It's the thing with videogames, they're not really that ancient. All of the things we can namedrop as old school were only released in the 80s and late 70s. Some of them just seem older than mario and pacman because they were obscure, but the truth is they were really experienced by a generation that's still alive today and munching on pop culture (which is why the videogame industry is big on 80s nostalgia).
The videogames that were made in the early 70s and older were not accessible to most people, since they're either expensive arcade machines or just computer experiments done by students. Quite a far cry from the 90s when suddenly every kid in town had a console, and there were knife fights in back alleys between nintendo and sega fanboys.
