Proud to be a 1st gen gamer

[mrbob2]

Im 33 and i started gaming when i was 6 or 7 with a atari 2600. Then i went to spectrum, played on amstrad cp464 and c64, then went to amiga and then psx, ps2 and now ps3 (as well as pc of course)

Throughout my gaming career im proud to say i was there from the begining (just about). Ive witnessed gaming go from battletanx on the 2600 to complex gfx and sound on the spectrum, games which took 5 mins to load and marveling at the loading screens. Then the amiga brought real sound, games loading in seconds, the ability to do animation, muisc, photo viewing and sound sampling. Games then started to evolve into 3d and i witnesed the next generation of games taking over the world namely wolfenstein and doom.

Its amazing how during the days of the spectrum, people didnt really care about the hardware side of things, although it was a computer and according to sinclair you could do "amazing" things like bar graphs and pie charts lol 99% of users used it as a games machine. Then with the advent of the amiga and ST, people suddenly cared about numbers. How many colours on screen, people showing off about 4096 colours on screen, how much RAM it has and no one belived me when i said my A500+ had 1mb, as everyone else had 512k!

Then we saw the advent of the psx and n64 and then people didnt really care about facts and figures. I think it was the dumb generation where kids just wanted to whack in a disc and play the game. They didnt care how much ram or mhz it had, just wether this new box could "do tombraider"

Ironically, i have no idea how much ram my ps3 has, or how fast it is. I just know that it will run GTA4 so thats all that matters lol I have many happy memories of my psone, i had plenty of games on the ps2 but the ones i did have which were my faves, pro evo, gta 3&vice city, race driver etc were all available on the pc with better gfx, framerates and loading times so i guess my nostalgia stops with the psx.

Now we seem to be in a strange place with gaming. 20 years ago, if you told someone about the ps3 they would faint. Now, if sony introduced the ps4 tomorrow, i wouldnt even blink.

For me it seems weve run out of game ideas and taken them about as far as we can go. The best selling game at the moment and my current fave, modernt warfare 2 is just a clone of a clone of a clone etc etc

Racing games are pretty much perfect with the physics, sound etc. Just means in future better gfx and car/track models.

During my time as a gamer, ive witness games steadily evolve from tanx on the atari, to manic miner/arcade games like chase HQ, ant attack of the spectrum, then alien breed 3d, sensible soccer, hunter and lotus 2 on the amiga, then iss pro soccer, toca touring cars and tekken on the psx. Every generation games had a quantum leap in how they were made and it really was an exciting time. You could always do new things but it seems the ps3 just does what the ps2 could do but with better gfx.

Ive seen a lot in the news at the mo with REAL 3d gfx and project natal/sonys move and nintendo have revolutionised gaming with the wii, so is the next gen of gaming going to be in that area? so even if the ps4 turns out to be 10000 times more powerful than the ps3, it may actually be irelavent. The gfx of the wii are quite weak compared to the 360/ps3 in a sense but it doesnt matter as they do the job and are still ok for this gen.

I think in 10 years time when kids are jumping around the room fighing invisible monsters in the corner of the room wearing headsets and waving wands around. Thats when il finally start saying

"gaming isnt what it used to be, back in my day you sat still and used a joystick to control things!"

[Djay]

has someone cloned me and forgot to say anything

awesome history

high5

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[seuden]

Good read, thanks mrbob2.

[TCD]

So the Atari 2600 counts as 1st gen? Cool Now being old isn't that bad after all
Nice read mrbob2 and yes, games aren't what they used to be. Even if lot of idea have been used already, it's really too samey and it seems a bit like they don't dare to try anymore. Quite a shame

[cosmicfrog]

if necessity is the mother of invention then as i see it the big game houses don`t need to find something new just something that sells

[onkelarie]

Although a bit older, it pretty much sums up my gaming history Good read!

[AndyLandy]

I think the big thing here is that computing hardware has become so sophisticated these days that it really doesn't matter how much RAM or CPU you have in a PS3. The answer is "enough"

There's also no upgrade options. With the Amiga you might need to upgrade your RAM, or need an '030 CPU card. You upgrade your PS3 by buying the PS4 when it comes out :-)

Still, I don't think gaming is nearly as much fun as it was in the 80s. It was amazing what those old game developers squeezed out of the resources they had available to them!

[mombasajoe]

Nice. But I don´t really get the difference in "dumbness" of putting a cart./disc into a PS1/N64 and putting a cart. into an A2600, NES, C64 or whatever.

[xc8]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

So the Atari 2600 counts as 1st gen? .....

The 2600 its not 1st gen, there were older tv game-consoles (pong style, no carts) before this, I remember I played with them around '76-'77.

Chris

[TCD]

True, the 2600 is 2nd gen (had to look it up). Still quite interesting to see the development from there I still remember when I saw pre-rendered intro on the PSX or PC and thought 'One day games itself will look like that'. Didn't know that I would get fed up with them after a while though

[_ThEcRoW]

I still have my 2600 with carts and works perfectly!!!. Anybody remember hand-held games?. i had a lot before the 2600 and were my first entry in this world hehe.

[TCD]

Hehe, those where the 'hero' could be in three different positions on screen? Yep, I remember them Maybe I played them before we had the 2600, but not sure.

[xc8]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Hehe, those where the 'hero' could be in three different positions on screen? Yep, I remember them Maybe I played them before we had the 2600, but not sure.

Do you mean the game+watch style? They were introduced after/around '80..

Chris

[TCD]

Originally Posted by xc8

Do you mean the game+watch style? They were introduced after/around '80..

Yep, those ones. As I've written, I had my first Atari 2600 in 1984

[xc8]

Also, there were some similar, but the screens had LED elements.
I had the Scramble and the Galaxian. Their case was a miniature arcade!
Freakin' handhelds, they used 6 C type batteries IIRC.

Chris

[xc8]

hahah I just found on the net the pic of one of them..


Chris

[TCD]

Now I know why the DS looked familiar
[ Show youtube player ]

[deicidal]

This is one of things that got unearthed from my parents house recently



Kids had a look of horror when i showed it to them

[Dastardly]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

I still remember when I saw pre-rendered intro on the PSX or PC and thought 'One day games itself will look like that'. Didn't know that I would get fed up with them after a while though

Be careful what you wish for eh?

[Thorham]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

if necessity is the mother of invention then as i see it the big game houses don`t need to find something new just something that sells

Which would be fine if they at least tried to make quality games. Innovation becomes more difficult, but that's no excuse for making crap games.