Things I Miss (AKA the Old Fart Thread)

[Falconeer]

I miss Christmas Eve 1982. 8 years old me had been dreaming about getting an Intellivision for months, and I knew it was in that big rectangular box under the tree, teasing me, waiting for the clock to finally hit December 25th. I think I've never wanted anything else that bad in my life.

Thanks for reminding me of my age.... I was playing Intellivision with friends in high school.  It was, without a doubt, my fondest memory of console gaming. Ship combat and baseball were 

'Utopia' changed my... mind. Did you play it? Somehow, one of the first real time strategy games ever made. From the same author of Intellivision Baseball actually, Don Daglow, who managed to keep making games for a good 25 years including possibly the first MMORPG, the original Nevewinter Nights.

But back then I knew nothing, I just went crazy over NASL Soccer, Skiing, Astrosmash, Triple Action and later Shark! Shark!, Frog Bog, Atlantis, Bomber X, Pitfall, AD&D, Tron and too many more...

Life was so simple.

[Falconeer]

I learned to use the command line and navigate to the games directory and play stuff like ADVENT and some Star Trek game with ascii graphics

That Star Trek game is legend. Not that I had any chance to try it, In fact I am quite envious of your story.
Interestingly (for me) enough, Don Daglow himself programmed another one in 1972, with even less graphics, which became super popular (  ) at the time.

[Arinon]

I remember playing Utopia with my brother when we were in grade school.  Had to share with my father who was beastly at Nightstalker, Burgertime, and Tron Deadly Disks.  That AD&D game for the Intellivision blew my mind as well.

[Bunk]

Similar for me - Utopia was the best multiplayer game of its time. After I went to bed, my dad would stay up and try to beat Night Stalker. I think that was when I realized the fundamental difference between me and my dad. I'd play 7 different games in one sitting, my dad would sit and play the same game for 7 hours. Its still the same with us today.

[Sky]

I learned to use the command line and navigate to the games directory and play stuff like ADVENT and some Star Trek game with ascii graphics

That Star Trek game is legend. Not that I had any chance to try it, In fact I am quite envious of your story.
Interestingly (for me) enough, Don Daglow himself programmed another one in 1972, with even less graphics, which became super popular (  ) at the time.

It was actually this one. I believe the FORTRAN version. If I had known it was a BASIC program I'd probably have written it for the C64. Hell, it's too bad I gave up programming. I had written a slew of text adventures, mostly ripping AD&D modules and Michael Moorcock.

[Falconeer]

Oh yeah I fucked up the links, that's what I actually thought you were playing. Damn you!

[Soln]

ADDENDUM: I also miss the days pre-Internet when bootlegs and sharing stuff meant something.  Now everything is on Youtube.  I miss collecting rare media. 

[Ironwood]

I miss having a Role Playing Group.

And yet the internet, even in gaming form, just has never, ever, ever replaced it.  Ever.

Shame.

[Sky]

Some guys just started an rpg group at the library. I'm kind of interested (especially to hock commission work painting minis) but two things stand out. 1. Monday night. That's our free night to just veg out, so it sucks having to leave the house (waah). 2. (the important one) When I was talking to two of the guys they kept going on about their pet projects they wrote in d20 and how they wanted to find a group for them. I'm not interested in furry faerie anime skulls or whatever the fucking fanfic they've brewed up. Start out on modules with a script written by someone who does it professionally, kids. Tertiary, they kept obsessing over some girl who might join the group who may or may not be 21 (insert leering dorks).

Ye gods. Nerds make it tough to hang out with them.

[Tmon]

I remember ordering the Dragon Warriors books (lite RPG system) from my local book store and waiting about 4 months for them to arrive because they were on back order. I don't really miss it but ordering stuff that way makes you appreciate it more...

I lived on a farm from age 12 or so to 18 so I pretty much had to order everything since trips into a town big enough to sport a hobby shop were few and far between.  I spent several summer's worth of hay bailing money on Avalon Hill games (Panzer Blitz, Squad Leader, Luftwaffe, 3rd Reich, etc.)  plus subscriptions to SPI and Avalon Hill's magazines.  I remember the 2-4 week wait between ordering and getting a game was excruciating.

