Carmen Sandiego - played in elementary school on commodore 64s, I think? don't remember. These were only available in the 'gifted program', general use machines were PETs
Sim City - first game I ever saw played from MSDOS. My friend had a 486 and I never used one before then. I was absolutely mesmerized by the dos prompt and DOSSHELL.EXE environment
Descent
Doom2 (copying from friends via floppies, trying to learn how to use PKUNZIP, crap like that)
Tie Fighter (taught me how to create clean boot floppies)
Quake (brought me into the voodoo club)
Diablo

The people born in the late '70s and early '80s are sometimes considered a separate micro-generation, sandwiched between Generation X and the Millennials. I subscribe to this generation, actually. We are a particularly interesting generation, since we have experienced (and are comfortable with) both the times before and after computers and the Internet became commonplace.

We are known as the Xennials, and particularly within the US , our age group is sometimes also referred to as the Oregon Trail Generation, because many Xennials in this country were exposed to the game Oregon Trail, since it was a popular educational game that was installed on many computers in school labs at the time. The fact that this game was so prevalent and familiar to so many people that an entire (sub)generation was named after it would definitely make this game worth mentioning in this topic, wouldn't you agree?

In the Netherlands, one game with a comparable impact comes to mind, and that's Topografie, an educational game by the Dutch game publisher Radarsoft, available for the 8-bit home computers that were popular in the Netherlands in the '80s: Commodore 64 and MSX. (Apparently there was also a version for 8-bit Atari home computers, but I don't remember that platform being very popular over here.)

The premise was simple: the player would control a helicopter in a top-down bird's eye view of a map. The computer would instruct the player to fly to a city, and the player would simply steer the helicopter with the joystick, up for north, down for south, to the upper right for northeast, etc. Once the helicopter reached the city you were supposed to fly to, you would hear a satisfying "ding" sound and then you would be instructed to fly to another city. The game probably had a countdown timer as well, but I don't exactly remember. There was both a Netherlands version (with cities and towns in the Netherlands) and a Europe version (with major cities in europe).

It was straightforward, well-made, educational and quite fun to play. I remember playing the game at school, controlling the helicopter with the iconic The Arcade joystick, hearing and feeling the satisfying clicks of its sturdy microswitches, as I moved the stick to steer the helicopter. It's a shame that this game was never ported to MS-DOS. (There's an idea, though...)

I remember this one time, while playing the Europe version of the game, I was doing pretty well, until the game instructed me to fly to Turku, a place that at that point I had never heard of before, and so I had no idea where to fly. I may have even tried to locate Turkey, thinking that it might be located in that country. 😂 Then I think the timer ran out or something, or it was time for a classmate to take the seat, since we had only 3 Commodore 64s at our elementary school at the time. (Apologies to any Finnish readers here. I was like 10 or 11 at the time. I know about Turku now, and that it's not in Turkey. 😅)

So I guess I can be considered part of the "Topografie Generation". 😁

Hey, I just found an educational game for the US market that Radarsoft made as well. It has a "Heligame" mode, which is basically the same concept as Topografie. Cool! I wonder how well it did over there. (Probably not as well as Oregon Trail. 😉) https://www.mobygames.com/game/maps-usa

Morrowind - This game is just cozy to me, like a game where you can go to rest about with the freedom live anywhere you wanted, modding is an obsession everytime I reinstall one of these Bethesda games. The strange architectural differences between factions and otherworldly structures also carried on for me with an interest in how real world architecture presents in game worlds.

Assassin's Creed 1 - I didn't actually play the game (not even now, perhaps I should one day 🤣..) so I don't know if it counts as important, but I was interested in the Crusades back then and seeing this game's trailers/teasers, the theme and setting inspired me to learn video editing.

Guild Wars / GW2 - Even though I don't actively play these anymore, I find myself missing the maps/locations in the game world like I've actually been there in person, like you are familiar with the route by heart? I miss the muscle memory hotkeys and how skills feel when channeled together. It is just difficult to get that same feeling back when the games were newly launched, communities change, some maps were remade, servers are not as active, or perhaps my nostalgia is too strong. The 2nd game has very awesome verticality (HoT expansion especially) that I've not seen in other games to that level of complexity and layers. I hope they never stop making jumping puzzles. Breaking out of map bounds, running missions and maps solo or with a few regulars, these were good days. It's games like these that makes me want to explore new worlds, or ruins.

