AA 8-Bit User Age Demographics

[ElementalChaos]

I'm 16. I learned about Atari 8-bits a long time ago, when I was like 10. I thought they were just video game consoles, I remember emulating the game Alley Cat and that's it. Several years later I now collect vintage computers and am trying to find an 800XL to complete my trifecta, of what I consider the best computers of the 80s (A800, Commodore 64, and Apple II)

 

I've collected old video games for a while so vintage computers was just an extension of that. Old computers have some of the best games of the 80s but most people just think of Nintendo. I've actually been doing it for longer than the video games; I got my first one, the Macintosh Classic II, when I was 9. But I've never really been into them until now.

Edited March 6, 2015 by ElementalChaos

[MrFish]

Nice to see some of the younger folks making their presence known here.

 

What is it about these "old" computers that attracts one from today's generation?

[ElementalChaos]

Nice to see some of the younger folks making their presence known here.

 

What is it about these "old" computers that attracts one from today's generation?

 

How I got into old computers when I was so young, I honestly don't know. I think it was from watching Youtube videos waaay back when. I do have Asperger's and consider it one of the narrow, intense interests that comes with it.

 

My guess is maybe because there was no computer standard until the PC clones came along, so each manufacturer's computer had it's own closed ecosystem. They were all so different and it's interesting to see how. Imagine if Atari's standard had somehow won out and became commonplace today. The computer world would be a very different place. I know there's many, many other reasons but that's one I can think off the top of my head.

 

Now, it's mostly for the games. Like I said, some of the best games of the 80s came on these machines and they are a bit overshadowed because when most people think of 80s video games they think of Nintendo. I've been collecting and playing old Nintendo games for a few years now, and then I impulse-purchased a Commodore 64 at a games convention which kickstarted the vintage computer collecting.

Edited March 6, 2015 by ElementalChaos

[MrFish]

 

How I got into old computers when I was so young, I honestly don't know. I think it was from watching Youtube videos waaay back when. I do have Asperger's and consider it one of the narrow, intense interests that comes with it.

 

My guess is maybe because there was no computer standard until the PC clones came along, so each manufacturer's computer had it's own closed ecosystem. They were all so different and it's interesting to see how. Imagine if Atari's standard had somehow won out and became commonplace today. The computer world would be a very different place. I know there's many, many other reasons but that's one I can think off the top of my head.

 

Now, it's mostly for the games. Like I said, some of the best games of the 80s came on these machines and they are a bit overshadowed because when most people think of 80s video games they think of Nintendo. I've been collecting and playing old Nintendo games for a few years now, and then I impulse-purchased a Commodore 64 at a games convention which kickstarted the vintage computer collecting.

 

Thanks for responding. So how do you feel about the graphics for games on a machine like this, when they are somewhat pixelated and lacking in color and detail, compared to the arcade originals or even an NES or other later machines?

[Nebulon]

 

How I got into old computers when I was so young, I honestly don't know. I think it was from watching Youtube videos waaay back when. I do have Asperger's and consider it one of the narrow, intense interests that comes with it.

 

My guess is maybe because there was no computer standard until the PC clones came along, so each manufacturer's computer had it's own closed ecosystem. They were all so different and it's interesting to see how. Imagine if Atari's standard had somehow won out and became commonplace today. The computer world would be a very different place. I know there's many, many other reasons but that's one I can think off the top of my head.

 

Now, it's mostly for the games. Like I said, some of the best games of the 80s came on these machines and they are a bit overshadowed because when most people think of 80s video games they think of Nintendo. I've been collecting and playing old Nintendo games for a few years now, and then I impulse-purchased a Commodore 64 at a games convention which kickstarted the vintage computer collecting.

A couple books you might like:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Atari-Inc-Mr-Curt-Vendel/dp/0985597402

 

http://www.amazon.com/Commodore-Company-Edge-Brian-Bagnall/dp/0973864966/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425674107&sr=1-1&keywords=commodore+a+company+on+the+edge

 

 

Since you have intense concentration skills, I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually built your own retro hardware someday. I've heard wire-wrapping takes a lot of focus.

[ElementalChaos]

 

Thanks for responding. So how do you feel about the graphics for games on a machine like this, when they are somewhat pixelated and lacking in color and detail, compared to the arcade originals or even an NES or other later machines?

Personally I could care less about a game's graphics as long as it's fun.

 

The Atari 8-bits and other computers like it have very good graphical capabilities for the time. Not that far off from the NES.

 

I feel my generation is okay with pixelated graphics in general. Increasingly, pixel graphics have become considered "retro" and "cool". We see it all the time now, a lot of smartphone games have pixel graphics because they're easy to make and it harkens back to days past and invokes nostalgia in whoever grew up in those times. Even the gameplay of many mobile games is very simple and easy to pick up, like the arcade games of the 80s. A game like Flappy Bird could very realistically have been released in 1982.

Edited March 7, 2015 by ElementalChaos

[BassGuitari]

30 here, first got an 800XL when I was 15 or 16. Later sold it, but eventually picked up another one as well as a 400, 800, 600XL, and if you file it under "computers," an XEGS.

