Cultures and Society of the world that missd Golden Game Age

[AznKhmerBoi]

Just to clarify that most of Asia, Europe, and the Americas have lived through and played console games since the birth of NES and SegaMaster. What about other regions of the world, such as the middle east and majority of African Nations ... they were either too poor or could care less about gaming and hitting the arcades back in the late 80's--90's.

So they missed out on many great games that were stepping stones for the games that we have today. They will never realize and understand the concept of simple platform or rpg that immerse you in their world of 8bit or 16bit graphics.

so if you gamed since the 80's on up do u think you are very lucky that u did witness and immerse yourself in world that was forever the golden ages of video games. Im talkin about the 8bit and 16bit and 32bit of gaming where games were different and not rehash of one of another like the new console today.

[Ack]

Actually, I've always been interested in what the video game market was like in the 1980s in the Soviet Union. I've seen evidence of some arcade cabinets, so we know there was an industry for it, and since those days a few well known Russian bootlegs have popped up in places, but for folks on the other side of the iron curtain, what as it like? Were there any arcades and how did they operate? Did they have access to much, and what sort of graphical level did these devices boast?

I know at least one of the guys on this site grew up in Estonia, and he's talked about some of this stuff. Anybody else?

[Gnashvar]

Kotaku had an article about a North Korean arcade. It seems they do have access to games except they are a bit... behind the rest of the world.

http://kotaku.com/5054514/the-peoples-a ... ame-center

[Gamerforlife]

Interesting topic, I've always considered myself fortunate to have experienced much of the industry's growth from the Atari 2600, Colecovision, NES, the glory days of the arcades,16-bit era, 32-bit era, next gen to where we are now. It's something fans of other mediums don't have. Music and movies have been around much, much longer than many people my age. Gaming on the other hand, I've seen it go through its youth to wherever you consider it to be now. It gives me and others like me a unique perspective that younger generations or people from some of the countries you've mentioned or people many generations into the future will never have

[dedalusdedalus]

Actually, I've always been interested in what the video game market was like in the 1980s in the Soviet Union.

In Soviet Russia, video game plays you!

I once read an article about these two Russian guys who were collecting Soviet-era arcade games for preservation. Apparently, it was a somewhat different arcade culture because the incentive was not getting the high score. In a lot of the games, if you did well, you got a free play or something like that.

This is a different article, but it gives you a feel of the Soviet arcade.
http://www.wired.com/gaming/hardware/mu ... viet_games

[CRTGAMER]

Interesting topic, I've always considered myself fortunate to have experienced much of the industry's growth from the Atari 2600, Colecovision, NES, the glory days of the arcades,16-bit era, 32-bit era, next gen to where we are now. It's something fans of other mediums don't have. Music and movies have been around much, much longer than many people my age. Gaming on the other hand, I've seen it go through its youth to wherever you consider it to be now. It gives me and others like me a unique perspective that younger generations or people from some of the countries you've mentioned or people many generations into the future will never have

So true, got exposed to Arcades when that first interactive CRT showed.

Arcade Golden Age
Seen Pong and Spacewars when they first come out at the local bowling alley. Both unique but it was that huge Spacewars cab that blew me away. The idea of programming your game with gravity and ship speed at the start of the game. Geeze couldn't do that with the pinball game. couple years later, when the color Arcades, especially Williams literally quarter snatchers arrived, I was truly in gaming heaven. Defender and Robotron made me react and also think on the fly. Woa, those Stargate controls! To change direction having to hit that reverse button, all while the swarmers closing in! The movie Last Star Fighter touched on this, the wow factor of an Arcade discovered, so true of Arcades gone by. With all the exposure to home gaming now, its not quite the same surprise to see the next newest game. In fact I think the only thing keeping a struggling arcade alive is being located in the mall. A shame, seems to be a ghost town in there.

Home Console Golden Age
I can also somewhat relate to what a newer younger gamer may think of the 8-bit consoles. The NES and Master consoles were skipped over by me when I got into the Commodore Vic-20 and C-64. Because of my allegiance to Atari I did get a 5200 spent a lot of time on Defender, and Centipede. Defender a reminiscent of Arcade exposure right in my room. But a lot of gaming was spent on the Commodore. Just recently I have acquired a NES due to buying R.O.B. a couple months prior. Threw in Super Mario and since I have played this with emulation with a better pic, it just didn't draw me in with the blurry composite connection.

So in addition to current Gen graphics and HD exposure, maybe also emulation damaging the Golden Game Age?

The New Golden Age
Another thought, the Atari 5200 brought my favorite Arcades home with Defender, Robotron and Centipede, almost perfect copies. A few years later I got hooked on Space Harrier, but was let down by the home editions until Mame and eventually PS2 versions came along. The Arcade now looking like a guarantee exact copy to be available in your home console. Now Arcades have a hard go trying to compete with current gens, no more wow factor. I think the over saturation of gaming today kinda kills that same wow factor at home too.

So will we hit a slump like the Atari 2600 crash of yesteryear?

AznKhmerBoi, your huge pics make it hard to read the OP, maybe a resize?
But this is really a great topic, hope to read a lot of other points of view here.