Video/PC Games you played when you were little.

[Nerdius Maximus]

I liked to play Pac-Man and Galaga on arcade machines, then I got an atari kind of late, like in 1987. Yar's Revenge was the shit. I was also a master of that Star Trek game for the 2600. I don't like video games anymore. I'll play the old stuff on emulators every once in awhile for a trip down memory lane, but games now are too involved and I don't have the attention span for them. Plus I get lost in the 3d environments. Give me Tetris anyday.

 

[judge alba]

defender
pacman
donkey kong
star wars
and spyhunter
used to play these a lot at the arcade this was well before things turned into £1 a pop ones used many a ten pence in them centipede was another i liked

 

[Plecostomus]

The first two Star Control games. The third was a bit "eh" but still fun.

Father back, EGA Trek... and a bunch of oldies for the Commodore 64 that you've most likely never heard of. Countdown to Shutdown, Forbidden Forrest, Hydrax, Chernobyl (reactor simulator, buggy and inaccurate as hell but a valiant attempt)...

...There was a side-scrolling space shooter that I played that had great graphics... you had to shoot flying things to get a "shield" then dip down into the cityscape and shoot the alien towers.

Zaxxon, Save New York, Popeye...

Gyrus had a port for the '64. Then there was Ghost-Busters... Based on the movie of course! Impossible Mission (Stay Awhile... Stay FOREVER!!!)... Archon, Archon 2... the list goes on.

 

[Holdfast]

Dungeon Master and Wizball, both on the Atari ST. Two of my all-time favourite games ever.

Awesome true story.

My brother, Ethan, was playing a tough level of Dungeon Master. One of the programmers (Mike Newton) was a good friend of our other brother, Ron. At one point, as Ethan sat hunched forward, intent on the action, the programmer walked in and idly commented, "Ah, that level. That's a hard one."

Ethan said it was it was an amazing moment, like God had tapped him on the shoulder.

Great story.


I grew up in the 80s so played first on a BBC B+. Monsters was a favourite, as was Valley of the Three Kingdoms, and some haunted house type game I can't recall the name of. Oh yeah and Gauntlet. Played loads of other games too, but I really remember those. I'm sure I played the original Elite too, but didn't really get into it at the time. Oh, there was also some kind of side-scrolling commando type game too I liked.

Then I had a Sega Master System and liked Bomber Raid & Miracle Warriors. I must have clocked up a ridiculous number of hours searching for Merchants to beat up for their gold in Miracle Warriors. Great game. Later on when I had a Mega Drive (Genesis), I liked Phantasy Star III, Road Rash, Super Monaco GPII and PGA Tour Golf I & II. And Sonic 1 & 2. By the time I started playing on PC, Elite II was around.

 

[JuanBolio]

If you like Elite-style games, I'd highly recommend Escape Velocity and Escape Velocity Nova, from Ambrosia Software:

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/

 

[MIB]

I have vague memories of playing around with Space Invaders on an Atari when I was really, super young. However the games I really got into when I was little include:

Nintendo: Super Mario Brothers 3, Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, and Bionic Commando.

Game Boy: I was all about Zelda on the game boy and that's about it.

The PC was really the main platform for my gaming habits back when I was young. Even today, my main platform is the PC above all else- even the PS3 and the Xbox360. (Though I did, and still do, regret selling my 360 after I heard the announcment of Street Fighter 4. )

The PC games of my youth include:
A whole plathora of crappy independent games based on things like The Flintstones, the Jetsons, etc.
EGA Trek (Please tell me someone other than me remembers this one)
Doom (Of course, the FPS that started the FPS genre)
Commander Keen
The Tex Murphy series. (Cut short mid-cliff hanger thanks to Microsoft acquiring Access games.)
The Journeyman Project series.
Myst
Sim City 2000 (Which I maintain is still the best Sim City game to date.)
Sim Copter (I loved using the cheats to get the Apache gun ship)
Sim Tower
Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary
Star Trek: Judgment Rites
X-wing
Tie Fighter
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars: Rebel Assault 2
DuckTails
Outpost

I think that about covers most of the major games that I've played in my youth- before the grand era of Half-Life, Halo, and Starcraft and Battlefield.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I grew up in the 80s so played first on a BBC B+. Monsters was a favourite, as was Valley of the Three Kingdoms, and some haunted house type game I can't recall the name of. Oh yeah and Gauntlet. Played loads of other games too, but I really remember those. I'm sure I played the original Elite too, but didn't really get into it at the time. Oh, there was also some kind of side-scrolling commando type game too I liked.

