Well, it happened. I am no longer in the 18-24 age bracket. Now, I am in that age bracket right between, “you don’t know what you’re talking about kid,” and “Oh my gosh, you’re a dinosaur!” To be honest, I don’t feel much different than I did even a few years ago. Of course, that might be because I already have come to realize that I am rapidly aging.
Back in 2013, when I had my amazing adventures in New Zealand, I had a conversation with a kid who was twelve. Some way or another, we started talking about the PS3 and the next-gen consoles, and I made the horrifying discovery that I am old. This kid was turning 13, so he was born in 2000, and he had no idea what an Atari, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, or the Gameboy Advance were. My jaw dropped. Granted, I am not so old that I played the Atari, however I still knew what it was. As a gamer, I consider it as part of my heritage. Regardless of the Atari, the fact that he had no idea whatsoever of the consoles I loved and grew up on was freighting.
The games on these consoles were passed down from my brothers and taught me the value of gaming, they challenged my skills, the illustrated the colorful and dynamic evolution of gaming; and the kids from this new generation have no idea what they are! They don’t understand, the struggles my generation, and the generation above me, went through to deliver to them the advanced 3-D graphics, the relative standard of gameplay expectations, the progression of story-telling, and everything else that has come together and led to the games of today. Everyone from my generation can be reminiscent to the old codger on their front porch on a rocking chair, telling kids how easy they have it.
“Back in my day, we didn’t have save points. We had to start the game from the beginning every time, and we only had three lives and three continues to beat it. We didn’t have an easy mode, you got good or you died and it was your friend/sibling’s turn to try. There were no walkthroughs, your friends got together and shared what they had figured out or read in gaming magazines. There were no special move lists, you spent the whole summer figuring out your favorite Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat character’s abilities—and we hiked uphill in the snow both ways!”
I myself have become the proverbial old man telling my nephews and my niece my video game war stories and what kind of games I grew up with; I’ve even shared some with them. It puts a smile on my face when I see the kids get excited about the games I grew up playing—like they’re carrying on the torch from my generation. And nothing beats the look on their face when I go to show them a cheat or a power-up and tell them: “now check this out.”
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Did you grow up as a gamer or know someone that was? What detail about how games have changed or memorable moments from old gaming do you have? Please leave your answer in the comments, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
Quick announcements, I am going to be at my first meeting for the writer’s workshop this Thursday, and I’m interested to see how it affects my writing. I’ve moved one of my classes to audit because my grades were hurting and there was just too much to do on my schedule—which means I may be able to have a regular blog entries again.
Image Source: http://geyserofawesome.com/post/59245446858/this-awesome-work-of-lego-and-gaming-geekery-is-a