What was your very first computer wargame you ever played???

[witchbottles]

I enjoy nowadays on the PC the WS&IM for PC form TAHGC, the 3R2 version from Avalon Hill, and Panthers in the Fog and the Caen games from the Close Combat Series from Matrix Games, along with Harpoon Deluxe for PC. Those I play regularly on my Win 10 computer now.

Rarely, very rarely, I play Fantasy General on my Win 10 as well, I kind of like it best from all of the 5 star "general" series of games.

I try to stay away from Gary Grigsby's War in Russia and Pacific War. I find them fascinating but even single turns eat up hours and hours of game time I typically lack nowadays. (Prefering to spend those game hours on ASL when I can).

guns of Ft Defiance was a good game for its time, but very dated and ended up obsolete within about a year and half of its release. (old school, used a tape recorder as an ersatz hard drive in those days).

I never tried any of the other Avalon Hill versions of wargames except 3R2. Did anyone ever try their Attack Sub, 5th Fleet, or Tanktics, or Dneiper River Line or midway Campaign computer games?

 

[dlazov]

I am still playing Steel Panthers WW2 and MBT and The Operational Art of War IV.

I fiddle with Panzer/Allied/Soviet Corps (aka Panzer General) and DG CWIE2 from time to time and I have 30+ Matrix games but don’t play those much.

 

[witchbottles]

I played for a bit, an SSI release called "Soldiers At War", it was pretty much a port of the "Ambush" game from VG into a PC game. 8 men, one squad, fitted out with weapons, different missions (8 of them) all based in Italy 1943 time frame, so you fought Italians and later, Germans and later, both.

Probably the most interesting mission in that set I found was the "sneak in and evacuate the POWs, but don't let them get executed because the enemy sees the escape /rescue happening.

One of the other missions, after a full mission defending a hilltop, you have to move to another point of contact and there is no refit or replacement of casualties, you only go with what was left, to get through a German ambush along a rail line.

It was challenging, much more so than the VG Ambush games, as the AI was completely random in generation rather than being paragraph driven by entry into certain locations.

Haven't played that one in many years now.

 

[The Purist]

Way back in Apple IIe days (early 80s) there was an air combat game with blocky fighters that jump from place to place based on your key stroke orders and when you gave the order to fire. It was sort of like the book version of Aces of Aces but WWII. After that it had be SSI's BattleGroup, Kampfgruppe, and Mech Brigade after upgrade from 48k to 64

 

[JAGgamer]

I completely forgot about Soldiers at War. That was a blast of a skirmish level game. I'd love to see a modern version.

 

[R Hooks]

Not sure about first one I played, since my friends wife was head of college computer studies, but the first one I bought a computer to play was Bismark by SSI I think.

 

[Ric of The LBC]

Depends on how you define Computer War Game. I'll say Their Finest Hour. First person flight sim. I was the office CAD jockey, my boss bought it for me along with a joy stick. Circa 1990.

But, a college roomate in college had a Commedor 64 and I'd play Silent Service. I bought a 486-66 in '92 and started playing Strike Commander. Scorched Earth and Ramparts were fun too.

 

[JimWhite]

This was it for me...

 

[Ed Donoghue]

I played a bunch of SSI computer games, guess the first was AMBUSH, like so many others. Followed by a couple of Civil War titles. Wow that was a long time ago.

 

[Mister T]

...and here is mine

 

[fenyan]

Star Trek on the big college mainframe.

 

[Ric of The LBC]

The first "computer" game I ever saw/played was Tic-Tack-Toe at the LA Museum of Science and Industry. circa ''72-'73ish

 

[Kevin Kenneally]

My first computer game was "Tanks" for the Atari console game system. My daughter always kicked my butt (she was six years old then).

My first real computer game was on an Apple IIe 128k with 80 column extended memory card; the game was AH's Dreadnought. Awesome game that kept me entertained for hours.

 

[HansK]

"Empire" around 1989.

Oh, the time I spent with that one… So cool.

 

[c600g]

 

[Kijug]

View attachment 10256

Actually, I think it was Air Sea Battle...then Combat.

 

[Ric of The LBC]

Actually, I think it was Air Sea Battle...then Combat.

Combat came with the console.

 

[Kijug]

Combat came with the console.

Heh...you win! Just too long ago to recall. LOL!

 

[von Marwitz]

Seawolf for the Commodore VC-20. It did not require joysticks but paddles...

von Marwitz

 

[Michael Dorosh]

1st wargame was Silent Service (around 1988-89). If you consider that a sim, then Steel Panthers MBT was the first wargame I played (circa 1996-1997).

I remember Silent Service, the original, I rather enjoyed it. What a golden age it was for sims. Muzzle Velocity by digi4fun was a hybrid - you could play it off a wargame map, or jump into the 3D world and take over as an AFV or an infantryman in 1st person mode.