Thread: What did you play in the 70s and 80s before MMos and all those computer games?

What did you play in the 70s and 80s before MMos and all those computer games?

I played Car Wars, Battletech, Traveler, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Ogre, and insane amount of Dungeons and Dragons and Starfleet Battles.

*chuckles*

I didn't get my own computer before sometime in the 90's.

I did in late 80s play on my dad's computer. What I recall is SimFarm, Terror from the Deep (that might be early 90s), Popcorn (some French game), and I tried to code my own little "role-playing" game in Basic!

Other than that, it was family time and board games. Monopoly, Ludo, Fuldrigger (A Danish game where you had ships and had to trade all over the world), Marco Polo, and more I can't recall now. Of course, cards and dice were on the family tables as well.

I kinda miss those times when the family got together to play games and socialize. I wonder if the young generation will take that up with their kids, of if it'll all be MMOs and other multi-player games, each at their own computer/console, playing together.

Atari 2600 games since 1977 or so (at my aunt's place, my mother didn't have money to buy one) or so. In 1985 I bought my 1st PC (Atari 800XL) and ever since going bigger & faster. Since 1989 I got a modem and started playing TradeWars 2000 on BBS's and since 1992 I'm on the net. But it took me till 2005 before I started playing MMO's (Lineage II)

Video games I played (in no order at all): The Bard's Tale, The Great Giana Sisters, Archon, Popolous, Diablo I & II, Sacred, Neverwinter Nights, Eye of the Beholder, Karateka... uhh and some (speak like "a lot") more

I still play pen and paper "Dungeons & Dragons" weekly, though *G*

You mean before Pong ['70s], before Atari 2600 and Space Invaders [late '70s], before Intellivision [early '80s], before Commodore 64 [mid '80s], before NES [late '80s]? [I owned all of the previous items (and them some)]

I really can't remember... [getting too old]

I collected baseball cards. I created my own "board" games -- usually sports games. Played poker (7-card Stud, before Texas Hold Em was popular) with my HS buddies in the garage on Saturday nights.

I do remember in elementary school reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series and imagining being able to play a game like LOTRO.

Edit: I remember playing Axis & Allies!! Fun game.

Far more D&D than I want to think of
Ogre
Traveller
Mech Warrior & Battle Tech

& all those fledgling computer games that were coming out in the late '80s & early '90s, like the early Might & Magik, early Ultima, the original Sid Maier's Pirates, X:Com UFO Defense, & so forth. My first PC was an Atari 520ST .........

AD&D. I was the dungeon master.
My first computer was a Ti99/4A lol

Playing AD&D at that time on the south coast meant I got to meet the people that invented most of those games

In the '80s, it was GURPS on Thursdays, D&D on Sundays, with the occasional Avalon Hill style board game (Civilization (nothing to do with Sid Meiers), Diplomacy, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, a few others). Plus a huge mess of old-school video games, including Populous, the original SimCity, the Leisure Suit Larry series, Keef the Thief, and lord knows what else. Basically, anything I could find in the bargain bin that could run on an 8088.

In the '70s, I played Outside, which at the time was the ultimate interactive entertainment experience.

Originally Posted by Bauglin

In the '70s, I played Outside, which at the time was the ultimate interactive entertainment experience.

Heh, yeah this.
The graphics were awesome back in the day. Much less gray and more vibrant colors than nowadays. Though that may be the nostalgia filter.

But that didn´t last long throughout the 80ies. Especially when you´re one of the first "geeks" even before geeks were invented. Rocking on some rad 8bit processor machine.

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

What did you play in the 70s and 80s before MMos and all those computer games?

I played Car Wars, Battletech, Traveler, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Ogre, and insane amount of Dungeons and Dragons and Starfleet Battles.

Just going to say all of those and add a few forgotten ones. Star Frontiers. GURPS. Twilight 200.

I love the fact that you even KNOW what Car Wars is!!! Such a ridiculously fun game back then.

Played a ton of fantasy board games and war games too.

Befor games had computer graphics I liked that thing called real life. Its not so up to date anymore nowadays. But back in the times it was the stuff everyone was talking about.

