What's the oldest personal computer game you remember playing?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I've been playing PC/Mac games pretty much from the beginning, heck I even remember playing a lunar lander game on my Dad's HP programmable calculator. I played the original Zork/Dungeon and Adventure! on mainframes.

I missed out on the Apple II games as our family never had one, so no original Castle Wolfenstein, Wizardry! etc. except watching people play at their house.

Some of my earliest:

GATO (WWII Sub simulator)
Falcon (the original F-16 sim)
Empire (turn based strategy)
Wolf Pack (Broderbund) U Boat sim, awesome sound/music
The Ancient Art of War (Broderbund) turn based strat




Games like GATO and Ancient Art of War were pre sound card era, so the only sounds came through the little PC speaker, LOL.

Falcon was truly revolutionary because it was the first personal computer game in mass release with a true 3-D environment as far as I know. My med school roommates and I played head to head dogfights with a serial cable connection. GOOD TIMES. (The original Quake I believe was revolutionary for shooters in the same way.)

I played a Windows version of Empire not too long ago and it's still an excellent, addictive game. I wish there was a smooth way to play over the net without a lot of add-ons.

The sound and feel of Broderbund's "Wolfpack" was incredible. This game was redone/rereleased a bit later by NovaLogic.

My college roommate had one of the original Macintoshes, which was really very well designed. I remember playing Loderunner and Megaroids (an Asteroids knockoff), and some crude WWII tank type arcade games on it. As well as writing half my term papers, LOL.

[Orsino]

1. Wizardry, ca. '80

On an Apple II.

[RumpusCat]

82. I remember watching my dad play this!

I was a bit too young at the time to play a game that complicated but I remember him working his way up the tower and getting fustrated and yelling at the computer, lol. It was one of the ones with the amber screen. :D

[Deja Q]

2. Ballblazer

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. Followed by its less successful sequel, "Ballbuster" LOL

[Deja Q]

50. Only to those who could afford it. I recall fans coined it a new name:

"marriage"


:rofl:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

53. Hey, I HAVE that game!

[woo me with science]

3. pong nt

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. You played pong on a computer?

[Strong Atheist]

16. Yes. Atari. nt.

[Orangepeel]

25. jeez. I'm only 38 and I played pong on an Atari

I even remember the first time -- in a Sears store on display. We got one that Christmas, with a Space Invaders game.

[Strong Atheist]

15. Agreed. nt.

[LostinVA]

47. I played it in Lowell, MA, at a HoJos WAY back -- in the 70's

It was set up like a table.

[CAcyclist]

61. Me,too.

[bleedingheart]

90. me too...it was a commodore 64 hooked up to my mom's black and white TV

[Ohio Joe]

6. Telengard

I played it on an Atari 800XL with a cassette drive, sometime around 1980.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Eliminator, TRS80

Defender knock-off. Too bad I couldn't provide a screen shot. I was addicted to this thing.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

18. Ahh the old Trash 80.

[LSK]

8. Asteroids on the original Atari system

In the early 80s I believe.

[ET Awful]

9. Something I typed in myself in BASIC on an old Commodore VIC 20

It was a Space Invaders clone, it took my brother and I hours of typing to get all the data in (copying from programming book on BASIC).

Of course, my cassette drive failed when we went to save it, and we lost it all, but we got to play it for hours before that.

[DS1]

10. Zork I, Wizardry I, Ultima, Rescue at Rigel, Hitchhikers Guide

[sarahinmexico]

43. That's the Title...

I still remember the password was XYZZY, but I couldn't remember the title was Zork.

[Blue-Jay]

95. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

I actually wouldn't mind playing the original version of Zork again. Is there a freeware version of it somewhere?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

102. Psst....

Lookie here!

www.infocom-if.org/downloads/downloads.html

[Gormy Cuss]

11. Adventure

(the text-based game.) I also remember playing Pong or a clone on an Apple and Asteroid on an IBM-PC.

[RebelOne]

12. Zork I, II and III on my old Apple IIe.

[madinmaryland]

13. Space Invaders on an old TRS-80

Also, Clowns and Balloons, and a football game. Very rudimentary, though high tech for the time (1980).

[x-g.o.p.er]

14. Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe

All text, no graphics.

Awesome.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. I've heard really good things about Oregon Trail.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. Ah another screenie from my beloved GATO.

