Our grandparents had model trains. We have Kerbal Space Program!

[inigma]

Well... I had model trains and Kerbal Space Program

Model trains and Kerbal Space Program = best time to have lived.

[Rarity]

I'm only 21 and I remember playing with trains I had this one little cheap one that had a little motor in it and would pull itself and two other carts around a small track. I spent countless hours moving the track up and down and putting objects in one of the carts to see just how much horsepower(mousepower?) that train had. Sadly, the bottleneck was its traction from the plastic wheels on a plastic track. But I could still get it to climb up inclines while carrying a spare AA battery in a cart. Fun times.

[Skorpychan]

I still have model trains. I just don't have anywhere to set them up, so they're in storage.

[RainDreamer]

Makes me wonder what a generation growing up on kerbal space program will be like. I don't think they will all be scientists and astronauts and stuff...but I hope that they will look at space with a sense of wonder.

[jman508]

Makes me wonder what a generation growing up on kerbal space program will be like. I don't think they will all be scientists and astronauts and stuff...but I hope that they will look at space with a sense of wonder.

well right now I'm 14 years old and from what i can tell not many kids i know play ksp it seems to be a thing limited to people in the upper limits of high school or people I'm college.

and on the topic of what i want to be I'm shooting to be a engineer for nasa.

just from a random 14 yo.

bai.

Edited February 2, 2015 by jman508
whenever i type in ksp on a mac it auto corrects it to kip

[rynak]

My lego bricks cost less than a puter capable of running KSP, and they attached when they oughta, without part clipping. Then again, after a while they also detached when they weren't supposed to - this they had in common with KSP.

EDIT: Also, splosions.

Edited February 2, 2015 by rynak

[EdFred]

You all are making me feel old saying "our" parents had Atari. No...*I* had Atari, then NES.

[rynak]

You all are making me feel old saying "our" parents had Atari. No...*I* had Atari, then NES.

Nah, same age: 2600 entertainment system ("Race the beam!", 32 goddamn BYTES of RAM), then C64 - but when i was young, they limited my computer time, but not lego time

[FishInferno]

Our grandparents had model trains. We have Kerbal Space Program!

I beg to differ

[inigma]

... and then there was always Estes. In all three generations.

[Whirligig Girl]

And what did our parents ​have?

My Mom always wanted a train set, but she was afraid her parents wouldn't like her playing with what at the time was a "boy" toy. In retrospect, she says, she thinks they would've gotten her one.

I always thought of Train Sets to be universal toys, like building blocks or toy people. (Although the latter have gender specific names, Dolls or Action Figures)

I also like to think Trains are in many ways predecessors of Space Travel. British train drivers in the golden age of steam-locomotion (1920s) were as well known as astronauts, and the American transcontinental railroad was mostly built for political reasons, much like the Apollo missions.

So Kerbal Train Simulator confirmed.

- - - Updated - - -

My cousin ( my age) had Atari, I had Colecovision. I did have a small train set, along with Lego and something called Capsela. I also notice that plastic model kits are nowhere near as common these days.

I found a toy kit of Capsela at the beach house we would stay at at the beach, and it was really cool electric building toys. Unfortunately I lost the parts, and when I got a kit for my birthday the next year, it was missing a vital component.

[StrandedonEarth]

I'm only 21 and I remember playing with trains I had this one little cheap one that had a little motor in it and would pull itself and two other carts around a small track. I spent countless hours moving the track up and down and putting objects in one of the carts to see just how much horsepower(mousepower?) that train had. Sadly, the bottleneck was its traction from the plastic wheels on a plastic track. But I could still get it to climb up inclines while carrying a spare AA battery in a cart. Fun times.

Sounds like a GeoTrax train set. My kids had miles of the stuff and 4 train engines.

I found a toy kit of Capsela at the beach house we would stay at at the beach, and it was really cool electric building toys. Unfortunately I lost the parts, and when I got a kit for my birthday the next year, it was missing a vital component.

Yep, that's the stuff and it was great fun. Murder on batteries though, and I always wanted more parts. Back then they didn't have the computer capsules either.

[SkyRender]

Ah the joys of cross-generational forums... My parents had toy trains as kids; not sure what my grandparents had. I've had the lot, though: those wooden unpowered train sets when I was little, LEGO when I got older, video games from my teen years onwards (not that I wasn't playing video games before that, but it was about exactly when I turned 13 that I started making levels for DooM and thus was using video games as construction toys).

[Hannu]

I have played both and have to say that model railways are far better. Unfortunately interesting setup takes at least 10 square meters room area and couple of thousand euros money and free time. Therefore I do not have setup now. Maybe later when my kids grow up and I have more freetime.

But it is easy to see why computer games are so addictive compared to "real" hobbies. You can get what you want in couple of hours, you have a room of a small solar system and hundreds of years game time. You can build fantastic systems in short time without real budget or room restrictions. But if I could build a large sport hall, order couple of truckloads of model railway stuff and use years real time to build something, probably KSP would be quite boring.

[EnDSchultz]

well right now I'm 14 years old and from what i can tell not many kids i know play ksp it seems to be a thing limited to people in the upper limits of high school or people I'm college.

and on the topic of what i want to be I'm shooting to be a engineer for nasa.

just from a random 14 yo.

bai.

That's an awesome goal to have! Most people your age don't have a clue. It's not easy getting there, though. You have to want it and be willing to put in a lot of effort to get through the educational hurdles. Best of luck to you!

[inigma]

My Mom always wanted a train set, but she was afraid her parents wouldn't like her playing with what at the time was a "boy" toy. In retrospect, she says, she thinks they would've gotten her one.

I always thought of Train Sets to be universal toys, like building blocks or toy people. (Although the latter have gender specific names, Dolls or Action Figures)

I also like to think Trains are in many ways predecessors of Space Travel. British train drivers in the golden age of steam-locomotion (1920s) were as well known as astronauts, and the American transcontinental railroad was mostly built for political reasons, much like the Apollo missions.

So Kerbal Train Simulator confirmed.

- - - Updated - - -

I found a toy kit of Capsela at the beach house we would stay at at the beach, and it was really cool electric building toys. Unfortunately I lost the parts, and when I got a kit for my birthday the next year, it was missing a vital component.

You know, the size of the Space Shuttle was determined by the size of train tunnels (which were determined by the size of horses abreast of each other. )

So Western Cowboy Train Riding Kerbal Space Program ftw?

[SorryDave]

I had it all! Atari, pong, model trains, model planes. I had metal rockets that used black powder, bottle-rockets, Estes rockets, and lawn darts. I had telescopes, ham radios, a 3 foot thick TV with all five channels. I even had girlfriends.

Then I got addicted to KSP, and now I sit home waiting for Devnote Tues.