Having grown up during the golden age of video games, I have fond memories of picking up an Atari joystick (which had an actual stick), playing the original Super Mario Bros., the first Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mario 64. Curiously, just as much as I remember those games, I remember the rooms I played them in. Let's take a trip down memory lane and take a look at how the living room has changed over the decades.
The Seventies
My first video game memory was playing Joust and Pitfall on the Atari 2600. I had to be around four years old, and this is honestly one of the only memories I can still recall from that age. I remember the old shag carpet on the living room floor, and the brown pajamas my sister wore when we played together. I'm not sure why this particular memory sticks in my head from that young age, but I'm glad it does. (The living room pictured above, from production designer Jodi Ginnever, has the same shag carpeting that I remember.)
The Eighties
Another one of my oldest memories is the first time I encountered Super Mario Bros. on the original Nintendo. My parents brought me along to their friend's home, and their son had the system and game. I remember going in the beige carpeted room and watching him play it on a television screen much larger than the one in our home. I was amazed watching him zip through one of the stages — breaking bricks that launched coins with a catchy 'ba-ding'. But that wasn't all, he later pulled out a Nintendo zapper (the gun accessory) and showed me how to play Duck Hunt. My kid self must have been floored, because I still remember that moment (along with the room) pretty vividly.
The Nineties
I remember seeing Super Mario 64 for the first time at a Toys 'R Us. I walked into the store with my mom, and lined up to demo the amazing three-dimensional world with a controller that looked like a spaceship. I got that game and system for Christmas that year, and I would sneak into the main living room at night to hook the game and system up to the big screen television. The couches were poofy, the carpets were beige (still), and there was a lot of crown molding — actually, that room hasn't changed much since then.
The 2000's
A lot changed for me personally from the 90's to the mid-2000's. I graduated college, moved to another state (Minnesota!), and got a job. I was an adult, or at least trying to fake it as one. Then the Nintendo Wii came out, and all the child-like enthusiasm towards video games was restored. My friends and I would host game parties and we played Wii Sports and Mario Party in rooms not too different from the one above — everyone proud of the snazzy new flat-screen they just bought.
The 2010's?
It's still early to see what is going to define the living room of this decade. But from recent home tours it seems things are moving towards a blend of all the good stuff from the past — re-imagined with new materials and finishes. As mobile technologies become more pervasive, televisions and games themselves seem to be becoming less prominent — and I'm beginning to come across more rooms without them at all then ever before. It'll be interesting to see it all unfold right in front of our eyes here on Apartment Therapy.
Do you have any memories of favorite video games? Do you remember the room you played them in?
(Images: 1. Jodi Ginnever 2. Flickr user Michael O'Neill licensed through Creative Commons 3. Roomzaar 4-5. Chris Perez)
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Hmmm...I'm pretty sure those chairs are back in style only now they cost 5 times what the set in the photo did.
I also vividly remember playing with an atari for the first time. I was about 4 or 5 years old and the game was Frogger (I think that was the name). I enjoyed watching my dad play with his friends more than I enjoyed playing it myself. Shoot forward a few years and I can recall playing Super Mario Bros. on Nintendo for the first time. Wow! I was so into it. My brothers and I would literally tackle each other for a turn. Funny how those memories stick in your mind...
My parents must have been behind the times, because our '80s living room looked suspiciously like that '70s room..
Oh I loved my Nintendo 64. I also had my sisters old SNES after she moved away to college, but I do still love my Nintendo 64. N64 and the GameCube were the systems of my childhood. I know they're in my parents basement closet. I'll have to get them and convince my roommate to play some original Mario Party with me.
mortal combat on nintendo! i just would push all the buttons hoping to get something decent to happen. and then years & years later, playing mario kart on the wii until the sun came up becuase there was nothing else to do in college.
best ever mario kart: double dash!
That seventies room is furnished with early 1960s furniture -- very good furniture that would have been über-stylish when purchased (admittedly, the upholstery and rug are awful). I don't remember anyone having a room furnished that way in the 1970s.
