What was your Gateway Arma?

[Oldcrow0999 13]

I thought this would be a fun one to do. What was your gateway Arma or the Arma that got you started? For me it was Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis for the Original Xbox.

[Moon_chilD 200]

I started noticing Arma 2 sometime early 2012. At that time DayZ was sky rocketing and everyone was playing it. Even I was interested. So I scratched together the little bucks I had and bought Arma X. I played DayZ for about an hour and realized that I really....don't like it. 
I started to wonder if the buy was worth it. Then I looked up gameplay of Arma 2 - mainly German Youtuber JermiahRose - and was hooked. Arma 2 looked awesome. I didn't understand why I never heard from it. I was always interested in military games and shooter.

Some short time later I created my little Arma unit - that is still running. As soon as the Alpha for Arma 3 (and some essential Mods) came out we switched to the new game. 

Never have I been hooked on a game that long as with Arma!

[beno_83au 1369]

Seeing the original OFP demo on a PCPowerPlay CD, back when developers/publishers released game demos before the full game came out. So that was all that was available for a while, and i played the shit outta that demo. 

[Defunkt 431]

I was deep into the original Insurgency source mod (previously Counter-Strike and before that Action Quake 2) when I ran across one of Dsylexci's ArmA (1) videos - and it looked like everything I'd ever wanted. Turned out not to be (my machine had more GPU than CPU and I couldn't run it very well) - but I was all over A2 when it released (bought the German-only edition on day one). Was never really aware of Operation Flashpoint but I'd never have tried it anyway - the character models have always seemed to me comically bad (where Arma 1's looked amazing).

[Rydygier 1317]

I've tried OFP demo, when it was new thing, but was discouraged at the time by the fact of no free saves, while easy to be killed. I was into different type of games then, mostly turn based strategies. Then I was back around Arma 1 but not convinced at all, then bought Arma 2 and was not convinced that much as well till my video card died and using secondary old one I could play only Arma 2 on low amongst my games. That was the time, when out of boredom and some frustration about lacking things in A2 I discovered scripting, SQS at first (at this point I joined BI Forums and learned most of my written ENG skills by trying to ask about stuff), but main breakthrough and most difficult moment was moving to SQF. There was few years gap lately, but here I am. 

[oldbear 390]

I was mostly playing TacOps and Combat Missions but looking at moving units was not enough, I want to be in the fight.

That why I install FlashPoint Demo, but I uninstall it soon after finding the game unplayable, but it has the kind of feeling I was looking for.

So I reinstall OFP after a few months and since never left the Armaverse.

[dmarkwick 261]

I first encountered the Arma series with the original OFP when it was first released, as I was looking for something to play that was like Battlefield 1942, but more so. I initially took the game back to the store after a game-breaking perceived bug, which later turned out to be caused by my keyboard after the same bug appeared in another game. I re-purchased and didn't look back. It not only replaced BF1942 DCS but opened up whole new areas of gameplay.

 

I'm apparently one of the few people who actually liked Arma (1) on release, mostly because it made use of my TrackIR but also because Silola upgraded his excellent DAC scripts to Arma. At the very end of that game's life just before Arma 2 came out I started to experiment with scripting, and continued that into Arma 2 culminating in the release of a few well-received addons. I do less scripting now in Arma 3, just a couple for my own entertainment, but I still enjoy DAC in a solo environment.

[lordfrith 401]

i've always liked tactical or realistic shooters but i originally bought Arma 2 to play dayz mod with my friends (like most addictions it started with peer pressure). I struggled to get framerate to play competitively in day z so i started spending more and more time exploring the base game. Before long it became clear Dayz was 1 aspect of arma 2 and there was so much more... There are a few key moments i still remember, like taking a jackal for a drive through the takistan mountain passes for the first time, finding cool milsim sandbox missions, or when i found armaholic and got over excited and tried to download every mod at once thus breaking my internet 🙂

 

i kinda wished i'd noticed the franchise earlier, i think i would have loved OFP at the time

[jeza 5416]

Think was mine in the store GAME, in 2003 I came across the gold edition when I was there to get vietcong iirc and the rest is history. Never got to play it online until 2005/6 so up until then I was just playing the campaign and using the editor which was great fun. Then when Armed Assault came out finally got a normal internet connection and met fine folks like @ck-claw , @mr burns . Best moments in the series for me came from coop in armed assault which I had great fun with great people, and secondly the SP campaign from OFP and its subsequent remakes in later games, all in all a decent 'may as well' purchase. 

