Which game made you a gamer, and what technology made you a lifelong enthusiast?

[llamapanda]

This thread feels like a personal attack on us vintage players who began our gaming careers on a ZX Spectrum in the mid 80s In terms of technology that reeled me in, it would be a tie between the use of a mouse as an input device after years of 8-bit joysticks and keyboards, the wider adoption of 3D vector graphics (wireframe at first then flat shaded, none of that Gouraud nonsense just yet), and eventually raycasting via early RPGs before Wolf3D sent it viral. As a cross-threaded nod to the Quake/3D discussion though, I'd consider 'Castle Master' a major player in shaping my taste for exploring and interacting with a fully three-dimensional game world, even if it wasn't the first of its kind.

 

[The Ghump]

Arcade machines in the late 70s with Space Invaders and Tron. Then I played pretty much every title in existence on the Commodore 64 and the Amiga500. And that was just the beginning.

It feels like I should insert the meme with "I was there, 3000 years ago.."

 

[llamapanda]

It feels like I should insert the meme with "I was there, 3000 years ago.."

Some of us took arrows to the knee before it was cool

 

[Argely]

Lan partying quake

 

[trgz]

Hazy days, but Duke Nukem, Tomb Raider, Flight Unlimited (my first PC purchase in '95, before I even bought my PC!) and Privateer 2 all paved the way for me in the early days (I guess '96).
Of course, this came after my ZX Spectrum & Tatung Einstein years (Elite, Starglider, The Hobbit, Tomahawk, Sim City)

 

[MagratG]

Elite on the BBC Computer. Impossible graphics, made possible by David Braben and Ian Bell. Incredible game-play at the time! Far too many hours spend roaming the galaxies.

 

[MarkHughes]

Combat on the Atari 2600, However I don't consider myself a gamer as after that I had a C64 then Amiga and gaming was only a small part of what I did on them.

 

[MasterAce]

Dune 2 and sound blaster

 

[Puiu]

First time seeing and hearing Dune 2000 as a child, on a PC from a relative, was eye opening. It, in a few seconds, made me a true PC gamer.

As for tech, the Sound Blaster was essentially my first hardware "upgrade".

 

[Construga]

Saboteur 2 on a Timex 2048 played with a Kempston joystick. Also very frustrating.
The joystick had some calibration dials, but while playing it inevitably had a sudden drift in one of the axis. I think I still dread it.
Tech, Sound Blaster.

 

[The Talking Tech]

When I first tried Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on my cousin's Sega Genesis, I immediately knew my world had changed forever.

From there Streets of Rage 2 solidified the that passion, and for my dad it became a nightmare when I started drilling him for my on Sega Genesis.

 

[Achaios]

So we're curious: Which game made you a gamer, and what technology made you a lifelong enthusiast? Tell us what it was, when it happened, and why it left such a lasting impression.

Some of the old Blizzard games and World of Warcraft. As for "technology" it was the PC platform.

I am not much of a gamer anymore, I don't even game daily.

 

[Aus spot]

I feel old, games such as asteroids and space invaders were probably the first hits.

But the first game came on a cassette tape and I think it was called pie. Throwing something over a mountain to hit your opponent as the winds changed.

 

[RoCinanTe]

Doom and Wolfenstein 3D pulled me into the PC thing, but what made me stick was a) building my own rigs and b) installing & optimizing Windows 95 once it came out. My first application I ever bought was "Clean Sweep" and I tried to have the most tidy installation possible. No residues from uninstalled programs. I used to re-install Windows 95 over and over if I was not satisfied, and I eventually did that more than a hundred times or so.

THAT was the entrance into my tech-enthusiast life. Abandon all hope, you who enter here

 

[ShadowDeath]

Sonic 1 made me a gamer in general.
Half-Life Day One made me a PC gamer
Team Fortress Classic made me an online gamer.

 

[Runner400]

Dragon Warrior for the NES, the beginning of an 8 year old's journey into RPGs.

 

[dualkelly]

Terror from the deep, Ultima 7, some of the old Lucas art games. full throttle, monkey island, the dig.

 

[Deathrow]

NES: Super Mario Bros and my favorite Romance of the Three Kingdoms, played the heck out of this one that I memorized every free great general you can search and at what yr you can search them.

For PC: Diablo 2 kept me up the whole night.

 

[deathspeed]

Pong clone on our home TV when I was about 9 got me hooked on interacting instead of just watching. Various arcade games; Galaga was probably the one I was best at but I loved the vector graphic 1st person view Star Wars cabinet. Atari 2600, especially StarMaster by Activision. Star Raiders on my Atari 800 and 1200XL. I got my 1st PC in 1999 specifically to play FreeSpace and FreeSpace 2. My golden age of PC gaming also included MechWarrior 3, Crimson Skies, and Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath. I have an OG Xbox, my faves for that were the Burnout series. The most modern PC games I play regularly are Forza Horizon 4 and Ace Combat 7.

Backward compatibility is the tech the keeps me going, I can and do still play all those old PC games (they were all Windows based).

 

[scavengerspc]

Sim City from Maxis.

Video cards. The VooDoo.
I had been using a PC for a while and loved Quake.
A friend talked me in to getting a 3dfx card and damn, I was hooked.

 

[KnightSayNI]

I'm old and could never get into the Pac-man, Sonic, side-scrolling, 2D platformers. But did like Tempest. Not until Super Mario64 on N64, I wanted to play more than an hour if thats what you call a "gamer". As for PC. Half-LIfe changed everything.

 

[TechSavy101]

For me it started with RE 2 & Tomb raider, Diablo 2 in the 90s.
Then Half Life 2 & RE4.
Then The witcher 3 & Baldur gates 3

 

[red1776]

I'm old and could never get into the Pac-man, Sonic, side-scrolling, 2D platformers. But did like Tempest. Not until Super Mario64 on N64, I wanted to play more than an hour if thats what you call a "gamer". As for PC. Half-LIfe changed everything.

That's not old...this is old...

 

[Sonojo]

Omikron: The Nomad Soul

 

[A Tabby Person]

C64 SSI Battle of Antenium / Pools of Radiance were the deal sealers. Atari console Yar’s Revenge + Pitfall; N64 Mariocart + Goldeneye are my only console experiences. All game discussion roads lead to SKYRIM eventually.