What got you into PCs and PC gaming? What year and why?

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jarablue

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I was always a gamer. I was born in 1975. Always was a geek. Loved DnD, Dragonlance, Fantasy. My first console was the Telstar Arcade. I played Atari 2600, Coleco Vision (always thought the controllers with the dial were high tech) then when the NES came out I became a Nintendo nut. I started playing on PC's in 1990 with Sierra games Kings Quest, Heroes Quest. I knew then I loved PC hardware. There were so many things to learn, different types of upgrades, VGA? What is that! I remember back in 1990 my buddy showed me how to connect to a BBS over a dialup modem and man...to me doing something like that was nuts. I was 15 and in awe. So between 1990 and 1993 I played with the Sega Genesis and dabbled in my friends pc. Then in 1993 I saw Jurassic Park on opening night and that changed me as a person.

You guys remember the scene where Newman is on his pc at his desk looking at steaming video footage of the guy on the dock talking on the phone telling him the boat was leaving? That scene made me realize everything I wanted to do. I went home that night and made sweet lovin to my girl. Needless to say that weekend she bought me my first own Tandy pc from Radio Shack. HAH! It was a 386 SX (no math coprocessor) that was the DX. 2mb of ram and I bought an extra 2mb for 64$ Had a 80mb hard drive. No cdrom, too much in 1993. I played a lot of the TSR silver box DnD games, Sierra games, all throughout the 90s. I remember getting my first cable modem in 1999 and that was jaw dropping. Going from dialup my whole life to 3mb road runner internet. My friend was sitting next to me in disbelief at how fast the pages were opening up.

Then after 2000 it was pretty much me being an adult and working in tech up until now. Living through all the new stuff and old. I was glad I was part of a generation that still went outside AND grew up throughout all the life cycles of the internet until now.

So thanks Steven Spielberg. JP was a great movie in a great time in tech, gaming and life in general.

How did you guys get started?

:)
 
I was seven or eight when we got our first computer. My mother used to work at IBM and she won a computer in some giveaway IBM was having for employees. I don't even remember the model of it. I know it had a dot matrix printer, a color screen, and only accepted 5.25" floppies. This would have been 92-93, right at the tail end of the transition away from 5.25" floppies so I remember having to be careful what games I bought because a lot of them didn't come with floppies that would work on my computer. I had to basically teach myself how to use DOS. I had a little help learning how to install games on the computer from one of my mother's co-workers but outside of that I had to figure everything out myself. That started me on the path to realizing how much I loved technology. I can still remember playing some Tom and Jerry game, Wheel of Fortune, Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, and especially Ninja Gaiden on that computer. I had various consoles at that time too so PCs and consoles have been something I've grown up playing on and learning about. My first really "modern" computer was in 99-2000. The place my mother was working at the time (IBM closed down the building she was working at when I was 11 and she didn't want to move to California to keep her job) was doing a deal through Dell where employees could buy a computer and payments would come off their paychecks. So my mother bought one of the most expensive computers they offered at the time. I wish I could remember all of specs it had, but it was a $1200 computer so it was decent for it's time. The big thing I remember about it was that it had a DVD drive. I also remember taking it apart not long after we got it because I wanted to find out how it worked. In middle school I had taken a computer class as an elective and the instructor taught us about building computers. This was during the time when desktop cases still dominated so I used that knowledge to take apart the Dell. That computer is truly the point where I fell in love with PC gaming and the point where it became my preferred platform for games.
 
1993, a friend lent me a word processor (typewriter like w/3 line digital screen). Hooked. 486-most recently x5690. I remember faxing my friend like texting today :)

First build 1997. Build to game but hardly gamed.

My most recent upgrade was coming off the x58 trail which I loved feeling a wee-bit special.
 
Probably from the time I was 4 or so, and so forth.. Dad bought a computer (8086) and i played a few games when i was young. Then consoles came along and that took precedence for a while, until I finally turned 16, got a job, and built a celeron 300. And here we are, almost 20 years later. Go figure.
 