Grand Prix Legends - I remember playing the demo for the first time for three hours one evening, and I was just swept away. If I had not had to go to work the next day, I would have played it all night. The game got me interested in Formula and other auto sports, in spite of the fact that I hate driving in real life.

The Operative: No One Lives Forever - I think this was the first 3D shooter I ever played, and it got me interested in the genre.

svfn wrote on 2021-08-14, 16:40:

Assassin's Creed 1 - I didn't actually play the game (not even now, perhaps I should one day 🤣..) so I don't know if it counts as important, but I was interested in the Crusades back then and seeing this game's trailers/teasers, the theme and setting inspired me to learn video editing.

Don't play it, spare yourself of the extremely repetitive gameplay. It was cool because of its graphics and setting imho. I would never replay it.

Joakim wrote on 2021-08-14, 18:40:

It was cool because of its graphics and setting imho. I would never replay it.

Don't forget Jade Raymond. I think she was the last push for many people who purchased it back then. At least she was for a certain 17 years old RandomStranger.

Yeah there was a bit of excessive "She made award winning Beyond Good & Evil, our engine is named after her, therefore you must buy Assassins Creed" angle going from Ubisoft's pre-release marketing then, which unfortunately also led to external misogynistic harrassment.

But, meanwhile at Ubisoft....

It was also apparently a Prince of Persia game at one point and had a removed woman player character (among other Oh Ubisoft problems).

Joakim wrote on 2021-08-14, 18:40:

Don't play it, spare yourself of the extremely repetitive gameplay.

Don't feel bad. The artist never did either.

Joakim wrote on 2021-08-14, 18:40:

svfn wrote on 2021-08-14, 16:40:

Assassin's Creed 1 - I didn't actually play the game (not even now, perhaps I should one day 🤣..) so I don't know if it counts as important, but I was interested in the Crusades back then and seeing this game's trailers/teasers, the theme and setting inspired me to learn video editing.

Don't play it, spare yourself of the extremely repetitive gameplay. It was cool because of its graphics and setting imho. I would never replay it.

Indeed. I really wanted to like it because of the setting, but the gameplay just killed it. It was one of the only games I've ever dropped in the middle and decided never to try again.

I actually finished it on my PS3. I think it was the boss battles that did it and that I'm a sucker for anything related to the templars. I also liked the idea that the game is within a game so to speak. But jeez that release must have been extremely stressful.

An other game that was important for me was Goonies 2 on NES. I played that game without help when I was about 7 years old and did not know any English just by remembering how my brother did it.. I actually learned English first by text and I still remember that my first word was Ladder. A very useful word.

drosse1meyer wrote on 2021-08-14, 15:02:

Carmen Sandiego - played in elementary school on commodores, I think? don't remember. These were only available in the 'gifted program', general use machines were PETs

Did Apple or Atari make PET in your area then? 🤣

It was kinda the reverse of that at my high school, the vocational track students had up to the minute 16 bit PC machines and business software, think they even had a lab with OS/2. The academic track had a somewhat random assortment of 8 bit BBCs and Z80 CP/M machines, that were still somehow networked. I guess it's because the science and tech labs had breakout boards with experiments and labs wired into them, and that stuff was $$$$ on PCs for education.

Anyway, one of the BBC Masters, me and a couple of buddies got permission to use on lunch hour, and Elite on that was a revelation. Very smooth on the "beeb" it was, could tell what you were doing, learned to fly my first Cobra Mark III on that. I actually HAD Elite for the 48k Spectrum, but it was in a smaller window, the graphics thus being more pixelated and I didn't get my space legs. So after the playing the beeb version and getting oriented in that, "Elite as it was meant to be" I found I had a lot less trouble with the Spectrum version at home, think I actually managed Elite on that. Then of course played it in Amiga and PC versions as I got those machines.

