I'm trying to put together a retrospective on potions, this is... Pretty important knowledge for it.

The first Final Fantasy? Do you mean potions as in general magic vials, or potions in particular? 

I can remember playing Rogue on my first PC and that game is older than me, first came out in 1980 and that had potions in it.

Wizardy: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is currently listed as the first appearance of potions. But surely there were games prior to 1981 with potions in them?

It is probably going to be dungeons and dragons pen and paper though since pen and paper rpgs aren't covered on the site its going to be a pc game.

I assume Ultima.

So we've got Rogue and Ultima I. But which one was released first?

Well, Ultima I was 1980.  When was Rogue?

"So we've got Rogue and Ultima I. But which one was released first?"

...did Adventure have potions?  Also, it very well may be in one of the first few text games.

"Ultima I also came out in 1980. There were a lot of ports though, so maybe that's where you got 1986 from."

The real question here is which game were the most potions used. That answer is Diablo I & II.

"LordAndrew said:

"Ultima I also came out in 1980. There were a lot of ports though, so maybe that's where you got 1986 from."

Yeah, I found that. I've already edited it."