[Deep13]

20. A BASICA version of Asteroids in 1985.

Someone in the class had written a game for the no-hard drive computers at school using the advanced BASIC computer language. The game was passed around on a 5" floppy. The game consisted of of a ">" on the left that was the spaceship which manuvuered up and down through a randomly generated maze of "*" that scrolled right to left. If you hit a *, the game ended.

[qnr]

21. Star Raiders, Atari 400 & 800, 1979.

http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/star-raiders/

[qnr]

22. self-delete - dupe (I even checked first, and it wasn't there-oh well)

[sshaw1980]

23. gorilla

ibm pc game, christ it's been so long i can't remember exactly but it shipped with dos III...

[IcyPeas]

24. Taipei (the mah jong type game)..

came with very early versions of windows. also a silly skiing thing where you had to lead the skiier between trees, around rocks, etc. and then an abomindable snowman would run out and eat the skiier up.

not very sophisticated, but there you are. :+

[Left Is Write]

26. The text-based game Trinity - I played in 1986. Maybe '85 too.

[Ryano42]

27. Not the first but Wolfenstein 3D

Was the first stay up all night shooters that all of my co-workers went mad over...

"SHUGSTAFFEL"! :)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

45. "Mein Leiber!" LOL I loved that game too.

[Radical Activist]

28. I loved the Oregon Trail game at school

But the first would have been something on a Tandy TRS-80. I can't remember which was the first.

[LeftyMom]

29. frogger, on the Commedore 64 in roughly 1983 or '84. nt

[kwassa]

30. Pong!

[DainBramaged]

81. Paid $199 for Pong in 1974

[CottonBear]

31. Pong on the original Atari. Dink, dink, dink... n/t

[kick-ass-bob]

32. Hammurabi.

A text based game (in BASIC?) that I played on a TRS-80. You would build a civilization and decide how much food and stuff to give to your people and see what happens.

[kick-ass-bob]

33. By God, yes it was in BASIC. I even found a page talking about it.

http://www.atariarchives.org/basicgames/showpage.php?page=78

:crazy:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

44. There was a mainframe (UNIX?) game like this called Empire I believe.

There was also a Star Trek game for mainframes that was pretty good.

[slaveplanet]

97. yes- Star Trek

was that the name of it? That was the first game I played, had to be 72' -74' time period , played it on an old Arpanet mainframe at my dad's work. I think I played Empire and Hunt the Wumpus as well. First Gui based game I played was Flyswatter? or Fly? at Xerox parc ethernet around 77' coolest thing I'd ever seen, probably same thing Jobs saw...We also had adventure? Zork? at home on an early teletype modem but the rolls of paper were expensive.

on edit: I also played the GUI game Maze War(couldn't remember the name) on the Alto around the 77' timeframe.

[Huckebein the Raven]

34. Oregon Trail, Test Drive ( still play that game ) on the Apple II and PC

and Pole Position, Asteroid, and Football on the Atari 2600

[Tikki]

35. Q-bert.........n/t

[Tyrone Slothrop]

36. Infocom games and the Ultima series

We had an Atari 800.

I remember we had a bunch of games, but the ones I primarily remember playing were the Infocom adventures (Deadline, Suspect, Witness, Suspended, HGttG, etc.) and the Ultima series from II-IV.

I also liked Lode Runner, Spelunker, Jumpman and all those other old-school platform games. Ah, sweet, sweet youth...

[AllegroRondo]

37. Brickout - on a TRS-80

actually, before that I remember going on a tour of the local college computer lab, and playing a version of 'guess the letter' against the computer. There were no monitors, it was all printed out as you typed.

[martymar64]

38. Lunar Lander in BASIC on the TRS-80

Before that I played Pong and Tank at the local 7-11 (circa 1976)

[redwitch]

39. pong.

I thought it was great! LOL At least THERE we have come a long way!

[XemaSab]

40. This is what I got:

For the MacPlus, Scarab of RA; for the PC, Lemonade Stand; and for the Atari, Donkey Kong or PacMan.

[dorktv]

41. Popcorn on the Mac...spelling game.

[Fox Mulder]

42. Oregon Trail on the Mac Classic and Apple IIe...

as well as Oddell Lake. Doesn't anyone remember Oddell Lake???

Number and Word Munchers was also a favorite of mine.

[XemaSab]

57. Mac Classic?

What's a Mac Classic?

:shrug:

Are you talking about the Mac PLUS, perchance?

Dude, I still HAVE mine. If you step to the Mac Plus you're stepping to me.