You reveal a lot of yourself N. I appreciate that. But if I would try to descricbe the dangers of MMOs and Virtual Worlds to my son, I would describe a person like you N. If decades of ones live is dedecated to playing games. You had to have sacrificed something in real life.

Or even worse. Maybe you never where in a position in real life that enabled you to develop own dreams and wishes that are worth to work for in reality. Instead of putting everything in becoming the ruler of worlds that never existed.

I was playing the game of non-existence. Don't know if it was fun or not, can't quite remember...

Leisure Suit Larry!!!!!

Pinball? I wasn't really alive.....

I was in Junior High and we would hang out at a friend's house on weekends and play lots of games. DnD mostly. We also played some Gamma World. We played lots of Risk and I remember a few games of Diplomacy. DnD was my favorite. I have always thought Gamma World would make a very good MMO.

I wasn't alive yet in the 70's. :P

In the 80's, since I was an only child, my mom turned our house into the neighborhood playground so I can learn to interact with other children (I was really introvert). We played house in big (to us kids) tents, Play-doh play sets like Snack Shop (ate too much clay burgers and fries), wagons and pedal cars for the boys, lots of board games like Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly, and decapitated lots of Barbie Dolls and GI Joes. We also played traditional games like local versions of hide and seek, hopscotch, Chinese garter, etc. - usually under the moonlight. (It was traditional to play the local version of hopscotch under a full moon).

It was only in the 90's when we first started to play console games with titles like Super Mario, Pacman, Contra, Top Gun, Mappy, etc. They didn't hold our interest for long though, and we were soon back to playing traditional games, trying to learn how to use rollerblades, and trading Polly Pockets and perfumed stationeries in school behind our teachers' backs.

I was already in college when I first played my PC game, The Sims. Some classmates introduced me to games like Unreal Tournament, Diablo, Counter Strike and Starcraft but I didn't like them and continued to play Sims and/or Sims 2 during my limited play time. I started to play MMOs when I was already working. XD

I was playing classics on the ZX Spectrum such as Jet Set Willy, Manic Miner, anything by Ulimate software and of course The Hobbit ( which I actually finished recently nearly 30 years later after cheating with a walkthrough ) http://www.twinbee.org/hob/play.php?snap=hobbit

DnD/ADnD, BattleTech, Gurps, Risk, Magic, Both the Star Wars & Star Trek CCGs, then when I finally got a computer, it was Myst, Doom, Descent and ROTT. & Way to much time on Chips Challenge and the combined Seirra games.

Guitar.

Soldering iron.

Model railroad.

Dumb.

Some of you mentioned Gurps. I loved that game. Generic Universal Role Playing. What was awesome about that was that the rules fit any time period.

Anyone play Starfleet Battles, Car Wars or Ogre?

Originally Posted by michikoh

, and decapitated lots of barbie dolls and gi joes.

lmao rofl!!!!

I would go down to the local arcade and pump quarters into Centipede, Frogger, and Asteroids.

I was so thrilled when I got my first computer (an Apple 2c) ... despite the initial investment, I didn't have to fill it with quarters.

Anyone remember Zork?

Originally Posted by Michikoh

decapitated lots of Barbie Dolls and GI Joes

I used to bury Barbie up to the neck in the sandbox and hurl firecrackers at her.

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

What did you play in the 70s and 80s before MMos and all those computer games?

I played Car Wars, Battletech, Traveler, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Ogre, and insane amount of Dungeons and Dragons and Starfleet Battles.

My step dad taught me how to create my own levels on Lode Runner when I was 4. I played that and Karateka on our old Apple IIS and then later got into all of the Carmen San Diego games.

Originally Posted by YellowBird

I would go down to the local arcade and pump quarters into Centipede

That was probably my first gaming experience as a child. My father owned a tree service company. Sometimes he would do a job at a friend's house and he would bring me along to let me play with their kids. Well, this one time he brought me over to this friend's house and they actually had a Centipede arcade in their house. Over twenty years later I still have a fond place in my heart for that game.

