iPad Age and Gaming

hi marlene,

well, i am 40 this year, but i was back into spectrum gaming/apple2c days and loved the coin-ops of yesteryears. and i been with pc gaming, gameboy and missed the console wars, but got into ps3 just last year, but u can say i been a gamer for the last 25 yrs or more!

and i agree with u, the iphone is such a different but wonderful gaming platform. i been gaming on the java mobile platform for over 4 yrs prior to the iphone and always felt there was a great potential for mobile gaming. but the iphone has brought mobile gaming to the masses with the app store and also, its great hardware and most importantly, indie developers

i love it when a game like alphabetic or trism makes it to the maintstream and deservingly so. my wife who is also my age has been gaming with me the last 15 yrs too! and she loves the iphone just as much, if not more. she spends like 3 hrs on iphone gaming daily .... haha

 

Well Marlene, i love u. I'm 40 and have been playing vid games since 1976. i like the fact that i was in at ground zero and can totally appreciate how far games have come.

my first console was a RCA Studio II. i used to create solar systems with the art/paint program and invent my own games which included rolling dice and moving pixels as starships around planets at age 8.

of course i had the Atari 2600 when it first came out and have owned most of the systems. a few besides those first 2: Atari 7800, nes, snes, genesis (and a nomad that i still have!), 486 pc (loaded with great games), ps1, saturn, N64, ps2, dreamcast, gamecube, xbox, xbox360, wii, ps3. i also played a lot of C64 games (like Telengard) and intellivision at my friend's house on my block in the early 80's.

when i was a kid, you'd find me in arcades most of the time - i played every classic and was a pinball freak - i mean am!

right now, my 2 fave systems are my iPhone3G and my PSP which, as of this week - plays PS1, genesis, nes, snes and sega CD games. it was a thrill to play Jet Moto 3 and ridge racer on the PSP's screen which improves the graphics a lot.

so i'm in abslute gaming heaven right now, maybe more than ever in my life. and i don't intend on stopping. great to hear you're loving gaming still!

- Ric

 

Well, I'm 14, don't remember anything past the 64 and PS1, and am pretty much bursting everyone's bubble.

But seriously, it's awesome that you all have been playing for such a long time. Most people your age are going through mid-life crisises (no clue if I spelled that right) fretting over BMWs, deeming video games too childish (they need Wii fit to justify them gaming ). You guys rock!

 

kamazar, theres actually a huge bunch of us 80s videogamers right at the point where videgoames became mainstream that are in our mid 40s now ... these are the original guys who have to put up with parents and teachers looking down and frowning on videogames. heck, back in early 80s, they thought videogames was just a passing trend and would die overnight ... how wrong they were!

 

I've been playing video games since the late 70's. Started off in the neighborhood arcades, back then they seemed to be everywhere. I grew up playing games on Intellevision. My Dad worked for a publishing company that was owned by Mattel, so I had access to games before they were released to the public. Video game always have and always will be a big part of my life even at 38.

 

I'm 52 and have been in the video game business since I started as a play tester at Avalon Hill in 1979. My first published games were for the TRS-80, Commodore PET, Apple II, and Atari 800. More on that here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13563

Our president, Sherri Cuono is also the designer of Bounce Trap, is younger, but she's been in the game and multimedia world for over a decade.

The iPhone is the most exciting thing to happen in the business since the Mac and Amiga first hit the scene in the 1980's.

 

I am 36. I remember playing Moon Patrol once a week in a restaurant/bar my parents used to take me to, playing Burger Time at Chucky Cheese. I had an Oddsey. My parents liked it better than the Atari because it had a keyboard. Been video gaming my whole life. Still remember when Virtua Fighter 1 came out. That blew me away. Owned a Palm OS company writing games for a while (now I am a teacher).

I have an upright cabinet in my house with a MAME machine in it. I waited in line over night for the PS2. Currently have a xBox360 and am a WOW addict (currently on hiatus).

I spend a lot of free time gaming as I have my whole life.

 

Playscreen

Great article. I loved playing Activision games as a kid. Wish that some of them could get ported over. Bring on Imagic too.

 

I'm now (erp!) 38. I started by typing in programs on my school's Apple][ and an Atari (eventually an Intellivision) at home.

In the early 80's, I jumped to the C64--leaving consoles behind. In '89 I picked up an A500 and never looked back.

