When you've been involved with computer gaming for quite a long time, sometimes it's hard to remember exactly where and when it all began. Of course in this day and age, it would be safe to say that being exposed to games goes way back to one's childhood but when it comes to computer gaming, tracing all the way back becomes more difficult if it happens to be before the late 1970s. Computer games actually go way back to the very early days of computing when specialized Mainframe computers still used vacuum tubes for their logic circuits.

However, if we are to take computer gaming as an industry, market, and as a current preoccupation, the start would coincide with the birth of the micro-computer which was the mid 70's and onward.

My exposure to computer games began in the 1980s just as so many brands of micro-computers (which we classify as PC today) started coming out. There were a lot of startup hardware companies each sporting the use of different microprocessors whether it be from Intel, Motorola, or some other giant electronics company. Fortunately enough, yours truly was already around when the so-called industry started to begin.

Based on my own experience, there were 3 major computer companies that vied for the top spot of the day and in these 3 platforms is where developers and publishers focused their efforts on creating the global computer game market that we have today. These were Apple, Commodore Business Machines (CBM), and International Business Machines (IBM). After all, computer games and gaming are a business.

Fortunately enough, having a chance to play games on all 3 platforms had somewhat widened my horizons as a young person (back then) when it came to gaming. Although a particular title would usually be released for all three, the performance still depended on the capability of the branded machines and their proprietary operating systems.

Now, we will just stick with computer gaming in this discussion as console gaming was practically another thing else. For me, of all 3 platforms, the Apple 2 series led the pack in terms of ease of use, software availability, and performance. The Commodore 64/128 series had better graphics and sound (they had specialized processor chips for this) and was the cheapest of the three but had one serious drawback, it had very long loading times due to the turtle pace crawl of its disk drive as compared to that of Apple. Bringing up the third was the early IBM PCs. It took time for the PC to catch up in terms of software/content and hardware add-ons so it could fairly compete with the first two. Again, we are talking 1980's since the PC overrun the competition with widespread use and more advanced hardware in the 1990s.

Back then, when you bought a game to play, you bought a packaged game. There was no Internet where you could simply download it from. For those who remember, going online meant connecting to a BBS but then, that's another story. Games were practically a physical product so the publishers had to make sure that the cost and price of the game were justified. The floppy disk (which would be like CD/DVD today) came in a beautiful (usually cardboard) box with other items like a manual, maps, code wheels, and other collectibles that made the player smile with a feeling that what was bought was worth it. It's like when you purchase an RPG game set from a novelty store with the board, dice, pieces, and all. For gamers like me back then, this was something one would fondly remember.

The mouse wasn't still that widely used in the 1980s except for the really expensive micros of the time like the Mac and later, the Apple 2GS. It also started coming out for the 3 major platforms but not everyone was fortunate enough to implement them. When you wanted to move around a screen, you used a joystick. This was quite evident when using the C64/128 because you really needed a joystick to play games. Similarly to today, you needed a disk drive to transfer the program to your computer's RAM. You inserted the floppy into the drive, type-enter the load command, and wait for the game to start up. Also, please bear in mind that you had very limited RAM in the day that it's hard to fathom what one could do with 64 to 128Kbytes of computer memory, yet at the time, we were enjoying our games to the fullest.

Also, let me point out that hard discs were rare and were more of a specialized peripheral used by business applications for huge record-keeping purposes. We were at the nit and grit stage of modern-day computing as to why for someone like me, those days were very memorable. Even in the 1980s computer games were all over the place. If you had a computer at home (even if it was just the Commodore 64 using a cassette tape drive) you were SomeBody. You ended up going with friends who had their own computers themselves because you guys were the only ones who could talk and walk the computer jargon. You were special (reminiscent smile)! Today, a PC is a home appliance that almost everyone cannot (in one way or the other) do without.

As to how we played games at the time, let me share 3 examples and the computers you truly used. The Apple 2 was my main machine. It was awesome because the internals was easily accessible. Just pop off the lid and add peripheral cards as needed. If one didn't have a computer fan attached to the side, it would be better to keep the lid off for better air circulation. My Apple 2+ is long gone (sob) so the image you see is just for example purposes. Games in almost all genres were available and you usually used the keyboard although a few titles needed a joystick. One of my favorite games was Where in the World is Carmen San Diego (for those who remember it). 8Bit graphics and sound from a very small speaker but back then, but nobody really cared. They just all wanted to play.

Except for the really long loading times (sometimes you could actually take a break or eat a snack while waiting. No kidding!), the C64 was an awesome machine. The graphics and sound were the best at the time and it was better to use a color TV for both screen and sound. The C64 beats both Apple2 and PC when it comes to music and sound effects as it already practically had a mini-synthesizer inside it. My favorite games were BattleTech and Times of Lore as the music was epic! With the C64 however, the joystick was a must for most games.

Finally, the early IBM PCs weren’t really built for gaming back then. They were more of business data crunchers usually used for payroll and other database purposes. Despite this, the game market somehow foresaw that the computer would eventually outlive both its main competitors so they started to write games for the then MS-DOS platform.

Again, almost all game genres were available from arcade to adventure games and the usual method of control was still the keyboard (for almost all). It was on the PC platform that a lot of adventure games were made in the '80s since it had the RAM to accommodate the larger programs. PC's usually come in either 128 or 256K that could be extended to as high as 500K RAM. That was a lot back then. The drawback was that both graphics and sounds were no match to both Apple and Commodore. King's Quest and Maniac Mansion were 2 of my favorites. Both were adventure games and you had to type the action you wanted the character to do or choose (via keyboard) a specific listed action in the game.

Eventually, point-and-click gaming would become the norm in the '90s and with the availability of hard drives, higher resolution graphic cards and sound cards like the Sound Blaster, gaming on the PC was on its way to becoming what it is today. Regardless, for those who experienced playing games like Karateka, Arctic Fox, and computer RPGs like the Ultima series and/or other similar games, the 1980s will always be a time to treasure and remember. Also, please be advised that the images are just to represent what gaming looked like back then. Sadly, my old micros are long gone and only my Apple2e remains sitting in a corner for posterity's sake.