Old time gamers

GreySix · September 2015

Unless y'all can fat-finger in this game in Basic...

Shaddup!

Elektrakosh · September 2015

This game was great until that last patch. Other than that...Cadwell's silver is boring as...Zzzzz!

I'm an older gamer than some here and younger than others. Any one remember Yars' Revenge, Vanguard or Star Voyager on the Atari 2600?
They were three of the many games I got to enjoy along with Space Invaders in which I purposely let my missile spitting mound of dirt get hit just to hear the noise.

You know, I ended up playing Deer God these past few days. It's an Old school platformer.

Sharee · September 2015

P3ZZL3 wrote: »

One of my favourite loading screens

Here's mine:

hrothbern · September 2015

vamp_emily wrote: »

I just want to ask all you old people.

pong/atari or what ever games you are referring to.

Did they crash?

This is my normal night.

1. I log in and go to PvP - I teleport to a keep, once I get there I take a few steps... CRASH
2. I see a resource that is flagged, so I go there and help.. i travel to the resource I see my group.... CRASH
3. I'm in a battle i'm trying to help save a Keep... CRASH
4. I take one of my purple drinks.. yes Purple the ones that cost most.. I head to a fight.... CRASH

I do this several times a night, so yes I have the right to complain.

haha

I am 59, and I still apply the habit of them days to save all the time manually what I am doing, because it was a necessity to do that with 5.25" floppy drives. And also in them days, you could only save your "RPG" game when you were back in your guild house or similar fixed locations.

So the crashes and load screens of today...

Sausage · September 2015

Wow I feel myself so young when I read this.

Trashy Boy · September 2015

*coughs* 48 here and my first ever game played was The Hobbit on Commodore 64 in the eighties and totally agree with you

DaveTheMinion · September 2015

P3ZZL3 wrote: »

Jeezus, talk about old-school and over the hill

I'm a spritely 42 here

I like how some people went from Atari playing Pong to a C64 What about all the cool stuff in the middle.

The plastic shells of the ZX81 - Running a massive 2k of Ram allowing you to Hand Code

Anyone else remember getting your monthly magazine and spending the next 5 hours typing:

OMG man what a flash back!

The wife and I were talking about older gamers and our console generation a few weeks ago, I miss text based adventures like Zork and Gremlins, I was trying to explain to my kids how much fun it was back then, simple games that you really got your moneys worth out of them, but when you look at what an adventure game has to offer today, would you have gone back to playing our generation of games???? in part I would, but I surely would miss the graphics and content we now get, yes our newer generation of games come with issues, but when you look at all the information that goes into making then, it's so easy to have errors pop in and take ages to sort them out, but I do think all ages need to have some patients now and again, yes some gaming developers get things wrong, but is it always their fault?
Shareholders and anyone who is out to make a buck from the hard work of the teams sitting at a desk creating all the eye candy and coding have someone standing over them asking them to hurry up, while they are working as fast as they can, even the team leaders start warning of problems if you try to rush things, but Mr big man wants his money NOW! then there are the gamers who are informed of a release date, only to create havoc if that date isn't met, or the game wasn't as awesome as it could have been, I know one thing, I love playing games but wouldn't want to create one!!!

To the Team who brought us ESO I bow to your master skills

also a special thanks to @ZOS_GinaBruno ZOS_JasonLeavey ZOS_JessicaFolsom for keeping us informed whenever you can.

JD2013 · September 2015

Getting near to my mid 30's now.

To me, gaming is a multi layered problem these days.

First, gaming used to be a far more niche pastime than it is these days. There were a lot less games companies competing for your money, so it wasn't all about the money. It was about creativity. These days, games companies are all about the money. Micro-transactions and DLC are all evidence of this. As long as you are playing, they want to get as much money out of you as possible, by any means possible with shiny trinkets and objects that you simply must have to look cool.

Next, games these days have false senses of achievement and progression. Back when I was rescuing the princess from Bowser's evil clutches, dealing with the Mantella in Daggerfall, or rescuing Jennifer from the splatterhouse, we didn't get all these achievements to give us a false sense of achievement. We had our game objectives, and if we completed them? Fantastic. If not? We lived to try again another day. There was no "You found the glorious rock of immortality! Here, have an achievement!" sense of accomplishment. The sense of accomplishment came from actually playing and beating the game.

