I know we have a few gamers out there, many of whom are half my age, so I'm interested to see where your journeys into gaming started. So having got that out of the way, I'll kick things off!
Another Vic In The Wall....
.... was the first game I ever bought for my VIC-20 back in either '82 or '83. It was a 'breakout' type game where you batted a ball against a wall, progressing through various levels. The gameplay was relatively smooth and I did enjoy playing it when it finally loaded!
Watch out for those acute angles!
It was of course on cassette as were nearly all games and home computer software back then. It was always a long and fraught wait for the download to load the game into the computer's memory (there were no built-in hard-drives back then). Any slight interference or even jolt of the player and the loading would fail and you'd have to start it again!
The game cost £7.99 and I bought it from Boots. That's right, mighty Boots the chemist sold computers and games back then, usually situated in a corner next to the albums and cassettes. You didn't know they sold records either?
The original Commodore Datasette. Like a brick. They later brought out a more streamlined and lighter model upon release of the C-64
The game was by Bug-Byte who were based in Liverpool, as were many software houses at the time. Many games were created by one-man bands. No teams of programmers, digital artists, sound engineers and project managers back then! Some of them had a sort of following. Eugene Evans started at Bug-Byte before moving on to form Imagine games. Another famous Programmer of the time was the incredible mighty Yak aka Jeff Minter and Llamasoft. His game titles included, 'Revenge of the Mutant Camels' and 'Sheep in Space' amongst many famous titles released throughout the '80s. Take drugs kids, you'll write great games!
Talking of cassettes, this game was on cassette as were nearly all games and home computer software back then. This had one big advantage. You could quite easily copy them and even better, take the game back to Boots and claim they were faulty and then exchange it for another game. I managed to get away with this ruse for about 4 or 5 months until the retail outlets cottoned on and began only exchanging them for the same title!
Copying the tapes in the early days was easy. It simply required a double cassette player if you were posh, or a little easily made PCB and a loan of your mate's Datasette if you weren't! I think I knocked about 20 copies of this out at a couple of quid a pop. The blank C15 data cassettes came from WH Smith in a pack of 10. No idea what, if any the difference was between a standard audio cassette and a data cassette except perhaps the price.
Notice the real screws. Useful for taking the tape apart and trying to rewind it if it got screwed around your tape heads!
Fifteen-minute C15s were more expensive than a standard audio C60! I also went on to making and selling the PCBs but it was messy work for little profit. Etching chemicals were pricey.
The pin-outs were simple. You had +5v and gnd before the cutout and then motor, read, write and switch sensor.
Following this, I managed to create a doubler where I could attach two regular cheaper cassette decks up which weren't actually cheaper after I'd trashed my brothers whilst experimenting!
To be honest though, even back then I wasn't a big gaming fan. The VIC-20 wasn't my first computer. I'd also go a ZX80 and ZX81 plus an Acorn kit that someone gave that I'd never actually managed to get working. The game was more for fun and for me to see what the Vic could do rather than play. I still much-preferred arcade games, in particular, Williams' Defender and there was no way that was going have a decent home computer clone and in my opinion, there has never been a decent version other than the original cabinet coin-op game.
I guess another great idea for a post would be peoples top 10 games! That would be difficult for me as there probably aren't ten games I've really liked or played hard in my lifetime or maybe there would be. I would have to give it some thought.
Anyway. The game itself is obviously very simple but it did hold my attention but as with so many hames back then, the levels didn't particularly get more difficult, they got faster and faster until which point it was impossible to keep up and so one tended to lose interest.
There was actually another reason I made the jump from the Z80 based Sinclairs to the 6502 based Commodores and that was because of the ports which apart from the expansion port, were easy to create stuff to plug into and easy to program. Many electronic hobby magazines of the day carried projects that were easy to make and program using both BASIC and Assembly but more of that another day!
Post a link to your first game post in comments, please. Share it if you want, get it out there on twitter if you want, if you don't then don't. It won't make any difference as I don't have $30 upvotes to dole out lol....
I will, however, send someone 10HBI shares to the post I like the most.
I think my first game was some crappy Pacman for my BBC Micro. I cannot even remember who made it. That was also on cassette. Someone started a computer club in my home town of Bedford. It started with good intentions and people would bring along all sorts of machines to show off, but it degenerated into a copying club. Basically an IRL version of the BBSs @slobberchops writes about.
I used to hang around in Boots, Tandy or WH Smiths to see what computers and games they had. I think we could play them sometimes. There was an independent shop selling the Video Genie which was a clone of the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80. My Beeb came from another shop that sold electronic components. I really had to save up for it.
Those were fun times.
I was a member of Wakefield Computer Club and that was exactly the same lol....very quickly turned into a night of swapping and copying games!!
Video Genie, I'd forgotten all about that until you mentioned it and you're right, it was supposed to be a TRS80 clone, talking of which, don't you miss the Tandy catalogues....I could have ..and did spend a fortune in there. Luckily, later on, my brother worked in a branch and you wouldn't believe the amount of 'faulty' kit that he bought very, very cheaply lol ;-)
I was jealous of a friend who worked in Tandy. They were the Maplins of their time. I guess ebay has replaced a lot of that business. I just bought some components there.