Originally Posted by YellowBird

I would go down to the local arcade and pump quarters into Centipede, Frogger, and Asteroids.

I was so thrilled when I got my first computer (an Apple 2c) ... despite the initial investment, I didn't have to fill it with quarters.

Anyone remember Zork?

You have entered a dark place. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

I also fed many an arcade game with quarters. Those were among the first of the games I played as a youth, other than outdoor activities.

One of my favorite outdoor games was to make labyrinths out of sand and dirt at the local playground, go into the bushes and capture live tree frogs, and put them in the mazes and see how long it took them to escape, assuming they could escape from Alcatraz! Muwahahahahaha!

My unkle and I played a game at night where we hid from cars driving by. It was alot more fun than it sounds just describing it that way. We used our imagination and pretended that we were in a science fiction adventure. The desert bushes such as sage and creosote bushes were our planetary base, and the cars were aliens we called "Scarabs." When one turned down the road toward us, it was "Yellow alert." That progressed to "Orange" and finally "Red Alert" when it was passing us by, meanwhile, we were hiding from its "eyes" or headlights. "Condition Green," was no traffic at all out in the California High Desert. A nearby train was even more dangerous and we hid from that if and when it passed us by.

As my spending on video games reached a new crescendo, my father bought me my first game console, the Atari 2600. Later I got my first computer, a VIC-20. I taught myself BASIC on that machine, and even programmed my own games on it that I invented myself.

Later, at my unkle's house, I'd play on his Amiga, games such as: Baulderdash, Carrier Command, Stunt Car Racer, Starflight, Starflight 2, Star Control, Firepower, Armourgeddon, Sidewinder, Sidewinder 2, Faery Tale Adventure, Sim City, Moria, Nuclear War, North South, Star Glider 2, Utopia and many many more I cannot recall off hand.

I also played with an Apple IIe at school, games like Ultima 3, 4, and also a Tandy at Radio Shack that was playing Dungeons of Daggorath. So many memories of old skool games I have.

Eventually when I got an IBM pc to play on, I bought the game "Red Storm Rising." Later when I bought my own 386, I played Descent on gaming network Kali. Later I bought better faster computers and played nearly every game that you can imagine, including Starcraft, Mechwarrior, Sim City (every version) and so on.

I also played pen and paper roleplaying games. My first was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Later I played the G.U.R.P.S. Generic Universal Role Playing System. Rifts was dabbled in, as was Dungeons and Dragons, briefly.

I made up some games along the way as well. I am always making new games.

Well I wasn't alive in the 70s, but my husband was, and he showed me a screenshot the other day of Moria (at least I think that's what it was called - ASCII style graphics?) I genuinely have no idea how anyone ever played it! But then having said that, any of the games I thought were brilliant when I was little I look at now with completely different eyes, so...

Originally Posted by YellowBird

I used to bury Barbie up to the neck in the sandbox and hurl firecrackers at her.

I used to throw firecrackers at those green army men that every little boy in the 70s had.

I did play my computer games on the Commodore Vic-20. When I got an IBM, I played the Sierra games (HQ/KQ/SQ), Infocom games, Bard's Tale and Ultima games.

But, I was a pretty active kid and played a lot of soccer, skateboarding, boogie-boarding, and BMX bike riding (crashed a lot, but tried). So, I wasn't the typical sedentary video game kid when I was younger. :=)

Originally Posted by YellowBird

I used to bury Barbie up to the neck in the sandbox and hurl firecrackers at her.

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

I used to throw firecrackers at those green army men that every little boy in the 70s had.

That's awesome! Aside from normal decapitation and stabbing them with scissors, I remember us roasting Barbie's hair then face on a candle flame. The faces would all be burnt and we'll then imagine that they're zombies or Two-face or something. :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUnwFHplBg4
I think we also did this to our dolls...

Originally Posted by Ayrolen

...and then later got into all of the Carmen San Diego games.

Did you ever find her? I don't think I ever did. She was a sneaky b****.

I played a lot of the Fighting Fantasy novels. Thankyou, Steve Jackson. Single player p&p FTW!

