Borg999

Join Date 02/2006

+59

Calling all Geezer Gamers :)

(Everyone over 35)

A while back, SD conducted a "how old are you" poll. I noticed that there were very few of us who selected over 35. (I’m 40 BTW)

So, for the five of you who are over 35, I was wondering how often you can play GC2, and under what circumstances. What do your wives think of your time on the computer playing games? Do you prefer TBS or RTS games? What was your favorite of the original quarter munchers? Anything else?

If I’m lucky, I get about an hour a day in. Usually it’s later in the evening after I get my son to bed. My wife doesn’t understand my attraction to games, but she says "I always know where you are, and at least you’re not watching football. I’ve always liked TBS over RT. Shoot’em up gets boring after a while for me, and with the modern RTS, I get massacred three dozen times before I learn all of the game functions that the AI is already an expert at. My favorite quarter muncher was asteroids (black screen, white lines) and donkey kong (although that came out a bit later).

B.

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Okay, here goes. 36 years young and playing since pong. My favorite in the arcade would have been Donkey Kong Jr. and Star Wars... can't remember what the actual name was but it was the 'wire frame' graphics game. Of course Double Dragon was always good for the two player aspects and Tron was pretty good too.
As far as game time now, it's pretty much hit or miss. Since my wife plays games as well, she can at least understand the 'need' for some quality game time. I usually get to play on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for about 2 to 3 hours (wife's late night at work) and then I can usually squeeze out a few hours Saturday and Sunday morning, again, usually while the wife is shopping or visiting her mom. To clarify, let me say that it is more my choice to 'not play' while my wife is home since I feel that I am neglecting her when doing so. We don't get much time together as it is so it's important to make that time, even if I REALLY want to play.
As far as preferences, I play pretty much everything except shooters on the pc. Otherwise, my PS2 spans all genre's. If pressed though, I would say games like SimCity 4 and similar 'building' games and most definitely Warhammer 40K, mainly because I played the RPG/Tabletop version of both Warhammer and Warhammer 40K so I thought it was great when they finally released this game.
GCII DA is still pretty much all I play at the moment however and despite the issues I have with this game it still seems to draw me back to it. I'm starting to think that it's just the ship builder that has me so interested since it is actually my favorite part of this game. I can't crunch the numbers like Iztok and Wyndstar, nor do I want to, but maybe if I did my games would go better, at least until the CTD's begin.

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I'll be 35 in Sept so I'll chime in

Favorite quarter muncher...Defender (man, I loved that game !)

I tend to play TBS, RPG and MMORPG. TBS is always SciFi based, RPG is always Fantasy.
My wife works second shifts during the week so I get to squeek in 3-4 a night, 4nights a week to play games.

Well, I'm off to go get the Thundercats Season 2 DVD ! Thundercats Ho !

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47 here.

So far, I've been playing GalCiv2 more than I probably should. Almost every day since my wife bought it for me last month. The newness is starting to wear off, so it'll become less often as time blows by.

My wife also likes playing games and we share a computer table where we face each other while playing or surfing. We each have 1 primary and 1 backup computer, just in case one hiccups or something. Can't have downtime when we're playing now.

It's cool to have a wife whose into computers almost as much as I am.

As far as the wayback machine goes, I played Pong on the original gigantic console that sat between two people while burning its image into a black and white TV. (Nobody had color TVs back then.) In the early days, most computer games were text based with very basic graphics. I wrote my first one in 1982 while learning Z80 Assembly Language.

My favorite game was Tradewars. We'd play it online on BBSs. My quarter muncher of choice was Galaxia.

Right now, it's GalCiv2 and Sim City4, although I haven't fired up SimCity4 in a while now. My wife still likes Wolfenstein and that sort of thing.

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I'm 37, and of all the many hours i spent in an arcade i have to say i stunk at asteroids, defender AND double dragon. My #1 games were Star Wars and Spy Hunter (once went 2 hours sraight on a quarter, got me where i am today, haha). I remeber when i first saw breakout in a store and thought it was the greatest thing. i lso remeber the first time i saw pac-man, i was amazed.

My wife things games are completely for kids, doesnt understand them at all. I tell her reality TV is as much a waste of time. I get little time, I only even try after both kids are asleep. Latly i've been on it like a 1/2 hour a night, and thats because im nearing the end of the game (krynn have but 2 planets left). Sometimes i may go a week or two without playing. Of course its ok if i excuse myself during an episode of "America's Next Top Model".

This and Civ 2 are my only PC games. I love TBS, never tried a RTS. On my Playstation i have Allied General, Panzer General and a game call Master of Monsters (which was 10x better on the Gensesis). I still have my Atari 2600 with a ton of games GO Yar's Revenge...

