# What are the oldest computer games you sill pay? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 8, 2015, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839 "2015-12-08T19:06:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/41 "2015-12-11T16:40:29Z")
I play the Microprose Magic the Gathering game (sometimes called Shandalar) that came out in like 1996 or 97. I have a program that emulates Atari’s Adventure and I play that all the time as well. That is from the 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/42 "2015-12-11T16:50:37Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > I lost my copy of AAWAS years ago ☹ Is it online somewhere? You can play it online via the Internet Archive: > **[Ancient Art of War at Sea : Evryware : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet...](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Ancient_Art_of_War_at_Sea_1987)** > > Also ForApple II, Macintosh, PC-98Developed byEvrywarePublished byBrøderbund Software,... which is [apparently legal](https://archive.org/about/dmca.php). You can’t download it of course, but you can play it. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/43 "2015-12-11T17:08:07Z")
I still play Wasteland (from 1988, predecessor to the Fallout series) every now and again. I don’t play it all the way through, I just build up a few guys enough to take out the Scorpitron in the center of Vegas. What can I say, sometimes I just need to explode things like blood sausages or reduce them to a thin red paste. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/44 "2015-12-11T17:42:12Z")
> [@txtumbleweed](#): > > Nope, this had absolutely zero images. The only animation were X’s and O’s and you had a football field that showed where you were on the field while you (and another player) were using the keyboard to select plays. > > Digging around, I found it. XOR _NFL Challenge_. [It’s up on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF_YEq5nkio). That’s old school gaming. With all those fancy graphics? Old school is 1980’s [Tuesday Night Football](https://archive.org/details/a2_Tuesday_Night_Football_1980_Shoestring_Software) for the Apple II. If you were clever enough, not only could you modify the rosters, but you could also change the plays (and the play-by-play). But as for the OP, the oldest games I regularly return to are Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale series. ---
**Author:** ![Zyanthia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Zyanthia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyanthia)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/45 "2015-12-12T22:33:21Z")
Wow, I was cruising along, Harkyn’s castle beaten, Kylearn’s Tower conquered, first 3 floors of Mangar’s laid to waste. Then I hit level 4. I can’t go 4 squares before half my party is stoned or dead. I don’t remember Tales Of The Unknown being quite this hard. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/46 "2015-12-12T23:51:45Z")
> [@Ryanmiaku](#): > > I play Daggerfall every so often. I remember spending about 30 minutes looking for a bloody pawn shop. God, how I loved Daggerfall. It’s been a few years since I last played it, but by far that’s the oldest game I’ve enjoyed playing and replaying over an extended period of time. Although I’ve played and enjoyed all the TES games since then, nothing ever captured my imagination in the same way that Daggerfall did. I’m also trying to remember an old PC game (old as in probably late 90s or early 00s), which some people here might know but I don’t want to make a new thread to ask this. In fact, I remember seeing it praised on the SDMB several times and I think that’s what got me playing it in the first place: It’s an RPG kinda like the Baldur’s Gate games. It was notable for the fact that there was _lots_ of text-based dialogue with a ton of options. It amounted to quite a lot of reading if you wanted to really engage with the RP aspects of the game, and sometimes I got impatient with that. But it was interesting for all the detailed backstory and characters. Anyone know what game I’m talking about? ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/47 "2015-12-13T14:19:30Z")
> [@CoastalMaineiac](#): > > I still enjoy Sid Meier’s Civilization. Civilization IV is my favorite out of them all That’s the only computer game I’ve played in the last couple years. If I knew where my Icewind Dale disks went to I’d play that again. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/48 "2015-12-13T20:22:05Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Come to think of it, I don’t remember any arcade games you could actually “win”. You might win free games, but the game you were playing just kept going until you lost or just gave up playing. Well, “win” is a relative term. But if you search on the game on YouTube, there is an ending level where you kill the monster and save a princess. I think after you save the princess, the game indeed starts over. But since I have never seen the princess (or come close to the level), I really don’t know. I can’t even remember what the level number is, but I don’t think I have ever made it to even level 25. I have seen a few levels over 20, but it is so few and far between I cannot even describe them. They move very fast, and bombs are dropped so quickly that I cannot understand how anyone can actually get through those levels, but they clearly do. It is your basic back and forth joystick game, with one button to shoot. Very simple and yet, I have never seen the end. Apologies for the lack of a link. Attempting to link causes my browser to crash. There is also a wikipedia write-up about Galaga, and they also discuss the princess. I cannot even imagine what would happen if I got that far. I’d probably have a heart attack and die from the shock. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/49 "2015-12-13T20:33:44Z")
I’m reminded there was at least one other game with a “win” – Castle Wolfenstein. Though I don’t recall if was actually in arcades, or just a fairly early home game. It was a first person shooter. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/50 "2015-12-13T20:37:43Z")
