The earliest title I am familiar with is 1987's Test Drive, which represents an innocent enough title. All you do is race sports cars at high speed across treacherous mountain curves. And to boot, you get a speed radar detector, so as to avoid the cops. But in case one did catch you, you could always try and outrace him. Now that's not much, but it's definitely a start. It's clearly law-breaking, and encouraged at that. Three tickets and you were out - some tracks had four or more cops and you couldn't always afford to slack down. Running from the law was inevitable.

The launch of Test Drive in 1987 also coincided with Sid Meier's Pirates in which, as a pirate, you can turn countries against each other, rob whomever you feel like and play things in your favor. Granted, you did remain the good guy, but the footprints are there as well. Playing a swindling, playboy pirate isn't exactly taking on an alien armada Hell-bent on toasting earth.

The early days of the outlaw genre also brought about Amiga's King of Chicago, which begins right after Al Capone died and affords you the opportunity of seizing the mob empire. That sounds like motive there already. It's doubtful that you donate your empire to a charity at the end. If that wasn't enough to satiate your criminal instincts, several platforms were subsequently launched, such as The Guild of Thieves, in which you had to steal your way to the top.