First loves.
What was the first video game you LOVED? Not the first one you played, but the one that REALLY convinced you that video games were For You. Arcade, PC, console – anything goes. Feel free to throw your answer into the comments or (even better) write a more detailed post on your own site and link to it in the comments.
My answer:
Growing up, my first PC was a TI-994A. It had a decent assortment of titles available and I spent a lot of time playing games on the good ol’ TI, but while they were fun for short periods of time, I never really got hooked by any of them.
My next PC was an IBM PCjr. While the PCjr was market failure, it DID come with a well-ahead-of-its-time wireless keyboard AND was responsible for the development of the original King’s Quest which IBM had commissioned to show off the PCjr’s graphical and sound capabilities. King’s Quest was fun, but still failed to really capture my attention.
Years passed, our PCs started being used – more and more – for things like homework and keeping track of bills. For a few years, I wound up not playing any new games at all. When I did play them, it was always over at my friend Bill’s house (he had the most tricked-out rig in the neighborhood, so we’d pool money to buy new games to play on his PC).
We played a LOT of duds. We played a lot of decent games as well. But Space Quest IV absolutely blew us away. It was gorgeous – with hand-painted environments that really pushed the limits of what PC graphics could do at the time. It was smart and funny and challenging and a little bit subversive. We started playing it on a Friday afternoon and it became clear that I needed to stay at his house until we were finished. Luckily, Bill and I tore through it over the course of the weekend.
From that point forward, I was hooked on PC games. I still have a particular soft spot for Sierra adventure games (Full Throttle remains one of my favorite games ever) and I was really sad when it became clear that the market had shifted so much that those types of games were going to be harder and harder to develop successfully.
Much as it feels odd leaving a comment that practically no one will read, I actually had this discussion with some friends the other day.
I can say without a doubt that the one game that was IT for me was Elite on the BBC. My best friend and I spent hours and hours and hours playing that game. I absolutely loved it, then of course when the Archimedes version was released and it had colour, I almost cried with joy!
I blame Elite for my love of MMORPG’s now, it’s open ended nature really appealed to me, and I have never managed to quite escape it’s lure.