Monsters and Meteors on the BBC Micro (mine was a mere Model B) were the first computer games I ever played. Did you ever get into Repton, though? I played Repton 3 plus some of the themed expansion packs - always good stuff.

By the time I started playing on PC, Elite II was around.

Frontier: Elite II - one of my all time favourite games. Without cheating, I only ever reached Deadly level, Colonel in the Federation, and Baron in the Empire. The espoinage and nuking missions were fun, if only for being able to hover around the target, take a few pretty pictures at the enemy (Top Gun style ) then make a dash for it before unloading the nuclear payload and watching the fireworks while hundreds of enemy ships (in a few cases) come screaming after me. My other fun thing was slowly building up as chequered a criminal record among the Federation, Empire, and Interpol as possible then using my immense wealth to simply pay them off and get away with it (lol, "Piracy and murder"). Happy days.

 

[Holdfast]

If you like Elite-style games, I'd highly recommend Escape Velocity and Escape Velocity Nova, from Ambrosia Software:

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/

Thanks for the rec. I keep meaning to check it out someday. I don't really game much these days though.

I grew up in the 80s so played first on a BBC B+. Monsters was a favourite, as was Valley of the Three Kingdoms, and some haunted house type game I can't recall the name of. Oh yeah and Gauntlet. Played loads of other games too, but I really remember those. I'm sure I played the original Elite too, but didn't really get into it at the time. Oh, there was also some kind of side-scrolling commando type game too I liked.

Monsters and Meteors on the BBC Micro (mine was a mere Model B) were the first computer games I ever played. Did you ever get into Repton, though? I played Repton 3 plus some of the themed expansion packs - always good stuff.

By the time I started playing on PC, Elite II was around.

Frontier: Elite II - one of my all time favourite games. Without cheating, I only ever reached Deadly level, Colonel in the Federation, and Baron in the Empire. The espoinage and nuking missions were fun, if only for being able to hover around the target, take a few pretty pictures at the enemy (Top Gun style ) then make a dash for it before unloading the nuclear payload and watching the fireworks while hundreds of enemy ships (in a few cases) come screaming after me. My other fun thing was slowly building up as chequered a criminal record among the Federation, Empire, and Interpol as possible then using my immense wealth to simply pay them off and get away with it (lol, "Piracy and murder"). Happy days.

Repton? Not so much. Played it a bit though. Quite fun. Now you've got me thinking though - I seem to recall some kind of house/castle building game on the BBC too. Can't remember what it was called, but I liked that too.

As for Elite II, I think I got to roughly the same sort of level as you did. Can't remember the exact ranks, but I know I was flying the best ship and had a ridiculous amount of money. I remember wishing that you could blow up space stations... Happy days indeed!

 

[Zulu Romeo]

They even had an excellent version of SimCity on the BBC Micro. It was awesome.

 

[Jadzia]

I don't play computer games very often, but my taste hasn't really changed since I was little. And I agree with what has been said above about modern games being too involved, they are for me too. If I need to read instructions to figure it out, or hours of playing just to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing, then it's too complicated. I prefer games that I can just load up and play intuitively, like arcade style games, such as asteroids and space invaders. I enjoyed those two, but they did get tiring.

I grew up with exposure to various 8-bit and 16-bit computers, which were predominantly my brothers and/or hand-me-downs. He was fond of bubble bobble, and various racing games, which we sometimes played together. I also remember playing magic pockets, atomino, pipedream, pacland...

There's an abundance of first person games nowadays, but I don't really enjoy those. Sadly it's rare that I find a game that I do enjoy enough. I do prefer the older games to the newer ones.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Are they the "Choose Your Own Adventure" fantasy books?

Infocom? No, they were text-based computer "games." Zork was the most famous, but they had stories from many genres, from SF to mystery to Lovecraftian. Very cool stuff. People still make them, as a matter of fact; it's a fairly active hobby (I have the software, but not the time).

I am familiar with "Choose Your Own Adventure," though. My brother loved those when he was a kid, so I read them, too; and now I buy them for my niece and nephew.

 

[CommodoreKong]

As for the PC I don't remember too many games I played, I do remember this adventure/learning game with a talking purple car though.

I was just about to mention this one. I loved the Putt Putt games! Especially Putt Putt Saves the Zoo. I still get the theme music stuck in my head sometimes...

