A Trip down Memory Lane

[Miserable Old Git]

I have been playing Civ since Civ 1 first came out in 1991 (?). Since the days when PC games pretty well ceased being produced - around 2000 - Civ has been my only gaming, and takes up several hours every day.

However, I have fond memories of other games in more innocent days.

In the 1980s, in the era of the Sinclair Spectrum, there was a wonderful game based round the Norse mythological sagas. Also an interesting game based on the black death. (I realise the non-European readership - ie most! - won't know what I'm talking about).

In the 1990s, in the days of 286 / 386 / 486 PCs and blocky CGA / EGA / VGA graphics, we had an early game called "Guns or Butter" which was quite cool. Aslo, the wonderful Panzer General series, which I rate as THE best non-Civ gaming experience. The battle of Kursk is seared my mind forever! As is Arnhem.

Do others have good memories of earlier gaming experiences?

 

[vorlon_mi]

My favorite game in the early 1990s was "Moria", short for the mines of Moria. It was a roguelike game, using ASCII characters and one could use either the numpad arrows or keyboard characters from the "vi" editor on Unix/Linux to move.

Shortly after that, I remember buying two games for my kids but I enjoyed them as well -- "The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain" and "The Time Warp of Dr. Brain". Simple mechanics, but the mini-games were so entertaining. "The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis" was a fond memory; someone ported it to modern PCs and it's available on Steam!

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Ironically, I never played any of the Panzer General games. I say ironically, because it turned out that among the basic references they used to produce the games were three books that I had written/translated: copies of the Soviet Army's manuals for tank and infantry unit tactics and the German Wehrmacht's training manuals and documents for training the panzer units!
I didn't start playing computer games at all until Civ II came out on the Mac in the late 1990s - and then I played it obsessively, and Civ III and Civ IV after that.
Then I discovered Sierra's City Builders, and played Caesar II, III, IV, Pharoah and Kleopatra and Rise of the Middle Kingdom. And Settlers VI, which I still think could have been developed into a really great Medieval City Builder. . .

 

[Chefofrats]

I started gaming on an Atari 130XE in the mid-1980s. It was communist Poland so getting that computer for me must have taken my parents a lot of effort. Among the games I played were such classics as Boulder Dash and River Raid. There were few strategy games for the Atari, but I remember at least one - some Polish rip-off of Oregon Trail, transformed into a medieval economic strategy, in which you inevitably died of dysentery.

I got my first PC in 1993, and Civ 1 was one of the first games I played on it. Wow, how awesome it was! I have loved the series ever since. But over the years there were other games I remember very fondly, too. The wonderfully funny Monkey Island with great music, the classic RPG Betrayal at Krondor with some early 3d graphics and cool hand drawn art for some of the locations, the unforgettable hack and slash Diablo 1, the frenetic Doom 2... The memories just flood back as I sit and write this.

There were also many obscure gems. I can't recall the exact title now, but it was Police Department 2172 or something to that effect - a simple top-down shooter in which you chased bandits around some futuristic city in your cop-car speeder, but it had a film-noir-style story that really drew me in.

Since 2009 I've mostly played on consoles, and some of the games have been great, too, but that is not far enough in the past to reminisce.

 

[Thormodr]

Started playing Civ about one month after it came out and have played them all to death except for 5. I played Empire, as far as strategy games before that.

Loved Master of Orion, Master of Magic and Star Control. Wonderful games.

Loved Railroad Tycoon and Pirates and Pirates Gold. Rise of Nations, too. That waa a gem.

The Caesar series, Pharoah and Middle Kingdom were all great.

I enjoy Paradox Games and loved EU1, Crusader Kings and Victoria. Hadn't played much of their games since Civ VI came out but recently I have been playing Victoria 3 and am really enjoying it. ^^

I also really enjoyed the Baldur's Gate series and Icewind Dale. The Diablo series, as well.

So many wonderful games over the years. All in all though, Civ is still my favourite. I may take breaks from it but I always come back. ❤

 

[LMT]

I remember playing Colossal Cave Adventure (we just called it Adventure) on Radio Shack TRS-80 computers in junior high school (early 1980s). I think we loaded it onto the computer with a cassette tape.

That was the first turn-based computer game I was exposed to.

 

[Zaarin]

I was a child in the 90s so the Humongous Entertainment games (Pajama Sam, Putt Putt, Freddie Fish, Spy Fox) were my introduction to gaming; I'm sure that's why adventure games are still some of my favorites. Several of those games were actually made by Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame (though I wouldn't discover Monkey Island until the remasters). Also The Learning Company games like Carmen Sandiego and Master of Mischief. I remember particularly loving Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?, Treasure Galaxy!, and Treasure Mountain!--I was less a fan of Treasure Cove! and the Clue Finders games, though I played them, too.

