When did you start computer gaming?

[Muadib]

Does pong count as computer gaming? That was the first video game I ever played.

Pong was also my first. Heck yeah it counts!

 

[looper]

Does pong count as computer gaming? That was the first video game I ever played.

To me, that's not a 'computer' game, but a console...

 

[Muadib]

To me, that's not a 'computer' game, but a console...

Okay, I’ve come to my senses, and now agree with you.

 

[looper]

Think my first computer 'game' was on an Apple IIE, and was a WW2 submarine sim.

In @ 1992-93 my first Windows PC... Links386 golf, Aces Over Europe (air combat), and Doom.

 

[Craig234]

Okay, I’ve come to my senses, and now agree with you.

I think Pong counts as an early computer game; there weren't PC's at the time, that's what a computer game was. It's clear what it was. Is, say, "Missile Command" a computer game? It's an arcade game - and I just bought an Atari pack including that game for my PC today. So if I play the arcade version it's not a computer game and play the same game on the PC it is?

 

[looper]

I had the Pong console in 1977-78. Believe me, it was not a computer. It was a game console.

Apple IIE a few yrs later for a sub warfare game.

 

[Craig234]

I had the Pong console in 1977-78. Believe me, it was not a computer. It was a game console.

Sigh. It's a choice of definition. Was it a deck of cards? A chess board? A basketball? No. Was there computing involved? In terms of using a computer, it did. In terms of the later console/PC split, it wasn't.

 

[looper]

Meh. Ok, let's call it a computer.

 

[biostud]

With this rare gem, piccoline rc759

RC759 PICCOLINE - Start

 

[Mai72]

Late 1990s. I had a 350mhz Gateway. The first game I had was Madden. It looked so clean. You could see the names on the back of their jersey. Then, it was Half Life. I still remember picking up the Half Life box in Best Buy and was like "OMG." Half Life online early 2000 was like going to another universe. It was so different. Then UT. Fell in love with that game. My name was "The Hollywood Kid." Got really good at spamming spawn areas with multiple rockets. Played the mod Tactical Ops for hours. Tribes 2 was amazing. Can't forget AoE, and AoE2. Back then, never cared for Quake, and Counterstrike.

Does anyone remember HEAT? That was the first time I ever got online and competed. They had prizes, tournaments. Played Kingpin on HEAT for hours.

 

[Jay_Pee]

I think it was 1996. Command and Conquer Red Alert started it all for me. Then I picked up Jane's Fighters Anthology and Longbow Gold. I remember buying a PC title back in the day was so grand, it came in a big box and a thick manual.

 

[Craig234]

I think it was 1996. Command and Conquer Red Alert started it all for me. Then I picked up Jane's Fighters Anthology and Longbow Gold. I remember buying a PC title back in the day was so grand, it came in a big box and a thick manual.

Oh ya. The big box, the big book.

 

[Aikouka]

I'd say early 90's, but it's plausible that I may have played some in the very late 80's. We never had a good computer at home until the late 90's. Prior to that, we had an aging IBM 286-equipped PC, which I played such classics as Number Munchers, Word Munchers and School Mom. (If I remember correctly, all three of those are accessible on the Internet Archive.)

Some games that I remember either playing or watching:

• Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall
• Phantasmagoria
• Rainbow Six
• StarCraft
• Rise of the Triad

 

[Craig234]

• Phantasmagoria

I remember Phantasmagoria when it came out. Early in the days of CD-ROM, and a big release on multiple discs with lots of FMV and 'real actors'. I remember being quite disappointed in the game and story. It seemed it tried to play off a few things like 'dark story' and shock value.

 

[shortylickens]

I remember Phantasmagoria when it came out. Early in the days of CD-ROM, and a big release on multiple discs with lots of FMV and 'real actors'. I remember being quite disappointed in the game and story. It seemed it tried to play off a few things like 'dark story' and shock value.

Yeah most of the early CD-ROM games were actually crap but because we were impressed with something new we let them slide.
Hell was OK but many people hated it.

