ForumGarden

I'm a 55-year-old gamer which implies exactly what you'd think it does. I've played nearly every game and console that there ever was back to the dawn of the gaming age. I even had the little known Supercharger for the Atari 2600 that allowed you to load games into the RAM from cassette tapes. (Escape From the Mindmaster!)

I usually would wait a bit, a few months, between technology generations before converting over to a system. That used to be because it took that long for me to save the money up. Later it was because the first generation of games sucked and I waited for a killer title to come along. Games such as Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and Final Fantasy VII for the PS1, or GTA III and Metal Gear Solid 2 for the PS2.

In the last generation of consoles, I really waited...almost a year, to see which system XBOX360 or PS3 won out. There were technological glitches and it took quite a while for me to see a game that I just had to have. In that case it was Mass Effect that swung me.

This new generation, though. I'm going to completely wait out for the following reasons:

1. There aren't any games yet that are absolutely must have.

2. I really see little difference, to my admittedly tired eyes, in the graphics level. Having grown up with pixelated polygons, everything that came after Oblivion just looks spectacular to me.

3. The new systems are incompatible with my extensive library. That never bothered me with previous systems like the jump from Sega Genesis to PS1. I just sold off my collection and bought new games. But now I have a serious investment and some games that never want to part with.

4. There are literally hundreds of games that I have not played on my wish list and they are all dirt cheap on Amazon now. I just picked up the Ghost Recon trilogy for $20 yesterday, and I got three games from Amazon for $1 each plus shipping. I have enough unplayed games right now to last the entire summer!

4. And here's the big one: I suspect that the technology has reached the level where Virtual Reality gaming is going to finally be mainstream and cheap. The flat screen display technology is fast enough now, and the processing power is available. I'm not going to buy a system until I see which system integrates either Oculus Rift technology or their own version the best.

So, I guess I'm in the personal doldrums of a gaming sea, but I have plenty of food and water so I can afford to wait until I see land on the horizon.

It's a good time to be a gamer.

Have you, I wonder, ever played Elite?

Saint_;1478247 wrote: It's a good time to be a gamer.


I shall have to take your word for that.

Bruv;1478253 wrote: I shall have to take your word for that.


No no, our esteemed Western colleague has the right of it. There are these visors, you see, which project into the eyes of players a real-time simulation of their current situation vis-a-vis the game and their playing peers and opponents. A further refinement tracks their own body impulses and translates that into the visual and tactile sensorarium in which all are immersed. Some sort of weaponry is often deployed to provide an impression of urgency on the participants. You should try it.

spot;1478252 wrote: Have you, I wonder, ever played Elite?


No, you got me there. Until this last decade, I never had the computing power to play PC games like elite, the space trading game. I've always been a console player. Although I now play quite a few games on my iPad, some of which are remakes of games I played long ago like Phantasy Star II and Dragon Quest IV. I am really enjoying Marathon right now as well, and this little gem:

spot;1478254 wrote: You should try it.


No thanks.

Bruv;1478256 wrote: No thanks.


It's very like the dance moves of the late fifties as demonstrated by the likes of Messrs. Proby and Checker, to which you have to add appropriate sound effects like Bam, Pow, Peeeeam, "Take that, Hound of Zorro" and Ouch. The main restriction is that you mustn't dislodge your visor or you have to start that level again.

Saint_;1478255 wrote: No, you got me there. Until this last decade, I never had the computing power to play PC games like elite, the space trading game. I've always been a console player. Although I now play quite a few games on my iPad, some of which are remakes of games I played long ago like Phantasy Star II and Dragon Quest IV. I am really enjoying Marathon right now as well, and this little gem:




Elite started out on the BBC B with a 6502 processor so never needed much processing power.

It was the one game I did get into after a fashion - after Colossal Caves of course.