What system was your first online game experience on?

Added by Admin because stupid poll bug.

I was thinking back on the original Xbox Live recently and this topic popped into my mind. Where did some of you get your first taste of online gaming? Or did you at all? I've tried to include just about every option I could down to the Saturn NetLink (overkill at a whopping 19 options!) I'm not sure if things like the Super Nintendo/Famicom Satellaview or Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Sega Channel had an actual online play option (all I know of was data distribution) so these were omitted for the list. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone at all even had the chance to use those though.

While online play initially feels like a rather non-retro feature thinking back it's been with us for a decent amount of time, down to titles such as the first Quake or Phantasy Star Online. This passing generation may have made the concept of online gaming mainstream but have you been connecting to other gamers afar for over a system generation or two, or perhaps you just started in these last few years? I'm curious to see how many people started on something earlier than the Wii/PS3/360.

Feel free to share your earliest online gaming experiences! For me it was Phantasy Star Online that started the revolution. I still remember the battles against Dark Falz with my old teammates then kicking back and bothering them in the Pioneer 2 lobby.

PC in the 90s. As for consoles it was Xbox.

360 I think.

Sega Channel.

PC in 1998 with Ultima Online

PC,no contest. it's a wondrous machine back in the 90's,I have internet access back in like '97 or so,sad is with the advancement of the Internet,I used it for official business purposes only

PC, but I hope to see some DC votes show up!

PC for me, though all I played online was Rainbow Six until PS3.

That's something I'm particularly curious of, it's a shame there were even more online enabled games in Japan than here it seemed. I'm even more curious to see if anybody started with the Saturn NetLink also. Saturn Bomberman and Duke 3D online on a console seemed like an interesting feat for the time of their release. Anyhow anyone remember what their first (or earliest recalled) online games were? I only see Ultima Online mentioned so far.

Also Heirren what was the Sega Channel like? I guess I should've made it an option after all. xD Was there any sort of co-op/competitive stuff on the Sega Channel or was it just a distribution platform? I recall MegaMan: The Wily Wars and Alien Solider were only released there officially for the North American region.

Including PC in this list was probably not the best idea, since it would have been more interesting to see what the first game system was that people went online with. I chose PC, Runescape was one of the first online games I played in like April 2003, though I can't recall if I had actually managed to play any prior to that.

Before that, I was really interested in playing Phantasy Star Online on the Gamecube, but had never got to on that system. I did get to check out a Dreamcast in a store once and it had Chu Chu Rocket and some other games, though I really can't remember if they had any sort of online functionality.

The first system I got to play online was the PS2, but I was unable to get FFXI to work with the connection I had at that time. I messed around on a demo I had for Frequency, but that was about it - kind of a disappointing first experience with online play. The first game system I got online and actually played online was my Nintendo DS Lite. After that, the Wii.

Perhaps not but I felt like tackling the gamut of capable platforms despite knowing things would very likely skew PC. Of equal interest to me is really what games people started out on for said platforms and perhaps what it was like for them.

For me stepping onto PSO the first time was like a revelation. I was probably the biggest gamer in the area I lived and often felt like there was a drought for more players. It sort of came as a breath of fresh air seeing I didn't need to rely on just those around me and I think it really helped in some ways. It took the whole "all walks of life" thing that much further. FFXI was also my second MMO. I recall a decent bit about my early days on it.

Also on a side note yes, ChuChu Rocket was online. I think it may have even been the first online DC game. Lastly, is that avatar a piece of art from ALttP?

Amiga

Spectrum Holobyte's Falcon

1 versus 1 dogfight via modem to modem.

1989 or 1990.

Later, I found out two Amigas can be connected via null modem cable. 1 v 1 dogfights with no lag. Awesome for the time.

PC... back in dial up days.

@jun_aka_pekto: Now that's pushing far back! I wonder how much more could've preceded the Amiga online. I've only heard of perhaps one other sort of online game dating back somewhere in the mid 80s.

Started with PC online,the Medal of Honor franchise..THEN when I bought the Xbox at launch I started with Return to Castle Wolfensein..

Phantasy Star Online on Dreamcast was my first online game. Didn't keep playing it for long, but it was fun.

Falcon for the Mac came out in 1987 and in 1988 for the Atari ST. They probably had modem-modem play as well.

