Ever confuse/get confused with classic gaming jargon?

[Csonicgo]

Surely in your travels you've managed to completely alienate a person when they try to discuss a topic like classic gaming, or something similar. I have a few stories, one is pretty embarrassing.

 

Went to a Radioshack and asked for an F-Type to RCA adapter. Received blank stares. So I just went and got it myself. Cashier had no idea what it was. Did they ever train these people?

 

The term "paddles" for paddle controllers. To this day this still confuses people, even those who grew up with these consoles. when I clarify, they go "Oh, the pong controllers". Maybe Atari should have just called them that.

 

I was in an unclaimed storage center with a buddy of mine that works there, who had just found a Xonox double-ender in a storage bin. We were talking about that when a woman in the store nearly had a come-apart moment telling us to not use such sexual language as "double-ender" in front of her children. Words have different meanings, lady...

 

 

Now for one that I got confused on...

 

I had a retro setup at a con in Alabama back in 2010 or so. I had a classic 586 computer (It was an IBM PC, I know how that is around here) along with some game consoles. A man in his 20s comes up to the computer and goes "Wow, I would love to bring my PS2 here tomorrow!". I told him that I had many games for the original platform but if it was a 386, that would be okay, I could throw Wolfenstein on it. He told me he'd bring his favorite game for it - Metal Gear Solid 2.

Oh. that PS2. Get outta here, man!

[+save2600]

That "lady" with kids should be ashamed of herself!

 

Besides the few you mentioned, one that people always get confused by is the term 'hard drive'. Late 90's/early 2000's, when the mainstream decided they'd finally have a go at computers, someone mistakingly called the CPU (as in the computer itself) a "hard drive" and it stuck. Always an excersize in patience trying to educate or reverse that stubborn mindset.

 

I also love it when someone runs across an Amiga 1200 and calls it a "keyboard". Happened to me recently at my local bookstore. Was checking to see if they could order this book that was published in the U.K. (I should have just stayed home and ordered online, which I ended up having to do of course), when she runs across a pic of the cover, turns the screen around and asks if it was this one... the one with the keyboard on it. Didn't even bother going into my usual diatribe, instead, just said yep - that's it!

 

Oh and how could I forget this... the pierced & tattooed chick behind the counter that looks like she's at 'least' partied with spanish lesbians, asks *me* how to spell the word Amiga. Shit you not!

[Keatah]

She had experience with double-enders!

[Csonicgo]

That "lady" with kids should be ashamed of herself!

 

Besides the few you mentioned, one that people always get confused by is the term 'hard drive'. Late 90's/early 2000's, when the mainstream decided they'd finally have a go at computers, someone mistakingly called the CPU a "hard drive" and it stuck. Always an excersize in patience trying to educate or reverse that stubborn mindset.

I think introducing "Virtual Memory" as the ultimate selling point for computers (thanks Apple for starting this) and using "memory" itself as an advertising gimmick in the 80s for capacity to load programs also contributed to the problems of confusing consumers well into the 90s. Even when the later Macs and PCs came out, people would confuse HDD space with installed RAM and VM swap space, with mangled terms and misunderstandings resulting in "I have 16 Megs of Virtual Memory, that's enough to install this game, right?"

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

A few years back I called a local vintage/modern gaming store called Game Xchange. I was looking for Atari 5200 games and this was before I bought the Atarimax SD multicart. I asked if they had any games available for it. He brought up the names of the games and I responded by saying "That is Atari 2600 games, do you carry 5200 games?" He said "Atari 5200? What is it and I have never heard of it". I went on saying "It's a system manufactured by Atari from 1982 to 1984 to compete with th Colecovision and it's controllers were infamous for malfunctioning." And didn't ring a bell either.