Count me in as still playing **Master of Magic**. It understood that a great single player 4X game doesn’t need to be perfectly balanced. It’s more important to give the player interesting options even if some of those options will end up weak and others will break the game. Focusing on balance too much can result in a bland game. You can make the game challenging in other ways. I have also played the **Warcraft III** campaigns, **Star Control 2** , **Panzer General** and \*\*Civilization IV \*\*in the past few years, though I play the **Fall from Heaven 2** mod more than the base game. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/51 "2015-12-14T02:23:35Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Can it be beaten? I was pretty good at it, but I never got to anywhere that said, “You win!” They just kept throwing on additional … rounds? > > Come to think of it, I don’t remember any arcade games you could actually “win”. You might win free games, but the game you were playing just kept going until you lost or just gave up playing. If you made it through 255 screens you hit what was called the “kill screen”. That held true for virtually all arcade games of the 8-bit era, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong being famous examples. The computer would try to generate screen 0 and would malfunction. Donkey Kong’s timer malfunctioned and Pac-Man’s screen would render properly on the left but display gibberish on the right. Galaga had a bug that once done would disable the bugs firing for the remainder of the game. I never had the patience to get to the kill screen, but that was nothing more than a question of how long I wanted to play. Once the bugs stopped shooting the game became (relatively) easy. The point is that the games did in fact have endings, albeit malfunctions, which is why they have upper bounds on scoring and guys like Billy Mitchell could post perfect scores. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/52 "2015-12-14T03:39:06Z")
Solitaire, Freecell, and Minesweeper for me. I would love to find online versions of some of the Sierra games, especially Space Quest and King’s Quest. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/53 "2015-12-14T10:01:16Z")
My favourite of the franchise is _Tomb Raider 2_, from 1997. I have probably played it ten times, including this year. I really like the level design and it’s easily playable for my uncoordinated fingers. I have also played _Secret of Monkey Island_ (1990) a lot, though not in a few years, and not since it was re-made for tablets. I also like to play the _Portal_ games a lot, but they’re not really old yet. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/54 "2015-12-14T13:00:25Z")
Thieves and Kings. It really is a great game from the early 1990s. Thieves, Kings, and Fortitude all have their own appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/55 "2015-12-14T13:27:20Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Master of Magic (1994) Yep, still break this one out from time to time. One of the greatest and most confidently interesting 4x games ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/56 "2015-12-14T14:13:37Z")
I’m still playing Elite (if Oolite counts - can’t remember if I heard about it on this board or somewhere else but I downloaded it and have enjoyed it a great deal) and I have a functional download of “Lords of Midnight” somewhere, though I have a more modern rewrite with the same game engine but flashier graphics. Sign me up also for MoM but my favourite Civ is Civ 2, which sadly won’t install under Windows 8 or later as far as I can tell. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/57 "2015-12-14T19:32:17Z")
Very pleased so many people still play Master of Magic! The great strategy games/series: MOO(1&2), MOM, HOMM(2&3), CIV(4) I imagine I might still be playing Europa Universalis 4 in 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/58 "2015-12-14T20:44:01Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > If you made it through 255 screens you hit what was called the “kill screen”. That held true for virtually all arcade games of the 8-bit era, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong being famous examples. The computer would try to generate screen 0 and would malfunction. Donkey Kong’s timer malfunctioned and Pac-Man’s screen would render properly on the left but display gibberish on the right. > > Galaga had a bug that once done would disable the bugs firing for the remainder of the game. I never had the patience to get to the kill screen, but that was nothing more than a question of how long I wanted to play. Once the bugs stopped shooting the game became (relatively) easy. > > The point is that the games did in fact have endings, albeit malfunctions, which is why they have upper bounds on scoring and guys like Billy Mitchell could post perfect scores. Show off! :mad: Seriously, you are/were good enough at Galaga to play forever? I wasted a LOT of quarters in that arcade game. I have even looked into buying an old restored arcade game for my home… It was literally the bane of my video arcade days. I have never seen anyone reach the end except on youtube clips. I have never heard of the level 255 thing. How LONG would you have to play to reach that level? That just doesn’t seem possible to me. Not because it is too hard (and for me it is), but because of the length of time you would have to invest to stand there playing. No pause button on those arcade games! ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/59 "2015-12-15T04:07:08Z")
> [@crypto](#): > > Show off! :mad: > > Seriously, you are/were good enough at Galaga to play forever? I wasted a LOT of quarters in that arcade game. I have even looked into buying an old restored arcade game for my home… It was literally the bane of my video arcade days. > > I have never seen anyone reach the end except on youtube clips. I have never heard of the level 255 thing. How LONG would you have to play to reach that level? That just doesn’t seem possible to me. Not because it is too hard (and for me it is), but because of the length of time you would have to invest to stand there playing. No pause button on those arcade games! It typically takes about 4 hours of continuous playing, sometimes more, so I never bothered. Add 15 minutes to activate the glitch. Without the glitch I made it to about the hundredth level before I died. Also, fun facts: you can pause Dig Dug and Defender with glitches, you can play forever on Donkey Kong Junior on two quarters, and both Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man have hiding places if the arcade owner didn’t turn up the difficulty. I was a menace in arcades. ---
**Author:** ![Blisters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Blisters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blisters)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839/60 "2015-12-29T04:39:43Z")
Ha! This is timely…My son (9) and I recently played and mapped Colossal Cave Adventure. I was reminded of playing with my dad as a kid…we had many pieces of paper taped to the wall. The Boy and I used a big sheet of blueprint paper. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-oldest-computer-games-you-sill-pay/739839.md?page=4)