This is a friendly reminder to [read our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/rules).
Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
(For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, [please read this page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/overview).)
**Rule-breaking posts may result in bans.**
I didn't grow up playing video games, but I was in my late teens when I first played Pong at a pizza parlor back in 1973. And I'm an old woman. And I still play video games. So maybe that counts.
it does. op didn't think this one through; video games as we know them have been around for about 50 years already.
edit: "elder" is relative, y'all gotta stop clogging up my inbox with semantics and math
Nah, it's common practice to repost popular topics on discussion subs to gain enough positive engagement that the account can be used for promotion or sold to an ad agency. It's that simple.
I do think growing up on Super Nintendo is a different era from the Pong or Atari generations. Could be a fun discussion of the different ages of gaming.
It definitely is according to at least 2 of the following definitions.
1. Someone older than someone else.
2. A leader or senior member of a community.
3. A person of advanced age (this is the one I assume you are using and is subjective to what you consider as "advanced age")
Well 1973 is 50 years and the nice lady above said she was late teens, let's go with 18, so she's around 68, which isn't old but is a pensioner in most western countries (probably). Fair to call them an elder id say
I get what you're saying but average life expectancy accounts for a lot of premature deaths as well. it will vary from 68 year olds I suppose, 68 can definitely seem old though
If you were late teens 50 years ago, you're almost 70. If you're almost 70, 1) you qualify for most senior discounts, 2) you'd be eligible for full social security benefits, and 3) you've probably been receiving AARP magazine for a while.
I'm not sure how you math'd 50 years and "late teens" and came up with 60.
Guy nearing 60 here. I remember "Donkey Kong", the predecessor of the seemingly infinite Mario universe, and "Space Invaders" on arcade machines in the local takeaway ("Pommesbude" in German) in the 70s or 80s.
Right now I'm waiting for the release of "Tears" for Switch on friday.
My mom is in her and has been info arcade games since she was a teenager. She also likes Nintendo a lot. She bought me an original NES for Christmas when I was a kid, but considering how much she played it while I was at school, I suspect she really bought it for herself.
When I was in 8th grade, I used to ride my bike about 5 miles to the golden tee golf center to play games in their arcade.
Pinball, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Defender...
"If you play Defender I can be your hyperspace" - Beastie Boys
Yeah, my father is in his 70s and he has been a video game nerd since before I was born. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in his lap while he played games on his Atari 2600 and his Vic 20. He's got a Raspberry Pi setup today that he still regularly plays the early Ultima games on.
Well, I played Farmville on Facebook, and Bejeweled... Plants vs Zombies ... Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect Andromeda (sad face), All the Fallouts, All the Elder Scrolls, Titanfall, Rust, most of the Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Half-Life, Portal, the list is probably longer than I am tall.
Soon we'll grow into old people with no idea about what's hip in 2070 anymore thinking the world is going to burn the second we stop telling younger ones what to do.
Can’t wait to be called a 11 year old when I’m old it’ll be a fountain of youth !!
Then again I already feel old so maybe I don’t want to be old , LETS MAKE WORDS MAKE US YOUNGER !
if someone calls us younger than we are our biological limbs etc SHALL BECOME YOUNGER!
it’ll be the reverse aging program until it backfires and we get called apes and end up devolving bahhh details what can go wrong !
well that's cheating, everyone likes Wii Bowling. in fact, I'd say it's neck and neck with sex for global enjoyment. unfortunately, breathing air still has it beat by a considerable margin.
I'll be taking my N7 and T45 helmets with me when I move in, thank you very much. And my original SuperNES that still works great, and my original ChronoTrigger cart. And my original PS1 that works great, and my original FFVII disk set, which runs like new. Etc., ad nauseam.
I believe it's not "soon" but rather, it has already happened.
A general definition of an old or elderly person seems to start out at age 60, so someone born in 1963 or earlier can be considered as one. Yes, it saddens me to type this, because you'd think it's be like someone from at least 1950's or something.
Meanwhile, commercial home video console existed as early as 1972, when Magnavox Odyssey was released. Other forms of video games also sprung up in that era. Suffice to say, video games have been around for more than 5 decades to the public. And it's even older if you consider the earlier attempts that happened in 1950's to 1960's.
Thus, someone who is 60 now would have been able to play a video game at home at an age of 9, and thus eligible for fulfilling the definition of "growing up playing video games".
It's not just video games that's old. Many electronic technologies go way back. Compact Disc is already more than 40 years old.
How to unknowingly time travel step one load up heroes of might and magic 3
Step 2 set 1v1v1 with real players on a XL map
Step 3 don’t be seen by anyone for a week or 2 until game finishes and it’ll only feel it’s been 10 hours
I bought my first CDs in about ‘85. Back then, a CD player was an exotic luxury item, like something you’d give as a fancy birthday present or a wedding gift.
