What were the earliest video games you played?

Started by Greybriar, August 18, 2018, 12:11:44 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Con



My dad had just bought an Apple 3 because it was supposedly for more serious applications such as business and early word processing.  I remember how I laughed the first time I went into the dark attic and a Grue got me - even though Zork had warned me not to do it.

After that I was in the sweet halcyon days of gaming with Atari at friends houses and Pizza arcades - so all the classics


Oche


airboy

Quote from: trailrunner on August 18, 2018, 06:58:18 AM
Oh yeah - I forgot about this one, although I'm not sure it's a true video game.

I was an undergrad from 1979-1983.  My best friend in school was the sysadmin for the VAX machines in the astrophysics department.  The last two years of school, we would go to his computer lab to work on his projects because they had some small conference rooms we could use, and because we could use the VT editor on his VAX as a crude word processor to type up our projects.

We'd work there until 1 or 2am.  I'd do the sensible thing and try to get a couple of hours of sleep before our morning class, but my friend would stay and play D&D, which had an ASCII implementation on the VAX.  The next morning in class, I'd see my friend in class, and he would be excited about the new level of his game that he had reached the night before and how he had quaffed some potion or something.

Similar to my experience - except go back to early to mid-1970s.  IBM computer using punch cards at a local college had "Civil War" game.  That was a little earlier for me than Pong.

Capn Darwin

Ti99-4A with Hunt the Wampus and Tunnels of Doom.
Rocket Scientist by day, Game Designer by night.

mikeck

So nice to know that there are other old people like me who still
Play PC games.
"A government large enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have."--Thomas Jefferson

Rayfer

Quote from: mikeck on August 18, 2018, 11:35:39 AM
So nice to know that there are other old people like me who still
Play PC games.

67 and gaming strong.   O0

Staggerwing

First two video games I ever played were Pong in the early 70's at the Shakey's Pizza in Marin County, CA, and Hunt the Wumpus on one of my High School computer lab's Apple IIs around 1979 or 1980.
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys

DoctorQuest

Does it have to be a video game?

My first COMPUTER gaming experience was the classic "Star Trek" where you would get a printed grid of the galaxy and you had to find and destroy the Klingons. My mom had access to a terminal with a built in phone handset widget that I could use to access the local university. Someone had put Star Trek on their mainframe and I'd play for hours.

First video games were at the local arcade. Pong, Asteroids (I LOVED ASTEROIDS!!!!), PacMan, Centipede.

First home system was an Atari. First home computer was a Commodore 64. I got Strike Eagle for it and was hooked for life.

Good thread....
"Everything you read on the internet is true." - Benjamin Franklin

"Zero-G and I feel fine....." - John Glenn

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." - Adam Savage, inventor of the alternative fact.

Greybriar

Quote from: DoctorQuest on August 18, 2018, 01:10:22 PM
Does it have to be a video game?....

I admit that the term "video game" conjures up images of gaming platforms other than PCs and I gave some thought to what other word or phrase to use that would be more appropriate to what I had in mind. But when I read the definition of "video game" at Wikipedia, I was relieved to see: "A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor." So computer (PC) games fit under the umbrella created by the term "video game."

Quote from: DoctorQuest on August 18, 2018, 01:10:22 PM
....Good thread.

Thank you for contributing to it. I was happy to read that you are enjoying it. :)

Back on topic, how may of you played this game to death like I did?
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

SirAndrewD

Pong on the Magnavox Odyssey. 

First PC game was Starflight on a Tandy (Not counting stuff I played on Apple IIe's).
"These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said "happy birthday" to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they'll feel sorry."  - Sgt. Pinback

Gusington

You don't look day over 66 Rayfer :)

My very first electronic games were on a system called the Gemini which was an Atari 2600 clone...Combat, ET, and Pitfall are about as far back as I remember, around 1982.

After that I graduated to a TI99-4a which I actually entered some games in to with BASIC. Then a C64 around 1986. Then an Amiga around 1990. And finally a PC in 1998.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Rayfer


Gusington



слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

airboy

Quote from: Greybriar on August 18, 2018, 01:51:20 PM
Quote from: DoctorQuest on August 18, 2018, 01:10:22 PM
Does it have to be a video game?....

I admit that the term "video game" conjures up images of gaming platforms other than PCs and I gave some thought to what other word or phrase to use that would be more appropriate to what I had in mind. But when I read the definition of "video game" at Wikipedia, I was relieved to see: "A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor." So computer (PC) games fit under the umbrella created by the term "video game."

Quote from: DoctorQuest on August 18, 2018, 01:10:22 PM
....Good thread.

Thank you for contributing to it. I was happy to read that you are enjoying it. :)

Back on topic, how may of you played this game to death like I did?


I played Wasteland to completion 3 times.  Very fond memories.