Weekend Open Forum: What was the first game you ever played?

[midian182]

Hard as it is for some people to believe, video games have been around for quite a few decades now. Depending on a person’s age, definitions of a truly retro game can vary from something like Half-Life 2 or Grand Theft Auto 3 to the original Doom, Chucky Egg, Q*bert, and Pac-Man.

Most gamers have played literally hundreds, often thousands, of titles since they first picked up a joystick/gamepad/paddle/mouse, but that first ever time is often the one that sticks in the memory longest.

As someone fast approaching forty, I vividly remember the first game I ever played was Galaga on the Atari 7800. To my very young self, it seemed like the most amazing, wonderful experience in the world, even though I was useless at it, and led to a life-long passion for gaming.

For this weekend open forum, we want to know what was the first game you ever played, or at least the first one you remember playing. Did it have a lasting effect on you? Do you look back on the memory with a sense of watery-eyed nostalgia? Or, like me, did you recently try playing it again and discover it’s really not as good as you recall. Do let us know in the comments below.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/69389-weekend-open-forum-what-first-game-you-ever.html

 

[Brock Kane]

First was Pong. But the one I remember most was Asteroids! I spend many a quarters in the local arcades. More carefree lifestyle then. No Wireless phones, and no Internet! So the arcade was the place to be!

 

[hahahanoobs]

I'm pretty sure it was something on a friends' ColecoVision system.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Oh my! You might as well be asking us, if we remember the color of our first birthday cake.

 

[Spudnation]

Mario Bros on the NES

 

[merikafyeah]

Probably Oregon Trail was the first. Back when displays were just black and green.

 

[JKnight]

Wavy Navy on Apple II.

 

[Julio Franco]

I think it was Pacman on the Atari 800XL.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Hammurabi - text based, CPM program which I typed in on my 1st PC (64kb 5mhz 8088).

 

[ShadowDeath]

Stadium Events for NES with the Power Pad.

Edit: Correction.

 

[wiyosaya]

Pong

 

[Tgard]

Pong at the local 7-11 until they got a Galaga machine! Then I was hooked on it.

 

[m4a4]

Can't remember. Pretty sure I played NES at someone's house before I started playing other games (no arcade machines near me and no console in my house until Sega Genesis).

 

[Thorney]

It would have been Pong but the first game I ever devoted time to was Galaxians

 

[misor]

Battle City on a cousin's NES.

pacman on a friend's 486 PC.

 

[highlander84]

The first game I remember playing was Wolfenstein 3d. However I know for a fact I played NES and SNES before that. its been to long

 

[mcborge]

Atic Atac on a friends ZX spectrum.

 

[CortyDK]

Those Nintendo Game & Watch handhelds. Donkey Kong, and I also had one "car" race game, cannot remember the name, but the car was stationary in the bottom at the screen and I could only move it left or right between 3 lanes, and the road moved... increasing in speed and opponents between levels. Those were the days.
My very first computer game was Big Rig (a DOS text based game ), but the first graphic game I remember was Bubble Bobble (Bubble Shooter) and Bomb (Tank Wars) before moving to Wolfenstein 3D, Sim City and so on. Lemmings, Day Of The Tentacle, and the rest is history...as they say.

 

[R00sT3R]

Life...from the moment I was born.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I can't remember, I was far too young but I guess whatever it was, it had to be with my mom while lying in my crib. One of the first games (apart from finding out how far I could throw my rattle) that I can remember was the board game, snakes & ladders. Computer game? I dunno, it was either Pong or Space Invaders, I can't remember and it's not important. The most fun computer game I've ever played til present is GTA Vice City and I doubt that'll ever be beaten... for me that is.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"As someone fast approaching forty".
Still busy losing your baby teeth eh?

 

[Uncle Al]

Star Trek .... but that was on the mainframe computer at University of Louisville, about 10 years before the first PC's started showing up. It was on an old Western Union TTY running at 110 baud ..... and we thought it was "lightning fast" ...... LOL

 

[emmzo]

I think Dan Dare on ZX Spectrum or was it ... Dizzy?

 

[EClyde]

Candyland

 

[Raoul Duke]

Pretty sure it was a Lunar Lander game on a Texas Instrument calculator that had red numerals on the display and could read these magnetic strips (that the game was on). I believe all you got was the rate of descent and distance to the surface on the red display. Goal was to type in whatever to change rate of descent so Lander landed, not crash landed.