What's the first computer game you remember playing?

The first Mario game.

God that game was hard. It still is. I was 7 then. I'm 27 now. I still can't beat the damn thing.

Rob

It was a very cool tennis game called "Pong". All you whippersnappers might not know what it is but it absolutely paved the way to the games you're playing now. Want to know what else...we loved it too!

I had a TI99/4a and two games. Parsec, a space flying game and Munchman an excellent Pac Man clone.

That was 25 maybe 28 years ago. The only games I enjoyed, haven't played since.

I played tic-tac-toe on a teletype terminal (no screen, everything came out on paper) connected to an IBM 370 in 1977. Later I played "Star Trek" on the same paper terminal.

The first game I played on an actual CRT screen was "Mastermind" on a TTY terminal attached to a MITS Altair 8800 computer. It was written in the language that was Microsoft's first-ever product, Altair BASIC.

That would Pong, the world's first computer console game, in a pool room near my home in the 70's.

Many years later I sold a house to the guy who made the game, he became a millionaire and then lost it all. But he has it back now.

G.

Should I say advent, or pong?

Sierra Online Games - 'Kings Quest - The Perils of Rosella'

The first I can remember was something my father played on his TRS80,a text based game that I think was called Hamarabi,or something like that.
Then the firsdst "graphic" game would be Pong, since that is what came with the Atari 2600.
By the way GTGGart, the man that invented Pong was named Nolan Bushnell.

AT one time back in the 80s I was the owner of 22 arcade games.Boy were those quarters rolling in for a short time.

It says computer, not personal computer, so I think your first answers stand as the correct ones. After all, Pong and the other games WERE computer games.

I believe that Adventure was the precursor to Zork,which if I remember correctly was the first adventure game that was sold to the public.
I loved the adventure games.
Like Lawrh, I had a TI994A Texas Instrument computer at one time.It had 16K and was lightening fast,and oh yeah, it had COLOR graphics!
That was when I first played the Scott Adams Graphics Adventure games.
One of my favorites was Return To Pirate Island.
Actually, you can get most of his games from his official site for free here:
Scott Adams Grand Adventures (SAGA)

My partner in the video game business was also a relative,and we had a falling out. They got rid of all the machines without me knowing about it. Such a shame, the classic machines are making a come back it seems.
As they say Hindsight is 20/20.

Anyways, I was a gamer from the beginning and still am. every computer system I have ever had starting with the TS 1000 , I had games for.
Ah, those were the days.....

And Steven? Damn we are old!

"Damn...I didn't want to get started on this."
Why not? I can talk arcade and PC gaming all day.
Game I can think of right of the bat with knights was Joust...had knights on flying ostriches.
Pac Man Clone I had ( In addition to 1 pac man and 2 Ms Pac Man machines) was a game called Thief.definitely a pac man rip off and had a prerecorded soundtrack that kept repeatng itself over and over,yet was for some weird reason fun as hell.
When I get off the machine in a couple of hours I'll come back and post a list of the games I used to have...or maybe even have a contest to see if people can guess the game thru the description.

First computer game was the "Combat" cartridge that came with the Atari VCS (2600) that I got for xmas in 1979...



At the time, it seemed like the future had arrived...

In about 1975 a teacher at school pulled me into a little room with a computer and played something like battleship, with each move "typed" out on a flywheel printer. I really wasn't impressed, but he was thrilled and talked about how this computer was connected to another computer somewhere on the East Coast and they were talking to each other. I didn't realize it until decades later, but I was on the Internet then...(ARPANET?).

I played almost all of the early arcade games...Didn't like asteroids and wasn't very good at it. Bad at Robotron too.

Loved Space Invaders, Galaga/Galaxian, Donkey Kong and Ms. Pacman. My ex would go to a tanning appointment and I'd play Galaga at an arcade next door and when she'd get done with tanning, I'd still be playing on the same quarter. Donkey Kong will always be my favorite.