[Fox Mulder]

59. Macintosh Classic:

[LostinVA]

46. I loved Wolf Pack -- Battle of Britain (LucasArts) was good, too

And the Dynamix games -- Camelot, and the one where you could play the thief (you could be a warrior, mage, pr thief).

[Starbucks Anarchist]

48. Oregon Trail.

We played it in school.

[aclog]

52. me too

I was wondering if anybody else would say that!

[sakabatou]

49. The first game I played was DOOM

and the oldest was Asteroids.

[aclog]

51. Not 100%

but I think Orgeon Trail

[Crazy Dave]

54. Hangman which was the only game on an old Tandy I had

Then a few years later came Duke Nukem and Castle Wolfenstein, after that Windows 3.1

[Dave Reynolds]

55. Hunt the Wumpus on a TI99-4a.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

60. Ahh Wumpus. I remember it as a mainframe thing, I guess ASCII.

[Benfea]

56. I played a couple on TRS-80 model III's, but I can't think of any names

The only thing I can be certain of is that they pretty much pre-date anything on your list. ;)

[ContraBass Black]

58. Kids' Time.

Macintosh Classic:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

62. Pong and Pac-Man.

[CatholicEdHead]

63. Astrosmash on Intellivision

I think it was made in 1982.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

64. "Hungry Horace" & "Jumping Jack" on the ZX-81

I was 4 and these were the only two games that my parents bought with the Speccy. I can remember playing these for such a long time, then we upgraded to 48K and aquired a load of new games.

[mvd]

65. I remember King's Quest and Wizardry! clearly

I probably played a couple educational games before that. I played on Nintendo more than I played on the computer. I still love the role playing game Wizardry! and wish they would upgrade it for XP.

I won King's Quest, but not Wizardry!

[Cats Against Frist]

66. Oregon trail on the Apple IIc

I think that's what it was. We also played some games like that on the Commodore 64. PRE-GRAPHICS!!

[AlienGirl]

67. Hurkle, Oregon Trail, Lemonade Stand, and that one where you were a fish

[enki23]

99. i remember the fish one

always had to watch out for the dolly varden...

i remember some game from the same series where you would have a "big mac attack" for some reason... you were on a plane, and they asked you if you wanted "coffee, milk, or orco tea" (or something like that).

also loved oregon trail, lemonade stand, sumer (sounds a lot like hammurabi... don't really know.), and some dungeons and dragons thingy with pseudo-graphical mazes with a big "spectre" blob that would come get you. you were searching for treasure, and would always fall down some hole to a deep level... and your elf and/or dwarf would be killed all the time.

oh, and paratroopers. loved, loved, *loved* that game.

[Shine]

68. My big confession: I am 41 yrs old and I have NEVER played a computer game

just not my thang.

do you still like me? :shrug:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

72. Aw MAN! Of course I still like you!

[Shine]

74. Oh good, we can ALWAYS talk about movies!

:pals:

[ContraBass Black]

92. Try one.

You might like it.

[Jamastiene]

69. Joust, and it was the only one I had for the Atari 800XL

I used to own.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

73. You used to own before it was called OMFGPWNT.

[Jamastiene]

76. Oh, I called it some names. I tried to teach myself basic on it.

Used to get that Atari magazine with the million line programs in there. They said the programs were for this computer or that one. I made sure that one game was for the 800XL and spent half a night typing it in. I think it was called the Witching Hour. I spent the other half the night saving what I had typed every so often to the cassette tape drive, only to later find out it wouldn't work on my machine. Typical story too. I finally go bored trying to teach myself basic and went back to playing Joust.

What does OMFGPWNT mean? I kinda can figure out the first part, but not the last part.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

78. PWNT or pwnt is just the stupid "leet speek" for "owned" or "ownt".

Leet speak is the pattern of characteristic misspellings and odd expressions that have evolved with programmers, hackers, and the web and some of the particular expressions like "pwnt" seem to be particularly popular with gamers.

Junior high age gamers, mostly, I hope.

Like, someone kills you in Quake 4 online and you see the message "omfgpwnt" on the typed chat. The equivalent of some dork beating their cyber chest over your dead cyber corpse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

[democracyindanger]

70. Growing up in Oregon

I never, ever, never even had the opportunity to play "Oregon Trail." Is that weird?

But I did play a whole bunch of "Snakes" and "Decathalon" on my school's TRS-80s.

[Beware the Beast Man]

71. A game called Snooper Troops for Apple II.

I don't remember the object of the game, though, but I remember the name. I think it was a mystery game of some sort. It was in grade school.