Around 2000 I was introduced to strategy games by Star Trek: Birth of the Federation (still one of my favorite 4X games honestly), which was probably my first game not aimed at kids. I recall that when I was 12-ish I was working on a single-player boardgame of BotF, though nothing ever came of it. I had never been exposed to such a thing--I just wanted to be able to play BotF when I was grounded --but as an adult I've learned that single-player complicated strategy boardgames are actually a thing. Also around that time that I discovered pen-and-paper roleplaying through the Star Wars Revised Core Rulebook. I now hate Star Wars and rules-heavy systems like those of WotC, but still grateful that I discovered it.

When I was thirteen, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds--basically a Star Wars clone of AoK--came out. Nearly twenty years later, I'm still very close friends with some of the people I met through that game's community, and it was also hugely influential on my development as a creative person. I made several RPG-style campaigns for it that were very well-received at the time; I'm still sort of proud of at least one of them, which is impressive given I was fourteen at the time.

"The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis" was a fond memory; someone ported it to modern PCs and it's available on Steam!

"Fleens? You're not Fleens! Well, whatever you are, make me a pizza!" It is burned into my memory.

 

[PiR]

There was another one (beside Sim City 2000) in my dad's Macintosh, a 2D game in which a little guy had to find the exit, sometimes needed to jump to get a key, ok so far it's any video game ever , between levels there was a voice saying "BALESS OWELESS" I never understood that, well OK I'll never find again which games that was.

 

[Nikolai II]

I remember playing Colossal Cave Adventure (we just called it Adventure) on Radio Shack TRS-80 computers in junior high school (early 1980s). I think we loaded it onto the computer with a cassette tape.

That was the first turn-based computer game I was exposed to.

Are you getting the remake made by the Williams'es of Sierra On-Line fame?

 

[Thormodr]

There was another one (beside Sim City 2000) in my dad's Macintosh, a 2D game in which a little guy had to find the exit, sometimes needed to jump to get a key, ok so far it's any video game ever , between levels there was a voice saying "BALESS OWELESS" I never understood that, well OK I'll never find again which games that was.

Was that game impossible mission?

Impossible Mission - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Andrew Johnson [FXS]]

Star Control 2, Master of Orion, the Ultima series through V, Bard's Tale, over here. A bit later, Thief, and, of course, the grand college era of FPS, including Doom, Quake, etc. My very first favorite was the Atari 2600 "Adventure!" game that I recently got on my phone and discovered I still know the layout of all the dungeons.

 

[Thormodr]

Star Control 2, Master of Orion, the Ultima series through V, Bard's Tale, over here. A bit later, Thief, and, of course, the grand college era of FPS, including Doom, Quake, etc. My very first favorite was the Atari 2600 "Adventure!" game that I recently got on my phone and discovered I still know the layout of all the dungeons.

Really enjoyed Bard's Tale back in the day. That was a classic.

The early Ultima series, as well. So fun. ^^

 

[LMT]

Are you getting the remake made by the Williams'es of Sierra On-Line fame?

Woah, did not know about that. I may need to get it, though it will prevent me from getting much work done...just as it did in junior high!

 

[PiR]

Was that game impossible mission?

Impossible Mission - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Thanks for trying, looks definitely similar but in my memory the guy was depicted more like this:

Although, it may have been just the monitor not being able to display color...

I was quite young so it is fuzzy

 

[tedhebert]

There was another one (beside Sim City 2000) in my dad's Macintosh, a 2D game in which a little guy had to find the exit, sometimes needed to jump to get a key, ok so far it's any video game ever , between levels there was a voice saying "BALESS OWELESS" I never understood that, well OK I'll never find again which games that was.

Could it have been Lode Runner ? Really loved that one, played a lot on my Apple 2e ;-)

 

[PiR]

Ohhhh that one

definitely looks similar

Although I'm remembering specific things that I don't see here:

• a key that you have to get to open a door
• a door that is the end of the level - might be multiple doors on a level
• some electrified floor that you don't want to fall onto
• falling from high and becoming mashed as a potato

Here I see more bags of money? and I don't remember having other guys running around like pacman (pacman which I discovered later was extremely stressful for me because of this difference)
Btw I'm surprised no one mentionned pacman

There are so many variants, maybe I played a copycat

 

[leif erikson]

First game I played was in 1982 on an Apple II, Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord!! So much fun with my graph paper and green screen monitor!!

Bard's Tale was excellent and too many hours spent playing Master of Orion, Railroad Tycoon and, of course, Civilization!!

 

[Zaarin]

Did anyone else watch Strong Bad's (there's another delightful throwback) Actual Play of Vampire Castle? That game's a little (okay, a lot) before my time, but this is honestly my favorite thing the Bros. Chaps have put out in years. They did a couple videos of Friendlyware before that.