 

[Craig234]

Yeah most of the early CD-ROM games were actually crap but because we were impressed with something new we let them slide.

But the main new CD-ROM game that led to a massive purchasing of CD-ROM drives, Myst, was not crap.

 

[DrMrLordX]

But the main new CD-ROM game that led to a massive purchasing of CD-ROM drives, Myst, was not crap.

Interestingly enough, that was not Cyan's first CD-ROM game. They came out with Cosmic Osmo before that. Cosmic Osmo was the first CD-ROM game I ever saw. Well that or one of the Carmen San Diego games.

 

[shortylickens]

Actually I'm pretty sure the game that forced me to purchase a CD drive was Knights of Xentar, which looking back was actually terrible motivation.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Ahaha NSFW! Don't look that up. Good thing Google sanitizes most searches.

 

[clamum]

The reason I asked and started a poll is I was curious about how many people remember what it was like to work on your computer all day just to get it functioning and playing one lousy game, and how much progress we've made since then.

Ha, yeah, I remember that sort of thing. I believe it was that first 486 computer that we tried to play Doom on and we finally found we had to boot it into the command prompt (prior to Windows load) so it would have enough memory to frickin run, lol. That beast had a whole 4 MB of RAM in it. It was loaded so early that IIRC the sound didn't even work cause (I'm guessing) the sound drivers weren't even loaded yet.

 

[shortylickens]

Ha, yeah, I remember that sort of thing. I believe it was that first 486 computer that we tried to play Doom on and we finally found we had to boot it into the command prompt (prior to Windows load) so it would have enough memory to frickin run, lol. That beast had a whole 4 MB of RAM in it. It was loaded so early that IIRC the sound didn't even work cause (I'm guessing) the sound drivers weren't even loaded yet.

DOS games were so bad I eventually had to make boot disks for each of them.
Some needed EMS, some needed XMS, some needed the extended lines for my wavetable card. Its too much work trying to get multiple games running under one setup. A disk for each was eventually necessary.
And since DOS loaded damn near instantly it wasn't a big deal.
My OS didn't load that fast again until Windows 10 on a SSD.

 

[clamum]

DOS games were so bad I eventually had to make boot disks for each of them.
Some needed EMS, some needed XMS, some needed the extended lines for my wavetable card. Its too much work trying to get multiple games running under one setup. A disk for each was eventually necessary.
And since DOS loaded damn near instantly it wasn't a big deal.
My OS didn't load that fast again until Windows 10 on a SSD.

Haha yup I remember having to screw around with memory like that. Must've found some website or something that explained some of it cause I surely didn't figure it out myself.

And yeah, lol until SSDs I don't think I did either. Crazy how fast they boot now... damn youngins don't know what it's like to sit there for minutes while a computer boots lol. I think my Surface Pro is the fastest booting thing I have.

 

[nakedfrog]

DOS games were so bad I eventually had to make boot disks for each of them.
Some needed EMS, some needed XMS, some needed the extended lines for my wavetable card. Its too much work trying to get multiple games running under one setup. A disk for each was eventually necessary.
And since DOS loaded damn near instantly it wasn't a big deal.
My OS didn't load that fast again until Windows 10 on a SSD.

Until DOS 6.22 came out, and you could set it up to prompt you for which configuration you wanted to load, that was great and never really got a chance to shine coming so late in the DOS timeline.

 

[pmv]

I remember playing one of those Star-Trek games that wasted vast amounts of teletype paper on some college mainframe back in the late 1970s. Then got a Zilog Z80-based micro at home.

It was probably this:

Star Trek (1971 video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Boy, that was a misuse of educational resources. We were too young to even plausibly be students, just snuck in to the building and left reams of wasted paper and CPU cycles in our wake.

 

[DMoose]

By the spring of 1962, the first computer game was complete. Russell considered selling the game. But the only customer would have been Digital Equipment, because his game could run only on.