[schpain]

+1 shannow on the hard to find porn, talking to girls / girlfriends about nothing at all for hours, crushes, and telling your friends in high school about that hot encounter you (never really) had at the park on the weekend.  And them all pretending to believe you!!

I miss my dogs, most recently Tigger, but Elsa and Scorch were irreplaceable friends when I was a kid.  My wife hates dogs, I'm hoping the (coming soon) kids wear her down   

I miss getting a new game and reading the manuals, poring over the maps, reading the lore and tips as you waited for the install bar to finish and telling mum/dad about all the cool stuff you can't wait to see.  Teaching my little brother about the best ways to play, and fighting over who's turn it was (which usually escalated to a full on brawl).

[Teleku]

I miss the illusion that many of you were much closer to my age.

[Ironwood]

 

[Reg]

Hah, I`m actually comforted that I seem to be a lot closer in age to people here than I thought I was.  I`m sure I`m still one of the older guys but at least I`m from the same pre-cell phone, bike riding, C64 gaming world as many of you. 

[Numtini]

It's a reflection of how long the community has been around. We didn't start out old.

I too miss pen and paper RPGs, though my tastes ran to RQ and CoC. I look casually every once in a while, but I don't think I can deal with kids and I don't want to be the only woman playing. What I really miss is pen and paper RPGs being a big deal at the same time they were so accessible and most companies were still semi-pro at best. Ah that crappy paper the Judge's Guild used to print on. Try selling that today.

[Sky]

+1 shannow on the hard to find porn, talking to girls / girlfriends about nothing at all for hours, crushes, and telling your friends in high school about that hot encounter you (never really) had at the park on the weekend.  And them all pretending to believe you!!

Oh yeah.

I miss groupies. I did high school right. So to speak.

Anyway, I was still in my twenties when I was posting on LtM! 

[Shannow]

I have PMs in my inbox from 2004. I was 28 then.
Mothersuck.

[ghost]

It's a reflection of how long the community has been around. We didn't start out old.

Some of us were old then.....like myself.  And I'll throw Nebu under the old timer bus too.

[Lantyssa]

Where is the Old cut-off line?  What about Ancient?

[Signe]

It's a reflection of how long the community has been around. We didn't start out old.

Some of us were old then.....like myself.  And I'll throw Nebu under the old timer bus too.

Don't be ridiculous.  You are just a boy!  Dammit.

[ghost]

Where is the Old cut-off line?  What about Ancient?

It should be 41.   

[Sky]

Missed it by that much.

[HaemishM]

I, however, landed directly on the line but my balance is off so I'm leaning one way or the other. Old age will do that to you knees.

[Pennilenko]

I miss an old very pixelated late 90s bi-plane based team war game called Flying Circus. That game was so awesome.

[Reg]

I am so lucky that my original D&D campaign from freshman year of college in 1977 is still running.  We play 3 times a year and most of us have kids the same age as when we first discovered the game.

Good old AD&D. Back when high level mages were gods and everyone else in the party existed just to keep us out of melee. 

[Nebu]

It should be 41.   

Is that it?  Noobs!

[Lantyssa]

Well, we know where the Ancient line is.

[Merusk]

It's a reflection of how long the community has been around. We didn't start out old.

I just realized I was 24 when I found LTM. Thanks. 

[Teleku]

High school, bitches.  

[Paelos]

I stumbled upon these sets of a forums due to a really bad internship where the only thing that wasn't blocked on the internet was WT.o

[murdoc]

25ish when I found LtM.

Working shift work at my first IT job.

[Tmon]

33ish when I found LTM.  I've only been following one other community longer, but I'm much more of a lurker here.

[Selby]

19 and in college at first reading of LtM (from a U-Hauler's Stratics link of all places)...

[MahrinSkel]

Newbies.  I can't remember exactly when I found LtM, but he was still hand-coding the HTML to do updates during the UO beta, I think (we still wrote html in ALL CAPS back then).  So I was 26-27, I think.

--Dave

[Reg]

I think I found Lum's in 1999 or maybe 2000.  I won't say what age I was as you're all making me feel old again, damn you.