Not sure this will truly count but my first experience was playing Star Trek on a Burroughs mainframe computer back in 1979. Boxing Day of that year (I was the on-site/on call person for my sins) I actually managed to play it to completion: I destroyed all the Romulans, Klingons and Vegan (I think that's what they were called) Forts. Took all day searching a very large galaxy.
In true adventure style it would be the original Dune which I watched some of my Network colleagues play. They didn't allow anyone else onto the PC in case it messed up their game. This would have been about 1991/1992.
In true adventure style it would be the original Dune which I watched some of my Network colleagues play. They didn't allow anyone else onto the PC in case it messed up their game. This would have been about 1991/1992.
This post was last modified: 10-06-2025, 10:56 AM by Jabod.
My first adventure game experience is honestly lost to the mists of time. But I would guess that it was the original Space Quest somewhere around 1989/1990. Between myself and my school friends we all managed to play the early Space Quest and Police Quest games - King's Quest didn't get a look in until much later, for some reason.
I remember going to a family barbecue at someone's house at some point, and the dad there let all us kids play on his PC. I was exploring the games installed on his hard disk and that's where I discovered that a Space Quest THREE existed. Some time after that my parent's agreed to buy the game for me, and that might be the first boxed game I ever owned. We arrived home with it from the shop, and I opened the box to find that the disks were missing! We had to go back and get another copy. Lesson learned that day: always open the box before getting home!
Despite all these Sierra games, it was LucasArts and the first Monkey Island that really excited me. I think one of my friend's might have had it or the sequel, and I loved going round and playing it.
I remember going to a family barbecue at someone's house at some point, and the dad there let all us kids play on his PC. I was exploring the games installed on his hard disk and that's where I discovered that a Space Quest THREE existed. Some time after that my parent's agreed to buy the game for me, and that might be the first boxed game I ever owned. We arrived home with it from the shop, and I opened the box to find that the disks were missing! We had to go back and get another copy. Lesson learned that day: always open the box before getting home!
Despite all these Sierra games, it was LucasArts and the first Monkey Island that really excited me. I think one of my friend's might have had it or the sequel, and I loved going round and playing it.
My first adventure game experience is a weird one. I was either 3 or 4 and played Leisure Suit Larry 1 on the Amiga by walking back and forth in front of the bar and trying to get past the people on either side of the building because I didn't even know what a text parser was. One of my earliest memories ever is watching my dad play the game, flush the toilet, and then die. I don't even know what my next adventure game after that was. Possibly Maniac Mansion on the NES or maybe 7th Guest or Myst.
I don’t remember.
I’m thinking it was Leisure Suit Larry 1, but it might’ve been KQ1.
I was gaming on console long before I ever got my own PC, but my mother, middle-aged at the time, bought a PC for some other reason and someone gave her those games. On floppy disk
So we all got together and played them on her computer. Guess-the-verb is something I don’t miss.
The first game I had on my own first PC was The Incredible Machine, also on floppy disk but not an AG.
I’m thinking it was Leisure Suit Larry 1, but it might’ve been KQ1.
I was gaming on console long before I ever got my own PC, but my mother, middle-aged at the time, bought a PC for some other reason and someone gave her those games. On floppy disk
So we all got together and played them on her computer. Guess-the-verb is something I don’t miss. The first game I had on my own first PC was The Incredible Machine, also on floppy disk but not an AG.
That must have been around 1989. I was 7, and was with my older sister who was visiting some friends because they were going to play a game called «Larry» that there was a lot of talk about (yes, LSL1). I have vague memories of them playing Space Quest II instead, walking around on that forest planet. I had never been interested in computer games until this moment. But this was like another world opening before my eyes. The only thing I remember about LSL1 from that day, was that they were spending a LOT of time trying to get through those age-verification questions during the opening. We were not native English speakers, and obviously not the right age to play LSL1… 
I wondered if the whole game was like this, mint green static background and text only, like a quiz game or something. Maybe that’s just as well.
A couple of years later, when my parents bought their first home PC (a Toshiba 386DX/33 with MS-DOS 5.1, no Windows, no mouse and no sound card), LSL1 was one of the first games I played – and one of the reasons I did so well in English class at school as a 10 year old. Luckily, I was also smart enough to not use any of the more colourful words I learnt from LSL1 in my English homework texts.
I wondered if the whole game was like this, mint green static background and text only, like a quiz game or something. Maybe that’s just as well.A couple of years later, when my parents bought their first home PC (a Toshiba 386DX/33 with MS-DOS 5.1, no Windows, no mouse and no sound card), LSL1 was one of the first games I played – and one of the reasons I did so well in English class at school as a 10 year old. Luckily, I was also smart enough to not use any of the more colourful words I learnt from LSL1 in my English homework texts.
The earliest adventure games I can recall were on my family's Commodore 64:
Questprobe feat. The Human Torch & The Thing
A "graphic text adventure" thing (static images and text parser) starring two Marvel characters, written by the legendary Scott Adams, where you get The Thing stuck in big tar pit and not much else.
Murder on the Mississippi
A whodunnit set aboard a steam boat in the vein of Sherlock Holmes but with a lot of peculiar humor. Most of the gameplay consists of interrogating passengers and poking holes in their statements.
Maniac Mansion
Yes, we actually had Maniac Mansion on our C64.
I was very young and didn't speak enough English to understand what was going on or be able to make any progress in any of them.
Questprobe feat. The Human Torch & The Thing
A "graphic text adventure" thing (static images and text parser) starring two Marvel characters, written by the legendary Scott Adams, where you get The Thing stuck in big tar pit and not much else.
Murder on the Mississippi
A whodunnit set aboard a steam boat in the vein of Sherlock Holmes but with a lot of peculiar humor. Most of the gameplay consists of interrogating passengers and poking holes in their statements.
Maniac Mansion
Yes, we actually had Maniac Mansion on our C64.
I was very young and didn't speak enough English to understand what was going on or be able to make any progress in any of them.
My adventure game cherry got popped way back in early 1980. My dad had just got his first home computer, a Trash80, and somehow he was able to get his hands on one of the first releases of Zork I. He introduced me to it and I've never stopped playing ag's since! I'll still never forget typing commands into the parser on that monochrome screen and being completely mesmerized. Good times!
Life is too short to drink bad wine--Usually misattributed to Goethe