What was THE game that...

[Dastardly]

What was THE game that got you hooked to this day on playing games?
For me it was probably Ghouls n Ghosts on my C64. I had been playing games for a while before that but, I was so addicted to that game, I think after that there was no turning back. Then when I got my Amiga, I was doomed to a life of gaming. (hooray)
:D

[oldpx]

River Raid, in an arcade!!! :)

[Djay]

The single most addictive game for me was Frontier - Elite 2.

It was released about the same time as my mock GCSE exams, so i had loads of free time, I would play from about 8am till about 1pm, then go out with my m8s till 11pm, then play from 11pm till about 4am, the happened for weeks, then came the 6 week summer break, and i it played day & night on some occasions...

... it got almost too much, sometimes i was out drinking etc... and i started planning where to go and what to buy, i even wrote down lists of good trading spots etc...

... i managed to drag 4 m8s into this gaming nightmare, i've never since been so addicted to any game on any format, althou, now i don't have the spare time (kids and work).

the only game that has come close was Final Fantasy 7 on the psx, racked up 150hrs!!!

and lately i've been up late playing UT online, pings of about 30 help!!!

[Akira]

Djay, he asked about the game that got you hooked on playing games, not the game to which you got hooked for the most time...

Same as Burseg here, but on my cousin's Atari 2600! It also got me hooked onto 2D shoot'em ups. I still play it today, on my A2600 :D

[CPC464]

I would have to say MACROCOSMICA on the Amstrad CPC464, the gameplay was superb I still play it now. :)

But there again Moonstone has to have a mention too :)

[Shatterhand]

River Raid , in ARCADES??? I didn't know River Raid was published in arcades.... maybe my activision favourite game ever , Beamrider, was also published in an arcade??

I can't remember what exact game made me an "addict" . I've been playing games since I can remember, my dad bought an Atari 2600 6 months after I was born :)


MAYBE it was Moon Patrol in the old 2600 .. I remember that was my fav game ( We had about 30 2600 games here, I still have them, but unfortunately most of them become dust internally :( ). It certainly was the 1st game that had a very catchy music in my mind :)

[Chuckles]

THE game that got me hooked on gaming in general HAD to have been Pong, played in my local bar. Of course the beer may have had something to do with making it seem all that much more fascinating. ;)

[Twistin'Ghost]

Yup, same here. Without the beer, mind you, but it was Pong that first got its grips in me. My first foray into programming was a pong game, too! (Remember that one Pyromania? :laughing)

[RetroMan]

I think it was called Phoenix on an Atari VCS 2600 for me :)

[Shatterhand]

I liked Phoenix a lot ... although in the same style, there was also Demon Attack, which I liked much more :)

Phoenix got a remake by Dinamic called Megaphoenix, for C64, Spectrum and C64 , very good if you like Phoenix (Retroman, if you don't know it, you should try it)

Demon Attack also has a C64 version too

Here goes a pic of the Atari 2600 version of Phoenix

[Shatterhand]

Here goes a pic of Atari 2600 Moon Patrol, that I mentioned above (I would have edited the post, but it seems you can't attach files when editing)

[Shatterhand]

And while I'm on the mood, a pic of the Atari 2600 version of River Raid (I know the Coleco Version, the MSX version, I believe I even saw a C64 version.. but ARCADE version was new to me :) )

[oldpx]

It was not an arcade version. It was an 2600 fitted inside an arcade cabinet and worked with coins. That's my asssumption but it's likely the only valid explanation.

[Drake1009]

The game which got me addicted was Gogo the ghost on the C64. It was hard as hell but strangely addictive.

[Muzkat]

Galaga on the table top arcades. And Moon Patrol and Enduro on Atari.:)

The other game that got me hooked was also on Atari, the one where you were an Indiana Jones type person, and you had to jump of rivers, using vines or crocodile heads, in order to get treasure, I think. I can't remember the name of that game! :confused

[Drake1009]

I think you're thinking of Pitfall.

[Dastardly]

Originally posted by Drake1009
The game which got me addicted was Gogo the ghost on the C64. It was hard as hell but strangely addictive.

WOW Gogo the ghost!!!! I havent thought of that game for donkeys years!! I had completley forgot all about that one.
Seriously hard and yet seriously addictive. Never did complete it.

