Your first memories of online gaming?

briany · 09-10-2013 1:07pm #1

What year? What platform? What game? How did you first hear about the concept? What were your initial impressions of the gameplay? Did the idea strike you as something that would be big or just another feature that you took for granted?

For me it would have been Command & Conquer 1 on the PC, the year was '98 or maybe even '99. It was just an option that I came across in the game setup screen and it seemed like a logical progression with Internet connectivity. I don't recall being particularly amazed, just thought it was a nice feature.

I was a relative late comer to the scene, though, and the technologies had been there for years in games like Doom and Quake, services like XBand and Sega Channel, which didn't make it over here, and even BBS games like the MUDs. It would be interesting to hear first hand accounts of these or others. No prizes given for the earliest recollection.

Thecageyone · 09-10-2013 1:10pm

Been a gamer since the 80's but wasn't till 2000 that I got a dreamcast and discovered Phantasy Star online. Played it to death. There was no chit talking back then over mics, but you could use a keyboard to chat while playing. My poor old DC eventually burnt out and I moved onto the Xbox. But in it's day the DC was a great little machine. And PSO ran smooth, even on 56k dial up

ZiabR · 09-10-2013 1:10pm

Like you it was C&C for me too, hadnt a clue what I was at but it was fun at the time. Then is was onto Quake and Half-Life followed by a series of mods for Half-Life, Team Fortress, Firearms, Day of Defeat and then about 5 years of Counter-Strike 1.3!!!!

Overheal · 09-10-2013 1:13pm

"hey can you dupe that armor for me?"

DoctorEdgeWild · 09-10-2013 1:15pm

C and C and Quake. At first at LAN parties and then online. Still play both offline to this day.

BeerWolf · 09-10-2013 1:16pm

Overheal wrote: »

"hey can you dupe that armor for me?"

My very first online game:

Diablo back in 1997

How I recall waiting bloody ages for it to patch over dial-up.

briany · 09-10-2013 1:17pm

Thecageyone wrote: »

Been a gamer since the 80's but wasn't till 2000 that I got a dreamcast and discovered Phantasy Star online. Played it to death. There was no chit talking back then over mics, but you could use a keyboard to chat while playing. My poor old DC eventually burnt out and I moved onto the Xbox. But in it's day the DC was a great little machine. And PSO ran smooth, even on 56k dial up

I remember talking about the Dreamcast with friends and the fact that it could 'go on the internet', having little idea what the really entailed. This would have been back when rumours of the console first started to circulate. To this day I've never seen a Dreamcast in person, though. Actually, maybe we were talking about the Saturn. Memory gets hazy at a certain point. Never saw that one up close either. They turned out to be 90s pipe dreams like a 4th series of Bottom or NTL coming to my road.

NTMK · 09-10-2013 1:20pm

C&C too played everyone up to generals online as it wasnt very good with a Dial up connections

Probably for the best too put way too much time into C&C probably more time than some of the games consoles i own

BeerWolf · 09-10-2013 1:20pm

briany wrote: »

I remember talking about the Dreamcast with friends and the fact that it could 'go on the internet', having little idea what the really entailed. This would have been back when rumours of the console first started to circulate. To this day I've never seen a Dreamcast in person, though. Actually, maybe we were talking about the Saturn. Memory gets hazy at a certain point. Never saw that one up close either. They turned out to be 90s pipe dreams like a 4th series of Bottom or NTL coming to my road.

You missed out - the Dreamcast was pretty advance for it's time.

House of the Dead 2 [sold with a light gun], Code Veronica, Ecco, etc. - awesome

Retr0gamer · 09-10-2013 1:22pm

I used to play LANs more. A friend of mine used to have two PCs hooked up by serial for Quake 2. Then we got 3 then 4 machines in the house hooked up over a LAN. Used to play Half-Life, Starcraft and Counterstrike for hours. I only ventured online with Starcraft. I used to play some dial up Shadow Warrior and Duke 3D with a mate in school as well. I was obsessed with CS and multiplayer for a while but grew out of it after 2 years. I much preferred playing over the LAN with friends rather than with randomers. Now I hardly ever really play online unless it's with mates.

ZiabR · 09-10-2013 1:24pm

Overheal wrote: »

"hey can you dupe that armor for me?"

Never played Diablo, but was addicted to Diablo II.

brevity · 09-10-2013 1:25pm

Sin

The lag was a problem but it really was great fun when it got going. Once of my favourite maps was the library or study and all the characters where shrunk to the size of mice.

...trying to get up to the top shelf to get the OP sniper rifle.

richymcdermott · 09-10-2013 1:26pm

Call of duty 4 for the playstation 3 and the year was 2007

My first memories were awful since i was with eircom and my connection would cut off when the phone rang and I remember the first 2 weeks I had the game it would not work :L

But all that aside what I remember was some amazing gaming moments with friends , so much joy and laughter :P

Stingerbar · 09-10-2013 1:28pm

Doom

in college computer lab, 4 player deathmatch, blew me away

krudler · 09-10-2013 1:29pm

Quake and Unreal way back on pc, Quake III (I think, or was it Arena?) on the Dreamcast

penev10 · 09-10-2013 1:30pm

Dipped my toe in the water a few times on C&C: Red Alert on PC only to find I wasn't quick enough building stuff to survive. Only when the Dreamcast came out did I give it a proper go with Quake 3. Got fairly good at that. I don't remember playing any other game online until the PS3 came out! Never bother with it now, too time consuming to get to a decent level where you can compete.

