The 1st rpg was in the 90s. I am not absolutely sure but it was Abandoned Places or ShadowLands. Then I moved to Eye of the Beholder and never looked back.

I did experiment with a Sinclar Spectrum but sent it back for a refund. I am no programmer and the retail market was not well developed at that stage. I eventually moved to an Amiga 500+ (to which I added memory and a hard drive). Then the A1200 came out with a CD drive. Times were looking good but then some of the major software houses started to abandon the Amiga. I remember (I think) that Ultima 7 onwards was DOS (and later Windows) only. So I bought an inferior PC to play RPGs.

Going back further I got an Atari to play Space Invaders sometime in the 1980s. At the time I was dabbling with writing short stories so I purchased an Amstrad PCW and found text games.

Sometimes I wish I had kept a diary.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Pitfall, Asteroids, and Combat were my first games on the Atari 2600 in the 80's. After that I bought the first Nintendo console for $200 at the time that was a lot of cash.

Shame arcade centers have declined in the US. Most I played at closed down.

Same in Europe, there used to be a couple in the university campus nearby, the last one survived until the mid-2000's (changing owner now and then), then disappeared, and the same could be seen in cities. The only place you may still find some are tourist-intensive areas, where people can walk by and have a quick fix far from home (or just because of the atmosphere, maybe).

What's strange about it, is how difficult it is to explain their disappearance, there are several contradicting - or complementary "theories". Is it the home console, is it because of the operators, the manufacturers, the game developers, a lack of creating the right atmosphere for the customers, ..? Perhaps a combination of all that.

I recently read an interesting article about it (written in 2015), which seems to bring more facts than most others, some of the comments should not be missed though, because they complete the big picture.

Originally Posted by JFarrell71
I never got into BG1 either, and never actually made it to the titular city (which does take a while). BG2, on the other hand, is one of my favorite games ever. You're missing out with your self-imposed rule.

I know you are right. I still feel like I will eventually make it through the original Baldur's Gate. I love continuation in a series, where I can stick with my original character and carryover major decisions, so really want to play it like this. I can't tell you how many times I have configured the Baldur's Gate "Trilogy"/Big World mod. Probably have 100 hours into Baldur's Gate just in game restarts.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
It's amazing how many of us owned a C64. I wish Commodore would have kept making computers.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
Actually while I mentioned I started with early 90s RPGs, I actually also started with a C64. Just didnt play any RPGs on it. If Commodure kept making computers though I wouldn't be so sure if they were that different from any other modern computer.

Just seen this, I thought you'd like it Enthusiasts keep making them instead of Commodore.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-voZvEtz48
(sorry for being slightly OOT, I'll stop here)

Since Baldur's Gate II and Icewind dale era.