I don't think I have any of my Atari 2600 or C64 stuff around anymore.

I should have Chip's Challenge somewhere. And Solitaire. :)

Exactly what I was thinking. Also way back then owning games was a novelty. Pirating was so rampant, you could get a lot of games on one single Compact Cassette that very few bought more than a handful of games before they found a friend that could get them pirate copies so they could stop buying them.

The first game I owned that I kinda finished is probably Elite on Commodore 64 (Go figure. ;) ) . At least I got to Elite status so I reckon I can call that finishing it. :P

And for good reason coming from a guy born in 1992:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/i_have_beaten_ultima_iv/post1


But I do think the game did push the RPG genre to higher standards. Should have made the thread like this:


"Welcome to the Salty's Spitoon, how tough are ya?"

"HOW TOUGH AM I? I BEATEN THE ORIGINAL 1979 EDITION OF AKALABETH: WORLD OF DOOM?!"

"Yeah so?"

"Without the Magic Amulet...."

^that would carry more weight if i actually played aklabeth ;p

Great Idea. I think it was Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego for the old C64 or maybe Super Mario Bros for the (nes)

On second thought. I think it was (gasp) E.T. for the Atari 2600. I loved the movie so much I was determined to beat the crappy game and I did! Took alot of resets =P

The oldest game I still own that I have beaten is Superman for the Atari 2600.

The game was released in 1978, although I played it a few years later as that, surprisingly, predates my existence. Not the first game I ever owned or even played, but it is certainly the oldest as I no longer have a copy of Combat, which was released in 1977.

EDIT: Thanks to a serendipitous trip to the Flea Market this weekend, I now own a copy of Combat. So, that is now the oldest game I've beaten that I own. ^_^

From the games that I still own it's Might and Magic Book I: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum (1986).

I guess I've beaten some older games on my C64 when I was a kid, but I can't name them and for most of them I'm not sure in which year they were released.

....We should TOTALLY turn that into a t-shirt! :)

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/welcome-to-the-salty-spitoon-how-tough-are-ya/photos/sort/score

If ports count, then Super Mario Bros (1985). If not, Wolfenstein 3D (1992).

Actually pretty much the same; I haven't beaten (or, indeed, even played--remember that it's free) Akalabeth, so that leaves the first Might and Magic, also the oldest game I've bought, as the oldest game I've beaten.

edit: Oh hey, speaking of Might and Magic, thanks a lot GOG--so much nicer having the first six Might and Magic games strewn randomly across eight shelves then bundled conveniently together. "Easier to organize" indeed.

That I (still) own?

- GoldenEye 007 (N64, 1997) (on 'Agent' [easy] and 'Secret Agent' [medium] difficulties; never did manage to get very far on '00 Agent' [hard])

- If you count somewhat more open-ended, replayable games, Discovery: In the Steps of Columbus (DOS - PC, 1992)
- If you count freeware, Castle of the Winds (Windows 3.x - PC, released 1992 or 1993, depending where you look, but NOT 1989, as some sites claim) (pity so many of the pages hosting it / talking about it have gone down in the last several years -- not to mention the convoluted process required to get it running on 64-bit Windows)
- And finally, if you want to count "casual" video games, the version of MS Solitaire and Minesweeper that came with Windows 3.11 would probably count as being from that same era (Solitaire is the older), and I certainly "beat" them both many times. =)

I don't really finish very many of the games that I play, though -- not as a kid, and not now.

Yeah, the dam is one of those irrational puzzles the genre's famous for. :/

As far as I can tell, the oldest game I own I've completed is Planetfall, depending on how you define the age of a game. The original game is from 1983, but the Amiga version (which is what I played, and still have the box even) was released in 1986, and I didn't play it until, probably, 1990.

A few other games on the list would be:
Wizball (C64, 1987)
Nebulus (a.k.a Tower Toppler, C64, 1987)
Airborne Ranger (C64, 1987)
Defender of the Crown (C64, 1987)
Maniac Mansion (C64, 1987)
West Bank (C64, 1987)

Looking at that list, I think I can conclude that I got my first computer, the C64 in 1987 ;-)

I did have some games that were older than that by a few years, but either I didn't complete them (or don't remember doing so at any rate), or they weren't games that could be completed as such.

If it makes you feel better, many of the points you touch are true. The Ultima games, and Origin games in general, we always ahead of their time, and as a consequence they could not take a step back an polish up what was already there. Ultima V improves on many points, and Ultima VI even more (play with the new Nuvie interface). Ultima VII on the other hand feels like a glorified point & click adventure to me.