TomCo · 09-10-2013 1:30pm

Probably Action Quake 2, I loved that game so much.

deathrider · 09-10-2013 1:30pm

Wow, talk about being late to the party. I started off in 2008 on Xbox Live with the reboot of Turok (which is muck). I pretty much observed space marines running round in circles trying to stab each other because their characters moved slower with guns. They all sounded about twelve, and I could hear them screaming at each other through my tv. I'd be lying if I said my first experience was an enjoyable one.

super_furry · 09-10-2013 1:31pm

Unreal Tournament on dial up around 2000. Then Phantasy Star online on the Dreamcast after that.

Sulla Felix · 09-10-2013 1:33pm

Doom, in computer lab in secondary whet my appetite but really, Unreal Tournament was my first real experience.
Oh god, facing_worlds, best map ever. Rushing up the central bridge hoping your snipers were keeping theirs suppressed long enough to get more than halfway across before getting killed! :pac:

Starscream25 · 09-10-2013 1:33pm

Age of empires, loved that game, dial up connection and all, nobody could use the phone while playing, they were the best of times and the worst of times:) I remember it was the year that song by what's her name came out, I am like a bird song, 2000 I think.

maximoose · 09-10-2013 1:37pm

This.

I was 14, bought the game as it came with a headset that you could use offline in the single player and I thought that was a bit nifty. Wasn't until after a few weeks of having the game I got curious about online play, and convinced my da to let me subscribe to xbox live on his credit card.

My first match I was lobbed in with a bunch of Spaniards and I thought the whole idea of what was happening was just amazing haha, playing games with people around the world it just seemed a bit mad. Had some guy following me around the map just saying my gamertag over and over in various silly voices while I asked him in spanish for a ham and cheese sandwich. I was in stitches. We still play together the odd time for old time's sake

Player 2 · 09-10-2013 1:37pm

TomCo wrote: »

Probably Action Quake 2, I loved that game so much.

I think the first online game I really sunk any time into was Action Half-Life in around 1999 or so. I thought that it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Taylor365 · 09-10-2013 1:55pm

richymcdermott wrote: »

Call of duty 4 for the playstation 3 and the year was 2007

God i feel old....AND I'M YOUNG! :eek:

I started in 1998 or 1999. Was 10 years old.

Used to play AOE2, C&C:Tiberian Sun and an old gem called Infantry Online.

Morag · 09-10-2013 1:59pm

1993 playing XPilot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPilot

deceit · 09-10-2013 2:13pm

Thecageyone wrote: »

Been a gamer since the 80's but wasn't till 2000 that I got a dreamcast and discovered Phantasy Star online. Played it to death. There was no chit talking back then over mics, but you could use a keyboard to chat while playing. My poor old DC eventually burnt out and I moved onto the Xbox. But in it's day the DC was a great little machine. And PSO ran smooth, even on 56k dial up

This was the same for me, I remember having stupidly expensive phone bills because of this :P. Then I moved over to quake 3 arena before moving to pc then xbox

Retr0gamer · 09-10-2013 2:18pm

All we need is some one to say they were playing a MUD like dnd on a PDP-10 back in the 70's to make us all seem young.

Creamy Goodness · 09-10-2013 2:20pm

quake 2 i think for me but quake 3 / Counter-Strike was when i started to play properly.

Myrddin · 09-10-2013 2:21pm

One of the Half Life 1 mods, Action Half Life I think it was called. a 30MB file that took 6 hours or something to come down over dial up

Call Me Jimmy · 09-10-2013 2:26pm

Kingpin: Life of Crime in 1999. I was 12 I think. First got into the server after my brothers friend set up in internet.

I was like "So they are real people I'm fighting against?!". This was with dial up. And so started nearlya decade of playing that game (and a few others) before I finally unplugged. Don't play much computer at all any more except when in friends house a bitta pro ev.

Sulla Felix · 09-10-2013 2:35pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

All we need is some one to say they were playing a MUD like dnd on a PDP-10 back in the 70's to make us all seem young.

I still play MUDs :P Discovered them in college when they were the only thing worth playing on the pitiful bandwidth we could get http tunneling out of the campus network

All of this after playing UT as a kid on dialup though, so they don't really count.

theteal · 09-10-2013 2:37pm

Chu Chu Rocket, what a game!

richymcdermott · 09-10-2013 2:38pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

All we need is some one to say they were playing a MUD like dnd on a PDP-10 back in the 70's to make us all seem young.