The problem with video games today is they are so complicated and the learning curves are way to big. It takes a month just to learn a game. With the old games, you just played and everyone knew how to play the same games. Now they are so complicated it's hard to find competition of the same level in real life (not online).

Plus, you used to go out to play arcade games, so there was a social part of it, and seeing your high score with your initialls hold up for months meant something.

Having said all this, I like pinball even more. I like the mechanical, real movement with real physics and gravity, and the "pop pop pop" when you win a free game...We used to go to bars and play with the loser having to buy the other guys a round. Fortunately, I didn't have to pay for many drinks. Denver bars were cool because they gave 5 balls for a quarter for years after every place else only gave 3 for a quarter.

Age check: I can remember 5 balls for a nickle.

Whenever we take my dad to the movies and find ourselves killing time in the arcade there he inevitably ends up playing the pinball machines. He gravitates to them like a bee to honey. You know what? He's pretty damn good at them too.

PS...I never really made the transition from arcade games to computer games. Did have an atari 2600, but that's it. And I did play Myth when I first got a computer.

But I'm online to work a lot, so when I "play" I want to do something that's not on a computer and realized there's a very good possibility I could get addicted and spend way too much time playing.

Space Invaders..what year was that? 1981?

"Age check: I can remember 5 balls for a nickle. "

So do I Kurt.
My first memory of pinball was that my grandparents owned a skating rink and it had a pinball machine. 5 balls for a nickel. You could also buy a 10 oz Dr Pepper and a bag of peanuts for a nickel each too.
<sigh>

First computer game I played was Space Invaders!

"Does anyone remember the name of this game? "

You are probably thinking of Dragons Lair
Dragon's Lair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I refuse to date myself by admitting that I played both Pong and Advent.

Nope, just won't do it.

Heck yeah...Space Invaders on the TRS-80 is the one for me too.

Jazz Jackrabbit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jazz Jackrabbit. A pixellated green thing walks around trying to save a pixellated princess.

The first game I remember playing was Oregon Trail. I think it was around 1979, and I think it was on an Apple computer.

Off topic a bit, but this would be the only reason I would want an ipad...

Ah,I hear Spectrum and I always think of the TS 1000,my very first "real" computer.

keen and doom

I played a FIREWORKS game though don't remember its real name .. it was included in GAMES PACK ..

IT WAS PONG

Okay I'm showing my age here
but it was a box you hook up to your T.V.
2 lines you use as paddles
and a square looking ball.
That was about it except a score count.
I also preferred Pinball!

The first game I played on an Apple Computer was "The Oregon Trail" on the Apple IIGS.

The first game I played on a PC was "Wolfenstein 3D."

A text based adventure based on The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy on the BBC Micro in computer studies at school. Oh and that bat and ball game. Two lines and a square ball bouncing around - was that like Pong? Circa 1976. First decent game - Space Invaders, followed by Galaxians, Pacman, Phoenix, Donkey Kong et al. First games to blow me away - Battlezone and Defender.

Empire and Dungeons and Dragons on the old PLATO project in 1972. I didn't play Airfight so much because I hit the wrong key and shot down a friend by mistake-- and he retaliated by shooting me out of the sky every time I got on.. :-7 But I once played Dungeons and Dragons for nearly 24 hours straight. 8-}

for me it started with the atari 2600 but it had already been out for a while by the time i started playing it.

i palyed a lot of the text based adventure games too. they were not new at the time but i had an interest in them because i started learning BASIC when i was elementary school and often tried to make my own adventure games.

heres a pretty cool link i found (many screenshots of old adventure games)
Atari 8-bit Forever by Bostjan Gorisek (Gury/Guri)


plus all the BBS games (Door Games) were text based too, so in that time text games were just more fun.

