What is your 'golden age'?

Inspired by the Dumptruck. I was going to make this a poll, but it's probably best to just leave it open.

Anyway, for me, it's early 90s, mostly DOS stuff.

you know, that's such a weird thing to say, like, I'm 35 and I think I've seen it all. I had an atari 2600 when I was born so for me, that didn't wow me as much as other era. Like each generation had something special, like first time seeing Double Dragon in an arcade as 80s metal played in the background, or First time I faked being sick to beat zelda 1 only to go back to school to spoil it to everyone. Even now I find something special in this.

I'd say mid to early 90s, around 91 to 95. Just being way into Street Fighter 2, and there was just so much variety back theen, there was the CD rom FMV era, the sega 3D arcade game Time Traveler, and like every single month there was this break through. Like the SNES was good, but then there was tech that would beat the shit out of it, arcades would be just amazing. Like the Sega CD was amazing back then, and it was odd because there was PC CD roms back then but like sound cards where always picky, OH GOD, FIRST TIME GOING ONLINE WITH BBS that era was hot. hehe, first time seeing Samurai Showdown beside Mortal Kombat and SF2 was really just like a turning point for me. I remember hugging a PS1 controller because it felt so comfortable, like I wanted to sleep with it as a pillow.

That was an era where I wanted to be involved in video game in one form or another, like before with the NES, Atari and Arcades it was just there, beside other pop culture trying to get my attention but I'd be like Calvin and Hobbis enjoying out doors. Like for some reason I associate some of those 80s arcade games to creep show, michael jackson thriller or dark knight returns. But like in the 90s it felt cooler then other media, like I felt SF2 characters were deeper then characters in films, the midi music was better.

I seriously wish I could calculate how much money I spent on SF2, like I got a job and I blew it all on arcade coins, and I would rebuy the games over and over and over again. Like SF2 cost 75 bucks, I remember Final Fantasy 2 cost 70 bucks and I kept waiting for a used copy and that price never did drop. And I rebought SF2 like 3 times, with Turbo and Super. FUCK, I burnt money back then.

SNES

zx spectrum

Mega Drive

I don't know, I find it odd how narrowed their perception of a "golden age of gaming" was. If I had to put a timeline on what I felt like was the pinnacle of my gaming life, it stretches pretty fucking long. Super Mario World was released in 1990 when I was only 2 years old but it's still the first game I remember playing, and as recently as FF XII I was still gaming pretty heavily, at least by my standards compared to, say, people I knew in real life. The PS3 era definitely ushered in an era of frugality, though, due to finally being in college and then having bills to pay.

But From Madden/NCAA 2003 to Madden/NCAA 2007 I would go 5-10 season deep in both games, uploading draft classes from one to the other and following the careers of my recruits and graduates pretty intensely. Those games alone accounted for untold hours of gaming. And in the SNES/N64 era I was a rental fiend, there are so many games that get casually mentioned by a hardcore fan of a given genre (like that fishing game thread earlier) and I'm like...yea, totally rented that two or three times! I think the PS2 sort of ended my rental streak but I definitely tried as hard as I could to get 2 or 3 game rentals per week when Nintendo consoles were still my dominant choice, before the magic of Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy 8.

But, as maybe you can tell by the amount of EA football I played, I was also never...uh, a "gamer" in the sense that you might use that word on a site like this. I played and played and played Super Mario World, but I wasn't on forums and my friends weren't geeks so TO THIS DAY when people mention things like secret levels, dark worlds and so forth...I have no clue. All I ever did in that game was beat Bowser. Maybe I stumbled onto some by accident but I was never the type to try and deconstruct a game or discover what was hiding behind its face. A lot of the games I played in the SNES era especially were unabashedly aided by a Game Genie, like James Bond Jr. and Kablooey!.

Tough question. I would say the PS2 era when I was a young teenager, mostly because of how less I had back then compared to now, where I have this large library of games on an internet account that I never feel thankful for.

Back in my PS2 days, I appreciated all the small things that I had and always dreamed of having more. I played Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance 24/7, unlocking everything in the krypt and memorizing every character's combos and fatalities. I drowned myself in the game's mythos, going in my backyard and enacting the character's fighting styles; I asked my mother to buy me a bamboo stick at my nearest Home Depot so I could use it to swing at the air, where every inch of movement made me feel like a kung-fu master.

