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When did you start computer gaming?

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Decade?

  • Total voters
    113
Messed around with Doom, Duke Nukem 3D and NFS back in the 90s, but didn't get *serious* about it until the 2000's.

Really got into GTA: Vice City (and the associated modding scene) w/my old HP Laptop, then got a slightly better HP Desktop and moved on to GTA: San Andreas. When Crysis came out, I built my first gaming rig and I was off to the races.
 
JEDIYoda said:
You sure it was 1989?
Click to expand...
Well, I got my first PC in '88 (still have the receipt!), so it couldn't have been much later. Maybe '90? I remember getting a Microsoft Mouse for Word 4.0 (again, DOS) and with it came a copy of Windows 2.0, which ran on top of DOS, and not well 😉. Then came the shareware games, which led to the first Wolfenstein, Doom, etc. You could see how games were driving hardware in ways that nothing else we used computers for did. Seems primitive now; BBS's instead of internet, massive CRTs, driving up to Sunnyvale/Santa Clara for parts. I can still remember the day I went up to buy a Pentium 100 MHz and mobo for it. Now, I thought, this is the future.
 
jhansman said:
Well, I got my first PC in '88 (still have the receipt!), so it couldn't have been much later. Maybe '90? I remember getting a Microsoft Mouse for Word 4.0 (again, DOS) and with it came a copy of Windows 2.0, which ran on top of DOS, and not well 😉. Then came the shareware games, which led to the first Wolfenstein, Doom, etc. You could see how games were driving hardware in ways that nothing else we used computers for did. Seems primitive now; BBS's instead of internet, massive CRTs, driving up to Sunnyvale/Santa Clara for parts.
Click to expand...
I was mainly commenting on the date that you said - Colony came out. I thought it was a few years later...oh well, my bad!
 
I put 80s but I don't think we owned a PC until the early 90s (Packard Bell 486). I definitely played some games before that though, but the first games I think we owned were Warcraft 1 and Wing Commander 2.
 
First PC was an IBM PS/2 in about 1988, a 286 clocked at 11MHz, with a 20MB HDD and 512KB of RAM. Played Wheel of Fortune, Snarf, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards and Battle Chess. I was about 8 or 9 years old.

It had a mechanical keyboard, those coveted IBM ones. A two button mouse, a 640x480 color monitor and an ear splitting impact printer. It was a beast.
 
ItsFlybye said:
IBM XT in the early/mid 80s. Started with a few games from Spectrum Holobyte like PT-109, GATO, Falcon and others.
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I worked for IBM in the early 1970's, but the Office Products Div, not computers. (Selectric typewrites and copiers) in New Haven, CT. I have two classic IBM keyboards from early 80's.
 
My first computer game was on a military mainframe in the late 70's. You were a sub, and estimated an angle to shoot a torpedo to hit a ship, and a dot matrix printer printed the shot. I next saw a computer game when Zork was first released on mainframes, but didn't get to play it then, but later got to know the co-author who also played Everquest (he went by "Vizco"). Another early game was Rogue, played on a DEC.
 
Craig234 said:
My first computer game was on a military mainframe in the late 70's. You were a sub, and estimated an angle to shoot a torpedo to hit a ship, and a dot matrix printer printed the shot. I next saw a computer game when Zork was first released on mainframes, but didn't get to play it then, but later got to know the co-author who also played Everquest (he went by "Vizco"). Another early game was Rogue, played on a DEC.
Click to expand...

Is that you Matthew Broderick?
 
Well i do remember playing ping pong on my dad's og IBM PC (8088) at his office.
I still think they made the best keyboards ever, and nothing still comes close to it 40yrs later.

But i think the first real PC gaming i played was probably on a Commodore.
 
First comp was in the 1980's, the Apple (IIE or IIC?)... and had the submarine warfare simulation and some text-adventure game.

1993 my first PC, a 386-DX33 with 'Vesa local bus' ! ... with Windows for Work Groups and DOS. First PC games: Links386 Golf, Aces Over Europe war flight simulator, and Doom (on like 12 diskettes I think!)... An exciting time, each month waiting for the new issue of 'Computer Gaming World'! In '94/'95 got my 12 yr old a PC, created a network with a null cable, and we played Doom and Doom2 DeathMatch... what a blast!
 
aigomorla said:
Well i do remember playing ping pong on my dad's og IBM PC (8088) at his office.
I still think they made the best keyboards ever, and nothing still comes close to it 40yrs later.

But i think the first real PC gaming i played was probably on a Commodore.
Click to expand...
I have two practically brand new IBM KB's from that era... my buddies are so jealous. (I worked for IBM in early '70's in New Haven, but for the 'Office Products' division, not 'DP' as they called it then)
 
looper said:
I have two practically brand new IBM KB's from that era... my buddies are so jealous. (I worked for IBM in early '70's in New Haven, but for the 'Office Products' division, not 'DP' as they called it then)
Click to expand...

its ironic, because we lost that style keyboard due to cost, and people saying they were too loud.
Yet fast forward, and all the best keyboards now are mechanical, yet they still can't make one on par with how IBM made them.

I even bought a massdrop one, and its still not up to the mechanical keyboard the IBM had.
Anyone that says today's keyboards are better then IBM's has never used an IBM.
Something about how good they feel when you press a key, and the hypnotic clicky sound it made... i remember falling asleep to it on the couch as my dad would be typing on it.
 
aigomorla said:
its ironic, because we lost that style keyboard due to cost, and people saying they were too loud.
Yet fast forward, and all the best keyboards now are mechanical, yet they still can't make one on par with how IBM made them.

I even bought a massdrop one, and its still not up to the mechanical keyboard the IBM had.
Anyone that says today's keyboards are better then IBM's has never used an IBM.
Something about how good they feel when you press a key, and the hypnotic clicky sound it made... i remember falling asleep to it on the couch as my dad would be typing on it.
Click to expand...

The click sound would aggravate my wife.... worth the price, right there...

I had one of these several yrs ago.... great quality, imo.
www.daskeyboard.com

Das Keyboard - The Ultimate Mechanical Keyboard Experience for Overachievers

Das Keyboard offers the ultimate experience with high-performance mechanical keyboards with superior durability, construction, and design. The mechanical key switches provide tactile and audio feedback for the best experience.
www.daskeyboard.com www.daskeyboard.com
 
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