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How old are you, and how long have you been playing videogames?

Dujour

Banned
Scrow said:
heh, i got that 'inside joke'.... i guess that makes me a geek too.

edit: i have no idea how some of you are able to remember the first game you ever played.

I vaguely remember it, but I've seen myself on videotape. :)
 
I can't believe the average age of ppl in this thread! Much older than I initially would have thought, but then again this forum has far more intelligent and interesting discussion then places like IGN and GameFAQ where I would imagine most ppl are 13 - 17. I use the terms "intelligent" and "interesting" loosely ;)

Anyway I'm 22 and I started gaming with the Apple II computer system which was a hand-me-down from my cousins. Such great games like Lady Tut, Load Runner, Conan and others I forget the names of, in all its green and black glory (display). No idea how old I was.
 
Hi my name is Thom, and I'm Age 21.

I started playing games on Spectrum/Commodore and my dad's Amstrad PC. I can't remember what games I had on the old cassette things anymore, but I know I loved them all. I used to get SO pumped my eyes would sometimes roll back into my head and I would spaz out on the floor for 3 HOURS just by playing a game. It was AWESOME.

I messed about on C64, and PC -- with the likes of MS DOS' Basic. I can remember some mags came with pieces of code you could write, and I remember being impressed. My earliest memories of proper commercial software though, are probably: Digger, Mars, Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom etc. I had played Atari and other things at friends houses... bare in mind I was only very little in the 80s, so I didn't really care what I got... but by 1989 I was on my freakin hands and knees BEGGING for a NES. I did this for what felt like years and was never allowed to get one... in the end they got me a SNES when that first came out. I stayed up all night on the super scope, and playing the digital crack that is Super Mario World until I completed it. I later bought a Master System and a Mega Drive II. I had about 25 games on each system. Then I entered what I like to call - the dark ages.

Dark_Ages.jpg


I started trading in.

For 25 SNES/MegaDrive games and their respective systems and accessories (including the SuperScope and Menacer)... I got a launch PlayStation and FIFA 96.

Having grown hair where there was no hair before; having raging hormones course through my vains for the a couple of years: I can only assume I WAS ABSOLUTELY INSANE! FIFA 96 on PlayStation is, quite possibly, the shittest game of all time. I played the demo disc that came with the system far more - cos it had demos of Loaded on it n' stuff like that. Anyway, it felt like mere days had passed before I walked into the shop I'd bought the PlayStation from, when I saw a Japanese import Nintendo 64. Obviously it was a lot longer than that... I now had a thick crotch rug and mighty chest wig. But this is besides the point. The madness was still with me. I ended up trading a significant amount of PlayStation games along with the PlayStation itself for a Nintendo 64 with Mario 64. I loved the system and the game, but deep down, in my heart, I knew I had been financially raped.

frcover.jpg


Later on, divine providence saw fit to provide me with another PlayStation. I won one by answering a question about Kermit the Frog or something, on a Eurosport channel phone-in. I got the system, Porsche Challenge, Soul Edge, and some other cool game. I started my PlayStation collection up again (luckily I'd held on to Final Fantasy VII). I also got the thing chipped to play CD-Rs. Clearly, having pissed off some higher power, I was to learn the true nature of Karma. Having mockingly placed all the pieces in place, to make my gaming life a veritable paradise again, the Gods prepeared to crush my soul...

I was happy. I almost recalled the good old SNES/MegaDrive days. The Gods knew of this, there can be no doubt. Pleased in their work, and vengeful in their wrath, the Gods saw fit to shatter each and every piece like some fucked up game of Jenga.

jenga.jpg


Because of my ill-fated decision to partake in the illegal activity of copying games and chipping my system -- the bastard broke on me. It was basically a shoddy job. People seem to do it so much more professionally these days... (I love the Xbox chip with the switch)

typewriter.jpg


Fast foreward to today - the moral of the story

I still have my N64. But a lot of the games I had for it have been sold for kicks/laughs, drink or drugs. What I once thought were conceivable payoffs to selling video games - like a lessened nerd-like state, resulting in more sexual activity -- have not really come to pass. I occasionally get some action (once every 3 hundred million years) but for the most part I am forced to wank. A lot.

