Old PC games from my childhood

[a_natural_beauty]

I've been meaning to write about topics from my childhood for some time now. I figured writing about something lighthearted like that might be good. For those of you who may not know I am 37 now. I grew up in the 90's. We didn't have a-lot of money, I would consider us lower income. We weren't able to stay on the computer for long - and honestly I don't think we liked to stay on all that much anyway.
I can't remember much when it comes to what sort of computer we had while growing up. It was pretty basic and starting off we mostly just had regular CD games for it. Some were educational games, some were demos and introductions to games we couldn't afford or get but overall most of them were Sim games. I think it started off with Sim safari and Sim park. Then it grew into the other Sim games like streets of Sim city and Sim copter. The titles make them pretty easy to understand but basically you created a park or a city and did stuff in it. Or in the case of Sim copter or Streets of Sim city - you would ride around in said vehicle and do whatever you wanted honestly. Sometimes I would just do my own thing - other times I would follow along with what the game asked of me. I loved Sim park and Sim safari the best, because of the animals -let's be honest - even as an adult I am a sucker for games or anything based around animals. I also played the Creatures game where you had an egg that hatched into a cute little monster like critter. Then you raised that creature along with others in this fantasy world. I also liked two other games - the one being called Afterlife in which you created a heaven and hell. I'm a bit surprised my parents let me get this game. At times it was somewhat complicated for me but I still enjoyed it overall. And the other one I also enjoyed playing was a game about the Titanic. It was mystery that you were on the ship and like an undercover spy and had to solve a mystery before the ship sank. I could never complete it regardless what I did. But it was a neat game and I was always interested in that famous sinking.
I wish I could remember more of the names of the games we had for our computer back then. At times I will catch myself thinking of them and trying to remember some details but it gets to be foggy at times. It was an interesting time to be a kid - having the in-between of growing up with little to no technology to then becoming a older child into adult and slowly getting into it over the years. We had dial up for the longest time and it was fine, taught us patience. I think I will write about more of my computer games that were downloaded and not on CDs another time soon.
Do you guys have any games from your childhood you'd like to share about? Computer or otherwise?

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

I'm older than you so most of my games were board games. I liked Life.

However, in the 80s I started with Intellivision (the competitor to Atari) and I loved those video games passionately. I particularly loved Dungeons & Dragons (which I also played TTRPG) I became a video arcade addict. Tempest was one of my favorites

[a_natural_beauty]

I've only played that game once and hopefully someday I can play it again. It seemed to be a nice game.

Yes! The Atari looked fun! That was such a big deal back then. I was once in a D&D group and it was very dysfunctional. We only lasted a few weeks. :-/

[cornerofmadness]

the real problem with intellivision was the controllers were wired in and if they went bad...it was MUCH more complex than Atari more like gaming today with better graphics but for whatever reason it lost the marketing game

[matt_zimmer]

My Dad used to program old videogame knock-offs on the Color Computer. Those were always fun.

[a_natural_beauty]

Oh that sounds neat!

[soricel]

I can relate to a lot of this (age-wise, family income-wise)...my family had a big hulking desktop computer we kept in a big wobbly hutch thing in the basement, and I remember spending a lot of time playing pinball and Monopoly on it with my dad and brother. There was also a golf game that we played quite a bit; I remember there were "commentators" who would make little comments after every shot, and one of them was voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait for some reason...very weird.

A little later, my brother and I played a lot of Doom, which I'm surprised my parents let us get...I think maybe it's because the whole world of computers/computer games was so new to them, and they didn't really know what to be worried about?

Mostly I used that computer to hang out in a roleplaying chatroom on AOL, though...

Thanks for giving me an opportunity for this reminiscing. :)

[a_natural_beauty]

Gosh, that sounds like quite the experience. The computers used to be so much bigger! I'll have to look up that voice, I'm not familiar with who that is.

It's amazing what parents don't truly relize about video games. My parents who are now raising on of their grandsons has bought him all kinds of crazy games like Grand Theft Auto. I've explained how bad it can be for a boy - I think he was like 9 or 10 when he got it - but I don't think they truly get it.

AOL was a bit early for me, but I do remember using some chatrooms back in the day.

Of course! Thanks for sharing your stories. It was nice to read! :)

[marcel_t]

I'm older too so my childhood games were board games. I remember Candyland, Monopoly and Stratego, and vaguely remember a game with sailing ships called Broadside and another WWI game called Dogfight which both had cool little toys as playing pieces. During the early computer era I would collect every game I could get from the bargain bins. I must have a hundred that I never got around to playing. Afterlife included.

[a_natural_beauty]

I've heard of the first two but Stratego, Broadside or Dogfight isn't one I know of. Thank you for sharing :)

Oh neat! I'm glad someone else at least knows of Afterlife!

[comet_scout]

It's always fun to remember childhood video games, I don't think I ever really played any significative game as a kid since most I had was those gas station 1001 games CDs with a lot of ripped off/stolen internet flash games. But I do remember always asking my older sister to put on a pirated online Sonic 2 copy(fanremake?), and I loved a 101 Dalmatians point and click game we had.

There was also one game I used to have my mom put it up for me which to the best of my memories was the, at the time, Internet Explorer's logo going thought levels and eating dirt? I loved it to bits but can't remember much else, so it's lost forever in my mind.

[a_natural_beauty]

I'm not familiar with those gas station 1001 games. I did like playing Sonic as a kid. We had a sega genesis. Oh yeah, I think I recall that 101 Dalmatian game! We didn't have it but I loved that movie when I was a young girl.

Gosh... I'm not sure what that could be.... Maybe if you look around the web at games during that time and ask around you could figure it out? I hope you can!

[krakendelsur]

Aside from The Sims, Sim City, Zoo Tycoon, etc... I got really into this one PC game in junior high. Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader. It was a fantasy game but with enough real-life historical references that it helped me pass a history test XD

[a_natural_beauty]

Yes, Zoo Tycoon always looked fun to me. I never played it but I hope you had fun playing it.
I never heard of Lionheart. That's cool it helped you pass that test! Video games aren't all that bad! :-p

[thunderschoen]

This was so nostalgic and fun to read!

My first memory of computer games was watching my Dad play Doom and a comedy chess game that was kinda gory/sexy (only in pixels, but still)... pretty sure I shouldn't have been watching either of those but the computer was in my bedroom.

We also had a Sega, I only remember Sonic being on it but again I would watch my Dad play because I was pretty bad at it.

The first PC games I played myself were the old LucasArts point-and-clicks, like Indiana Jones and Monkey Island. And Catz which was a bit like Creatures, I think, but with cats?