Nice, Ray! Just dig the dagger in a BIT deeper... Those were "awesome graphics" when we started playing video games... {affectionately dusts off the Pong machine}

I didn't pick up either. I thought about trying to get my hands on one or the other to put on ebay, but figured it wasn't worth the trouble. I was just at the mall an hour ago and walked past the Game Stop and thought about going in to check to see if they had any left but figured there'd be no way. Then as I was walking out I noticed someone buying a Wii so I walked in and asked if they had any left and they told me that was the last one. Oh well. I watched some of the games at the Wii kiosk and they looked pretty slick.

Hoping for a PS3 some day - maybe if I can get my hands on it for about $450 I'd _think_ about it. Maybe...

A nephew offered to pick up an extra Wii for me last night, which he'll drop off on Thanksgiving. Will be nice to have Wii Sports to help work off those extra holiday calories!

If you haven't played a Wii yet, you really should. I got to play one a couple weekends ago at a tech conference here in Seattle. My favorite Wii Sport game was bowling, which was pretty intuitive with the Wii remote. Boxing was definitely the best workout. Unfortunately a vlogger captured the tournament on video, and I'm dreading how stupid I'll look... the one major downside of the Wii.

I really like my Xbox 360...I'll be sticking with that for a while... I'd love to pick up a PS3, but there's no real need to in my mind. I'd like to get a Wii for the novelty factor, but my wife would kill me!! It's ok--I'll be playing some Call of Duty 3 and Gears of War over the holiday weekend.

Hey Lance - I started playing Gears of War last night.

Wow. What a freaking good game.

I didnt get either. Im waiting till 07 when the prices drop. I doubt Ill get a PS3 for 2 reasons:

1. Too expensive. I'd prefer to spend that cash on a high end gfx card
2. I think Sony's "limited release" is a BS marketing scam. I don't agree with the hype, and I think it's an extremely negative thing in the long run.

Sad, because I've historically been a PS user (since Sega disappeared).

After getting an Xbox 360 the week before, it was difficult for me to justify getting either. I will probably get a Wii for the kids...yea, for the kids.... I have never been a big PS fan, so unless someone gives me one, I won't get a PS3.

That's Basketball for Atari 2600, right? Great game.

My son asked me if I had video games when I was a kid, and I had to show him this http://www.pong-story.com/c...

His reply was, 'That doesn't look very fun'

I had the old atari too, but who remembers some of the old C64 games? Anyone ever play Jumpman - or Maxamillion? Or the original Castle Wolfenstein? Now THOSE are classics!

How about Swiss Family Robinson - my brother and I _still_ quote that game!

2 games I loved from the C64 are Lode Runner and Seven Cities of Gold.

todd - I didn't have a c64 (I had an apple 2e and a 2+), but my friend did. I still remember the text based nuke war game. That was fun as heck. I'd love to recreate that in flex.

I'm in the same boat as you are. I'd like to Wii, but I'll pick one up in a month or two. I did attempt to pick one up on Sunday, but I guess I'm just too casual, they were sold out from the 2 stores I visited.

I played both of those as well. Both the Apple2 and C64 were really good game platforms back there. But I think the BASIC language was much easier on the Apple.

I think I remember Seven Cities of Gold...vaguely.

I loved the text based games - I don't know why...

The only thing that sucked was you had to spell the command exactly as was hardcoded in the program. I remember one time being stuck in a room and not being able to get past it - so we printed out the code and searched it and found what command they were looking for - turns out it was misspelled in the code!! What an easy way to cheat on a game :) Oh the memories.......

Todd, I learned Hex so I could cheat at Bards Tale.

I'm certainly not as aging as everyone here is! I never was around for all the old systems mentioned here but where I started was on NES. The new systems are nice and most definitely I will get a PS3 after a few years. There's still plenty I want to play on PS2. What I do plan within the next few months though is the Wii. That will be a ton of fun, hands down!

I picked up a Wii Sunday morning. Ton of fun, my wife even decided to play a little bit.

Ray, you should start a geek gamers forum!!

I went with Wii as well at a WalMart midnight release. Only had to wait a few hours and I got the next to last one!

http://further.gregnilsen.c...

Loving it so far!

A coworker picked up the Wii and really likes it. Another coworker got screwed by GameStop and was not a happy camper this morning. :) I'm planning on picking up one sometime before Christmas, I think, though I still have many, many hours of play left in the games I already have (Oblivion alone could eat up whatever vacation time I might have.)

