Board 8 > What is the oldest video game about love?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Most of the first video games were extremely simple and abstract, focused around one pure mechanic. When themes and context did start to come into things, I feel that most early games were still about things like fighting or competition. There are some older games that include the idea of love, like Ms. Pac-Man (1981) or Dragon Quest (1986), and there were those Atari porn games like Bachelor Party or X-Man, which were about sex, but the oldest game I can think of where love is a central theme that the entire game is based around is Mother (1989). I feel confident that this isn't the real answer, though. This is a hard thing to search for, so I thought I'd pose the question on a gaming hobbyist board. What is the oldest game you know of that's about love (feel free to define exactly what this means yourself), and can you think of one older than Mother?

As a bonus, I'm curious to know if there are older examples of a few other ideas I can't recall being done in games before Mother, so please tell me if you know of an older game that has:

• A sympathetic final boss, who is defeated by a method other than fighting
• An NPC who protects the player in an area where they're mostly helpless
• A romance between the main character and someone he spends most of the game traveling with

It doesn't check all of your arbitrary boxes, but Donkey Kong is about love/rescuing your loved one.

KCF0107 posted...

It doesn't check all of your arbitrary boxes, but Donkey Kong is about love/rescuing your loved one.

Yeah, that was something I realized I hadn't conveyed very well when I posted the topic, that I mean to draw some kind of distinction between a game being "about love" and games about rescuing your girlfriend, like Donkey Kong, River City Ransom, etc. I'm not sure I can explain it too well even now, but I'd say River City Ransom is about punching people even though the goal of the game is related to love, similar to how DQ is "about" fighting monsters even though rescuing and marrying a princess gets in there somewhere. Mother is "about" love because the whole story can be interpreted as being about witnessing/discovering different types and expressions of love, I guess.

Yeah, I'm not sure love is a "theme" in Donkey Kong when there's barely a story or non-combat interaction between characters, much less dialog or the portrayal of emotions. What is there is concise and charming, but comparing it to something like Mother (apparently) it seems like over-analysis to say much of anything about a part of it other than gameplay or aesthetics.

I would guess Ultima IV, though it's more platonic

Custer's revenge

Girls Garden (1985) is about a girl gathering flowers to give to the boy she loves. The time limit display is the boy walking away toward another girl who he will fall in love with instead if you dont finish your bouquet in time. This was Yuji Nakas first game for SEGA. 1985 seems kinda late for the first instance of what you want but its the first I can think of.

In Nosferatu the Vampyre (1986), you play as multiple characters, including the married Jonathan and Lucy Harker, and travel as a party protecting each other (along with Van Helsing). You slay the final boss (Dracula himself and an inherently tragic figure) through a non-combative method (luring him in to sunlight).

Um, just don't look at how the game actually looks and sounds and portrays all this!

tazzyboyishere posted...

I would guess Ultima IV, though it's more platonic

Thanks, I'm glad someone who knows about 80s PC RPGs showed up. I know nothing about them but kind of suspected one of the Wizardry or Ultima games might qualify for this. Platonic is fine, the example of Mother is also mostly based on familial love. Reading about the gameplay, it sounds like this game does also include the idea of solving fights without killing, which is part of the virtue of Justice.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Girls Garden (1985) is about a girl gathering flowers to give to the boy she loves. The time limit display is the boy walking away toward another girl who he will fall in love with instead if you dont finish your bouquet in time. This was Yuji Nakas first game for SEGA. 1985 seems kinda late for the first instance of what you want but its the first I can think of.

Nice, I had never even heard of that one, but it looks really cute. January '85 makes it just a little bit older than Ultima IV. It looks like this also has pacifist idea since you give honey to bears to make friends with them. It's also interesting that this is one of the rarer examples (from what I know) of an old game where you play as a girl trying to win a boy's affection and not the other way around.

Snake5555555555 posted...

In Nosferatu the Vampyre (1986), you play as multiple characters, including the married Jonathan and Lucy Harker, and travel as a party protecting each other (along with Van Helsing). You slay the final boss (Dracula himself and an inherently tragic figure) through a non-combative method (luring him in to sunlight).

Um, just don't look at how the game actually looks and sounds and portrays all this!

Another one I'd never heard of, but okay, that sounds like it includes all the ideas I brought up! Though yes, the idea of killing Dracula by luring him into the sunlight does suggest a very different tone to convincing Giygas to stop fighting in Mother. It's cool to see these types of things being present in a horror game at all, especially in a time when not a lot of games were using them period. Maybe it helped that it was an adaption of a film.

Joshi Ryou Panic (1983) is from Enix and is about infiltrating a girls' dormitory to save your girlfriend. Seems to be moderately sexual, but mostly just topless images?

Actually seems like Enix has a bunch of erotic games from the 80s. Interesting...

I'm seeing a bunch of dating sim style romance games from 83-84 in general, including ones with zero sexual content like Love Score.

There's another game called Ghost Manor from 1983 I believe, where you play as a girl or boy rescuing the other character and you defeat Dracula by driving him back with a cross! Doesn't quite fit all the criteria but it's worth a mention since there's a love connection implied between the two.

Tetris

Huge Ultima 4-7 fan here, and it does indeed indicate platonic (and sometimes romantic) love but I feel we can go earlier, such as someone putting a marriage proposal in some arbitrary code. From Adventure, or something?

I think it's Omori.

Evillordexdeath posted...

I know nothing about them but kind of suspected one of the Wizardry or Ultima games might qualify for this.

I'm very familiar with Wizardy and I can at least save you some time by confirming that Wizardry is not about love. It's entirely focused around the aspect of building party members and going on dungeon crawls. The eventual goal is just to defeat the evil wizard. There's no real mechanics beyond exploring and fighting. In fact, the game is more about your characters killing things, getting killed, and being tormented by traps. Very opposite of love.

Maybe Wizard and the Princess? I thought of King's Quest II, but WatP is from 1980.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_and_the_Princess

Pong

Love for ping pong

Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em

KCF0107 posted...

It doesn't check all of your arbitrary boxes, but Donkey Kong is about love/rescuing your loved one.

My first thought as well

MariaTaylor posted...

being tormented by traps. Very opposite of love.

speak for yourself