Remember when you were a kid and all games seemed magical? It could have been the biggest pile of garbage, but the whole idea of interacting with the virtual world was something new and exciting, and you were thrilled by the new experience.
I may be remembering my introduction to games as a child through rose coloured glasses, but I remember being so excited by the brave new world. I assume most people here played their first games as children, and I?d be interested to here about your experiances and what those games were.
As for me:
I was a child of the 80?s, and my father had a couple of cartridge games for the Commodore 64. The first ever game I played was called ?Tooth invaders?, which involved a stick-man running over a large set of pixelated teeth and gums, trying to fend off the germ invaders before the teeth went rotten?
The other game was a space invaders clone, which was the most exciting thing I had ever experienced as a young child.
After being shown the marvel of computer games, I hounded my father to buy more games, and the first thing he got was a big movie franchise game: Ghostbusters. Oh what wonderful memories.
Here I am twenty odd years later, and my passion for games is just as strong as it was back then (probably more so actually [:P]).
? And I?ve still got that old C64 with tape drive boxed away.
First set of games I ever recall playing was on a Dick Smith TRS80 clone... 40*25 screen - text only. One called 'STOMP' which was surprisingly similar in gameplay to Popcap's "Mummy Maze", and the age old 'driving' game in which the stream of asterisks scrolled down the screen... Another I wish I could find and play which was a text adventure game in which you were magically transported from a high-rise apartment window to a pirate island.
One of my clearest memories, however, is programming Scholastic book club "Write your own computer games" on my family's Apple ][e, and being told off for modifying the code because my parents were worried I'd "break" the computer. :)
All I was doing was changing:
[code]
100 print "You see a skeleton!"
[/code]
to
[code]
100 print "You see a skeleton!"
101 print " 0 "
102 print ""
103 print "/ "
[/code]
Even then I wanted to make the games to have better graphics :)
Wow, I remember those books... with the pirates standing in the code saying "Arrr, better save to tape and take a rest here matey."
Maybe not my earliest game memory, but my most marked was "Arctic Adventure", one of the first games by Apogee. CGA graphics never looked so good. I was a shareware kid, and Arctic Adventure welcomed me to that world. I even started programming in Turbo Pascal 3.0 to be cool like Scott Miller was at the time. [:P]
Ahhh the mammories.
Scott.
EDIT: Ooooooh, Champions of Krynn... that was my first warez!
quote:Originally posted by HazarD
Ghosts in Goblins ( Ghouls & Ghosts clone )
In the spirit of being a pedantic bastard, I'm going to point out that Ghouls 'n' Ghosts was the sequel to Ghosts 'n' Goblins.
Anyway, I've been playing games since before I remember. I started on the Atari 2600. We got rid of that when I was something like 2 or 3 for an Intellivision, then got rid of that for a Vic 20, then got rid of that for a C64, and then an A500, then A1200, then PC.
I remember Space Invaders on the 2600. Also some game with a huge snake that attacked people. Pac Man was on there. Some game where you had to fly in to space and land back on earth. I also remember the Mickey Mouse Sorceror's Apprentice game and we actually had the infamous E.T. game. I remember not having an idea what to do in that game - walk one direction and do nothing, walk the other with a screen change and just stand there. I think that's about all I remember of the 2600.
Gooberman : I took a stab in the dark and provoked a pedantic bastard! [:P] Yeah i knew it was related somehow - ghouls and ghosts looked to have way cooler graphics that ghosts n goblins, or i maybe thinking the other way around.
All I remember was never finishing Ghosts n Goblins - games were so unforgiving back then - it was so clear cut. WIN or DIE. no drawn out sequences just a milisecond after dieing BANG! game over screen shown and it struck home that you had just toiled for x hours only to have to go back to the start of the game and try it all over again - none of this pussy save game business.
Imagine playing a game like HL2 like that [:O] Die and ... you DIE. that game is terminated. Start again from the beginning.
Gooberman, that's a pretty similar path to what I took. I got a C64, then A500, A1200, then PC (Cyrix 200mhz, Hah!). The first game I played was Space Invaders at the local corner shop when I was about 6 or 7. It blew my mind. It was so new, the idea that you could play a game with a machine and have incredible fun doing it.
Somehow, this dodgy guy on my street managed to get his hands on a Space Invader table top cabinet and charged everyone 20 cents per game in his garage. I'm pretty sure he thieved it somehow. [:O] I hung around there a lot to play it, all the while harbouring my own burning desire of having one in my own bedroom.
Soon, my brother got an Apple IIe and he had some even greater games on that. Midnight Mission (awesome pinball game), and some canons game where you shot people who were parachuting down. I typed out some basic games from a magazine (took bloody ages), and they turned out pretty crap, so I stopped doing that.
Eventually I was given a C64, and it was the best gift I have ever received. The first game I had was a game called Frog Master, a cartridge game that came bundled with the C64. It came with no docs or manuals, and to this very day, I still have no idea what the heck you were supposed to do in it.
It had a screen full of hopping frogs, and you didn't get any noticable feedback when you moved the joystick around/push buttons. I spent countless hours trying to figure it out, but it just didn't make any sense whatsoever. I swear, if I ever find the programmer/game designer for that game, watch out! >:( It was the only game I had for a while, but later I got games like Pitfall II and Jumpman. Great games. [:D]
I never had a console or computer at home till i was about 10 or so. i used to just play at friends houses....my friend had a c64 with The Hobbit, an old text game with really basic graphics..and someone else had Guantlet. then we got a pc and i think the first games we had on it was Alleycat, and in my mind the most frustrating game known to man, SpaceGoose. I also remember playing Flashback alot....
quote:Originally posted by rezn0r
Ahhh the mammories.