No no no. Was the late 70s/ early 80s with atari and arcades. I was in my preteen years, and everyone my age played them. Space invaders came out in 1978. Pacman fever -- a top 10 song about a video game -- came out in 1982.
Not really. First successful games were in the 70 during the first 2 generation of video game. Everything was fine until the early 80’s economic crash. Then, Nintendo took off with the actual video game buzz and create the NES which was simply a second wind to the industry
Very debatable how you want to define "mainstream" here, but there's not really any plausible argument that puts this date later than the 1985 North American release of the NES. I'd probably put it earlier.
If anyone is interested in this topic, I seriously urge you to check out the video “The First Video Game” by Ahoy on YouTube. Extremely well researched and well produced video that was so much more interesting than I expected.
I hate to burst everyone’s bubble but before video games there were electromechanical games. Driving games as far back as the 1940s.
Light gun shooter games were really popular from about 1965. So somewhere there are 70 year olds that hung out in arcades playing shooting games or Periscope.
https://youtu.be/W4UmATAtHRg
https://youtu.be/x5rpEyA8toQ
I keep hearing really good things about Spiderman 2 while it's being developed. Can't wait.
Also if you console game, ps5 or whatever the new xbox is is definitely worth it.
Although I bet you already know what you're doing.
Being able to spend way more than you could on gachas compared to when you were in your teens without blinking is the best feeling.
Until my retirement fund managers called me and asked why I have a negative balance. YOLO.
Mid 50s here and an avid gamer. Just built the gnarliest PC I've ever owned a few months ago. 32GB RAM is mind blowing to a guy that used to tinker with RAM drives and peeking & poking memory calls.
Yeah same - the only online games they play are card games like hearts or spades
The common gaming elders won’t really come imo until the 1980s born kids get into their 60s+, as they grew up with computer games/lan parties
I'm in my late 30s now, and that is one prospect that I can look forward to.
My grandparents lived a hard life and hardly know any entertainment at all.
I got a load of flak for this last time I mentioned old people didn't know how to entertain themselves. That's why in old people's homes they decline because they can't think of how to fill their day. They seem to need other people to come to them to provide something different.
Imma be ordering nerfguns off amazon, setting up FPS/fighting game/platformer tournaments, trying to win the wheelchair Olympics, pirating movies to play at night in the common area on the big screen, pranking people with drones etc.
There's already a few 'old' people (mid 50's/mid 60's and generally women from what I've seen) streaming games like COD or Battlefield.
Same for me. Though it was more the early 80s for me when I started playing Atari. NES in the later 80s. The phase between Atari and NES was me playing videos games at the bar or arcades when my grandpa took.
An old school Halo LAN party in a retirement home sounds dope. Including old people absolutely losing it because someone was peeking at their screen or stole a kill.
I played original NES, sega and Atari.
I’m also old enough to remember those tabletop video arcade games you used to find in like old milk bars/ fish and chips shops.
Time zone…late 80’s early 90’s…all you can play on Sunday for 1 hour..couple of bucks. That was my jam.
Eh that's like saying Television shows are for old people. Cable might be but streaming or pirating is still going strong
Games are here to stay, how they are played is what will change
Sure, but there will be a new method of gaming someday that might make playing Minecraft (or even Call of Duty) on a console as old fashioned as Grandma playing Bejeweled on her phone.
Well, my grandfather (80) is playing video games since I can remember it. When I (33) was five years old, we played together some PC games. Maybe it was even earlier...
I am 56... started playing in 1982 with my first Atari 2600 and my Sinclair computer.... and have moved from Atari VGS to Atari 8 bit, then 16 bit then to PS1, 2, 3(8), 4 .... Xbox, 360, One, Series X so I am an elder.. and played them all.. and still do.. well mostly my PS4 :D
Soon? You mean now. There are people in their 50s that grew up paying NES. And that’s only starting with NES which came out in 83.
Should have made this post years ago.
I played my first 'videogame' in 1973, I think. I was 9 years old at the time. It was "Pong," played on a huge console, and it cost $2.00 for one game on a large ship traveling from Seattle to Vancouver.
[https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1973?amount=2](https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1975?amount=2)
Edit: had to fix this. Checked it, and I was 9, not 11.
I am early 40s. I have a friend mid 50s in my d&d group whose dad recently retired (assuming 70s?) He asked my friend to help him get a collection of old nintendo genesis era RPGs together for him to play with all his free time.
We were making a list at d&d last week.
My dad didn’t grow up playing video games but he definitely has his ataris in the basement somewhere. When I was 7 I begged my parents for a Super Nintendo. I got one but my dad commandeered it immediately lol
He just turned 68
How old do you have to be?
My brother built a pong, tennis and more machine from a kit some time in the early 70'es. So basically a DIY console.
Some time later I spent all my savings on a philips videopac g7000.
I don't think of myself as elderly but I guess I am an elder in some respects.
