What Was the First Game to Make You Say 'WOW'?

#61 Oh, I can't forget Thief 2!

I actually like Thief 1 better than Thief 2, but I played Thief 2 first. In fact, I played the Thief 2 demo before I played either.

My little brother and sister and I all huddled around the computer and we'd take turns trying to pass the demo. We delighted in the conversations and arguments between the guards, laughing uproariously at the word 'taffer'. I remember how my sister kept screaming, completely terrified, every time Garret would fall off the edge and slam into the ground and you would hear this aweful cracking, crushing sound along with Garret's hoarse scream . . . it was just excellent.

Man, I actually can't WAIT for Thief 3. I really hope they keep true to the first couple of games. :)

#62 I thought Looking Glass had closed down... Who is making Thief III ?

#63 Warren Specter. (Spector? Whatever). The guy that's making Deus Ex 2. Anyways, they hired a bunch of ex-LG people and at least one Fan Mission maker (a VERY talented and devoted member of the community). I actually have very high confidence that the game will be kickass.

#64 It was some game for the old Atari... I forget the name, but it involved shooting down UFOs and then meeting the mother ship, and trying to transport onto it, or something. I really didn't know what was going on, as I wasn't allowed to play it (sibling rivalries), but it impressed me.

Then again, I think burning gas impressed me when the Atari came out.

#65 Ys Book I+II on the TurboGrafxCD-ROM.

Come on guys, no other TurboDuo lovers out there? The next was Lords of Thunder, also on the Duo. Best music in the world on those two.

#66 LOL, I still have my TurboDuo...its collecting dust under my stereo cabinet :)

I loved Y's I & II, but one of my real loves on TG-16 was Military Madness, a really cool turn-based strategy game. I use an emulator to play the games, and can still play my CD games :))

#67 That's a hard one, because I can't remember which came first: Pitfall on the Atari 2600, or the Tempest arcade game.

#68 Mine was Monkey Island and Loom. That was back before I had a computer, my friend used to let me play it. Then I switched to doom (which I still play often, Zdoom is what they call it now ;))

But the first 2 games I fell in love with is Mario Bros. And Megaman.

The first game that got me into deving was not really a game, it was ZZT. ZZT was a DOS game creator, programed by Tim Sweeny from Epic Mega Games, that gave you limitless possiblilities (sorry for spelling I'm in a hurry) as far as dos goes.

Then I left that and used Megazuex, The super dooper verion of ZZT made by Tim's Co-worker and foe.

Then off to RPG Maker 2000, where I really got into game making. I must of made 200 games, non of which I'll let anyone see ;)

And then Tribes/Half-life got me into 3D deving.

Sorry for ranting, but talking about the past always brings warmth to my heart.

-DE

#69 My first wow in the arcades (I musta been 9 or so) was either Space Invaders or Asteroids. I believe it was the latter though, that I encountered first.

For home games, it would have to be Combat on the Atari 2600 (Actually, it was a Sears Video Arcade, a rebranded Atari. We got one when Sears first started carrying them.)

After that, there's a whole friggin list of wows - my parents got me addicted to video games (seriously - they were as into 'em for a long time. My mother and I spent a good number of hours together trying to beat Bubble Bobble on the Amiga. Seems seriously strange in comparison to other people's parents I knew who though the machines would rot your brains out! ;-) It's no wonder I finally ended up as an Indie developer - it's how I was raised. It's all my parent's fault :-)

#70 All i'd ever seen computer wise were the Apple II and the TRS-80.

It was a big WOW the first time i walked into a computer store and saw Star Raiders on the Atari 800. (still have 2 800's stashed away: was nearly $1000 when i got the first one back in the depths of time)

In the arcade i was blown away by Battle Zone. Loved the look and the cool sound effects. My brother played it a lot in college and got very good. Taught me some tricks.

Since it was one of the first 3D immersion games, i loved watching people who didn't grasp the fact that just because something was off screen didn't mean it was gone. They'd last just long enough to get destroyed thrice. Sometimes never even seeing an enemy tank other than the first one that appeared directly ahead.

#71 I never could play Battlezone when I was a kid...mainly because I was too short to see through the viewer then :(

I had to settle for playing Star Wars. I didnt' think about it til just now...was Start Wars the first 3D Rail Shoter?? Hmmm...

#72 (time to ramble)

I'm not sure what the first one was because as a kid, any trip to the arcade had a lot of wow material. I loved Pac-Man, Tempest, Star Wars, and Joust the most, but I was a revolving door of quarters in just about any game I could get my hands on.

I do have a lot of "wow" moments for different reasons.