[TikTok]

For me it was Harrier Attack on my friend's CPC464 :).

[Dastardly]

Originally posted by Djay
The single most addictive game for me was Frontier - Elite 2.

It was released about the same time as my mock GCSE exams, so i had loads of free time, I would play from about 8am till about 1pm, then go out with my m8s till 11pm, then play from 11pm till about 4am, the happened for weeks, then came the 6 week summer break, and i it played day & night on some occasions...

... it got almost too much, sometimes i was out drinking etc... and i started planning where to go and what to buy, i even wrote down lists of good trading spots etc...

... i managed to drag 4 m8s into this gaming nightmare, i've never since been so addicted to any game on any format, althou, now i don't have the spare time (kids and work).

the only game that has come close was Final Fantasy 7 on the psx, racked up 150hrs!!!

and lately i've been up late playing UT online, pings of about 30 help!!!

Yes FRONTIER stole months of my life too. I still get the urge to play that game now some ten? years later! I think it was the 'open ended' style that got me hooked.
I read elsewhere on EAB that EDGE magazine has an article on a NEW FRONTIER type game (not elite4) being made for PC. I searched every newsagents in this town and every one of em had sold out of it!!
:(
If its not too much trouble, if anyone has it, would you scan it and put the article in the zone please? :)

[Uukrul]

Mine was Ambermoon. Two weeks playing 12 hours per day on a P-200 with Dos-Fellow.

[Bloodwych]

GREAT thread!! :great

Now here is a thread showing up our age! :)

I'm a proud 25 year old gamer who first got hooked when my dad made the mistake of buying a Commodore Vic-20 in Woolworths (famous UK store) sale! Can't remember how old I was? 8 perhaps?

This began my love affair with Commodore that continues today, hence my presence on this fantastic board.

It came with a tape full of games, shity non-microswitched Joystick and the cartridge "Jelly Monsters", which was later banned due to its similar look (ok exact copy, but better) to Atari's Pacman.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/deanodarlo/jellymon.gif

I played Jelly Monsters non-stop with my MUM! Yes, she was addicted too. We'd battle it out for the highest score, the competition was intense and she was no slouch.

My dad was crap at pacman, er, sorry Jelly Monsters, so he'd play blitz where all you had to was drop bombs from a bi-plane onto a city using the space bar so you could land. Sounds easy? well, it was bloody tricky! He finished it way before I did! I was the greatest at Hoppit however! (Frogger rip-off, er, I mean clone) :)

Next, due to my constant nagging :bounce :crying :scream , we bought the cartridges Omaga Race and Gorf, which I played non-stop. The addiction had begun, and there was no going back to the pre-computer game no-eye-strain innocence I'd had enjoyed earlier in my life..................

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/deanodarlo/gorf.jpg

[RetroMan]

Originally posted by TikTok
For me it was Harrier Attack on my friend's CPC464 :).
:cool I still own the original Tape from my CPC464 :D Currently loading it up .... some retro-feelings again :p

[Djay]

Djay, he asked about the game that got you hooked on playing games, not the game to which you got hooked for the most time...

i'm sorry, i miss-read the question, but Frontier did consume the most amount of playing time for me...

the GAME that got me hooked on games, was a small arcade style box with small metal joystick and one fire button, it was a very basic space invaders game machine, being fairly young at the time i did realise that batteries run out, i believed that i had somehow broken it!!!!

the first multi game system that i played and got hooked on was crystal castles on the Atari 2600,

Thanks Akira, for pointing my stupidity!!!!!!

[Djay]

would you scan it and put the article in the zone please?

i have it, i will scan and up to the zone, give me a couple of days thou, and if poss, can you remind me by sending a private message, cheers!!!

[Twistin'Ghost]

While Pong was the first game that sunk its claws in me (as far as general gaming), I think it was Space Invaders that really made the switch from amusement to addiction.

[Dastardly]

Originally posted by Djay


i have it, i will scan and up to the zone, give me a couple of days thou, and if poss, can you remind me by sending a private message, cheers!!!

Thanks Djay

I will remind you. I wont forget :D

[Djay]

@ Dastardly

gone one better m8, heres the url for the official site

http://www.eve-online.com/

hope that helps!!!

