About NVGA
One of the things that sucks about getting old is you don’talways recognize it’s happening. And I’ve found this is especially true withgamers. Perhaps it’s the fact that since we traditionally associate video gameswith being something kids or young people do, and since we’re doing it, thenwe’re still young. Oh, if only that were true.
“You don’t quit playingbecause you get old; you get old because you quit playing.” –Unknown
A buddy of mine, who I’ve never met in person but havecollaborated with online for over a decade now, were reminiscing about the goodold days not too long ago. He has been managing a video game fan site for over10 years and I’ve helped him out in various capacities. I remember when his wifewas due with their second kid; she’s gotta be pushing ten now (the kid, not hiswife…LOL). Man, that’ll make you feel old.
Anyway, I’m not a huge fan of the ever popular Top 10 lists.I’ll leave that to David Letterman. Same goes for the top 30 lists or even thetop 100 lists. The truth is there is no “top” because everyone has a differentopinion on what the top is. But what I do have here is a compilation ofvariables you can use to gauge whether you’re indeed getting old (or alreadythere), in no certain order of significance or relevance.
NOTE: For any of my “younger audience” members (if there areany) – I apologize in advance if some of these don’t make any sense to you.
You know you’re an old video gamer when…
-Your first game console WAS the first game console.
-You remember when a game’s multiplayer menu listed modem tomodem as an option.
-You remember long before MMORPGs there were MUDs.
-You remember playing Dig Dug in the arcade, and no, not theXbox Live Arcade.
-You actually remember what iddqd, idkfa and idclip are usedfor.
-You ever had to type Load”*”,8,1 to start your game.
-You remember using a boot disk to get every bit ofperformance out of your gaming rig.
-You ever had to assign IRQ and DMA resources to get thesound to work.
-You thought 8 bit graphics and 23khz audio playback (FMquality) was high tech.
-You remember downloading patches and mods from bulletinboards, not websites.
-You didn’t have DRM, you had code wheels or symbols on thepages of the manual.
-You remember calling controllers joysticks, and they hadone button.
-You remember when games didn’t use speech, they used textat the bottom of the screen.
-You read the top 10 Video Games of all times and thoughtthey skipped a generation.
-You mastered the “blowing technique” to get your NEScartridge to work.
-You have played text based games like Zork, and liked it.
-You could care less about Activision and IW, you missBroderbund and Origin Systems.
-You remember in the 80’s when everyone was singing Pac-ManFever.
-You’ve played games that no one has ever heard of and youcan’t find on Google.
-You recall when magazines included pages of code for you toprogram your own games.
-You still brag about holding the high score on Frogger forover a month at the arcade.
-You mention Doom in a conversation about classic games andsome have never heard of it.
-You remember when games didn’t have checkpoints or theability to “save”.
-You remember before Xbox Live, there was the MSN GamingZone.
-Your first gaming system included a cassette tape drive.
-You used to have to walk over to your console to turn it Onor Off.
-You remember when arcade games cost a quarter and were funto play, not just a rip off.
-You remember when Donkey Kong was a bad guy.
-Your version of the “console war” doesn’t involve the Wii,Playstation or Xbox.
-You can’t remember if you’ve written a blog like thisbefore or not, but you do anyway.
I’m not quite sure how many that is, which is good, becauseI have this weird personality disorder that if it’s not a number I like, thenI’ll add or take away. But if I don’t know, then its good and I can just leaveit at that. I’ve reached my page limit (2 not 3 – I’m trying to cut back incase you haven’t noticed). So there you have it, some guidelines you can use todetermine if you’re an old gamer or not. Feel free to add some of your own.
http://gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=384291
