Which games did you play before the internet evolved?

Which games did you play before the internet evolved?

Hi everyone

I have been thinking about this for a few days and I'm interested to know which games (console or computer) you played before the internet era.

I remember the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari etc and loved the codemasters' Fruit Machine game. Played it all the time as a kid lol. I also remember the ColecoVision console, and played Frenzy, Pepper II and other games. At University we skipped lectures to play Lemmings on the old BBC machines.

When the Sega Mega Drive was released, I was completely addicted, and played The Addams Family, Sonic and Sonic2, Sonic and Knuckles, etc, and the Sega Saturn games (Saturn Bomberman, NiGHTS, will really have to dig them out and list them lol).

The Playstation era was cool - much more choice of games and I usually played the Final Fantasy series, Breath of Fire, Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider, Formula One racing, and various platform games.

I am going to dig them out and list them - now I'm really reminiscing! LOL

So, what did you play before the internet? Post and tell us

 

I still don't really play much online, just Metal Gear Solid 3 right now, as I only hooked up my PS2 to the internet several weeks ago.

Before online gaming became as big as it is now I normally just stuck to the PS2 (offline), N64 or NES games I have.

As for the really old consoles like the Commodore, Atari, Jaguar (?) etc. I don't remember them at all - I guess I was too young to remember anything before the NES era... However I do remember spending hours playing Sega Genesis/CD and SNES over at a former friend's house 12+ years ago.
Some of those old games were so much fun!

I especially liked when the group of kids on my old-street would have "Nintendo Tournaments". Basically we would play games that awarded you with points based on how well you did (i.e. getting first on Road Rash III, and Super Mario Kart - and winning the most on Street Fighter) and see who would win the overall competition.
Of course it was never really fair as only one kid on the block had all of the systems (NES, SNES, Sega), so he would win often.

Good times looking back.

 

Space Raiders, or something like that. It was on the Atari 5200. You had to plot your coordinates and go into hyperdrive to go fight bad guys before the evil empire took over.

It was all in that green liney 3-D view, like the tank game, which we also had.

Super Mario 3 of course and Duck Hunter ... Pac Man and Ms. Pac Man. Oh, and PONG!

So now that I've completely dated myself I'll crawl back into my cave...

Oh, later on? Text-based games like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Amnesia. And Myst! Don't forget Myst. I also had two cool games called Noir and Titanic.

 

Solid! Long time no see Those tournaments sound familiar LOL, but yeah - the kid with the consoles and all the games usually won. I have never actually owned or played a Nintendo in any shape or form, though I have often wondered what the games were like.

SBW - oooh yep I forgot Pacman and Pong! lol. Loved them I haven't heard of those text-based games but I have played Myst and it freaked me out lol. Too eerie somehow, but quite challenging.

I forgot about the Dreamcast console too, and games on there. I can't even remember which games go with which console now, as they are all boxed up in the spare room and have been for ages, but I remember Bug, Abe's Odyssey, Alundra, Micro Machines 1 and 2, Theme Park and Theme Hospital. Heh, gotta love gaming!

 

I still play offline on my family's PS2. My family's first console was the Sega Genesis. We inherited a Sega Saturn but sold it. We also had an original PS1 but sold it as well. We've always had at least one PC to play on. I like platformers, action games, RPGs (got into that when I was in middle school), and a little bit of FPS and other shooters. My bros' first experience with online gameplay was with Counter-Strike and other Half-Life related online games. I played that a little but couldn't get into it. Now my major online game is WoW.

 

umm...I played games like Candy Land, and Operation, and Monopoly, and Sorry, and Hide and Seek, and Cops and Robbers, and House...

Yep, no game systems for me growing up, no computer games either...yes, we had a computer, but it was for my dad for work, not for play!

We didn't even have cable!

And my take on it all...THANK GOODNESS! While I play computer games a lot now, I'm glad my parents kept us away from TV and electronic games when we were younger. Kept me outside and playing with friends all the time. Best memories of growing up were playing with the neighborhood kids in our tree house my Dad built...not sitting on a computer. I never really used the computer for games until I went to college. And that's when my addiction with Sims1 started! LOL...from there on out it was all downhill.