[Dastardly]

Thanks Djay

Much appreciated :)

[Shatterhand]

Originally posted by s4murai


C64 & C64? ;) :p :D

Anyway, it was released for the Amiga too.

Actually, I wanted to say MSX ... :) it was late here and I was already falling asleep :)


Anyway, here goes a pic of Pitfall, so Muskat can see if that's the game he's talking about (And probably is)

[Uukrul]

Originally posted by Djay


i'm sorry, i miss-read the question, but Frontier did consume the most amount of playing time for me...



I also misunderstood the question :(
The first game that hooked me was a big handheld (shaped like a arcade machine) from Nintendo: Popeye

[Shadowfire]

Gauntlet, in the arcade.

[ECA]

Ok, OK...
So I was 17 when I got my C64..
Game that Hooked me... TANK...wireframe graphics and ALL..
One that Kept me busy the longest...
Elite2.Frontier.... 5 years of playing, keeping a backup when the original DIED, and starting over..
Funny thing.... I hook 5-10 others on the game ALSO..
:laughing

Im getting PISSEd waiting for Elite4, as I have read it may not be out till 2004, maybe.

a game opening on the NET, (EVE) says they are working to make there game Very LIKE, ELITE. They will release in Dec.

[alkis21]

Seas of blood. It was 1986 and I was 11 years old. Played it on my Spectrum, first adventure game I ever finished. I studied really hard to improve my English because of this game. :)

[Burge]

Dunno. Rolling Thunder? (maybe).

[LaundroMat]

I can't remember anymore; but it must have been one of these:

- Pitfall & Bruce Lee on the Atari
- Jet Set Willy and Chucky Egg on the ZX
- Green Beret, Kung-Fu Master and Shinobi in the arcades.

After re-reading these titles, I'd say Kung Fu Master drew me in.

Edit: Naah. Must've been earlier. Pitfall.

[7-Zark-7]

Hmm, I supose you can call my gaming interest growing in stages. My earliest gaming memories of my local arcade haunt, were of games like Pheonix,Moon Cresta,Moon Patrol & Pac Man.
And I remember being jealous of a friend who had a Vic 20 with a game called trashman I think-at least 'til the C64 came out a few months later!!

However,my gaming interest really picked up with Ghost's n Goblins came out in the arcades,& then onto the C64. We eventually got C64's into our primary school & I became addicted to Ghost's n' Goblins,& a great C64 game called Ghettoblaster.

[LaundroMat]

Moon Patrol! An even earlier memory! Thanks for reminding me.

Yes, that and some F1 top-down viewed game. i vividly recall the enormously impressive (for it's time, and for a young kid like me then) tunnel sequences. Where the only thing you'd see where cars whizzing by, popping up in the cone of your headlights and oil slicks on the roads.

Sheesh. My head aches simply because of the effort of reaching so far back in time... Does anyone know what F1 game I mean? (The cabinet mostly had a steering wheel attached too).

Heh. I even write like a kid now.

[7-Zark-7]

Originally posted by LaundroMat
Yes, that and some F1 top-down viewed game. i vividly recall the enormously impressive (for it's time, and for a young kid like me then) tunnel sequences. Where the only thing you'd see where cars whizzing by, popping up in the cone of your headlights and oil slicks on the roads.

Sheesh. My head aches simply because of the effort of reaching so far back in time... Does anyone know what F1 game I mean? (The cabinet mostly had a steering wheel attached too).

Heh. I even write like a kid now.

Ohmigod,at last someone else who remembers that. Yes,I do know of that game as that was at my local arcade hangout too!
For the life of me,I've tried searching sites like Mame DK in the past without any success.
Like you said there was the cabinet,& the steering wheel, High/low gear & a pedal etc. For occasions like a single lane bridge you had to slow down, & you'd also had to avoid a fireengine which you heard coming up behind you too.

