# Your first video games **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 8, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151 "2010-02-08T16:24:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/81 "2010-02-16T17:12:36Z")
I was part of the technical writing team for Arrakis in 1987. The game was more text than video – not one of those chase/be chased quick reflex games. It was focused on running an impoverished country, with the game player manipulating resource variables. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/82 "2010-02-16T20:09:00Z")
My parents bought Pong, which we played all the time. Then I graduated to my friend’s Atari 2600. I remember sometime later we got a Colecovision which was fun. ---
**Author:** ![GreatStuffMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f04885/32.png) [@GreatStuffMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreatStuffMan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2010, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/83 "2010-02-17T10:10:17Z")
Uhm, a NES. Now I feel young. I think I had The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Top Gun and Ice Climber. It was great! ---
**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:** [March 3, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/84 "2010-03-03T00:30:05Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > I vividly remember an isometric shoot’em up called _Zaxxon_. And then there was _Digger_, which I could play for hours, and have the music stuck in my head for even longer : [_Popcorn_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2fucOfjy-4&feature=related), on an loop. Ti tu ti tu tu ti tu, ti tu ti tu tu ti tu… > > A bit later : _Gato_, _Bushido_, _Pit Stop_, _Gunship_, _Sopwith_, _Lode Runner_, _Asteroids_ and the old classic, _Space Invaders_. Zaxxon was awesome! And I totally had Sopwith on our family’s old PC back in the 80’s. Also used to play this silly game called “Castle.” The graphics were all text, and you had to walk your guy around to different rooms, fight monsters, and collect items to build a scepter and escape. They just don’t make 'em like they used to… ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/85 "2010-03-03T03:19:58Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Back in the mid-1970’s (1975?), I had one of the original Sears Pong games. It was bright yellow with black knobs and could play pong, pong, and pong. [Yep](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atarisearspong.png). My first exposure to home gaming as well - my ( not yet ) step-brothers had one. Pong, the original Saturday Night Live and Creature Features w/ [Bob Wilkins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Wilkins). The perfect saturday night trifecta. ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/86 "2010-03-04T01:33:19Z")
Pitfall II was the shit, but I couldn’t ever figure out ET for the Atari 2600. The first game I played after the Atari was a Sega Master System. Then I had a nintendo, and I beat the shit out of All the Wizards and Warriors series and Final Fantasy, then I got a sega and sega CD and starting playing all the great Working Designs games. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/87 "2010-03-04T01:45:38Z")
The first video games I played were in the arcade at the mall, when I was about 9 or 10 and would be hanging out there all day while my mom was at work. I liked Tempest best. The first video games I played at someone’s home was playing my friend Tracy’s 2600. The first video games I played at _my_ home were years later, on my Commodore 64. Archon, put out by EA, and the Infocom text games. The first console game system I owned was the SNES (my folks wouldn’t buy a video game console for the house - I had to wait till I grew up and could buy my own used one.) I also used to play my roommates’ Genesis, but I definitely liked the SNES better. I never did beat all the levels in Super Mario World… Yeah. I’ve been gaming a while. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/88 "2010-03-04T02:03:22Z")
Did anyone else enjoy Rolling Thunder in the arcade when it was new? Another one of my earlier video game memories. I never beat it, either. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/89 "2010-03-10T10:39:45Z")
Final Fantasy 3 (J) was the first game I ever finished. DragonQuest 2 was the first game I _played_, but never finished because it was so damn hard… … since I didn’t know how I had to specifically equip armor and weapons. I thought just buying stuff and having it in my inventory was enough. So here I was, up to like level 20 or something, walking around butt naked and hitting things with a club… ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Keen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/90 "2010-03-10T21:21:25Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > The first PC game I remember was a text adventure, and I can not(for the life of me) remember it’s name. I remember that you started out in front of a building, I think and if you walked east, you would get the message, “You are near the woods…and a storm is brewing”. > > I wish we could locate that game. It wasn’t Zork or any big name game, either. I think it was scifi themed. > > Can’t remember the name. Late reply, but this intrigued me so I went googling. Could it be “Alien” from 1982, by some apparently anonymous author? [Description here](http://www.joltcountry.com/trottingkrips/alien.html) [BASIC source code](http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/basic/alien.zip) (I couldn’t find an actual download of the game, sadly. The download link in my first link is broken.) The sci-fi setting and date match, and the game does contain the phrase “looka [sic] like a storm is brewing…” (line 168 of ALIEN.SPC). However, you don’t start out in front of a building, but apparently in front of a “vast plain that extends in all directions”. Of course this seems to be just some random freeware IF game and I’m not sure how you would have gotten it at the time, but it’s the only thing I could come up with. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/91 "2010-03-11T04:23:05Z")
> [@Commander\_Keen](#): > > Late reply, but this intrigued me so I went googling. Could it be “Alien” from 1982, by some apparently anonymous author? > > [Description here](http://www.joltcountry.com/trottingkrips/alien.html) > [BASIC source code](http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/source/basic/alien.zip) (I couldn’t find an actual download of the game, sadly. The download link in my first link is broken.) > > The sci-fi setting and date match, and the game does contain the phrase “looka [sic] like a storm is brewing…” (line 168 of ALIEN.SPC). However, you don’t start out in front of a building, but apparently in front of a “vast plain that extends in all directions”. Of course this seems to be just some random freeware IF game and I’m not sure how you would have gotten it at the time, but it’s the only thing I could come up with. That reminds me of the first “PC” game I played: a text adventure RPG called [Eamon](http://www.lysator.liu.se/eamon/). I played it on the Apple IIe computers at school, using discs borrowed from the public library. It was a public domain, freeware game, or rather, gaming system. The way it worked was you had one 5-1/4" floppy disk that contained the game’s “engine”. You’d stick that in the Apple’s disk drive and load the engine, and then load a second floppy that contained the actual adventure. From there you’d generate your character and play through the adventure. The “engine” disk also contained programs that allowed you to create your own adventures. So with the whole system being public domain, there was a huge library of user-created adventures. Some of them were really bad, but I came across several gems. ---
**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:** [March 11, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/92 "2010-03-11T12:43:16Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > That reminds me of the first “PC” game I played: a text adventure RPG called [Eamon](http://www.lysator.liu.se/eamon/). I played it on the Apple IIe computers at school, using discs borrowed from the public library. It was a public domain, freeware game, or rather, gaming system. > > The way it worked was you had one 5-1/4" floppy disk that contained the game’s “engine”. You’d stick that in the Apple’s disk drive and load the engine, and then load a second floppy that contained the actual adventure. From there you’d generate your character and play through the adventure. The “engine” disk also contained programs that allowed you to create your own adventures. So with the whole system being public domain, there was a huge library of user-created adventures. Some of them were really bad, but I came across several gems. I’ve played some of those. Interesting system. You always wanted a low charisma otherwise everyone and their mothers would be following you around (except for the enemies who were coded to always be hostile). Usually it was just easier to kill them. The amusing thing was since the adventures were coded in basic rather than being binary executables, you could pretty much figure out the whole game, including the secret areas, by reading the source code. ---
**Author:** ![badlyburnttoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@badlyburnttoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badlyburnttoast)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151/93 "2010-03-12T09:34:51Z")
[Nethack](http://www.nethack.org/) is the first game I can ever remember playing. It’s somewhat amusing to me that my computer is approximately a bajillion times more powerful then the one I first played on, and I’m still running the same game. 23 years later and I still haven’t ever won - they just don’t make 'em like they used to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-video-games/528151.md?page=4)