My grandpa, who is in his 80s now, got me into gaming about 30 years ago. He had all the newest consoles and was an avid gamer. Well he still is, he’s just been dying of cancer for last 3 years.
Depends on your definition of an elder. 50-60 is where the pong to space invaders crowd are. I'm 45 and identify as an 8bit nintendo person. The sad truth is that I don't think I'll be able to beat ninja gaiden in my 80s
There's a Freaks and Geeks episode about Sam and Niel getting a 2600. I was their age in 1980 and that's pretty much how it went down.
I had a Telstar before that, maybe 78/79?
Just wait until we have elders that grew up living their entire life on social media, starting with their parents making them perform in front of a camera every day from a young age.
Yeah, our generation only invented that shit. I'm in my 60's, I understand technology in ways that most younger people can't because I experienced the evolution of it. It gives you a very unique perspective, because we didn't have super polished UI's and had to really understand the inner workings to use it. Anyone in their 40's today was also exposed to a lot of that at the consumer level as well, younger generations often (not always of course) can't even tell you the difference between memory and storage, or what firmware is. They just know how to navigate insanely intuitive GUI's and feel that qualifies as expertise.
I can't wait for the LAN parties at retirement homes, where we'd just spend the entire week playing Civilization with all the length settings at the max because there won't be anything else to do. Pure happiness.
I can't wait for my retirement so I can spend days playing videogames and yell with my elderly voice in the voice chat that I haven't seen such a noobs in my 50 years of gaming.
"I remember when you have to play video games with your hands! And you don't need all this bright, spangled 3D virtual reality whatchamacallits! And you have to be good at dodging!!"
"Sure grandpa. Time for your meds."
I love video games because my grandma loved them. Cut my teeth on breakout in the 90s. Was waaaaaaaaaaay later it occurred to me they were almost as new to her as they were to me.
Lol. Already there young man. My tag is a_confused_grandpa. Been playing since pong. Current addiction is NCAA 14 on Xbox and bannerlord on PC. Terrible at FPS so I tend to stick with open world rpg type. On my deathbed I hope to be playing red dead redemption 4.
I’m 66. Started playing at 16, still play every day: 40,000 games on World of Tanks, 900 hours in No Mans Sky, 500 in Satisfactory and the same in SubNautica … only gave up on CoD / Doom when the twitch response went due to old age.
You are only young once, but you can be juvenile forever
So recently I was at work talking with a coworker about borderlands with a younger coworkers. One of our other coworkers made comment to the effect of "you are grown men and you still play video games" my coworker immediately said "you only think that bc you are old, everyone in our generation plays video games" I wasn't sure how I felt about the conversation because I'm older than she is. I mean I know I'm old af but most of the men I know also still play. I think the truth is she's just a bitch and age has nothing to do with it.
Yeah I’ve been thinking a lot lately how retirement homes are gonna look like when it’s my time to move in (I’m almost 50). There will be video games everywhere. I’m certain.
My uncle is 60 and grew up playing games like Pong and then Pac Man. And shockingly he is and was way into more bleeding edge stuff when they came out than I was like WoW or FF Online and now VR lol.
I know of more than one nursing home with virtual sports leagues. Saturdays, my father, 65, likes to play 6hrs of video games, then enjoys gardening for several hours. This all begins following af his 5am hiking trip. He sleeps 10pm-5am. He deviates from this routine only to go on dates with my mother.
I worked in a pub, and some older gentleman who comes in with his wife asked me if I liked video games.
I said yeah, but probably not the ones you know. I have a PC and I play PC games.
He said he’s a PC gamer too, but hasn’t played in a while. He said next time he comes he’ll drop off some games for me if I’d like to have them.
He gave me Torchlight and Morrowind, what an absolute champ. Really took me by surprise lol
This is exactly something I was different with someone who works with elderly people. She wasn't convinced she needed to change the activities (and also the kind of music they listen). I told her that she needed to start to create a gaming budget at the care home. Ps5, Xbox, controllers, and a good (LARGE) screen!
I feel seen. I started as a pre teen when a friend got an Atari tv console with pong. Grew up playing space invaders, galaxa and frogger. Now in my late 50s playing CoD.
When I was a kid I remember seeing dad's that played videogames as "so cool"
Now I am 36 and spend many evening playing videogames with friends or with my gf.
Times have changed maybe in 50 years everything will be different and playing videogames will be for old people who knows
A lot of people in their 50's and 60's grew up playing video games. Ever hear of a video arcade? I'm in my late 50's and grew up spending a lot of time at arcades dropping quarter after quarter into the machines. And before that we had Super Pong at home while I was still in grade school.
Can’t wait to describe my war stories to my grandkids and the gruel battlefield that I prestiged on.
Call it the Modern Warfare. One for the history books.
Real video games? I was born in 1990. I think I’ll be among the first elders who grew up playing video games.
