Did Mass Effect 1 phone home? It was first released in 2007.

I got the Monkey Island 1 & 2 Remake Special Edition and it has SecuROM.

It did and still does. It was one of the first mainstream games and a precursor to the wave of DRM insanity that followed.
The disc-based or phone-home variety?

Disc-based. But i will check when i get home with DRM-checking software after work to be sure.

I know. But as I said, it's disc check. And as long as it doesn't require any internet/3rd party connection, it doesn't count as DRM in this thread.

Hm. This list is a good start, but I'd also like to see SecuROM and it's ilk called out, since I've had personal experience where one of those messed up my computer.

Also, doesn't Steam make you phone home at least once before you can use an offline profile?

With Steam you need to phone home at least once after each installation. It's the same like SecuRom with one-time activation.

Maybe we can add info about disc checks or local serial numbers behind the games if known.

I may put all this into a seperate Google Docs file with public read-access at some point, which would be a better point to include info about the local copy protection.

And Steam-forced games are no-go on this list because as you say, Steam needs to phone home beforehand before you can install the games. While there are a few exceptions for games bought directly from Steam (i.e. you can buy the game, download it and copy the directory out manually), I've never seen a retail game that you can do this with.

There's a huge difference - Steam can downright prevent you from installing a game (happened to me way too often). Securom-protected titles might require a one-time activation, but that happens only after the installation process has completed (that's why it's so easy to release a patch removing copy protection completely when Securom, Tages etc. are involved).

US boxed release of Torchlight is DRM-free.

Still not sure if it's online or disc-based though...

It's disc based. No connection needed.

I'm still incredibly pissed that Germany is the only place that's getting Torchlight 2 in retail. I don't want to pick it up if I have to activate anything.

Age of Wonders, Populous II and X-Com are playable without the CD so I guess they are pretty DRM-free.

Not sure if you can backup the CD-files on run the installer from other sources without a fuss though.