King's Quest. I remember my parents purchasing the original IBM PC that came out, and they got it fully tricked out with the CGA monitor along with the printer, two 5 1/4 floppy disks, and 256 KB of RAM (this was before hard drives). I was upset at the time, because it was the Apple II and Commodore 64 which had all the games. Around 1984, my aunt buys my sister King's Quest, though I'm the one who actually plays it. Previously, the computer had Night Mission Pinball and a few BASIC games. My favorite was an ASCII Pac Man style game, but none of them really peaked my interest in a way that had me playing any of them for more than 4-5 minutes at a time. I probably put in 100+ hours though into King's Quest, which is a game that you can beat in about 15 minutes once you know what you're doing (probably faster on modern machines, but it took like 5 seconds between screen transitions). But I never got a perfect score on the game until like 5 years later, because of that stupid gnome's name. (The only clue you have to guess his name (ifnkovhgroghprm): Sometimes it is wise to think backwards.)

I loved the Sierra games. Honestly, I still like them, and can't really stand the Lucas Arts games nor the Point and Click genre. There's just something about the older games I can't explain, and I don't mean nostalgia. I like simple games that are short and require thinking over reflexes.
 
Gabriel Knight, King's Quest, Ultima series... those were my jams. I actually started out on a Commodore 128 playing lots of Bruce Lee and Flight Stimulator, but our Cumulus 386DX was the first machine I'd opened up and modified (more RAM, sound card if I recall).
 
Wing Commander is probably the first game I ever played on PC that really got me into it.

Never played properly, since I was a very young kid back then (I probably wasn't even in elementary yet).

No idea what the comp was.

But eventually, I stood firmly in the PC camp when I got deep into genres that only really exist or are playable in a PC environment, eg RTS.
 
My dad got me in to PC gaming when he got me a couple of PC games (Serious Sam and Real War).
At that time we had a Pentium 3 PC at home which we only used for internet access. Real War ran fine, but we had to get a graphic card for Serious Sam.

But once I gotten into those games, I was hooked on PC gaming and never look back.
 
First "PC" was a Mac Cnetris 610 something way back in the early 90s. I usually played Sim City 2000.

Then Doom came out and I started hogging my dad's PC when he wasn't on it and also tying up the modem as well.

Friend's dad is a kid at heart so of course he had installed on his personal Gateway2000, at work, during the weekend he would take us to his office where the resident IT guy set up a lan for my friend and I to play Doom deathmatch over the LAN.

Also, Dan, the IT guy would scour the internet for custom .WADs and maps for us too. I liked the ability of being able to create your own maps,etc. That's what got me into the PC gaming. Sure consoles are fun but can't compare to a LAN.
 
Dune
Dune 2
Command & Conquer

After that the fire was lit.
 
Starseige: tribes. Most epic mp game ever produced for pc. Learned how to build computers bc of that game
 
First computer was an Apple IIe that my parents bought. I know my Dad and I played some games on it, but the first I really remember was Castle Wolfenstein. We later got a PC of some kind and I played Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe on it pretty much any time I could. I also played some gold box SSI games. My first PC of my own was a Micron 386. Don't remember any more of it than that. I still have it. It runs.
 
jarablue said:
Tandy pc from Radio Shack. HAH! It was a 386 SX (no math coprocessor) that was the DX. 2mb of ram and I bought an extra 2mb for 64$ Had a 80mb hard drive. No cdrom, too much in 1993. I played a lot of the TSR silver box DnD games, Sierra games, all throughout the 90s. I remember getting my first cable modem in 1999 and that was jaw dropping. Going from dialup my whole life to 3mb road runner internet. My friend was sitting next to me in disbelief at how fast the pages were opening up.

