How long have you been a PC gamer, and what was your first PC?

Like the title states, when did you first become a PC gamer, and what was the first PC you did so with? Also, list some of the first PC games you played as well.

I was like 3 or 4. The machine ran DOS and I played a game I had on a floppy simply called "Galaxy". It was one of those top-down space shotters and it had 100 levels. Second game was Bio Menace, I had all three episodes. Never finished that game either.

" Second game was Bio Menace, I had all three episodes. Never finished that game either. "

 I was about 12 maybe? I'm 21 now. I played Diablo 2 at a local Wizards of the Coast store and asked my parents to buy me a PC so I could get the game. IDK what was in it, but it was a piece of shit, even by standards back then. Then, I found Starcraft and was like holy shit PC games are so fucking amazing. Those are still like my two favorites games of all time.

I have never bin a pc gamer but I'm doubting of becoming one(convince me :p), but don't pc games have a lot of problems with hackers if you look at multiplayer. starcraft 2 would be my game to start with I think Or maybe even starwars kotor

I've got no idea what it was. All I have in my earliest memory i me (being veruy very young) and my dad setting up some really old ass PC so I could play a basic asteroids game. by the time i played more PC games i was checking out Sango Fighter, Duke Nukem I and II, Commander Keen, Raptor, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and a bunch of other games I got on a shareware disc. And then there was the PC version of Earthworm Jim I played for a good while.
 
Oh and there was also this really old Spider-Man game, really weird. On the side of the screen is a big full body picture of Spider-Man that serves as your health bar, everytime you get hurt a part of it becomes a skeleton. The final boss IIRC was Mysterio.

My first PC was a 486 DX2 66 mHz. It had 4 megabytes of ram. This was in 1992 before Doom came out. People that prefer to play shooters with a console controller are not real gamers.

Some pentium 1 pc, first game was rainbow six: rougue spears. I also played leasure suit larry games and star war games. I've played plenty of older pc games besides that at school, or at a friends house, like those dos floppy pc's however our family was sort of not rich so we bought this pc much later.

My first home computer was a Commodore 64, but if you're talking PC as in the great-grandfathers of what we use today, my first system was a Tandy with an 8088 processor and 256kb of RAM (which I eventually--and expensively--upgraded to a whopping 640kb). The first games I played on it were the original three King's Quest games from Sierra (and Police and Space Quests as well, that is, just about everything Sierra ever made), and some other stuff. I guess we probably got that Tandy back in '86 or '87. So I've been an IBM/Windows gamer for 23+ years, and 27 years for computer games in general. We also had and Atari 2600 about a year earlier than that. Damn, that's a long time.

I remember going to a friend of the family's house for some sort of gathering. The man of the household had thing gangster ass PC with neon lights, a clear side, fans as far as the eye could see, and a sweet keyboard/mouse. Shit that looks really cool to someone who was young. He had battlefield 1942 installed and unreal tournament and offered to let me play.  
 
 I had only played consoles up to that point, so  I had the mindset of "my playstation is the extent of what gaming is". I fired up unreal tournament and I could feel my synapses go into overdrive. Every molecule in my being went into awesome mode and I played for hours, and after discovering the flak cannon there was no turning back. I was hooked.
 
Unreal tournament is still one of my favorite games for nostalgic purposes. As soon as I landed my first job I build my first PC. I could only afford a celeron setup at the time, so it was not beastly by any standards, but it got the job done until I started making some more serious cash. I actually forgot to plugin the processor fan initially, so I ended up frying my first processor and had to RMA it (thanks newegg!). After finishing the build I discovered half life, diablo 2, starcraft etc.. and haven't stopped PC gaming since.

" I have never bin a pc gamer but I'm doubting of becoming one(convince me :p), but don't pc games have a lot of problems with hackers if you look at multiplayer. starcraft 2 would be my game to start with I think Or maybe even starwars kotor "

I'm not sure if this was our first computer or not, but I clearly remember when my parents bought a top-of-the-line Pentium 75 mhz computer with Windows 95 on it. It even had one of those Turbo buttons that did absolutely nothing, and it was awesome. I remember getting Red Alert for Christmas and playing it tons during the holiday. 
 
However, I clearly remember playing PC games much earlier than that at friends' houses that ran DOS instead of Windows. Games like Wolfenstein, Ski Or Die, Commander Keen, Crystal Caves and other cool Apogee titles ruled back then, so I guess that makes me a PC gamer since the early 90s.
 

I'd say since 1996. First PC was a 150Mhz Intel Packard Bell with a WHOPPING 16mb of RAM and a whole 1.2 Gb of hard disk space. First game I remember playing on it was the Journeyman Project, then I got Duke 3d and that convinced me that gaming on the PC was totally justified. Some other games I owned throughout that comps lifecycle were Mechwarrior Mercs, Quake, Doom, C&C, & Z.

