I keep forgetting there were two generations before me

[Vermachtnis]

Like every time this get's called the seventh generation I count on my hands, Nes>SNes>N64>GC>Wii and am like, that's only five. I keep forgetting about the Atari and the rest. It's just so hard to cope with the fact that the world existed before I did. What a boring time that must have been.

[Wolf Kanno]

Actually it was pretty fun and exciting thank you very much. Granted I was still really little but the concept of video games was pretty amazing for a little child.

My first video games were on my uncle's Atari 2600, and I vaguely remember when the NES came out. Granted, I wasn't aware of the game crash (year I was born) but I do remember playing Frogger and Adventure when I was little. :p

[Madame Adequate]

So there I was, climbing on my high horse, when I remembered the kinds of games I actually had on my Amstrad CPC and what have you.

And you know what? Nostalgia can go to hell, you are right, stuff back then sucked. Pike is going to have my balls for saying this, but vidya before the third gen just wasn't that hot. Oh sure, there were good games back then, (Elite anyone?) but we remember those clearly whilst we've forgotten all about the Bridge Its of the time.

Which isn't to say that my children don't have to spend at least one year on each generation before they can move on the later ones, in order. They're going to damned well know their heritage. :colbert:

Edit: Okay actually I'm being a bit harsh here. Back then the stuff we had was awesome, it's just compared to what came later, I really can't stand to go back and play almost all of it. Bubble Bobble is obviously excluded.

[Carl the Llama]

Pacman, a Timeless Classic.

[Pike]

My first "game system" was a Commodore 64 computer. I was playing games on it before I can even remember, and it was amazing.

Some of the things I did via those blocky games on that computer include:

-Piloted a little helicopter across the ocean while dodging nasty pelicans and avoiding storms;
-Solved the mysteries and puzzles inherent to an evil genius's robot filled facility;
-Colonized the moon and managed resources and ships while staving off alien attacks (it's like it was really XCom years before XCom!);
-Infiltrated rogue space stations;
-Conducted my own 8-bit orchestra;
-Devised and constructed racetracks with a ridiculous amount of options, including gravity (Rollercoaster Tycoon owes Racing Destruction Set a million debts);
-Solved a hundred puzzles in an evil wizard's lair, and then made my own puzzles with the level editor;
-Created an army of ents to destroy invading evil creatures in an insanely unique style of play I haven't seen the likes of since;
-Played what can only be described as a hardcore and deliciously deep version of wizard's chess;
-Participated in both the summer and winter olympics in over dozens of events;
-Participated in a variety of battles and scenarios from World War II;
-Set up a network of trains and railroad stations and then used them to manage my own freight company;

...and that's not counting all the ones that everyone has heard of, ala Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert etc., or all the games based off of movies.

My Commodore 64 was awesome. That is all.

[Del Murder]

WK, I'm older than you and I remember playing Atari for like 5 minutes until I went back to duck hunt. Video game eras simply did not exist until nes. Or maybe everything before it can be called one prehistoric generation.

[Jiro]

I like the idea of prehistoric gen, because I'm only just old enough to remember the goddamn NES. Wait, am I even? Fuck me I forget my age.

[Wolf Kanno]

WK, I'm older than you and I remember playing Atari for like 5 minutes until I went back to duck hunt. Video game eras simply did not exist until nes. Or maybe everything before it can be called one prehistoric generation.

You didn't have a tech crazy Uncle like I did you old fart. :p

Course Atari was impressive to a 3 year old, and I did play it until I got an NES in what... 88? About three years behind its release in 85.

[Dreddz]

When people talk about generations of consoles they are just referring to a line of consoles releasing games within a similar time frame. Before the NES/Master System days consoles were released years apart so its hard to put them together into a single generation. Kind of like how the Dreamcast doesn't really belong to an era, it merely existed.