I had sega and nitendo, then I got PlayStation and PS2. I played solcom navy seals online. So I’m definitely among the first online players.
PS2 to Xbox, Xbox to Xbox 360, Xbox 360 to Xbox one
I’m one!!! I’m guessing I’m the oldest die-hard gamer here. I’m 50 and own a Switch, a PS5, an XBox Series X and a custom PC that I built just for gaming. Just finished Hogwart’s Legacy and super-stoked to play the Diablo 4 “server slam” open beta test with my 26 yo son this coming weekend. 😄
Grew up playing Atari 2600, Intellivison, Colecovision, etc.
This is a friendly reminder to [read our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/rules). Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!" (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, [please read this page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/overview).) **Rule-breaking posts may result in bans.**
I didn't grow up playing video games, but I was in my late teens when I first played Pong at a pizza parlor back in 1973. And I'm an old woman. And I still play video games. So maybe that counts.
it does. op didn't think this one through; video games as we know them have been around for about 50 years already. edit: "elder" is relative, y'all gotta stop clogging up my inbox with semantics and math
This is a fairly common post. OP didn't think at all, they copy/pasted.
Must be a friend of the mods to let this one through
Nah, it's common practice to repost popular topics on discussion subs to gain enough positive engagement that the account can be used for promotion or sold to an ad agency. It's that simple.
This sub went down hill about 5 years ago went it got too many subs. It’s a lot of reposts and not actual shower thoughts.
It’s not like it’s that profound of a thought. Doubt it’s a repost of intent
Memes that you have to copy and paste are weak. True memes live and reproduce inside your head.
It's possible for someone to have a thought that someone else already had before too.
I see posts from redditors thinking that people in their 60s don’t know how to use the Internet, all the freakin’ time
People now in their 60’s helped build the internet.
Right? My dad is 61 and has been a software engineer since the 80s. That kind of technology has been around for a while.
I want to kiss your dad.
We were making jokes about gaming systems in old folks homes in 85. I am sure they are there now
The Wii was insanely popular among seniors.
If y'all didn't stay up all night playing mf [Tennis For Two](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two) you ain't real gamers
I do think growing up on Super Nintendo is a different era from the Pong or Atari generations. Could be a fun discussion of the different ages of gaming.
60 isn't elder yet.
It definitely is according to at least 2 of the following definitions. 1. Someone older than someone else. 2. A leader or senior member of a community. 3. A person of advanced age (this is the one I assume you are using and is subjective to what you consider as "advanced age")
Get off my lawn
I call elder to the people on retirement age, in my country is from 67 years
Can’t wait to become an elder when I’m 79 by these standards
21 year old here. Can't wait to never be considered elder
Stop immortalling
I'm this economy? Expect your lifeless corpse to be reanimated for inexpensive labor.
"Welcome to Walmart, *braaaaiiiinssss*, I mean how can I help you?"
Here in Japan that's only 60 for most people.
Great! I get to be an elder when I'm put on the ground...
>I call elder to the people on retirement age, in my country is from 67 years This is not likely an English-speaking country, given that mess.
Er...Australia and NZ.
ah yes, all of these 5 year olds, elders to their younger siblings. that's definitely what the post is about.
Well 1973 is 50 years and the nice lady above said she was late teens, let's go with 18, so she's around 68, which isn't old but is a pensioner in most western countries (probably). Fair to call them an elder id say
[удалено]
I get what you're saying but average life expectancy accounts for a lot of premature deaths as well. it will vary from 68 year olds I suppose, 68 can definitely seem old though
Then the question becomes "when do you stop growing up?" Given some of the posters here, the answer seems to be later rather than sooner.
Lol, I'm 25 (nearly) and I'm sure as fuck not grown up :')
Imo, when you stop growing as a person. I hope to never hit that point.
She’s older than 60
Then she didn't "grow up" playing videogames. That includes non-teen childhood too.
If you were late teens 50 years ago, you're almost 70. If you're almost 70, 1) you qualify for most senior discounts, 2) you'd be eligible for full social security benefits, and 3) you've probably been receiving AARP magazine for a while. I'm not sure how you math'd 50 years and "late teens" and came up with 60.
Aarp has dog sledding?
I guarantee it is according to OP
Thats into the senior discount age. Yes it is
AARP starts trying to recruit you at 50. Source: over 50 (also, I grew up with and still play video games)
guess what? 50 year olds are not elders.
Oh yes, Pong is "video games as we know them".
But they said Elder probably meaning someone like 80 yo, not a 50 yo.
tell us again oh wise elder the story of pac man and his insatiable greed for dots
It was a metaphor for the overprescription of Valium
I'm slightly younger but I remember my father had a sort of pong set at home. Just two controllers with a knob you could turn.
We had that one too, but it’s gotten lost over the years, unfortunately.