I "thought" the game had a name like Monaco Grand Prix, or Super Monaco Grand Prix, but my searches have proved useless.
Thanks for reminding me of that game-whatever the damm name is!!;)

[Drake1009]

Actually I don't know what game it was that got me hooked. I tried it at some family while in Germany visiting them and I have no idea what it was. Only thing I know is that it was a sort of platformer, it apparently took place inside a factory of sorts and had those stomper things like in monty on the run, just not as fast. And it was darn fun the times I got to play it before they switched over to playing Pole Position (or similar game, I believe it was Pole Position). After that I took more of an interest in our C128 and got more hooked on gaming by playing Gogo the ghost, Dinky doo and Park patrol

[Fred the Fop]

Space Invaders.

[Ash]

Turrican

[Antiriad]

Hmmm, it must have been Double Dragon in the arcades. Im sure I encountered games before that but thats the one that sticks in the mind.

Much much pocket money was wasted in it!

Like Djay though, Frontier leeched my life for many years.

[dirkies]

Amiga:

phew! many actually (I'll probably forget some):
Arkanoid I
Firepower
Dark Castle
Skidmarks (AGA)
IK+
Barbarian I
Speedball 2
Starglider II
Falcon F16
Bermuda Triangle Project
most Cinemaware (non-sport) games during long summer nights!

C64:
Commando, Ghosts'N goblins, Way Of The Exploding Fist I & Fist II, Beach Head I & II, Lode Runner, Hover Bover, Choplifter, Gyruss, Pole Position, Kickman, Hero, Galaga, Hunchback, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Pooyan

arcades:
1942 (my all time fave!), 1943, Flying shark, Operation Wolf, Amidar

arcades AND C64:
Hyper Sports, Green Beret, Buggy Boy, Scramble

Sometimes I didn't like the arcade version over the C64 version because it was too hard to play.

[LaundroMat]

I can't look for it right now, but the name "Pole Position" makes me think of the arcade game 7-zark-7 and myself so fondly remember... Could it be that?

[Bobbin]

Pong, i'm not kidding here!

[7-Zark-7]

@LaundroMat. No luck with Pole Position, it was a 3rd person 3D racer,not top down. Not that I've come any closer to recalling the name either!!
Wish someone else could think of the name!! I would guess somewhere in that 1980-82 time range would be close to the year. It was in colour after all.

Sorry any confusion folks! What I mean to say is Pole Position is a 3rd person racing game. The one Laundromat & I seem to agree on was a top down view racing game (ie: Spyhunter, LED Storm etc.),where you were in a cabinet.

[Drake1009]

Old 3rd person not top down racer sounds like pole position. I think Outrun is fairly old as well isn't it?

[LaundroMat]

No it wasn't 3rd person, only overhead view, and very basic in gfx and such... Outrun was a lot later than that game btw.

Could it be Grand Champion (http://www.mame.dk/gameinfo/grchamp/) ? I'm not completely sure, but it sure resembles it. And it's the only one I found on mame.dk that resembles it anyway.

Edit: This comment makes me think it actaully is the game!
- If you drive in tunnels, all graphics get lost except for yourself (the car you're controlling). = > The tiny bit of visibility in tunnels (with everything else blackened) is implemented as was described to me by a player that has actually played the game. If someone has access to a working PCB to make comparisons (especially for collisions!), I'd be happy to make fixes to this driver, but speculation isn't very useful. Stroff

[blackcornflake]

Great thread. :)

Thinking back to try to remember the game has brought back some superb memories about many classic games.

I think Space Invaders was the one that got me interested, same as Fred. The sounds, the visuals, all so new and exciting. For a nipper of about 4 years old, it was pretty impressive.

[Antiriad]

Hey Djay? Do you remember the old cafe opposite the casino on the corner of the main road from the Station to the seafront in Brighton that had Space Invaders for yeeeeeeeeeears?

[Miggy2TheMax]

Arcades:

Space Invaders (Galaga) -- This arcade machine was the kewlest, it had some serious speakers in it as it was the loudest in the arcade, really suckered me in, and got me onto computer games in general... great stuff!!

Double Drgon -- another classic fun game.. whoooo spent some hours there.

Cabal -- I think its called that. Its was an army style shoot anything that moves :D

Amiga:

where do I start, to be honest I couldn't identify just one game that I spent days playing... there are plent of them :) .. lemmings,final fight, super cars, street rod 1 + 2, stunt car racer,wings, civilization..... the list goes on and on... those were certainly the good old days!!!


This is a great thread.