I have attamped to repair what damage I have done. I have bought cheap NES/SNES systems and games. I plan on buying the new model PS2 at some point, when all my other consumer desires are satisfied.

But what of my once proud collection? What of all the money I have spent? How much have I lost? Well, I don't have anything like the collection I once had. No secret of mana (which I saw going for £60 the other day), no Terranigma, 2d Final Fantasy, no Link to the Past, no Streets of Rage/GoldenAxe/Sonic/Outrun... no Majora's Mask, no Intelligent Qube, no <insert awesome games I once had>, no awesome shooters outside of Ikaruga... and I don't even wanna calculate the loss I've made in financial terms. Basically, selling games and systems sucks fucking, sweaty, saggy, pendulous balls. Don't do it.

arivadechi

Thom


PS. I forgot Amiga. Gods, Lemmings, Super Putty and other stuff was jizz-worthy.
 
23 and since I was 6. Got a Game Boy with Mario Land and Tetris as my first system, then right after that got a NES for my birthday with Strider.
 

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
Red Dolphin said:
I can't believe the average age of ppl in this thread! Much older than I initially would have thought...

Yeah really. You guy are old!

Anyway 15/8
 

lordmrw

Member
24 years old, been playing for 18 or 19 years. I started gaming with the Atari 2600, and from there have probably had the majority of the major systems at one point in time or another. Never did play an Amiga, Apple 2, or a Commodore 64; everyone I knew was comfortable with their Nes'.
 

DrLazy

Member
22 / 3?

I started on a Texas instrument computer before getting a NES. Man I wish I still had that old computer.
 

DHGamer

Member
36/24

Looking at these ages, damn... good to know I'm not a geezer yet :D

First games were on an Intellivision (football) a friend got for christmas. What really turned me into a gamer though was that magazine DieHard Gamefan. Nothing but page after page of clear screenshots and very little ads. Thats where my nick comes from too. I do admit I ran out the first day and bought a Panasonic 3DO because of them. Biggest waste of $800 ever hehe. Time heals all wounds though, no bitter feelings towards the hype machine mag obviously :)
 

impirius

Member
I remember a day when I was around five; my dad sat me down at the table and let me decide what I wanted: some new games for my TI 99/4A or a NES and a game. Man, that was tough, especially since we got the Speech Synthesizer not long before that. There was a whole catalog full of TI games to choose from, too... but I decided on the NES. I felt bad about it afterwards, like I was being disloyal to my good old TI. A fanboy at the tender young age of five, I guess..

*sniff*
 

MASB

Member
23/19

Started with my brother's Atari 2600 and got my own NES in Christmas 1988. The first games (Atari 2600) that I remember playing were Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Football, Pitfall, and Frogger.
 

BreakyBoy

o_O @_@ O_o
21/17

When I was 4 I was playing stuff on the C64 and on the Amiga 5200 my dad had. God the Amiga games had some wicked music. I can also vaguely remember copying my first BASIC video game out of a reference book when I was 5. Thus began my infatuation with learning random programming languages.

I became addicted for life when I got an NES and Mario 1 when I was 5 or 6. Cemented my feet into the ground as one when I got Mega Man 1, 3, and Zelda soon after that.

Good times.
 
scary thing is in 20+ years or so.. some guy/girl is going to post... 25/23 HALO.

because I remember one of you saying you play Halo with like your kid daughter who's like 2.

* and the scarier thing is we'll still be here. :( :)
 

Ranger X

Member
TheGreenGiant said:
scary thing is in 20+ years or so.. some guy/girl is going to post... 25/23 HALO.

because I remember one of you saying you play Halo with like your kid daughter who's like 2.

* and the scarier thing is we'll still be here. :( :)

Yep. I guess that in some years from now, young and old gamers won't understand each other at all. ;(
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
22, been playing since I was 6 years old. First game I ever played was Super Mario Bros and first system I've ever owned was NES.
 
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