[MrFish]

Personally I could care less about a game's graphics as long as it's fun.

 

I agree that gameplay is the first consideration, but I also think graphics should and can be well done no matter what the capabilities of the system are.

 

 

The Atari 8-bits and other computers like it have very good graphical capabilities for the time. Not that far off from the NES.

 

They're definitely not worlds apart. The NES does have some significant advantages, in resolution and sound, but there are things the Ataris can do that the NES has a hard time with though, namely 3D type graphics.

 

 

I feel my generation is okay with pixelated graphics in general. Increasingly, pixel graphics have become considered "retro" and "cool". We see it all the time now, a lot of smartphone games have pixel graphics because they're easy to make and it harkens back to days past and invokes nostalgia in whoever grew up in those times. Even the gameplay of many mobile games is very simple and easy to pick up, like the arcade games of the 80s. A game like Flappy Bird could very realistically have been released in 1982.

 

Yeah, I think that's all true, and the Ataris -- and the other consoles and computers of the same generation -- have loads of these simpler types of games, which are a nice change of pace to all the modern 3D games and even the candy coated/bloated 2D platformers. The nice thing about the computers is that they're also capable of producing games more complex than on the old consoles, which were more limited in memory and storage.

[Nebulon]

Personally I could care less about a game's graphics as long as it's fun.

 

I feel my generation is okay with pixelated graphics in general. Increasingly, pixel graphics have become considered "retro" and "cool". We see it all the time now, a lot of smartphone games have pixel graphics because they're easy to make and it harkens back to days past and invokes nostalgia in whoever grew up in those times. Even the gameplay of many mobile games is very simple and easy to pick up, like the arcade games of the 80s. A game like Flappy Bird could very realistically have been released in 1982.

I sure hope the market research people for the various video game developers are listening.

[MrFish]

A game like Flappy Bird could very realistically have been released in 1982.

 

The Atari 8-bit could do a nice version of that game. I'd prefer to see a beefed up version of this game instead though, since it has much better game mechanics/playability: SuperFly 1K

 

Even at 1K, it'd kill any version of Flappy that would stick to the original's game mechanics/playability concept.

[sack-c0s]

I think what attracts younger people is the same thing that keeps me interested - it's that we can argue forever (and probably will) that one machine is better or worse than the other in some way, but there are actual differences there that give them character.

 

PCs and macs - well some might benchmark higher than others but they're fundamentally the same.

[MrFish]

Bump

[+kheller2]

Interesting how the two age groups corollate.

[Mr.Amiga500]

I've been noticing a disturbing trend recently* - time seems to be accelerating! A year used to be a long time. Now it seems a year passes by while I'm eating a packet of peanuts. Brush my teeth - another year gone! What the hell is happening?! It's 2015?? We've gone beyond Buck Rogers' flight in 1987, somehow missed the Skynet nuclear war of 1997, passed the far future of Space 1999, and now we're in Marty McFly's alternate future (minus the 3D shark). Pretty soon we'll have to get a Blade Runner ("he say you brade runner") to kill replicants in 2019.

 

Just last week... or was it 7 years ago... I became a member here to talk about Atari games I played the month before, in 1984. Now slx reminds us that in 40 years we'll all be dead. That's like 13 days in accelerated time. Oh man, life is short. I better hurry up and finish that game of Blue Max.

 

 

*recently, meaning the last couple decades or so

 

I was right! I made this comment something like 3 days ago! 2019 is already here! What the hell?! I haven't even had time to find (or become) a Blade Runner yet. Those replicants are going to kick my ass! (especially if they're Nexus 6)

[Gunstar]

 

I was right! I made this comment something like 3 days ago! 2019 is already here! What the hell?! I haven't even had time to find (or become) a Blade Runner yet. Those replicants are going to kick my ass! (especially if they're Nexus 6)

I was thinking about this recently...it's December 2018, L.A. has a a couple of weeks to become dark and gloomy with a great Tyrel pyramid corporate building, flying cars and replicants that are three-four years old and have been off-planet at a colony since 2015. And how about the Atari name plastered around the streets?

 

Sci-fi writers heed my word; don't make your future just a couple of decades away, as to become obsolete too soon, and don't make them hundreds of years in the future, like Star Trek, unless the tech can be thought up that won't be surpassed in a few decades, were we might become technologically more advanced in 99% of the ways in a few decades either.

 

We have everythng better, tech wise except for warp, transporters, replicator machines and Holo-deck, And in a way, we are getting there already with replicators with are 3D printers! Our smart phones can do massively more than the Tri-corder, and still be a communicator with communication options the communicators never had, and probably soon we'll have them working like medical Tri-corders too! And we can play MP3's and stream recorded or live video! Captain Kirk eat your landing-party heart out!

 

That being said, Blade Runner is and always will be my favorite sci-fi movie of all time. I have all versions on all formats ever made but one or two. I just ignore the time-line, maybe in another 50 years...of course I'll most likely be dead by then.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Gunstar