I think it was Mean Streets in 1989. One of the first (if not the first) MCGA game ever. I remember telling to myself how crappy it looked compared to the 32-colours Amiga version. That was the time when graphists thought they could get away with scanning a drawing in 256 colours without cleaning it at all... At least the Amiga version had been specifically reworked, and it showed -- ditto with Heart of China 😀

I'll have to look through my collection but what immediately came to my mind when I read your post was just as Kaminari said: Mean Streets. Such an excellent game for it's time, it's left a lasting impression. I'll dig through my stuff and see if I can find the REAL first VGA game.

For me it was Xmas Lemmings. My father went to austria (wiena) and he bought color monitor (1992). Next game was Golden Axe, I think it is best 2D arcade action game. When i saw this game on Amiga it was first time when i was proud to PC. My frend had amiga and he laught to me for PCs pc speaker sound, ega (monochromatic monitor) graphic and also for VGA big atributed graphic. That was fisrt when he was silnet and stare to the screen 😁

The Under-dogs wrote:

The first game in the Tex Murphy series is a great sci-fi adventure with some (gasp) action elements. Technically, Mean Streets was very innovative game for its time, featuring 256 color VGA graphics, digitized PC speaker sounds, and even a well-coded flight simulator based on the engine used in Echelon.

Heh - For a moment I thought you were referring to another "mean streets" a crappy arcade released by Titus. 😁
Oddly enought i cannot find any reference in mobygames to that game.

On a side note, I have always really hated those games that had an VGA option but it was just for compatibility sake, that is, VGA was EXACTLY THE SAME as EGA.

An another thing: This is not a game but I think it deserves recognition: Deluxe Paint II Enhanced - Electronic Arts - Programmed by Dan Silva 1985-1989. IT WORKS EVEN NOWADAYS under Windows XP. That's good programming. And it is one of the best (if not the best) artistic painting programs ever made.

For me it was Ultima VI. I had just gotten into Ultima V on the Apple IIs at school when I decided to pick up a copy for my PC at home. Needless to say It blew me away.

Kings Quest 5 (brilliant!) and PGA tour golf (crap!!)
I remember when Links came out and being completely blown away!

I remember Links more for the RealSound than the graphics, although the intro was pretty cool.

I did try out the Realsound in Links, it was very impressive but I already had a soundblaster by then. I had the PC speaker routed through the connector on the SBPro for PCSPK; I had to make sure my amp was switched off while the computer booted, the POST bleep made be jump more than a few times 🤣 The video in the intro was very cool!

I can't recall exactly...

My first VGA games were either Mean Streets or Rise of the Dragon. 688 Attack Sub was also one of the first VGA games I played.

Ahh... Memories.

I also can't clearly remember. I know that around 1989 my brother and I were intently playing a game of Spacewar (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=3916) when we blew out our EGA monitor; we had left it turned on for too long while an old printer was sitting on top of it, causing it to overheat. I then had to put up with an amber-colored Hercules monochrome setup for the next year, using SIMCGA to play games that supported CGA and not Hercules (and not being able to play EGA games at all, let alone VGA). We then got an ISA Paradise SuperVGA card (256KB of RAM I think) and Morse monitor, and everything changed.

I do remember playing Space Quest 4 (1991, floppy of course) and some of the Moraff's games early on (Moraff's Pinball, Moraff's World). The Moraff games were the first I remember playing that used SuperVGA instead of regular VGA/MCGA, and it was before VESA so I remember having to choose my card from a long list.

Looking at MobyGames listings for 1989-91, I also recognize Budokan, Starflight 2 and Arkanoid 2 as early VGA games that I played around the time I got that SuperVGA setup. It's amazing how many EGA games were still coming out around then, and equally amazing that I could still play the newest games on a 4 year old 8MHz 286 computer in 1990.

The first VGA game i Played , hmm thats hard, i think it was X-Wing, the first game i bought for my "new" 486 sx-25 pc with 4 mb ram (*dreaming of the old days*)

eL_PuSHeR

n another thing: This is not a game but I think it deserves recognition: Deluxe Paint II Enhanced - Electronic Arts - Programmed by Dan Silva 1985-1989.

YEAAAH, i spent hours and hours with this (i only have the "normal version" as U can see) programm,i even can remember the tut-ankh amun mask that was painted on my version, when i got the version, that was really a Cool Programm, even with bluring effect

For me its still the Best Paint-Programm in the World (Photoshop is only for editing, like PSP and Corel)
TAKE A LOOK 😎

Its hard to believe that this Genius Programm was Made by EA !

I remember that program! Some church pastor gave me original 5.25" floppy disks for DeluxePaint II. I'm sure my mom still has them somewhere with the rest of my 5.25" floppies. I'd like to burn them all onto a CD and then go through what I collected to see what I should send to abandonware sites (most of it is shareware downloaded from BBSes).

My first vga game was Battle Chess from Interplay. (See http://www.mobygames.com/game/techinfo/p,2/gameId,1950/). I can tell that I probably played it first in February 1991 since I just recovered my old batch files and the one for chess dates from the 23rd of February , 1991 (2:10 pm).

Here the listing of the batch file marking this important event in my gaming history:

cd \
C:
cd spiele\chess
chess
cd \
cls

I have Battle Chess somewhere and I positively remember that the graphics were beautiful but EGA. Did they make some updated version? 😕

HunterZ wrote:

I remember that program! Some church pastor gave me original 5.25" floppy disks for DeluxePaint II. I'm sure my mom still has them somewhere with the rest of my 5.25" floppies. I'd like to burn them all onto a CD and then go through what I collected to see what I should send to abandonware sites (most of it is shareware downloaded from BBSes).

Recently backed up my 5.25" floppies. Was disappointed to see that there were no 5.25" to USB converters so I finally just gave up and plugged it into my mobo. Works good on my Nforce 2! 😁

Thought about tearing apart a 3.5" USB drive and mabye figuring out a way to get the 5.25" to use the interface but I doubt it would work.

I have Battle Chess somewhere and I positively remember that the graphics were beautiful but EGA. Did they make some updated version? Confused

Well, check out the mobygames.com link. They have screenshots and release infos (there was a rerelease - but it was in 1994 and had SVGA). Perhaps it was configureable and you missed the vga option?

EDIT: Hey, didn't notice; this is my 100th post!

I have the Battlechess SVGA CD-ROM version. It was very impressive graphics for its day. 640x480 256 colors. Ran in Windows 3.1. One of the first MPC games I remember seeing.

http://www.dracowulf.com/stuff/gamedb/name?game_id=7

Pics of it on my game database.

Confirmed. Mine is EGA from 1988 and has digitised beeper. It works quite well under DOSBox. 😎

Interesting. With an EGA version floating around at that time, I can't be sure that I really had the VGA version. It's been a while and I was a kid at that time. (In my memory, Shufflepuck Café had advanced to a VGA game. I was quite surprised to find out yesterday it only supported EGA)