Then after 2000 it was pretty much me being an adult and working in tech up until now. Living through all the new stuff and old. I was glad I was part of a generation that still went outside AND grew up throughout all the life cycles of the internet until now.
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this was exactly my experience too, although I'm a few years younger, born in 79. next was a 486 system that I shared with a buddy that lived with me in the mid 90s and in spring 97 my bro got a REAL pc from the wish foundation. it was a fully loaded custom built voodoo tower with a p2-233, 64mb, 4gb hdd, 4mb 2d + a voodoo1, 17" crt with a sweat 33.6 modem. it was supposedly worth almost $10K CAN! fall '98 I bought my first system, a k62 450, 5mb @home cable internet, found [H] and have been hooked since!!
 
1993, so I would be able to play games with more depth than platform games on consoles, which I see Steam selling by the bucket load for PC now too.
 
My first PC was a 286 back in 1992, my second year in College. I could dial up with my modem and connect to the College library and do research. And then I learned about the games. It was a DOS game I found one someone BBS bulletin.

Those were the days.
 
I was kind of late to the party being a young kid in the early 2000's. Always a console guy until I had a decent PC in 2000. Bought Medal of Honor AA and Spearhead. I was hooked to my first FPS for hundreds of hours.
 
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Started on a handed-down Atari 800. Had some great times playing Infocom text-based games along with Lode Runner, Archon, Miner 2049er, etc. Diablo on my Compaq PC, followed by classics like Half-Life, D2 and Deus Ex got me through college. (1997-2000). After a few years away from gaming, HL2 hooked me in 2004 and I've not looked back.
 
My friend installed a copy of Ultima 7 and Ultima Underworld on my first PC back in '96 I think and told me to play them.
 
We had a C64 when I was about 6. But I was only allowed to play once every two weeks for a few hours on Sunday afternoon. But what really got me hooked was when I first saw Test Drive III on the notebook of the businessman living next door. Of course we couldn't afford a PC at the time, let alone a notebook. But I did get a Floppy drive for the C64 so I could play Test Drive 1,2. They were much less impressive than 3, but it was a start. And finally in 1991 my parents got a decommissioned 286 from their workplace. So I could finally play the game, and the other game that got me hooked was Stunts.
 
1988 my dad bought a Tandy 1000 and I kinda took it over after I bought some Sierra games and was hooked. My friend had the C64 and we also played the crap out of that also.
 
Had super nintendo, honestly did not own a computer, went to a friends house in like 98-99 and his brother was playing Everquest on PC, looked so awesome that I taught myself how to build a PC and had one up and running and was playing EQ within 3 months or so. I was in 8th grade.
 
I've always love PC's ever since I was like 8 years old and my dads friend gave me an old 386 almost 25 years ago. I really got into PC's though when I was 13 when I built a custom PC for Ultima Online back in 1997. Ever since then I've had a custom PC.
 
Lots of the video gaming magazines back in the 80's also covered PC games. I remember buying them for the latest info on the NES and Genesis but being blown away by what the Amiga and Atari ST were putting out. It was years before I'd actually get a PC, but the seed was planted.
 
I don't remember the exact year, but it was Test Drive 2 on PC that really got me into gaming on the PC. I'd say my PC gaming "career" started in earnest with Microprose's F1GP in 1992. I was 8 years old and had been a huge F1 fan most of my life, so seeing a 3D simulation of the sport before my eyes that I could take a part in was a pivotal moment.
 
Don't remember the year either but 80s!? Toshiba T-1000/1200 ish laptop. First "PC" in the house! Dual 3 1/2 drives, CGA, etc. Recall playing Kings Quest on it! But really my 1st computer was a C64 playing Moon Patrol! So been into PCs for a LONG time because of gaming but obviously more since then! :D
 
Diablo 1. Pretty sure it altered my entire life :D

I remember reading the manual and the stories and lore front to back in like 6th grade.

Then later Half Life 1 and alllllll the untold mods I played.
 
X-wing vs Tie Fighter... circa 1995 or 96 on a Apple Macintosh Performa 640. Absolutely shitty computer. Bought a Gravis MouseStick joystick as it was one of the few joysticks I could find for a Mac. After that, Warcraft 1,2 that I got in a double pack. Played it on some shitty HP that had a Pentium 166mhz in it and god knows what else.

