I’m pretty sure I got my Atari before I got access to my first computer at school, so it would be one of the games I got with it. But I got a lot, since I got it used. The games I remember include Tank, Basketball, Word Zapper (first game I ever beat), Pacman, Donkey Kong, and a forward moving shooter whose name escapes me, but I played a lot. But my favorite in that first bunch was Journey Escape.
Before that I got a Vtech Whiz Kid, which had games on it. Also, some portable LCD and LED games–my favorite was a basketball game that was just some red blips. It’s the oldest game I own, but it wasn’t originally mine so I didn’t get it first.
Daredevil Dennis on the Acorn Electron. Came out in 1984 when I was 7, but I’m guessing we would have bought it slightly after that.
I found it online recently and tried to play it. It’s a platform game with four platforms on each screen which Dennis would ride across. On each platform would be one object (like a house) that Dennis had to jump over.
IIRC, the first electronic item I had that played games was an Apple IIe. For the life of me, I can’t remember what the game was called*. The other game I remember playing, a lot, was Load Runner (also on that Apple).
*I’ve been trying to think of the name of this game for quite a while. I may have asked about it here years ago, and just as I went to try and look up that thread, I remembered it, Sneakers.
My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20, c. 1985. Don’t know what my first video game would have been. Pole Position? Maybe something on my cousin’s Atari 2600? Oh, wait, no. It was almost certainly some TV home console variant of Pong that seemed to be ubiquitous in the early 80s (and probably before, but my memories start at around 1979).
So I had this long response about a Commodore 64 game that I played in like 2nd grade that I could only remember bits of because it’s been 30+ years. But then my phone deleted ilthe post and instead of writing it out again I decided to see if I could actually figure out what game it was.
And holy shit I found it! I was Gyruss!
I played a lot of those old C64 games: Heart of Africa, Montezuma’s Revenge, Save New York… Heart of Africa was my favorite and today I love adventure games like Tomb Raider. I wish I could play HoA again.
Atari Pong, and I remember there were so many connections and fiddling to do it was hardly worth the trouble. Stick to pinball and foosball, I thought.
The first (beyond Pong and it’s variants) that I remember playing is ‘Shamus’ in the early 80s. Or rather, my dad played it, as it was far too hard for me as a young child.
Putting aside the educational Apple IIe games at school, the first computer game that I can remember playing is Disney’s Matterhorn Screamer. That was way, way back there!
I think it was the original Kings Quest. But we also go Montezuma’s Revenge around the same time. I should find an emulator and play those games again. I’d need a joystick for Montezuma.
Now that people mentioned it, I do have a memory of playing Pong in my basement. I think my parents had friends over and they brought it to hook up to the downstairs television to keep us kids amused while they were drinking and telling bawdy limericks upstairs.
I remember thinking it was pretty neat which means it had to be before we owned a video game system since I doubt I’d have been impressed with it after playing an Atari-era home gaming system.