The Video Game is 50 Years Old

niallpatrick

First played any video game sometime in the late 70's when I was 7 maybe 8 in Dundalk in a family friendly bar that did meals, the pong machine was a table top version. First console was the Grandstand something?, the console with the sliders for swapping games. Then astro wars, what a great game played it to death and I mean death.

I'm 52 and still game still build my own comps and have VR as well with the quest 2. I get the piss taken for it and I do have other hobbies. Quest 2 I can put on my backed wireless headphones link it to the quest with a 1/4 inch jack and escape reality, block almost everything out.

Feisar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383833#Comment_121383833

What you did there, I see it.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119969555#Comment_119969555

The Super Nintendo was a superb console and the bundle I received had not only Super Mario All-Stars, but Super Mario World as well. That was really all anyone might need to keep them going for a good few months.

Prior to that, I owned a Sege Game Gear, which I think I'm now ready to admit was a deeply unsatisfying piece of hardware, from the screen to the battery life and the selection of titles available. I regret not having gotten a Nintendo Gameboy instead, which would have been far better, all told, but I think I was just too enticed by the colour screen of the GG. Many years later, I picked up an original GB, and it was great to play it, but I can't help feeling that I would have more properly got into gaming if I'd gotten the GB instead of the GG way back when.

It's possible my decision to pass up the Gameboy was based on some of my very earliest Christmas memories which featured a true horror of computerised entertainment - those absolutely dreadful standalone LCD games like 'Basketball'. They'd always have generic names like that, a printed background, static sprites and you could barely figure out what the fúck was going on. I think those left me very skeptical that anything monochrome/LCD could be in any way decent.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383526#Comment_121383526

Not because of the tape but because the head in the tape player had gone out of alignment. 20 seconds with a fine screwdriver would have sorted it.

I had a Spectrum (16K at first, then got the 32K RAM pack for it, then later on the 128K). Way faster to load from tape than a C64 and more reliable too, a tape of a tape of a tape would usually work... a tape of a tape of a tape of a tape would sometimes work... eventually got an Amiga a few years later, that was something else. Maybe 5% of the games I played were paid for... can't really do that with a console.

Son is getting a PS5 on Monday 😀 looking forward to having the odd go myself

I do find it interesting that the computer I'm using now has a million times more memory than the first one I used, has 42 times as many display pixels, is at least 10,000 times faster and, after inflation, is cheaper... and includes storage and display which cost a lot extra back then. Oh and if you wanted connectivity you bought a 1200 bit/s modem which cost nearly as much as your computer.

Potential-Monke

Yer gonna get a hop with how quick some games load now! And the quick resume, when it works, is amazing. So happy to have been alive for the "beginning" of gaming and getting to see it evolve. I'd imagine younger kids don't get wowed as easily as I do. Currently getting lost exploring the world in Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. Terrible story, but the world is amazing and just great to explore. Going from Pong to Pandora in 50 years is a fantastic feat. If I had empathy, I'd feel sorry for those who can't get into gaming.

RiderOnTheStorm

I remember my old ZX Spectrum with fondness. Started me on a long road of gaming. In the (late) 90s I remember an email going around the office where there was emulator software & games to play on it for the C64 .... as an attachment to an email! I got a kick out of the progress where the memory / software was so small that instead of a machine & tape / disc , it was an attachment

As well as increase in memory, graphics, speed, complexity, etc .... modern games on Xbox / PS5 etc take (nearly) all fingers & thumbs working in unison to make decent progress. There is a great sense of satisfaction when it starts to come together and its a tiny bit like palyong a piano. Muscle memory is just like 'brain says reload, lock on target, jump & fire' and then the fingers just do it .... thought becomes action. A long way from Pong :-)

Dramatik

I remember my parents having a tough time getting me off one of these, that I found in Switzers on Grafton St. Thought it was the coolest thing ever.

GreeBo

Anyone else used to drop into Roches Stores after school to play the SNES that they used to have setup to demo? Good times.

Deebles McBeebles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121523691#Comment_121523691

Yeah right, "the odd go" 😉

PS5 is top class, dread to think how many hours I've played it this year.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121527119#Comment_121527119

It was a NES in my day but same deal. I played the first 30 seconds of Super Mario 1 on it until the staff would tell you to piss off.

victor8600

My first video game was a Lode Runner clone in my school's computer class. But games didn't interest me all that much, that is until I got my own PC and discovered strategy games. I have spent countless hours in Wacraft, Starcraft, Dune II, Civilization(s), and so on, and then World of Warcraft came out and all these games were put aside for several years.

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121383526#Comment_121383526

You could adjust the heads with a very small Phillips head screwdriver but it required drilling a small hole about 2cm below the centre of tape door mechanism. We.did that and considering it's the days before internet, I haven't the foggiest idea how we got that information.

It made copying games on a dual tape machine handy as you just had to adjust to find what part of the magnetic tape it was located on. Loved the C64. Found it in my parents attic about 10 years ago, but it couldn't fully boot without weird letters across the screen. Tape deck is long gone. Learned to programme Basic on that machine.

Had the Atari with Pong, then C64, Sega Mega drive, Xbox and Xbox360, PSP, PSVita, PS1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Never had Nintendo's.

SuperBowserWorld

Played Space Invaders in the 70s in an arcade as a child. No idea at the time what a revolution had just started in technology or what exactly I was supposed to do.

Then some pong clone game as a Christmas present that we were all blown away by. Very very simple tennis, Soccer, ... For a few day anyway. 😁

Then more arcade games. In a rural Irish town. Arcades were excellent and social places. My favourite games included BattleZone, Crush Roller, Defender, Phoenix, Time Pilot, Ghosts n Goblins, Bomb Jack... Amazing. Even the names are amazing. 😁

I won an Oric Atmos home computer. Which was lucky cause there was no way my family could afford a computer. 😁 Mostly typed games into that. And learned to programme. Was one good game called Zorgans Revenge. Also a good defender clone.

Then summer job and an Amstrad CPC with green screen. I think Renegade, Head Over Heels, ... are all that stand out there. I reminder having to load levels one by one off the tape for Renegade. 😁

Then I remember buying a Mega drive as a student and being disappointed by Sonic and some ice hockey game. Kinda ended video game playing for years. 😁

Then with a proper job got a SNES with some of the best games ever. Super Mario World, Super Mario All Stars. My faith was restored. 😁

Then fell off gaming and came back later to get an N64 with the 2 other best games ever, Ocarina of time and Super Mario 64.

Then fell away again. Back for Wii for the genius of Super Mario Galaxy. Then Wii U later... Switch ..

Went crazy and got Xbox Series X and PS5 during covid. Was too much. Consolidating and selling stuff now and taking time out to finish one of the best games ever, Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to that other great game, Breath of the wild.

So, yeah, still Nintendo, for anyone who wants to revisit the joy and wonder of being a child. 👍

Gatling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119914653#Comment_119914653

Had an ice hockey version of that handheld

Gatling

Started off with pong in the very late 70s ,early 80s we had some systems with sports stickmen on the console it's self , then we got an early sega master system which was completely ground breaking for me at least,Alex the kidd , super hang on(card) not cartridge , duck hunt with light gun ,then an amstrad 464 , before ending up with mega drive and Super Nintendo,fell properly I love with games again when the original PlayStation appeared

Potential-Monke

This video made waves recently, the developers had to come out and prove it was indeed a game (in very early development yet). The future is looking real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK76q13Aqt0