But the game that got me into building my own PC was Unreal Tournament '99. I played it at an internet/gaming cafe with a bunch of guys in 2000. I played horribly, but it triggered an urge to learn more.

I never bought another console after that. The only reason I have a PS3 is because some gave it to me free a few months ago.
 
I never had a console. I had ZX Spectrum before PC where I played a lot and then switched to PC.
 
I don't remember the year but I started with Oregon Trail, Alone in the Dark (not sure which one), & Myst. What turned me into an enthusiast was Mechwarrior 2.
 
Started with ZX81, then via C64 to Atari ST. Not much gaming beside flight simulators, GI Joe, Zaxxon and Syndicate.
The rest was programming like 3D stuff and sound (remember ADSR?).

Also first contact with modem, 9600/1200 with BBS and CompuServ. The Atari I used for a while also in my first job as environmental and started to love the M68000 CPUs.

Then moving to PC and some light server admin stuff (e.g. For SAP). Today not programming much anymore in job; only for private fun. Still not much gaming; and when it's on iDevices.
 
Wolf 3d, might have even been only Spear of Destiny in 93 because my stepdad got a coppy of the floppy from someone at work or something. The photocopy of the instruction manual was horrendous so I would have to restart the game until I got the question about how many eyelets were in the guys boot (8). Didnt get more into it until 2003 when I went to college and was exposed to Counter Strike, Diablo 2, and eventually Warcraft 3 custom games. Then I gained 60 pounds (y)
 
M76 said:
I highly doubt that sine XvT was released mid 1997. For windows only.
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You're right, thanks for the correction. That was 20 fucking years ago, and now I feel old. I have the games confused. I also did own XvT and I played it on that same shitty Pentium 166 and later a Pentium 233 somewhere around 1998 and 1999.

It was the first X-wing from 1993. It was released on Apple Mac. I loved that series so much. I had X-Wing for Mac, then XvT for windows and X-Wing Alliance for windows. I know I still have the discs sitting around for the Windows versions. I probably played X-Wing Alliance on a Dell Optiplex GX400 with a P4 and Geforce 2 around 2001, but I'm not sure.

Used one of these to fly it on that god for saken Mac Performa 640.

01.JPG
 
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CaptNumbNutz said:
You're right, thanks for the correction. That was 20 fucking years ago, and now I feel old. I have the games confused. I also did own XvT and I played it on that same shitty Pentium 166 and later a Pentium 233 somewhere around 1998 and 1999.

It was the first X-wing from 1993. It was released on Apple Mac. I loved that series so much. I had X-Wing for Mac, then XvT for windows and X-Wing Alliance for windows. I know I still have the discs sitting around for the Windows versions. I probably played X-Wing Alliance on a Dell Optiplex GX400 with a P4 and Geforce 2 around 2001, but I'm not sure.

Used one of these to fly it on that god for saken Mac Performa 640.
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LOL why would you call a joystick the "MouseStick"?

I've had a Gravis Analog PRO

$_1.JPG


While X-Wing was not what got me into gaming it was among the first games I played when I got a better PC finally with VGA graphics in 1994.

But I didn't get the gravis until about 1996.

I was so into x-wing and wing commander that a joy was a must have for me. But I also played car simualtors with the analog stick. It was much better than kb. Just looking at the picture makes me remember the feel of the stick as I was playing NFS4.

I switched to a programmable Firebird 2 later.

s-l300.jpg


And my last and final joystick with gameport was a Blackhawk digital It's the same stick as the FB but without the compatibility issues under windows. The firebird only worked properly in DOS.

41QPQFQ4K1L._SY355_.jpg


I used to play XWA with this. And I agree it's the best space simulator ever made.
 