Since about 1994, I think. I was four years old. The first game I played was an F-18 flight simulator called Black Knight: Marine Strike Fighter that my grandpa had bought for himself and let me play. That game isn't very well known, so I'll also mention my own first game, Warcraft II, which I discovered and fell in love with at a friend's house shortly after. I played them both on my grandpa's Windows 95 (90Mhz Pentium 1, 16MB RAM). :D

I'm 22, I must have gotten my first PC when I was 2 or 3. I really can't remember what it was, but it played Crystal Caves. That's all I needed.

started with the 386DX Super VGA computers back in 1991. 1st games were Quest for Glory series, Cobra Mission (LMAO), Wolfenstein 3D, and the 1st Prince of Persia which was still in black and white. hahahahahahahahaha

I think I've had a PC for 16-17 years. The first one was a 368 40mhz and I built a case for it out of cardboard, because the real one was big and stupid. My first games that I played (didn't have my own comp yet) were Prince of Persia, Test Drive something and Lemmings. My favorite games on my own computer were Dune 2, X-Com and Star Control 2. Oh man, those were the days.

The first PC I remember my parents getting was an Apple IIgs. It had Number Munchers and Designasaurus 2. I was 3 or 4. Eventually they got me my own computer which was a 486/66 DX2. The first set of games I had were things like Robocop 3D, Battle Chess, Isle of the Dead and D-Generation. A neighbor brought over a floppy disk with DOOM on it, suggesting that I turn up the music and sound effects in the options and increase the screen size because, "That's how you gotta play it."

First PC I used was unknown - circa 1994 and I didn't even know what PC specs were at the time. I remember playing Doom, Chessmaster, Commander Keen and Civilization, or as I liked to call it "go to dark squares to make them light up and sign peace treaties otherwise people will kill you". Good times.  
 
It was later discarded before I got a chance to learn more about it. The PC we got afterwards was a PII 350Mhz Dell, which was apparently pretty fast at the time. Played Sim City 2000, Fury 3, Oddworld, and Math Blaster (among others). Math Blaster was fucking awesome. 

I started playing games on a personal computer back in 1983 (Apple II).  I had one in my home since 1986 (Atari ST 1040 with IBM compatible 5-1/4 drive).  I remember playing Sub Battle Simulator (Epyx) on that in addition to Infocom games.  For the modern definition of "PC" though it wasn't until the later half of the 90's before I bought one of those.  Sometime around 1997, I think but I might be off by a year in either direction. 

My first PC wasn't really mine. I worked for Duke Power Company in Communications from '88-'91. They always got the best and newest PCs. My first game was Space Quest, but I loved PGA Tour. Sometimes I would stay after work and just play, play, play. I quit PC gaming in '91 and didn't come back to it until 2000 with a Pentium 3. I missed all those classics from the nineties, but I'm still a happy gamer. The last ten years have been grand.

My first PC was a 386 that we mostly played Elite on, also Battletech: The Crescent Hawks Inception... at least those were the two I vividly remember. As we upgraded I also remember Sim Farm and some Isometric Strategy RPG in the style of Heros of Might and Magic... also Heroes of Might and Magic. 
 
But definitely the first PC game I can remember playing was Elite.  Come to think of it, it was probably Elite Plus. So that would mean I've been a PC gamer since 1991?

Not really a PC gamer, but my first PC game that I can remember was a Pink Panther point and click game.

Like 10+ years...

I've been playing PC games for as long as I can remember - I remember playing Pole Position against my father on his PC with a monochrome monitor, probably around 1989-90 or so, I think it probably was an 286. The machine I grew up with was an 486DX2-66mhz with 8MB RAM and a 120MB hard drive - had it from 1991-92 up until 1999, and got to know Apogee, Id Software, Westwood and Blizzard through that machine. I even managed to play StarCraft online with it - even though the game ran at almost half speed. The machine had an old 286 desktop case, without any places to put a CD-ROM drive - so when I first connected the QuadSpeed CD-ROM drive to it, I had to ghetto mod the case to fit the drive with the lid half-open and still manage to have the monitor on top of the case.

And God - the moment we got a Soundblaster clone (JAZZ RAP/MAD-16 - I still have the card, manual and driver floppy) and managed to get it working with Populous, F29 Retaliator and Wing Commander --- my ears had never heard anything as beautiful as Adlib/Soundblaster FM synthesis before.

Edit: I found an image of a desktop case very similar to the one I had. It was ridiculously heavy - I remember having to carry it a couple of kilometres once, that was not an enjoyable experience.

And God - the moment we got a Soundblaster clone (JAZZ RAP/MAD-16 - I still have the card, manual and driver floppy) and managed to get it working with Populous, F29 Retaliator and Wing Commander --- my ears had never heard anything as beautiful as Adlib/Soundblaster FM synthesis before.

" @fisk0 said:

And God - the moment we got a Soundblaster clone (JAZZ RAP/MAD-16 - I still have the card, manual and driver floppy) and managed to get it working with Populous, F29 Retaliator and Wing Commander --- my ears had never heard anything as beautiful as Adlib/Soundblaster FM synthesis before.

Ahh, I remember the first time I installed a Soundcard...   It was also the first time I had to solve an IRQ conflict... good times! "

Snake on a DOS computer. Also some game which was named "SSA" which I think I accidentaly renamed it too. 