Gaming was such a big deal to me that I jumped at the chance to become a part of the simulations community, interning at the Institue for Simulations and Training -- giant distributed games with really, really, (did I mention *really*?) cool clients -- Flight Sims, Tank Sims, "VR", you name it. All that eventually led me right into the Sim Intl Standards Org, making bigger and better worldwide gam....er, I mean sims.

@Kamazar -- don't let anyone tell you that games are a waste of time!

 

Hi im 17 and my fisrt videogame console was the nintendo, too old for my age ( i was 7 years old in that time) and then the n64 then in my first pc games like spiderman and that kind of games, later the game boy color with games like asteroids, mario bros deluxe, etc. Then the game boy advance with a lot of games, then the ps1, then the xbox, and finally as my home console there is my wii, and as portable the iPod Touch and im very impressed about that tiny thing hehe. I bought that just hoping listening music or watching videos in widescreen or surfing the web, but, games? i said wtf and started this fúcking obssesion on playing games on my ipod touch. And i am using the jailbreak, this thing really opens a new entire world of posibilities you can play your old games of the nes or psx or gba thats just awesome, please dont judge me im just saying that you can use this not just for play cracked apps (wich is really nice hehe) but you can use this for other thing under apple aproval, thats just my thoughts.

PD: I know that i went to far away from the topic hehe sorry.

 

I'm glad you started this thread, Marlene--it's good to know I am not the only "woman of a certain age" here!
I'm 51, and have been gaming since the early 70's. I was the first kid in the neighborhood to have the Pong console from Sears, and we were all so amazed that you could actually play a game on the TV set!

I remember the early 80's when video games replaced pinball machines in arcades and bars; Space Invaders, Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Galaxian--all the tall consoles lined up in a row with little stools in front of them. How advanced those graphics seemed back then...

After playing text adventure games on my ginormous personal computer, when Myst came out I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Certainly nothing could look better than that!

And so it goes...decades later I am still playing games--everything from Bejeweled to the most recent FPS. My 10-year-old nephew can't believe how his "old" aunt can just pick up the Wii controller and kick his butt!

I'll never stop playing video games--it has always been a part of who I am. No matter what traumas may pass through my ER, when the shift is over, I know I can go home and "Bounce On!"

 

I'll be 51 in March and have to agree that we have lived in an era of game development that has changed dramatically through out our lives and fortunate to have witnessed this. Although who knows what's in store for the younger generation. But its reminds me of grandparents going from radio to b/w tv to color tv. I remember buying my first game console of Pong at Sears for aprx. $80 in the 70's. It had a fake walnut covering with 2 knobs on it. I was the first to have it on my block and it was a real high tech game back then....heh! Can't think of the game console I had later (Atari?) but played the game Zaxxon on it. Bought the game for $50 and back then that was a lot of money for a game, imo. Few years later I seen the game in a flea market bin for 5 cents. One thing about technology and that it gets old very fast. Thanks everyone for the memories....

 

i think anyone who was a teenager in the 80s would agree that videogaming is much part of their entertainment staple as movies and music is. and thats why places like the app store and xbla is thriving, coz there is always a market for nostalgic games too, just like ppl are still watching casablanca after all these years.

i think reading all these posts, i cant help but feel how much videogaming has come in 25 yrs. back in thoses days, we would get excited over ultima 3 or 4 when the graphics were just stick men and animation jus 2 frames, and very often, monochrome graphics. but boy, those were good times ....

maybe someone should just post a thread of classic 80s games here ....

 

Me, Myself & I

I was born in 1969 to give you all some perspective and discovered video games in the mid 1970's when our family received a Pong machine for a Christmas present from a relative. I wish I new which Pong system it was because I have no recollection of which one, and we unfortunately have no photos of our family playing it (more on that later). I quickly discovered that these "TV" games were awesome and that started a long love affair with video games. From then on I quickly evolved into the Atari 2600 (Fav games Kaboom, Adventure, Dodgem, Fast Food, Pitfall II, Jawbreaker, Frostbite). From then I got the computer itch after our Jr. High School loaded their new "Computer Lab" with about two dozen TRS-80 Model III's. Hours were spent after school (back then kids actually wanted to stay after school to play with these things) spending time learning about these incredible new technological marvels. Home computers came and went throughout my childhood. Everything from my beloved Timex Sinclair to my Commodore 64 and finally in high school the BEST home computer ever -- the Apple IIc w/ green monochrome monitor. Computer games started being the games of choice. My buddies and I would have marathon games of Archon, M.U.L.E., Temples of Apshai, Beach Head, all the Infocom text adventures, Seven Cities of Gold, etc. God what a great time to grow up!