 

Also I called a place asking if they had 2600 paddle controllers for sale. They said yes we do. I said "Cool how much?" $8. Then I asked them to reserve it for me. I drove 10 miles (20 mile roundtrip) for this. As I went inside to the counter I said. Hi I was the one that called about the Atari 2600 paddle controllers and you place it in reserve for me. They said yes and handed it to me. I said "No, this is a joystick controller, I wanted a set of paddle controllers, you know two controllers spliced into one plug that has turn dials and a button on the side and has a sticker with a tennis racket." They looked at me as I am from another planet. I facepalmed and said nevermind I'll look elsewhere. Hire people to work at a vintage video game store and they do not know any Atari accessories!?!? What has this world come to?

 

IDIOTS!!

[Inky]

 

Besides the few you mentioned, one that people always get confused by is the term 'hard drive'. Late 90's/early 2000's, when the mainstream decided they'd finally have a go at computers, someone mistakingly called the CPU a "hard drive" and it stuck. Always an excersize in patience trying to educate or reverse that stubborn mindset.

 

When 3.5 inch floppies first appeared on the scene, I thought those were hard disks.

 

Hey, it's got a hard shell and all! At least that was my thinking.

 

I is smarter now.

[Csonicgo]

A few years back I called a local vintage/modern gaming store called Game Xchange. I was looking for Atari 5200 games and this was before I bought the Atarimax SD multicart. I asked if they had any games available for it. He brought up the names of the games and I responded by saying "That is Atari 2600 games, do you carry 5200 games?" He said "Atari 5200? What is it and I have never heard of it". I went on saying "It's a system manufactured by Atari from 1982 to 1984 to compete with th Colecovision and it's controllers were infamous for malfunctioning." And didn't ring a bell either.

I've also been burned on this. Atari always means "2600" to some people. The 5200 and 7800? Those didn't exist.

[high voltage]

When 3.5 inch floppies first appeared on the scene, I thought those were hard disks.

 

Hey, it's got a hard shell and all! At least that was my thinking.

 

I is smarter now.

Hehe my boss in UK way back (early 90s) she said the same, the 5 1/4 were floppy disks, and the 3 1/2 were hard disks, because of the shell. No I never corrected her.

Edited January 11, 2016 by high voltage

[Flojomojo]

I'm such a geezer, it's the modern lingo that confuses me. Mobs, moos, buffs, nerfs, DRM, DLC, MMO, PvP ...

[+madman]

Besides the few you mentioned, one that people always get confused by is the term 'hard drive'. Late 90's/early 2000's, when the mainstream decided they'd finally have a go at computers, someone mistakingly called the CPU a "hard drive" and it stuck. Always an excersize in patience trying to educate or reverse that stubborn mindset.

I've never heard a processor called a "hard drive" but I've had a lot of non-technical friends refer to the entire computer itself as the "hard drive." Now everything is pretty much laptops so those days are over.

[BillyHW]

Took me a while before I figured out what WTB and CIB were. I think people use acronyms too much. Just write it out, sheesh. It's not hard and we aren't under any memory limitations anymore.

[+save2600]

I've never heard a processor called a "hard drive" but I've had a lot of non-technical friends refer to the entire computer itself as the "hard drive."

 

 

[7800fan]

Took me a while before I figured out what WTB and CIB were. I think people use acronyms too much. Just write it out, sheesh. It's not hard and we aren't under any memory limitations anymore.

 

Still haven't figured out what seller means when they use CIBOO on eBay. Like it is so good complete one has orgasm when announcing Complete In Box Oh Oh!! maybe?

 

Took me a while to figure out what plox was. When I first heard it a few years ago, I tried to figure out what dumb stuff made up acronym plox since there weren't many good word starting with x. Later I found out it's just a lazy and sloppy spelling of please.