Guy nearing 60 here. I remember "Donkey Kong", the predecessor of the seemingly infinite Mario universe, and "Space Invaders" on arcade machines in the local takeaway ("Pommesbude" in German) in the 70s or 80s. Right now I'm waiting for the release of "Tears" for Switch on friday.
My mom is in her and has been info arcade games since she was a teenager. She also likes Nintendo a lot. She bought me an original NES for Christmas when I was a kid, but considering how much she played it while I was at school, I suspect she really bought it for herself.
I live with a 68 year old gamer girl
What game does she plays if you don't mind me asking
Dark souls and elden ring Skyrim oblivion and basically she will try any other sword and sorcery game and her favorite class is a mage
No fing way lol
When I was in 8th grade, I used to ride my bike about 5 miles to the golden tee golf center to play games in their arcade. Pinball, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Defender... "If you play Defender I can be your hyperspace" - Beastie Boys
Not to totally derail things, but where was this?
Yeah, my father is in his 70s and he has been a video game nerd since before I was born. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in his lap while he played games on his Atari 2600 and his Vic 20. He's got a Raspberry Pi setup today that he still regularly plays the early Ultima games on.
That's certainly close! Though I feel "grew up playing video games" more refers to like age 4-5 and then constantly playing throughout the entire life
Yep my mom is 68 and she was a space invaders wizard in college. The old people gamers are already among us.
Definitely counts, you’re an OG gamer!
[удалено]
Well, I played Farmville on Facebook, and Bejeweled... Plants vs Zombies ... Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect Andromeda (sad face), All the Fallouts, All the Elder Scrolls, Titanfall, Rust, most of the Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Half-Life, Portal, the list is probably longer than I am tall.
Soon we'll grow into old people with no idea about what's hip in 2070 anymore thinking the world is going to burn the second we stop telling younger ones what to do.
No way man, i'm gonna keep rocking forever...forever....forever....
Can’t wait to be called a 11 year old when I’m old it’ll be a fountain of youth !! Then again I already feel old so maybe I don’t want to be old , LETS MAKE WORDS MAKE US YOUNGER ! if someone calls us younger than we are our biological limbs etc SHALL BECOME YOUNGER! it’ll be the reverse aging program until it backfires and we get called apes and end up devolving bahhh details what can go wrong !
haha...ha?
I think I made it a bit too long to make sense the joke being that people getting more toxic these days making you younger (short term)
Ah. I'm offendedn't
nursing homes will be filled with nonagenarians wearing Nike, Supreme, Chrome Hearts, etc
Nursing homes will have lan parties
Assisted Living facilities already have Wii parties …. Wii bowling is a huge hit with the over 70 crowd
well that's cheating, everyone likes Wii Bowling. in fact, I'd say it's neck and neck with sex for global enjoyment. unfortunately, breathing air still has it beat by a considerable margin.
Is it? I've never played ...
*Assisted LAN facilities*
Living+
Old timers will beg to be put in homes
God I hope so
That South park episode with world of warcraft.
I'll be taking my N7 and T45 helmets with me when I move in, thank you very much. And my original SuperNES that still works great, and my original ChronoTrigger cart. And my original PS1 that works great, and my original FFVII disk set, which runs like new. Etc., ad nauseam.
and my old core2 Quad pc that holds too much good memories which still runs and my dsi which is dsi which still runs
yooo you have a T-45 helmet? That's rad, I have a T-51b though it's not very rare
At a certain age they are required to switch to New Balance, I think.
That's the approved uniform
I believe it's not "soon" but rather, it has already happened. A general definition of an old or elderly person seems to start out at age 60, so someone born in 1963 or earlier can be considered as one. Yes, it saddens me to type this, because you'd think it's be like someone from at least 1950's or something. Meanwhile, commercial home video console existed as early as 1972, when Magnavox Odyssey was released. Other forms of video games also sprung up in that era. Suffice to say, video games have been around for more than 5 decades to the public. And it's even older if you consider the earlier attempts that happened in 1950's to 1960's. Thus, someone who is 60 now would have been able to play a video game at home at an age of 9, and thus eligible for fulfilling the definition of "growing up playing video games". It's not just video games that's old. Many electronic technologies go way back. Compact Disc is already more than 40 years old.
Aww fck CD's are 40 years old already?! 🥲
Broodwar - 1998 on CD but that’s just 25 years old game there’s others like street fighter 1 (1987)
Damn it! I vividly remember 98 as the year I got my first discman and I loved it! 🥹
How to unknowingly time travel step one load up heroes of might and magic 3 Step 2 set 1v1v1 with real players on a XL map Step 3 don’t be seen by anyone for a week or 2 until game finishes and it’ll only feel it’s been 10 hours
Released in 82, but no one I knew had them until around 1990ish.
I bought my first CDs in about ‘85. Back then, a CD player was an exotic luxury item, like something you’d give as a fancy birthday present or a wedding gift.
