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

Tunnels & Trolls
P&P RPG sorta like D&D lite.
Did it then, still doin' it now (but I have passed of the DM duties to my son...much more fun to play)

Originally Posted by Boraxxe

Tunnels & Trolls
P&P RPG sorta like D&D lite.
Did it then, still doin' it now (but I have passed of the DM duties to my son...much more fun to play)

I had forgotten about Tunnels and Trolls!

Standing in the Arcade for hours dropping quarters into Black Tiger, trying to beat the game and get the high score!

Ah 1987
They just don't make games like this anymore

this too!

haha i could never get past the afro samurai stage

I played Agent USA for the Atari 800xl a LOT as a kid


Then my dad got me an Atari 1040st and I played Dungeon Master. Still my favourite video game of all time

I started with D&D in 1978(?) followed by Traveler and some of the Steve Jackson games like Car Wars, Ogre and there was one that was Dune-"ish" (sci-fi setting with Houses similar to Dune). I also played a lot of Avalon Hill board games and I'm now teaching my 15 yr old how to play Panzerleader and Victory in the Pacific.

The first console was an Intellivision and we had the voice cartridge with "B-17 Bomber".

First computer was a TRS-80 and played the Star Track ASCII game. In 1982(?) I got an Apple IIe which I miss. Played Autoduel and Wizardry 1 & 2.

First "modern" PC was a 486.

I did play the MUD Medievia before EQ took out the MUDs. I played WOW for a couple of months but as a casual player, I never seemed to find a niche to play. I started LOTRO April 2011 and have really enjoyed it.

One of my neighbors and I still play D&D and we had a game night with about 15 people and had 3 tables set up for board games like Riddle of the Ring, Rail Baron, Quack in the Box etc. What was fun was that the lead developer of the instance finder was at that game night, and we were on opposite sides of the Riddle of the Ring. I was Merry and he was Black Rider #3. So those old games are still out there.

Brian

I watched all the star wars movies as much as could. I did more hiking and fishing than I do now.
First games that hooked me were The Legend of Zelda and then later Final Fantasy.

I played the old west end Star Wars RPG with six sided dice and I miss playing it. It was a blast to go camping, sit around the fire, play that game, play guitar and drink beer all night.

Played a lot of Axis and Allies back then. And Risk from time to time.

Originally Posted by Chrysostomos

I started with D&D in 1978(?) followed by Traveler and some of the Steve Jackson games like Car Wars, Ogre

I had forgotten about Traveler. Good game.

Being a little younger than many posters in this thread (a refreshing change let me tell you) the 70's are a vague blur of learning how to walk, etc.

But in the 80s' my introduction to the fantasy genre was the Fighting Fantasy books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone - basically each book was broken down into numbered paragraphs and at the end of each paragraph you made a choice that lead you to another paragraph and so forth, there was even a rudimentary combat system where you were presented with the enemy's stats and would roll a d6 in rounds to see who would win.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighting_Fantasy

Something I didn't realise is these gents went on to form Games Workshop and Citadel Minatures. I can still recall much of the lore of the Warhammer and WH40K games from avidly reading White Dwarf whilst painting my wood elf and Space Marine armies in my teens. Even now I can't help but be reminded of the elven Wardancers when my LoTRO elf champ spun around dealing out massive melee damage to a group of orcs.

Reminiscing on this reminds me I'd love a real MMORPG set in WH40K - so long as it carries the dark nuances in the fiction; I doubt we'll ever see it. The lore of the Eldar may be blatant rip-off from Tolkein's elves, but brilliantly applied to their SciFi dystopia. I'd love to build an Elven adventurer in that universe, struggling to keep himself on the path to try and save his hedonistic soul from the clutches of Slaanesh.

Edit: Another stlawart of the 80s for me was the mighty rubber keyed wonder of affordability:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum
Here, let me waste a few hours of your time: http://www.twinbee.org/hob/play.php?snap=aticatac

Edit2: Going a little OT, yes that's off-topic in off-topic; neg rep me if you must.
As a Brit living in the US the opening sentence in Wikipedia article made me smile:

The ZX Spectrum (pronounced "Zed-Ex")

It's pronounced Zed dudes, not Zee - Zed.