[stburr91 1009]

16 minutes ago, jeza said:

Think was mine in the store GAME, in 2003 I came across the gold edition when I was there to get vietcong iirc and the rest is history. Never got to play it online until 2005/6 so up until then I was just playing the campaign and using the editor which was great fun. Then when Armed Assault came out finally got a normal internet connection and met fine folks like @ck-claw , @mr burns . Best moments in the series for me came from coop in armed assault which I had great fun with great people, and secondly the SP campaign from OFP and its subsequent remakes in later games, all in all a decent 'may as well' purchase. 

 

The Vietcong game, oh I remember that well, good game.

 

My gateway into Arma was the original Ghost Recon. I loved the serious military sim that the first Ghost Recon was creating, and was so disappointed to see that most of the military games after that became first person shooter online death matches. That ruined gaming from me for a good decade. I only played a few games here, and there (COD4 was pretty good)  until I found Arma 3.

 

I was on the fence about buying it (I would have to upgrade my PC to play it) but watching the videos by Jester814 showcasing all the new content as it hit dev branch, sold me.

 

So now I'm hooked, and I'm just one of many (not so) patiently waiting for Arma 4.

[Tuskegee_99th 43]

I had been looking at Arma from a distance for a while. It was when my group started looking for a replacement for America's Army v2 that we decided to give Arma a try and we haven't looked back since.

 

[lex__1 422]

In 2001, I first bought an OFP disc edited by Bukа. It was love at first sight. In those days, the game looked fantastic. There was nothing like this in the games. The atmosphere of the game, the plot of the companies of the OFP series, the mission, AI intelligence eclipsed any game of that time. For me, this game, and the following sequels, occupy the first places

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

[joostsidy 685]

Before OFP I loved Novalogic's Delta Force. A 'realistic' shooter introduced to me in the following way: 'you are good at shooters aren't you? there are enemy's over that hill, walk over the hill and try if you can shoot them. My character walked over the hill and sank gurgling to its knees killed by a sniper bullet. I was blown away by a game with real bullets that could kill you in one shot.

 

Then came OFP. The same, but with more weapons, vehicles, controllable squad mates and a mission editor. Hooked for life!

[lex__1 422]

2 hours ago, joostsidy said:

Before OFP I loved Novalogic's Delta Force. A 'realistic' shooter introduced to me in the following way: 'you are good at shooters aren't you? there are enemy's over that hill, walk over the hill and try if you can shoot them. My character walked over the hill and sank gurgling to its knees killed by a sniper bullet. I was blown away by a game with real bullets that could kill you in one shot.

 

Then came OFP. The same, but with more weapons, vehicles, controllable squad mates and a mission editor. Hooked for life! 

After Delta Force, in the year 2000, there was still an interesting game - Project I.G.I
Quite interesting, for that time - excellent graphics and game interface

Spoiler

 

[Oldcrow0999 13]

6 hours ago, stburr91 said:

 

The Vietcong game, oh I remember that well, good game.

 

My gateway into Arma was the original Ghost Recon. I loved the serious military sim that the first Ghost Recon was creating, and was so disappointed to see that most of the military games after that became first person shooter online death matches. That ruined gaming from me for a good decade. I only played a few games here, and there (COD4 was pretty good)  until I found Arma 3.

 

I was on the fence about buying it (I would have to upgrade my PC to play it) but watching the videos by Jester814 showcasing all the new content as it hit dev branch, sold me.

 

So now I'm hooked, and I'm just one of many (not so) patiently waiting for Arma 4.

I loved the original ghost recon!

[oukej 2911]

To me in a way the closest one to the full scale combat and freedom that OFP brought was probably Wargasm.

