What was your first video game addiction?

My first addiction threatened to derail my schooling. It was 1993-1994 I was heading into my second last year of high school and I'd mucked around with this strange world building game, but over those school holidays it just clicked...Sid Meyer's Civilisation.

I say it is my first proper video game addiction because it is the first time I remember (and being old enough) to look at the clock and say to myself - "hey, it is only 1 am...I'll just start a new game and get to 500AD and then go to bed" - only to find myself still playing at 4am.

There were other Commodore 64 games in the 80s when I was in primary school that we'd play all afternoon...but we'd so often still head outside and play...it wash;t the same "I must play" vibe.

I loved the 2D, pixelated graphics. I loved the fact I could name cities and the main goal of launching a rocket to Alpha Centuri! This game appealed to the RPG part of me that had been alive and well for a few years already. I'm struck how much that title screen above is similar to SPORE...I'd never noticed that before.

So - what was your first video game addiction?

Tags: addiction, civilisation, games, video

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Permalink Reply by Fabian on March 26, 2012 at 10:00pm

I had two obsessions on my old Packard Bell (or was it Sun?).  First was Wolfenstein 3d, but mostly the add on Spear of Destiny. LOVE IT! And second was Microprose' B17 Flying Fortress. I had gotten up to 15 successful missions before my save file disappeared. 

Permalink Reply by Rich Murray on March 27, 2012 at 10:25am

I do not believe I was truly addicted to any video games until MMO's came out.  So for me, It would be Everquest.  In the 4 years I played that, I averaged about 1100 hours of play time a year.

Some NES games might have had similar numbers but it's all a blur.

Permalink Reply by Errol Elumir on June 25, 2012 at 5:31pm

Loved Civ games, played late into the night with those.

Can barely remember my FIRST video game addiction.

It may be Treasures of Tarmin on the Intellivision. Totally loved that game.

Permalink Reply by Matt Jackson on July 5, 2012 at 9:59am

I'm going to call this a tie between Mega Man 2 and Mortal Kombat II - apparently I have a thing for sequels.  I actually passed by an arcade version of MK II earlier this week and my brain went "I want to go to there" (Liu Kang FTW, by the way).  As for Mega Man 2; for Mother's Day one year I made my mom a book (drawings and all) called Mega Mom.  She was...confused...but proud.

Permalink Reply by Dan Bramos on July 5, 2012 at 6:54pm

My parents were adamantly against me having a game system, even though my best friend Chris was AWESOME at Asteroids on the original Atari. And that's where I date myself. Anyways, I stuck with arcade games through my youth for that reason and that I could cut through the woods behind my house to get to the mall. My go-to game was Galaga until I spotted Centipede with that wicked trackball control. To this day I swear I spent more in the arcade at the mall on those two games than it would cost to buy a couple of old game consoles.

Fast forward 25+ years and I now have an original Atari hooked to the only CRT TV (although it doesn't get a lot of playtime) in the house and in a few weeks the spacehip from Galaga will be part of a tattoo on my leg.

Permalink Reply by HenkL on July 7, 2012 at 6:42am

I remember several games on my old BBC computer, and several PC games at University (we had a healthy collaboration/competition around the Sierra adventures).

However,I think the first game that broke the 1am barrier was Age of Empires.

Permalink Reply by Erik Wecks on July 10, 2012 at 10:42pm

Jump Man and then Lode Runner on the C64. Loved those games! I also obsessed about the Neuromancer adventure game based on the Gibson book. Funny thing: I am just now reading the book for the first time.

Permalink Reply by Michael on July 11, 2012 at 11:55pm

The Bard's Tale on my Apple IIgs.  I would play for hours and hours after school and into the night on weekends.  I had pages and pages of graph paper with carefully mapped out dungeons.  Absolutely loved that game.  Definitely my first video game addiction.  

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