Read through all of the responses. Can't believe I am the only one who played Iron Crown Enterprises: MERP (Middle-Earth Role Playing). Still play it to this day every Sunday with a few friends.

Other games that have sucked a little bit of my soul away that weren't video games:

D&D I, II, III and III.V

Vampire the Masquerade

Mage the Ascension

World War II game my friends and I designed. Used a 12'x16' homemade board of the world from plywood, paint, splinters and blood. Took about 25 axis and allies board games to compile all the pieces we needed.

I don't even want to think of all the consoles and games I've played over the years.... man I'd be rich if I had all that money back.

My first game in the '70s was Zork. Then followed Pac-Man, Mario Bros., Sim City, and Castlevania.

Originally Posted by Turril

Read through all of the responses. Can't believe I am the only one who played Iron Crown Enterprises: MERP (Middle-Earth Role Playing). Still play it to this day every Sunday with a few friends.

Other games that have sucked a little bit of my soul away that weren't video games:

D&D I, II, III and III.V

Vampire the Masquerade

Mage the Ascension

World War II game my friends and I designed. Used a 12'x16' homemade board of the world from plywood, paint, splinters and blood. Took about 25 axis and allies board games to compile all the pieces we needed.

I don't even want to think of all the consoles and games I've played over the years.... man I'd be rich if I had all that money back.

We played MERP and had almost every source book. The crit chart in that game was hillarious.

Now, we've converted to M.U.R.P.S. It's GURPS in ME. Actually quite a good system for the low magic setting of Arda. Make Gandalf a 500 character and no mortal can even hit him.

In the 80s: My brother and I used to play video games on our Commodore Vic-20, and later the Commodore 64. I remember some of our favorites were the Olympic games (summer and winter), Jungle Hunt, and Pitfall.


Check out those graphics, lol

We eventually got a Nintendo with Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. I spent a lot of time with the gun 1 inch from the screen.

In the 90s: I remember playing Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis, but my great love was for Sim City on the computer. I remember my step-mom yelling at me for how much time I spent on that game.

After that, I really got into The Sims for awhile. Oh yes, I can't forget my love affair with Dragon Quest VIII several years ago.

Game-wise as a kid I played Atari and whatever was big in the arcades at the time. The old handheld electronic games where you moved blips around on the screen and it was supposed to be football or baseball. :D




"Unplugged" games were still big when I was young. Boardgames like Sorry, Life, Monopoly and the like were played frequently. Let's not forget about Rubik's Cube. :)

Honorable mention goes to Evel Knievel and his motorcycle crank thingy:



Baseball (and wiffleball) and football probably occupied most of my time outside but we also played games like tag variations, hide/seek, capture the flag, etc. as well as just wandering in the woods looking for "adventures." :)

Honestly, probably not that much different than today I guess.

Pong and all the atari stuff. Then games like King's Quest, Wizardry, Zork (and many infocom text games), Bard's Tale, Myst, etc.

I fondly remember a game called Phantasie where I created a group of characters that I enjoyed, till my favorite character aged and became useless. So annoying, lol.

Originally Posted by Jeffor

Game-wise as a kid I played Atari and whatever was big in the arcades at the time. The old handheld electronic games where you moved blips around on the screen and it was supposed to be football or baseball.

Gave you rep for this flashback! Had the baseball one also.

I was pretty fortunate to have a dad who loved gadgets and games, but never played them. Always bought them for us kids.

Originally Posted by NothingToSay

Gave you rep for this flashback! Had the baseball one also.

I was pretty fortunate to have a dad who loved gadgets and games, but never played them. Always bought them for us kids.

I remember thinking those games were pretty sweet. It's like a calculator but fun!

I didn't. My first computer game was Crusaders of the Dark Savant, dated 1992 ... which we still have loaded onto our elderly 486 and which, I believe, still works.

My first MMO was Asheron's Call.

Mind you, in the 1970s and -80s I was raising kids and working for the University in order to have enough money to put them in daycare so they wouldn't drive me to suicide.