They all became copying clubs, it was much more fun then!
It is a little sad as copying does impact on the software business and I have worked in that a lot, but not consumer stuff. Same thing happened with music, which was even easier to copy. A friend ripped off loads of Amiga software, but I don't know if he played all the games. I bought a fair few games on Beeb, Amiga and PC.
I absolutely agree, but for me, it was the thrill of making the copy. I wasn't really into games, especially when they brought out those tricky loaders that flashed coloured screens as they loaded such as the US Gold games. Took some cracking!
I know some floppies could take ages to copy bit by bit. I was never into the cracking, but you have to admire the skills. I hope some of those people got decent development jobs.
lol nice :)
You must be about my age, maybe a year or two older. I played another version of this one quite early on call Arkanoid on the Spectrum.
Snazzy colours and opening music I think you will agree!
Jet Set Willy was one of the first games I remember, annoying as f it was too!
It would take me all day to come up with a top 10, and I still would probably not be happy with it. Good times!
Sadly, as I'm a week off my 54th birthday, I'd suggest I have 10 years plus on you! Jet Set Willy was THE Spectrum game which also appeared on the 64 later but it wasn't my cup of tea. Manic Miner wasmy game of choice around that time I think.
The thing about Speccy games was that they were always a lot more Psychedelic than our 64 ones!!
Blimey, were there no games on the green screen Amstrad's then? :)
Jet Set was very frustrating and I never completed it. Almost mentioned Manic Miner but there are so many. Loved the Dizzy games, but really got into playing when we upgraded to an Amiga. Some super addictive stuff on my fave games machine.
The power of Magenta!
Great trip down memory lane! Eugene and the boys all got fancy cars.. and started bragging about em. It didn't last, but Bug Byte did some good titles.
I had a right old row about bringing back software at Boots in Burnley. They exchanged it in the end but I daren't try it again.
Ohhhh my god, I remember that now!! Pictures in 'Your Computer'. He was certainly the poster boy of the day but they were soon, unsurprisingly bust. Imagine did raise the whole gaming industry up a level. Wacky Waiters for the Vic!
Then
and now...
https://medium.com/@eugenee
Still about and as geeky as ever! Imagine.. they were awesome.., swish covers and good games as well. I'm gonna have to write something about this.. if I haven't already covered it in the Piracy Chronicles!
Do it!! Yess, their cassette sleeves really caught the eye!!
This is the first one I remember, pre home computer I think, or we couldn't afford one.
The first computer I had was a Texas TI99 4A - the game I was a bit obsessed with was Munch Man, they're version of that other branded game!
That clip took me right back, the anxiety the faster higher levels used to induce!
I had that first one! Except here in the U.S. it was called "Fire Away" (at least mine was). I believe it was sold by Radio Shack.
Oh that's interesting!
I don't even remember what it was called, not even having found it again online!
I just typed in 'yellow space invaders game, 1980s'.
I do remember playing it A LOT when I was a kid though.
Radio Shack in the UK was called Tandy and it was simply an Aladins cave for teenage geeks lol...
This was my plug into the TV one!! But in a house with only one black and white TV, it caused friction hahaha
TI99 4a, a very sexy looking computer...never hand one but loved the design.
That looks cool. I love the idea of a box you programme with just games.
one of my friends had Amiga and i remember playing football and some kind of multiplayer medieval (or maybe Vikings or something like that) game. I think you could chose from 3 characters.
Found it, it was Golden Axe
And now while i was looking for it i found this: ikari warriors
My other friend had a Schneider computer and we played some games on black and white tv so i would not even know how they should look if i knew how to find them. it was all on cassettes with all the problems that cassettes and computers had :D
When i got my first PC, my first game was Heroes of Might and Magic II, and one of my favorite from that period was
Fun fact: first "pirating" in our country was on the national (not main but national and still working) radio station. they had a show where they would play a cassette with game or a program for an hour, and you could record it at home :D
Obviously and happy the baby of this group of upper-middle aged men hahaha!!
THIS is the best thing I've read all week lol.....brilliant!!!
Heroes of Might and Magic was probably the first PC game I played back in the '90s, but I had no patience to keep playing and improve but it was literally a game changer when it released.
https://www.facebook.com/nathen.cuthbert.3/posts/623436765052452
The first computer game I purchased was
Had to Google this one!! Very early EA.....WOW, how did I miss this? Came out in 86 on the 64....would have made up for us Commodore boys not having Acornsoft's Elite!!
Looks like it Emulator time.....I might be a while ;-)
@slobberchops , did you play this?
In '86 I was mass ripping off C64 and so probably had it. It was all about collecting and hoarding for a while, so it probably passed me by.
Hehe, need to squeeze my brain a bit. I had as well a ZX Spectrum with this horrible datasette. At least at my first own computer in 84.