How Old Are You?

2

Comments

  • animaniactoo
    animaniactoo Posts: 486 Mover and Shaker
    GrimSkald said:
    animaniactoo said:
    GrimSkald said:
    Orion said:
    Dang it, I'm in a new catagory now since I just turned 46.  No, I didn't play Pong, but my friend did have an Atari 2600.  Been playing games ever since.


    A friend of mine once noted that there are two sub-classes of Generation X - "Atari" and "Nintendo." :)

    I had a 2600 when I was a kid.  Those rubber covers on the joysticks came off if you looked at them funny, but they still worked with the bare plastic...

    And then there's the "Commodore 64" generation. :wink:

    My dad refused to let us play video games until we learned how to write one. Sadly, he was not fooled by the math hangman game I got out of 3-2-1 Contact.

    However, I don't live with him any more and he can control me any more. Neener neener neener! :smirk:

    ETA: He also wasn't available to prevent me from hitting the grocery store arcade games next to school. I killed at Ms PacMan. And Tetris. I am the Tetris QUEEN.

    A friend of mine had a C64.  We started out with a Sinclair ZX81 (which was reissued as the "Timex/Sinclair 1000,") a tiny little thing with a membrane keyboard and 1 (I tinykitty you not,) K.  We upgraded ours to 16 because you could run out of memory typing a screen of text.

    Eventually we upgraded to an Apple IIe and that was my gaming platform for a very long time.

    Regarding Tetris, a woman I dated in College was expert at the IBM compatible version (I think this was before Windows became the default OS, and we were still largely playing in DOS.)  It was just the basic games with levels, and it sped up each level.  Most of us, including me, died very quickly on the last level (the one with the picture of fighter jets.)  She had to trick the computer into going faster, otherwise it wasn't a challenge. :)

    It is possible you were dating my sister. Tetris was the one game that eventually became acceptable* in exactly that MS-Dos version, and we played it TO DEATH. The skills translated to every other version of the game we came across, no matter the platform.

    *I suspect because dad was playing it too. And Frac (3D Tetris) when that came along.
  • Ruinate
    Ruinate Posts: 528 Critical Contributor
    Got an NES when I was 2 and haven't stopped gaming since.  When I first joined this community I was shocked to learn how much older everyone was than me.  Perhaps its a mobile gaming thing because I was used to being surrounded by 16-25 year olds on my internet.  I once made a dirty underage joke and people were not happy.

    "some of us have daughters, you know"

    Yikes sorry d00ds.
  • Marine8394
    Marine8394 Posts: 301 Mover and Shaker
    CHRISJN said:
    38.. And i have a 16 year old son already... 
    Ha! 52 and I have 4 grand children. Yup started a wee bit early. 
  • badsaj
    badsaj Posts: 73 Match Maker

    51. My Dad bought Pong for the family in about 1976 or 1977, which was great until the next year when practically every one of my friends had an Atari 2600 and was playing pac-man and space invaders, but we couldn't get one because Dad had spent so much on Pong. 

  • Moon Roach
    Moon Roach Posts: 2,863 Chairperson of the Boards

    On first computers, mine was an Ohio Superboard II.  4 k of RAM, 8 k of ROM, and I had to build (well, my dad did) the power supply.

