Born at the right time

[AlexJ]

note from Harrison:
I've moved this great discussion from the staff area into the main forum so we can share it with everyone.

Many young people weren't around at the time of the Amiga! Commodore went bust 12 years ago, and the Amiga as a supported platform was finished by another 2 years. Anyone younger than 14 is unlikely to have ever used an Amiga, and even then it assumes them getting into it at a very early age.

[Puni/Void]

That's absolutely true. Kids of today grew up with different computers and consoles than we did. Although, some interest might still be gained from people active on the Demo Scene. Some of those that starts out with watching PC demos, might be thrilled watching similar productions on older platforms via emulation. One thing can lead to another, and they might even start fiddling with other Amiga stuff as well. One never knows. ;)

[Harrison]

That is true. Some will still take an interest in older platforms in a reverse route as they explore and become interested in different computer trends such as the demo scene or gaming. If for example you were to look at Underground Gamer, who's torrents are all for out of production systems, you will find a large number of younger members downloading some of the older system torrents for systems such as Genesis and Nes. They are too young to have remembered the system at the time of it's height, or were not even born, and are now exploring them in a retro way to see what it was all about, and why they were so great at the time.

I suppose it's a bit like music or films in a way. We were not around when early films or music were originally recorded but we still play them and enjoy them.

[AlexJ]

If for example you were to look at Underground Gamer, who's torrents are all for out of production systems, you will find a large number of younger members downloading some of the older system torrents for systems such as Genesis and Nes. They are too young to have remembered the system at the time of it's height, or were not even born, and are now exploring them in a retro way to see what it was all about, and why they were so great at the time.

That's me! I got my Amiga in August 1993 when I was 4 (my first computer) and SNES in 1995 (my first console). I was too young to remember the NES but still have the emulator and rom sets and enjoy some of the games from it. Same with the C64 and others.

[Submeg]

Same here, I was four when we I first played the Amiga. But I still remember the games that I played. So, basically there has to be something showing the timeline of games. For example, what the parent games were, for instance, Prince of Persia.

[Demon Cleaner]

I was just born in the best computer time, I got my C64 in 1984 when I was 13. So I didn't miss anything that was computer related (same counts for Harrison I suppose, he's almost same age).

I did only miss the consoles like NES aso., as I was mor in computers at that time. Imagine that the first sonsole I got was a PSX, and only after seeing Suikoden running on it that got me buying one, and got me into arpegging (RPG playing ;))

[Harrison]

I totally agree. We were born at exactly the right time, when home computing was first appearing the the home at truly affordable prices. As I've said in the past, I feel a little sad for gamers much younger than ourselves as they missed out on a magical time in home computing and being a part of the development of video games right from its early beginnings.

I also got my first computer system, an Amstrad CPC464, in 1984, just before my 11th birthday, but I actually owned my first video games system at the very start of the 80's. An Atari 2600 Woody that I still have and that still works perfectly.

But other than the 2600 I also initially missed out on the early consoles from the 8-bit era as I was exclusively into home computing, as were most in the UK. This was in contrast to the US and Japan where video games consoles were definitely more popular than home computers for video games. I seem to remember the NES didn't gain popularity until quite late in its life in the UK, and by that point the SNES may even have already been released.

[Demon Cleaner]

It began when my cousin got a Videopac G7000 (Maganvox Odysees 2 in the US), I got then some game&watch handheld consoles. At the time I got my C64, most of my friends had C64s too, one had an Atari 800XL and one had a CPC464 (here it was Schneider, not Amstrad). And when I was in Brentford (Hutton Medway scooer team, near London) for eastern 1984, I was in a family for 1 week, and they had a ZX Spectrum, where I played Attic Attac all the time.

[Harrison]

I forgot about the Donkey Kong Game and Watch I had. When did that get released? I remember my parents buying that for me in the big Milton Keens shopping centre. I remember it being a horrible city, but how great the toy shops were at the time :lol:

[Demon Cleaner]

I also had a TV (b/w) with 6 channels and a 2 joystick combi, which you could hook up your TV. It had 10 games with it, such as Pong, Tennis, Soccer... but the whole games were Pong style so only bars and points. That was in 79. I still have the same games, but as console now, which you can hook to any TV. I listed it in my console list, it's simply called Hit-10.