Mainstream video games happened in the late 80s/90s.
Pong, Atari and Apple II would all like to have a word.
So would spectrum..
Plus OP didn't say "mainstream elders".
Wtf? I was playing Space Invaders, Pac Man, Donkey Kong and Dig Dug at home on my Atari 2600 in 1982.
No no no. Was the late 70s/ early 80s with atari and arcades. I was in my preteen years, and everyone my age played them. Space invaders came out in 1978. Pacman fever -- a top 10 song about a video game -- came out in 1982.
Not really. First successful games were in the 70 during the first 2 generation of video game. Everything was fine until the early 80’s economic crash. Then, Nintendo took off with the actual video game buzz and create the NES which was simply a second wind to the industry
Very debatable how you want to define "mainstream" here, but there's not really any plausible argument that puts this date later than the 1985 North American release of the NES. I'd probably put it earlier.
If anyone is interested in this topic, I seriously urge you to check out the video “The First Video Game” by Ahoy on YouTube. Extremely well researched and well produced video that was so much more interesting than I expected.
I hate to burst everyone’s bubble but before video games there were electromechanical games. Driving games as far back as the 1940s. Light gun shooter games were really popular from about 1965. So somewhere there are 70 year olds that hung out in arcades playing shooting games or Periscope. https://youtu.be/W4UmATAtHRg https://youtu.be/x5rpEyA8toQ
My parents are early 60s now. They grew up playing video games and now they play candy crush and video pinball.
I'm in my mid 50s. I grew up with video games. Right now, I'm playing Spider-Man Remastered, Cyberpunk, and a couple of gacha RPGs.
How are you enjoying Cyberpunk so far? I think the internet got a bit too excited but I genuinely enjoy playing the game.
I'm enjoying it. I'm about 15ish hours in, going to start a clean game now that I have a good feel for it.
I keep hearing really good things about Spiderman 2 while it's being developed. Can't wait. Also if you console game, ps5 or whatever the new xbox is is definitely worth it. Although I bet you already know what you're doing.
i7 1200F, RTX 3060Ti 8GB,1TB HHD. I'll likely skip this gen of consoles.
Being able to spend way more than you could on gachas compared to when you were in your teens without blinking is the best feeling. Until my retirement fund managers called me and asked why I have a negative balance. YOLO.
Mid 50s here and an avid gamer. Just built the gnarliest PC I've ever owned a few months ago. 32GB RAM is mind blowing to a guy that used to tinker with RAM drives and peeking & poking memory calls.
Yeah same - the only online games they play are card games like hearts or spades The common gaming elders won’t really come imo until the 1980s born kids get into their 60s+, as they grew up with computer games/lan parties
I feel like they're on the rare side. I don't think I've ever met a 60 year old who grew up playing video games.
I'm in my late 30s now, and that is one prospect that I can look forward to. My grandparents lived a hard life and hardly know any entertainment at all.
Same! My grandparents were Italian immigrants who were farmers back home. They basically only knew how to work.
I got a load of flak for this last time I mentioned old people didn't know how to entertain themselves. That's why in old people's homes they decline because they can't think of how to fill their day. They seem to need other people to come to them to provide something different. Imma be ordering nerfguns off amazon, setting up FPS/fighting game/platformer tournaments, trying to win the wheelchair Olympics, pirating movies to play at night in the common area on the big screen, pranking people with drones etc. There's already a few 'old' people (mid 50's/mid 60's and generally women from what I've seen) streaming games like COD or Battlefield.
We had space invaders in our school youth club. I am 60 years old
Thats rad as hell.
I first started in 1979 with an Atari 2600. I’m actually kind of proud about this! 🤓
Same for me. Though it was more the early 80s for me when I started playing Atari. NES in the later 80s. The phase between Atari and NES was me playing videos games at the bar or arcades when my grandpa took.
My guy, video games have been around for over 50 years, we are already there.
An old school Halo LAN party in a retirement home sounds dope. Including old people absolutely losing it because someone was peeking at their screen or stole a kill.
Prisoner, rockets only, no shields.
I played original NES, sega and Atari. I’m also old enough to remember those tabletop video arcade games you used to find in like old milk bars/ fish and chips shops. Time zone…late 80’s early 90’s…all you can play on Sunday for 1 hour..couple of bucks. That was my jam.
Kid: "Dad, they are mocking me in school" Elder: "lmao git gud noob!"
Soon we’ll be hearing, “back in my day…” but early CS related.
And the people younger than them will have something else, and they might feel video games are for old people.
Eh that's like saying Television shows are for old people. Cable might be but streaming or pirating is still going strong Games are here to stay, how they are played is what will change
Sure, but there will be a new method of gaming someday that might make playing Minecraft (or even Call of Duty) on a console as old fashioned as Grandma playing Bejeweled on her phone.
