Golden Age of Gaming

[LingeringRegime]

Are we living in it now? If not now, when?

[allBthere]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

I can't choose between
genesis

dreamcast

and now

each was unique - innovation maybe genesis/cd/32x with games like prizefighter, and other completely new ways of developing games like that. This era had the widest variety or differentiation between different types of games.
Dreamcast was just so quality and had a great controller and the emergence of ShenMue ("FREE") controls and gameplay really ramped up the immersion factor, and it really seemed like a big step up from the consoles before it.
Now were're getting crazy AAA titles and killer ap's w/ rapidly evolving online play. We're getting huge budject - hollywood stuff and very ambitious developer goals. But the great games make the ones that don't cut it more dissapointing (we're spoiled)

[JBH3]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

I'm the one Nintendo vote so far...

It was between either that or SEGA Genesis.

I went w/ Nintendo because of the vast library of games I had, and how much I remember my NES games being more fun than most of my Genesis games.

IMO today's games are not the golden age AT ALL...Sure there are great games that come out, and are highly advanced. BUT for every one of those there are 10 games w/ just as much hype which fell completely on its figurative face.

When we were kids never was their disappointment in games, or the vast amount of critique and game-killing flaws.

We would just pop in Mike Tyson's punch out, Double Dragon, Zelda, Super Mario Bros I, II, & III and play for hours until our parents physically had to come upstairs and snatch the controllers out of our hands.

With the Genesis I had almost the same experience, but I always remember putting down Toejam and Earl or Kid Chameleon and popping in Paperboy, Mega Man, or Metroid and playing my NES over my SEGA Genesis.

[fistofrage]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

Anyone who had a Commodore 64 will probably have their best gaming memories of that time.

Wasteland
Airborne Ranger
MicroLeague Baseball
Lance Haffner College Basketball & Football
Bard's Tale
Summer & Winter Games
Gamestar Hockey
Gamestar Boxing
Sierra Boxing


Que up the Springstein "Glory Days"

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

In order for me...

1. Atari 2600/7200 (just had an absolute blast playing the River Raid's, Pitfall's, etc, loved those 2 systems)
2. NES for the main part of my childhood and hours playing Contra, Zelda, Punch-out, Bases Loaded, Baseball Stars, Tecmo Bowl and Mario 3
3. Today for the acheivements

[Cyros]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

For me it has to be somewhere at the end of the last gen and now since my gaming tastes have matured and I'm able to actually get ahold of games (I owned all of 6-7 games on the N64, 3 of them being football games).

[goh]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

SNES/Sega Genesis/Arcade

When the systems didn't break and you could play games at the mall without a gameboy.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

SNES/Genesis era...for me that was before the multiple console ownership craze, so I had to go to a buddies to play Sega and he'd come to my house to play SNES.

Not to mention the great SNES RPGs, Mario World and Yoshi's Island being top platformers, Link to the Past, etc. On Genesis you had Sonic and Gunstar Heroes, not to mention Toe Jam & Earl, Vectorman, and Phantasy Star.

Good times...don't get me wrong, I've always been a gamer and will be until I die but the games of that era are still tops for me.

[Sandman42]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

Close for me between N64/PS1 and SNES/Genesis. Games are still great now, but they have also gotten very casual. It doesn't seem there is as many challenging games now as there were in the past.

I'm also including PC gaming in the N64/PS1 when great games like Unreal Tournament and Quake II came out. Aside from Halo 1, I still don't feel any console shooter has matched up to what UT or Quake brought to the table back in the late 90s.

[e0820]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

This is kind of a loaded question because everyones Golden Age of Gaming is going to be different I would think.

Although I started gaming with the Odyssey2, for me I would say the Commodore 64 days. Whereas others on the board probably never touched a C64.

The list is missing some also, The Odyssey2, Colecovision, Intellivision (possibly The Bally Astrocade, CoCo2, Atari 5200/800 & Vectrex)

[RedheadKingpin]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

The NES days. The days when nobody cared about the graphics,all they cared about was the fun. Brings a tear to my eye just thinking about all the fun I got out of that old gray box.

[Alai]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

I voted for N64/PS1 days. I think that was the beginning of game consoles starting to become household names, where they were "MUST HAVE" toys to children and young adults, as then the stunning 3-D graphics adorn the TV screens around the country.

It was first time where I saw kids crying and screaming in joy to find N64 machines under christmas trees.

[trobinson97]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

Dreamcast/PS2 era. The Dreamcast was such a nice system and there sooo many games to be had on the PS2.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

Anyone who had a Commodore 64 will probably have their best gaming memories of that time.

Wasteland
Airborne Ranger
MicroLeague Baseball
Lance Haffner College Basketball & Football
Bard's Tale
Summer & Winter Games
Gamestar Hockey
Gamestar Boxing
Sierra Boxing


Que up the Springstein "Glory Days"

Ahhh yeah!!! C64 did have a great Library of games. My faves were California Games and Pirates. Lots of fun with those two.

[duke776]

Re: Golden Age of Gaming

I voted for ps1/n64 days. Those were the days I could just enjoy games without noticing it's flaws. I wish I could still do that now, but I guess I care way too much now...

Also, I thought about choosing snes/sega genesis because super play action football, donky kong, and sonic, but those were the only games I really ever played on those systems.