what do you consider the "golden age" of gaming?

[slacey1070]

For me, I think of the early 80s, when trips to the local swimming pool revealed new arcade machines, like pacman, asteroids, space invaders.

What do you consider "the golden age"?

[PostieDoc]

I will go with the nineties.

In the early nineties the Amiga was in its prime and great game after great game was being released for it.

Then from the mid-nineties onwards the PC came into its own and the nineties is actually known as the PCs golden age.

[Matt_B]

I'd suspect that for most people the golden age began when they first discovered computer games and lasted as long as it took before disillusionment set in.

[joefish]

It has to be the mid-to-late 80s, when there were some great games to be played at home, but the arcades were still a treat with new stuff appearing all the time with better graphics and those amazing motion cabinets.

[Antiriad2097]

I think we go with a 'comic' timing here, where the golden age refers to a specific period. General concensus agrees with me that the early 80s is the sweet spot for that.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_arcade_video_games

I guess that would make the transition from Speccy, C64 etc to ST and Amiga the silver age.

[RodimusPrime]

late 80's early 90's

discovering the NES and games like Probotector, and Mario 3. then the excitement of the megadrive and Sonic etc. Then my favorite console of all time the Snes.

Addin the general excitement around the industry, the thriving arcade scene with exciting new games, and when games magazines were in their prime. amazing times.

[shiftytigger]

Personally speaking I would say around 87 to 94 - from Spectrum to megadrive as it represents when i got the most out of games from saving pennies to buy 1 game from the corner shop , to shelling out tons of pennies for cartridge games. It was the time when arcades still had variety , choice and effort put into them. After that it was all 3d racing machines and dancing games.

Im sure we all have our own main era for gaming , I still have so much to explore from back then that im finding stuff now that i wish i had found back then.

[stvd]

I think we go with a 'comic' timing here, where the golden age refers to a specific period.

Yeah, it's not up for debate really. It's already (roughly) defined as late 70's to mid 80's

[The Laird]

It has to be the mid-to-late 80s, when there were some great games to be played at home, but the arcades were still a treat with new stuff appearing all the time with better graphics and those amazing motion cabinets.

THIS!!!!!

[GigaPepsiMan]

Golden age was the 70's and 80's. Silver Age was the 90's to I'd dare to say the mid 2000's.

[Matt_B]

Golden age was the 70's and 80's. Silver Age was the 90's to I'd dare to say the mid 2000's.

I suppose you could now say that we're in the "thin air" age, given the prevalence of downloads.

[Megamixer]

Is this a bit of a personal opinion question? I think I'd consider the late 70's-mid/late 80's (Atari, home computers, arcades etc.) as the Golden Age from the viewpoint of innovation and greater freedom to create without such commercial pressures as we have today.

On the other hand, my own personal Golden Age is the 32bit era which is probably because I'm younger than most on here and grew up on the tail end of the 16bit era and spent a lot of time with the PS1.

[joefish]

Has to be before the 16-bit consoles came along and ruined everything with ludicrously over-priced cartridges and repetitive samey scrolling platform games. It may have been a boom commercially, but until the Playstation took 3D back from the PC, and brought with it a new era of arcade-quality games at home, there was a definite creative rut in gaming.

You could say that that was when many of the classic gaming genres were defined, but you could also say that that's because anything outside the usual genres didn't get a look-in; it brought with it the ever-worsening plague of marketing-led management never again daring to try something new.

[PostieDoc]

I disagree with the people saying it has to be the late 70s, early 80s and there is no room for debate.

The question is what do you consider the golden age of gaming.
So it is subjective to which period the individual enjoyed most and remembers as outstanding for gaming.

As an Amiga/ PC gamer that is why I chose the 90s as it was undoubtedly the best decade to game on those machines and hasn't been equalled since.

[Negative Creep]

Has to be before the 16-bit consoles came along and ruined everything with ludicrously over-priced cartridges and repetitive samey scrolling platform games. It may have been a boom commercially, but until the Playstation took 3D back from the PC, and brought with it a new era of arcade-quality games at home, there was a definite creative rut in gaming.

You could say that that was when many of the classic gaming genres were defined, but you could also say that that's because anything outside the usual genres didn't get a look-in; it brought with it the ever-worsening plague of marketing-led management never again daring to try something new.

I can't agree with that - the endless 16 bit platformers were no different to the countless 8 bit Space Invaders clones or today's slew of Call of Duty wannabes. Advances in technology allowed games like Mario Kart, Pilotwings or Donkey Kong Country, which did something new and wouldn't have been possible before

Early 90's aside, I'm really starting to wonder if the early days of the previous generation were a golden age. Plenty of innovation and online gaming for the masses, just before DLC, microtransactions and season passes came along. I certainly think we'll look back fondly at the last time it was possible to walk into a shop and buy a complete game