 

For me it was Space Quest and Heros Quest...both my absolute favourite games (back when you had to actually type a command into the computer not just point and click with a mouse) and then there was a detective game called 'Mean Streets' (I think that was it's name) that I loved. I also loved Doom and was dedicated to playing it without the cheats. lol

I miss SQ & HQ actually. OH and Leisure Suit Larry...gods I loved that game. It cracked me up!

Cass.

 

Hehehe. Yep I did all those things too, and was out cycling a lot and rollerskating and making 'dens' in the neighbouring fields and forest areas, and sliding down our local 'tabletop hill' on a flattened piece of cardboard from top to bottom LOL. I played on ropeswings and jumped 'duffers' across the brook and had races in the two parallel brook tunnels lol.

I was a jigsaw freak too, and even up until The Sims was released, I completed a jigsaw every week, mostly 1000 pieces. As a kid, if I wasn't outside playing with friends I was inside doing jigsaws/puzzles. We also played pencil/paper games - like Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, with a few more categories added on lol. At my childhood home, we lived in a quiet street and we often played 'Kerby' - standing on the edge of the pavement and throwing a ball to bounce back from the opposite pavement kerb. 1 point if it rolled back, 2 points if it bounces up and you catch with 2 hands, 3 points if you catch with one hand LOL. First to 21 is the winner!

Jupitershana, thanks for reminding us that those were the good days lol. Yep, the consoles/computers were fun, a lot of fun, but the other stuff was better.

 

I absolutely love Candyland! Although it's rated for children six and younger, my cousin, sister and I played it a few years ago...when we were all well over six. We went hysterical, screaming at each other for going into our spots and such.

 

Ever heard of a computer game called Thexder? Cool graphics for its time (on a Tandy 1000). I played it like crazy while my kids were in school after getting them the game for Christmas one year.

Otherwise, boardgames like Monopoly and Clue and Scrabble were family favorites.

 

I was lucky in that I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of friends and my sibs and I spent hours with them, playing games of make believe and kick the can, making up plays, playing Barbies and GI Joes, boys and girls together, made no difference. We stayed out till dark and our mothers only called us if it was dinnertime, bedtime, or time to go somewhere.

Of course I didn't appreciate it at the time but now looking back I think I had a pretty great childhood, all things considered. We were pretty innocent. Read Thurber and acted out his plays, listened to Bill Cosby on vinyl, had a black and white television until I was 12, and got an Atari sometime after that. Never knew anything about the Vietnam War until I was much, much older, I was pretty darned young when it ended. Went on lots of family road trips and always had dinner at the table with the entire family, every night.

My parents never let me watch TV much and I thought they were SOOOO mean. I'm a little more lenient with Witch Baby but fortunately TV is not her main, or even twelfth-main, interest.

In fact, her childhood is much different from mine, but I think it's a happy one, so far. I don't shield her as much from the world as my parents did me, but if someone tried to hurt her I'd rip their arms off.

The fact is the world is faster paced now, at least it sure seems that way, and an "innocent" childhood seems like a thing of the past. I believe in preparing my child to live in the world, and that doesn't always include wrapping her in ignorance. Grownups were scary and remote sometimes when I was growing up, and their word was absolute. I'm raising my kid to question authority and it seems to me I'm not alone. I'm my daughter's friend as well as her mother, and although the buck stops with me I don't think she's as in awe of me as I was of my parents, and in my opinion that's a good thing.

In some ways I think the world hasn't changed a bit. Every era has its shortcomings. But in others, naturally, society evolves, for better or for worse. And I do think kids seem to be growing up awfully fast. But maybe that's partly because I grew up in a small town and now I live in the big city.

What about those of you still going through childhood/young adulthood, or who are younger than me? What's it like to be a kid these days?

 

Uh...sneaking in ahead of the young ones here . One thing hasn't changed a bit for sure and that is parents worrying about their children. To quote from Sumerian clay tablets dating back about 3,700 years, "I never sent you to work, to plow my field. I never sent you to work to dig up my field. I never sent you to work as a laborer...Others like you support their parents by working. If you spoke to your kin and appreciated them you would emulate them..." and it goes on and on, a man complaining that his son doesn't work, doesn't study, and hangs around the public square with other teenagers. "Night and day you waste in pleasures."

Anyway, if the past seems simpler and more innocent it's probably just our perspective of it because we were young and ignorant of the real world.

I asked my daughter (the historian) if there was ever a time when men were happy with the present and not wishing for the 'good ol' days'? How far, I asked her, would you have to go back in time?

