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> When I was a youngster in the early 90s [...] most homes didn't have a computer "Most homes" might be technically correct, but home computers were a thing si

by scoot 5y ago

> When I was a youngster in the early 90s [...] most homes didn't have a computer "Most homes" might be technically correct, but home computers were a thing since the late 70s, and really taking off in the early 1980s withe the ZX81, ZX Spectrum, VIC 20, Commodore 64, and a myriad of others, depending on your geography. > Almost nobody my age was playing computer games, only people working in industry. This, of course, is complete nonsense. By the early 90s capable home computers such as the Amiga and Atari had if anything reached their hayday, with a myriad of popular games available. (Not to mention the popularity of dedicated games consoles.)

grayclhn 5y ago
Went to high school in an affluent suburb in the 90s in the US. “Playing computer games with friends” was either on one computer or involved dragging a computer over to a friend’s house and wiring it together with their desktop. Parent’s experience rings true to me.
moralestapia 5y ago
>Almost nobody my age was playing computer games, only people working in industry. I recall these days and this statement has some truth to it. Sure, a lot of folks had home computers, but they were mostly people who were interested in computers in the first place, and that was because of their work in the industry.
Forgeties79 5y ago
This strikes me as a bit pedantic as both of you are somewhat right and ultimately a lot of the assessments have been pretty subjective/qualitative. I tend to lean towards the other guy’s characterization personally, but I wouldn’t say you’re wrong. Part of it is that we have to recognize the video game industry dwarfs all other media right now - but in the early 90’s? Not even close. Yes gaming existed prior, including computer games, but the vast majority of kids did not have the technical know-how, let alone the hardware, to install and run them until later in the decade. Adults at the time were a very mixed bag about it, with most electing to not participate at all. Doom came out in 1993. Things really began to shift about that time. By ‘96/‘97 you had Starcraft and other games start blowing up, but that’s latter half of the decade for sure.
- EvanAnderson 5y ago
  My perspective (from near Dayton, Ohio, US, born in 1977) was that a significant number of people had home computers (a lot of Commodore 64's and VIC 20's, various TRS-80 models, some Atari 8-bit machines, some TI machines, a few Amiga machines, a scant few Apple II's and even fewer Macintosh machines) but most kids my age weren't using the machines significantly. Kids might play a game here or there, or type a school paper on them, but that was mostly it. I went to a few of the local "computer club" meetings that were mostly attended by the stereotypical middle-aged "computer guy" (who I have now become... >sigh<). Doom was definitely "a thing" in the early 90s and started to bring some of the kids over into PC gaming. We had a small BBS scene, too, so that brought a few of the more computer-inclined kids into computing. (Of course, the ISPs moving in in 94-95 killed the BBS scene quickly.) Game consoles-- the Atari 2600, NES, and SNES-- were the only significant interaction with computing devices at home that I saw. The "gaming scene", in the early 90s, was mostly about NES / SNES carts and arcade games (Mortal Kombat was a big deal). I didn't got to a particularly well-funded public school so I saw Atari 8-bit, Apple II, and Mac LC machines there. Oh, and TI calculators, of course (but, sadly, mostly the TI-81... The '85 wasn't becoming "a thing" until I was in college).
  - Forgeties79 5y ago
