Quest for Glory I, which was named 'Hero's Quest' back then. It was not my first Sierra graphic adventure --the first was Code Name: Iceman, which I never finished. There are several things that hooked me to the game. First, unlike Code Name: Iceman, QfG I has combat, and not only does it have combat, but also an exciting one. Second, QfG I's puzzles are nowhere as difficult as typical Sierra adventures. Third, in QfG I, combat becomes noticeably easier as you accumulated more stats, and that's how I was introduced to role-playing games. And that was how I became an RPG enthusiasts, from Ultima VI to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday to Curse of the Azure Bonds.

Come to think of it, I'm thankful my first RPG was Quest for Glory instead of, say, Wasteland or Dragon Wars. The latter games are more cerebral, but are also more tedious to the uninitiated, which may turned me away from RPGs. It is the same reason my interest on flight sims was triggered by F-15 Strike Eagle II instead of F-16 Combat Pilot.

I started with arcade machines I think. My parents got me an Atari 2600 later (years later which my mother later threw out while I was from home) and the few games I had I played over and over again.
My neighbors also got an Atari 2600 later, though I don't remember what games they had.
We later moved to Nintendo, SuperNES and when my neighbors had moved to N64, I couldn't keep up anymore as they were 2 brothers each paying half while I had a sister who preferred barbies or whatever girly stuff she was into at the time :'(

I think THE first game I got hooked on was an arcade machine somewhere abroad in a bar where we spend several summers at, all my pocket money disappeared into there. At some point the owner of the bar put an entire stack of coins on the machine as I was playing it. Suffice to say all the coins disappeared into that arcade machine again.
Sadly I don't remember what game it was.
It was some kind of 2D game somewhat similar in layout as that Bombs! game except I needed to push blocks into enemies, crushing them.

I don't think it really matters what game got me hooked, it could have been any game I happened to come into contact with and play for the first time. It's like I was made to get hooked on computer games or something. I played games so much and got so good at them that I seem to have permanently improved reflexes because of it, barely any cup I accidentally drop from whereever makes it all the way to the floor.
One time I opened a cupboard (one in the kitchen located slightly above my head) and suddenly 2 cups fell out simultaneously. The first I caught with my right hand almost right away and the second I caught as it passed roughly at crotch height. After I saved both mugs I was like "Wow, I did that??" 🤣 .That was sick xD
Thanks to having been gaming from such an early age 😋

But unfortunately as something of a side effect to me having started so young I can't remember how it exactly started.

I'm an OG 80's gamer. First, it was NES. Then, PC, with Sierra games (LSL and QFG) and later, Wolfenstein 3D, followed by DOOM.

The year is 2002. A German magazine called "Computer Bild Spiele" put a game on their cover disc which was called "Shadow Man" by Acclaim.

This got me hooked so hard - great graphics (for the time), an intriguing story, challenging gameplay. It had it all! I spent weeks on this game until I finally finished it and saw one of the most satisfying end screens I've ever witnessed in a computer game.

I had played games like Commander Keen, Doom and Duke Nukem before, but this blew them all out of the water. Shadow Man combined excellent storytelling with gameplay that was fun!
Most of all, the narration and feeling of accomplishment and progress fueled my motivation to finish it.

This game did something I hadn't seen up until this point and wouldn't see again until much later when these story-driven style of games gained more popularity.

I was never much of a PC gamer. My first experience with electronic games was over at a friends house were they had an Atari.
We later received games for Christmas like Pin-ball machines, Air hockey, Golf, etc. ( 1970’s )
Then came the Arcade machines of the 1980’s ( Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Street fighter, etc. )
My first computer was a 486dx-33 back in 1992.
The sound card came with a game bundle.

I guess I never really payed much games on it.
I was more interested in surfing the internet with a dial-up modem and Wildcat BBS servers.

I never really played much PC games until Win98.

Never really got hooked on it I just like to tune my computers for optimal performance.
I like to read about how gamers use to setup and tweak their old computers for optimal game play performance.

imi wrote on 2022-06-16, 19:56:

probably Monkey Island, the PC speaker intro tune will be stuck in my head for eternity.

Amen, brother! Monkey Island and Loom... both intros are also imprinted in my mind for eternity.

Still, nothing comes close to Prince of Persia and the lasting impact it had on me personally. I was 6 or 7 years old in ~ 1990, went to my aunt's workplace (a university), walked into a room filled with books (if I close my eyes I can still see and smell the room), and there in the middle of the room there was a shiny, white, new PC (the first one I ever saw). I wish I knew what the make and model was (but I don't, unfortunately 🙁 ). Anywho... my aunt typed "prince", and... the rest is history. What I do remember is that seeing it almost seemed magical to me, can't quite explain it.

Fast forward 30+ years, and whenever I hear the Prince of Persia theme song it takes me right back... All in all, I've been a PC gamer ever since. And even though I don't play nearly as many games as I used to, I still try and play about 2 - 3 per year.