Back in our early prim. school age we used to play a lot of Dune 2, Strike Eagle III and Wolfenstein 3D. Funnily enough, Wolfenstein 3D scared me off 😄 the classic FPS genre a bit for a long time and I spent a lot of time with strategy and sim games. Otherwise late 90's were quite rich in sims (Jane's, Novalogic...:/) and tactical games. To name a few F/A-18 Korea, Longbow, JSF, A-10 Cuba, Enemy Engaged, Spec Ops, Delta Force, Rainbow Six (I'd probably be still able to tell each team's route to the hostage room in the embassy mission. Only had demos back then and I'd just play that one demo mission over and over, exploit it and have fun with it... ). And 1944 Across the Rhine, the first game I bought myself.
Classics like Doom or Duke Nukem 3D - I'd only play them in MP on LAN in school. But then Unreal brought the bots and mods and since then I might have spent the most of my gaming time just by messing around with mods and AI. (UT Assault missions with weapon mods like Strike Force and Infiltration, or Tactical Ops ❤️).

And OFP demo - played the mission until I managed to destroy all the armor at the end. And I still had to evac. Such disappointment. So linear :P. BIS PLS FIX 😉 Next time I stole the helicopter...

[joostsidy 685]

2 hours ago, lex__1 said:

After Delta Force, in the year 2000, there was still an interesting game - Project I.G.I
Quite interesting, for that time - excellent graphics and game interface

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Wow, looking quite good (for its time), completely missed it at the time!

[EO 11277]

Cut my PC gaming teeth playing SWAT 4, then one day I watched Dslyecxi's cinematic trailer for ArmA2....I'm still here. 

[lex__1 422]

25 minutes ago, oukej said:

And OFP demo - played the mission until I managed to destroy all the armor at the end. And I still had to evac. Such disappointment. So linear :P. BIS PLS FIX 😉 Next time I stole the helicopter... 

At OFP, I liked most of all that each mission could be followed along different routes and different tactics. There were missions that I played many times, in search of different versions of the mission.
I was very surprised when, in a company that I finished long ago, I played the last mission again and opened a sequel for several episodes, which I had no idea.
Where it was necessary to stop the launch of the rocket. I could not finish this mission. There was a problem in the mission, the helicopter was supposed to fly to the base, it was heard that it was breaking up, and the mission did not receive a continuation. I could not find out what should be next.

[Dedmen 2714]

My first contact to Arma was back in 2010 when I was member in a SWAT 4 clan, a couple guys from a partner clan asked me if I knew Arma and I didn't, so they told me I should look it up and play with them.

On went my 13 year old me and googled for Arma, sadly I only found a dumb flash game where you just walk up a road (learned a couple years ago that it was the road from east Chernarus in south direction) which was ofc stupid and I didn't know why anyone would play that, couldn't even find the multiplayer. I searched for the game a couple years ago and couldn't find it again.

Actually... I think it's this: http://www.arma2.com/download/40

It's been too long to tell if that was really what I played, doesn't seem far off tho.

 

So that's when me and Arma lost contact again, till the DayZ hype started mid-2012, I watched some Lets Plays by a crappy youtuber and wanted to play that game, so me and a guy from my school got it and played together.

After a couple months we discovered the tactical side of Arma and joined a Milsim group in early 2013. That group died in late 2013 and me and my schoolfriend founded our Arma group that exists till today (although changing names 5 times in between)

 

Then bought Arma 3 in beta, but we only switched over to it in mid-2014 when AGM Mod came to be.

 

So yeah... Could have gotten into Arma over 2 years earlier if my Google-fu had been up to the task.

[wika_woo 182]

I started from arma 1 , my all time favourite feature for the game is the mission editor and then this exec "camera.sqs" , it makes the game really unique from other MILSIMs. A true theatre of war. 

[beno_83au 1369]

17 hours ago, joostsidy said:

Novalogic's Delta Force.

 

My enjoyment of large scale online shooters started here when I was young and on a 56k modem 😊

[rekrul 7]

I started with OFP (pirated unfortunately. Not that I had much of choice, no stores here sold it), and tricked some american AQ2 players to join me for multiplayer. They had to join my server in Norway so they had less than awesome ping, but good times were had. Especially when I was flying "tactical" while looking at the map... 

[stburr91 1009]

On 2/5/2019 at 5:43 PM, EO said:

Cut my PC gaming teeth playing SWAT 4, then one day I watched Dslyecxi's cinematic trailer for ArmA2....I'm still here. 

Man, I played the heck out of Swat 3. That was the first game with realistic ballistics, and wall penetration. 

 

 

[dave_beastttt 135]

I had played OFP, but not much to consider it a prime game, Arma 2 playing coop Escape from Chernarus is where my love for the Arma series started.