[rtrooney]

Well. let's put things in perspective. I was born in 1947. I was an English Literature major in college, but minored in computer programing and computer-based marketing statistics. This goes back to the days of Fortran, Cobol and honest to god key punch cards. So I was fairly computer savvy long before the first PC hit the market.

My first PC was an 8088-based machine, with a hard drive no less, which meant I didn't have to use a DOS boot disk every time I started a session. I think I purchased it around 1983-or 4. It, an RGB monitor and a dot-matrix printer got me started. Think the basic setup cost about $3000US. An enormous sum of money at the time. But to compete in a business environment, it was necessary to have the same equipment the Big Boys had.

Of course you can't do business 24/7. Well, you can, but it will drive you nuts. And. I heard about these things called games. Almost all the first games I played were produced by independent developers. I could download trial versions via my blaziningly fast 1400kbs dial-up modem. (Another extravagent expense.)

Then, via the CompuServe GAMERS forum, I heard about this fledgling company called Sierra. They were producing games with actual pictures instead of text and connect-the-dots-style games. WOW! First game I purchased was Iceman. Absolutely hated it.

I called Sierra customer support. For all I know, I may have talked to Ken Williams himself. I was told that Iceman was not the best game for someone just starting. Whoever it was recommended KQ1. Bought it, and have been hooked ever since.

Bottom line is that it doesn't matter when you were born. If you bought a PC in 1990, it was basically going to cost the same as any other computer purchased in 1990. The only relavent thing is when you started playing games. If you're 21 today, you were born in 1990. If you started playing games when you were 12, that would be 2002. That means there are almost two decades of games you may have missed.

There's a lot of nostalgia about the "golden era"of gaming. Some of it is justified. Much of it is not. People remember the "golden age" of television, but tend to forget that for every Show of Shows or Playhouse 90, there was also a Mr Ed or Green Acres.

If you want to go back and play some of the very early games, be selective.