I WAS Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. That game was fucking magical.

Then I encountered the Final Fantasy series. I first played ten, thus beginning my now missing cherishment of Japanese role-playing games. In fact, I could say that Final Fantasy X was the first role-playing game that I've ever played, making it personally my most memorable thing ever. A friend and I would just sit down and experience FFX, despite one sitting down and listening and the other playing. We would congress about what one should do during a turn-based combat event and discuss how much we wanted to fuck Yuna (we were closeted weirdos, okay?). I will never forget it.

Late 90s. PS1, N64 and Nickelodeon.

I don't have one, there are games that are special/important to me from my childhood and games that are the same still being released today. It must suck to only really love videogames from a particular time.

At 33, I've seen fair bit of it, hard to pick a favourite, so I'll just have to think about games I obsessed over and calculate a year. SNES was incredible for sure, but I had Amstrad 464+ prior to that and also access to a healthy arcade scene. I didn't have a PC for a long time, they were incredibly expensive at the time, but a lot of my friends did (Ironically one of them would provide me with my 1st PC), and that space was just incredible to me. The Amiga was pretty baller too. There was also a lot of video game related TV then too, I lived in the Republic of Ireland but we got access to UK programs like Gamesmaster, Bad Influence and Bits.

So I guess the 90s were a pretty glorious time for me.

Im only 20, so Im probably not there yet in terms of gaming nostalgia. I guess I look fondly upon the ps2 era, but not in that longing for, sappy kind of way. Honestly, in 10 years, this generation will probably be what I look at with the most fondness. To me, this generation brought about a lot of changes in the way people think and talk about games. I know I've become way more aware in the past couple of years of the industry, how things work, what's wrong what is right, etc. Before it was just about playing games to waste time, and now its so much more than that to me.

Actually, what @meatball said makes the most sense. I think back to the ps1 and there were great games and bad games. I think back to the ps2 and ps3 the same way. I dont think quality has deteriorated at all; the only thing that has changed is complexity, and that doesnt undermine the quality of past games. I expect that I will always have games I look upon with fondness; it isnt limited to some kind of personal golden era. It would be really sad if I couldnt love a game on ps4 as much as I loved a game on ps1. There would be nothing left to look forward to

Tough question, I lived through most videogame generations, but spent most of the NES era playing games in the arcade. Playing stuff on one of my friend's commodore 64 and on my own Vic 20 were probably when I was at my most gaming purity. There were definitely stages in my life when I'm not sure how much fun I was actually having playing games. Where a sense that I was wasting time, or felt embarrassed crept in. I enjoyed the early Atari days, but I never owned one, just played it at a friend's house. The n64 is when I started making money and buying all the games, but I'm not sure I look back fondly on that. I think it has to be that Vic 20 commodore 64 era, I forget what age I was then. Playing so much in the arcades though as a kid is probably why I love games like Pinball Arcade so much. Still would love to own a pinball machine, might already if the maintenance on those things weren't hell.

It starts in the last couple years of the PS2 and then goes right up until 2011 I would say. Mostly stuff on the 360, a lot of online stuff. Playing Halo 3 online with my mates is the most fun I've ever had with a game. In fact, as much as dont like to be negative its probably the most fun I ever will have with a game.

I still enjoy video games now, for sure. Portal 2 might be my favourite overall game ever actually and that came out outside my 'golden age' but I gotta say the special feeling just isn't there for me anymore, personally.

don't think I have one. My childhood with the N64 was great, loved those games. Got hardcore into Halo, loved that game. Got hardcore into SC, loved that game. Into LoL and just stuff that's coming out now, I like where gaming's going.

i'm gonna say it's still to come, games is an impressionable young thing, i want to see it grow some more.

I don't have one. I've been enjoying and appreciating games more and more since I started playing on the NES. And I think this last generation was the best yet.

Or maybe I have one and it's my whole gaming life so far.