M76 said:
LOL why would you call a joystick the "MouseStick"?
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Because, the "MouseStick" fixed what was one of the biggest problems of using a joystick on the Macintosh platform during that time period. An almost complete lack of joystick support both from the OS and the games themselves. Unlike the PC at the time which usually had a 15pin joystick port on many add-in cards or the 9pin serial port in some rare cases, the "Mousestick" actually plugged into the ADB serial mouse port on the Macintosh. It also had a pass-thru connector for your mouse.

The software emulated the mouse functions. So any game and/or flight sim that at least used the mouse and keyboard for functionality could be played using the stick. You could even navigate the OS using the stick. It's functionality was akin to an ancient version of Joy to Key.

After that ridiculousness, all I can say is thank fuck for USB and Windows HID devices.

I remember that after the Mousestick and the idiocy that was gaming on a Mac, I stepped up to an MS Sidewinder joystick on the PC. From there I went to a Logitech Force Feedback stick then have owned only Logitech 3D Pros since. I so desperately want a HOTAS setup, preferably something from Saitek or Thrustmaster.
 
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Played a bunch of apple IIGS shovelware back in the day. Would have to tip my hat to DOOM on my pentium I 66 MHz, however, as stealing my heart to PC gaming. Still, leaned heavily on consoles as the 'better' platform until PC networks and netcodes improved to the point where playing online was a good experience
 
A long long time ago my parents had either bought this PC or was a hand-me-down; but anyway, the first game I ever played on the PC was Wolfenstein 3D. I was so blown away, and so was my mom because the violence and blood she saw stopped that game right away. lol. However, I was very young when that came out. To be honest I never really gamed on PC regularly until I got my own computer when I was around 17. That was in 2004 the year Far Cry, Doom 3, and Half Life 2 came out. I was able to save up enough money to buy my own video card which was a Nvidia 6800GT. I bought it because that was right after they launched and the benchmarks started dropping for Doom 3 which showed that that was the card to get. Cost me about $550 at the time. But 2004 was the official year I became a PC gamer... before that it was all consoles. I still have all of today's consoles as well as a LOT of older ones and enjoy them but I also have a gaming PC which incidentally if VR hadn't released I would not have built.

I will say though that the game that initially really GOT me was Half Life. I remember going to a friend of my dad's house, and that guy's younger brother had a PC setup. He wanted to show me something and this was in 1998 when Half Life released and I was 12. From the tram ride in I was completely blown away and hooked. I would come back to his house to play it I believe a couple times. But yeah, I would say the pivotal games that hooked me were Wolfenstein 3D, Half Life, and then Doom 3/Far Cry/Half Life 2. It's hard to say in 2004, but holy shit that was an amazing year for PC gaming. Doom 3 was the primary motivating factor that year for me to buy a video card however which interestingly I installed into a HP desktop my parents had bought me so I didn't build the whole thing. Other than the Video Card I more than likely installed a new power supply into it but that I don't remember.

Ah memories...
 
1997 for Ultima Online I bought the game at Best Buy in store then I read you needed a online connection I was like DAMN!
So then I got it home and spent like 3 years playing that. After my 3 Dell machines were outdated I had my brother build a PC in like 2002 for Dark Age of Camelot
and Everquest 2 both Great Games. Then I didn't build a PC from like 2002-2011 due to the CFL lights in monitors. Then in 2011 I picked up led lcd monitor and that is the same ASUS monitor for the game Rift and Duke Nukem Forever.
I'm using as I type this and use a 24" 1440P Dell gaming monitor for gaming now just switched from a 27" to a 24" cause my eyes don't feel pulled.
 
1994 for X-Wing. I was 26 years old. The game released in 1993, and it took me a year to decide on jumping. (it was mostly understanding that X-Wing would never make it to a console platform like SNES or Sega Genesis) I spent a few fruitless years playing crappy console ports of PC games like Wing Commander, 688 Attack Sub, and Silent Service. X-Wing was just the tipping point.

My first gaming rig was a 486DX4 100Mhz 4MB RAM from Gateway 2000 running WFW 3.11.

But I've been gaming on the Atari 8-bit, C-64 and Apple II machines for twelve years before jumping to PC, so it wasn't exactly new.
 
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