Burgertime, or some math "edutainment" game where you did math problems and it made a blocky rocket shoot up into space. I got a C64 a few years later and got Questron, Kid Niki, and some bad Atari ports.
In theory, World of Warcraft. In practicality, FATE. Game holds up extremely well and I usually do a playthrough every year or so. Worth its $8 price tag in my opinion.
First game i played... pong. (looking at the dusk while slowly smoking a cigarette... ^^) but it was my uncle's
The first videogame i owned was a clone of Pengo i used to play on the commodore vic20.
The first game I can remember playing was Pacman, on a monochrome Olivetti M20 belonging to my parents. I moved to MUDs in the early 2000s, but aside from that, the game I played the most was probably Stronghold Crusader, which I received as a gift around the same time.