# What was your first computer/video game? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 13, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544 "2018-08-13T19:58:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/81 "2018-08-15T21:32:42Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yeah, all those early adventure games (and I’d extend it to just early computer games in general) were pretty brutal by today’s standards. Early Lucasfilm games were similar in that you could “dead end” a game by getting rid of an item that you need to finish it, and the game will just let you play on and on without telling you that it’s unsolvable from that point (like I seem to remember you can kill the man-eating plant in _Maniac Mansion_, but you need it to be alive to access some necessary rooms. Also, the game won’t stop you from killing off your characters, like in the pool.) Rules of what was “fair” by gameplay standards wasn’t quite well established in the early days. Maniac Mansion wasn’t too bad, as long as you weren’t completely messing up (do not give a psychotic man his exploded hamster). The worst offender was probably Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, which required switching between multiple characters in completely different locations, and a limited supply of money (though you could cheat at the lottery if you planned right). By Loom, deaths were avoidable, and by Monkey Island dead was impossible except for 1 notable exception. But the Sierra games stayed unforgiving, or even got worse. Leisure Suit Larry 1 and 6+7 were forgiving, IIRC 2 was the worst. Later games like King’s Quest VI was even bad - I forgot to give the ring to someone in the first zone, and after going to multiple islands and even the depths of hell, I couldn’t finish the last part because I didn’t have the item. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/82 "2018-08-15T21:43:44Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Maniac Mansion wasn’t too bad, as long as you weren’t completely messing up (do not give a psychotic man his exploded hamster). The worst offender was probably Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, which required switching between multiple characters in completely different locations, and a limited supply of money (though you could cheat at the lottery if you planned right). By Loom, deaths were avoidable, and by Monkey Island dead was impossible except for 1 notable exception. Oddly enough, I had an easier time finish Zak than Maniac Mansion. I’m pretty sure I didn’t even finish Maniac Mansion until well after I had Zak (_loved_ that game.) That said, I happened upon the bent butterknife “work of art” trick very early in my play in the game (you get $1500 instead of $100 for selling it at the pawn shop if it’s bent), so money was not really an issue (and then, IIRC, you can win the lottery as much as you want when you get someone on the spaceship.) > [@](#): > > But the Sierra games stayed unforgiving, or even got worse. Leisure Suit Larry 1 and 6+7 were forgiving, IIRC 2 was the worst. Later games like King’s Quest VI was even bad - I forgot to give the ring to someone in the first zone, and after going to multiple islands and even the depths of hell, I couldn’t finish the last part because I didn’t have the item. I just gave up on Sierra games. I liked them in theory, but, good lord were they infuriating for the reasons you listed. I don’t think I finished a single one. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/83 "2018-08-15T21:44:34Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > First PC game I ever saw (that I remember) was the original Space Quest at a friend’s house. I badgered my parents into getting me a PC so I could also play it. For me it was SimCity. I had my C-64 but our family PC was just an old green-screen IBM. I visited a friend that I didn’t see very often and watched him play SimCity in incredible EGA graphics. The game looked amazing and indeed became one of my favorite series until EA got their hands on Maxis. Not long after I saw SimCity for the first time, I found a C-64 version in some pulpy game catalog. I asked my parents if I could order it (I could afford it on my allowance) but they seemed weirdly against it–I was disappointed and couldn’t figure it out because they weren’t against games or me ordering stuff in general. Today, my only explanation is that they thought the game was called _Sin_ City, which indeed is unlikely to be appropriate for a kid and cause them to give me a flat no. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/84 "2018-08-15T21:57:32Z")
Holy cow. I didn’t even realize there was a SimCity available for the C64. Reading the Wikipedia article on it, apparently SimCity was first developed for the C64 in 1985, but wouldn’t be released until 1989. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/85 "2018-08-15T22:10:28Z")
I loved those text based adventure games. Our school used to let us use the computers in our lunch break (which was great on cold rainy winter days) and me and some friends would play against each other and other kids in the class. Kind of like an early MMO. I wish I could remember what it was called. I used to call my myself “bag of gold”. So other kids would be busy trying to pick me up and then _BAM_ I’d stab them with my dagger! BWAHAHAHAHA!!! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/86 "2018-08-15T23:18:58Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Holy cow. I didn’t even realize there was a SimCity available for the C64. Reading the Wikipedia article on it, apparently SimCity was first developed for the C64 in 1985, but wouldn’t be released until 1989. Yep. I’ve no idea how good it is. I’m feeling motivated to dig up an emulator to see how it plays. [Screenshots](https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Sim_City) look pretty crude compared to the PC version, though. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/87 "2018-08-15T23:35:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Holy cow. I didn’t even realize there was a SimCity available for the C64. Reading the Wikipedia article on it, apparently SimCity was first developed for the C64 in 1985, but wouldn’t be released until 1989. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Yep. I’ve no idea how good it is. I’m feeling motivated to dig up an emulator to see how it plays. Compared to other C64 games? It’s great. Compared to other versions of SimCity? Only good for seeing its origins. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/88 "2018-08-16T01:03:45Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Yep. I’ve no idea how good it is. I’m feeling motivated to dig up an emulator to see how it plays. [Screenshots](https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/Sim_City) look pretty crude compared to the PC version, though. There’s a few gameplay videos of it on Youtube. [Here’s the one I watched](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf4gOT82yEc). Looks reasonable and playable, though if you were exposed to the PC versions of SimCity first, you might think it’s terrible. > [@Skywatcher](#): > > Compared to other C64 games? It’s great. Now, now. The C64 could do some amazing stuff graphically for what it was. Now, this one was at the very end of the C64’s life when most of its tricks had been figured out, but have you seen [Mayhem in Monsterland](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldo2ewLBt3Y)? (The scrolling in that game is incredible for a C64. Look at 10:58 onward. I had no idea that computer was capable of such fast and smooth scrolling.) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/89 "2018-08-16T01:20:56Z")