Next, we come to patching. Patching obviously wasn't a thing like it is today (Oh dial-up. You were a strange creature.) and companies had to completely and thoroughly QA test. I wonder how thoroughly things are QA tested these days. It is obvious to me that it is nowhere near as stringently as it used to be because they can just patch it later.

Patience. In this day and age of being able to find anything out on the internet, and voice problems anywhere, it seems that people are becoming less and less patient with regards to any problems. Voice your concerns, yes. Absolutely. Being able to directly address the dev team is a great thing. But they can't cater to every whim.

Those are just some of my thoughts.

Sandmanninja · September 2015

You have been pwn'd by a grue

GreySix · September 2015

Sandmanninja wrote: »

You have been pwn'd by a grue

Yeah ... see that? It makes no sense to me, with IMO is a good thing.

Shardaxx · September 2015

The first adventure game I played was The Hobbit on the ZX Spectrum you had to type "go north" to move to the next static picture with some text telling you what was going on. As I hurtle across the landscape on my battle cat in full 3D looking for the next adventure, I have to say that ESO is a marked improvement on the early days.

Appleblade · September 2015

50 here. Started on the Magnavox Odyssey in 1975. Not sure there really was a lot before that in the consumer space. Playing ESO with my sister who is 57. Her husband dies not get it at all, but he has his own hobbies.

I hope to pass from this world playing Fallout 20, controller still in my hands, some sort of VR display attached to my head.

Yeah, I tend to roll with the bugs more easily, but I do miss my beam animations. Kind of kills the Iron Man Vibe I had going with my red and gold Templar battlemage using Radiant Glory, but they said it's in the next patch in October.

AtmaDarkwolf · September 2015

40 here, and while so many things brought up here bring up feelings of nostalgia, I have to disagree, and say that as an OLD gamer, I am NOT more likely to 'be laid back' and accept 'bad jobs'

I mean I knew what we could do back then and I know what we can do now(DUH Look at the advancements we have made in that so very short amount of time)

I expect better, because you(Speaking to the devs here) are capable of better. Just like tech has advanced so much, WE as people have too, we learned more, we got infinitely better than we were.

So when we see bugs that SHOULD have been fixed, stuff that was NOTED and MENTIONED and pointed out during testing yet STILL makes it into the final product unaltered (IE no attempt even made to repair) of course we should complain, because we (as the consumer) DESERVE better, and them(The producer) are capable of better.

The old days of pong, kong, muds, etc, they are great to remember, but I would never want to visit again. We have todays games now, and we should be thankful for that(I Agree there) but at the same time, as stated above, we as consumers have 'advanced' far enough that we deserve better, and them (the companies producing) are also advanced enough, that they shouldn't provide such shoddy workmanship.

(This isn't in response to those bugs which are unexpected and get fixed, these are more about the type of bug, or even 'shoddy programming' that it is seen, noticed, and noted long before it releases, yet still releases with said bugs intact and untouched)

Paske · September 2015

38 here - I complain when there is something to complain about.

My XY class is not OP anymore.
Glass motif in Crow Store
No stam regen on block ( yes I play a tank and DD alike )
CP cap that is coming in Orsinium
- >I dont complain about that. As a veteran MMO player I know it is simply matter of balancing and MMO is never balanced. Ever.

Thing like eternal laoding screens, game crashing on load, loader buged - yeah I complain about that.

Glass armor looking lke cr*p - that is something I care about because of Elder games before ESO. So complain about that.

But most of the time I just play the game.

Sensesfail13 · September 2015

kalimar44 wrote: »

I'm 44 years old and I've been playing pc and console games since 1977. I truly believe we are the gamers that rarely complain about any game that is made today. You might ask yourself why?? The answer is simple. We went from playing games that had a bouncing ball that went back and fourth(PONG)to the games of today.
So in till you had to live through all of the games from the 1970s to this day you don't have any reason to complain. So if your around my age and you have been a dedicated gamer for all these years you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's all I have to say.