Originally Posted by Lainalagos

It's pronounced Zed dudes, not Zee - Zed.

Reminds me of Pulp Fiction. "Zed's Dead Baby!"

I played a lot of Pong and just about all the Tunnels and Trolls solo modules, which today are out of print. I liked the art in the Tunnels and Trolls modules. It was all fabulous old fantasy art by Liz Danforth, Rob Carver, et al. Dungeons and Dragons didn't have the same raw art presence in the beginning, that I remember, except in the original Monster Manual.

Originally Posted by Silverangel

, except in the original Monster Manual.

The original Monster Manual had that "genuine" look to it. I always felt like I was looking at a real almanac of real creatures.

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

The original Monster Manual had that "genuine" look to it. I always felt like I was looking at a real almanac of real creatures.

That's very true. Tolkien's hand-drawn ink maps for the Shire also have a very genuine look and feel. There is a lot to be said for that old, authentic art style in terms of immersion compared to the slick, computer-produced and painted graphics we have nowadays.

And omg, my last rep pip finally! Thanks Nymphonic, or to whoever did it.

Originally Posted by Silverangel

And omg, my last rep pip finally! Thanks Nymphonic, or to whoever did it.

That was me. Anyone that compliments the original Monster Manual deserves some kind of reward.

My intro to D&D was when I was 8 with the starter kit and module B2, the keep on the borderlands.





I still remember having Q1 - The queen on the demonweb pits and also C2 - The ghost tower of Inverness.

My older brother had the monster manual, the edition with this cover -
I remember reading it from cover to cover, I can only remember the wights, troglodytes and the carrion crawlers now though.

He also had the Dungeon master guide with the huge red demon on the front. I really regret not hanging onto them. I keep looking for mint copies on Ebay, but they are like rocking horse #### these days sadly.

Cricket.

I rocked it with one of these, still have it somewhere.

http://www.retrothing.com/2005/12/magical_merlin_.html

I remember sitting across from this every weekend wondering what the DM was planning behind it.

Originally Posted by monteeburns

My intro to D&D was when I was 8 with the starter kit and module B2, the keep on the borderlands.





I still remember having Q1 - The queen on the demonweb pits and also C2 - The ghost tower of Inverness.

My older brother had the monster manual, the edition with this cover -
I remember reading it from cover to cover, I can only remember the wights, troglodytes and the carrion crawlers now though.

He also had the Dungeon master guide with the huge red demon on the front. I really regret not hanging onto them. I keep looking for mint copies on Ebay, but they are like rocking horse #### these days sadly.

I love Keep on the Border Lands. I DM'ed it so much in the 80s that I remember every detail of it to this day.

I played Centipede on the rare occasions when I hit an arcade, but that's it. I was always reading or playing sports. Hell, I didn't even get my own computer until I was almost 30 (I'm 39 now, to give you some scale lol).

My brother was hugely into D&D. I can remember him and 3 of his friends commandeering the basement and playing through the weekends.

I played mostly the games for the big floopy discs back then, it was called gorillas or something similar you threw a banana at other gorilla and you "aimed" by putting the angle and speed of the banana, and the second player did the same until one hit the other with it...was fun

Played Cubix, or something similar to tetris but with a 2D-3D room and you were on top viewing down and placing the titles in, never really hooked up with that game.

Later played Nintendo 80's I think, had like 4 games and kept playing those, then my cousins bought same Nintendo and played their games.

Played Prince of Arabia for PC, the first one were you ran through tunnels and if you fell on those fake parts you fell to spikes, played some car games too when they got out mainly the ones were you raced generic looking opponents.

Lots of super nintendo games.

I never got around to play atari or any other table-top games, I heard people that played them though. I played basically with my toys as a kid, really lot of my imagination went there in those days.

Aside from console games (my family always had systems... Pong, Atari 2600, Ninteno, Super Nintendo, etc.)

I was a Monty haul pen and paper DnD player. Oh! And in the early 90s.... War Hammer 40k. I think I probably spent more time on drawing/painting than I did actually role playing though.