on video games

So I've been playing computer games since probably 1986 or 1987 (I would have been 9 or 10, respectively). Even before then we had an Atari 2600 with games like Pac Man, Haunted House, E.T., Pitfall, Space Invaders, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Donkey Kong (I assume we owned it), and I'm sure some others that I certainly can't remember. This was when we were in Birmingham, AL, between 1982 and ~1985.

My dad had a computer when we lived in Clinton, MS. I think it was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. I well remember make-believe batman in my dad's office and "typing" furiously at the keys. At some point, while we were still in Clinton, we got a Commodore 64 from a friend of my dad's. We had a couple of games for it, the ones I remember were Ultima IV, Choplifter, Gunship, Trolls and Tribulations. We had a monochrome amber monitor, and even had a printer, which I think never worked. No hard drive, 5.25" floppy drive. At some point, the C64 died, or we replaced it, but we got an IBM PC Junior. The only thing I remember for sure playing on this was King's Quest. Oh, we played some Zork as well. I assume it was Zork I. And Sopwith.

Later, probably after we moved from Clinton to Grenada, around 1989, we got an Amiga 500. We had Defender of the Crown, Team Yankee, Civilization (the first game I purchased! Got it at Boomerang games, at Park and Mendenhall. Boomerang Games closed a couple years ago.), Sim City, Shadow of the Beast, Universal Military Simulator, aka UMS, The Perfect General, Balance of Power, Conflict and Conflict: Middle East, and I'm sure a few others. On the Amiga I had my first programming experience. We had a (classic) BASIC class when I was in 7th grade, and I took what I learned and programmed at least one of the Lone Wolf choose-your-own-adventure style books. That was fun stuff.

Eventually the Amiga died, and we ended up with a PC. I'd bet it was a 386, but I cant be sure now. I do remember having to install a 2x CD-ROM drive in it.

Well I'm winding down. This has been alot of fun, recalling some of these old games, and finding info about them. Maybe I'll get back on it some more later.

Now some more linkage!

Play Zork I || Download the first three Zork games || Play Defender of the Crown || Download Civilization || Play Sim City || Note to self: find links to classic games and emulators for download!