Whats a mud pdp-10 ....what

Banjo · 09-10-2013 2:46pm

Not sure... Online I think it was Quake 3. I'd been playing Doom over serial and then over LAN for years but never took the plunge on internet gameplay till Quake 3, with several meters of phone cable trailing off into the hall, connection dropping whenever someone tripped on it. Still can't rocket jump properly to this day. I much prefer offline single player where I am the centre of the universe.

The first game that really made me commit to online gaming was City of Heroes in 2006, and when the servers went down a little piece of me went down with them.

Morag · 09-10-2013 2:46pm

Multi User Dungeon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

TerrorFirmer · 09-10-2013 2:50pm

Quake II in 1997, internet was so bad though that I couldn't play properly most of the time. Quake III and Unreal Tournament in 1999 were the first I played extensively.

sarumite · 09-10-2013 2:52pm

For me it was the old text based MUD's which I played back in the early to mid 90's. I didn't have internet at home and the computers in the university didn't have much in terms of graphical prowess.

CptMackey · 09-10-2013 2:52pm

Counter strike and day of defeat on pc. Playing on a 56k dial up. You nearly had to preempt fire at times to win. Used to be wicked quick on lan back in the day as a result. Then moved on to desert combat final mod of battlefield 1942. Ah memories

o1s1n · 09-10-2013 3:09pm

Half Life DM about 99 or so. I still remember the horror of that 90MB update download!

Used to have competitions with a few mates to see who could get the highest rank on The CLQ. Managed to get into the top 10 in the world at one point, was well chuffed

Tried playing Counterstrike a bit but could never get into it. Found it far too slow. Much rathered bouncing around the map, making mince meat of everyone with the Tau Cannon.

simon360 · 09-10-2013 3:14pm

Deus Ex online. I remember a hacker was on and he was spawning in all sorts of crap, it was hilarious!

Chris_Heilong · 09-10-2013 3:15pm

Counter Strike, it was amazing at the time, 56k modem

waterworld87 · 09-10-2013 3:18pm

command & conquer red alert 2 for pc it was epic im big into strategy games, still play it now and again to this day.

o1s1n · 09-10-2013 3:27pm

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

56k modem

Ah yes, 56k gaming. Where you actually had to compensate for lag

Really was awful looking back, but man how I loved it at the time.

Duggy747 · 09-10-2013 3:37pm

Unreal Tournament, loved playing on that CTF level with the 2 pyramid towers in space. Quake 3 got a look in but I found UT more fun and varied.

Brother and I spent a lot of time playing Rainbow Six through that MSN GameZone site. Setting up a room was like how Yahoo did it with checkers or chess.

The horror, though, of being on the verge of winning a match with someone shouting at you to get off so they could use the phone.

Wasn't bothered playing online for years afterwards, always preferred split-screen gaming with mates until Left 4 Dead came around and got a good few years playing those.

Lately, myself and the brother are playing Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield co-op. Jolly hard game :pac: Using tunngle to play through all the old games these days.

Dont be at yourself · 09-10-2013 3:40pm

I remember sleeping over at my mate's gaff, and his dad played Quake online on Indigo (remember them?) servers.

First game I ever played online was Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear on MSN Gaming Zone!

uberpixie · 09-10-2013 4:40pm

did many a year of LAN gaming before properly hitting online.

Used to LAN Diablo across serial cables on three PCs in a mates house when I was a teenager. Great fun, constant drop outs meant on reload the game became more difficult as it scaled up to our latest level. Also played the first Rainbow Six for 2 player co-op, that was a blast.

In college it was Halflife DM, Counter Strike, quake 2&3 even some Battlefield 1942 at game society LANs. BF 1942 with enough people was epic.

First ever online game was prob "Hind" a helicopter flight sim, I played co-op over dialup briefly as a test with a mate. It was interesting considering we both saw different things in game at the same time, so there were some synch issues to be fair....

First major game online for me was Battlefield 2. Played that to death.

GhostInTheRuins · 09-10-2013 4:44pm

Chu chu rocket on the dreamcast

brianregan09 · 09-10-2013 4:58pm

Unreal Tournament for me on the PC back then when people bitched about camping and such sure i hadn't a clue what half of them were on about ??

I had my character modded and all to look like the Predator

thems were the days

wandatowell · 09-10-2013 5:06pm

Soldier Of Fortune II (i think). Played it for about 10 minutes and thought "feck this online gaming ****e"

A few years later I pick up COD:MW, No FPS has come close to MW since

entropi · 09-10-2013 5:37pm

Q3 and Counter Strike back in 99/00 would have been the start of it all. Can't believe it was so long ago:eek:

Shout Dust · 09-10-2013 5:41pm

Age of Empires on dialup, probably around 9-10. I was peacefully building my village, carefully placing farms and the like when I was suddenly set upon by what felt like hundreds of Horse Archers, I was literally wiped out in seconds, my handful of barracks units providing no match. Only later found out about the exploit that allowed you to go over the population limit, but the most valuable lesson was that the internet was no place for a peaceful young empire builder!

Your first memories of online gaming?

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