Another vote for the 70's pictured room being really out of date. I thought everyone who was trendy in the 70's had fairly modern decor, and a lot of white haitian cotton upholstery (which was impossible to keep clean by the way).
My brother's house was recently broken into, and they took, of all things, our childhood Sega Genesis. Why didn't they take the Macbook? I will never understand...
Mario Kart.
No game has ever inspired as much swearing as Mario Kart, its subsequent versions, and those f*cking blue shells.
I like the 70's room best actually, except for the drapes, rug, art and tech. Yup, relaxing after a nice fondue, ahhhh, I remember it - vaguely.
oh man F-zero and Mario Kart on SNES.
James Bond Golden eye on Nintendo 64 and the death battles with friends.
I will forever regret lending my still working original childhood Ninetendo system to a friend in college and never seeing it again.
Geez... was sticking the TV up that high like your living room is a waiting room a thing in the 90s? (I totally remember the 90s, its just that my parents' home was so unstylish I can't draw any conclusions from it....)
Boy am I glad I missed the '70s.
I remember my grandparents' house, where all the cousins would go for the summer. Our bedroom (first coed when we were little and later the boys' room) had blue carpet, a white metal frame bunk bed that we removed the ladder from, a white particle board dresser, a tiny closet, a white particle board TV stand and our TV, which had an NES and a Sega. The drawer and cabinet pulls were red, the bedspreads were white with yellow, blue, and red spots, and we had two bright red bean bag chairs. The art was a single "beach scene" with blue umbrellas. The adults decided to keep us (and our stuff) out of the living room. It was the perfect unisex kids' room - and probably fairly unsafe, as we would jump out of the top bunk onto the bean bags. Funny, I remember the games, but until this post, I would not have thought I remembered the room so vividly.
Seventies room? Not my seventies. I do remember plenty of crushed velvet and shag carpets. I wouldn't mind having those chairs now.
The 70s looked nothing like that. Crushed velvet, Haitian cotton, shag carpeting, flokati or raya rugs, stainless steel and glass furniture, parsons tables, leather, white laminate furniture, globe lights and no where near as dark. Pop art prints, lighter and brighter.
http://www.google.com/search?q=typical+living+room+1970s&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=7lswUN_DEMTn0QGS0oGgDw&ved=0CDAQ_AUoAQ&biw=768&bih=928#biv=i|75;d|n7ie6pgwuuAigM:
http://www.google.com/search?q=typical+living+room+1970s&hl=en&client=safari&tbo=d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=7lswUN_DEMTn0QGS0oGgDw&ved=0CDAQ_AUoAQ&biw=768&bih=928#biv=i|1;d|we88qb2mygmL6M:
That photo is 60s bad taste.
I was born in 1986, can't comment on the 70s room. However, I do have pretty vivid memories of the family friend's living room in 2000, where I played Ocarina of Time for the first time!
The blog "Ugly House Photos" has a great collection of interior photos from real homes from the 50's to the 2000's: http://uglyhousephotos.com/wordpress/?cat=113
I'm having a hard time thinking of the first photo as 70s. It reads like a mashup of new 70s shag carpeting with everything else from at least the decade before.
My earliest video game memories are playing Pong on the neighbors' system. Later there was Intellivision and Atari, and finally Nintendo. I won't say that I was ever a huge fan of sitting for hours in front of the TV playing, but it was definitely a feature of Gen X life.
We had an Atari, but I can't for the life of me remember what room we had it in.
I do remember our series of Nintendo consoles; front room of the house, big open windows and my Mom's stereo. My brother and I used to lay on the HORRID brown shag carpet and play Mario Kart or Bubble Bobble for hours. I also associate The Legend of Zelda series with listening to my mom's Sarah McLachlan CD's and having to make sure her lace curtains didn't blow infront of the screen when I was playing,.
The 70's room looks more like our living room in the 80's!!