This has to be one of the funniest and depressing articles I've come across in a long time. It's worth the read.

http://www.egmmag.com/article2/0,4364,1338730,00.asp

omg! That's hilarious

here's a sample

Space Invaders
Arcade • 1978
This 25-year-old shooter was the first arcade game to become a national sensation.





EGM: This game was so popular in Japan that—

John: They made it into a TV show?

EGM: Well, no. It was so popular that they ran out—

John: Oh, did they make collectible trading cards for it?

EGM: Um, no. It was so popular that there was a shortage of the coins used to play it.

John: But you can get this game on a cell phone. Why would you want to pay for it in an arcade?

Andrew: I've seen a game like this in the arcade, but it's tons faster.

Sheldon: …and it's in color.

Andrew: …and your spaceship looks more like a spaceship.

Nico: …and not like a little box.

Gordon: It looks like food.

Andrew: Where's my rapid fire?

Nico: The aliens look like spiders...

Becky: …and squids and crabs.

John: Maybe this is what seafood will do in a thousand years.

EGM: How long could you play this game before you got bored?

Sheldon: About 15 minutes.

Andrew: If you take it on the road and play it on your cell phone, then you might play it pretty long.

Nico: There's nothing else to do.

Andrew: Except look at nature.

EGM: Would you rather play this or play outside?

Andrew: Outside.

Nico: This game needs a super bomb or something.

Tim: This is nothing compared to Grand Theft Auto III, because you can't steal a taxi cab, pick up somebody, then drive into the ocean with him.

Kirk: And you can't pick up an AK-47 and go kill—hey, those aliens on the top row, you use them in EGM for stuff.

EGM: Yeah, we use them to end our articles. They do kinda look like they're from Space Invaders, don't they?

Tim: They're going to sue you.

Kirk: I'm sure everyone who made this game is dead by now.

Tim: This is nothing compared to Grand Theft Auto III, because you can't steal a taxi cab, pick up somebody, then drive into the ocean with him.

9-12 year old kids should not be playing GTA3. :P

It was a funny article to read, though.

Originally posted by Yrys
9-12 year old kids should not be playing GTA3. :P

It was a funny article to read, though.

When I was 9-12 I was playing guns with my friends, or killing evil decepticons and slaughtering Cobra...

Not to mention shooting up the bad guys in Contra.

How is GTA 3 so much worse? Because the graphics are better? Because I can get health by picking up hookers?

At 9-12 I was wandering the woods near my (then) home. I was riding my bike as fast as I could to see how fast I could ride it. I was sledding down hills with names like "deadman's hill" that had broken kids legs.

I also played video games and played with army men. Slayed dragons, few starships and went after the bad guys with toy guns, pretent swords and anything I could imagine.

Yet somehow I never managed to become a sociopathic killer.

We didn't have video games when I was a kid... unless you count Etcha-sketch. :p

There's a big difference between animated and realistic violence, I think.

And how exactly do you explain what a hooker is to a 9 year old?

I remember when Pong first came out. I played it in the local bar, if that tells you anything. Same thing for Space Invaders. Same bar...:)

y favorite quote from the article: "I'm sure everyone who made this game is dead by now."

....at least in spirit...; )

CACKLE!

when I was 9-12, I had a horse (Pete!) and a tire swing, both of which I could, at any time, get grounded from (we didn't have TV, at least one that I had permission to watch when my parents weren't around, but I'd sneak and watch The A-Team and Scooby-Doo; an indoor toilet until I was in high school; air conditioning - bastards got that when I moved to college)...

but I remember kids on the bus having the handheld football and pong games...I was sooooo jealous...

And I remember when my stepfather got Space Invaders for Atari...he played it for like days straight....wouldn't let me play

Originally posted by Palarran
There's a big difference between animated and realistic violence, I think.

And how exactly do you explain what a hooker is to a 9 year old?


<cough> GTA is animated violence...

And when I was 9 I knew what a hooker was. I may not have understood the technical details, but I knew what a hooker was.

Then again...if that same 9 year old reads the Bible (Old or New testament) you will still have to explain to him what a hooker is...and various other sexual and violent activities. (How exactly do Christians explain to a 9 year old what was so special about the Virgin Mary?)

I also want to know why noone ever blames the Bible when kids throw rocks at each other (happens all the time you know).

Aidon, see the vigilante justice thread...

"spare the rod, ruin the child"...(and no, I have no children and neither do I want any)

Originally posted by Scirocco
I remember when Pong first came out. I played it in the local bar, if that tells you anything. Same thing for Space Invaders. Same bar...:)

y favorite quote from the article: "I'm sure everyone who made this game is dead by now."