If I'm being honest, I started playing on the PC because there was a PC version of FF7 and I didn't have a Playstation. Upside down cutscenes, woo. Looks a lot better, though.

My first PC was bought at a local retailer in... 2004, perhaps. It was £800, and I maintain that we were ripped off for it, even at the time. The specs are abysmal by today's standards, but they might not even have been decent in the past. I remember playing a game for it called 'Moose on the Loose'. It was one of those budget £1 PC games you might have seen at stores in the past. It was not actually terrible, surprisingly. 

The first 'real' game I played on it was probably Need for Speed: Underground. Now that was a game from when Need for Speed was truly incredible. I loved that game, and I remember having rented it for PS2 before buying it on PC. I think I purchased it on PC because it was much, much cheaper. Anyway, I basically survived the majority of the game with the Dodge Neon. Want to know the specs?

• AMD Sempron @ 1.00GHz
• Unknown graphics card (probably onboard)
• Unknown sound card (probably onboard)
• 256MB RAM (probably SDRAM)
• Windows XP Home Edition

The only part of the deal which made it decent value was the NEC AccuSync monitor that was sold alongside the actual PC itself. I use that monitor now to play my Xbox 360 on, though I do occasionally rig it up with my laptop to enjoy dual screen displays. Now however, the computer itself is a slow piece of junk bogged down by spyware from a time when I did not know better than to download 'Free Smileys'. I still have the PC sitting in my closet. It makes a decent base for upgrading, I guess... assuming upgrading allows for your to remove every component and swap it out.

Don't remember exactly but think it was 286 or 386. It was a big thing when we went and bought a soundcard. Commander Keen was one of the games we played

Prince of Persia on a 386 (or maybe it was a 486) when I was very young. No soundcard, amber monochrome monitor. (thanks to my dad)

Some Compaq circa mid-90s. I remember very little about it. 
 
The first computer I actually bought for myself was a MacBook Pro.

1. Since i can remember 
2. Commander Keen / Doom 2

Ive had a gaming PC for about 6 months. Before that I had a computer that ran on dos or some shit and played snake and a game where apes threw exploding bananas at each other. 

486 25 Mhz, I remember gorilla.bas

I can't remember how old I was. 4-5  years maybe. We had a computer by Tulip, black/orange screen with a couple of games on it. Don't remember the specs. Managed to get Q-bert and Paratroopers started in DOS. But the first PC game that really hooked me in was Civilization. That was on my second computer. It was an Ambra 486 and later on we upgraded it with a CD-ROM drive and sound card with speakers. It was my mother who bought all those old classic PC games like Civilization and Sim City in order to get me interested in computers instead of the SNES. She partly succeeded because I played both on the PC, and the SNES. Good old times.

My first computer was a TI 994a my parents bought for me in 1984'ish and I was very young, but I played games on it and even wrote my own stuff in BASIC.  I got my first IBM PC compatible in 1993, built by one of my mom's coworkers (who was systems admin and tech guy).  The usual process from there of eventually buying a sound card, a CD-ROM drive and upgrades and new systems.

for like 5 years now. i need an upgrade. it's still working pretty good, it's Pentium 4: 3.4ghz, 2gig ram, 9800gt 512mb. as you can see i need an processor upgrade. it has been working fine so far. 
 
back in the day i use to play games on an old computer that had dos, ski free, BASH, i didn't know a lot about computers because i was smaller.

Late 80s early 90s for me, 286 from dead German computer maker Escon.
 
I can remember Winter Games, Doom, Keen, Civ 1 and Wolfenstein/Doom.

I also remember buying a CD-Rom drive SPECIFICALLY for Myst when I was like... er... 12.

I became a serious PC gamer sometime around 2006 or 2007. My PS2 finally became officially outdated, so I transfered over to my mid-range PC. For two years I gamed only on PC, with the exception of playing games with my friends. So I became quite attached, learned how to really use one and upgraded it. Now I can never go back.  
Because PC gaming is the best. 

" I became a serious PC gamer sometime around 2006 or 2007. My PS2 finally became officially outdated, so I transfered over to my mid-range PC. For two years I gamed only on PC, with the exception of playing games with my friends. So I became quite attached, learned how to really use one and upgraded it. Now I can never go back.  Because PC gaming is the best.  "

theme hospital

My first PC was this:-
 

97 - 4 years old PACKARD BELL. SSI, VALVE, ID AND SIERRA ACES SERIES FOR LIFE!!!!!!!!!

I don't know what I was using for my first PC.  But the first time I REALLY considered myself a pc gamer was when I got hooked on a MUD back in 1996, I always either used the Work computer or the computer lab on campus.  Then after that, it was Diablo.   
 
Although, if I were to go way far back like these people quoting when they were 3 or 4... Back when I was in 6th grade... woulda been... 1989-90, I remember us having some computer classes and we were introduced to the very first Sim City game.  It was AWESOME. 
 
But, I don't consider that I was an actual gamer back then in any true sense of the word.

it's all one hacked up mess