The Commodore 64 and the Amiga 500. It was well before I had a Pentium 4 and I was in elementary school. Sometimes I have invited my friends to my house to play and even though they all had modern PCs, we always had a blast playing Mortal Kombat 2 or just digging through the cassette and floppy collection. I wish I still had both of them :(

The Playstation era.

early 90's

ATARI thru SNES. Mostly the NES though. My sisters and I were so deep into MANY a classic NES game.

If I ever attain any musical talent and start a band, I shall dub it "Power Pad".

I don't really believe in the 'golden age' thing. For me its mostly a few specific titles, not a generation or era. Of course I would say stuff from the 90's if I were so nostalgic, but a there are a lot of games from my 'golden age' that I think are complete crap. The ones that stick out the most are the Doom games, Xeen, Krondor, Day of Defeat, not because I think it was a golden age of gaming but because those are legitimately great titles that are universally praised. Then there are games like STALKER which I think I actually like more than Doom but didn't play them until I was an adult. I guess in that way I'm not like Paul or Jeff in that I don't like bad games at all even if they would be from my 'golden age'. I turn them off and try to forget.

I guess the Age of World of Warcraft. For a glorious year and a half or so, it has been my life. And a good life it was. Still giving me goosebumps sometimes. Flashbacks and nostalgia. Oh the cyber-intoxication.

Really hope they'll get that cyber-graveyard ready, for when my mortal coil betrays me and breaks, so I'll be playing next gen World of Warcraft in cyber-heaven.

P.S. other than WoW, the time is now - always now.

My 'Golden Age' normally happens around turn 40, just after I've researched writing, or built Stonehenge.

Paul Barnett is definitely right about gaming Golden Ages. That's why so many journalists cream their jeans over SNES stuff that doesn't hold up.

Mid to late 90's was mine. PSOne, N64, and Dreamcast.

90's :)

Mid to late 90's PC games. No hesitation. RTS/TBS/RPG type of stuff. I suckled on the tit of Fallout, C&C, BG and HoMM. (i dabbled in stuff before that, like Doom, Wolfenstein, Syndicate, Warlords (tbs game), Civ but it was all too infrequent at the time yet)

Had a second kind of "golden age" when WoW was released as well, as it was all star eyed wonder and amazement all over again for several years that ruined my uni education.

Snes / Mega Drive era.

When I really think about the question, there is undoubtly only one answer.

1999-2006. EverQuest. 7 days a week, 3-6 hours a day.

But, not taking that into account, it's still a hard question. I feel like I could answer either the Megadrive era, playing Sonic and Lemmings, Jungle Stike and Flashback.

Or I could answer the PS1 era, playing Crash Bandicoot and Metal Gear Solid, Legend of the Dragoon and Medal of Honour.

Or I feel I could even answer the PS2 era, playing ICO and Okami, Halo and Wind Waker.

I think id have to say Megadrive era though, mid to late ninties.

now that i think about it, there was a time near the end of gen 6, around when Halo 2 was released, when i was living with a group of guys who were all into games, and we had a system link set-up between rooms, and had a lot of fun playing competitive Halo. also around that time, i was really receptive to the influence of weed on game experiences, it doesn't really add much anymore, except forgetfulness, so I avoid it, but then, man, the first Star Wars Battlefront, the Brothers in Arms games, Shadow of the Colossus, Rogue Trooper, Morrowind, Oblivion, all took on a level of immersion i will probably never get to experience again.

The Lucasarts adventure gaming golden era.

Sam and Max Hit the Road, Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, still few things in my mind that pass the writing and style that went into those games at the time.

Probably 1998-2005, I dunno I don't really have a golden age but I definitely have a favorite genre or type of game. The Game Boy Advance SP was my first console that I never really had to share with my four other siblings. Games like Advance Wars, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Link to the Past/Four Swords, and Metroid Fusion really shaped my taste in games nowadays. However, I still really like some of the stuff that comes out on the indie scene today like Scribblenauts, Dust: an Elysian Tail, Bastion, Dungeons of Dredmor, Mark of the Ninja, and Orcs Must Die! are games that I consider in my "golden age" despite coming out almost ten years later.

Also, 3D platformers were big during those years and I adore a good 3D platformer.

Give me an N64, PS2, and Diablo 2 and I'll die from nostalgia.