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Damn, Cap'n, I can pretty much just point to your reply and say "Me too."

I'm also 37, two kids, wife has no comprehension of gaming but watches trash tv.

The only arcade game I ever was decent at was Spy Hunter - don't think I ever went quite two hours, though. I also liked Galaga and Missile Command.

I also tend to get in about the same amount of game time; either about an hour or I skip a night because I'm too tired to play. My real favorite games were all tabletop wargames like Panzer Leader and Advanced Third Reich. I seriously miss being able to set up and play those games. 4x strategy games like GCII are the closest I can get any more.

Spore. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfrakker in the galaxy. Accept no substitutes.

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Hey Borg,

Chip the tooth and count the rings you will find that I'm grand old 37 years old and also with a new born son all of 12 days old

I started on the Amiga 500 and I got every back up copy of every game you could name. This is when I grew to like the RPG's and TBS with a few good old fashion top down shootem'up thrown in to keep the reflexs going.

Would love to try the FPS type games but they all give me motion sickness. Ten minutes of play time means I gotta go lay down in the darkest coldest room of the house for a hour.

As for the spacies, I would spend hours watching the big kids play Timepilot or Slapfight. My 20c would last all of 2 minutes if I was lucky. (we don't have quarters here in Oz).

Game time at the moment. On a good night I could get three hours but with a new born this may die down to a trickle shortly. I'm blessed with a wife who is an engineer, likes to play PC games as well and she normally earns more than me.

well gotta go
Cheers
Bakka

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I'm 38 and started with a C64 Raid over Bungeling Bay.

I also sorta ran perpendicular with board games playing Advanced Squad Leader WWW Link. I'm married to the coolest wife on earth and have two kids. I have played GalCiv2 since it was released and also enjoy IL2 (Flight Sim). I work from home and game at my leisure, I never watch TV (thats my game time).

I also brew beer WWW Link.

I believe my 19 year old self would find me fairly cool, so I guess I won

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Nice to know I'm not the only old-timer still playing games!

I'm 40, and die-hard. Thinking of getting help for this gaming addiction. I probably spend 2-3 hours a night playing, after my son is in bed...while my wife is shopping on ebay or checking out people's facebooks. She can't criticize my computer time because she is as bad as me--but she mostly plays online games or card games.

Back in the day I played a lot of GORF. Anyone remember that game? I would skip class to play. I think that's where all my paper route money went. Then I got a Commodore Vic 20 and moved onto LodeRunner and Ultima.

I don't like RTS. I like to think when I play. For me it's all about the strategy. I love any strategy game, inlcuding war games, civilization games, all of the "Sim" series, all of the "tycoon" games, and sports games. My favorites include Civ IV, Pirates, Baseball Mogul, NHL200x, anything by Paradox (currently Europa Univeresalis--the most addicting game ever), and this game. I also have recently discovered Settlers of Catan and a knockoff of Carcassonne playable online, and have been playing those on my laptop when travelling -- beats the prices of hotel room movies.

Blessings,

El

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I should add that I don't feel I've earned the title 'geezer' yet. Journeyman Curmudgeon would be a better description. Wait'll my kids are teenagers, and I have to yell at their friends to get off my lawn, that's more like geezer territory.

Spore. When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfrakker in the galaxy. Accept no substitutes.

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Well! Not shoot some down and boost others up, but I'm 43 with my first child just now on the way. Only married two-and-a-half years though. I go back all the way to punch card systems. My first system was a TRS-80. So like others my age or older I know most of the early games and have played most of them as well. My machine game though didn't come until high school with Galaga; of which I won several arcade tournaments on. As time progressed and my jobs variied I've been on-and-off on games. Right now GC2 and solitaire are about the only ones I get into. Play time varies though as I work primarily 3rd shift, and my wife's a teacher. So I can generally get a little time in before she gets home, and more when she has meetings or I have a day off. Needless to say with our child coming soon all the times we each have will probably change. So, while I'm older than many but not all, I can relate to most anyone when it comes to computers and games. (Not to mention my first degree was in programming and operations) So game on! No matter how old (or young) you are. Life's short and hard enough as is.

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Thanks for all the responses old timers...

First of all... All I can say to those of you with gamer wives. You @#&%#@ lucky b*stards.

Evil Stormbringer: We all want to spend time with our wives..but you got to admit that Altarian female is hot

Bakka and tlwhite: Congratulations on your new addition and soon to be new addition!

Marshall: "Geezer" is just a joke. Everything is relative after all. Since we're almost double the age of the "average" gamer, I think that qualifies us as old timers.

Muzzlehead: I used to brew beer too. Way back in my early 20's before I was married. I mostly brewed IPA's and barleywines

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Well I am a geezer, 48, divorced, 3 kids, 5 grandkids

I play when I want, a great stress relief.