  • veny
    veny Posts: 834 Critical Contributor
    24 so far...
    However it is nice to see that people 40+ have passion for gaming. It makes me happy that games are not viewed as childish anymore and that they can entertain everyone no matter the age...
  • Asmodaeus
    Asmodaeus Posts: 100 Tile Toppler
    39 and gaming since Intelevision, Coleco, and my brothers Commadore 64 (shoutout to Hunt the Wumpus). I'm pleasantly surprised to see the community (at least on the forums) is a bit more "seasoned". MPQ is my only mobile game and I started playing it casually as I was with my son recovering  from appendix surgery. It has slowly grown to be a bit compulsive as I'm prone to be a completionist. And frankly, this game's fun! 
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,178 Chairperson of the Boards
    A few months shy of 34. We didn't own one, but I remember or babysitter had any Apple II, at least I think that's what it was. I know the NES was my first console though. Other then MPQ, I don't play much these days though. 
  • Kevin61
    Kevin61 Posts: 256 Mover and Shaker
    Well, I am in the upper echelon of age - 56 - and thoroughly enjoy video games.  To paraphrase - you can have my controller when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
  • SpringSoldier
    SpringSoldier Posts: 265 Mover and Shaker
    I'm 31. I've never had a console, I only found out what it was a couple of years ago; I did have a computer though- it was my brother's, but I was allowed to play on it- played Pac-Man and Need for Speed for a few years. Than the computer became too old to be compatible to the newer games and I couldn't play anything besides Solitare on it (my brother did get a shiny new one, but he moved out). Also, I had dial-up Internet up until when I was 18 or something; I finally convinced my parents to get some decent connection, since I needed to research stuff for school. I didn't start playing any games until I got a company smartphone - started with hidden objects games, Jewel Quest, Solitare and Pokemon Go. I do like video games, but it's one hell of an expensive hobby.
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,291 Chairperson of the Boards
    First computer was a Vic 20 (the predecesor to C64) which had the computing capability equivalent to a page of text (without expansions). My first console was the Phillips Videopac G700 (called something else in USA - Magnavox I think) - my Dad did some work for Phillips and was given one for free. It had the awesome Quest for the Rings (a computer game AND a board game at the same time) and Pickaxe Pete!
  • thedarkphoenix
    thedarkphoenix Posts: 557 Critical Contributor
    Interesting, puzzle quest is an old mans game it seems.
  • heybub
    heybub Posts: 290 Mover and Shaker
    Wow...totally didn't think the results would be skewed so heavily for the over 25 years group... OMG...we're all just a bunch of old dorks (previously thought I was the only old dork playing this game...).
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    SpringSoldier said:
    I'm 31. I've never had a console, I only found out what it was a couple of years ago; I did have a computer though- it was my brother's, but I was allowed to play on it- played Pac-Man and Need for Speed for a few years. Than the computer became too old to be compatible to the newer games and I couldn't play anything besides Solitare on it (my brother did get a shiny new one, but he moved out). Also, I had dial-up Internet up until when I was 18 or something; I finally convinced my parents to get some decent connection, since I needed to research stuff for school. I didn't start playing any games until I got a company smartphone - started with hidden objects games, Jewel Quest, Solitare and Pokemon Go. I do like video games, but it's one hell of an expensive hobby.
    You're 31 and you didn't know what a console was? Like, you'd never heard of Nintendo? Or Playstation?

    I don't mean that to sound like a jerk, I'm just baffled at how that is even possible.
  • haro63
    haro63 Posts: 21 Just Dropped In
    Marine8394 said:
    CHRISJN said: 
    38.. And i have a 16 year old son already... 
    Ha! 52 and I have 4 grand children. Yup started a wee bit early. 
    Thank goodness I'm not the only one in the last group!
  • qandols
    qandols Posts: 1,178 Chairperson of the Boards
    You're not. I'm 57.
  • Alfje17
    Alfje17 Posts: 3,822 Chairperson of the Boards
    animaniactoo said:
    GrimSkald said:
    Orion said:
    Dang it, I'm in a new catagory now since I just turned 46.  No, I didn't play Pong, but my friend did have an Atari 2600.  Been playing games ever since.


    A friend of mine once noted that there are two sub-classes of Generation X - "Atari" and "Nintendo." :)

    I had a 2600 when I was a kid.  Those rubber covers on the joysticks came off if you looked at them funny, but they still worked with the bare plastic...

    And then there's the "Commodore 64" generation. :wink:

    My dad refused to let us play video games until we learned how to write one. Sadly, he was not fooled by the math hangman game I got out of 3-2-1 Contact.

    However, I don't live with him any more and he can control me any more. Neener neener neener! :smirk:

    ETA: He also wasn't available to prevent me from hitting the grocery store arcade games next to school. I killed at Ms PacMan. And Tetris. I am the Tetris QUEEN.

    Can I join the C64 club? My first 'PC' where you had to forward the audio cassettes before you could load the games on them :)
  • PFellah
    PFellah Posts: 45 Just Dropped In
    47. Can I change my answer to dog years?

    I wasn't much of a console gamer growing up, but since my dad worked for IBM, we had a computer in the house from a pretty young age. The only bad thing is it had OS/2 on it, and getting games to run under OS/2 was more art than science -- there was always some memory setting to tweak or some line to add to the INI file to get things to work.
  • Nick441234
    Nick441234 Posts: 1,496 Chairperson of the Boards
    Really fascinated by these results. Shows how gaming is becoming more of an older generations pleasure rather than a kids past time. 
  • haro63
    haro63 Posts: 21 Just Dropped In
    Seems like this game appeals to an older crowd.  My son started playing after I did but he lost interest.  He's 16.  My wife was actually playing a little at one point but her game kept crashing so she stopped.

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