I grew up in times where gaming studios and publishers like Apogee, Epic Megagames and 3D Realms were at the peak of success. There was no way you could get around titles like Monster Bash, Civilization or Wolfenstein 3D because actually everyone was playing them - at least kids like me who where lucky enough to have a personal computer at home, which wasn't a usual thing in the early 90's.
When I didn't know what I was doing
I was around 5 years old back then. My father had a job as teacher and he had the particular luck that a personal computer was needed for one of his functions. A brand new 286 with a monochrome monitor on a DOS basis. One of his pupil was, what we consider nowadays, a professional software pirate. On a black 5.25" floppy disc with a handwritten label (very professional indeed), he spent us a game called King's Quest. And even though it had miserable graphics compared to later standards, the whole experience made me goggle: Such a interactive fantasy setting with a small prince running around on a small 12" screen - I was so curious now and I wanted to play this myself the next day when my father was in school. We just had a small problem...
The language was in english, I was 5 years old and I wasn't even in my first year of the elementary school. No problem for my father. He wrote down a set of commands that could be typed in and told me what to do - a step by step instruction. Well, I can remember that I never got past the castle trenches but my passion was ignited in these times, while figuring out how I can prevent Graham from dying (or maybe the opposite for the cool animations, I can't remember the true motivation anymore).
The glory Days of DOS Games
I grew up in the information age. The video gaming industry evolved from a 'fringe-group' amusement into a huge industry where developers like id software have been celebrated like rockstars (I mean, c'mon, John Romero even looked like one). And I played almost any single groundbreaking title in my youth. If you want to skip the details, simply skip the slideshow. But for some nostalgy, I suggest you take each single entry - it's still worth playing these gems nowadays. Many of the titles can be found at Good Old Games or Steam, other titles are free to download and with DOSBOX and similar emulators, it's not a science to set them up and play them.
C:\INSERT\CLASSIC\GAME.EXE
On some evenings I was my father's co-pilot fighting Strakhas and defending the Tiger's Claw, sometimes I had my own adventures as Commander Keen on Mars, zapping some Vorticons and sometimes I conquered the whole planet by extinguishing all other 6 civilizations with nuclear missiles. With Sim City 2000 I learned how to use a dos-based hex editor to change my balance to 16.777.215 dollars (or 'FF FF FF'). I will never forget my classmates' faces years later when showing them my city filled with arcologies.
It was a crazy time with a lot of impressions through the years, but it somehow set the ground stones for my future - not only when it comes to the interest in computers, hardware and media, but also in regards of creative work. And then, there came 1993, december to me more precise. And two floppy discs that my father hid in one of his bottom drawers. A shareware game with the title Doom...