Were you a gamer in the early 80's?

Became a gamer in the early 80's, had a colecovision with zaxxon, lady bug, dig dug, etc, but not nostalgic for it in the least.
 
Whats more mind blowing for me is Computer Shopper. The scary part is how silly things seem at first and then remembering back when they were current.

Things weren't that nice at home pre-NES but the arcade experience was probably at its peak. Defender, Joust, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Missile Command, Qix, Sinistar, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Tempest, Robotron, Battlezone, Centipede, 1942, Spy Hunter... Wasn't until the early 90s that fighters and shmups really came along but the home systems and PC's were a bigger deal by then.
 
Considering I was born in the early 80's and I was about 3-5 years old then, no. My family didn't have enough money for video game systems. I grew up in a single parent household with no father which was rare for the time period. I played games in arcades once I was old enough though. By the time I got old enough arcades were still popular but they had died down somewhat. I wasn't able to start collecting game systems till I was 18 and had a means to pay for them myself.
 
My first system was a Coleco dedicated Combat console, followed closely by an Atari 2600 wood grain four switch. So yeah, I grew up gaming in the early 80's. Great times, I sometimes wish I could go back.
 
Yep, I remember arcades BEFORE there were video games. Lots of electro-mechanical pinball and target shooters. I saw Pong for the first time on the boardwalk at Ocean City Maryland.

A few years later, when I saw Pac Man in the Columbia Mall arcade, (named, oddly enough, Boardwalk) I knew at that moment that video games were going to be HUGE.

Seeing each new game come out was a joy. I remember my friends coming to me and telling me about the new video game "Galaxian" and them breathlessly telling me "it's in color!"

The video game magazines were a real treat for me. I pored over them, read every page, and wished I could have everything I saw.

Those were wonderful times. I definitely have very nostalgic memories and am glad I was around to see it all.
 
Had a Coleco as well, but I wouldn't call myself a gamer until I got my Nintendo which was more the mid to late 80's. I played with the Coleco but only once or twice a week when my dad would hook it up. I remember my favorite games were Space Panic and Looping. I sucked at both.


Space Panic:
space_panic.gif

Looping:
looping.gif

This was my first video game magazine. I must have read this thing front to back a hundred times. I wish I still had it.

EGM Issue #1
EGM-Issue-1-Cover-223x300.jpg
 
[quote name='SaraAB']I grew up in a single parent household with no father which was rare for the time period. [/QUOTE]

lol what
 
Yeah my first systems were the Commodore Vic 20 and 64. I count them as systems since they used cartridges and were really prolific gaming computers in their day. I mean how else would you play Gorf on your 19 inch Zenith!!!?!?
 
I had the Commodore 128, and yes I had a ton of fun with it. The Standing Stones, Legacy of the Ancients, the Bards Tale, Wasteland, Ultima IV, Pool of Radiance. Ahh good times.

And then when I got my Amiga I felt I was truly in the next generation. AMAZING machine for it's time. All that Psygnosis stuff that made jaws drop.
 
[quote name='venturin']I had the Commodore 128, and yes I had a ton of fun with it. The Standing Stones, Legacy of the Ancients, the Bards Tale, Wasteland, Ultima IV, Pool of Radiance. Ahh good times.

And then when I got my Amiga I felt I was truly in the next generation. AMAZING machine for it's time. All that Psygnosis stuff that made jaws drop.[/QUOTE]

I got one of these in the original box for $2 or $3 at a garage sale a couple of years ago. It came with an Ultima game with a coin as weel as some other software. Probably my best vintage find. :D

Links to pics from that weekend: http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm270/buyitallcheap/commodore 128 find from 09/
 
My first gaming experience was on the Commodore 64, it was educational games but games none the less.
I was always playing video games from that day forth.
 
[quote name='2DMention']Yep. All the cool kids were playing commodore 64.[/QUOTE]

Had one of these...might actually still have it, hiding out with my old Intellivision in my parents' basement, along with the 5.25" drive. LOVED that thing - especially the Gold Box AD&D games.
 
Anyone who didn't grow up gaming in the '80's will never know the thrill of walking into an arcade and seeing some completely new games in genres you never heard of and play mechanics you never imagined. Without the internet, there were vague rumors you'd hear about new games, but magazines were often behind the times so there were still lots of surprises.
 