Does anyone remember Mail Order Monsters for the C64? My brother and I poured thousands of hours into that. Bard's Tale took almost as much of our lives as well. :)

I stood in line when ebgames did their pre-orders for the Wii so I was able to just walk in on Sunday and grab mine. Two other developers here tried to get one. One camped out and got one, another was unable to find one. I love the retro arcade. I had an Atari 2600 when I was young, but NES is really where my gaming roots are so this system is a dream to me.

My Managers wife actually tried to stand in line for the PS3 but then ended up not having enough.

I spent many enjoyable hours on the C64 and Apple II! With such lousy graphics the playability and/or premise HAD to be fun. :-)

Two genres today's youngsters may never see are the text adventures such as Odyssey and Star Wars for the Apple II, and the LucasArts Click-Verb-Object adventure puzzles like Maniac Mansion for the C64.

Some games that I'd love to try again include Airborne Rangers & Raid Over Moscow (c64) and Dig Dug, Diamond Mine & Sundog for Apple IIe with the amber monochrome display. ;-)

...but to answer your latest question, I'm leaning towards the Wii.

I stood in line 11 hours on Saturday to score a Wii. Even still, I was almost the last person to get one. What can I say? I love it, the kids love it, my wife loves it. It's great all around! I'm having some problems - can't get it on the net, says the servers are down, and I can't find any nunchuck controllers for the life of me.

Ken: Is Mail Order Monsters (c64) that game where you had a little man who could customize/upgrade a monster and then take them to an arena to challenge other players monsters? I never had it, but I remember enjoying it at a friend's house. :-)

I wish that Archon (sort of like Battle Chess) would also be ported and/or updated for one of the modern systems. Just imagine how cool it could be with modern graphics?!

Back on topic: Is the Wii controller a big selling point to you? Or are many of you looking at the lower price and greater availability of the Wii (or 360) like me?

Great post Dan. For me its all 3! The controller looks great and everywhere I have read many say how intuitive it is. It's really nice to see a low price too and availability as I wouldn't mind getting a PS3 but why kid yourself when you know you will never find one for the next several months. Big props to Nintendo for going the right way not only making something affordable but that I can actually buy at this time of year. For now its definitely the system I plan to buy.

I got a chance to play with one last week (a friend was evaluating one for a magazine article). We had a lot of fun with the sports games. We hooked it to a projector so boxing was really interesting. I would say it was also the weakest of the games. My wife was sore the next morning from taking Tennis too seriously. ;-) Zelda was beautiful, but not very exciting for a group to play. It would certainly be a must buy if I got the system though.

For me the controllers were the selling point. The games were much more engaging. Good graphics don't make the game (though they certainly can help). I am REALLY surprised that it doesn't play DVD's though. I know it will sometime next year, but still. Not sure if I will get one but props to Nintendo for not directly competing with Sony and MS.

I just don't see myself getting a PS3. Maybe the 360 so I can hook it up to my media center and take advantage.

Dan: Yeah! That's the one! Great game - rather odd but totally imaginative. Interesting factoid: MoM was designed by the same guy that did Archon (which was also a favorite of mine.) I'm really glad that Nintendo is taking the lead in trying to make games fun again.

I had an Applie IIe until 1994, and that is all I played as far as computer games. I played castle wolfenstein, and Archon, both very cool games for their time. I started with the atari 2600 and a coleco. Actually I had the coleco first, and later got an atari attachment so I could play all the atari 2600 games.

I bought an orginal playstation years later after it had been out. I only bought 2 or 3 games for it and then I didnt play it much anymore. It is currently sitting in my storage shed in a box. I looked into the XBOX, but couldnt justify buying a new console due to the fact I wouldnt play it much. I wanted the PS2 only for Metal Gear Solid 2. Again, I didnt think that was a good enough reason. So now that PS3 and Wii is out, im thinking of buying one. Lets just hope i dont come up with an excuse to buy one.

One word: Infocom!

B->

</cliff>

Ha! That screen shot of the Atari 2600 Bball game sure brings back memories. My brother and I had some classic duels on that game. I wasn't sophisticated enough to get into those C64 games others have mentioned. It was Atari 2600 all the way in my house! Missile Command was another favorite.
As far as the consoles these days -- Heck, I barely have time to spend on the PS2 I got as a gift a couple of years ago. Besides, I just can't see spending over $200 on a game console ($600 for a PS3 ???!?!). Guess I kind of grew out of the whole gaming thing. Eventually I guess I'll have to deal with it when my 3-year old gets old enough (by then I'm sure I'll be plopping down a few G's, I'm sure).

Approximately 1 minute into Wii sports, I knew I had to get one!!!

PS: Long time listener, first time caller...

You got to go with the wii.

360 FTW!