[Jake]

After making that 8-13 year old thread, I went and took a shower, and decided maybe it would be a good idea to post a poll, just to find out how many of us have been playing AG's since they were in that age demographic.

I got out of the shower to discover that Jim had started a post trying to defeat the notion that adventure games outside the realm of edutainment were even ever targeted at kids to begin with (which I think is one of the more ridiculous things I've heard in the last couple weeks), but that's not the reason I'm making this poll.

I'm just curious. I think there is a lot to be said for real adventure games and the 8-13 year old demographic (not just Freddi Fish, which is really meant for 6-10 year olds I think, and not just thinking that some kids might "get" a couple of the references in your otherwise adult-targeted game -- that's not the point), and I just wanted to see when you guys started playing.

I know this poll has been done a billion times before, but I want to know again, now


---

As a bonus, if you feel like it: after voting post what game was your first, or at least which early AG really stood out to you, and why it appealed to you that first time (or handful of times) you played it.

[tabacco]

Erm... I think it was 8-13. When did Sierra's Black Cauldron game come out?

[Jackal]

Let me just clarify that my vote is basically irrelevant to what you're after, Jake. Being an old fart, there WERE no adventure games until I was in high school. But my dad actually bought an early home-user Apple computer before that, and I was the only person to even used it (played pinball and a couple other games).

So I guess BJ was right!! I didn't own a computer between 8-13, and my old man did! That man's a genius!!

Game was Zork, by the way, and me and a girlfriend borrowed a computer from school and played it night and day until we finished it. Great times!

EDIT: Actually, I see that your poll took ancient gamers into account.

[Jake]

Yeah Jack, not sure what you're talking about I really just wanted to know when you first played an AG. Text, graphic, or otherwise. Whether it was on your computer, a shared family computer, or a parents computer isn't relevant.


The first AG I played was unfortunately, like Tabacco, The Black Cauldron. I played it on more than one occasion at my Dad's office, on a spare PC that nobody was using. I didn't like it very much. Fortunately a friend pirated me Monkey Island 2 a few years later.

[Kolorabi]

8-13... it was a text adventure on the C64. I was young and inexperienced, and didn't really know what to do. I fumbled all the time and it all felt very awkward. I must admit that my first experience with an adventure game wasn't very satisfying.

[Swordmaster]

My first adventure games were the early Quests from Sierra: Police Quest, King's Quest... (and Larry ) Although I recall really getting hooked on adventures with The Secret of Monkey Island. (And yeah, 8-13 is my category too.)

[Wormsie]

I played Mother Goose when I was seven. When I was around eleven I played Loom and understood nothing of it. When I was twelve I played the Curse of Monkey Island and I loved it. After that I got MI1 and 2, Grim Fandango, etc etc etc. So I voted for 8-13.

Funny - I remember I got an insult list for MI from the Scumm bar...

[ragnar]

I began playing computer games when I was 2 years old and I played some adventures before the age of 7 I think (hard to remember exactly, though).

[RemiO]

I chose 0-7 as that's when I first actually played it. (7 that is.)

A better question would probably have been when one was hooked though, which would have been around the age of 12-13.

[Jake]

Probably so, but I don't need to change it when people like you post a couple sentences of backstory

[fov]

My very first adventures were Scott Adams text adventures, and my first may have been around age 6. But I didn't play them by myself (had help from my dad and sister) and don't really consider them as part of my adventure gaming "history".

The first graphic adventure I played was Leisure Suit Larry, around 1988 (I was 10), with my dad. After we finished that game he took me to Egghead where I bought King's Quest with my birthday money.

At around the same time I played Deja Vu with a friend who had a Mac (we were still using a DOS machine and an Apple IIGS at home), and I remember playing King's Quest 1 and 3 at other friends' houses. So, I was not the only one in my age group playing adventure games at the time.

-emily

[Wormsie]

The Curse of Monkey Island appealed to me because of the sense of victory with solving the puzzles, I think, and exploration. I wanted to know how the story ends! OMG, Voodoo Lady says Guybrush will die?! The exploration was fun, too - I found lots of hidden things and easter eggs. At one point I got frustrated, though - in the very beginning, when Voodoo lady told Guybrush to get a "map, ship and a crew" and I didn't know the meaning of those words... Often I'd stop and listen to the soundtrack.

So I must say that it was the music, interesting game world to explore, wanting to know how it all ends, fear of LeChuck, and the fact that it felt so good to beat that puzzle.

[rio]

I played Sam and Max about 10 times when I was 6 or 7 then I played the Monkey Island games about 5 years later when I got a better computer that I could use.

[Gomatic]

On my first (real) job, I played "Adventure" on a PDP-11! Then it was years later when I discovered graphic adventures with King's Quest V. I think the next adventure game I bought was Gabriel Knight:Sins of the Father - not bad for an intro to adventure games.

[fov]

Originally Posted by Gomatic

On my first (real) job, I played "Adventure" on a PDP-11!

Would I be showing my age if I asked what a PDP-11 is?

[Gomatic]

It's a large server popular in the 70's (about the size of an industrial refrigerator), so it was pre-PC.

[colpet]

I started playing adventure games when I got my first home computer in 2000.
So I guess you could say that I hadn't discovered adventure games before that.

[Brushguy]

I first played adventure games when I was 8, when a friend of my dad's lent us King's Quest 6 Talkie CD, Myst, and Star Wars: Rebel Assault (which had the DotT running demo on it, and that game was what got me absolutely hooked on adventure games 3 years later when I finally decided to buy the full version).

[Erwin_Br]

Kings Quest 3 was my first game, and I was 14 years old. Now I'm 24, so you could say I started a little late. I just wasn't aware of the existance of adventure games (or PC games altogether), because I mosty played on the Commodore and my Sony MSX during the years before.

--Erwin

[lumi]

I was close to eight years old. I think the first adventure game I played was either The Black Cauldron, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, or King's Quest 4. I never won those games.