Gaming in 1988

[Druss]

I grew up playing the old Amstrad and the ZX Spectrum.

Golden Axe, Operation Wolf and Jet Set Willy 2 were my faves, had a brief love affair with the Panasonic 3DO in the 90's (for anyone who had that: Killing Time, Poed and Wing Commander IV...best games ever!) but came to the Playstation late, maybe 1999 before I had a PS2, ironic that my obsessive gaming was exclusively PS1 games (Silent Hill, Tenchu stealth assassins, Actua Soccer 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2).

I'm pretty much an exclusive Xbox gamer now, Skyrim is my mainstay, modded to the hilt of course (immersion mods only, I love fantasy and Nordic mythology!) but the kicker is, my eldest (21 in a few months) is a hardcore gamer and has quite literally every system, he keeps banging on about this and that console, game or mod that I should have.

I honestly never thought having a penchant for playing a heavily modded Skyrim would make me feel old...

 

[Clint]

Best game I played was hide and seek with the bailiff down the river.

 

[Deadhead]

As an American 'xennial' I grew up with a Commodore Vic 20 computer in the house (pretty sure my mother wanted to kill my dad when he brought it home, though he very well may have traded some guitar repairs* or an amp, or guitar lessons for it or something).... and some Commodore 64/Apple IIs in the classroom. Not that my teachers had a clue how to use them. Lots of Lego LOGO and Oregon trail.... Writing code just felt normal, so I do have a lot of fun when I come into contact with a raspberry pi in modern life.

Friends and cousins had Ataris/Nintendos/SuperNintendos which we always begged to play when were were over there, and we got a SEGA Genesis one year for Christmas, which was unreal and so cool! We ended up with a PlayStation because my mom traded a guitar* for it.... I spent many a night watching my sisters play Sonic, Echo the Dolphin, and on the PS1, the 'Cool Boarders' - skateboarding game. I was an absolute terrible gamer though. I just didn't get it.... My fingers wouldn't move the right way or whatever.... I enjoyed watching others play though. My older sister loved gaming and she still games with her husband on his many many many consoles, old and new.

I had an ex though who would spend hours and hours and hours and days and days shirking his responsibilities, by playing Grand Theft Auto. And it drove me up a feckin wall....

My husband isn't a gamer. He didn't even have internet in his house when I met him (online, funnily enough....) He didn't grow up with any of this stuff, couldn't afford it, none of his friends could either. He had the BBC computers in school but again the teachers didn't have a clue how to use them. He never got the bug for it and he doesn't fancy it. I'm surprised he even has a smart phone as most of the time he just uses it as an actual phone. He's a terrible 'xennial'!!
We do have a dusty old wii though, which we should pull out, as I've got Guitar Hero! And that is a game I can actually do!!!

*My parents had a music shop, in case anyone is wondering why there were a lot of guitar trades, haha

 

[Nicks90]

The only game I am playing at the moment is Arma 3 and I joined a Military Simulator group (Milsim) which is run by a few ex military guys, it's kept real without the yes sir no sir and is real fun whilst being pretty realistic. To be honest I think it far outweighs the Call of Duty type games for realism, not graphically as its getting on a bit now but for realistic gameplay.

funnily enough this just popped up on Steam reduced from £25 to £4.79
So i have just bought it to have a go

 

[Graz]

A few pictures from the "We grew up in the 80's" exhibition in Worcester museum recently. I had both of these growing up.

For those moaning about the cost of games today you'll see the price sticker on the Asteroids cartridge is £32.95 which in equivalent money today would be around £200. Just goes to show not everything follows inflation trends and today's games are actually pretty good value given the production that goes into them.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

As an American 'xennial' I grew up with a Commodore Vic 20 computer in the house (pretty sure my mother wanted to kill my dad when he brought it home, though he very well may have traded some guitar repairs* or an amp, or guitar lessons for it or something).... and some Commodore 64/Apple IIs in the classroom. Not that my teachers had a clue how to use them. Lots of Lego LOGO and Oregon trail.... Writing code just felt normal, so I do have a lot of fun when I come into contact with a raspberry pi in modern life.

Friends and cousins had Ataris/Nintendos/SuperNintendos which we always begged to play when were were over there, and we got a SEGA Genesis one year for Christmas, which was unreal and so cool! We ended up with a PlayStation because my mom traded a guitar* for it.... I spent many a night watching my sisters play Sonic, Echo the Dolphin, and on the PS1, the 'Cool Boarders' - skateboarding game. I was an absolute terrible gamer though. I just didn't get it.... My fingers wouldn't move the right way or whatever.... I enjoyed watching others play though. My older sister loved gaming and she still games with her husband on his many many many consoles, old and new.

I had an ex though who would spend hours and hours and hours and days and days shirking his responsibilities, by playing Grand Theft Auto. And it drove me up a feckin wall....

My husband isn't a gamer. He didn't even have internet in his house when I met him (online, funnily enough....) He didn't grow up with any of this stuff, couldn't afford it, none of his friends could either. He had the BBC computers in school but again the teachers didn't have a clue how to use them. He never got the bug for it and he doesn't fancy it. I'm surprised he even has a smart phone as most of the time he just uses it as an actual phone. He's a terrible 'xennial'!!
We do have a dusty old wii though, which we should pull out, as I've got Guitar Hero! And that is a game I can actually do!!!

*My parents had a music shop, in case anyone is wondering why there were a lot of guitar trades, haha

The Oregon Trail was a brilliant game.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Just started playing Starfield. Feels like a skinned version of Fallout 4, and I wasn't convinced at first, but yeah, I'm hooked.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Got a Spectrum in the garage with a load of cassette tape games. Rescued it from the in-laws throwing it in the trash.
Got no tape player to hook up to unfortunately. Maybe one day...