LORD was awesome
Legend of the Red Dragon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and Barren Realms Elite
Barren Realms Elite - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

then many more operation: overkill, kannons and katapults, trade/drug/pimpwars, the pit, i can't remember more but i know i played a lot of others


i also had some text based card/board games that were cool and then once i got a better computer had some with graphics.

i also like ascii games

i used to really like the kroz gakmes
Kroz series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i know there were some before kroz that i played, but kroz is the name that sticks out in my head.

quite a bit later there was zzt which had the really cool ability to program your own games
ZZT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


but by this time were really evolving, NES had already come around, sierra games were huge and even wolfenstien wasnt too far away. games like ZZT were mainly developed for us geeks

The first computer game I remember playing is Super Mario. Until today I still don't understand why I found it exciting to sit down the whole day in front of the TV eating mushrooms and saving the princess.

I remember, I love playing mario bro. before. but now there are alot of new games that you can play.

The first computer game i have played is Star Craft, strategy game was really fun and exciting and even now I love this kind of game and addicted in playing DOTA (War Craft Defense Of The Ancient)

Some of the 1st ones that I enjoyed were DOOM, Wolfenstein, Quake and Unreal Tournament.

Oh, there was a "Dune" game that was fun also.

Before those it was Pac Man and Space Invaders. LOL

Lambert

"Anyone remember Missile command?."

Remember it? I used to have it.Both as an Atari game and as an arcade game.
Other arcade games I used to have ( too many to list them all,and also to old to remember them all!)
Pac Man
Ms Pac Man ;2,one upright and one sitdown,which were called cocktail cabinets.
Battlezone
Thief
Galaxian-loved this game
Gorf
Centipede
Asteroids Deluxe
Zaxxon-the first "3-d" arcade game
Tron
Armour Attack
Qix-Remember this one?
Dang, I can only remember about 1/2 of the arcade games I had, I'm getting old........

Ok,I just remembered another one,Kickman, a clown on a unicycle catching balloons.
Star Castle
Scramble

Spider lol
not to bad to remove the bored..

One of the neighborhood kids had an Atari. We used to all go over to his house and crowd around his little TV to take turns playing.
First arcade game was Pac Man for me.

Tetris on the Game boy.

You know, I had my FIRST pizza at pizzahut. As I recall, that restaurant I went to closed. according to their website, they still thrive as a company. I hope I get to see what they have become.

I remember going to that pizzahut, in my TEENS BTW, and it had a little arcade where you could play pinball, I BELIEVE they even had a table or two with pacman, and a corny little baseball game! That baseball game was unusual in that it was almost like a giant WII! It had a remote control, like WII, and was projected on a big screen all could see. OH, and they had TVs with laural and hardy and I think a few other old comedy acts. They were old even THEN!

I guess the baseball MUST have been computerised. some arcade games were, and the tables were. I may be mixing up tables since they started becoming somewhat common in such places.

BTW the pizza was canadian bacon, as I recall! I LOVED IT!

It is funny what we remember, and long for. 8-/

Steve

Oh.. My first computer game was Mario. I played it every day, but than i got gata vice city. It is good to remember the old days

John Henderson's post about the "Combat" cartridge for his Atari reminded me of the real first time I played a computer game. It was in 1974 in Victoria, B.C. The game was called "Tanks". It was built into the tables at a couple of bars I went to.

I didn't even think of it as a "computer" game it was just something to play while getting hosed. In retrospect it's kind of interesting. I had never set foot in an arcade, still haven't, yet when the tables appeared it was perfectly natural. Just a game.

This was three years before the Apple II and five years before I gave a dingo's kidneys about computers. We were motorcycle fanatics and games meant nothing. Yet when someone said "You wanna play tanks?" "Huh?" "It's a game in the tables." "Oh, okay." It was as if it had always existed. Left Victoria in 75 and never thought about it again.