[malmapus]

85. Snooper Troops ruled!!!

You were this PI and could sneak into people's houses lol. I never could finish it, just always tried to see which houses I could get into.

[Broken_Hero]

75. A few...

Frogger...Wizards of War, BeachHead, Pacman, Galaga...Joust....these are the ones that stick out the most....

[zone]

77. Pong, Breakout, Space Invaders, Asteroids

That reminds me: Why do they call an asteroid when it's out in space and a hemmoroid when it's in your ass? And what would a video game called "hemmoroids" look like, anyway? (I can sort of visualize George and Dick as little blood-engorged Pacmen running around the West Wing.)

[Bzzzz]

79. Pong......n/t

[no name no slogan]

80. Oregon Trail on the school district's mainframe via teletype

The modem for the teletype looked like the one Matthew Broderick used in "War Games", and you had to physically dial the mainframe's # to connect to it. This was back in 1976-77.

I also wrote my first computer programs on the mainframe in BASIC. The coolest one I wrote was a hangman game, using less than 100 lines of code. It was pretty cool for the time.

Eventually we got Apple II machines, and CRT displays, and by the time I got to junior high I was pretty good at that stuff. Then puberty hit, and I discovered the electric guitar and dropped that computer stuff like a bad habit.

Interestingly enough, I now work in IT, although my degree is in liberal arts. I guess it all comes back eventually.

[suzbaby]

83. Dark Castle, Macintosh

I distinctly remember throwing rocks at monkey's who were saying "nee nee nee nee nee"

[LanternWaste]

84. Stealth Bomber (???)

Stealth Bomber. I think that was the name of it. This was circa 1983 and it was a text-only game played on a DOS screen (for the nitpickers: probably not DOS, but it was black and had green text so it's DOS to me).

No one but the Physics teacher had a computer so if we wanted to play, it was join the physics club. Yeah.. that lasted for all of two weeks before I realized my favorite flavors of cheerleaders didn't take too well the guys in science clubs-- I was in the marching band already, so I didn't need a strike 2... :)

[malmapus]

86. These BASICA books that had code for ASCII games in them

Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't give myself carpal tunnel by 8 or 9, learned some typing skills though lol. But would get these books that had like 4 or 5 games in them and have to code the shit out for hours. Then enjoy the game for like half that time hahaha.

Did try to write my own RPG though, ala Zork books of the time.

As far as a real game, either Oregon Trail, Wizard of Oz, Load Runner something along those lines.

[TrogL]

87. Adventure - on a mainframe

Yes, I'm old.

[hunter]

88. Depends on how you define "personal computer..."

;)

My personal favorite:

http://www.cosmacelf.com

I also had a Sinclair, ordered from the first advetisement in BYTE magaqzine, I think.

Both played games.

When I was a kid I was always building some sort of computer. I got to play with a lot of computers too. Nowadays some of these desktop machines would be considered programmable calculators. I also used to have a collection of games on punch paper tape for some sort of box attached to a teletype a friend of our family had.

The Atari 800 was my true love. Science Fiction author Orson Scott Card (before he got so twisted!) used to be an Atari 800 guy too.

Pengo is not the first game I remember playing, but it rocked!

I was at a couple of computer shows when Star Raiders was first introduced. People were lined up to play it. Maybe that was my first date with Atari too.



http://www.classicgaming.com/gotcha/1979.htm

[Lisa0825]

89. I think it was called Death Race 2000...

It was back in the early '80s. Basically, it was a black screen with little colored dots meandering around (people) and you were a square (car), and the point was to run over as many people as you could before time ran out.

[Neshanic]

91. You can play games on these things?

[Maestro]

93. You need to get the latest Falcon sim.

It's Falcon AF and well worth the wait!

[Maestro]

94. I remember

playing some golf game on a Commodore 64. And in the early 80's, I played a text based adventure game on one of the original Apples.

[YankeyMCC]

96. On a Commodore 64

Actually perhaps it doesn't qualify as a "video" game because it was a car racing game (I don't recall the name) but was all text based. You pluged in the speed and how much to turn the wheel for each turn and the computer told you if you made it or not.

For actual "video" it would've been Pong of course.

[KitchenWitch]

98. Hunt the Wumpus

And Lunar Lander

Text based games on an old OSI computer.

[sarge43]

100. Civilization, the original on floppy disk. n/t

[Briarius]

101. Blasto and Alpiner for the TI-99

Cartridge fun! Used the TV as the monitor. Good times!