    Yeah this is very much how I’d describe as well. Nintendo had captured ~90% of the console market in the late 80’s/early 90’s while consoles were basically THE way most people played video games. There’s a great book called Console Wars if anyone is curious about the rise of Nintendo, Sega, etc. It can be a tad dry at times but overall the stories behind these companies are often compelling in their own right. It does a GREAT job of explaining early gaming at universities and how certain programs proliferated. The 70’s were fascinating - people saw what games could be but were all tripping over each other trying to figure out how to get there.
  - saltcured 5y ago
    I'm a few years older than you. In my suburban schools in the S.F. Bay Area, many kids were producing any writing homework printed on home computers or word processors as soon as the teachers relented on requiring "cursive" handwriting. I think this began around the 4th or 5th grade and ramped up through middle school (so around 1983-1988 in my case). Early on, the homework signaled which families had Apples and Macs with fancy printers that made an attempt at WYSIWG rendered fonts instead of grotty fixed font dot matrix. A lot of kids had Macs without techie parents but I suppose white-collar jobs or even some tradesmen who had made it to middle or upper-middle class. By high school PCs with Windows and laser printers were joining the fray. Marketing told parents this was good for their kids, and kids were aware of the wealth indicator too. I feel like home computers were more office tools or educational rather than game platforms for most of my peers. I remember a subset of kids had games on VIC 20, C64, DOS PC, or Apple IIe/IIc in the mid 80s. By the late 80s we had more PC games, but many households already had dedicated Atari, Nintendo, or Sega set-top gaming. I think shareware and pirated game floppies did circulate further than just those who actually attended or even knew what a computer club or BBS might be.
fastasucan 5y ago
I think you should allow people to share their own anecdotes and recollection of their own childhood. Its not like this person claimed that this was the case for all of the world, all of the US or all of their state. Maybe few/nobody his age where he lived was playing computer games, how can you know if that is nonsense?
- alar44 5y ago
  He's right though. Home PCs exploded in the early 90s. He said he was in DC. What he's saying is just not accurate at all. I grew up in a small Midwest town and tons of people had computers in the early 90s. Most people had a PC and internet by the late 90s. It was the heyday of Doom for crying out loud.
  - phil21 5y ago
    In the early 90s it depended vastly on your demographic in my neck of the woods (Minneapolis). I read that comment largely nodding in agreement. First you had to be able to afford one, even second hand 286's in the early 90's were a moderate expense for many families. I was absolutely the abnormal one of my peer group in school when I had pre-existing computer knowledge from home for "computer class". Certainly the only one at all into gaming on it, other than friends enjoying coming over to play random games at times. Entering high school in the mid-90's there were only maybe a half dozen to dozen kids who you could remotely describe as "PC Gamers" - but plenty of console folks who you could at least talk with. Only a small handful who regularly used BBS' or knew what a MUD was or the like. I think for "most houses had a PC by then" might be accurate for houses with school-age children (as it was a powerful meme by then you needed one for schoolwork), but I don't recall a single childless relative having one other than the hacker uncle who taught me. The vast majority of my peers who had PCs or Macs at home never really used them other than as-prescribed for word processing or whatnot - a lot lacked the hardware (math coprocessors, sound card, a bit later graphics accelerators) to really interest most kids when they had been exposed to arcades and the NES by then. It rapidly shifted around 93-95 or so, but the years fly by so I could be off a couple. I remember distinctly going from being the only one who had ever heard of the Internet to being asked daily about how to get hooked up. Crazy rates of change compared to today's relatively stagnant industry.