BitWrangler wrote on 2021-08-14, 20:33:

Did Apple or Atari make PET in your area then? lol […]
Show full quote

drosse1meyer wrote on 2021-08-14, 15:02:

Carmen Sandiego - played in elementary school on commodores, I think? don't remember. These were only available in the 'gifted program', general use machines were PETs

Did Apple or Atari make PET in your area then? 🤣

It was kinda the reverse of that at my high school, the vocational track students had up to the minute 16 bit PC machines and business software, think they even had a lab with OS/2. The academic track had a somewhat random assortment of 8 bit BBCs and Z80 CP/M machines, that were still somehow networked. I guess it's because the science and tech labs had breakout boards with experiments and labs wired into them, and that stuff was $$$$ on PCs for education.

Anyway, one of the BBC Masters, me and a couple of buddies got permission to use on lunch hour, and Elite on that was a revelation. Very smooth on the "beeb" it was, could tell what you were doing, learned to fly my first Cobra Mark III on that. I actually HAD Elite for the 48k Spectrum, but it was in a smaller window, the graphics thus being more pixelated and I didn't get my space legs. So after the playing the beeb version and getting oriented in that, "Elite as it was meant to be" I found I had a lot less trouble with the Spectrum version at home, think I actually managed Elite on that. Then of course played it in Amiga and PC versions as I got those machines.

🤣. Should have clarified... they were C64s or maybe something else, I don't exactly remember, but they had color monitors and games. This was in the early 90s, so they were probably purchased years before that, given how public school funding goes in the USA...

I do remember the old ass monochrome PETs in the general computer labs though, I think we did some BASIC on them...?

Star Trek - game in text mode (with star map text graphics) played on a large CP/M Wang computer at my uncle's work
Flappy - the first game I played on my first computer SHARP MZ-821
Leisure Suit Larry 1 - great adventure played on a PC with COLOR!!! EGA monitor (again at my uncle's work, the computer cost something like 50 average montly salaries at that time 😉
Eye of the Beholder - my first RPG game, I focus on RPG games since then
Wolfenstein 3D - my first 3D game
Age of Empires - great network multiplayer

Dune II - should be mentioned here as well.
I played that game so had, it broke my serial mouse as you had to click so much 😁
It also paved the way for all coming up RTS games or at least helped their "boom" in the 90s.

On the PC as a next generation gaming platform I'd say Stunts (1990) has been the most important game before probably Wolfeinstein3D for its sort of "3D" enviroment that at that time felt really incredible.
But I remember the first time I played Stunts with its true 3D simple enviroment I was without words coming from the Z80 based still "modern" game consoles in the 1993/94.
I didn't play Doom or Quake in their times because I still had the 386SX-20 so with a bad vga too. So I played these games much later. I remember I saw Doom II on a friend's 486SX maybe 50Mhz pc in SVGA mode and it was great even if I'd consider the much later Half Life, Quake II and Thief The Dark Project more important and still memorable for their innovation and technical results.

But I still consider the previous game console experience important too. The Master System and Game Gear game consoles had impressive games and some like Zillion (1987) has been so significant I might never forget.

1541 wrote on 2021-08-15, 09:04:

Dune II - should be mentioned here as well.
I played that game so had, it broke my serial mouse as you had to click so much 😁
It also paved the way for all coming up RTS games or at least helped their "boom" in the 90s.

Seconded. There were only a few games for me that really gave me a "WOW" factor, and felt like a completely new paradigm to me. True "Genre Definers", so to speak. The original King's Quest was one of them, and so was Dune II.

Doom, although not a completely new paradigm compared to its spiritual predecessor Wolfenstein 3D, was such a leap in terms of graphics, that it makes my list as well. Even though, strangely enough, I'm not really into first-person shooters anymore.

Hero's Quest a.k.a. Quest for Glory was also important to me, since it was such a unique and refreshing hybrid of a graphics adventure and an RPG. At to that the atmosphere and the sense of an open world that it gave you (even though it wasn't completely open), and you get a legendary and defining game.

Monkey Island, both 1 and 2, with their atmosphere, gameplay and humor, will also always have a very special place in my heart.

One game that really touched me was Homeworld. Appropriately, it was from Sierra, a company that had already given me so much enjoyment with their graphics adventures, and at the same time the game was an RTS, a genre that I absolutely loved since Dune II. A perfect combination for me. Also, it was (at least in my experience) the first RTS game to get 3D right, so it was an innovative game too. Not to mention with great music. The controls were smooth and understandable, even working with three dimensions. And the rapid way how you could zoom in and out of the map really gave you a sense of the vastness of space.

