10 Gaming Habits That Instantly Reveal Your Age

Nobody wants to think about it, but well, we're old. That said, you don't have to think about it as an inherently negative thing, because you were lucky enough to have lived through what most consider to be the golden era of video games, not just because of the releases, but also because of the community and the technology.

People crave the feelings they had back then so badly that retro tech has even started trending again. Of course, I'm not saying that being a gamer in the modern age doesn't have its benefits, but there's something about those old consoles and midnight release parties that has me wishing we could go back. So, join me on a look through some of the most nostalgic parts of being a gamer decades ago.

10 Solving Puzzles Yourself

This one is a bit hypocritical for me to write, given that I write guides for video games for a living, but I do think access to the internet as a whole has completely changed the way we approach games. Back in the day, if you were stuck in a puzzle or didn't know where to go next, your only options were to figure it out yourself, call a hotline, if there was one, or reach out to a friend or older sibling to ask for help.

This meant that you often forced yourself to overcome challenges, even if it took all day, and had the payoff of knowing you did it on your own. Even if you had to ask someone for help directly, this often resulted in a bonding moment with someone who shared the same passion for the game.

With how limited most people's free time is nowadays, most of us just unfortunately don't have the luxury of spending all evening on one puzzle anymore, but it's still a shame we've somewhat abandoned this connection we could be sharing with others.

Even On Their Way Out, Physical Games Still Hit Different

I miss the ritual of opening cases, reading manuals, and connecting with people.

9 Expecting Games To Stay The Same

Speaking of simple times, remember when games were just finished when they released? Updates are a great thing because, with the way modern games operate, several of them would fail without the ability to release hotfixes that resolve bugs or updated content that keeps the game alive.

That said, if you're like me, then you probably forget this is even a thing 90 percent of the time and have to turn on auto-updates on pretty much everything. Growing up, games came on a physical cartridge or disc, and what you had was what there was. There'd be no updates or patches. What you held in your hand was the game in its entirety, and you could make safe purchases knowing that it wouldn't change.

Of course, beyond updates, we have recently gone a step further where a game may not only be entirely different from the day you bought it because of updates, but it may just be gone entirely. Buying a game no longer means you'll be able to pop it in 10 years from now and play it. My Overwatch disc will forever reside in its case, collecting dust because I own a game that no longer exists.

8 Blowing Into A Cartridge

Moving on to some lighter things, if you grew up playing on consoles like the NES, then the first thing you do when a physical game isn't loading is probably pop it out and blow air into the slot.

After all, back in the day, blowing air into a cartridge or Memory Card seemed to fix everything. Unfortunately, things aren't so simple now, as if you're having a problem with loading a game, it could be one of a million different little issues.

7 Sitting Too Close To The TV Because Of Wired Controllers

While wireless controllers certainly aren't new by any means, I still remember when they were something of a luxury item to have and didn't automatically come with the console. Sitting on the floor in front of the TV and potentially ripping your console off its shelf when you moved to fast was just something we all grew to accept, and probably why most of us have poor eyesight now.

No matter how nostalgic I may be for consoles of the past, I can say with some certainty that I think most of us would agree this is one change we warmly welcome. The only downside now is that you do risk losing controllers, and they overall seem to be a bit more fragile than those in the past.

6 Reading The Game Booklet

By far, one of my personal favorite memories of buying a new game was opening up the case and looking through the little booklet that came with it. They often included descriptions of characters, tips on the game, a bit of lore, and all kinds of other things to get you hyped about playing the game.

Nowadays, you're lucky if you find anything inside, and if you do, it's probably just a piece of paper with the game's art on it. That said, I still check every case, just in case.

5 Going Out For Midnight Releases

While we certainly still look forward to release dates and preloading games onto our consoles if given the option, it just doesn't quite have the same level of anticipation build-up that you used to get when you attended a midnight release event at your local game shop that might have even been hosting events leading up to midnight.

People were camped out in tents together, the air was filled with excitement, and everyone was having a good time and getting to know the others in line. Of course, this is likely something that would go incredibly poorly if it were attempted now because of scalper issues, but back in the day, leaving the store without a copy, even if you waited hours, was almost unheard of.

4 Swapping Out Physical Games

Another old thing that I think we might actually be appreciative of changes to, to a degree, is swapping out games. Since games were primarily physical copies, changing the game you're playing meant having to get up, sift through your collection, and swap the discs.

This risked scratches, was especially tedious if you had to share the console with others who played different games from you, and could be a pain if you didn't often put games back in the correct case and had to spend time searching for the right one. So, while we may not love everything that's accompanied the switch to digital games, this one quality-of-life change does make things a bit easier.

3 Using Cheat Codes

While most players now use mods to do crazy things in games and unlock hidden features, this used to be the sole work of cheat codes. Cheat codes were specific codes, usually a combination of button inputs, for an individual game that you could enter in the game's menu that would result in some unique effect.

Cheat codes varied from being a way to help you progress quicker to just being a weird customization that didn't otherwise have any impact on the game. Mods are great, but there was just something about mastering a button input and seeing something strange, and perhaps unexpected, happen on the screen.

2 Going To LAN Parties

This is perhaps one of the ones that hurts the most to write about, but before there was easy access to online multiplayer, the only way you got together to have a group gaming session was through a LAN party. For those reading this who don't know what this is, it was essentially a gathering where everyone brought their own hardware and connected it to the same local network to play together.

These often went on all through the night and consisted of gaming, food, and hanging out with friends. Of course, the drawbacks to this were that you couldn't enjoy the company of anyone who wasn't local, whereas players can now join together across countries, but the community feel was unlike anything else.

1 Renting Video Games

Last, but certainly not least, is something everyone should remember, and that's renting video games. Places like Blockbuster weren't just for movies, and there was something magical about seeing a wall of empty cases all bearing the cover of the biggest new release. While you can usually get refunds if you don't enjoy a game, depending on the platform, renting has a variety of benefits.

Not only could you test out a new game before actually committing to buying it, but if you couldn't afford to purchase a new game every other week, then this offered a way for you to avoid missing out on a game for a much more reasonable price. With most games being nearly $70 nowadays, I think we all wish rentals like this were readily available again.

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