Keep your eyes peeled for cassette Walkman in charity shop.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Started on the Acorn Electron, Chucky Egg, a footy manager game whose name I can't remember and Elite which was absolutely incredible, me and my dad spent hours and hours playing Elite, mapping out the universe, really fun.

I've got an xbox one which I rarely play now but I recently bought a couple of games for the kids crash bandicoot racing and a couple of puzzle games which they/we enjoy.

Emulation of Elite original on the PC, managed to complete all the missions again using keyboard only.

 

[Galena]

funnily enough this just popped up on Steam reduced from £25 to £4.79
So i have just bought it to have a go

I never played SP or MP, I only play on private servers in a Milsim unit (Military simulation) which make the game quite realistic and no nobhead griefers.
If you find you would like to try that. Give me a shout and I'll give you the group Discord invite

 

[Galena]

Im now re-trying Red Dead redemption only on RedM which are private RP servers, so no griefers.

 

[Leon103]

Might be best for its own thread but will ask here first.
I giving some serious consideration to getting my son either a xbox or ps5 for Xmas. He would have just turned 9.

I was walking in town today and noticed that Ee sell them. When I got back I looked online and it's opened a minefield. Lot as changed since I had a i guess console.

I noticed that both now require some sort of pass to play online. Anyone got any experience of these? Both makes have multiple level of membership with promises of free games. What are the games actually like? Anything decent? Are the passes necessary for a 9 year? And dad lol.

I guess preference is down to personal choice but xbox does seem a lot cheaper.

Any experience of these bundles that yhr likes of EE and Game offer?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Might be best for its own thread but will ask here first.
I giving some serious consideration to getting my son either a xbox or ps5 for Xmas. He would have just turned 9.

I was walking in town today and noticed that Ee sell them. When I got back I looked online and it's opened a minefield. Lot as changed since I had a i guess console.

I noticed that both now require some sort of pass to play online. Anyone got any experience of these? Both makes have multiple level of membership with promises of free games. What are the games actually like? Anything decent? Are the passes necessary for a 9 year? And dad lol.

I guess preference is down to personal choice but xbox does seem a lot cheaper.

Any experience of these bundles that yhr likes of EE and Game offer?

Hi Leon,

I have an xbox and my nearly 9 year old has just started playing stuff, think I mentioned in a previous post things like crash bandicoot.

I have an online game pass but to be honest it's been so long I'd have to check what it is, think it costs me around a tenner a month. Never had a look at the free games tbh. Perhaps I should!

We haven't really got into the online stuff with her, having played a fair bit of COD, I know how many tossers there are online and I'd rather not expose her to that yet. The bandicoot racing game has an online element to it but we've not gone there.

I digress, I'll have a look on the xbox later/tomorrow if you want and get back to you? Although perhaps others have more info than me.

 

[Leon103]

Hi Leon,

I have an xbox and my nearly 9 year old has just started playing stuff, think I mentioned in a previous post things like crash bandicoot.

I have an online game pass but to be honest it's been so long I'd have to check what it is, think it costs me around a tenner a month. Never had a look at the free games tbh. Perhaps I should!

We haven't really got into the online stuff with her, having played a fair bit of COD, I know how many tossers there are online and I'd rather not expose her to that yet. The bandicoot racing game has an online element to it but we've not gone there.

I digress, I'll have a look on the xbox later/tomorrow if you want and get back to you? Although perhaps others have more info than me.

That would be great. I agree about the online stuff. I noticed in my brief search that xbox pass had a parental element to restrict access etc. I am thinking online for myself buy to be honest I doubt I will get any time to actually make use of it.

 

[Clint]

My lads have yearly passes for Xbox and PS, this enables multiple gameplay with other worldwide users so there's no filters as who they interact with...plus to set this up they need to be "18"...as its restricted...I think...I'm not sure on the full terms. For a 9 year old you need to read the small print or go speak to someone in a game store. Also some games are disc some or downloads...or both! Once bought you can load and unload off your account to make room for other stuff but still keep.

 

[Clint]

If you get a pass and intend using it for yourself set it up with your "18" date of birth otherwise it will disable some content,upgrades,games. I think you can add controls from there on each user ID. So your kids can have their user profile but via password you can restrict the content access.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I was part of a young enterprise company called no-bug software and I wrote 5 games for the dragon32 and co-designed a lunar lander game for the bbc micro model b.

We sold over 80 copies of the dragon32 games in the swansea bay microfare in January in the 80's. more than the spectrum,vic20 and bbc put together. (the dragon32 was a locally built micro) that is what your pic reminded me of.

 

[dad_of_jon]

as for gaming today I'm hooked on BAR and talisman.

 

[Leon103]

My lads have yearly passes for Xbox and PS, this enables multiple gameplay with other worldwide users so there's no filters as who they interact with...plus to set this up they need to be "18"...as its restricted...I think...I'm not sure on the full terms. For a 9 year old you need to read the small print or go speak to someone in a game store. Also some games are disc some or downloads...or both! Once bought you can load and unload off your account to make room for other stuff but still keep.

If you get a pass and intend using it for yourself set it up with your "18" date of birth otherwise it will disable some content,upgrades,games. I think you can add controls from there on each user ID. So your kids can have their user profile but via password you can restrict the content access.

Thanks both. A bit to read up on. Not sure if it will be needed for a 9 year old, at least for a few years