[Fynn]

Must have been nice. The '80s. In America. We had communism. Luckily, I was born after that stuff :)

The earliest console I remember is the Amiga and it was awesome. I got it around '94-'95. So many awesome games. It was probably "born" a bit earlier, since everything used to come A LOT later to Poland. The most popular console in here used to be a cheap knock-off of the NES called Pegasus. You could buy it at a local bazaar from the gypsies with around 10 zlotys (now approx. 25$). Those were the days...

[Del Murder]

Kind of like how the Dreamcast doesn't really belong to an era, it merely existed.
I wouldn't even go that far. :p

WK: A stick would be impressive to a 3 year old. Is that a generation too you slightly-less-old fart?

[KentaRawr!]

I always do the same thing. I wish I'd just start remembering this crazy stuff.

[Wolf Kanno]

Kind of like how the Dreamcast doesn't really belong to an era, it merely existed.
I wouldn't even go that far. :p

WK: A stick would be impressive to a 3 year old. Is that a generation too you slightly-less-old fart?

Hey, I played with sticks too, while I rode a veloceraptor in my cowboy outfit and pretended I was a space bounty hunter looking for time traveling Native Americans but Atari was still more fun. :p

[theundeadhero]

I received my Nintendo in 1987, right when Zelda came out. It was amazing but before that I really enjoyed playing Pong on the pong system or Frogger on my aunt's Atari.

[Roogle]

I am always so thankful that I was born in this era. I was born in 1986, so I was able to play on the Nintendo Entertainment System and its descendents for as long as I can remember.

[Pike]

Despite being born in '83, our family never actually owned an NES, so the bulk of my early gaming years were on that Commodore 64 that I mentioned earlier. However, we did rent NES systems frequently (back then you could just go to the video rental store and rent whole systems, as well as VCRs and stuff) and I played the HECK out of Duck Hunt.

Also, my cousins had an NES, and GOOD FREAKING LUCK tearing me away from Mario 3 and the original Zelda whenever we went to visit. (I hadn't the faintest idea how to play Zelda, because I was far too young for it, but I played it anyway.)

I didn't really start console gaming until the SNES/Genesis era, though.

[Araciel]

Nahhh NES was the Genesis of gaming.. heh...

For me and most other people, I think it seems more subjective anyway...the first generation was whenever we picked up a controller or mouse and started getting a cavetan.. Sure those old machines blasting out Pong or Asteroids paved the way, and without them we wouldn't be on this site to begin with, but they aren't fun or engaging enough to me... If I'd rather go outside and play than play a video game...it loses.

[Pike]

I do agree that stuff like Pong and such was rather primitive. And games like Pac-Man and Dig-Dug-- while I agree that they are classics and were good for their time-- can really only entertain me for ten minutes tops these days. Things don't really start getting good until the late 80s.

(Though to be fair, World's Biggest Pacman (http://worldsbiggestpacman.com/), anyone? This site keeps me entertained for hours.)

[DK]

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Features/2009/04/The%20Top%207%20games%20where%20you%20play%20as%20food/Normal%20pics/Dizzy--article_image.jpg

Dizzy > you

[Madame Adequate]

Dizzy was so shiet it actually made me stupid. I'd have cured cancer if I hadn't played it.

[DK]

He was an egg that sat in a barrel going down a river shooting birds for no apparant reason, he was clearly a hero and I would expect no less poor taste from a man who actually likes sitting and listening to Baird. :breine:

[Madame Adequate]

Actually I just dislike Dizzy because they're the only games to ever give me headaches and shiet

[Pike]

I dunno man, those dinosaurs in the Dizzy screenshot look pretty boss

[Loony BoB]

Our first gaming system was a PC - a 186 with Pacman, Space Invaders and DigDug. And Pong, of course. I also had little handheld games that were not multi-game, if you get what I mean. They had fixed colour "backgrounds" that were sort of permanent, in that even when the game was off, they were displayed. I forget the name. Game and Watch! That's it. I had a Donkey Kong kind of game where you had to jump over barrels and free some chick from a prison. And... something else. I forget. Oh man, this is going to bug me until I find out what it was. I know one was a racing game... a football one too, I think? And the other, I forget. I think it had something to do with bubbles. I could be wrong. xD