games™ Forum

My Dad is a proper gaming Grandad (66 this year),he got us a 16k Spectrum in 84/85 which i'm pretty sure he bought in kit form and put together himself. Since then he's stuck with computers from +3 to Amiga to PC. He tends to play mainly FPS's these days, in fact I spoke to him last night about Portal....

*kind of spoiler*

'I'm near the end and the voice is telling me to lie on the floor and put the devices down, how do I lie down and what key is drop?. Genius.

Well my gaming history is

Atari 2600 - intelevi sion - 48k spectrum - 128k+ spectrum - Amiga 500 - Amiga 1200 - N64 - Snes (Funny i know) Ps2 - Dreamcast - Xbox - Wii

and along the way i picked up GBA - Sega game Gear - And the Old Computers that are now all in 1 joystick.

Fav prob spectrum 128k + saved like a fool to get that 1 Amiga 1200 loved it Dream Cast WOW and my Xbox and now Wii hell there all Favs

Shamelessly lifted from a Kotaku link : 11 signs you're no longer hardcore. Now, I'm far from a gaming grandad at a modest 31 (for the next few weeks) but 9 out of eleven struck a chord with me and it would be a full score if I owned a PS3. Also I'm sure I'd be upset if GTA didn't turn up if I wasn't enjoying No More Heroes so much. First Wii game I've played that's held my attention for more than a couple of hours.

The 1st comment about your not hardcore if you use a console made me angry. Just more proof (if you needed it) that the net is full of wankers. I agree with the rest though. Apart from the GTA bit, I want it sooo bad now, it's not even funny anymore.

Sly Reflex wrote: Apart from the GTA bit, I want it sooo bad now, it's not even funny anymore.

I've been avoiding my Xbox and gaming sites/fora this week precisely so I don't get too wound up with longing. The launch has crept up on me (or so it feels) but I know for a fact I'm not going to be able to devote the attention required until the weekend anyway . Jesus, another thread derailed by the GTA behemoth, sorry. The hype is infectious.

This made me laugh! ( and upset that i actually am most of those things! ),
They were all me except for the Wii one - i love my Wii,
and the GTA one - if it doesn't drop on my doormat tuesday morning there'll be hell to pay!!

My first game was a Gorf for the Vic-20 - cartridge version mind. Loved it. Played Bombs Away (think that's what it was called - fly plane, blow up skyscrapers - eek!) almost daily. In the arcades was a HUGE fan of 1942 + 1943. Played every weekend at Redcar seafront! Forget GTA, the game I'm waititng for is the new 1942 on Xbox live (joint Strike I think it's Called).

I used to love Sunset Riders and Robocop 2 on the arcade...

My mate had Virtua Cop with the gun (the light gun that was wayyy better than sony's first effort) and I play it so much that I clocked the score. I played it in an arcade one day and felt jubilation having a crowd of kids watching me in awe....

djants wrote:I used to love Sunset Riders and Robocop 2 on the arcade...

I know the Arcade version of Sunset Riders is better but I grew up on the Mega Drive version and so it's my favourite. The SNES one is more faithful but I still reckon that, despite less levels and characters, the Mega Drive version has better graphics and sound.

At 48 I probably qualify as a 'grandad of games'...however after 30 years of playing all types of games i can honestly say that todays games beat the spots of most of the originals.

sure I would probably be a lot richer If I has invested the money i poured into space Invaders and galaxians.however to be honest most of the games were simply about posting higher scores.
In my mind gaming experiences really took off with the PS1 / Dreamcast era and carried over to the PS2 and Xbox.

games such as Tomb raider /Resident Evil / shenmue / Deus ex / thief took interaction to a level we could only dream of in the early days.
I also feel that the new generation has actually taken a step beckwards from this interaction with the trend towards a more casual approach to gaming.

but then again i'm just and old 'fart' so what so I know...x

sakuragen wrote:My first game was a Gorf for the Vic-20 - cartridge version mind. Loved it. Played Bombs Away (think that's what it was called - fly plane, blow up skyscrapers - eek!) almost daily. In the arcades was a HUGE fan of 1942 + 1943. Played every weekend at Redcar seafront! Forget GTA, the game I'm waititng for is the new 1942 on Xbox live (joint Strike I think it's Called).

I think the 'bombs away' game you describe was actually called 'Blitz'.

-you pressed the 'space bar' to drop bombs on the skyscrapers as your plane went from left to right, gradually getting lower and lower til you either landed or crashed.

I was a massive fan of Jeff Minters Vic 20 games like Hellgate, Matrix and Lazer Zone- i still play Hellgate- its a blast!

-Jetpac was also the best on the Vic20- far better than the weedy Speccy version (oops, better not start another 8bit mines better than yours war like the C64 versus Speccy).

Zx81 was my first, but i really loved my spectrum 48k and Spec + then on to the Amiga,
I loved games in those days, i remeber thinking £15 was to much for Apachie - How times have changed.
Each Generation hasits greats but my fave has to be my 360 i Love it.

The old days would be My Spec and Amiga

Great Days


Esp Elte

I started off on an Atari 2600 back in 1981, then a couple of 48K Speccys, followed by a 128+2 Speccy. Following that, I moved away from computers completely and went onto consoles, starting with a Gameboy, then a SNES, then a Mega Drive, then an NES (just purely because it was at the end of it's lifespan and had a huge back catalogue of games going dirt cheap in most high street shops at the time). That was pretty much the roots of my current Nintendo Fanboy-ism so now I start off each new generation wih Nintendo's latest console and buy it's competitors cheaper at a later date...been doing that since the N64 (took me another year to buy a Playstation, and only bought a second hand Saturn about 4 years back). Also have a Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox, a Wii and Xbox 360 (PS3 is still too expensive for me at the mo, especially given that nearly all it's good games are also out on the 360) and both a DS and PSP. Still got that old Atari 2600 and my 128K+2 Speccy too...

I'll be 32 soon. Don't know if that makes me a 'Gaming Grandad' or not but I haven't got any intention of giving it up ever . You'll have to prise my control pad out of my cold dead fingers first

Just going through the loft found my old spectrum and .... god of all gods ... an acorn electron with quite a few boxed games!!!!!!!
all still work too
(wonder if my 360 still be going in 20 years....erm..........)

I started off with an Atari XE, fine machine with cassette deck and cartridge input. Revolutionary for the time.
Then it was Sega all the way for a while (Master System, Mega Drive) I then heard about the Sony PS1 being amazing so got that. Then PS2, XBOX and now PS3.
So badly wantin a 360 at the moment. I will get it eventually.
Recently got from ebay a few retro consoles such as Super Nintendo, NES, to see what i was missing out on. Seems like i missed out on a lot lol

M