You dont have to be older to have played all of the older games. But I will tell you right now that if you bought PONG for *** atari and the ball went through the paddle 7 times out of 10 you would have returned that piece of ***. That is why people complain about this game and the amount of years you have marginalized yourself as a "gamer" in no way shape or form nullified the validity of their complaints or the *** state of this game. I mean seriously, they have some of the same problems now that they had in EARLY BETA and have continued to exacerbate the situation with *** "fixes" and blanket nerfs rather than a well defined and reasoned out patch to fix smaller problems. You, sir, are an old school troll.

Mighty_oakk · September 2015

Im not as seasoned as some of you but when Ultima IV came out my mind was blown

nimander99 · September 2015

Cadbury wrote: »

nimander99 wrote: »

Cadbury wrote: »

I challenge all of you to a round of "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?"

Thanks for sticking that ridiculous song back in my head...

Do it, Rockapella!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozYg8vDTmkc

And you're welcome

Edit: or did you mean the cartoon? Meh, I preferred the game show myself.

You nailed it and I HATE YOU!!!!! just kidding

Thymos · September 2015

I am part of a large community of older gamers. This community has been around for quite a while, and plays numerous games from all genres. More info in my signature.

nimander99 · September 2015

JD2013 wrote: »

Getting near to my mid 30's now.

To me, gaming is a multi layered problem these days.

First, gaming used to be a far more niche pastime than it is these days. There were a lot less games companies competing for your money, so it wasn't all about the money. It was about creativity. These days, games companies are all about the money. Micro-transactions and DLC are all evidence of this. As long as you are playing, they want to get as much money out of you as possible, by any means possible with shiny trinkets and objects that you simply must have to look cool.

Next, games these days have false senses of achievement and progression. Back when I was rescuing the princess from Bowser's evil clutches, dealing with the Mantella in Daggerfall, or rescuing Jennifer from the splatterhouse, we didn't get all these achievements to give us a false sense of achievement. We had our game objectives, and if we completed them? Fantastic. If not? We lived to try again another day. There was no "You found the glorious rock of immortality! Here, have an achievement!" sense of accomplishment. The sense of accomplishment came from actually playing and beating the game.

Next, we come to patching. Patching obviously wasn't a thing like it is today (Oh dial-up. You were a strange creature.) and companies had to completely and thoroughly QA test. I wonder how thoroughly things are QA tested these days. It is obvious to me that it is nowhere near as stringently as it used to be because they can just patch it later.

Patience. In this day and age of being able to find anything out on the internet, and voice problems anywhere, it seems that people are becoming less and less patient with regards to any problems. Voice your concerns, yes. Absolutely. Being able to directly address the dev team is a great thing. But they can't cater to every whim.

Those are just some of my thoughts.

I'm probably the same age as you judging by your references and near mid 30's statement, that being said, I hear you in a way on the achievements but personally I enjoy them as sort of an additional quest log (if you will) in mmo's. Other games? I don't pay any attention to achievements.

It's the micro-transactions that will ultimately kill gaming and the niche gamers. I see it as only getting worse, and there is always going to be a bunch of tools happy to spend $50 bucks on non-sense so why would a game maker come out with actual dlc for $25? It doesnt make sense from a business stand point.

Casdha · September 2015

Rather than a bunch of quotes and tags I'll just write some points.

I'm 45. The oldest person I've played with on ESO is 71 (they've been here since beta). I've played with several in their 60s.

I started on a Coleco Telstar (dedicated pong). Stayed on consoles until 1997. Owned every USA release console except Turbogrfx16, 3DO, CD-I and the current gen systems.

As far as games crashing in the old days, yes but for different reasons. Overheat, power outage, someone tripping on the cord. And the worst part, prior to Late NES games with batteries in the cartridge consoles didn't have save games,,,, you had to start over from scratch.

As a hobby I collect old pre-90s such as Atari 2600 and colecovision games and I build gaming cabinets. I'll post a link to a video of my latest project at the bottom. At one time I had 22 stand-up 80s arcade games but they had to go because of space.

TL:DR I'm not only a 1st gen gamer but a diverse one as well.

My latest hobby project.

https://youtu.be/7I_GnRfIlns

GreySix · September 2015

Original fantasy MMO (arcade style, without the "online"):

Mitchblue · September 2015

The games of yesteryear were freaking awesome. Point and click games or text based games where you take your time, relaxed and had lots of fun. The worse genre, FPS. Just about everything these days are FPS. The football game on Atari where the whole offensive line moved in unison was better than Madden. Earl Weaver baseball, Micro League Baseball blows all baseball games away today. Even though I enjoy the Show.

