So called "History of Videogames" on Times "Month" CD

[Antiriad]

Anyone in the UK who buys the Times on Sundays will be aware that once every 4 or 5 weeks they include their "Month" cd which this time features the history of videogames.

Anyone else seen this then?

Just as to be expected these days, it omits the 16bit computer era ie our mighty Amiga and the lesser Atari ST.

It seems to paint out that we leapt from chuffing speccys and C64s to the SNES and Mega Drive!

Typical crock of revisionist sloppy journalism! Nothing irritates me more than history being re-written by the victors :kill

[Unknown_K]

Probably because alot of people jumped from the 8 bit machines to a PC and/or nintendo console ( at least here in the USA). Of all the people I knew back then nobody had an amiga or atari ST during the late 80's and early 90's. Its surprising becasue EVERYBODY had a C64 during the early 80's ( a few had atari 800's) and they all jumped to pc's.

[Bloodwych]

History is getting re-written all the time through either half-baked articles or TV/movie presentations.

I haven't seen this CD, but since it's an English newspaper it seems VERY surprising that the Amiga and ST were left out. The 16bit computer scene was absolutely huge over here, with everyone I knew back then owning an Amiga or ST after ditching their 8-bit machines.

It must have been compiled by an American or someone who wasn't familiar with the european scene, because any person who knows the history in this country (or many european countries) can't leave out the Amiga and ST!

[Unknown_K]

I know the Amiga/St was popular in europe just like the Mac didnt make much of a dent over there (probably because of cost I assumed).

There was a joke around here that anything big in computers in europe is dead meat over here in the US (think it started with the Sinclair computers). Commodore and Atari would have died years earlier if it wasnt for the European market, which is probably why you guys trip over equipment that is kind of rare for us to see here.


Maybe they were just referring to major trends in gaming/computing in the article. Was the 16bit craze in europe anywhere near the same $$/volume as the 8bit craze? With 30+ million c64's sold amiga's sales must have been disapointing. Anybody know how many units nintendo sold on their first big hit?

[jmmijo]

@Uknown_K, you must not have known the right people then, pretty much everyone in my neck of the woods knew about many 16-bit machines, most had Amiga's but some had ST's and a few weirdo's had MAC's or PC's

[Unknown_K]

Originally posted by jmmijo
@Uknown_K, you must not have known the right people then, pretty much everyone in my neck of the woods knew about many 16-bit machines, most had Amiga's but some had ST's and a few weirdo's had MAC's or PC's

Guess you can blame me and my friends for the PC killing the amiga/st then :hoo

[P-J]

At the end of the day the mainstream media (and it's attitude to games) never paints a true picture.

I mean to be honest, why is a paper like 'The Times' releasing such an item anyway? The mainstream public is never going to be interested in such a thing and we can be safe in the knowledge that us 'h@rdc0r3' retro fans always know the 'real' truth

[thinlega]

the times cd is a real let down....It looks to me like a half-baked idea to try and advertise Half-Life 2.

And on the mac specs it says i need a g4 or above.....why?? it works fine on my g3

[tin]

oh well when have we ever known a murdoch paper to report stuff accurately??

[7-Zark-7]

What's that old cliche, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story"?

Kiddies have a hard time believing there was a time when even 8bits were superior to a bleeping,monochrome PC.
And referrals to old cross-platform classics only being acknowledged as belonging to certain,machine(s).

But when even the publishers are guilty of the same crimes,(those still around), what do you expect?

[Smiley]

In the early 90s, I was the only kid to have an A600 rather than a SNES or a Megadrive. Although Amigas were popular here in the UK, the consoles still reigned supreme.

I never heard of anyone owning an ST? I never even new they existed till a few years ago.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Smiley

I never heard of anyone owning an ST? I never even new they existed till a few years ago.

Consider yourself lucky then There was nothing worse than a 'Dungeon Master rulez!' T-shirt wearing ST owner in your school (nothing against DM of course ).