NFS (Need for Speed 2)....Its my first and remembering game for ever.Thanks

i like mario bros

through the wall - on a zx spectrum ..... proper old school

I haven't read the book John is talking about,but back in the mid 90s a frriend loaned me a book about how a penny error in a banking/accounting program led to the arrest of some hackers/thieves. At least,thats how,with my bad memory, I remember the story going.
It seems to me the title had Easter Egg or maybe just egg in the title, but I've not been able to remember the name of the book nor have I ever seen it again.
It was quite an interesting read,if you like books like that.

Pong...UGH...I'm getting old....

I was obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog as a kid. I downloaded the mega drive games a few weeks ago and its still just as good it it was when i was 5 yrs old!

First PC Game... probably Duke Nukem or Warcraft... maybe Command and Conquer. Either way I wasted the next 15 years of my life.

I remember being in elementary school and playing Oregon trail

The Oregon Trail- in grade school. This game was very popular back then.

What's the first computer game you remember playing? super Mario

Poker online ....funny, is not it!

In 1952, A.S. Douglas wrote his PhD degree at the University of Cambridge on Human-Computer interraction. Douglas created the first graphical computer game - a version of Tic-Tac-Toe. The game was programmed on a EDSAC vaccuum-tube computer, which had a cathode ray tube display.

I don't like violent games like that. I think the only thing I really played on a regular basis was Mario Bros and that was a long time ago.

My first computer game was mario bros and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. I used to play with my brothers and friends.

wowyyyyyyy......that was a very very long time ago....woooooo

but the only few I can remember playing is "kin" and "dave"

Pong.

That was pretty high tech 40 years ago!

Pacman..
i play it in dos..

If we're talking about the real primitive computer games, they were just those simple word games like Akeru... but if we're going to move on to 2D type computer games, I'd say bomber man.. and for 3D type it's Duke Nuke 'Em, Decent, Prince of Persia and Doom

I remember Pong! And of course Space Invaders, Centipede and Pacman.
My favorite, though, from those early days of computer arcades was Tempest. High-speed, adrenaline-inducing, and you get to kill spiders!!

I think it was moon patrol on my Atari 2600

The first video game I remember playing was a texas instrument cat and mouse type of game. You were the mouse and you were running through this maze to get away from the cat. My dad always picked on me because I always made the cat slow and stupid. Hey I like to win, what can I say?

first one i remember was astroids on atari..but i loved me some bonk's adventure on turbo graphix.

Mortal Kombat! LOL, those were the days my friend

Hi!

Do you have any idea why my posts are getting deleted? Is there a support forum here? I can't find it.

I remember motorbike racing on a commodore where you had to load every game from a floppy that was inserted into the keyboard

Pong on some system my dad bought at Radio Shack and hooked up to a six inch black&white TV. Must have been about 1977.

Anyone remember Hunt the Wumpus on the TI-99/4a?

Definitely Math Blaster.

The reason I got my first computer.

M.U.L.E.

Oregon Trail

I am Crazy about the Video game that's why i had played many games like a Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sand, Final Fantasy IV, Grand Theft Auto IV, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

road rash ps1

Mine was also the Mario.

the super mario game. love to play that till now.

I fondly remember pong, wasn't that advanced, but seeing it on screen was magical as a kid

oregon trails for apple, hahah

Wolfenstein (1st game played),DooM2(first game finished),Tycoon,Lotus,Mortal Kombat,Battle Axe,Warcraft1,Dyna,Prince of Persia1,Mortal Kombat1 ... Red Alert1,Diablo1 ...all of this on a system 486 DX2 100MHZ with 8MB RAM,200MB HDD,4MB Video... Almost every great game,no matter the type : RPG,RTS,MMORPG,Shooters,Rally,etc. (15 years)... until World of Warcraft and Last Chaos (the latest game played)....
After this period I have discovered Warrior Forum...and I have played with SEO,CPA,SB,etc...Now trying to make level up !

Oregon trail in elementary school

Road Rash and Dave.