Then while the majority flocked towards the NES I bucked the trend and thus began my long dedication to Sega. The Master System continued to amaze me as I remember looking above the oncoming road playing Outrun, fooled by hills and turns the programmers so perfectly portrayed. The Genesis was soon to follow, and then a slight fork in the road caused by the brilliant game Donkey Kong Country. This showed me it's best to not be a fan boy of any one system but to enjoy all the systems and the games they offer. So Nintendo became more of a household name to me and I soon was a happy owner of a SNES. Then it all gets blurry as I owned an N64, Jaguar, Lynx, Game Gear, Game Boy(s), Dreamcast, Playstation, Xbox and PS2 and that pretty much brings us up to the current day. Now I spend weekends scouring swap meets looking for lost artifacts from my childhood. I am once again the proud owner of nearly every classic gaming system, tons of electronic hand-held games and the occasional vintage toy or game.

Now I have an arcade full of about 12 classic games and pins. My modern day systems include a DS, a Wii and PS3 are hooked up to the big screen and I have been seeing some rays of light in the industry as it sits today. One of the new things that is getting tons of attention are the tons of classic gaming Ipod/Iphone Aps. I can't say enough about the cool stuff being introduced to that format each day. It is really an awesome time to be a gamer. And that brings me to my final thought. Has there every been a bad time to be a gamer? I think not. Each generation of system/games shows both brilliance as well as bullshit. Shovelware has almost always out paced the quality games - that's nothing new. And the games we are playing today on these systems will be new classics to us all in about 20 years. Remember to take an extra look at the PS3 and Wii kiosks in the stores when your kids are asking for the next bubble gum title. They, too will disappear just like the Atari, Intellivision & Colecovision kiosks did decades before. Life is good when you are a gamer !

To carry on the retrogaming spirit I have introduced a video gaming auction site that is much cheaper than Ebay - http://www.ChaseTheChuckwagon.com. Added a streaming radio station filled with classic gaming themed music and vintage gaming commercials - http://www.retroarcaderadio.com and most recently launched a new retro gaming podcast with a couple other "retro" gamers - http://www.RetroGamingRoundup.com.

So gaming is in my blood and I am doing what I can to cater to the gaming community. Oh and I love that the Iphone/Touch is turning into this great gaming medium. I love my Nintendo DS but have to say, that my Ipod is getting the majority of my playtime the past 6 months. I love it

 

44 here, remember playing the first wave of Space Invaders when they came to the UK. Couple of years later I was a master of Defender.
Used to find POKEs on the Amstrad 6128 which was good for the hunt but killed the game play once you'd seen the end boss. Had a guide I wrote bundled with some software.
Since then have all the consoles bar the 3DO and the 'toilet seat' add-on for the Jaguar. Also have a relatively uptodate MAME.

What got me to buy a Touch? Frotz. Infocom in the palm of your hand? Who needs fancy graphics when you have a great story to explore..

I have many many games and far too little time to play.

(At least with a Touch I don't need to juggle cables in the back of the TV or figure out the black spaghetti there or find the right controller...)

 

Im only 36 but still! will you marry me?

 

Thank god for my youth at 16.

 

I'm 28, and grew up in an era of Nintendo's and Arcade games. I was the kid with the Commodore 64, for a time envious of the other kids with a NES or Sega Master System. Virtually all the money I could scrounge up went in to playing arcade games. For the longest time, I thought my parents were cruel for not buying a Nintendo. We had the "crummy" C64. As it turns out, I developed this deep fascination with games, and started designing them at a young age. After eventually getting a Game boy, my parents bought me a subscription to Nintendo Power. It'd be fair to say I learned to and got excited about reading thanks to it. Dozens, hundreds of games in pages that I couldn't play, so I'd sit around as a kid trying to figure out how they played (and they were awesome!). Eventually that "crummy" C64 became a tool as I started learning to program. By 16 I'd written a VGA Final Fantasy "like" RPG for DOS, and by 19 got a job in the games industry. Coming up 10 years soon.