by scoot 5y ago

grayclhn 5y ago

Went to high school in an affluent suburb in the 90s in the US. “Playing computer games with friends” was either on one computer or involved dragging a computer over to a friend’s house and wiring it together with their desktop. Parent’s experience rings true to me.

moralestapia 5y ago

>Almost nobody my age was playing computer games, only people working in industry. I recall these days and this statement has some truth to it. Sure, a lot of folks had home computers, but they were mostly people who were interested in computers in the first place, and that was because of their work in the industry.

Forgeties79 5y ago

This strikes me as a bit pedantic as both of you are somewhat right and ultimately a lot of the assessments have been pretty subjective/qualitative. I tend to lean towards the other guy’s characterization personally, but I wouldn’t say you’re wrong. Part of it is that we have to recognize the video game industry dwarfs all other media right now - but in the early 90’s? Not even close. Yes gaming existed prior, including computer games, but the vast majority of kids did not have the technical know-how, let alone the hardware, to install and run them until later in the decade. Adults at the time were a very mixed bag about it, with most electing to not participate at all. Doom came out in 1993. Things really began to shift about that time. By ‘96/‘97 you had Starcraft and other games start blowing up, but that’s latter half of the decade for sure.

EvanAnderson 5y ago
My perspective (from near Dayton, Ohio, US, born in 1977) was that a significant number of people had home computers (a lot of Commodore 64's and VIC 20's, various TRS-80 models, some Atari 8-bit machines, some TI machines, a few Amiga machines, a scant few Apple II's and even fewer Macintosh machines) but most kids my age weren't using the machines significantly. Kids might play a game here or there, or type a school paper on them, but that was mostly it. I went to a few of the local "computer club" meetings that were mostly attended by the stereotypical middle-aged "computer guy" (who I have now become... >sigh<). Doom was definitely "a thing" in the early 90s and started to bring some of the kids over into PC gaming. We had a small BBS scene, too, so that brought a few of the more computer-inclined kids into computing. (Of course, the ISPs moving in in 94-95 killed the BBS scene quickly.) Game consoles-- the Atari 2600, NES, and SNES-- were the only significant interaction with computing devices at home that I saw. The "gaming scene", in the early 90s, was mostly about NES / SNES carts and arcade games (Mortal Kombat was a big deal). I didn't got to a particularly well-funded public school so I saw Atari 8-bit, Apple II, and Mac LC machines there. Oh, and TI calculators, of course (but, sadly, mostly the TI-81... The '85 wasn't becoming "a thing" until I was in college).
- Forgeties79 5y ago
  Yeah this is very much how I’d describe as well. Nintendo had captured ~90% of the console market in the late 80’s/early 90’s while consoles were basically THE way most people played video games. There’s a great book called Console Wars if anyone is curious about the rise of Nintendo, Sega, etc. It can be a tad dry at times but overall the stories behind these companies are often compelling in their own right. It does a GREAT job of explaining early gaming at universities and how certain programs proliferated. The 70’s were fascinating - people saw what games could be but were all tripping over each other trying to figure out how to get there.
- saltcured 5y ago
  I'm a few years older than you. In my suburban schools in the S.F. Bay Area, many kids were producing any writing homework printed on home computers or word processors as soon as the teachers relented on requiring "cursive" handwriting. I think this began around the 4th or 5th grade and ramped up through middle school (so around 1983-1988 in my case). Early on, the homework signaled which families had Apples and Macs with fancy printers that made an attempt at WYSIWG rendered fonts instead of grotty fixed font dot matrix. A lot of kids had Macs without techie parents but I suppose white-collar jobs or even some tradesmen who had made it to middle or upper-middle class. By high school PCs with Windows and laser printers were joining the fray. Marketing told parents this was good for their kids, and kids were aware of the wealth indicator too. I feel like home computers were more office tools or educational rather than game platforms for most of my peers. I remember a subset of kids had games on VIC 20, C64, DOS PC, or Apple IIe/IIc in the mid 80s. By the late 80s we had more PC games, but many households already had dedicated Atari, Nintendo, or Sega set-top gaming. I think shareware and pirated game floppies did circulate further than just those who actually attended or even knew what a computer club or BBS might be.

fastasucan 5y ago

I think you should allow people to share their own anecdotes and recollection of their own childhood. Its not like this person claimed that this was the case for all of the world, all of the US or all of their state. Maybe few/nobody his age where he lived was playing computer games, how can you know if that is nonsense?

alar44 5y ago
He's right though. Home PCs exploded in the early 90s. He said he was in DC. What he's saying is just not accurate at all. I grew up in a small Midwest town and tons of people had computers in the early 90s. Most people had a PC and internet by the late 90s. It was the heyday of Doom for crying out loud.
- phil21 5y ago
  In the early 90s it depended vastly on your demographic in my neck of the woods (Minneapolis). I read that comment largely nodding in agreement. First you had to be able to afford one, even second hand 286's in the early 90's were a moderate expense for many families. I was absolutely the abnormal one of my peer group in school when I had pre-existing computer knowledge from home for "computer class". Certainly the only one at all into gaming on it, other than friends enjoying coming over to play random games at times. Entering high school in the mid-90's there were only maybe a half dozen to dozen kids who you could remotely describe as "PC Gamers" - but plenty of console folks who you could at least talk with. Only a small handful who regularly used BBS' or knew what a MUD was or the like. I think for "most houses had a PC by then" might be accurate for houses with school-age children (as it was a powerful meme by then you needed one for schoolwork), but I don't recall a single childless relative having one other than the hacker uncle who taught me. The vast majority of my peers who had PCs or Macs at home never really used them other than as-prescribed for word processing or whatnot - a lot lacked the hardware (math coprocessors, sound card, a bit later graphics accelerators) to really interest most kids when they had been exposed to arcades and the NES by then. It rapidly shifted around 93-95 or so, but the years fly by so I could be off a couple. I remember distinctly going from being the only one who had ever heard of the Internet to being asked daily about how to get hooked up. Crazy rates of change compared to today's relatively stagnant industry.