My first computer was the Sinclair 1000...also known as Timex 80 with 2 kilobyes of memory.

I have played games all my life and enjoy the thinking games over quick reaction games. Some of the past favorites were Asteroid, can still here the sound

, The original donkey Kong, then duke nukem, then I got my first Civilization game, and I was hooked like it was LSD and have not looked back.

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I'll be 35 in a couple of weeks. I played about everything in early arcades. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac Man, Space Invaders you name it I had to try them all

.

Nowadays I pretty much choose when I want to play. Usually 2-3 hours most days. My girlfriends cool and has a Gamecube, along with a recent addiction to my Xbox, so she doesn't chide me too much about playing.

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Muzzlehead, I just went back and looked at the picture of your rig - that is a sweet, sweet setup. I'm still doing 5-6 gallon batches and bottling all of it, but I do well in my club competitions and love every minute of it.

I like the "geezer" joke - and I actually do look forward to geezerhood in some ways.

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I'm getting ready for 30 but I don't like to count myself out of the equasion as I am a geeser at heart.

The reason is though you guys were 5+ when I hit the big 0 I was born the year of that Sears game machine. Picked up the Panasonic tennis machine you had to screw onto the back of your ant. inputs. Played 2600 with Pac Man and Asteroids (still have the cartreges on my desk). And put more than a few thousand dollars into Centipide, then StarWars (first real 3D vector), then Spy Hunter... lots and lots of Spy Hunter.

As far as games go these days I play them all. If I wasn't poor I would have an extensive collection of Wii products but I am still sitting on my PS2 and 360. I play shooters (mostly PC ones), RPGs (thank god FF is coming to 360), sports, RTS, every friggin thing I can find. Though I may have less than a decade on a few this old soul dosen't want to be counted out. Games are in me blood.

Cheers

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If mid-30's makes a geezer, I guess at 51 I am getting to be a relic.

One of my favorite games in my younger years was Defender. I also had a good time with Boulder Dash on the C64. My first computer was a 8088 based PC that I had aquired from the resaurant I was working at. The manager got mad at it and had thrown it across the room. So that was when I first got into the tech end of things as well, as I had to repair her handywork of imparting some very deep and long gouges in the hard drive platters. That was in the mid-80's.

I was into SimCity 3 and 4 pretty heavily. I was married then as well. After she left me (not for playing games, but, I was getting too old etc..) I was stuck in a motel room for some time and had no access to my old computer. So I got a new one and a copy of Dread Lords and got hooked. I didn't watch tv for over a month, it was constant GalCiv2.

I also had a physical problem that had prevented me from working these past couple years, so I had lots and lots of time on my hands. This past Friday I had the surgery to fix it, so now I still have lots of time during my recoup time. I don't play as much as before, but still usually get in several hours a day. The game is a great time killer and relaxant.

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I'm 42, married, two teenagers. I usually play way too late at night after everyone is asleep. I remember playing the original Pong, and I was a freshman in high school when Space Invaders came out.

We all want to spend time with our wives..but you got to admit that Altarian female is hot

LOL! I fought a war with the Alterians just to wipe that sneer off of her face - my wife makes the same face!

Geezers Rule!

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Age 59 here; Hmmmm... guess that makes me a geezer-geezer! Married 37 years, but wife is not a gamer. Retired. Play a couple hours/day when I'm not doing politics on Free Republic.

Haven't gotten around to GC2 much yet, but played quite a bit of GC.

Never got into quarter drop games. However most of my favorite games are geezer-games: Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Imperialism (1&2), Age of Wonders, Colonization. At few are not: Civ4, Oblivion, GG's World at War.

Slow, full function pausable, is good as in Kohan.

Currently playing.... Panzer General (under DosBox in XP).

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I guess I must be moss covered-age 60. I started in gaming with a Star Trex game and have enjoyed every Command and Conquer game and every Civ game made.
I will say Gal Civ2 has had the most pull on my gaming time ever.This is the Game that has kept my interest like no other ever has -including the Civ series -I count this as the best buy I ever made most of the 1200 games I have bought over the years have kept my interest for 2 months tops-thanks Stardock.
I am disabled so spend about 4-6 hours a day on my gaming rig-have gone from atari 2600 to Alienware Area 51 over the years-and my wife of 35 years still puts up with me!

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Mumblefratz

Join Date 07/2006

+139

Oh well, at 54 I guess I fit the category. It is clear that the demographic of TBS games is much older than RTS games and you'll find that 40 probably puts you closer to the mean than the top end, but on the other side there are a number of young players as well.

