When you were a kid, what did you think games would become?

[AppleQueso]

"You mean you gotta use your hands? That's like a baby's toy."

[o.pwuaioc]

I never understood that scene. I mean, even if we've entered the VR phase, guns would just become more laser like, and not disappear altogether. How else would you shoot things? It would have been better if Marty were playing Galaga 88, Gauntlet II, or Rampage or something.

[AppleQueso]

I never understood that scene. I mean, even if we've entered the VR phase, guns would just become more laser like, and not disappear altogether. How else would you shoot things? It would have been better if Marty were playing Galaga 88, Gauntlet II, or Rampage or something.

The Wild Gunman scene pretty much just set up that "Where'd you learn to shoot like that?" joke in Back to the Future III.

I guess everyone in 2015 uses Kinect

[DinnerX]

Ever practical, I was hoping for larger areas to explore and more character customization. On the less practical side, I wanted the freedom to say and do anything I wanted, and have the characters and world respond appropriately every time. Then I could finally shoot the Duck Hunt dog...

[KDub]

One word
Holodeck

[elmagicochrisg]

Giant rotating orb - able to simulate vast landscaped - in which you take place. Suits with special fiber that would harden in certain places to simulate touching stuff. Like holding a sword or a gun. VR glasses to top it off...

[Cronozilla]

One word
Holodeck

Seriously. When I was a kid TNG was on the air ... so ... my expectations became rather high.

I remember when FF9 came out, my friends and I, ignorantly, asked why the hell games couldn't look like the stuff in the cut scenes all the time ... however, now it seems like we've actually surpassed them in real-time presentation. though, technically still far below that level of detail, the tricks used for presentation give the appearance of something much more complex ... so it looks better. Which is neat.

But now I really want holographic rooms.

[hashiriya1]

I imagined giant mega-arcades that would allow linked play with people taking on various roles in large battlefields. Giant rooms filled with 50 battle pods.

I also believed that a relationship between console and arcade versions of games would have been in full swing. Buy a smaller version of the game on your console, build your character and take them with you via VMU like device to your nearest arcade to compete with others.

It did become this...in Japan.

[Key-Glyph]

I always pictured we'd be wearing virtual reality helmets to play games at this point.

Agreed. I remember waiting for half and hour in a monstrous line at Sports World for some virtual reality thing in the mid 90s. I never got to play it (I bailed), but it involved a helmet and gloves -- no controller. I think all you did was walk around a 3-D rendered room and "grab" objects, but this was incredible back then. This was the future of gaming! I remember wondering if you had to move through physical space in order to move through the virtual space, and whether or not the gloves would respond to a player's in-game actions and simulate the force of pushing up against a wall or something. I was really convinced the game would feel indistinguishable from real life, except for the graphics.

I remember being vaguely scared, actually. Among other things I was convinced I wouldn't have the ability to quit once I had entered the simulated world unless the spokesperson demoing the machine flipped some controls at my verbal request. How could I remove the helmet if it didn't exist in the virtual space? What if I forgot I was in a virtual space and had someone to call out to for help? What if the spokesperson simply refused to let me out?

I was a worrywart child with an unfortunate imagination.

It only just occurred to me that maybe I have this to blame: Are You Afraid of the Dark?: The Tale of the Renegade Virus (part 1). (The VR stuff starts in earnest in part 2.)

[Pulsar_t]

I for one thought that the digitisation techniques found in Acclaim's and Midway's games would become de facto in post-32bit consoles, but the N64 with its blurry diarrhoeal graphics proved me wrong