A gentleman never asks and a lady never tells

[flashjazzcat]

101000, which looks exactly how I feel.

[+Stephen]

37, got my 400 back in 82 and have been at least moderately active in the scene ever since.

[Chuck D. Head]

I'm 48. I wonder if the statistcal outliers are more prone to be responding in this thread, it seems we seem to be heavy with the early twenties and upper forties.

[fibrewire]

I just turned 33 / $21 / 100001 and got into Atari when I was 10 years old. Learned basic pretty well and got a book on 5602 Assembler so i could understand how the CPU works.

[ACML]

I still find many 1982-1984 games superior to what is offered today and I can't seem to get the hang of games requiring more than one joystick button

 

I'm 49 and I have children that play with their PS3. The graphics look great, but the games are completely mindless. There is no skill required to play these new games, you just frantically smash as many buttons as fast as you can. My kids can't handle Pacman because it requires actual hand-eye coordination with the additional requirement to think more than 2" in front of your nose. Back in the day, I considered myself a gamer (if I could have all the quarters I dumped into Missile Command in 1981) and I find no challenge or purpose in today's games. The flight sims and FPS's are orders of magnitude better than 8-bit, but I'm talking about the 3rd person fighting games.

 

I think a big difference today is that those dabbling in computers in the early 80's were typically smarter than your average bear. You had to be, cause you had to tell (program) your computer to do the things you wanted. Because there was a steep learning curve in the early days, it naturally appealed to those interested in Tech stuff when it wasn't cool, just nerdy. Now that any putz can buy a computer, they had to dumb down the games to appeal to the masses (unwashed). I'm being ridiculous in my simplifications, but there is a little truth to it. When was the last time you saw a kid build a plastic model or Estes rocket? These things require an attention span longer than a commercial. Anyone remember collecting empty Coke and Pepsi bottles and riding your bike to the store and cash them in for 30 cents? Again, kids are no longer wired for doing things that yield a reward that takes longer than mom driving them to the mall. OK, maybe there is a lot of truth to my simplifications.

Edited April 10, 2013 by ACML

[pixelmischief]

I'm 40. In 1982, I was 12, and in 6th grade. It was time to pick an elective class and the choices were "Computer Programming" or "Wood Shop". My old man is Carpenter, so I had done as much wood-working as a kid could possibly want. I chose "Computer Programming". When I walked into the room and the walls were lined with shiny new 800XL's with 1050 disk drives and 12" color TV's, I was immediately and irreparably smitten. That love affair evolved into a passion for ALL things computer and video game. It spawned my very lucrative career in Information Technology and literally gives me something to look forward to every day of my life. I have loved Atari computers longer and deeper than anything in the universe, save direct family, and I owe the better part of all my success and happiness to it.

 

[AtariGeezer]

I'll be $36 this year and was $16 when I bought my first $0320 with a Home Improvement loan back in $07BD

My very first computer was a Kim-1 that my High School Electronics teacher gave me after graduation, I still have her...

 

Leaning basic on the Atari was super simple as we used to have a *TeleType Terminal* that we used to dial up to the Mainframe computer that was located in the Grossmont Union High School District's main office. It understood basic and had many of the old games like lunar lander, drag race and hunt the wumpus. I would go an hour earlier to class just to play on it and learn basic. We went through many rolls of paper and punch tape, designing and playing new/old games

[Bryan]

I just turned 33 / $21 / 100001 and got into Atari when I was 10 years old. Learned basic pretty well and got a book on 5602 Assembler so i could understand how the CPU works.

 

Ah, the elusive 5602!!

[flashjazzcat]

I'm 40. In 1982, I was 12...

 

I'm forty... in 1982, I turned ten.

[atari8warez]

Heck ages look much better in hex. $38 rather then decimal 56, glad i didn't have to write it in Octal, O70 would be worst.

[adam242]

I'm looking at the big 00101000 later this year.. (I turned ten in 1983).

 

I think it was '82 or so, a good friend of mine had a 400 and a good friend of his had an 800. Shortly after I begged a 600XL out of my parents and never looked back. The only significant amount of time since then that I didn't have an Atari 8-bit set up full-time on my desk was when I got really into Amiga in the late 80's - early 90s.