[quote name='soonersfan60']Anyone who didn't grow up gaming in the '80's will never know the thrill of walking into an arcade and seeing some completely new games in genres you never heard of and play mechanics you never imagined. Without the internet, there were vague rumors you'd hear about new games, but magazines were often behind the times so there were still lots of surprises.[/QUOTE]


The first time I saw Pac Man I knew video games were going to be huge. I saw the potential for cartoon like graphics and saw a bright future for the medium.

I was also blown away by Dragons Lair and other laser disc games. Anyone remember Firefox or Star Rider?

http://youtu.be/IDPVynGYnEY
 
[quote name='soonersfan60']Anyone who didn't grow up gaming in the '80's will never know the thrill of walking into an arcade and seeing some completely new games in genres you never heard of and play mechanics you never imagined. Without the internet, there were vague rumors you'd hear about new games, but magazines were often behind the times so there were still lots of surprises.[/QUOTE]

True, I was blown away with games like Afterburner, Virtua Fighter, Stun Runner and even Street Fighter 2. It's a shame that wonder is gone. I still remember the great times in my local putt putt golf place and experiencing all the new games.
 
I was half sperm and half egg. My first system was NES with Mario and Duck Hunt. I only needed those 2 games, but now I feel the need to buy a new game everyday
 
Oh yeah the wonder of it all is gone. I'd be so excited to get codes from magazines before the internet. You had to figure everything out yourself or what your friends discovered in games.

I prefer nowdays having GameFAQs and access to import games. I get to experience a lot more interesting games that way. But I enjoyed growing up as a gamer in simpler times.
 
The first time my friends and I had epic fun together with a video game was M.U.L.E. for the C-64. Does any remember playing that game? The programmer, Dan (Dani) Bunten was an early pioneer and a huge influence on many game developers.
 
I wasn't a gamer in the early 80's, but the mid to late 80s, and I am amused by the random Rumiko Takahashi pic in the link.
 
Its going to be funny in a few years when this thread is recreated as were you a gamer in the 90's thread.

My parents had a vacation house with a arcade near it. That was my vacation house so I got to experience the arcade from the days of the Nes playchoice 10 to the arcade's real death post Marvel vs capcom 2.

The day care I went to after school would have random arcade cabinets that we could sign up and play if we had good behavior so I got to play a lot of older games at the time. Joust, Centipede

Also my dad managed several hotels and I would get to play the games there.

Gaming today has finally reached a point where its part of every day life for a lot of people, and its good to see that the older stuff is still accessible for the average player through DLC.

To touch up on the movie licensed games and such. They got a bad rep at the start of the atari days for the same reason today. Trying to sell a game based on a name. The main problem I guess is often times paying for the license means sacrificing on talent, or rushing to get the product out for the movie.
 
Got an Atari 5200 for Christmas in 1983. Had a blast with that system, but nothing prepared me for the NES. We had an arcade in town, but I never really went to it until I started driving in '91. Home systems were it for me. The 5200 was great until the controllers quit working. We sold it at a yard sale with 20 or so games. Sometimes I think I'd like to get the system again, but I have no where to store the beast. With the 5200, it was like, "ok, I guess I'll play some games" and the NES was "Don't bother me, I'm gaming here!"
 
Funny this comes up, since I answered this on another forum.

I don't know if it was arcade games, my cousins owning a Telstar, or my parents buying an Atari 2600, but I've always been a big video game player. I remember when the local library got a Trash 80 and I went there all the time to load up tapes of games like Lunar Lander.

Then my parents bought me an Atari 800, and my infatuation for computers was set. I was mostly a computer gamer, with a brief dabble with SNES in college. Nowadays I have gotten more into console games.
 
[quote name='dragoon99']Oh yeah the wonder of it all is gone. I'd be so excited to get codes from magazines before the internet. You had to figure everything out yourself or what your friends discovered in games.

I prefer nowdays having GameFAQs and access to import games. I get to experience a lot more interesting games that way. But I enjoyed growing up as a gamer in simpler times.[/QUOTE]
I agree life has changed so much because of the internet.
 
My parents wouldn't let me get a Telstar. "Video games rot your brain - go play outside!" They didn't get me an Atari 2600 and I had to be the only kid in my neighborhood without it. I did spend my allowance ($1.00) at the arcade just about every week in about 5 minutes. Those were the days...
 
First system was the Atari 2600. I had to super glue those tabs on the base so many times. I also picked up an Intellivision with that voice module add-on. My neighbor had the Colecovision and then it was the C64 until Nintendo showed up with the cheaper non Rob unit with Mario and Duck Hunt.

