Posted March 31, 2009
One of my previous topics got me thinking of this and as far as I could tell from searching various matching terms, no previous topic appears to exist, expect for a PC specific one.
So, what was your first ever computer/console/handheld/digital gaming experience? What gaming systems did you grow up with?
For me, it was an old Atari console, although I forget which one. It had a version of Pong and Space Invaders. Shortly after that, we got our first computer which was a Commodore Vic 20. One of the first computers to handle both cartridges and casette based games. I still have fond memories of playing Byte the Dust on cartridge via the Vic 20.
After that, we migrated to an Amstrad CPC 464 after we given one to look after for a week while its owner went on holiday (they didn't want to leave it in the house in case it got nicked.) Our version was the low end scale one, with the green screen monitor. Set us back a good 300 pounds and came with a pack of 10 or so games such as Oh Mummy (still a firm favourite of mine) and Fruit Machine Simulator.
From that era my absolute favourite games were the afore mentioned two, Starquake, Terminus, The Bards Tale, laser Squad and Lord of Chaos.
We also wound up wtih a couple of ZX Spectrums, including the the 81 with it's rubber membrane keyboard.
The jump to 16 bits saw both my brother and I obtaining Amigas. He snagged an A500, and I started with the A600 then moved on to an A1200. Most of my Amiga days were spent playing racing games such as all the Lotus Esprit games, Team 17 Games; Superfrog and Alien Breed being firm favourites. And who could ever forget the Amiga demo scene?
Around the time that Doom, Commander Keen and Wolfenstien made their first appearances, I had made the jump to a 286 PC (courtesy of a flood at my dad's office and their need to write off "water damaged" PCs in order to get newer ones. back then, we still got games on the 5 1/4" discs.
I remember having one game (although I forget the name) which came with a huge game board poster and 20 or 30 books which had the story on it. You plotted your turns on the PC, kept track of moves with the maps, and read the actual story via the books depending on where the game told you to read. Sort of a choose your own adventure. I got it dirt cheap and had a lot of fun with it, but one of the books had pages missing, so I was never able to fully complete the thing.
After that, I've jumped from 386, 486, P1 upto the quad core I have now. via so many different PC configurations that I don't remember them all. Although I do still remember when 800x600 seemed large for a desk top!
My favourite old PC game would still have to be XCom Apocalypse. I really was never any good at that genre but I loved that game to death. Would love to buy it again if GOG ever manage to get it.
I've had my fair share of consoles and handhelds too, but Computer/PC gaming has always been where I've enjoyed gaming the most.
Over to you ...
So, what was your first ever computer/console/handheld/digital gaming experience? What gaming systems did you grow up with?
For me, it was an old Atari console, although I forget which one. It had a version of Pong and Space Invaders. Shortly after that, we got our first computer which was a Commodore Vic 20. One of the first computers to handle both cartridges and casette based games. I still have fond memories of playing Byte the Dust on cartridge via the Vic 20.
After that, we migrated to an Amstrad CPC 464 after we given one to look after for a week while its owner went on holiday (they didn't want to leave it in the house in case it got nicked.) Our version was the low end scale one, with the green screen monitor. Set us back a good 300 pounds and came with a pack of 10 or so games such as Oh Mummy (still a firm favourite of mine) and Fruit Machine Simulator.
From that era my absolute favourite games were the afore mentioned two, Starquake, Terminus, The Bards Tale, laser Squad and Lord of Chaos.
We also wound up wtih a couple of ZX Spectrums, including the the 81 with it's rubber membrane keyboard.
The jump to 16 bits saw both my brother and I obtaining Amigas. He snagged an A500, and I started with the A600 then moved on to an A1200. Most of my Amiga days were spent playing racing games such as all the Lotus Esprit games, Team 17 Games; Superfrog and Alien Breed being firm favourites. And who could ever forget the Amiga demo scene?
Around the time that Doom, Commander Keen and Wolfenstien made their first appearances, I had made the jump to a 286 PC (courtesy of a flood at my dad's office and their need to write off "water damaged" PCs in order to get newer ones. back then, we still got games on the 5 1/4" discs.
I remember having one game (although I forget the name) which came with a huge game board poster and 20 or 30 books which had the story on it. You plotted your turns on the PC, kept track of moves with the maps, and read the actual story via the books depending on where the game told you to read. Sort of a choose your own adventure. I got it dirt cheap and had a lot of fun with it, but one of the books had pages missing, so I was never able to fully complete the thing.
After that, I've jumped from 386, 486, P1 upto the quad core I have now. via so many different PC configurations that I don't remember them all. Although I do still remember when 800x600 seemed large for a desk top!
My favourite old PC game would still have to be XCom Apocalypse. I really was never any good at that genre but I loved that game to death. Would love to buy it again if GOG ever manage to get it.
I've had my fair share of consoles and handhelds too, but Computer/PC gaming has always been where I've enjoyed gaming the most.
Over to you ...