What was the first game you remember playing? - The Bear and Badger

Paul the sparky

What was that adventure/puzzle game you were allowed to play in primary school? The sound effects when you were transitioning from one screen to the next were amazing/excruciating.

Bob

There was a BBC game called Kingdom iirc where you had to do basic resource management we played in school but I don't remember a transition screen

AJ

Paul the sparky wrote:

What was that adventure/puzzle game you were allowed to play in primary school?

That was Granny's Garden, for me, which somebody mentioned earlier. Dunno if that's what you were thinking of.

Daredevil Dennis was the most popular game to play on the computers at our primary school. Except in reception, where it was Podd. I seem to remember there being a single Archemedies or RM computer, in addition to all the BBCs, that had a decent version of Virus, but nobody could get the hang of the controls.

Raiziel

Pong.

AJ

I'm kinda hoping someone's going to come in with Spacewar!

[Deleted User]

Was Podd the one with the tomato with a face?

AJ

Yeah, the one where you typed stuff like "Podd can run" or "Podd can pop" and then it'd an animation of him doing that.

krs

AJ wrote:

I seem to remember there being a single Archemedies or RM computer, in addition to all the BBCs, that had a decent version of Virus, but nobody could get the hang of the controls.

That was probably Lander, the demo version of Zarch/Virus which was made for, and came bundled with, the Arc. The intention was to help users get used to the mouse, although may have put some off it, given the difficulty.

We got an A3000 in '89 and the game looked so beautiful and controlled so smoothly, especially compared to anything on the Beeb, that it never bothered me that I wouldn't last more than a couple of minutes.

Bob

AJ wrote:

I'm kinda hoping someone's going to come in with Spacewar!

I was pinning my hopes on g.

He's let us all down

AJ

krs wrote:

AJ wrote:

I seem to remember there being a single Archemedies or RM computer, in addition to all the BBCs, that had a decent version of Virus, but nobody could get the hang of the controls.

That was probably Lander, the demo version of Zarch/Virus which was made for, and came bundled with, the Arc. The intention was to help users get used to the mouse, although may have put some off it, given the difficulty.

We got an A3000 in '89 and the game looked so beautiful and controlled so smoothly, especially compared to anything on the Beeb, that it never bothered me that I wouldn't last more than a couple of minutes.

Shit, that's some good knowledge. Kudos.

Bob

Bought it on st - needed a lot of practice but when it clicked it was good

Yossarian

LarryDavid wrote:

Again, Defender or a knock off of it. On my Dad's Electron.

The original Defender was definitely on Electron. My first game was either that, Pac Man, Frogger or some weird Doctor Who game with randomly-generated levels, all of which were on the Electron.

I seem to recall not being a fan of Pac Mac even as a child.

Kazuo

It'll have been something on the ZX (possibly Skool Daze) but to be honest all I can remember is the loading times, so I'll settle for Columns on the MD. First games I ever owned were Wave Race and Diddy Kong Racing though.

davyK

Bob wrote:

I'm kinda hoping someone's going to come in with Spacewar!

I was pinning my hopes on g. He's let us all down

Given it was a flop I imagine not many played the original. I can remember playing a remake in the arcade by Cinematronics. It wasn't bad but the fact that gameplay was limited by a timer put me off. It had loads of buttons for setting different options for gravity, sun, asteroid etc. It wasn't one hit and you are dead either - if you weren't hit dead centre it only disabled your thrusters. Quite advanced for its time - and "HD" vector graphics too - probably too much for the average arcade gamer really.

The 2600 also got a Space War cartridge - kind of Combat in space and it wasn't bad either.

AJ

Shit, I didn't even know they made commercial versions. Full of learning, this thread.

davyK

Computer Space by Nutting was the original arcade videogame....early 70s and was a flop. It was too complex for people who had never played a videogame - Pong showed the way - one hand control with the other free to hold your glass.

Computer Space made an appearance in 70s sci fi flick, Soylent Green.

[Deleted User]

AJ wrote:

Yeah, the one where you typed stuff like "Podd can run" or "Podd can pop" and then it'd an animation of him doing that.

Yeah I remember that.
"I dare you to type in Podd can poo" snigger.

Also remember playing Granny's Garden at school. No-one really progressed far because turns were in 10 minutes slots.
There was an educational game we had at school on the Acorn. It was about the Aztecs, you started off as an architect and had to find 3 items before being transported back to Aztec times, it was a bit like a point and click adventure. I was the only person to ever get past the dig site given the short window of time we had on it.

edit: It was called Arcventure, there was an Egypt version as well.

davyK

AJ

Since you seem so knowledgeable about these things, Davy, I'm sure I remember hearing about a side-on tennis game, made not long after Spacewar!, but can never find anything about it. You got anything on that, or did I just imagine it?

davyK

Tennis for Two by Willie Higgbotham (!)- which was a demo game for a college exhibition that used an osciliscope as a display and some sort of analogue controllers. (actually it was all analogue circuitry)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two

There is an even earlier game call OXO that used a primitive display to play noughts and crosses.

davyK

Bob

davyK wrote:

There is an even earlier game call OXO that used a primitive display to play noughts and crosses.

Eventually it works out that thermo nuclear war is unwinnable. Somebody challenge the president elect to a game

AJ

davyK wrote:

Tennis for Two by Willie Higgbotham (!)- which was a demo game for a college exhibition that used an osciliscope as a display and some sort of analogue controllers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two There is an even earlier game call OXO that used a primitive display to play noughts and crosses.

Hoo, shit, I didn't realise it was first. Thanks for the info, much respect.

davyK

Bob wrote:

davyK wrote:

There is an even earlier game call OXO that used a primitive display to play noughts and crosses.

Eventually it works out that thermo nuclear war is unwinnable. Somebody challenge the president elect to a game

Doubt you need a computer to work that one out....

Kow

davyK wrote:

Given it was a flop I imagine not many played the original. I can remember playing a remake in the arcade by Cinematronics. It wasn't bad but the fact that gameplay was limited by a timer put me off. It had loads of buttons for setting different options for gravity, sun, asteroid etc. It wasn't one hit and you are dead either - if you weren't hit dead centre it only disabled your thrusters. Quite advanced for its time - and "HD" vector graphics too - probably too much for the average arcade gamer really.

The 2600 also got a Space War cartridge - kind of Combat in space and it wasn't bad either.

I had forgotten all about that, they had it in a local arcade when I was at school and it always fascinated me. It had something like an old style phone keyboard in the middle for choosing the settings. The two ships were the one from Asteroids and one that looked like the Enterprise.

Djornson

I don't remember what it was called but it was on PC around 1993. It was a 2D side scrolling game. You controlled a barbarian type chap. You threw axes at stuff. I feel like it had 'wrath' in the title. A bit like Altered Beast without the wolf part in play style.

AJ

Sounds like Gods, other than what you've written about the title.

davyK

Gods was great. Made my 100 list.

[Deleted User]

Djornson wrote:

I don't remember what it was called but it was on PC around 1993. It was a 2D side scrolling game. You controlled a barbarian type chap. You threw axes at stuff. I feel like it had 'wrath' in the title. A bit like Altered Beast without the wolf part in play style.

This?

tigersgogrrr

Gods?

Edit: No wrath though duh.

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