C64 : Star Wars, Jumpman, and Jumpman Jr., Airborne Ranger, and D&D goldbox games were my favorites.

I spent the majority of my time after school at an arcade, military youth center, or any place with a gaming machine, and of course fell in love with Dragon's Lair.
 
I played at a couple of local arcades in the early 80's before I purchased my first console (NES). I was a pretty short kid, so I would carry around a milk crate from machine to machine (usually Moon Patrol or vector Star Wars). I was pretty young, having been born in '78, but I have many vivid memories of dumping quarters into arcade machines at 4-5 years old. I sucked something fierce at Moon Patrol as I recall LOL!

I definitely miss the old arcade experience. I do love sitting on the couch and playing games on a giant TV with a beer in hand, but I sure don't dig the whole online gaming expeience with 12 year-old kids calling me a "$$$". I try to drag friends over as often as possible for good, old fashioned face-to-face multi-player gaming.
 
Back then did people pay the same prices that we pay now for new games? The idea of paying 50-60 bucks for an Asteroids or Jr.Pacman cartridge seems silly to me.
 
Yup, brand new NES games were usually 50 bucks. It's amazing that inflation has barely touched new game prices, considering that 50 bucks in '85 is about 100 bucks today (according to inflation).
 
I had "Pong" in the 70s and a dedicated "tank" game console where there were 2 sets of tank throttles and each person controlled a white or black tank from the top down perspective - that game lasted 1 week until my brother's friend ripped off one of the throttles while playing. Then in 1981 my mom bought me an Apple 2 for Christmas and I used it mostly for video games - Microsoft Adventure (text based) and Asteriods were the 2 earliest games I remember for the Apple 2.
 
[quote name='wiggyx']Yup, brand new NES games were usually 50 bucks. It's amazing that inflation has barely touched new game prices, considering that 50 bucks in '85 is about 100 bucks today (according to inflation).[/QUOTE]

yeah - it is insane when I think about it. I remember saving my lawn-mowing money for months to buy "Ice Hockey". There were no demos and barely any way to figure out if a game was good or not. I bought Ikari Warriors 2 when it came out and I still remember that sick feeling I had when I first played it and then trying to talk myself into liking it.

Games are WAY more expensive to make today but cost a fraction to buy at retail (factoring in present value of money) - especially when you factor in the inevitable drop to $20 in a few months. Games rarely dropped in price back in the day...
 
Very true. The only big difference between then and now is that titles sell WAAAY more copies than they did in the 80's. Gaming is totally mainstream now, versus the olden days when you were a nerd if you played games. They must make up on quantity. Lucky for us, otherwise we'd be paying 150 bucks a game, or just getting rehashed garbage that costs little-to-nothing to produce I'd imagine.
 
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[quote name='nickerous']Got an Atari 5200 for Christmas in 1983. Had a blast with that system, but nothing prepared me for the NES. We had an arcade in town, but I never really went to it until I started driving in '91. Home systems were it for me. The 5200 was great until the controllers quit working. We sold it at a yard sale with 20 or so games. Sometimes I think I'd like to get the system again, but I have no where to store the beast. With the 5200, it was like, "ok, I guess I'll play some games" and the NES was "Don't bother me, I'm gaming here!"[/QUOTE]

Whoa-ho! Someone else with a 5200. That was the first system I ever got, I'm guessing it was mid-'85 so the system was already pretty much fading out, but I didn't know any better since I was only 6 years old. I got it because an older kid a few houses down wasn't into games anymore so he gave it to me. It was the original 4-port (gigantic) one but I don't recall ever having more than two controllers at a time.

Hated those controllers. Actually liked the design of them but they broke way too frequently. I remember it becoming pretty difficult to find controllers. At one point we ordered some replacements and it took forever to get them - literally a couple of months. Finally, coming home from school on my birthday that year, a UPS truck was just pulling in to the end of my street. I ran after it somehow knowing it had my controllers...and holy shit IT DID. Even though I know better, I still have my suspicions that somehow may parents both got them to ship it at the proper time AND got that UPS truck to wait until I arrived at the bus stop before delivering the package.

The big shock to me...well, not to me, more my parents...was that when I wanted a 5200 game it was usually 10-15 bucks at Toys R Us. When I got an NES later on it jumped to the 50 dollar range. That slowed things down a little. Like said above though, I suppose the fact that it is barely more expensive now (and remember, some 16-bit era games were pushed up towards the 70-80 dollar range) makes it more palatable.