New generation doesn't mean better that's for sure,

MaxBat · September 2015

Okay, so I'm an old gamer. Didn't think there were many of us around. I spent a few hundred hours playing this beauty, and even have a copy of it in the original packaging.

Lots of groping in that game.

jircris11 · September 2015

kalimar44 wrote: »

I'm 44 years old and I've been playing pc and console games since 1977. I truly believe we are the gamers that rarely complain about any game that is made today. You might ask yourself why?? The answer is simple. We went from playing games that had a bouncing ball that went back and fourth(PONG)to the games of today.
So in till you had to live through all of the games from the 1970s to this day you don't have any reason to complain. So if your around my age and you have been a dedicated gamer for all these years you know exactly what I'm talking about. That's all I have to say.

i am only 28 but i have been playing games since i was 2, first mmo was ultima online. And honestly over the years i have watched those awesome community's turn in to salty elitist self centered seas of toxicity. I still try to help those i am able and be as friendly as possible, sadly i see abuse all the time on mmos. In fact saw someone ask a question last night (new person to eso) and in reply someone told them to go kill them selves.

also @vamp_emily the reason modern day games have such bad performance is due to the technological changes and the fact that most are rushed. Back in the day there was not a lot of competition. and to answer your question yes even our games crashed, hell i remember mario and duck hunt glitching all the time.

Swindy · September 2015

So did I miss it, or has no one else here played "Classic Adventure" on cassette & some monitor setup I now can't recall the name of?

Next month I'll reach the half Bradman, so I'm solo Pve Elder Scrolls RPG from the beginning, and will always be.

danno8 · September 2015

39 here.

I was young but I specifically remember playing Gorf on our Commodore Vic 20 as my first gaming experience.

I rarely get upset over bugs, only over the direction of gameplay etc. Bugs are a part of life in gaming.

It is interesting though to take a step back now and then think about just how far gaming has come in 30 years.

kip_silverwolf · September 2015

45 summers young here. One of my favorite memories is playing King's Quest on the Apple waaay back in the 80's! Followed by many happy hours spent in the classic's such as Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate! (which I still play now)

I can also remember having to spend a good 20 mins or more loading up games from cassettes - Lol probably why I'm happy to sit through a slightly longer than usual load screen!

Excellent post btw Kalimar44! I know exactly what you mean!

Swindy wrote: »

So did I miss it, or has no one else here played "Classic Adventure" on cassette & some monitor setup I now can't recall the name of?

The name sounds vaguely familiar so quite possible I did play it. Or maybe I'm thinking of one I used to play on the Atari, which had dragons and a...wizard, I think? haha kids of today will never know the joy of having to blow into a cartridge for a good 5 mins to get the game working again!

kalimar44 · September 2015

This thread turn into reminiscing about all the great games we have played, and I think it's been fun reading them.

Thank you for all the cool stories. I guess no matter what age you are some players will react differently to what is going on with the game you are playing. Cheers to us gamers.

Tommy1979AtWar · September 2015

The golden age of gaming... ROM cartridges you had to blow into to fix (yes it did usually work) & the dreaded C64 Datasette of which you had to adjust the tape head screw every so often with whatever you could find small enough to fit in the hole (usually a panel pin or nail of somesort because precision screwdrivers were bloody expensive back then and your dad guarded them with a big hammer if he did happen to have a set) and the ability to pirate a game for a friend with nothing more than an extra tape and access to your big sisters twin tape deck ghetto blaster.

This thread makes me feel so very very old

Grunim · September 2015

Swindy wrote: »

So did I miss it, or has no one else here played "Classic Adventure" on cassette & some monitor setup I now can't recall the name of?

Next month I'll reach the half Bradman, so I'm solo Pve Elder Scrolls RPG from the beginning, and will always be.

In college I played Adventure on the mainframe. Back then few people actually owned a computer yet. But at the time I was really into playing Adventure in college, I visited my 50 something year old Uncle one weekend and was happily surprised that he owned a Kaypro computer with Adventure and he was able to tell me how to get out of that maze of twisty passages.

See, even back then people over 50 played games like this.