The PC? Most PCs would have been using 4-color CGA unless people had the moolah for 16-color EGA. VGA was still quite rare. Back then, most computer gamers stuck to the Motorola crowd. But, within a couple of years, the PC passed them all. DIY was simply too attractive.

PC. Return to Castle Wolfenstein's MP was awesome.

PS3. I think the first game I ever played online was Resistance: Fall of Man or MotorStorm.

PC was my first with Wolfenstein ET, then a couple of other games on the pc followed. Like Quake 3 for example. The next online experience for me was the xbox 360

Quake 3 was the first online game I played.

The first game I played online was at my cousins house on his PC and it was Quake 3. I sucked lol. But my first online experience on my own was Socom II on PS2 and that game was addicting. I had the greatest time playing the Socom games online when I was kid.

Mine was Xbox 360 since it did not require a credit card like the first Xbox. But the first on-line game I played was on PC. But it was a friends gaming computer so that does not count.

I think playing Diablo on the PC was my first real online experience, but I honestly don't remember.

I started with MoH:AA on the PC but I did most of my online gaming on the XBox. My first online XBox game was MotoGP (beta disc) and I was playing a 16 player race with my Dad using splitscreen. I was honestly more blown away by the XBox than I was with the PC for online gaming. I didn't like the server based matchmaking and all the mods that people would use + I liked how everyone had a mic on the XBox. Games like MechAssault, PGR2, Unreal Championship, Crimson Skies, Phantasy Star Online and Halo 2 were so much better than what most PC games had to offer.

The original Xbox Live was a pleasant surprise. I don't recall playing many original Xbox games but the Live service definitely gave me a reason to enjoy the few titles I did get to on it. Also nice to see a few PSO players show up.

The original Xbox. It made playing Halo 2 one of the best experiences ever.

Xbox with Halo 2.

NBA 2K1 for Dreamcast. I was a basketball junkie

Runescape on the pc

PC.

Technically Deathmatch in Doom, But I was six at the time I didn't really register I was playing with other people until I played Deathmatch in Quake.

my first online web browser was with the saturn but my first online gaming experience was capcom vs. snk 2 on xbox.

My first online gaming experience was probably the 'Gemstone III' MUD in the early 90s. Also did a fair bit of direct dial 1v1 Doom multiplayer when that released. First online gaming experience on a console was rigging up the original Xbox to play Halo (pre xbox live).

PC but on consoles ps3

Gears of War with school friends on the Xbox 360.

Good times.

PC for first network game (Duke Nukem 3D over 2 base T co-axial ethernet using Novel Netware Light) and then PC again for first game over dialup.

Since these platforms didn't all get online/released at the same time, odds are anyone older than a certain age will just say PC since it was the first platform to get online.

I did a lot of online with my DC, it just wasn't my first. I still have my Dreamcast Broadband Adapter.

-Byshop

The PS2. The first game I ever played online was ATV Offroad Fury 2.

Sadly, I didn't play online until Xbox 360.

PC wow

Mine was xbox 360. Can't remember which game though, Perfect Dark Zero perhaps.

I'm pretty sure mine was SSX3 on ps2. That's when I found out I was not as good at the game as I thought, lol

@gregbmil: I feel like that's a common revelation whenever one finds a series they're good at offline and then tries it online for the first time haha. You go from probably being the best locally (that you know of) to globally being demoted to great, good, average or something.

counter strike on the pc

I forgot to mention that Air Warrior was an online-only game which came out in 1988.

PC with a slow dialup connection. Terrible experience. However I still to this day do not really like online gaming. I got into BF2 and Unreal 2k4 for a bit but that was about it.

Splinter Cell : Pandora Tomorrow on PC I guess. I imagined it would be horrible with a lot of swearing and raging, but fortunately for me, the folks who played were all cool.

PC - Birth of the Federation/ Dark Forces II with mates, but my connection was so rubbish I don't think we ever completed a game - true story.

PC - City of Heroes. I remember being totally weirded out by some dude PMing me out of the blue as I was trying to get my bearing straight! Before that, though, I played a LOT of couch-based multiplayer on the N64 with Star Fox, Goldeneye and Perfect Dark :) After CoH, I got into Steam and TFC (2fort/solly/ramp room/defense).

Xbox 360 back in '06.. I still remember it very clearly, I played Halo 2 on Relic.

I started on the PSP in 2007 and the game was Medal of Honor: Heroes. It was fun but I quickly moved on to Socom FTB2, which is one of my best online gaming memories.

PC and it was Counter-Strike