After reading Lizard Kings thread about the ages of the NTSC community in the off-topic, i was pretty surprised to see so many older forumites amongst the younger members. Its good to see such a broad spectrum of people of all ages with so many things in common 
Which got me thinking; What did you play as a kid? At 38 years old and like a few on here i'm old enough to have been there when there were no videogames
I suppose this is aimed at the oldies to show what we played with as kids before the likes of Halo and GTA (christ, even before Manic Miner, lol) had even been thought of.
But it would good to see where everyone started young or old. What were your favourite toys and what systems did you have to start with? Pics would be appreciated for this methinks
So to get the ball rolling, i grew up in the 70's and thses were my staple upto the inception the first videogames:
Read it and weep
Stock Car Smash up: Two cars with plastic draw strings that you pulled to rev em up then let em go to smash into each other. When they crashed the doors and bonnets etc flew off. I loved this.
Evil Knievil Stuff: This was Knevil on a bike which you put on a wind up stand then pressed a button which released him to shoot over jumps on his caravan (if you had it). Wicked.
Tin Can Alley: Speaks for itself really. A stand with about 10 Dr Pepper cans that you shot with a lightgun rifle. My dad bought me this from Blackpool and at the time this was as close to an arcade game at home as you could get.
I also had another lightgun shooting game a couple of years later which put lights on the wall for a kind of skeet shooting. This was 2 player with 2 shotguns. Can't remember what it was called tho
The Six Million Dollar Man: I had all this. Oscar Goldman, Steve Austin, Sasquatch etc. Loved it. Was much better then Action Man who i always thought was a bit of tool.
Striker: Football game for two players where you pressed the head of the player to kick the ball. This was ace and much better than it sounds. I much preferred this to Subbuteo.
Test Match: Brillaint cricket game similar to striker.
Then came the small table top arcade games These i remember were about £50 a pop in Debenhams when i was a kid which was mega expensive at the time.
Astro Wars:
Galaxian:
Pacman:
Pacman2 (2 player version):
Defender:
Soccer (i think this was KK's soccer):
There was loads more like frogger, Galaxy wars etc. Plus there were all the Game & Watches with Mario and Kong.
This site has em all: http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Grands...OYaNjAeE5aGhAw
On to Video Games tho might not be in the right order i had them tho i do remember i had the 2600 last:
We had a Pong Machine: I still remember my dad bringing this in
We had a Grandstand TV game:
Had an Intellivision:
My Cousin Nick had a Coleco Vision which he then gave to me after his dad bought him a 2600 with about 50 games. Jammy sod.
Then for me came the Atari 2600. Ouch.... I can't remember how much my mum and dad must have spent buying games for it. I always remember playing River Raid and missile Command with my sister. I don't seem to remember having more than about 10 games for it as they were just ludicrously expensive.
Lasty i had a Videopac. I seem to remember having this at the same time as my Speccy 48k.
Vectrex: I loved this system. I had it all boxed with about 15 boxed games until i flogged it a couple of years back for nearly £400 on ebay
After the early consoles i then moved onto the home computers then consoles:
In no exact order and i may have missed some:
ZX80
ZX81 with RAM pack for Monster Maze
Spectrum 48K with rubber KB
Oric Atmos
Dragon 32
BBC Micro just for Elite and home programming at the time.
Vic 20
Commodore 64: My favourite home comp of all time
Atari 800XL i think it was. Played Bruce Lee to death with a mate.
Sega Master System
NES
Atari ST
Amiga 500: My second favourite home comp.
Megadrive
SNES: Favourite home console. Bought for my 21st on import for £700 with 5 games...ouch
PC Engine
3DO
Playstation: My cousin got this for me when he lived in Japan with 3 games for over £1k..ffs. Unbelievable machine tho in its day. For me the first arcade machine in your home.
N64: Some of the best games ever to grace a console.
Saturn: Bought on a whim. Some great games but i never really took to it??
Dreamcast: the most underrated machine of the generation
PS2: I was a late adopter to the PS2 scene by well over a year. Dunno why, i just didn't seem bothered about it when it was released.
Gamecube: Another good machine by Nintendo which like the Dreamcast was underrated and cast adrift by 3rd party publishers.
Xbox: A very good system let down by design imo.
PC Engine DUO-Rx: My favourite retro system which i will probably never sell. Got it brand new for a song a few years back which is why its here in the list.
FM Towns marty: Again bought around the same time as the Rx. Bought it more on reputation than for any real knowledge of it. Got a few games for it but not really used it tbh. Too much like the PC Engine.
I don't really need to list all the current consoles as everyone has those.
Going on to Handhelds:
I have/Had:
Game and Watches
Gameboy
Gameboy Colour
Gameboy Advance & SP
DS & DS Lite
Game Gear
Sega Nomad
Atari Lynx
Pc Engine GT
PSP Lite
Christ I have rabbited on a bit from just stuff i grew up with. I just got a bit carried away.
