Maybe this one:
or
or maybe even
I’d played a number before that, but I didn’t buy them with my money.
I had an Apple //e, and as you might guess, my supply of games were not exactly paid for. It wasn’t until I I got my first job that I bought a game. Feeling guilty about all the games not paid for in the past, I bought the games for my Apple //gs. I’m fairly certain the first game I bought for it was Bard’s Tale.
The first shareware game I ever forked over dollars for was VGA planets.
Hey, the first game I purchased with Sim Ant as well. I had older brothers, so most of the game purchases were done by them.
Same for me - so I could play in the computer lab in high school. I had a pcjr at home which my parents bought at home over my objections, and my early game purchases were for the Apple It’s in the computer lab. Wizardry was the first and by far the best.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is the first game I remember playing, but it was my dad’s copy (and I didn’t so much “play” as “endlessly roll up characters”).
I think I got my very own computer in 1996, and the first games I remember dragging my parents to the store for were C&C: Red Alert, Heroes of Might & Magic II, and Mechwarrior II: Mercenaries, followed the next year by Jedi Knight after getting my first 3D accelerator (Diamond Stealth 3D II).
The first game I used my own money on would have to be Battlezone ('98), though. I played the hell out of the demo that came with CGW, and was blown away with its concept of mixing strategy and action. Birthday money came in, and I immediately biked down to Fry’s to get my own copy.
The first game I played on the “family” apple II+ we got was a text adventure Empire of the Over-Mind, followed up quickly by asteroids.
The first game I actually put my own money down for was Ultima 2 in 1982. I would spend part of my weekend stuffing PennySaver papers (it’s like a giant bag of crappy printed adds!) into plastic bags for one of my older siblings to deliver on the weekends, and saved up for a LONG time to get Ultima 2. The older ultima games had beautiful printed manuals, and the higher level spells were SEALED…to my 10 year old mind, that was wild madness. Did I dare to break the seal before I was the appropriate level?
I had a Texas Instruments 99-4a, and probably bought a lousy game or two for that, but I think the only meaningful answer is later, when I had an Apple II.
The first real game I played was a cracked version of Karateka. I had no idea what pirating meant.
I don’t know the first game I bought, but I remember that Scholastic had a series of educational game/application compilations that came out like monthly magazines. Microzines!
Played a lot of those.
I think Summer Games was one of my earliest games, too.
I went on to buy Ultima 5, Wasteland, Bard’s Tale… and I remember begging my parents for Infiltrator, a (hard-as-nails) chopper simulator combined with a stealth/combat game.
C64 and floppy bought in 1983 even though it represented 6 weeks pay for me at the time. I actually bought it, kept it 3 days, took it back (buyer’s remorse), then bought it again 3 weeks later (just had to have it). Meh, who needs food.
1st 2 games were MULE and Pinball Construction Set followed later that same week with Zork and Beachhead.
Pretty sure it was Wizard’s Crown.
I know I didn’t pay for my Bard’s Tale back in the day, but I blame the people who knew better that gave me a copy.
Hmmm. The first machine-readable game I remember actually buying was a real-time version of Star Trek for the original 8K Commodore PET, called “PETREK”. I bought it on cassette from the author, Brad Templeton.
Before that, I bought a book with a collection of games for the KIM-1 single board computer. I had to key those in myself, on a hexadecimal key pad. Does that count? :P
Piracy was a big thing when I was at university, so I didn’t pay for much while I was there. After I graduated into gainful employment, I bought a lot of EA and Microprose titles for the C-64. The first PC game I bought was Starflight.
It’s been fun seeing all of these old box shots. Sadly, I tossed out a big pile of original packaging two years ago, downsizing for a move. :(
Not 100% sure. I know ‘my’ first computer was an IBM PC Jr. I begged my parents not to buy that. I wanted an Apple 2, since that’s what we had at school, but said if they were going the IBM route to get a full PC, not the Jr. They didn’t listen. Although at least we had the one with a ‘real’ keyboard and not the one w/ the chicklets.
Anyway, I know we had whatever version of Flight Simulator was around at the time, but I don’t think I bought that. I do remember buying ‘Jet’ - the military version of FS. I’m fairly sure that was the first one I bought w/ my own cash.
Hero Quest for Amiga. I did not have an Amiga though.
Either the original King’s Quest, or Enchanter by Infocom, I lusted after every Infocom title that came out, spending cash earned from Summer jobs on them.
Had my Apple ][ friend with me at a computer store that demo’ed it. I think the sound fx blew his mind so he talked me into my first buy.
Did not regret it. Especially in cartridge format it was a great quick fix.
Picked up a Wico bat handle joystick on same occasion, first joystick, also a fine choice.
When my mom bought the first family computer, an Apple ][e, from some area teen, it came with a ton of legal and not-so-legal copies of a variety of games: Lode Runner, Adventure Construction Set, Elite, Ultima III and IV, Wizardry I, HItchhiker’s Guide, Conan, and many more. I was thinking that the first computer game I bought to add to the family library was Little Computer People (turn your microcomputer into a doll’s house, complete with a sad little man and his dog living inside!) but the box art didn’t look familiar. I think that was another one that came from this kid’s game hoard. (I didn’t realize it for a long time, but the kid was getting out of the Apple world and into the IBM-compatible world, like emigrating from his home country.) The first game I definitely remember saving up for and buying was Aliens: The Computer Game. At the time, it was a pretty great adaptation of a movie I liked, even if I’d only seen the network TV version of it. It contained a bunch of minigames, some of which were still pretty unique. One was where you control four Colonial Marines scattered throughout a maze of the infested colony. You move them one at a time and hope they don’t get picked off by xenomorphs. You could run each one to the exit, but it was better to figure out where to have them meet up and move as a team.
Much later, after I’d saved for my first computer (after making my own immigration to IBM-compatible land), I bought a game I’d seen a friend play that looked really cool. I know the game’s critical reception was much diminished from its predecessor, but I loved the game and its Full Motion Video components. What a cast! What a story! What an interesting production design! Maybe the handling of some of the spaceships wasn’t as fluid as in the Super Wing Commander port I’d played for the family Macintosh, but it was pretty and landing was a hell of a lot easier than in the original Elite.
Heh. Yeah, I had an Amstrad CPC 6128 as my first PC too. I was blissfully ignorant as to what I was missing though. One friend of mine had a Commodore 64, and the Amstrad’s graphics were way better, so I felt like I got a better computer. Same with the friend who had a Spectrum Z128 I think it was, and another friend who had an IBM PC. On the IBM, that poor bugger had to play all his games in three colours: pastel blue, pastel pink, and black. I thought the Amstrad was way better than that.
In the mid 80s I’d been coder for 5 years and had saved up enough for my first computer. I eventually decided on an Apple ][e because there were more games published at that time for the Apple platform than any other (it’s actually very ironic how radically that would change in the future). Gaming was why I wanted a PC and there is no question that has driven every PC purchase decision I’ve made since.
When I bought my dual floppy Apple ][e (with mono green screen CRT) I picked one game to go with it so, like some others here, I wisely chose:
