Oldest Version of GM You've Used?

mimusic

Member
Finally joined GMC to be able to share my Jam entry, and I figured I might get a little social as well. I've been using Game Maker ever since GM6, back when it was just $20 to unlock all the features (but the extent of the features was pretty limited compared to where we are now). I'm wondering who else around here has used a significantly older version of GM and has something to say about the experience?

Personally, as somebody who started using GM right when I started middle school, I feel as though the program has grown with me. Now at the exciting/depressing age of 22, I feel that my own capability to understand programming has benefited from the progression of a simple development program to an indie-creation power machine. Keeping things simple when I was a kid was essential to helping me get things done, but now that I'm an adult, I'm glad that the more advanced features are there for me to utilize.

Anybody else share the sentiment or have their own thoughts to share?
 

Tsa05

Member
Started with 5, back in 2003. Oldest version I've used is version 1 (Animo), but not particularly seriously. Once I got into things, I read up the history of GM a bit and downloaded the old puzzle ball example from Mark Overmas' site, played around with it for a while, and went back to version 5. :D

Two things that's about GameMaker have not changed at all since 2003:
1) I can't believe how few staff tackle such an ambitious project. Used to be one guy--a full-time professor--working in his spare time, cranking out features. Now they have a much larger team, but the software has branched out in every direction simultaneously, adding exponentially more work. There's still "just one person" for many aspects of GameMaker Studio development.

2) The devs interact with the community! I used to email Mar Overmars with feature suggestions and bugs, and the guy would write back--usually within a day--with direct conversation follow-up. Whether it was seeking more info to reproduce an issue, or agreeing on the potential usefulness of a feature, or explaining why a feature was implausible in the current state of things, he was consistently responsive and always thinking of ways to change GameMaker. Today, things sometimes look a little different (helpdesk tickets go unnoticed for weeks or more, feature requests are bluntly closed with a "no") but mostly due to the increase in size of...everything. There's always some stuff that falls through the cracks, but on the whole of things the GameMaker devs are actually here on the forums pretty much every single work day answering questions, listening to feedback, discussing possibilities, straightening out misconceptions, and settling bets. Other software devs do that kind of stuff when the mood strikes them; YYG stays in the community every day, and has kept it up for years.
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I'm pretty sure I started with 6.1, so I was kinda late to the party, but it was in the days where most examples were 5.x and thus a transient period where most example files you found wouldn't work because variables had been renamed. Thus, the days you had to start from scratch rather than just sponging off video tutorials. Those were the days, the kids of today... :p

I couldn't afford buying the professional/feature-complete versions back in those days (a combination of growing up very poor and having parents that hated technology so I never got to learn how online payments worked) so I had to find my way around the limitations of GM Lite, and I guess that as a result, I got to know all the core features of GM really well, and also learned "the hard way but in reverse" that flashy effects isn't what makes a game good, it's level design and gameplay. At some point I won a GMS1 Professional license in some competition, and I've been using that since (before finally buying a GMS2 license when it was released). I still use GMS1, I don't feel like GMS2 is stable enough yet and I work much faster in the interface I've got a decade of familiarity with anyway. Not to mention I don't really have the time or energy to make games these days due to working as a "real" programmer in the automotive embedded systems industry :p
 

csanyk

Member
I think I tried downloading GM for the first time when version 5 or 6 was out, but didn't use it back then -- I vaguely remember installing, launching, and not knowing how to use it, giving up shortly thereafter. I picked it up again years later, with 8.0, and went through Mark Overmars' book The GameMaker's Apprentice as part of a class that I took at a community college, and it was just what I needed to learn enough that I could be self-sufficient in figuring out how to do stuff. I have been using it since then on a regular basis.
 
T

TableCoffee

Guest
Just picked up GMS2 3 days ago so I'm a bit jealous reading your posts of having grown with the program. Game making and programming was always something I "wish I had learned" but never did. I'm 30 now and decided I wanted to stop wishing and start doing.

Not really knowing where to start I picked Python and over the last couple weeks I made a pretty simple pong game. It was really fun and so satisfying when the code worked.

I started looking at engines and ended up reading quite a bit about GMS all over the web including the community forums here. Then it went on sale for black Friday so I jumped on it and have put about 20 hours in so far learning the software and GML.

So sorry my post doesn't quite fit in as I'm anything but a long time user of Game Maker but I hope my late start (in my life and in the life of the software) won't hinder me too much. It seems like the community here is really helpful so I'm glad to be around.
 

Binsk

Member
@TableCoffee, nice! Welcome to the family.

I think I started with 5.3. It was a 5.something, where the idea of paying for features was just introduced.

I think i have fonder memories of games others made rather than my own. Anyone remember Doomed, Super Snake, or Jumper? Man...
 

mimusic

Member
I I had to find my way around the limitations of GM Lite, and I guess that as a result, I got to know all the core features of GM really well, and also learned "the hard way but in reverse" that flashy effects isn't what makes a game good, it's level design and gameplay.
I resonate with this a lot! I remember when I figured out that using the code feature instead of DnD let me do things that were otherwise restricted on the lite version, I felt like I had cheated the system. Even then, I'm pretty sure a lot of stuff was restricted, so I had to figure out my own way to do the stuff that GM otherwise provided for you. Now that I think about it, this experience is probably a big part of why I always opt to make my own prototypes from scratch instead of using prototyping/wireframing software nowadays.

I found some of my older GM6 & 7 projects the other day, and while the coding is really ugly, there's also something really special about seeing my younger self essentially invent a very crass version of a 'for' loop before I knew what it was :)
 

SanchezNI

Member
Ha, definitely a very old version, maybe 5.x - was the one available on gamemaker.nl

I too remember interviewing Mark Overmars for an rpg development website, when I was a young lad! Good old times. Much simpler.
 
K

K3TCH_P

Guest
I started with game maker 7. It literally put me on the path to where I am now as a Software Consultant. Will always have mad love for GM <3
 

Bingdom

Googledom
Picked up both 8.1 and gms1.1 (somewhere in 2012 I think). Tried to learn it but lost interest or was never allowed on the computer long enough.

Then I recently came back to it last year. I guess I technically started with 1.4.
 
Last edited:
T

tserek

Guest
6.x somewhere in 2005-2006. I did test some early builds also but not so serious. My first coding experience must be 13 years earlier on MSX BASIC, then moved to QBasic and finally to GM.
 
J

JarodTheGreat

Guest
Started with Game Maker 6, for the longest duration used Game Maker 7 from the older Game Maker versions, I have both GMS and GMS2 Professional Edition including some of the exports such as Android export. As far as oldest Game Maker that I have tried? Well that would go way back to the original Game Maker, the very first one ever made. As far as the one I used to make my first game, that would be with GM7. Never completed anything on GM6. Also all of my games were pretty much rubbish anyways, but I am working on much better games now. Will be showing one off soon. Hopefully!
 
Did anybody use Klick'n'play? That wasn't related to gamemaker, if I recall, but it certainly must have pre-dated it. I remember you could only have 3 custom variables per object, and there wasn't even a square root function. Still managed to do some pretty interesting things with it though.
 
N

Noblezim711

Guest
I first started trying to use it back when it was all still free (V1.3), and I think I have purchased about every version they have ever made. I am a long time game maker user, and forum lurker. I used to go by Invaderzim711, but changed my name some time ago (I lost access to that Email account). It has come a long way in some areas, but still lacks many features I thought it would have by now. I also hoped that more people would use it for 3d games.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

TrunX

Member
Found GM 6.0 the day it was released and tired it out making a little break out clone. Some months later I was interested in particle effects and switched back to 5.x which allowed using particle effects in the free version.
 
L

Laurent57

Guest
I started with GM5 and I'm using GM8 today.
I have absolutely no intention of buying GMS.
 
T

Tyler Logsdon

Guest
probably 6. but that was just to see what it was like. i first used 8.0 and refused to upgrade to 8.1 because of... "licensing issues"
 
I started with 8.1 Lite, in a game design class I was able to take in 7th grade. Made a small Zelda clone with DnD before learning GML. After that I worked with 8.1 for a while on my own until I got 1.4 for Christmas several years ago. Now I've upgraded to GMS2. I'm slowly starting to make actual real games, and I'm heading to college in a year to become a game designer.
 

Crozza

Member
I bought and started with gm5 all the way up up to gm8.1. I Prefered gm7 until lately but antivirus stopped it working and kept removing it so am using gm8 now.
I did get a discount for studio and bought it but find completed games were far to large in size for my simple game needs and a lot harder to use so rarely use it.

may use studio eventually but happy with gm8 for now.
 
Last edited:

Carnivius

Member
I thiiink it was GM4 but I know for sure I started using GM back in February 2002 so whichever version it was then.
 
W

Wraithious

Guest
I started on version 3.3, I still use it once in a while too for nostalgia haha
 
I started in GMS1.4, so I am fairly new around here. I think I am approaching about 2 years of use, on and off (more on lately).

I will be honest though, I am really curious what it was like working on GM1, is anyone still using and what are some games that were released from it.
 

Crozza

Member
I started in GMS1.4, so I am fairly new around here. I think I am approaching about 2 years of use, on and off (more on lately).

I will be honest though, I am really curious what it was like working on GM1, is anyone still using and what are some games that were released from it.
i found all versions 1 to 8 with demos and still have them somewhere I tried them out, I think before version 4 or 5 you couldn't make an executable but had to run them from the gm interface.
 

Crozza

Member
i found all versions 1 to 8 with demos and still have them somewhere I tried them out, I think before version 4 or 5 you couldn't make an executable but had to run them from the gm interface.
just tried version 1.4 and it still works in windows 10 I was wrong you can make an exe but game sprites and stuff are saved in folders with the exe.

gamemaker.cc has most of the gm versions to download and are worth checking out

The interface looks like the early clickteam klick and play .
 
Last edited:
F

FireflyX91

Guest
I started with GM6 but I stopped using it for many years. I have now recently purchased GMS2. A lot has changed... No more Doom clones using d3d functions :p
 
B

Bladevampirek

Guest
I think it was Game Maker 5.0 but could've been Game Maker 6.0 I remember back in the day I bought a license for 6.0 and they kept renewing my license throughout the later versions , I was so pleased. (Hint come-on renew it to Gm Studio 2.0 official yoyo people Lol) until 1.4 then I bought another license, spent over $130 & a little more for modules later
www.bladevampirek.wix.com/games
 
J

jb skaggs

Guest
I bought gamemaker in 2003, and in those days (until 2006) I made a boatload of games. Then I ignored it until about a year ago, and it seems I am having to relearn so much.
 
A

andy1343

Guest
Well, some months later I was interested in particle effects and switched back to 5.x which allowed using particle effects in the free version.
 

DesArts

Member
7.x, back when 8.x added sprite transparency it blew my mind.

I remember downloading every single version from the very old 1.x just to mess with, it's interesting.
 
D

david2036

Guest
I have both GMS and GMS2 Professional Edition including some of the exports such as Android export. As far as oldest Game Maker that I have tried? Well that would go way back to the original Game Maker, the very first one ever made.
 
K

kryval808

Guest
Yes, I remember downloading every single version from the very old 1.x just to mess!!!
 

Gradius

Member
5.3A I think. It was a good starting point as 5.3a was the best 'lite' version of GM. While 6 brought 3D acceleration and all kind of blending effects (alpha transparency at more than 3 frames a second!), there was quite a bit of stuff you needed to now be registered to use. 7 and 8 were even more restricted. GMS got the free Standard edition which made it once again appealing to beginners, but now that's gone entirely for Studio 2 (charging any kind of money will put off young coders, and recurring subscriptions will put of a lot of people at any age bracket).

Got to say while there's a lot more toys to play with, it is sad to see the product stop being a learning tool and move towards targetting professional development (while more feature rich enviroments like Unity remain free for people to learn with).
 
S

Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
GameMaker v4.3 I believe it was. The last version of GameMaker that was released as freeware.
 
L

lawrence785

Guest
I did test some early builds also but not so serious. My first coding experience must be 13 years earlier on MSX BASIC, then moved to QBasic and finally to GM.
 
Top