Thanks for reminding me about the name, I couldn't put my finger on it. My brother and I really loved those Putt Putt games.

 

[Winged Victory]

Glad to see Oregon Trail mentioned so many times. I loved that game. We didn't have the game at home, so we played that and Number Munchers or Word Munchers at school. Good times!

We got an old Apple IIe at home when I was 8 I think, and my sister and I would play Summer Olympics and Wheel of Fortune for hours. What were we thinking?

Eventually we got the NES and played a few games:

Super Mario Bros: 1, 2, and 3
Dr. Mario
Bubble Bobble
Duck Hunt
Some racing game, I forget the title...

We were two girls, once we found out about boys and shopping, we left that NES in the dust...but sometimes I wish I could still break out those cartidges (don't forget to BLOW) and play 'em again.

 

[Captain X]

Apple Panic was one of the first, and later on it was Where in the World is Carmen Sand Diego and Oregon Trail. Pretty much anything after that was after I started going to college and buying my own games, since I could finally afford them.

 

[CaptainStoner]

Cool thread.

I was lucky to be a kid during the "Golden Age" of the coin-ops. My Dad was a Q-bert Wizard.
I can remember getting sweaty palms playing Star Wars (coin-op). There were so many good games to come through the following years.

There used to be a foot race from my middle school every day to the corner where they had a Super Mario Bros - this is just before the home Nintendos came out.

I was a Gauntlet wizard. The machine at the grocery store (there were video games everywhere in those days) was set to start you off with only 100 or 200 health, so you start the game "about to die". I got to the point where I could put one quarter in, take the Elf or the Wizard, and play for over an hour on that one quarter. Good times, good times.

 

[BigFoot]

I knew I was forgetting something. Another series of games that I absolutely adored was Wing Commander.

 

[jgdst]

I was obsessed with The Rocky Horror Show on the Commodore 64 when I was about 6. Eleven years later, I completed it. And it was worth it.

Impossible Mission with the glitch in it that meant you could never win was always fun, but pretty annoying. And I was hooked on Dropzone and the seemingly endless Avenger for about a year. And I loved both Ghostbusters gammes.

Other favourites were playing co-op or versus Sonic 2 and Mega Bomberman on the MegaDrive. Spent a couple of years beating the crap out of NHLPA 93 and NBA Live 97 too.

16-bit was the best

 

[darkshadow0001]

Atari 2600.

Adventure, Space Invaders, Pitfall, and Superman were my favorites.

Ah, the good ol' days. Remember "E.T."? Legend has it it's the worst game made and had no ending, but I say they are mistaken as I have actually finished the game once.

Commodore 64 games I loved playing:

Ikari Warriors
Commando
Friday the 13th
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Impossible Mission
Summer Games
Pitstop II

There are others, I can't remember them all

 

[MANT!]

Pong in the early 70s..
Star Trek Arcade (in 1974) at the old Federation Trading Post in Berkerly..
http://gaming.trekcore.com/startrekarcade/ I was 12
Dad got a Commodore PET and I played "Hunt the Wumpus" Super Star Trek. and many other text based games..

Moved out on my own..
Played Defender, Xevious, Battlezone, And
Sega's Star Trek Strategic Operations Simulator
http://gaming.trekcore.com/sos/screenshots/arcadescreen01.jpg
http://gaming.trekcore.com/sos/screenshots/arcadescreen02.jpg

Sank quarter after quarter into those.

The very first game I ever bought was as an adult..
http://gaming.trekcore.com/25thanniversary/

Followed it up with Judgement Rites
And Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space..
http://www.geocities.com/raceintospace/

And got into the Starfleet Command series..Elite Force
and Crimsion Skies

after that i just don't have the time to play as often as I used to..

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

Cool thread.

I was lucky to be a kid during the "Golden Age" of the coin-ops. My Dad was a Q-bert Wizard.
I can remember getting sweaty palms playing Star Wars (coin-op). There were so many good games to come through the following years.

There used to be a foot race from my middle school every day to the corner where they had a Super Mario Bros - this is just before the home Nintendos came out.

I was a Gauntlet wizard. The machine at the grocery store (there were video games everywhere in those days) was set to start you off with only 100 or 200 health, so you start the game "about to die". I got to the point where I could put one quarter in, take the Elf or the Wizard, and play for over an hour on that one quarter. Good times, good times.

I was so mesmirized by that Star Wars Arcade Game. The cabinet, the graphics, the controls, the music and the fact that it actually talked....