[Schizophretard]

I'm still confused about why my entire offline life I have always heard people pronounce the NES as N.E.S. and the SNES as Super N.E.S. but constantly hear them both pronounced as words on YouTube like Nes and Snes. I assume that maybe it is a geographical thing and that was how it was said in other states back in the day. But it sounds so odd to me that it triggers some kind of prejudice that is the opposite of that assumption where it feels like a new way of pronouncing them was introduced by people that never heard them pronounced the way I always have because they are posers pretending that they are talking about consoles from their youth. It sounds just as odd to me as if I started hearing people refer to the Atari VCS as the Atari Vicks or the Odyssey 2 as the Odyssey Squared(That one would kind of make sense to me though because if all I had to go on was the box then I would think it was called that).

[CatPix]

I never heard "N.E.S." until I started watching Youtube vids. I heard a bit of "Super NES" but most kids would say "Super Nintendo" (it's what it says on it after all).

 

I guess there would be a lot to say about that as well, like people that now say "SMB2, the Doki doki game" or alike formulation, or "SMB2 USA" I mean okay, we got it, you know that SMB2 isn't originally a SMB game...

 

I don't think I get so confused by terms in retrogaming, aside from people that call the PS1 PSX.

I probably missed that, as I had no access to gaming magazines, but I NEVER heard anyone calling a PS1 a PSX. Everybody I know called it Playstation, then PSOne when the Two came out. Again, only recently I heard and saw PSX used extensively, and while some people reported that it was the Playstation codename before it was released, I feel like it's a troll bait to get someone ranting about how the PSX is a PS2 system released by Panasonic blahblahblah...

[Eltigro]

I don't think I get so confused by terms in retrogaming, aside from people that call the PS1 PSX.

I probably missed that, as I had no access to gaming magazines, but I NEVER heard anyone calling a PS1 a PSX. Everybody I know called it Playstation, then PSOne when the Two came out. Again, only recently I heard and saw PSX used extensively, and while some people reported that it was the Playstation codename before it was released, I feel like it's a troll bait to get someone ranting about how the PSX is a PS2 system released by Panasonic blahblahblah...

 

I call it PS1 or "Original Playstation" now, but I want to say there was a magazine that shortened "Playstation" to "PSX" at one time. Maybe it was GamePro or VG&CE or something. (I read a lot of those back then.) Of course, there was an actual "PSX" which was a different thing entirely with a PS2 built in or something, but I could have sworn I saw this "PSX" for "Playstation" before that came out. Of course it's one of those things I'll probably never find any proof of... wish I had kept all those old magazines... maybe I should put those in that "What do you regret throwing away" thread...

[CatPix]

Yeah, I was to mention it, went to another idea, and forgot to metion that there were magazines that called it like that. I've seen a few shots of it. My point is more that I never heard anyone I know calling it a PSX, and that, as far as I'm concerned, PSX started to appear recently.

[Mayhem]

 

Like it is so good complete one has orgasm when announcing Complete In Box Oh Oh!! maybe?

 

Actually, I've seen some people use CIB as meaning Cartridge Instructions Box in the past. But I use it for Complete In Box, because I'm more a computer collector!

[Keatah]

Complete In Box, Original Owner.

[Keatah]

I try to avoid excess acronyms and abbreviations that are made up just to sound cool.

[glazball]

I'm still bothered by people that refer to the original, front-loading NES (that's "N. E. S.", not "ness") as a "toaster". Who the hell came up with that? Toasters take bread in the top (almost always) so the top-loaders should be called "toasters."

 

Thanks, now I feel a little better.

[Flojomojo]

I'm still bothered by people that refer to the original, front-loading NES (that's "N. E. S.", not "ness") as a "toaster". Who the hell came up with that? Toasters take bread in the top (almost always) so the top-loaders should be called "toasters."

 

Thanks, now I feel a little better.

[mbd30]

Top-loaders should also be called toasters because they toast your carts. Games are nice and warm after a lengthy play session.

[omegadot]

I get confused any time I read about the PS2 HD / ISO ripping process. It's littered with acronyms and tools and awful grammar.

[Eltigro]

I'm a TG-16 fan, so I got confused the first time I saw these...

 

 

http://www.target.com/p/graco-highback-turbobooster/-/A-15288055