Early Gaming

[Yurak]

What's everybody's first memorable gaming experience?


For myself It's Head over Heels on the Amstrad CPC

[slayernz]

So many games from the Atari 2600, and Space Invaders at the Arcades. C64 ruled my teenage life.

Admittedly, I lasted literally 8 seconds on my first attempt at Space Invaders, and never went back there. On the Atari, Pole Position, Jungle Hunt, Vanguard and Empire Strikes Back were my faves.

On C64, the two best games ever were Wizball and Paradroid. I also loved the game Below The Root, which I played as recently as a couple of years ago (thank you VICE emulator and d64 roms )

[BlastGT1]

Asteroids arcade machine at a local convenience store (the first 7-11 ever opened, actually). It was 1979, I was 4 years old, and my dad had me propped up on his knee so I could see the screen and hit the buttons. It was also the first of many fist slams while dying in a game, which I was sternly scolded for by my dad, which the Mexican guys waiting their turn to play had a good laugh about.

_______________________________

"Issue the standard Cadar greeting, Ensign."
"But sir, that's one of our allies!"
"I know that, Ensign. We're confirming that the treaty is still in effect!"

[martyparty]

Plenty of arcade shoot em up's, but first addiction on a home computer was Warlords II.

[Yurak]

I actually forget about arcades, because well they pretty much don't exist now :-(

The earlies arcades I can remember is The Turtles (original TMNT) with the 4 player cab and Street Fighter II. Was never any good at Street Fighter till a few year back

[BlastGT1]

SFII was the shiznit when I was in my teens. I could beat all my friends consistently. I once beat one friend in 67 out of 71 matches, and once won 30 straight matches at the game store where I worked, quitting after getting sick of the local kids whining that the Dragon Punch was unfair because you couldn't be countered. They probably had nightmares that night, hearing "SHOU-RYU-KEN!!" over and over again.

_______________________________

"Issue the standard Cadar greeting, Ensign."
"But sir, that's one of our allies!"
"I know that, Ensign. We're confirming that the treaty is still in effect!"

[slayernz]

I was too uncoordinated to remember all of the combo moves required - so I avoided the SF types of games. When I did play them, I got soundly creamed as a result

I played on the C64 because I didn't have to pump coins into the thing to play ... as a kid, you forget that you're not paying, but your parents do

[Cory Trese]

Uncharted Waters, Escape Velocity, Castle of the Winds, Stars!, Pirates!, Gabriel Knight, Syndicate

[Cory Trese]

I also loved Populus and SimCity. Oh how I loved those games.

[contributor]

The first game I played a lot of was Sopwith for DOS anybody remember that? For some reason today long-lost memories of the original Bard's Tale came to mind. Was that a DOS game or win 3.1? I think I played the heck out of it for awhile. Maybe there is more of a Fantasy RPG lover in me than I let on in other posts.

[hellion7776]

I agree with Cory... PIRATES!!!!

[slayernz]

Yeah Pirates was a staple - it was on C64, then I played it in DOS, then when it came around a 3rd time in Windows, I played it then too. Funny, gameplay was very similar across all three generations of game

Out of video gaming - did anyone ever play Robo Rally? I played that (loved it), Blood Bowl, Battle Tech, and of course AD&D

I found Bots and Scouts (http://botsnscouts.sourceforge.net/index.php3) which was awesome, but it hasn't been updated in like forever, and is so close but not quite right.

[xdesperado]

Pong on a black and white TV for video games.
Reading the rule books for Chainmail, then the first editions of D&D and AD&D by the light of the streetlamp outside my window after I was supposed to be sleeping.... ;D

[BlastGT1]

Ah yes, I do remember having a Pong console for our TV when I was very young, complete with the RF splitter adapter that you tightened down underneath two screws on the back of the TV, with its sliding switch labeled "Game" and "TV". I was stoked when we were given an Atari 2600 with 15-20 games, played a lot of Asteroids, Combat, and Seaquest, among others. Eventually we got the original NES, and like almost everybody, we played Super Mario Bros to death, and drove our mom nuts with the repetitive music.

[Cory Trese]

Andrew and I used to play Pitfall on the Atari. And Alien Invaders too, I think.