To Sparta, was her answer. We both had a good laugh.

 

I played Doom, Heretic, Wing commander 3, Pivateer, Wolfenstein 2D and 3D. Also Space quest 6, MYST 1-5, Metal Fatigue, Warcraft 1,2,3, and Starcraft.

My favorite is the MYST series by far.

I think Starcraft was the first game i ever played online.

The only console system my family has ever had was NES, and mostly my mom played Dr. Mario.

 

Sparta...I've always loved the story of Helen of Troy...what a...witch. I mean, she's all happy and rich in her palace, some young delusional little prince comes along and sleeps with her, she runs away to Troy, causes the death of thousands of men and the destruction of the city, and then when Menelaus comes to take her back, she just flips her hair and says, "Okay, I've had enough fun. Let's go back home."

...Alright, so she didn't REALLY say that exact thing. But that's pretty much the idea.

 

Hmmm... I was pretty deprived of anything technical, living on an island and all. I remember jumping in the creek after school, getting our parents to drive out to all the best billabongs for picnics, sliding down sand dunes, looking after injured wildlife, playing on the beah, fishing, watching dolphins, camping, bush bashing, buying slushies at the Coffee Shop, sleepovers, riding around town, viiting the gorges, jumping off the cliffs (into the gorge), sliding down waterfalls, watching wallabies, snorkelling, at school with friends, and oh, the library. Can't forget the library, one of their 20 computer games was TS1.

We used to go out into the bush and make Cubby's and treehouses for fun and games. And there was organised sport on the town oval. Better not say any more.

 

Oooh no, say more lol! I started the thread about computer games but the thread has evolved into other things, like what we did AWAY from computer games, and it's really interetsing! I've really enjoyed reading about everyone's experiences. Yours sound wonderful - so exciting to explore the natural environment.

Actually, I wish that kids today could experience the natural world more often, as nowadays things tend to revolve around satellite tv, dvds, consoles, computers, mobile phones etc. Heightened awareness of sexual predators has made many people wrap their kids in cotton wool and limit their freedom to play outside. We can travel everywhere in cars and order shopping/groceries online and get them delivered, if we want to. We can eat fast food to save time cooking proper meals.

We are gradually withdrawing ourselves from real life and becoming absorbed in virtuality. LOL! I am100% guilty of that.

It's easier for me to socialise online than in the real world. Everywhere I go, whether it's out shopping, attending parties or eating in a restaurant, I have to inhale cigarette smoke and I am allergic to it. My nose swells so bad (had 2 surgeries already) and my asthma gets worse. I can smell it right across a car park, it affects me that bad. I'm not one who goes around preaching to others to stop smoking, it's their decision only. But, I CAN avoid the smoke wherever possible. I heard that in California (not 100% sure if it's there) there is a law to stop people smoking within 50 ft of a public building, or something like that. We need that here in the UK lol - you go out of the shopping centre or supermarket and you have to walk through a wall of smoke, so I hold my breath til I'm out far enough to breathe lol.

Yikes I'm gonna stop now LOL. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. If you haven't done already, tell us what you did as a child - games/computers or not.

 

Alison, you don't sound like you were "deprived" at all. What a great childhood! Can I come live on your island?

And LOL at 123. I completely agree. Helen of Troy was definitely a romance sim.

 

We just moved from that island at the end of... 2004. Spent a year travelling, and now we're here. I wish we still lived on the island though, otherwise I would invite you all

 

I was utter pants at all video games from the moment they first appeared. I used to dream of (well maybe I'd occasionally have a mild hankering for) a simple yet entertaining game that had no silly rules. When I first started playing games on my first PC (it was pre-windows and didn't even have a hard drive) I usually ended up wasting an hour or more of precious time playing backgammon ... pretty pointless really cos the computer wasn't exactly difficult to beat (I think my current dishwasher has more brainpower than that old thing had )

Anyway the first thing I look for in a game is a so-called 'sandbox' mode where you can play around with the game's elements without having to fuss about with the fiddly bits.

So you can imagine how much fun I can have playing with this (WARNING the 'game' is a trifle but the addiction factor is hard to measure ... if you have an addictive personality ... well yo've bin warned, ower kid!

 

Before the internet? Wizardry I-III, Ultima III-VI, Civilization I-II, and Heroes of Might and Magic (any and all).