Star Raiders

On the road to Elite and Privateer was a classic called Star Raiders.  I played the version for the 2600, but apparently that was a port of a superior version for Atari computers.  This was still really fun and scratched the Trek itch instead of the Wars itch.  This also foretold the gameplay that would waste a billion hours in minesweeper, this game include lots of scanning.

Prince of Persia

Jordan Mechner made Karateka and then went on to create a certifiable classic, Prince of Persia.  We debated at length why the animation in PoP was so much better than everything else coming out at the time.  We compared it to the rotoscoped animation in Bakshi movies and that was a pretty good explanation.  With keyframes based on a series of photographs taken of Jordan's brother the little prince ran, climbed, jumped, and died with a fluid grace never before seen. While the trial and error game play could be frustrating the original Prince of Persia was an amazing gaming experience that is still being ported to new platforms today.

Lode Runner

I know that gaming has been stigmatized as a solitary activity, but in the late 70's and early 80's you had to get out and about and meet some people if you wanted to play everything.  George C. had Lode Runner so he was on the circuit.  Was this another game set in a mine?  With lots of ladders to climb and lots of holes to dig for hapless AI miners to fall in Lode Runner was an action puzzler that had lots of levels and lots of challenge.  And it was a good chance to go see George C.

Karateka

This game was brutally hard. A predecessor to brawlers to follow, our hero walked or ran to the right and stopped to fight.  Getting hit while running was instant defeat.  The evil eagle was a classic antagonist.  The animation in this game was a standout amongst its peers.

Readers Share Their First Games

Reader JM writes:

I was thinking my first game was Olympic Decathalon on the Apple II, that was in 84 I believe.

You got started a lot earlier.

What was YOUR first game?  When was that? Games Jim Played wants to know!