Stop it, I'm not crying, you're crying! Damn those onions...

Friend had the talkie version of Day Of The Tentacle, I remember being floored by it

It was the first game I asked for when my family bought a PC

In 1993 an engineer I worked with had his own PC (an ALR model maybe a 386) that wasn't tied to the company network. Anyways
during lunch hour he let me play Konami NFL on it which I had bought at a computer store in the mall. Those were the days!

I used to play arcade games from 1979 to about 1984 (my favorite was Gravitar) then lost interest until 2000 when my neighbor showed me Jane's WW-2 Fighters on his PC. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to upgrade my PC to be able to play it.

I always played games on a PC even when I was a little kid, but I really didn't start truly being a PC Gamer till I got a Steam account in 2012 and even then for a while I don't think I really called myself that until the following year after.

I was already hooked on Amiga and Commodore64, when my parents bought a Unisys PW/2 Series 300 around 1987/88 or something. To this day, I am still hooked on Dos/C64/Amiga-gaming. I just don't practice it that much these days. Hooked, not addicted. 😁

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2022-06-18, 21:08:

I always played games on a PC even when I was a little kid, but I really didn't start truly being a PC Gamer till I got a Steam account in 2012 and even then for a while I don't think I really called myself that until the following year after.

Gamer is such a newage word anyway. Back in the 80's we were also known as phreaks within the circle, and "ordinaery" people who hated people with this hobby called us nerd's. But yeah. Anyone can be a gamer, even old granny that play casual games on a smartphone.

Tetrium wrote on 2022-06-17, 08:06:

It was some kind of 2D game somewhat similar in layout as that Bombs! game except I needed to push blocks into enemies, crushing them.

Pengo?

Tetrium wrote on 2022-06-17, 08:06:

I played games so much and got so good at them that I seem to have permanently improved reflexes because of it,

I've always thought this too, I call them "Donkey Kong Reflexes" 😀

When I was around 8 years old my Dad bought home his work PC, a Toshiba T3100, a portable 286 with the monochrome orange gas-plasma display. The two games on it were Alley Cat and Leisure Suit Larry. I've been a hardcore PC gamer ever since, and always will be. If I live to be in my 80s, I'll still be plugging away at retro games in the nursing home 😀

That was the start, but there's been a couple more 'hooked' moments that have fueled my PC gaming passion over the years. One was The Need For Speed in 1995, the most graphically impressive game for it's time I've seen, it really blew me away and it's all I wanted to play for a long while. Another was Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven in 1996. Somehow I managed to avoid the RPG genre until this game and it had me hooked more than any other game before or since. I remember gaming well into the late hours and then waking at dawn to start again.

I think it was need for speed 2 SE. I remember playing Aladdin on a w95 pc before that and enjoying it but in terms of getting hooked it was NfS2SE with a little help from Ignition and Driver.

Playing the original EGA version of Quest for Glory when it was still called Hero’s Quest is what got me into pc gaming. Before that all I had played were some Atari 2600 and NES games.

During my first year with a PC at home :

Simcity
Star Trek V
Space Quest III
Wing Commander II

Simcity is probably the one that really started it for me, though.

I don't remember exactly the month/year, I imagine it might have been the summer 1992/1993, the game that impressed me to the point game consoles were not much interesting anymore (until the early PlayStation times and the portable later PSP), was Stunts (1990) game on a friend's Compaq 486SX-25 or 33Mhz version all-in-one system. Coming from the Z80 based usual 2D games, to see that incredibly well done 3D environment and realistic game engine with the inside of the car view on that computer color monitor (instead of the usual CRT TV - RF tuner connection) was just incredible.
Before having a x86 computer myself we played those old games on that computer so much. Entire afternoons spent on that, great times. Later I received in the 1994/5 a 386SX-20 cheap second hand config so I had my own home computer too. Beside being a very low end config (with a very bad isa vga, a not upgradable cpu, 1MB ram, 50MB of disk) it lasted until late 1998/early 1999.

GoblinUpTheRoad wrote on 2022-06-19, 00:12:

Pengo? […]
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Tetrium wrote on 2022-06-17, 08:06:

It was some kind of 2D game somewhat similar in layout as that Bombs! game except I needed to push blocks into enemies, crushing them.

Pengo?

Tetrium wrote on 2022-06-17, 08:06:

I played games so much and got so good at them that I seem to have permanently improved reflexes because of it,

I've always thought this too, I call them "Donkey Kong Reflexes" 😀

I think it is Pengo, or a clone of this! Cheers! 😀
I watched some footage on youtube and even though I don't remember it this clearly anymore, I do remember for instance the enemies which had the 2 stompers to crack the blocks 😋

Yes, games back then were often much more reflexes-based (more like twitch gaming) and compared to now games were much more unforgiving. You die 3 times and you're gonna have to start all the way from the beginning again (unless you had a continue 😜 ).

The first PC game I really played obsessively was probably Populous. Before that PC games were nothing special to me.