The system probably still works but the RF switch has long since died, and no working controllers on hand either. I occasionally fire up an emulator to mess with a few of them, but honestly with MAME and XBLA around for arcade titles there's really no reason to play something like Frogger or Jungle Hunt on the 5200. That said, Star Raiders still fucking rules. Mapping buttons to the Numpad on the keyboard is almost as good as having a 5200 controller for it.
 
^^^ I'd forgotten about some of the pricey SNES games. I definitely recall paying 60 bucks for FFII (FFIV) and 70 buck for FFIII (FFVI).
 
I had a 5200 (still do) but the controllers barely work anymore. The 4 red buttons on the sides are all but dead. Blue Print was the greatest game for that system and still one of my favorite games ever. It was quite complicated for its time (memory, maze, shooting - there was a lot going on). My grandparents bought it for me and I had never even heard of it before - I think they just went to Sears or something and bought the first game on the shelf. I remember thinking WTF when I opened it up on Christmas morning but it wasn't long before I couldn't put it down. I still play it all the time on my MAME cabs. Great memories.
 
My gaming addiction started with the Intellivion. But the 80's are fondly remembered mostly for my time with the ZX Spectrum. I later upgraded to an Atari ST.
 
My brother and I were in the Atari Club and we sent away for Silver jackets with stripes down the sleeves and Atari logos on them. I wish I still had mine, but I think my mom gave them away 15 years ago. Probably worth a lot of money now.
 
It's a PITA but you guys with 5200 controllers do realize that you can take them apart and clean them to get the buttons to work (temporarily at least lol).

To stay on with what's became the topic of this thread, I have vague memories of an Intellivision with Worm Whomper being my first game then get a ColecoVision and having a Commodore 64 and doing the 5 1/4 floppy thing.
 
^^^ Yeah, although at this point I'd probably just pick up a refurb/custom one online somewhere if I really wanted to play it badly. Plus I'm sure the joystick is no good on any of the controllers I still have.

Re: pricing during the 16-bit era, wasn't Phantasy Star IV like 90 bucks?
 
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I've heard Phantasy Star IV got up to $100. Pretty crazy considering I bought a few brand new copies at KB Stores about 12 years ago for $5 a piece. Probably should've held onto them longer.
 
[quote name='KaneRobot']Re: pricing during the 16-bit era, wasn't Phantasy Star IV like 90 bucks?[/QUOTE]

[quote name='Rodimus']I've heard Phantasy Star IV got up to $100. Pretty crazy considering I bought a few brand new copies at KB Stores about 12 years ago for $5 a piece. Probably should've held onto them longer.[/QUOTE]


Phantasy Star IV & Virtua Racing both retailed for 99.99 when they came out. At least for Virtua Racing the reason was because it had a special chip in it. The 16-bit era was the highest priced, besides these 2 special cases I remember many 3rd party games being 60 and even seeing games for 65-80 and remember the SNES having more of the expensive games at retail shelves.
 
[quote name='wiggyx']N64 games weren't cheap either. None of em :(

Stupid cartridges...[/QUOTE]

Of course, they still work 35 years later...
 
The price of cartridges was actually one of the reasons why I loved having a Genesis and not a SNES. Most stores around me at the time would always have Genesis games no higher than $50 (RPGs not withstanding) while the lowest I would find a SNES game for was $55.

Going back on topic for a bit I was definitely a gamer back in the 80's. My dad got a Pong machine when I was 1 and a ColecoVision when I was about 4 or so. Built up a decent collection of games for that though my library got expanded just a bit more with the Expansion Module #2. Dabbled with the Commodore 64 for a bit with only three games (Karate Champ, Kung-Fu Master, and Skyfox) but I played those to death. Then, much like most others, I got the NES when it went to the Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt pack (grey Zapper) and never looked back.
 
Ah but for many the natural progression from the Commodore 64 was the Amiga. What an amazing machine, ahead of it's time in many ways. The games were so good, the graphics so advanced, the sound so immersive.

I took a nice detour with the Amiga before I settled in to my life long love of console gaming.
 
[quote name='slowdive21']Of course, they still work 35 years later...[/QUOTE]

They do? I mean, sure, with tons of care, but there's no guarantee that they will.

I'll take any disc format over a cart, even though new cartridge smell beats any other new product smell, especially N64 games :)

For one thing, I can very easily make backups of my disc games and keep the originals tucked away if I'd like. Doing that with carts isn't quite as easy. Also, I can pretty much throw a PS2 game in the dishwasher without having to worry about it ;)
 
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