Pacman was the first computer game which i played.

first computer games i played were Test Drive, paratrooper and strip poker. we were still using floppy disk that time

I remembered back in 1994 or 1995 that the first computer game I played was "Battle City" which my dad bought a Nintendo Family Computer for us to play.

Oregon Trail...unless you count telling a turtle what to do on LOGO.

Mario Bros , the plumber

Don't remember the oldest but some that come to mind: Total Annihilation, Quake, Duke Nukem

Pitfall on Atari.

Super Mario

First was prob "ping pong", chuckie egg on spectrum was another early favourite.

Sonic 2!! and Crash Bandicute and Mario 64...
Good good times

Super Mario Brothers on Super Nintendo....That game was fun and still is...

I can't exactly remember if its space invader or mario brothers. Geez, its been two decades so I really can't remember.

Breakout, and that was an arcade game in mono colour.

At school, the first games I remember were Oregon Trail, Hangman, and some text type game that was a fantasy mystery where it told you what was going on and you had to perform between a few actions kind of like those create your own adventure, flip to page x, books. This was all circa 1985.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and the first game I got for it was Fort Apocalypse.

For me it was Pong. Geez I'm getting old :-)

Pacman! I used to love that game!

I remember playing the ping pong game thingy in the pub and in shops which sold it. The first games I played at home were on a Sinclair Spectrum - Manic Miner, The Hobbit etc They took an age to load but they were so exciting at the time.

ONI , it some RPG, back in 2001..
it is really great, but i can't find it now,
any idea warrior?

hi, I love play game Super Mario sunshine 64. Very funny when play it.

The first computer game I remember playing was this Sherlock Holmes game, yeah I'm a sherlock holmes fan dont judge me lol but yeah it was a very interesting game you had to think like Holmes in order to complete the game had to watch for every detail couldn't miss anything it took me a while to actually beat but I got it done

I would say the original atari, but.... I remember playing this football game that was hand-held, and shaped like uprights! 30 some years ago

Super Mario and Road Fighter were the games of my childhood i remembered

I can't remember the name of it. It was where you use the arror keys and move a dot through a maze. One of the first computers back in 1980 or so.

crash bandicoot!. i miss it!

My first games is Holiday Island and Digimon Adventures

I used to play batman on the Commodore 64. It was the most brutal game ever but at the time I really loved it. It literally took almost 45 minutes to load it up. Ahh those were the days!! Man I feel old now.

The first sid meiers civilization game. sooo much fun!

Oh wow, I think it was Mario on the Super Nintendo.

Pac Man....hheheheh

ETCH-A-SKETCH

probably PacMan

amazing how far things have come. when I was a kid my parents were in the military and we were stationed in Germany. I can remember playing the Atari 2600 all the time. Lots of great games.

Hmm. Some game called 'Attack of the Mutant Camels' on the Commodore 64 - that was good fun from the little i can remember of it. But after that, i mostly only played Mario on the SNES i owned, since it was my only game.

i played Atari but don't remember the names of games

Oregon Trail on an Apple computer!

Congrats to you guys whose memory has served you right. For me I can't figure out which one exactly was the first because I used to play a number of them and each time switching between.

Um. Are we talkin' arcade games at the roller skating rink in the early 80s? That'd be Pac Man or Zaxxon. If we're talkin' Commodore 64 not long after, probably Space Taxi.

**EDIT**

Oh crap! Forgot about the Intellivision!

The first computer game I remember was Pong. The game started out so slow but as I passed certain checkpoints it became faster and faster. Could never get past the 3rd level but I enjoyed it so much. I play racquet sports for fun and the angles from which the little pong came back at me, gave me ideas on angle shots whenever I played racquetball or tennis.

Table tennis on one of these back in the mid to late 70's...



I think I've still got it up in the loft somewhere with it's original box. Still working to my knowledge.

Bought at good old Wooly's (Woolworths) £7.99


Mark Andrews