A 70-year-old man at my job asked me if I had played Gradius

[NOAH]

Haven't been on here in a long time, but I thought I had to tell someone. I thought it was highly unusual and awesome for a guy of this age to have asked that question. The man was a family member of one of my patients in the emergency room. He started talking about old video games but in surprising detail for someone of this age who wasn't a game developer (hell, even developers of games in the 80's aren't this old typically). I mean sure, guys who were 40 in 1985 probably know what Super Mario Bros. is or maybe extended their youth enough to play arcade games in the 70's, but this is generally regarded as an age range that missed video games since Pong didn't even surface until adulthood for these folks and they didn't really grow up with electronic games of any kind. This dude really sparked conversation when I heard him talk about Battletoads to one of my co-workers who didn't know what it was. This guy had a surprisingly vivid memory of so many games it blew me away. Sure a lot of people his age bought their kids games around this time, fewer actually watched their kids play, even fewer actually picked up a controller, even fewer played regularly, and this guy apparently not only played them but was enthusiastic enough to remember everything about them. This man was without question, the OLDEST video game enthusiast I have ever met. I further appreciated how he talked shit about the trends of modern popular games.

Hope everyone is well here on shmups.

[rjosal]

That is awesome.

[KAI]

I wish he was my grandpa

[scrilla4rella]

haha, that's awesome!

[broken harbour]

That's as awesome as the 60 year old guy I know that likes death metal.

[rugdoctor]

Maybe this is what the Phalanx box art was all about?

[LordHypnos]

Hahaha, so cool!

[lilmanjs]

Awesome story. My dad being in his 60s loves video games. He is the reason we ever had a ps1, and bonded over Viper Phase One at the arcade. Heck, it is cool when older people love video games.

[kayakoyaka]

That's awesome lol. The oldest gamer I know is a guy I used to play Starcraft with. He was close to 50 back then. Well I don't count people who play the Wii as gamers.

[MintyTheCat]

I have heard of some Japanese grannies who are well into videogames so maybe so. But yes, until fairly recently it was not considered cool to be reading a comic or playing a videogame if you were older than eighteen but Japan has always been cool with things like that. So yes, it is quite something to find a older chap in his 70s who is cool with it in the West.

Thanks for sharing.

[kennyrh]

Well it's not so strange NOAH. I'm 68 next month and I've been visiting arcades to play shmups since 1984. Actually the acceptance of older blokes like me is pretty good amongst the many young guys i know who work in the games shops around my area. Nobody has said to me "what's an old fart like you doing still playing shmups and video games?"

I mean, behind my back they might have a snigger and call me an old twat but I've never encountered any ageism to my face at least.

Thank god I have a hobby. Shmups forever !!

[Oniros]

Thanks for sharing OP, I aspire to be cool like him one day.

Well it's not so strange NOAH. I'm 68 next month and I've been visiting arcades to play shmups since 1984. Actually the acceptance of older blokes like me is pretty good amongst the many young guys i know who work in the games shops around my area. Nobody has said to me "what's an old fart like you doing still playing shmups and video games?"

I mean, behind my back they might have a snigger and call me an old twat but I've never encountered any ageism to my face at least.

Thank god I have a hobby. Shmups forever !!

You're awesome. One of my life goals is to introduce to my children to the games I loved growing up, same as with books, movies, etc.

[MintyTheCat]

Well it's not so strange NOAH. I'm 68 next month and I've been visiting arcades to play shmups since 1984. Actually the acceptance of older blokes like me is pretty good amongst the many young guys i know who work in the games shops around my area. Nobody has said to me "what's an old fart like you doing still playing shmups and video games?"

I mean, behind my back they might have a snigger and call me an old twat but I've never encountered any ageism to my face at least.

Thank god I have a hobby. Shmups forever !!

That's the spirit!

I think most of us have not really taken much notice on how "old Shmups are" and just carried on with it - this is the way to go if you enjoy them.

[chempop]

We're all going to be like that dude someday haah! Awesome story, thanks for sharing Noah, I hope you are well.

[gray117]

Is the downer that it's now more likely to be an old guy than a young kid?... It's been over 10 years since v?