This is a great thread, really enjoyed reading all of the stories here. [up]
Can barely remember my first gaming experience to be honest, I can clearly remember the first computer I ever used though! It was a Linotype Apple II at my father’s work. I went in one evening with my older brother to help set them all up, they weighed a tonne as they had the keyboard, computer and CRT screen all built into one unit but we managed to get one of them running after hours of messing about. It sounds so silly looking back but I remember being absolutely blown away by typing and seeing characters appear on a screen! Computers were as rare as rocking horse dung at the time and that was the first I’d seen with my own eyes and actually used!
The first computer I remember gaming on was the venerable ZX spectrum (I had a 48k speccy), me and my brothers used to buy the games from the local post office shop for 70p then leg it home to start playing. I was obsessed with Skool Daze, Contact Sam Cruise and Bubble Bobble! When my brother used to annoy me I used to tweak the tape speed on the tape recorder you used to load games in on the spectrum so he wasn’t able to load anything, I was the only one who knew how to fix it hehe. Still have the Spectrum sat in its original box in the spare room, might have to dust it off and fire it up again soon.
The next big moment in gaming for me was playing SimCity on an original Apple Macintosh! I became instantly hooked on that, I used to beg my Dad to bring the Mac home from his work at the weekend so I could play it. My best mate Paul used to turn up on the doorstep as soon as he got the all clear over the phone that we had the Mac for the weekend haha. It was the game that ignited my passion for simulation sandbox games for sure and with each release of the game it only got better and better! Seeing SimCity 2000 for the first time in all of its isometric glory was a sight to behold.
Then along came Theme Park. I’d say this was the most important game in my personal gaming journey, the game without which I wouldn’t be here today typing this post up. I was completely in love with this when it first came out. I tried it first on a demo disk and then had to think up ways to get the full game into my grubby little mitts as quickly as possible! Looking back at Theme Park it looks so basic and graphically awful, but it was a truly great game in every sense. It had the typical Bullfrog comedy that I both love and miss dearly and that excitement of creating something magical within the game. When Rollercoaster Tycoon came out a few years later it’s fair to say that it blew Theme Park out of the water, it felt like everything you dreamed Theme Park could be, but better! I remember wondering how it would even be possible for games to look better than Rollercoaster Tycoon but it was around this period that computer technology started moving at an incredible pace. I feel privileged to have grown up during this period and witnessed the evolution of modern computing. Although I’m clearly biased, computing just doesn’t seem as exciting anymore. My own children have grown up with computers all around them to the point they’re taken for granted. They’ve never experienced the horror of R Tape loading error or the annoyance of your prized 5.25” floppy containing your SimCity saves being chewed by the dog and they’ll never experience seeing a game in colour for the first time after years of green and amber screens [haha]
Sorry if that was a bit long winded, lost myself in a trip down memory lane writing that! Anyway, look forward to hearing more stories, keep them coming! [yesnod]
I liked the first version better.