As far as games my original was Reach for the Stars on an Apple IIe along with the Zork and Ultima series in the early eighties. Then there was a fairly long dry spell until the original Civilization. I never did care much for the perspective view of Civ 2 and never tried any of the other Civ series. Also played a bit of Axis & Allies and Spaceward Ho, but that's pretty much it until I picked up GalCiv2. Oh, I did pick up MOO3 somewhere along the line but once I figured out that all the player did was to press the turn button, that ended that.

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I'm 38 and have two boys, 14 and 11 who love video games also. My wife hates video games and is jealous of the computer. I guess she puts up with it because its not sports, drinking or running around.
I remember playing arcade games when there were actually little things in the machine, no video. The first game I was really good at was Double Dragon, which, I like to brag, I could finish on one quarter. Next was Gauntlet, I used to put high scores on those machines.
I don't like arcades much these days. I tell my kids, "you could play this game ten times, or go to a store and pick up a used game you can play all you want, for the same amount of money." I am still good at the fast paced games, I finished Halo 1 and 2 on legendary, but that type of game just doesn't call to me any more.
I like the RTS games that are like War Craft, where you see the little guy mining and what not. The Command and Conquer style I don't like so much.
My favorite strategy game of all times was Wing Commander Armada. You had to conquer and manage the production on your worlds. In combat you could pilot the ships yourself. I would murder entire fleets with one star fighter!
I like GALCIV2 a lot. I picked up the gold edition just by chance. I probably spend too much time playing it. Too bad you can't pilot the space craft yourself.

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[quote]It is clear that the demographic of TBS games is much older than RTS games and you'll find that 40 probably puts you closer to the mean than the top end.

Really. I didn't know this. (I'll take your word for it, though)

If I recall the poll results correctly, no one selected "over 50", and very few selected the 40's category.

Perhaps younger people participate in polls more often than older people... which resulted in a skewed bell curve.

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I’m 45. Wife thinks I spend too much of my time gaming. I tell her if I let the Drengin take over the galaxy, she’ll be sorry.

When robot man says a few more turns would not hurt, I look in my wife’s eyes and I know robot man is very, very wrong.

I still manage to play a few hours 2 or 3 times a week. She has her own hobbies that keep her busy and I encourage them at all costs.

Ms. Pacman was my favorite arcade game. Mainly because it was in my favorite pub and we could sit at it like a table and drink and play.

I had the deluxe 4 man pong game. Ooooh.....

The first computer game that absolutely captured me was the original Masters of Orion and I have always looked for a game that would bring that feeling back. Gal Civ does that for me.

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Feeling pretty ancient around this crowd at 53. My wife lets me play when she is watching trash tv. I usually get 1-3 hours of "play time". Its all DA for me. I have other games...most recent purchases is a texas hold-em game and the newer star wars rebellion look alike. They are both ok, but don't hold my attention like DA. I played MoO II for years and years....matter of fact, it just got retired when I got DA. I played the original star wars rebellion for years also..alternated between the 2.

Anyone remember red storm rising on the old commodore 64. Great game. Always have a flight sim and a nascar simulator nearby for those moments where I need a rush.

I have three grown sons, and when they visit we get the Halo 1 or 2 out. We always blast each other and have a great laugh about it. Takes the place of football or baseball in the backyard I guess.

But we are all here because we are somehow into TBS and we have all found a very good one....a classic...and evidently a classic in the remaking. Can't ask for much more than that today. I remember a large department store sized computer software store in Atlanta to go shop for computer games. I too, had hundreds if not thousands of games. Now, if you go into an EB, you may find 4 or 5 small shelves devoted to PC games in total. We are VERY fortunate to have such a classic TBS game available at all. I for one count this game as a blessing. This game will stand the test of time without any question. We will be able to play it years from now. It really is generally stable in a very quirky computer environment. I'm back to Evilstorm's thread about why I'm happy I guess.

Anyrate, it was good to meet you all in a very minimal way and find out I'm not the oldest one on here....yet...hah!

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Before those tabletop Pong & Space Invaders terminals you'd find in bars and such, there were Submarine Sims (or perhaps rather look-in-a-periscope-and-torpedo-teh-enemy sims) in amusement parks...later there was ZX Spectrum and MAZIACS. Still later came the Amiga years, tons & tons of games, and I left all those complicated board games behind, played Empire-Wargame of the Century, and then CIV.

I stuck mainly with turn based games (lots of Civ I, II, Alien Crossfire) until Diablo II came along - these days I do DA & WoW.

And oh, I'm 48 and my woman lives 2½ hours drive away, so I play DA a couple of hours on workday evenings...not every evening though, I'm not die-hard and have lots of interesting stuff to do in RL (he said, opening yet another escapist book).

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