I mean there are _no_ other city building games for the C64. That’s why it’s great, on the 64. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/90 "2018-08-16T01:31:36Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I mean there are _no_ other city building games for the C64. That’s why it’s great, on the 64. I’m actually surprised it was the only one. I was going to mention _Utopia_ as at least being a proto-city building type game, but then I realized I had that on my Sears version of Intellivision, not the C64. And it really doesn’t look like there were any others. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/91 "2018-08-16T01:34:10Z")
BTW: SimCity was one of the last titles that I bought for my 64. I didn’t get into MS-DOS until a couple years later, when I bought the last Tandy 1000 that the local Radio Shack ever had in stock. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/92 "2018-08-16T02:57:39Z")
my dad gifted me the ti/4a ….and when I asked someone the toy store about games they sent me to a book rack with booklets that looked like Atari instructions …… and you bought one for 4 or 5 bucks…and typed the game in your self …………… same thing for the vic 20 and c 64 …… I learned coding sucked and if I ever made games id draw the pretty pics and write the cool story and let the code monkeys figure the rest out……… ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/93 "2018-08-16T02:58:00Z")
Text Adventures are still going strong…just not commercially. A group of enthusiasts in the usenet alt.fiction.interactive group started a competition back in the day. One of the most noteworthy is Andrew Plotkin (AKA Zarf), who I first learned about my freshman year of college in 1994 when I came across his collection of interactive games on the web. It was noteworthy because these were the days before javascript or shockwave or flash or java any of the software that was designed for ease of web application programming. He closed down his list once those aforementioned development kits were released. Anyway, the competition home page is here: [https://ifcomp.org/](https://ifcomp.org/) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/94 "2018-08-16T03:04:11Z")
at the windows store look for retro city ……its the open source sim city classic ….wright just gave it away …… anyone remeber the text games with pictures ? my friend had police quest one ……then they remastered all the text parser games into point and click and he beat pq1 in an hour 30 ……the original took forever because of the typing ……… ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/95 "2018-08-16T03:28:34Z")
Pong was my first. It was super dull even then. Mattel Football (1977) was amazingly playable considering the graphics were something like 27 LEDs. ([Mattel Football I](http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/FB.htm)) > [@pulykamell](#): > > For the VIC-20, I think _Omega Race_ was my favorite game; smooth, fast gameplay and worked great with the paddle (though you could play with joystick, too.) Omega Race on the Vic 20 was great. Do you remember the opening titles? It took place in the distant future – the year 2003. I also have fond memories of loading Snakman (a low budget Pac Man clone for the Vic 20) from cassette. It had a cool feature where you could break into the ghost’s cell and get high scores. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/96 "2018-08-16T03:32:35Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I mean there are _no_ other city building games for the C64. That’s why it’s great, on the 64. City destroying is more fun than city building. Anyone remember [Crush, Crumble and Chomp!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush,_Crumble_and_Chomp!) ? ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/97 "2018-08-16T12:47:26Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Empire)? > [@Crazy\_Canuck](#): > > Yup, that’s Empire. There were ships and aircraft as well as army units, so it was a lot like civ except that all your cities could build was military units. It was also my first multiplayer game, I remember you could connect two PC’s with a serial cable and play two-player. My dad whooped my ass for the first few games, but eventually I got to the point where I was winning more games than he was. I have fond memories of that game, and it definitely led me to spending a lot of time playing 4X games down the road. It sound about right, and I don’t think there were many similar games. I must have been on the '87 version with text instead of graphics. Wow, that was 30 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/98 "2018-08-16T14:04:15Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > Omega Race on the Vic 20 was great. Do you remember the opening titles? It took place in the distant future – the year 2003. I actually don’t remember it at all, but I did finally [find a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky8htGy9SA8) that included the intro. “In the year 2003, the Omegan system developed a method of training its warriors to protect their star colonies. Over the city of Komar, android controlled fighters raced to engage and destroy these Omegan warriors.” ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/99 "2018-08-16T14:11:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Rules of what was “fair” by gameplay standards wasn’t quite well established in the early days. It seems like Dungeons and Dragons went through a similar thing. Take 30 minutes to roll up a character, 50% chance of dying in the following 10 minutes. At some point either the publishers, or more likely the growing body (pun intended) of experienced DMs, caught on and injected a bit of mercy into the game. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544/100 "2018-08-16T14:43:53Z")
Pong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-computer-video-game/819544.md?page=6)