That you're an old fart... like me!

I remember those consoles. They were like tables with a spot for a quarter to go into. I only remember seeing Pacman on those though.

Tim has to be my favorite "reviewer". Everytime he opens his mouth, I was laughing.

were a bunch of games on those little tables.... i remember the local pizza hut used to have one for space invaders or something like that for a long time...

i still have my 'connect this wire here and this wire here to plug it into the tv' console of pong.

pong wails.

cackle

I don't remember seeing video games when I was in college. What year did they start appearing? Early-mid 80's? I think I got my first computer right after college, a Timex-Sinclair. That was when Commador's were hot stuff.

Tim: It's strange that fire moves in this and has eyes. Oh no, the fire's coming. It's going to eat you. Are these barrels alive, too? Everything's alive. And Donkey Kong's mouth is made of pluses. Look: Plus, plus, plus, minus. They're trying to teach you math by brainwashing you.

ahahahaha!

Panamah, you don't remember Intellivision?!? That was a home video game console back in the early-mid 80's I think. I remember seeing one at a Sears or somewhere when my mom dragged me shopping one day. I thought it sucked even back then. I had more fun ripping apart and customizing my Atari 800 computer than playing some low rez football game on Intellivision where the players each consisted of an entire 10 pixels. :cool:

y all time favorite arcade game back in those days was Defender. You had to zoom back and forth over this planet surface in your space fighter blasting alien landers before they snatched up the humans on the surface. I poured sooo many quarters into that damn thing.

Oh yeah! My brother-in-law had one I just remembered the name, it was Vectrex. I loved that game.

Bah, the Intellivison had some good games! Treasure of Tarmin, Utopia, Pinball, ...

Okay, so it had at least 3 good games. :P

Ok, I am not sure if I laughed more because I have actually owned every single one of those games and remember being frustrated as I tried to get to the next level, solve a puzzle or figure out what I did wrong -- or because of the participants hilarious responses.

EGM: Would you rather play this or play outside?

Andrew: Outside.HAHA

I have thrown away over 50K in PC hardware/software over the years.

But I still drag my C-64 around in a box.

/cackle

"Suppose it should be raving mad after all! I almost wish I'd
gone to see the Hatter instead!"

I have a closet of old Atari stuff. 2600, 5200, 7800, Jaguar, 2 Lynxes, 520 ST, 640 XL, 2 1040 STs, a Mega STE, ummm, the computer between the 640 xl and the ST, plus loads of accessories, a dead laser printer, and about 3 tons of software.

Oh, and when I was 9, we had this thing called "Penthouse" that we read.

Speak for yourself. I didn't read it, I just looked at the pictures....;)

Oh.. old game flashback. Anyone remember Leisure Suit Larry? That whole genre of text based games with graphics. Heh! They were awful.

Bwahahah LSL... I was about 10 during that era and didn't really understand it, but brings back memories.

TAXI! .... splat :lol

Can still remember the tune... DAAH do do didaly-do-do da didaly-do.. didaly-do-do da diddaly doooo doo.. DIDdy DIDdy diddlyda do do.. diddly-a DO DO DO!

Originally posted by Panamah
Oh.. old game flashback. Anyone remember Leisure Suit Larry? That whole genre of text based games with graphics. Heh! They were awful.

Speaking of Leisure Suit Larry, they are making a new one right now. ;)

I loved a lot of the old text input graphical games though. In particular, Quest for Glory(Heroes Quest). That game was fantastic. :) Space Quest was pretty damn amusing too.

Originally posted by Scirocco
Speak for yourself. I didn't read it, I just looked at the pictures....;)

SHHH, ITS A SECRET.

I did enjoy the letters they published in the forum though!

I remember getting my first Nintendo.

Had Mario Brothers #1
and I bought Dragon Warrior #1

Hehehe, that was so awesome when i was 8 heh.

I was A GOD at Duckhunt, wish i could have shot that dam dog though, laughing bastard hehe.

And they've never recaptured the greatness of some of the old nintendo games either. Dragon Warrior was fantastic of course, but I'm thinking more along the lines of the KOEI games.

Nobunuga's Ambition, Uncharted Waters, even the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

All fantastic games that I have yet to see anything like on modern systems.

Im only 14, and I play those games, atleast on PC, myself =( ( http://www.80smusiclyrics.com/games.html ) Good games. I would be grounded for a year if I were to play GTA, so um.. I wonder what those kids parents are like? /boggle. Click the link, click the link! Play pong!