Ultima Underworld. I wasn't a Wolf3d fan. It looked cool, yeah, but I wanted to play a 3D RPG since my friend and I, on summer vacation, designed the truly coolest 3D RPG ever (this was after a day long Ultima 2 play fest). Unfortunately, we only knew BASIC and didn't know it well enough to do anything but copy programs out of Compute! When I saw UU, it was that idea made reality. They stole my idea! (shakes tiny fists in the air the way that everyone who thinks they have the coolest idea ever does when someone else makes it first)

Loom also turned my head. The combination of beautiful graphics and music in an adventure game simply rocked.

Half-Life was the game that turned me on to FPS's. It sounds strange to say now since I try every FPS I can get my hands on, but I despised the run and gun games early on in the FPS genre. Wolf3D and Doom bored me. I played Quake and Quake II for a short time before getting extremely bored with them. I didn't play Unreal at that time because it was "just another Quake clone". I bought Half-Life shortly after it came out because everyone I knew was raving about it...and many of them hated FPS's as much as I did. So I bought it and fell in love with the genre. The combination of action, simple puzzles (mainly keeping scientists alive), and a limited story endeared me to the game. Deus Ex and System Shock 2 put me closer to heaven. I went back and played Quake II...and enjoyed it. Then I bought Unreal shortly after I played Quake 3 and UT...

Which leads me to exiting the Vortex Rikers at the beginning of Unreal. Walking out into that landscape literally took my breath away. It was pure eye-candy goodness, but damn was it beautiful.

When it comes to graphics, it is mainly a series of moments instead of the actual games they belonged to. The introduction to FF8 (while the game itself bored me to tears), when Claire and Leon turn the corner in the opening RE2 movie (I love the game, but that's still some of the most fluid animation in a single moment that I'd seen in a game). Pit Fighter's "real" fighters (the game was absolutely horrible in every way except at the time it caused quite a stir because of the graphics themselves; other games that took this upon themselves were Nighttrap and Harvester, but by that time the world had--thankfully--moved on). The level backgrounds in Vampire Savior (it helps that it's my favorite fighting game, but still).

Lately, I'd have to say my standards have risen or the games just haven't made me wow as much. The latest one that got a rise from me is Metroid Prime. I usually hold all titles that make a transition from 2D to 3D with utmost suspicion. I was extremely worried that I'd hate GTA3 after loving the first two games and seeing what had happened to Castlevania 64. But they kept the simple formula for the first two games in the third one and it made the transition well. Prime is the same way. I hated the fact that it was moving to a FPS format from the 2D platformer. Especially since platformers are heavily reliant on jumping...and that's a huge FPS weakness. Strangely, the feel of the 2D platformer runs strong through Prime. It's extremely difficult to explain this. It's a feel that the 2D Metroid games share that Prime has in spades. And jumping isn't that much of a chore once you obtain the Space Boots. It actually wowed me that it made the transition from 2D to 3D well.

Well, that's a list of some of the wow moments. Tere were others like playing the Enchanter series or Plundered Hearts from Infocom because of the depth of the stories, but I've already rambled on for long enough.

#73 heh.. I always just kinda played games.. NES, Sega, duke 1, wolf3d, doom, and the like.. then I got real heavy into quake.. esp the multiplayer. But it was when Team Fortress for Quake came out (on my b-day no less, hehe) that I said, "Wow. I can do that?" plus, it's still most likely my favorite game of all time, cept for maybe TFC in it's early days.

#74 Hehehe
a litle late but I remember me playing with a big box that was connected to the pc and yes I could play...
PONG...
just 2 white strokes a white square (te ball) and a counter and that's it... Then I thought about.. how do they create that.
Then I had a sega. I loved Indiana jones and sonic. I thought again.. how do they make that.??
Then I had a pc with games as wolfenstein, Syndicate+,
Ultima 7 and 8, and oh yeah.. I wrealy wanted to create a game... but I was rather thinking about how they create those nice logo's and stuff than about the programming so first I discoverd 3D ART (I STILL LOVE IT) then I discovered TURBO PASCAL phew.. switched to Visual basic and creating funny thigs with it.
Now I also know a bit of C but I rather love the 3d art part of creating games...

#75 Doom, Duke Nukem and Terminal Velocity.....all perfectly crafted games that made me go wow...and got me into the business

#76 Besides a few classic arcade games (Pac-Man and others) that I didn't get the chance to play much. The first game I was addicted to was Parsec on the TI-99/4A.

Refueling tunnels, over-heating laser, asteroid belts and yeah, speech synthesis at a time when all the other games could only do beeps! A true classic!

#77 Wolfenstein 3D

#78 Maybe Techno Super Bowl for SNES

#79 Was it techno or tecmo?

Anyways, yes, that game never made me say 'wow' -- but the gameplay was great. We spent soooooo much time playing that game. Except I hated that the Cowboys and Emmit Smith were uber.

#80 Without a doubt, Doom. :)