So what did everyone else have??? Fire at will and embarrass yourselves
Which got me thinking; What did you play as a kid? At 38 years old and like a few on here i'm old enough to have been there when there were no videogames
I suppose this is aimed at the oldies to show what we played with as kids before the likes of Halo and GTA (christ, even before Manic Miner, lol) had even been thought of.
But it would good to see where everyone started young or old. What were your favourite toys and what systems did you have to start with? Pics would be appreciated for this methinks
So to get the ball rolling, i grew up in the 70's and thses were my staple upto the inception the first videogames:
Read it and weep
Stock Car Smash up: Two cars with plastic draw strings that you pulled to rev em up then let em go to smash into each other. When they crashed the doors and bonnets etc flew off. I loved this.
Evil Knievil Stuff: This was Knevil on a bike which you put on a wind up stand then pressed a button which released him to shoot over jumps on his caravan (if you had it). Wicked.
Tin Can Alley: Speaks for itself really. A stand with about 10 Dr Pepper cans that you shot with a lightgun rifle. My dad bought me this from Blackpool and at the time this was as close to an arcade game at home as you could get.
I also had another lightgun shooting game a couple of years later which put lights on the wall for a kind of skeet shooting. This was 2 player with 2 shotguns. Can't remember what it was called tho
The Six Million Dollar Man: I had all this. Oscar Goldman, Steve Austin, Sasquatch etc. Loved it. Was much better then Action Man who i always thought was a bit of tool.
Striker: Football game for two players where you pressed the head of the player to kick the ball. This was ace and much better than it sounds. I much preferred this to Subbuteo.
Test Match: Brillaint cricket game similar to striker.
Then came the small table top arcade games
These i remember were about £50 a pop in Debenhams when i was a kid which was mega expensive at the time.Astro Wars:
Galaxian:
Pacman:
Pacman2 (2 player version):
Defender:
Soccer (i think this was KK's soccer):
There was loads more like frogger, Galaxy wars etc. Plus there were all the Game & Watches with Mario and Kong.
This site has em all: http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Grands...OYaNjAeE5aGhAw
On to Video Games tho might not be in the right order i had them tho i do remember i had the 2600 last:
We had a Pong Machine: I still remember my dad bringing this in
We had a Grandstand TV game:
Had an Intellivision:
My Cousin Nick had a Coleco Vision which he then gave to me after his dad bought him a 2600 with about 50 games. Jammy sod.
Then for me came the Atari 2600. Ouch.... I can't remember how much my mum and dad must have spent buying games for it. I always remember playing River Raid and missile Command with my sister. I don't seem to remember having more than about 10 games for it as they were just ludicrously expensive.
Lasty i had a Videopac. I seem to remember having this at the same time as my Speccy 48k.
Vectrex: I loved this system. I had it all boxed with about 15 boxed games until i flogged it a couple of years back for nearly £400 on ebay
After the early consoles i then moved onto the home computers then consoles:
In no exact order and i may have missed some:
ZX80
ZX81 with RAM pack for Monster Maze
Spectrum 48K with rubber KB
Oric Atmos
Dragon 32
BBC Micro just for Elite and home programming at the time.
Vic 20
Commodore 64: My favourite home comp of all time
Atari 800XL i think it was. Played Bruce Lee to death with a mate.
Sega Master System
NES
Atari ST
Amiga 500: My second favourite home comp.
Megadrive
SNES: Favourite home console. Bought for my 21st on import for £700 with 5 games...ouch
PC Engine
3DO
Playstation: My cousin got this for me when he lived in Japan with 3 games for over £1k..ffs. Unbelievable machine tho in its day. For me the first arcade machine in your home.
N64: Some of the best games ever to grace a console.
Saturn: Bought on a whim. Some great games but i never really took to it??
Dreamcast: the most underrated machine of the generation
PS2: I was a late adopter to the PS2 scene by well over a year. Dunno why, i just didn't seem bothered about it when it was released.
Gamecube: Another good machine by Nintendo which like the Dreamcast was underrated and cast adrift by 3rd party publishers.
Xbox: A very good system let down by design imo.
PC Engine DUO-Rx: My favourite retro system which i will probably never sell. Got it brand new for a song a few years back which is why its here in the list.
FM Towns marty: Again bought around the same time as the Rx. Bought it more on reputation than for any real knowledge of it. Got a few games for it but not really used it tbh. Too much like the PC Engine.
I don't really need to list all the current consoles as everyone has those.
Going on to Handhelds:
I have/Had:
Game and Watches
Gameboy
Gameboy Colour
Gameboy Advance & SP
DS & DS Lite
Game Gear
Sega Nomad
Atari Lynx
Pc Engine GT
PSP Lite
Christ I have rabbited on a bit from just stuff i grew up with. I just got a bit carried away.
So what did everyone else have??? Fire at will and embarrass yourselves
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