What games were you playing????????
I was an atari kid. Grew up on the 2600. So I think the first game I really remember playing on that had to be the tank game where you shot each other. Then there was Dig Dug, Frogger, Centipede, and Space Invaders.
One game that so sticks out in my head.... Did anyone ever play the arcade game that was based of Journey (the band)? I am sure that was the first band game ever made - and they haven't got any better since ;)
quote:Souri
The first game I had was a game called Frog Master ... I swear, if I ever find the programmer/game designer for that game, watch out! >:(
http://www.lemon64.com/games/list.php?type=coder&name=Michael%20F.C.%20…
Wow, some great games listed. Makes me all nostalgic.
Barry Dahlberg ? ?Spring Thing?, was that the precursor to ?Thing on a spring?? I loved that game. And Pitstop II was awesome. Though It used to take about 30 minuets to load on the tape drive. :P My favourite C64 game ever was called ?Monty Mole?, a very clever platformer.
Makk ? hell yeah, me too - I got a Master system when I was about 10 or so, and the only games I had were Hang on and that maze game that came with it. The first separate game I got for it was Wonderboy, and that was all I had for about a year. I played Wonderboy soooo much. I got freakishly good at it. The problem was no save option, so to try and finish it you had to pause the game indefinitely ? I once had the system running for a whole week straight, constantly playing Wonderboy whenever I could, pausing it to sleep and go to school. And I still never got to the very end?
My path of gaming was: C64 -> Nintendo ?game and watch? things -> Atari -> Sega Master System -> Sega Mega Drive -> Game boy -> PS1 -> PS2? (With PC?s joining the action around the mid Mega Drive era).
I regret selling the original Sega, but I?ve still got all the others.
first game i played was at one of my mum's best friends house who was 30+ and had a sega? Anyway There was a game on it called alex... thats all i rmeember about it hehe i was so little.
later on i plauyed the lion king my best friend's sega master system 2 and i was hooked. After completeing the lion king we got wonder boy in monster world and ecco the dolphin and boy they were the two best games of all our master system days... boy did we loose hours and hours playing those two games! hehe
WiffleCube, No, I?ve only played the first one, but I?ve just found them all for a C64 emulator, so I?ll be playing them soon. [:D]
I?m currently reliving the original Monty Mole. It?s weird, but it used to seem so hard, but now I can almost finish it on my first go. It must be that today?s games are more demanding on the skills then the older games? I find all the old games really easy now. Maybe it?s just growing up that makes them easier?
Anuxinamoon, that would have been Alex Kidd, which were classic Sega games. There were actually five of them, but ?Alex Kidd in Miracle World? was the best known. Wonder Boy in monster world was the third Wonder Boy, which was also an awesome game. It was basically more RPG then platformer. It get's my vote for best platform game ever. Man I loved that game?
quote:Originally posted by palantir
WiffleCube, No, I?ve only played the first one, but I?ve just found them all for a C64 emulator, so I?ll be playing them soon. [:D]
I?m currently reliving the original Monty Mole. It?s weird, but it used to seem so hard, but now I can almost finish it on my first go. It must be that today?s games are more demanding on the skills then the older games? I find all the old games really easy now. Maybe it?s just growing up that makes them easier?
If I remember it right; he had to go all around europe, solving puzzles. I liked that one a lot.
He also breakdanced.
ahh nostalgia,
i was lucky enough to have a father as a computer geek who saw the potential of computers for information etc etc.. so i grew up completly stating out with a vic20 then c64
the first game i remember playing wasjumpman and the first game i ever owned given as presents at my dad's b-day was pooyan. i still remember the music to pooyan without fail
montemole was my favourite though,, getting throughthe tunnel afte the pipes with the mine cart always killed me. i can always remember the music of the games i loved the most.
montemole was a great game, same as mummy's tomb, those were the golden days of games for me.
If you still have that zx-80 (not zx-81) then it'd be a good idea
to hang onto it. There weren't many made and they're collectors
items now.
A really good site for emulation is: http://www.the-underdogs.org/.
There are emulators for a myriad of machines and just as many games.
Also, the site has a cute 'his master's voice' dog in a space-suit.
quote:Originally posted by palantir
Barry Dahlberg ? ?Spring Thing?, was that the precursor to ?Thing on a spring?? I loved that game.
That sounds familiar, maybe it was the same thing and I have the name wrong... We actually had the C64 for so long that my next computer was a Pentium 75, now that was a big upgrade!
As far as I can remember, the
As far as I can remember, the first games I played were the Commodore 64 catridges 'International Soccer' and 'Lemans'. I can still vaguely remember my father opening the keyboard box and taking pulling out the styrofoam-covered keyboard. I then moved to a dodgey PC many years later, then to PS1, N64, Xbox, and kinda back to PC.
One of my neighbours had an Intellivision about the same time I got my C64 (must have been around 7-8 at the time); had some fun games on it like Ptifall, Burger Time, some sort of River Raid game, and some game with bees.
Oh, the good ol' days =)
----------------------
Jarrod
www.initiateofthepen.com
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. - The Teachings of Don Juan
C64!!! My first games were :
Hunchback
Ghosts in Goblins ( Ghouls & Ghosts clone )
Barbarian
and the first RPG I ever played was the old D&D Gold box series Champions of Krynn followed clsoely by Might and Magic III