I Feel Old (Gaming Related)

This past friday my girlfriend and I went to her mom's house to celebrate my girlfriends birthday. Her mom had her boyfriend over and he brought his kids (triplets, two boys and a girl) and my girlfriends two brothers were there. Her 14 year old brother bought her an N64 with 4 controllers, 2 rumble paks and a buttload of games. At a certain point in the night we decided to hook the ol console up and during a character select screen in Tony Hawk 2, her brother reminded us to plug in the rumble pak before we started the course if we wanted it to work. At this point one of the triplets asked "what is a rumble pak?". My mouth dropped. I hadn't realized that these kids were only 14 or 15 and their first console ever was an Xbox 360 that they play religiously. I guess I wasn't prepared for the fact that these kids had never played a N64. I was born in 1990 and I've still played every console. What's a moment in your gaming life that made you feel old

I'm older then you and I would still ask: wtf is a rumble pack? (and shit i've even played some N64 at friend's)

It's a penetration/popularity thing not just an age thing.

@tennmuerti: maybe, I guess it all depends on who you are around growing up, I guess I find it weird that nobody they know ever showed them a n64 even though they are heavy gamers.

I realized I was old when people started saying on threads that their first gaming console was the PS1. Holy balls, that made me feel like I was only a few steps from the nursing home. Just for reference, my first console was a Commodore 64.

On top of that, I realized I was super old when I remembered how hard it was to get rides back in high school and middle school. You had to think ahead and have change for the pay phone. No one had cell phones. That just blows my mind that pre 2000 was pretty much a wasteland where cell phones were concerned, at least in my high school. I remember some pretty rich kids having them, but usually you just depended on being able to use a pay phone or borrow the office landline.

I don't know. Kids whose first console was the 360 does make me feel "old" (and sorry for those poor kids), but a better phrasing might be "not a kid anymore".

@believer258: @jadegl: I completely agree on the cell phone thing because I'm a wine salesman and the other day I was driving to a store I hadn't been to before. After using my gps I pulled into the plaza and realized that I had drove out this way when I was 16 and didn't remember how the fuck I knew where to go. I'm using the word old as an alternative to not young because the experience made me feel "old".I understand I am what you would consider a young adult but when something like that happens it makes you feel like a dinosaur lol. I grew up playing all games from all systems and I didn't exactly have a family that was into tech by any means. I guess I just like all of the retro games so even when they weren't current to me as a kid they still felt new to me. I have all my consoles still plus all of the new ones minus the Xbox One (waiting for a game I really want) yet I still drive around with a gameboy pocket in my car even though I have a 3ds and a vita.

Playing older games makes me feel old. Currently playing Persona 2 IS which came out in 1999….I was 10 then and I could've played this game!

What makes me feel old? When 90:s kids say they feel old over N64 hardware.

On a serious note, it's sort of true though. When people younger speak of games out of a historically narrower point of view. I am sure people older than me feel the same way when I ramble on about NES nostalgia though (not saying nes was my first glimpse into games, just first one I had). But I don't really have any specific example.

@pezen: like I said even though I'm a 90's kid, I grew up on older games. N64 was probably the first console I got brand new though not counting my big fat gameboy. The Atari, Nes, sega, ect all came from family members that bought them as a fad or that they got as a gift. On a side note I played California games with my girlfriend the other night because she had never played it. Watching her fall over and over as the roller skater was hilarious. Still one of my favorite falling animations ever lol

whats an n64 lol

@fattony12000: the true leader in next generation entertainment

@xxcrazycostaxx: Sure, but I do think there's a difference though between experiencing a thing, and experiencing a thing during it's time. For example, I watched and really liked The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart. But the experience I had could probably never be what my grandmother had when se saw it in the theatre in the 1940s. Neither experiencing invalidates the other, but they are still different due to everything else framing the experience.

@pezen: I agree, but I just want to know if anyone else has had a situation involving games that made them feel old, it's not about who is or what is older. Just about if there is a situation that has made you go fuck I've been doing this for along time.

You're 23, dude. You can't even start thinking about being old yet.

I dunno. Inevitably there are people my age (23) whose first console was a 360, but I date all the way back to the NES my family had when I was 2. It makes me feel less "old" and more "at this longer than they've been."

I'm 31, I know I'm not "old" yet, I just understand the feeling of being old, especially with video games. I mean, I remember when 3D and polygons were mind-blowing, like literally future type stuff. I was envisioning a future of VR and holograms and shit. It's funny to look back and remember just how excited I was by Wolfenstein 3D, and how far games have come in such a short time. I assume that all people have those same experiences, than I realize that there are people much younger than I on the internet talking about games. It's just crazy to think about sometimes.

Think about this: in a few months, Pokemon is going to turn 16 in the US. People will be driving around who are younger than the Pokemon franchise. That's what really makes me feel old, though I'm only just about to hit a quarter century.

@tennmuerti said:

The rumble pak is a penetration thing? Well, it's made in Japan, so that checks out.

I stepped right into that one huh. Well done.

@scrawnto: don't tell those kids about trading with link cables or they might swerve off the road and hit someone

@scrawnto: THAT makes me feel old.

A recent conversation where I compared Resogun to Defender only to receive blank stares in return.

I remember my dad buying my older brother and I an atari 2600 for Christmas when I was 4. We moved onto a Commodore 64, and on and on after that.

So now I feel a bit old!

@demoskinos: that shit happened to me with some guy at best buy, except he asked if defender was a new game :(

Things like this actually interest me in seeing where games go in the future. Like,Im old enough that I was basically born into a world where video games where still a novelty and Ive played Atari and APPLE II games all the way up to PS4 stuff now. Im really insanely interested in how someone much younger than me would view video games as a whole compared to someone of my similar age bracket and experience and how that view affects the next generation of game makers.

I've been babysitting kids for over the past 15 years, and I seen a lot of different complaints by them. It's not that you feel old, it's just they are too afraid to try anything new. So there's always needs to be a trick or a hook to get them into something. If you can get them excited then they will excuse all the limitation of what your showing them.

I learned this personally when my dad tried to get me into Monty Python when I was 12, I feel like a jerk for mocking it for being old.

@demoskinos: I often wonder about the same thing, I've really never come to the assumption that video games get "old". I've always thought they are just part of the library

@crithon: They were willing to play. We spent the night playing Tony Hawk 2, Mario Kart, Super Mario 64, and Jeopardy (funny as hell). I hope they learned that everything was not as seamless as it is today but still good fun.

@xxcrazycostaxx: I don't think of them being old so much as them being just a part of the landscape. Like, I never knew a time before Mario in the way that there are people who never knew a time before Pokemon, whereas for me the release of Pokemon was an event, a phenomenon, you know? And for other people, Mario and the emergence of scrolling platformers as a genre was an event.

@xxcrazycostaxx: that's the thing, kids will always complain first before getting into something. It's basically "eating your vegetables" type of complaining when you can motivate them differently.

@crithon: they didn't complain, they just had no prior knowledge.

@scrawnto: don't try to get me all sentimental with the pokemon talk ya hear? Lol I still keep red blue and yellow in my car at all times for quick playthroughs