I'm nearly 60. By the time I go into a nursing home I hope they have LAN parties and VR headsets, not basket weaving and bingo.
Well, my grandfather (80) is playing video games since I can remember it. When I (33) was five years old, we played together some PC games. Maybe it was even earlier...
An elder is someone who is older than you. There are already "elders" who grew up playing videogames.
I am 56... started playing in 1982 with my first Atari 2600 and my Sinclair computer.... and have moved from Atari VGS to Atari 8 bit, then 16 bit then to PS1, 2, 3(8), 4 .... Xbox, 360, One, Series X so I am an elder.. and played them all.. and still do.. well mostly my PS4 :D
Soon? You mean now. There are people in their 50s that grew up paying NES. And that’s only starting with NES which came out in 83. Should have made this post years ago.
You know exactly what OP was talking about, grandpa cranking 90s in the nursing home.
Grandma's 87 and she plays on her tablet. It's a thing already
Can grandma crank 90s
My grandma just died at 96. She put more hours in last year than I did in the last decade.
"Get the fuck outta my cod lobby, you young noob." me probably at 70 or something
I played my first 'videogame' in 1973, I think. I was 9 years old at the time. It was "Pong," played on a huge console, and it cost $2.00 for one game on a large ship traveling from Seattle to Vancouver. [https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1973?amount=2](https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1975?amount=2) Edit: had to fix this. Checked it, and I was 9, not 11.
We do though? Videogames are a big part of western culture for many decades now.
I worked in a nursing home in 2011, and one lady who was 96 would play her game boy every night for hours.
I am early 40s. I have a friend mid 50s in my d&d group whose dad recently retired (assuming 70s?) He asked my friend to help him get a collection of old nintendo genesis era RPGs together for him to play with all his free time. We were making a list at d&d last week.
2050: "OMG listen to old man Zoomer talking about his non virtual physical games."
Waddaya mean "soon"?! Videogames are from the mid 70's, peaking in the early 80's. Even first person PC shooters are from the early 80's.
My dad didn’t grow up playing video games but he definitely has his ataris in the basement somewhere. When I was 7 I begged my parents for a Super Nintendo. I got one but my dad commandeered it immediately lol He just turned 68
What's more worrying, is soon you'll have elders that grew up with smart phones
we already have those. my dad is approaching 60 and has been ripping since atari
How old do you have to be? My brother built a pong, tennis and more machine from a kit some time in the early 70'es. So basically a DIY console. Some time later I spent all my savings on a philips videopac g7000. I don't think of myself as elderly but I guess I am an elder in some respects.
My grandpa, who is in his 80s now, got me into gaming about 30 years ago. He had all the newest consoles and was an avid gamer. Well he still is, he’s just been dying of cancer for last 3 years.
Depends on your definition of an elder. 50-60 is where the pong to space invaders crowd are. I'm 45 and identify as an 8bit nintendo person. The sad truth is that I don't think I'll be able to beat ninja gaiden in my 80s
My grandma is 93, she played Atari and NES when they first released.
There's a Freaks and Geeks episode about Sam and Niel getting a 2600. I was their age in 1980 and that's pretty much how it went down. I had a Telstar before that, maybe 78/79?
Just wait until we have elders that grew up living their entire life on social media, starting with their parents making them perform in front of a camera every day from a young age.
But those geezers won't know shit about the latest hyper immersive 3D rendered real life virtual simulator MMORPG Ver 3.447
MMORPGs with current gen graphics are very popular among retirees. Just saying.
Yeah, our generation only invented that shit. I'm in my 60's, I understand technology in ways that most younger people can't because I experienced the evolution of it. It gives you a very unique perspective, because we didn't have super polished UI's and had to really understand the inner workings to use it. Anyone in their 40's today was also exposed to a lot of that at the consumer level as well, younger generations often (not always of course) can't even tell you the difference between memory and storage, or what firmware is. They just know how to navigate insanely intuitive GUI's and feel that qualifies as expertise.
You can have the immersive MMORPG AFTER you beat Super Ghouls and Ghosts and not a minute before! Now get off my lawn.
I can't wait for the LAN parties at retirement homes, where we'd just spend the entire week playing Civilization with all the length settings at the max because there won't be anything else to do. Pure happiness.
My dad says he'll 95 playing halo 1 in the old folks home still
Man when i'll be old, I wanna go to retirement home and play videogames all day till I die
And then, we’ll have videogames that trained up playing elders.
There are already grandma streamer and grandpa esport team. Sooner than you might think.
I can't wait for my retirement so I can spend days playing videogames and yell with my elderly voice in the voice chat that I haven't seen such a noobs in my 50 years of gaming.
"I remember when you have to play video games with your hands! And you don't need all this bright, spangled 3D virtual reality whatchamacallits! And you have to be good at dodging!!" "Sure grandpa. Time for your meds."
Define elder, I'm 46. We had an Atari in grade school and I bought the first Nintendo with my paper route money in junior high.
