What were the earliest video games you played?

[Gusington]

I did that! Jenius.

[Greybriar]

....My first modem was just 300 baud. My first computer was a Texas Instruments (TI99-4A). I once spent $98 to upgrade my PC from 640k all the way to one megabyte. I still remember how to re-jigger my config.sys and autoexec.bat to free up as much upper memory as I could. Specifically, Falcon 3.0 and 4.0 required 603K free. I became quite the local expert on UMM (upper memory management)

As far as weeks to download games...hell yes. Only allowed two downloads per day...and there are at LEAST 50 games I want. Again.

After I added some RAM to my PC, I took the easy way out and used Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager (QEMM) to manage the memory on my PC.

[Cyrano]

@bbmike:  That, my friend, is a memory.  I recall having a special tool to notch the other side and save the lofty sum I'd have to pay for another 5-1/4'' floppy.

This causes me to remember the drawer-length pair of cardboard containers I had to house my collection of C64 floppies.  Sorted by game type and within each category by game title.  Thus passed much of the mid-80s.

[trailrunner]

After I added some RAM to my PC, I took the easy way out and used Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager (QEMM) to manage the memory on my PC.

Wow.  I remember that program. I bought that for my work computer.  I was running FORTRAN on my PC and needed the extra memory. Those were the days when I could put in a purchase request for software and install it myself - no sysadmin accounts.

[Tuna]

Remember the early days of DOS tweaking that config.sys to get every tiny lil bit of memory...

[trailrunner]

This causes me to remember the drawer-length pair of cardboard containers I had to house my collection of C64 floppies.  Sorted by game type and within each category by game title.  Thus passed much of the mid-80s.

I had a similar box, but it held my punch cards. 

In my first job out of school, I spent a lot of time in the lab.  To store my data, I would frequently buy cases of 5 1/4 inch floppies. The darn things only held 360k IIRC, so I had to buy a lot.

[DoctorQuest]

I miss punch cards. They were great for taking notes on. And for bookmarks. I would occasionally use some for programming and JCL. :)

[RommelFox]

I remember my dad loading up the game Tapper off of a floppy.  You're a bartender that has to serve drinks quickly, or you get thrown down the bar by angry patrons. After that, I think the original Mario on the Nintendo is the other game I remember.

[Cyrano]

My dad's factory used punch cards for some purpose or other and they were my preferred note card well into grad school.

I am a world master at Tapper. @me.  In undergrad, I once played it for several hours straight and only quit when the thing rolled the score over.  People bought me beer for the effort.  Kind of meta.

[BanzaiCat]

Wow, I must have blocked that memory. The first semester of our high school freshman Computer Programming class was exclusively done by using punch cards in a WANG card reader. My God that was a huge pain in the ass. That thing must have cost the school a fortune. We were so relieved to move on to the networked computers the next semester.

[Dammit Carl!]

Like most our age (40ish), the Atari was my gateway into home video gaming.  Couldn't tell you which games, mind you, but I loved the Pitfall stuff - was a total Activision fanboy from then on.

For computer games, I glomed time off a buddy's machine and spent much time on Lucasarts' Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and Their Finest Hour.  I love(d) the position of Stuka or BF-110 tail gunner as I'm a masochist and finding that sweet spot in SWotL where your rockets hit that B-17 just right. 

[Gusington]

One of my favorite games ever is Pitfall 2.

[bob48]

BOULDER DASH! on the C64.

Chaos Engine
Magic Pockets
Xenon
SPEEDBALL - I still have the scars

Some good games from Bitmap Brothers,

[SirAndrewD]

Remember the early days of DOS tweaking that config.sys to get every tiny lil bit of memory...

The dreaded conventional 640k!

[Tuna]

Remember the early days of DOS tweaking that config.sys to get every tiny lil bit of memory...

The dreaded conventional 640k!

Utilizing that himem.sys