Memory Lane - Which were your first games on the PC?

[luj1]

Stunts
Racing / 1990
DOS

Played this on my 386 Pentium boasting 32 megabytes of RAM. Car models actually looked pretty decent. Amazingly, you could design your own custom tracks with various obstacles and ramps via track editor, which is what made this game really stand out.

Wolf 3D
FPS / 1992

One of my first floppy games. Really atmospheric for such a rudimentary game. Did much with so little.

Exodus
Arcade / 1992

I have no idea how this game came into my possession. Played it on a floppy disk. It was sort of a Christian trivia game with arcade gameplay. You control Moses (I believe?), shoot enemies, collects pots and answer questions. Gameplay was not unlike another old game called Tanks.

Mind Maze
Quiz / ?

I believe this game shipped with the Microsoft Encarta CD (a kind of early digital encyclopedia). I never finished it, but in this game you explore a castle by answering questions. It was somewhat a crawler-like experience, now that I think of it.

Screenshots

Captain Claw
Platform / 1997

Okay this is probably one of the hardest, most nerve-racking games in existence. I never got very far. However, I fondly remember the voice overs and memorable environments. Elaborate level design with countless secrets really resonated with me. Furthermore, you could chose from a list of elaborately-constructed custom levels. Anyway, I later realized these were the same devs who created Blood (!).

POD
Racing / 1997

Futuristic racing game with seemingly cool vehicle designs and bad controls. Quite a rudimentary game.

 

[luj1]

Quake 2
FPS / 1997

My favorite FPS back in the day. Nothing more to say. To this day I think ID had some of the best mappers (like Alice McGee) who were responsible for great level design (I loved the backtracking). It's also worth saying that this game's engine spawned Half Life which in turn spawned a lot of other FPS games and franchises.



L.E.D. Wars
RTS / 1997

An obscure RTS made by Larian. Somewhat stiff to play due to erratic unit pathing and an awkward implementation of fog of war (some long-range units and turrets could attack you from inside fog of war without revealing themselves). Had some memorable sound effects. Soundtrack by Divinity's original composer, Kiril Pokrovsky (RIP).

Screenshots

Emergency: Fighters for Life
Simulation / 1998

My first game on the CD.

Heart of Darkness
Platform, Adventure / 1998

I was too young to have played Another World when it came out, but this game was sort of similar. Another hard game with a good story and memorable characters.




Carnivores 2
FPS / 1999

A game in which you hunt dinosaurs. 'Nuff said.




Tiberian Sun
RTS / 1999

Probably my favorite RTS back in the day. The style, the music, the story.

 

[luj1]

Honorable mentions:


Scorched Earth
Artillery / 1991



King's Quest VII
Adventure / 1994



Warcraft
RTS / 1994




Also: Sabotage, Bow and Arrow, Wet: The Sexy Empire and Abbe's Odyssey are worth mentioning.

 

[Bio Force Ape]

Bought all the SSI Gold Box games around 1991-1992, many for $5 from the bargain bin at the local software store (since many were a few years old at that point). Also picked up Wasteland around that same time. Those kept me pretty busy for a few years.

I even remember the store: Software Etc. in a mall.

 

[Jvegi]

Wolf 3D, Prince of Persia, Lemings, Blues Brothers and Lion King. Also, The Infernal Machine.

And one motorcycle racing game I can't find.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

My first 386 PC was bundled with:

Blues Brothers
Lotus 3
Prehistorik 2
Prince of Persia

 

[Outlander]

Prince of Persia, Wolfenstein 3D.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Demo - either Deus Ex or MDK2, both runs like shite because I had VooDoo2 with borked drivers (2d games runs fine but 3d was out of questions)
Full game? Either Worms Armageddon (mere 69potatoes ) or Pył (Dust) or Fallout2?

 

[SniperHF]

If banging around on someone elses computer when you were 2 years old counts then I used to "play" Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on my Grandpa's computer. Also the Gorilla artillery game.


When I actually knew what I was doing to some degree:
If an Atari computer counts as a PC (has a monitor, KB, and printer so...) Then it was Adventure, Star Raiders, Jumpman, or one of those. Couldn't remember which I played first. Long after the initial release dates obviously (1993 ish)

For a Windows machine the first was Doom II.

 

[Rev]

I had my first PC in 1998 and my first games were Quake II, Worms 2, Baldur's Gate, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Little Big Adventure 2 and FIFA 99. Aside from FIFA, I have fond memories of all of them.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

 

[Great Deceiver]

In 1988, on a 286 with an amber Hercules monitor. I'll never forget these games, or the experience of playing them.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

 

[luj1]

Forgot about Heretic II. It was pretty awesome.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I think it was probably Doom. That was probably the first real game I played on a Windows PC. I played games on Acorn and Mega Drive before then.

I also played X-wing, Flight Simulator and other flight sims on a friend’s computer.

The earliest games I remember playing and enjoying, on the family PC (not someone else’s) were TIE Fighter CD, Warcraft II, Age of Empires, Jedi Knight. Those properly inducted me into PC gaming.

I played PlayStation games too, at friends houses, like Tomb Raider but I already had a PC by then and I remember making sure I got the PC version. My brother got a PlayStation and I would play the PC.

 

[tritosine2k]

Also remember playing terminator rampage before doom.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I think it was probably Doom. That was probably the first real game I played on a Windows PC.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I think it was probably Doom. That was probably the first real game I played on a Windows PC.

It was DOS running in Windows 95.

I played games on Windows 3.1 but don’t remember the names so I’m not counting them.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

First PC game I ever played:

 

[Baardhaas]

Populous on my fathers XT in glorious amber monochrome, or on my brothers Amiga 500 the few times he'd let me. Actually, this game got burned in on my dad's screen since I played it for hours on end.

Played a lot of sierra games too; space quest, king's quest etc.

King's quest in amber monochrome:

by 1993 or so we got a 486 with SVGA card, soundblaster and cd-drive. Played a lot of dune2, civ, king's quest 5 and 6. One of the staples of that time were games on CD-rom with bad acting and prerendered backgrounds. Static, cringeworthy interactive puzzle games that were more about showcasing your graphics and soundcard than about actual gameplay, like 7th guest, myst etc.

 

[PorkBarrellGuy]

First PC game I ever played, on an XT clone at my mother's office.

 

[Sranchammer]

 

[Turjan]

I'm not completely sure, but I guess this here:



Of course, the screen was green or amber.

 

[Bio Force Ape]

Never get out of the fuckin' boat, man!

 

[ghostdog]

Barbarian aka Death Sword (1988)




Prince of Persia (1989)




Defender of the Crown (1987)




Test Drive (1987)




Leisure Suit Larry: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987)