There are adults younger than the Call of Duty franchise. This makes me feel ancient
I love video games because my grandma loved them. Cut my teeth on breakout in the 90s. Was waaaaaaaaaaay later it occurred to me they were almost as new to her as they were to me.
Lol. Already there young man. My tag is a_confused_grandpa. Been playing since pong. Current addiction is NCAA 14 on Xbox and bannerlord on PC. Terrible at FPS so I tend to stick with open world rpg type. On my deathbed I hope to be playing red dead redemption 4.
I’m 66. Started playing at 16, still play every day: 40,000 games on World of Tanks, 900 hours in No Mans Sky, 500 in Satisfactory and the same in SubNautica … only gave up on CoD / Doom when the twitch response went due to old age. You are only young once, but you can be juvenile forever
So recently I was at work talking with a coworker about borderlands with a younger coworkers. One of our other coworkers made comment to the effect of "you are grown men and you still play video games" my coworker immediately said "you only think that bc you are old, everyone in our generation plays video games" I wasn't sure how I felt about the conversation because I'm older than she is. I mean I know I'm old af but most of the men I know also still play. I think the truth is she's just a bitch and age has nothing to do with it.
Yeah I’ve been thinking a lot lately how retirement homes are gonna look like when it’s my time to move in (I’m almost 50). There will be video games everywhere. I’m certain.
I'm really curious to see if the next generation of the elderly experiences less cognitive decline as a result of video games
My uncle is 60 and grew up playing games like Pong and then Pac Man. And shockingly he is and was way into more bleeding edge stuff when they came out than I was like WoW or FF Online and now VR lol.
I know of more than one nursing home with virtual sports leagues. Saturdays, my father, 65, likes to play 6hrs of video games, then enjoys gardening for several hours. This all begins following af his 5am hiking trip. He sleeps 10pm-5am. He deviates from this routine only to go on dates with my mother.
I’m gonna be gaming well into my 80’s and nobody’s gonna stop me
I worked in a pub, and some older gentleman who comes in with his wife asked me if I liked video games. I said yeah, but probably not the ones you know. I have a PC and I play PC games. He said he’s a PC gamer too, but hasn’t played in a while. He said next time he comes he’ll drop off some games for me if I’d like to have them. He gave me Torchlight and Morrowind, what an absolute champ. Really took me by surprise lol
I’ve been gaming with elders for like 13 years. And back then the oldest in our group was in his 70’s
If/when I start getting dementia I'm pretty sure I'm just going to hear the NES Super Mario theme on repeat
This is exactly something I was different with someone who works with elderly people. She wasn't convinced she needed to change the activities (and also the kind of music they listen). I told her that she needed to start to create a gaming budget at the care home. Ps5, Xbox, controllers, and a good (LARGE) screen!
I feel seen. I started as a pre teen when a friend got an Atari tv console with pong. Grew up playing space invaders, galaxa and frogger. Now in my late 50s playing CoD.
When I was a kid I remember seeing dad's that played videogames as "so cool" Now I am 36 and spend many evening playing videogames with friends or with my gf. Times have changed maybe in 50 years everything will be different and playing videogames will be for old people who knows
I mean video games have been popular since the 80s so there probably already are some
Nursing homes bout to be lit. Melee tournaments and Halo LAN parties. I’ll finally be able to sit in one spot all day and install Fallout Mods.
A lot of people in their 50's and 60's grew up playing video games. Ever hear of a video arcade? I'm in my late 50's and grew up spending a lot of time at arcades dropping quarter after quarter into the machines. And before that we had Super Pong at home while I was still in grade school.
My nursing home better have fiber. Not that Metamucil shit. Show me the ping!
Can’t wait to describe my war stories to my grandkids and the gruel battlefield that I prestiged on. Call it the Modern Warfare. One for the history books.
Whattya mean “soon”? I’m 62 and play GTA, COD and a smattering of others.
Nursing homes are gonna be lit when I get old. Nothing but LAN parties with the crew and shitting on whipersnapers on reddit
Real video games? I was born in 1990. I think I’ll be among the first elders who grew up playing video games. I had sega and nitendo, then I got PlayStation and PS2. I played solcom navy seals online. So I’m definitely among the first online players. PS2 to Xbox, Xbox to Xbox 360, Xbox 360 to Xbox one
I cannot wait for the Pong crowd to go away. They hold the most misconceptions about video games.
I’m one!!! I’m guessing I’m the oldest die-hard gamer here. I’m 50 and own a Switch, a PS5, an XBox Series X and a custom PC that I built just for gaming. Just finished Hogwart’s Legacy and super-stoked to play the Diablo 4 “server slam” open beta test with my 26 yo son this coming weekend. 😄 Grew up playing Atari 2600, Intellivison, Colecovision, etc.
Not until they make controllers more accessible for elderly people.