[Codetapper]

Loco by Tony Crowther (Alligata Software) on the C64

I still have the original tape in mint condition! Maybe one reason my brothers and I played it so much was that it took 30 mins to load (the tape counter went up to 300!) so when it did load there was no way I would turn it off in a hurry! :)

[Shatterhand]

Space Invaders (Galaga) -- This arcade machine was the kewlest, it had some serious speakers in it as it was the loudest in the arcade, really suckered me in, and got me onto computer games in general... great stuff!!

Space Invaders or Galaga? They are different games. Space Invaders is from Taito and Galaga from Namco.

Galaga is newer too :D

[Miggy2TheMax]

Originally posted by Shatterhand


Space Invaders or Galaga? They are different games. Space Invaders is from Taito and Galaga from Namco.

Galaga is newer too :D

Arg.. you caught me out, my memory is bad :)
I think it was Deluxe Galaga. It had very fancy graphics compared to the original space invaders. I wonder if anyone has a screen shot of it.

[Shatterhand]

Deluxe Galaga is available ONLY for the amiga, AFAIK :D :D it's a fanmade souped-up version of Galaga.



here's a pic of Galaga

[Shatterhand]

And here's a pic of the Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders

The arcade version had smaller sprites, and it was usually in B/W (athoulgh there were some colors versions of it)

I have the original version , but I can't be arsed to fire-up an arcade emulator now, as they are heavier in the system resources than the Atari 2600 one (And I already had that pic of Galaga :D)

[Shatterhand]

Originally posted by Codetapper
Loco by Tony Crowther (Alligata Software) on the C64

I still have the original tape in mint condition! Maybe one reason my brothers and I played it so much was that it took 30 mins to load (the tape counter went up to 300!) so when it did load there was no way I would turn it off in a hurry! :)

Actually, if you consider that each counter unit is 1 second, and 1 minute = 60 seconds, you will soon discover that the game would take 5 minutes to load, as 300/60 = 5

Cody is the english teacher

You can call me the Math teacher

:D

[Drake1009]

I really don't think it takes a math teacher to say that 300 divided by 60 makes for long waiting time. Ahh the good old days sitting around listening to the Ocean loader theme on ocean games. I remember the tape version of Ghost busters where you had a game you could play while it was loading. Never saw that on any other system, probably because the load time was too short but still...

[mtb]

Mine was Battlezone on the 2600.

[thinlega]

for me it has to be the Electron versions of:

Citadel and the Quality game that is Ravenskull

[Shatterhand]

Originally posted by Drake1009
I really don't think it takes a math teacher to say that 300 divided by 60 makes for long waiting time. Ahh the good old days sitting around listening to the Ocean loader theme on ocean games. I remember the tape version of Ghost busters where you had a game you could play while it was loading. Never saw that on any other system, probably because the load time was too short but still...

Loading tapes on my MSX was VERY boring. There was nothing of those stuff, usually the loading screen would be removed to make loading faster, so all I looked was at the basic screen loading the game.

Good thing we quickly bought a disk-drive :D

[Traquer]

For me it must have been 'Psssst!' on the ZX Spectrum, the only game i could play well when i was little, later i found my brother had Treasure Island Dizzy for the spectrum aswell, i think that is what got me really hooked, especially as i got it on the Amiga aswell!

[Titler]

Arcade Choplifter was the game which got me hooked; I used to walk two miles across muddy fields, braving mad cows and the farmers sons, every weekend to the nearest arcade to shovel my spending money into this one... I still play it via MAME to this day.

[Mr Softy]

Has to be Pirates! I guess. It was not the first game I played, but it was the first video game addiction I suffered.

[bippym]

What got me hooked on gaming?

I would have to say I had an atari 2600, but I can't remember alot about it, the game which actually snared me was Repton on the BBC/Acorn Electron :)

I played it for hours, and hours.. and will occasionally load it up now :)

[thinlega]

Originally posted by bippym
What got me hooked on gaming?

I would have to say I had an atari 2600, but I can't remember alot about it, the game which actually snared me was Repton on the BBC/Acorn Electron :)

I played it for hours, and hours.. and will occasionally load it up now :)

Repton I agree with you bippy!!! it also help "snare" me!

I only wish I had orded the cuddly toy repton and a repton t-shirt:sad