To mark his own birthday today Luethar sent in this poll, where he asks about how old you were when you played your first RPG.


In the comments state how old you were and perhaps also how old you are now, just for fun.

Well, I started playing games at age 5 or 6.

Not entirely sure when I played my first RPG - but it wasn't long after that. Not sure I remember the very first one, but I know I tried a couple on my ZX Spectrum and C64.

Obviously, I was way too young for that genre - but I do remember having fun with a Spectrum game that was about exploring caverns and I know there was a dragon in there somewhere.

Now, the first CRPG that I played in a serious way - and the one that cemented the genre as my primary love - would have been Bard's Tale - the Amiga version.

That was around age 10 or something like that. I didn't complete it at first, but I played the hell out of that.

RPG is vague and I assume it's on a computer (as a kid, we're roleplaying all the time from the moment we start talking). The 10-19 is a likely bet, I can't tell for sure which games, must have been on a ZX81 or a Spectrum first.

Originally Posted by TheDart
Obviously, I was way too young for that genre - but I do remember having fun with a Spectrum game that was about exploring caverns and I know there was a dragon in there somewhere.

Sounds like The Hobbit adventure game

Spectrum, C64 and Amiga, the usual suspects

I played my first role playing game at age 0. And it hasn't ended since.

Seriously though, I think my first ones were Diablo 2 in around '98 and HOMM3 around that same time. If you consider them rpgs. The first serious one I got into was Gothic 1, I believe.

It was Eye of The Beholder 2 and I was 14 I think.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord I believe was my first crpg, and I think that came out in eighty-one, so I was sixteen at the time.

I'm assuming we're que'ing for true rpg's, and not arcade games or Atari/Intellivision/arcade games.

And I love seeing EotB listed as first games for some, I got to test on those back in the day and it was truly a lot of fun!!

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Sounds like The Hobbit adventure game

No, but I played that one as well. In fact, The Hobbit was the very first text adventure I ever played

The game in question was more of a platform type of game where you had a character with some sort of sword. I don't remember much more than that, unfortunately - but it was not an action game and I'm pretty sure it was some sort of early RPG, albeit very primitive.

A lot of my first games were SSI.

Dark Sun which came out in 1993
Pools of Radiance 1988
Pools of Darkness 1991
Curse of the Azure Bonds 1989 (which I played on an Apple II)

Those are among the earliest computer games I remember playing so 1988. So I would have been around 24 years old at the time. Before that it was all pen and paper AD&D gaming although I got out of games during the dark years of 16 to 23.

I am 56 now

I also played HOMM and Might and Magic. I looked those up and saw one around 1992 so crossed over with the SSI games.

There was also these adventure games… Fantasy. No fighting. You had to collect things to solve puzzles … and google and brain finally solved it, King's Quest by Roberta Williams. I saw one of those came out in 1984 but had various re-released that crossed over with the SSI time line and I don't recall if I got one of those or one of the originals.

My sharpest memories are playing the SSI games, so loved those. So sticking with 1988 as my first year. Plus not sure King's Quest counts as an RPG or not.

EDIT: Age at which you started playing … its a bit of a nuanced question really. I mean if you asked a group who were all roughly the same age might be more interesting but I couldn't play computer games when I was 10-19 but I am sure I would have if I could have.

Back in '81 I was 13 and played some very primitive adventure games on my ZX81, and played PnP D&D for the first time.

I didn't have a computer when I was small, but some of my mates had C64s and Spectrums. The earliest RPG-like thing I remember, because I was fascinated by it, was an old game called Dun Darach. Not a proper RPG, but you had a map to explore, there were NPCs, you could buy, sell and steal things, and gamble in a casino or invest in a bank. There was even a day/night cycle.

If Zelda counts as a RPG then about 13 I think…

I'm somewhere between 20 and 40 years old now.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord I believe was my first crpg, and I think that came out in eighty-one, so I was sixteen at the time.

I was about 15 playing the first Wizardry game on my Apple ][+ … so around the same time

I'm about to turn 50, so it would have been hard for me to play an RPG before I was 10. There barely were any.

But I made up for it in my second decade.

Ultima 5 on C64 probably around age 12. Currently 40 something.

I came late to the party because there were no PC's when I was young!!

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I played my first role playing game at age 0. And it hasn't ended since.

Seriously though, I think my first ones were Diablo 2 in around '98 and HOMM3 around that same time. If you consider them rpgs. The first serious one I got into was Gothic 1, I believe.

Except for doing it a couple of years later - my journey is the exact same one.

I played Diablo 2 in a cybercafé on holidays when those things still existed and bought the game when I got back home. I then started playing demos of RPGs and Gothic 1 was love at first sight.

First game "I" ever bought from Amazon - my dad thought someone would steal his card details

Originally Posted by Pladio
First game "I" ever bought from Amazon - my dad thought someone would steal his card details

Was he right?

Originally Posted by Ripper
Was he right?

Not that we know of

If text adventures count, 14 in 1973. Otherwise something on Apple II+ in 1981.

As Corwin said, no PCs at first, so first time was on a shared Honeywell mainframe using a teletype.

I'm not including console games so I think it would be Baldur's Gate 1 in 1999. I was 35, 57 now.