[+orpheuswaking]

39 this last weekend!

[+tf_hh]

I´m the answer of all questions... 42!

[Tickled_Pink]

43. Got a 2600 with Combat for Christmas '82. Got Berzerk at the same time too. Played that machine to death for arout 3 years. I still have it as one of my 3 6-switchers but not sure which one it is.

 

Then in 1985 got an 800XL, tape deck and 1050. The rest is history. Between those dates we also got a 16K Spectrum (which I promptly destroyed) and a Vectrex when they were getting rid of them.

 

I'm always a little bit fascinated by the reaction of kids and younger people to the early eighties stuff. Met a supposedly die-hard gamer a couple of years ago and showed him a 2600 - he had no idea what it was. Similarly when I showed a teenage niece and nephew a Spectrum a few years ago, they didn't know what it was. The biggest reaction I got was when I took my Vectrex round to a friend's house - their kids were in awe and were fighting over it.

[sack-c0s]

I'm 48. I wonder if the statistcal outliers are more prone to be responding in this thread, it seems we seem to be heavy with the early twenties and upper forties.

 

looking back through the thread I can only see people who answered in 'the lower 20s' in hex, which makes them at least 32

[Creature XL]

I am $24.

 

This information is valid for 364 days

Edited April 11, 2013 by Creature XL

[almightytodd]

I'm 53 ($35). I was 17 ($11) in December 1977 when our family got a Heavy Sixer VCS for Christmas. I spent my teenage years in video/pinball arcades during the transition years when video games went from discreet components to microprocessor-based, and everything was in black-and-white. I was a young father during the early 80's so the only 8-bit machine I could afford was a Timex-Sinclair. I got a 7800 around 1988. Graduated college with a Computer Science degree in '92 and went to work programming PCs. It's been mostly emulation for me ever since...

[Chuck D. Head]

 

looking back through the thread I can only see people who answered in 'the lower 20s' in hex, which makes them at least 32

Apparently my blood pressure medicine is dulling my wits more severely than I realized. Don't get old, kids!

[Tempest]

$23 myself. Got my first Atari (an Atari 400) for Christmas 81.

[Tillek]

101000, which looks exactly how I feel.

Ditto here....

[THOMASSU63]

I'm turning 50 in a couple of months. Got my first Atari (used) in late 83 (I was 20). It was an 800 with a cassette player. A couple of months later I got a used 810 disk drive. In 85 I sold the stuff and bought a new 130XE and a 1050 disk drive, all which I still use today.

[w1k]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL-P2WHYB8I

[+CharlieChaplin]

Well,

 

Atari was founded 1972 and I was born the same year. So I am always as old as Atari...

 

-Andreas Koch.

[ilovethevectrex]

I know your not supposed to ask a persons age but I was curious as to what the average age of an atari enthusiast is at this point in time. I myself am 29 and grew up in the glory days of the nes. About 7 years ago I got nostalgic and decided to get an nes once again. From there my interests expanded but seemed to go backwards. I got myself a colecovision, vic-20, a 2600 and much more but my biggest fascination of all has become my 800xl. I seem to keep hearing from people older than me that they're surprised someone as young as me is into these old machines. I'm surprised to hear that and I hope that people younger than me are still discovering these great machines. Most of the machines that interest me are before my time. Maybe not before my time, but by the time I was playing with computers these would have been considered very outdated. I always argue that over the years video games have not gotten better only better looking cuz at the end of the day whether your playing Mario or Halo your still just pushing buttons. That being said I cant understand why younger folks wouldn't be discovering and enjoying these games all the time. So id like to hear some ages and find out if I am at the low end of the age group in this community.

Dripfree

im probably the youngest collector on here lol. im 14

[Darkhog]

I'm 23(DEC) years old. I always was interested in coding for 8-bit systems, unfortunately found assembly lang too hard for me. Then I've learned about Atari BASIC and 130XE. Then I've learned about Action which brings best things about Pascal, C and BASIC syntax (latter is not very advertised, bot for instance FOR loop syntax is almost same as BASIC's one) and has speed of assembly language (being compiled language and all).

 

Now I'm preparing to write simple game with it (one player galaxian-like game).