First Exposure

[lechuck]

Wanted to start a thread where everyone can share their first exposure to XCOM. Whether it be the new re-imagining or the original(still the best). My first exposure to this awesome game was with a computer gaming magazine(name long forgotten) which showed the first screen shots of the game, description of how the game was played, and an interview with Julian Gallop. I remember actually  drooling over the pictures shown and the words writ upon the pages. Certainly not intentional, but finally noticing after the first shock of the game I have been looking for finally available for purchase finally wore off. I remember upon learning the system requirements, then looking at my pitiful 80286 IBM Compatible computer and realizing I did not have enough memory to run the game. So off to my friends house who had a better computer, so I could at least see the game in action, got to play a few times but those occasions were very rare.

Finally got a computer worthy to run it about 6 months after the game was released. The best feature in my opinion, is you can play the game the way you want to play it. If you want to set restrictions for yourself and the tech you want to research, or get every tech available, the game can be won the way you want and not being forced  to follow a certain and scripted path to follow. Looking forward to reading the replies.

[kharille]

Played a demo.  Your squad of maybe 6 soldiers vs snakemen.  It was hard but I managed to finish using a pop in and out of the sky ranger tactic.  Way back in early 90's...

Used to be a base invasion bug that gave me masses of elerium.  Fun but not necessary.

[Solarius Scorch]

My beginnings were very similar to Lechuck's: I read an article on the game in a gaming magazine Gambler, in 1994. I didn't have a PC back then and I was 14, so I kept reading alien races descriptions and tips on tactics and let my imagination run wild. I still remember how much I was easily placing UFO in the very top tier of games I'd like to play.

My first PC came three years later, in 1997, and it already had several games on its hard drive - one of them the first UFO! This has changed my life. I played as much as I could without infuriating my parents, I kept seeing those low fences and fields of cabbage whenever I closed my eyes. The game was just as awesome as is it looked on paper, and it just couldn't be better.

Obviously there are other games I love and which consumed so much of my time, for example Civilization: Call to Power, for which we made a humongous mod with Dioxine (the biggest in the world, many years of modding), UFO:Aftershock (the other best thing in tactical gaming, especially with ACM mod), some pinballs (what happened to the genre?), One Must Fall '97 and a few others. But with none of these titles I formed such a stable, continuous relationship, which continues until today and is unlikely to ever end.

[ohartenstein23]

I'm a relative newcomer to the series, first stumbled across the demo for EU2012 shortly before release and was instantly hooked.  The full game just happened to come out on my birthday, so hey, present to me from me.  I spent the next break home from the university not really interacting with my parents, then proceeded to get my roommate hooked on it when break was over.  Then about two years ago I found Long War and thought it was the best thing ever because all the extra managing of materials and troops was exactly what I thought the game could have needed... until I found openxcom.  Blitzed through that, picked up FMP after seeing Meridian's LP, and now my gaming box sits dormant in favor of my laptop loaded with Piratez, Xeno Ops, and TFTD.

Oh yeah, and since the modding is pretty easy, my hard drive is finding more room for sprites, half-baked rulesets, and way too many different compiled versions of the engine.

[The_Funktasm]

My first exposure is probably pretty nonstandard, but common at least in people around my age. I didn't actually play a demo or buy the game, but was lucky enough to poke around a used computer my family bought from a friend of my brother, way back (in my time-frame) around 2001 or 2002. UFO Gold was installed along with a few trainers and editors and since it ran way better than C&C Tiberian Sun on what was then the only computer I had access to, it was my main game I played for as long as the computer lasted, which wasn't long. I have never seen the trainers since. They had these inaccurate, but somehow awesome MS-Paint splash screens and GUI screens for your base and a few other things. The sectoids were I think green. I don't know if they were just lost to time and available on the net, or if the last owner made them somehow.

[stepbystep]

I don't exactly remember the year but I remember a friend of mine from elementary school gave me a floppy disk saying something like "try this one, you have type UFO.exe to launch it". I was probably 11 years old or so and it was a TFTD copy actually. I had extremely basic english reading skills at the time but that didn't stop me from playing "UFO" over and over again. Starting new games over and over again I should say  I don't remember ever winning a terror mission from that period.
I took it again some years later and started playing it more seriously... maybe... I was also a very sore loser at the time so all my soldiers were blessed with save-reload immortality. It took soooo much time but I had fun.

And then I discovered openxcom and I find it brilliant!
I'm planning on recording my first lets play on it and I might even take a stab at modding at some point.

[Stoddard]

Got 4 floppy disks with a pirated Amiga AGA port sometime in 1995, and even an original promo booklet with the bug-eyed alien on it (no idea how the pirates got it, pity it was lost in the many relocations since). Wonders of '90s eastern europe I guess. Contrary to what wikipedia states, it didn't have any dynamic lightning, but the music on the other hand was much better.

[Mr. Quiet]

Good stories so far, here's mine I think you'll find it interesting.

This was in the 5th grade, I borrowed my friend's XC:UD for my System Shock 2. I never got around to playing XC and just had it in my backpack for the whole week we agreed upon playing for. My friend ended up lying to me about losing my disc, so I kept his game... I felt like it was a rip off that I gave him my SS2 with superior gfx for a lame pixelated game. What a foolish thought..
I got it running a few days later. I remember going to my friend a lot for advice, because I had no common sense to play a game this complex. I didn't even know how to shot down UFOs... He shared some basic knowledge and wrote down the research paths for laser weapons and personal armor. Yeah baby!
I remember the first time playing, I got to my first Terror-Site and got wiped out by Cyber Discs. The rest was a blur until mid 2000s I picked up a copy, because I ended up returning his game.

Edit: My friend lied about losing my game, because his mom gave the disc back to my mom. Said he was playing too much and she was horrified by the content, heh. My mom didn't like me playing SS2 either, but they even let me play Diablo 2 with a demon on the cover, so I enjoyed my PC gaming back then.

[The_Funktasm]

On a semi-related note, I am only just becoming aware of the VAST PIRATE MYTHOS of the figure known as Lechuck. Steam sales are great. I never got around to Monkey Island in its own time. Like I've never been more glad to be dead, since I became a part of Lechuck's undead crew!

In any case, am I the only one that used weird trainer programs back in the early 2000's? Maybe it was one of those things that never made it out of the late 90's...

That'd be really sad...