PlayStation 2, easily. Most of my fondest gaming memories are from playing that console as a kid; Shadow of the Colossus, the Jak & Daxter series, the Ratchet & Clank series, the Sly Cooper series, Beyond Good and Evil, Psychonauts, Silent Hill 2, God of War, The Simpsons: Hit and Run, Destroy All Humans, Bully; even the crappy stuff like Haven: Call of the King and Tak and the Power of Juju warm my heart. Man, what a good time.

I hold very fond memories of my Gba and Ps2.

Roughly 1995-1999. Donkey Kong Country 2, Super Mario RPG, Yoshi's Island, Fallout, Homeworld, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun all fall in that period, and those are probably my favorite games.

Also, I think the 'golden age' thing is the only reason I could have appreciated Buck Bumble, because come on. Who else even remembers that game exists?

Hasn't happened yet. Gaming keeps getting better. People who are nostalgic for the variety of the PS1 and PS2 era just aren't taking indie games and downloadables into account. There has never been a more exciting time to be a gamer. I mean one of my favorite games of this year was Papers please, which looked like an early 90s PC game, but I also got to play XBONE launch games? Unreal.

BTW, I'm talking about your personal golden age, I'm not suggesting that the best games ever were created decades ago and that games will invariably be worse in the future.

The 90s the snes and the ps1 fucking best ten years of videogames ever.

I'll go against everybody and say that the 90s were the Classical Age. That time when all the important things were being laid down, and developers were figuring out just what the hell to do with video games.

I treat every age like it's my golden age, man. I've managed to avoid falling into the trap of thinking one era's games are unequivocally better than any other.

But I mean, I guess the nostalgia hits me hardest in NES-SNES games? But then, I also get nostalgic about N64, PS1, Gamecube, PS2, and even some last-gen shit.

I guess I just like games.

Getting a computer with a CD-ROM drive and a 56k connection, where I could play some sort of PC game.

Then I found Gamestorm, and Silent Death Online. I spent sooooo much time playing that game, it is how I learned to type with speed, and understand network latency (when cable modems became commercially available, you'd nearly die before you saw an enemy ship onscreen).

It died when, like many other game studios, EA bought the rights to Gamestorm's collection of games and put them behind a paywall, which lasted all of a year before they shut it all down.

I'm going to say now because I didn't start playing games until 2007.

My golden age is definitely the Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat years in the early 90's. We would all head to the Pizza place for some SF2 then over to the Movie rental store for some MK. The games coming out in the early 90's arcade and home console where so fresh and fun. Without the online multiplayer in the games the dynamic was just so different then it is today.

The Ps1 era without a shadow of the doubt for me. The biggest stand out for me was Final Fantasy VII.

I'm 19 so for me it's now. I never had any of the real old consoles. I've never played any of the Atari stuff, the NES, SNES, or the PS1. So yeah I've never played the Zelda games except for TP and as for Mario only the Wii Mario Kart SMG 1. I have a Genesis and an N64. I had two games for the Genesis which I've hardly played and the same goes for the N64. I had a GameCube but my mom bought it for me the last year it was out so I only had a few games. The system I had the most games for was the PS2. So based on my little experience with what people call classics I think we're living in the Golden Age of Video Games.

I'm with you. And not knowing things is actually really wonderful. I have no idea what my favorite game will be next year. I don't know what kind of game it will be, when I'll play, where I'll play, and how it'll make me feel. And that's exciting. Being wistful is fine, but let's not forget that some good still exists today.

The golden age is when my dad was a live and well, and when my mom isn't as sick as she is now.

The golden age for me was the 90s, and the first two years of college which would be 08-09.

For me for the PC that's the mid 90's with games like Dune 2, Alone in the Dark, lucasarts games.

For consoles it's the Dreamcast and the end of the PS1 era, I was still buying game from brick'n mortar stores, even for imports. Good times.

The Golden Age of Rare. DKC to Star Fox Adventures I'd say roughly. I'd actually go up to the release of Paper Mario Thousand Year Door. Most anything from before that that I did not get exposed to during my golden age I can't truck with. At this point I actually make a point not to play any old games. Prefer to play newer games since they'll be better points of entry than the old stuff anyway.

I had a NES when I was little, but to be honest,the first playstation is probably the asnwer for me. Back then video games were still borderline magical for me.