But also the storyline really grabbed me. Feeling all alone in space, on the run, not understanding why this alien force is being so cruel and ruthless to us, with the background story gradually unravelling as I progressed from level to level, gradually traveling from our destroyed little backwater planet towards the Galactic interior in search for answers, then finally meeting a faction that was not hostile to us, and even willing to trade with us, only to see them attacked for it a few missions later, as punishment. 😞 When I saw the Bentusi ship under attack by the same enemy that had been terrorizing us, I felt overcome by anger, and immediately sent my fleet to help them. The Bentusi were the only one in this cold universe that had been nice to us, and now they were getting punished for that? "Not on my watch!" 😠 As I sent in my fleet to attack, suspenseful tribal background music started playing, feeling like a confirmation that I was doing the right thing. I felt nervous as I watched my units slowly crawl towards the Bentusi ship as it was taking damage from their evil assailants. "Hang in there, help is on the way!" The gratification of seeing the attackers destroyed by my cavalry, the expression of gratitude by the Bentusi afterwards, it all really enveloped me and sucked me into this game emotionally. I've very rarely felt a game having such an effect on me. It made me make decisions based on emotion in a way I haven't often experienced in games.

Sadly though, a few missions later I ran into a mission that I kept failing at, which made me stop playing the game. I figured I would pick it up again some time later, but I never did. That was two decades ago. I still have the same retail CD-ROM of the game, although sadly I no longer have the box, which I remember was very beautifully made. Maybe I should try playing it again some time.

My first week or so playing WoW is very memorable. I basically just walked around exploring this vast virtual world. (My first toon was a rogue so I was able to explore about 3/4 of the two big islands before dinging 40.) Entering Ironforge for the first time was an awesome experience, then (accidentally) stumbling into the tram entrance, and finding my way to Stormwind.

This was in the Wrath era, so lots and lots of people were playing, and streets were always crowded.

Errius wrote on 2021-08-15, 17:11:

My first week or so playing WoW is very memorable. I basically just walked around exploring this vast virtual world. (My first toon was a rogue so I was able to explore about 3/4 of the two big islands before dinging 40.) Entering Ironforge for the first time was an awesome experience, then (accidentally) stumbling into the tram entrance, and finding my way to Stormwind.

This was in the Wrath era, so lots and lots of people were playing, and streets were always crowded.

Yeah, good times! I got into WoW in 2005, before The Burning Crusade expansion came out. Colleagues of mine at the computer store where I worked at the time encouraged me to join, and since they were with the Horde, I naturally joined that faction as well. I started with a rogue too! A male Troll. I had a similar experience as you did when I entered the Undercity for the first time. Even more so than Orgrimmar.

It's so funny how much more popular I became once I rolled a Priest as my second character. 😂 Suddenly, everyone wanted me to join them in instance raids. Healers are always welcome, of course. As a Rogue, it was much harder for me to get invited to such groups.

On the one hand it seems like such a waste of time getting swallowed into that game again. On the other hand I do feel some strong nostalgia with WoW. The story lines weaving through the quests, the overal atmosphere of the wondrous open world with its rich variety of environments, and the random encounters and conversations with people all over Europe. This, combined with playing with some real-life friends and coworkers. The latter was harder though, since the people I knew IRL were already playing for much longer, and therefore were at a much higher level with their mains.

It's just so unfortunate that Blizzard has become such a sad and toxic former shell of what that company used to be, before they got acquired by Activision. Whether it's the horrific treatment of female employees, the exploitation of software developers through crunch culture, or censoring and disqualifying a contestant for his Free Hong Kong activism during a recent Esports event. I don't want to send monthly payments to a company like that.

Yes, it's a huge time sink. I'm sometimes tempted to go back, but no.

I actually avoided the game for years, precisely for this reason. I had friends who were hooked on this and similar games (DAOC), and I didn't want to go down the same rabbit hole.

I finally gave in circa 2009 when I acquired a month of free game time somewhere. (It probably came free with another game.) So I decided to install it to "see what the fuss was about."

I researched the classes and read somewhere that rogue was the best beginner class, which is very true. Rogues can go places that other classes can't, and they can easily escape when they get into trouble.

I played for a couple of years, but that first week is still the most memorable time.