Are you an "older gamer?"

[whispa]

With my newly purchased Apple IIc I picked up my first computer game:



Along with Ultima IV from above, Bard's Tale holds a special place in my gaming nostalgia:

Wow those bring back some good memories!

[Ironrod]

So now do we start the whole - "what didn't exist when you were a kid" discussion?  Well, I do remember our first television for starters.  I also remember Ike - and he was neither a GT member nor a hurricane!

My parents had the first COLOR TV on our block. All my friends came over at 4 pm to watch Batman at our house, because Batman was so much more awesome in color. POW! BAM!

We had a B&W TV for as long as I can remember, though.

[PeteRock]

I remember having to get up to change the channel.  On a knob.   

We had the first color computer on the block.  The first color Apple released. 

My father had an Odyssey video entertainment system. 

I received the first portable CD player of all of my friends.  When CDs were new and in limited release. 

My family had a Betamax VCR.  And I had the movie Rad on Beta.   

[PaulBot]

I remember having a VCR with a *WIRED* remote! And the remote only had a few buttons.

Who grew up without a microwave?? Our kids don't know what it's like to rough it. 

[disarm]

And I had the movie Rad on Beta.   

Rad...loved that movie back in the day.  HellTrack, bicycle boogie, ass sliding with a young lori laughlin...it had everything 

"god what i wouldn't give to go ass sliding with you right now" 

[Ironrod]

Every Wednesday night at 8 pm, I would become too sick to go to catechism. My periodic illness fortuitously coincided with Star Trek -- which didn't need "TOS" behind it then. I'd miraculously recover by 9 pm. It being obvious what I held sacred, my parents finally let me drop out of catechism while ST was running new episodes. They hated that show, btw. My mom never had much imagination and thought all sf was ridiculous. My dad thought it was liberal hippie claptrap.

[JohnathanStrange]

Seems to me older gamers had it pretty sweet: The future was limitless! I mean when your games have an "x" for a robot or knight or tank, anything would be an improvement! When you're reading a text description of a dungeon or battle, and then someone brings out a game with four or five colors and crudely drawn Orcs, you're not going to complain about the Orc having a scimitar instead of a battleaxe.

Now, we've got nothing to look forward too: years of improving graphics leave us thinking that "something's not quite right" with the AI, the gameplay, the graphics, etc.

[Huw the Poo]

I remember having a VCR with a *WIRED* remote! And the remote only had a few buttons.

Heh.  I remember having a TV with a wireless remote, but the remote only had two buttons.  One cycled through the TV channels in one direction, the other switched the volume between "loud" and "quiet."

[Bcarle]

53 here. First computer was an Apple II Plus.  First game played  Adventure (Colossal Cave Adventure game).


bob

[Ironrod]

Seems to me older gamers had it pretty sweet: The future was limitless! I mean when your games have an "x" for a robot or knight or tank, anything would be an improvement!

Games went downhill when they became mass-market products with huge development costs. There was a lot more innovation and risk-taking when they were made by hobbyists, for hobbyists, with very little money at stake and only cursory attention to appearance -- before accountants and marketers took over the industry. But I've done this rant before.

[PaulBot]

I remember having a VCR with a *WIRED* remote! And the remote only had a few buttons.

Heh.  I remember having a TV with a wireless remote, but the remote only had two buttons.  One cycled through the TV channels in one direction, the other switched the volume between "loud" and "quiet."

Yep! Had one of them too. The remote was HUGE!

[Isgrimnur]

I remember having to get up to change the channel.  On a knob.   

We had the first color computer on the block.  The first color Apple released. 

My father had an Odyssey video entertainment system. 

I received the first portable CD player of all of my friends.  When CDs were new and in limited release. 

My family had a Betamax VCR.  And I had the movie Rad on Beta.   

I was my father's remote for years.  We got a BetaMax with a wired remote.

[Pong]

Seems to me older gamers had it pretty sweet: The future was limitless! I mean when your games have an "x" for a robot or knight or tank, anything would be an improvement!

Games went downhill when they became mass-market products with huge development costs. There was a lot more innovation and risk-taking when they were made by hobbyists, for hobbyists, with very little money at stake and only cursory attention to appearance -- before accountants and marketers took over the industry. But I've done this rant before.

Because back then we didn't have a billion tetris, pacman, pong etc clones....

[Farscry]

And Snafu:

SNAFU! &$#@ YEAH!

Just about 31 here, and according to my Mom I've been a gamer since apparently I was just learning to walk and was fascinated with watching my uncle play Pong.

[WYBaugh8]

Soon to be 45.  Started in the arcades then my parents and their friends went in together and bought Pong.  I was hooked!  I had the Atari pinball/breakout console and then worked in high school to buy a 2600.   Moved on to computers with the TI99/4A (16 bit baby!), 8 bit Atari 800XL, Atari ST then saw Wing Commander on a 386 and never looked back!

[mytocles]

Soon to be 45.  Started in the arcades then my parents and their friends went in together and bought Pong.  I was hooked!  I had the Atari pinball/breakout console and then worked in high school to buy a 2600.   Moved on to computers with the TI99/4A (16 bit baby!), 8 bit Atari 800XL, Atari ST then saw Wing Commander on a 386 and never looked back!

OMG, Breakout, lol!  I always say I started video gaming with my first NES, but I remember playing Breakout on some kind of pinball or similar machine - late at night while "working"... nothing to do at 4 AM, and someone gave us the code to play the machine for free.  Later, we got it for Nintendo, with the special controller. I adored that game. 

[DamageInc]

41 here - started gaming on a ZX81 with 64K RAM pack and external keyboard

First memorable game on it was space invaders where the invaders were 'A' characters

Also played some Maze thing which was quite neat.

Favorite machine in the early days was the BBC B with either Elite or Chuckie Egg - now that was a fine game

http://www.repton3.co.uk/chuckieegg.php

Tals

That Maze game was Maze Craze I think and that indeed was a great game





or it could have been Bezerk with the little bouncing "happy face of death" that would repeat "intruder alert, intruder alert"

[DamageInc]

I remember having to get up to change the channel.  On a knob.   

We had the first color computer on the block.  The first color Apple released. 

My father had an Odyssey video entertainment system. 

I received the first portable CD player of all of my friends.  When CDs were new and in limited release. 

My family had a Betamax VCR.  And I had the movie Rad on Beta.   

How about the antenna tuner. You would get up and turn the dial some arbitrary amount to tune the antenna and it would make that awful "kchlunk, kchunk" noise, yeah those were the days

I remember before Cable TV we had this box that only provided one channel and it would just play movies 24/7. I think the service was called Preview or Starcase