Catullus

The New Yorker. And I would read a print edition of Idle Thumbs.

I have been in Iraq for the last couple months as a foreign correspondent. Saddled with an ancient laptop, I've been playing old Apple II+ games from my childhood on an emulator when I have free time. Thankfully I can check the Thumb and Bittorrent the latest episodes of BSG, even though it takes me an entire day. The war can be put on hold for Starbuck and Sharon anyday. But here is the best news of all: FOUR DAYS TILL I GO HOME!

Well, Jake, I thought the people referring to Pong were just kidding. But for those who really did get their start with Pong and Spacewar, I give all the due respect. I'd agree, the first generation ends with the death of the 2600, and the second begins with the NES. This makes me a kind of "tweener" insofar as I came into the gaming world almost exactly between these periods. (I did play the notorious E.T., which may make you wonder why I became a gamer at all.) Is there a different set of generations, though, for PC games? As a wannabe historian (and someone who has always preferred PC games to console ones) I am interested in what people think.

This thread is making me feel old. Gather round, children... I started gaming sometime in the mid-'80s on my dad's Apple II+, when I was 8 or 9. I can't remember the first one I ever played, but I was really into the old EA games, from the days when EA actually had some creativity: Adventure Construction Set, Skyfox, the first Bard's Tale, Seven Cities of Gold. I even played M.U.L.E. a few times. Dan Bunten, rest his soul, was the man. And then he was the woman. My dad made a few games himself, but I never played any of them as a kid except a all-text boxing game which had great descriptions of the action. It really goes to show how the imagination will always trump graphics. I was already in my teens and hooked by the time all those Sierra and Lucasarts classics came out.

A good intro is like good in-game music. You should be able to see it multiple times without getting sick of it, and it should get you pumped to play the game. Of the games that haven't been mentioned yet, an otherwise forgotten game called Startopia had an intro that was a brilliant parody of the opening scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey." It had some neat gameplay ideas but I think it sold poorly. Ahem. Also, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Interstate 76's funny, funky intro given that it was profiled so recently.

Geez, didn't realize the French would be so mad about not getting that Olympic bid. On a serious note, glad to hear everybody's okay. Here in the USA people are patrolling the D.C. Metro with machine guns -- not something you see every day.

I thought it was Kingz, but when you get to be my age the memory starts to go, so it could very well be you, Nick.

I'm also a lapsed fan of the Adrenaline Vault, and I like them for all the same reasons. When I was in college I used to read a guy named Bruce Geryk on GamesDomain (back when GD had some pretty good writing). I don't know if he still writes about games, but he was great. In general, though, games journalism seems to chew up writers in their 20s and spit them out in their 30s. Seeing that phenomenon has been one of the things that has discouraged me from working as a games writer. But the mainstream media is slowly waking up--we now have one writer who covers the industry full-time, and another who reviews them. Kingzjester: How appropriate that you used to come from the D.C. area -- it was you, or at least I think so, who brought me here, when I saw your sig in a post from the DoW forums. Frederick hasn't changed too much, but I find there's enough to keep me busy.

Hello all, I've been a big fan of Idle Thumbs for a few months now. I haven't done a survey but it seems like the best writing about games that's out there. Everything I used to read seems to have either gone out of business or completely soulless and corporate. It's refreshing to see the enthusiasm, intelligence and wit of the Thumb staff. I hope this site flourishes. In real life I'm a journalist -- the regular kind, who covers city council meetings and the occasional homicide. I'm originally from San Francisco but now live in a small town near Washington D.C. where I can write about all the oddities of American suburban life.

Moosferatu, there's a whole underground organization of fanboys who adored Yufster and are now kicking themselves for lacking the courage and wit to say anything. Call us SHY: Silently Heartbroken by Yufster.

Yufster, I think I speak for all the lurkers here who had grown quite fond of you when I say we're devastated.