Love in the 80s, Romance Scams & Gamer Girls Gone Mildly Wild

LOVE! What is it good for? Gossip and a billion dollar scam industry. Get Megan and Lesley's GenX take on lots of vital (hyper-specific to our own experience) nonsense including the following:

• Cursing Groundhog Day (fucking winter)
• BS and Hot Gos: Gossip about 80s celebrity couples and their influences Whose dead NOW?? Soap stars, Planned Parenthood Queen and ... Shrek?
• What shit are we sick of today? Romance scams targeting vulnerable people - we offer resources for protecting loved ones from becoming victims because panicking alone doesn't help. 
  (34:17) - BREAK
• GenXpert/Not an Expert Featuring: (36:57) Learn along with us about our gamer girl heritage and gaming to survive the current apocalypse.

We gotta say - this is a long one - but those GenX women who LOVED gaming will have their memory banks rebooted as we explore the timeline of console game development from the 70s to the 90s. 

Timeline of Console Gaming

AARP Online Romance Scams

AARP Romance Scam Resources

FTC and Romance Scams

FCC and Romance Scams

Messy Midlife: Honest conversations about hormones, identity, and change.
Three naturopathic doctors. One therapist. Unfiltered talks about the midlife transition.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Transcript

Celebrity Relationships in the 80s

Megan Bennett 0:00

I'm Megan Bennett , I'm Lesley Meier and this is Gen X . Women Are Sick of this Shit . Hey Megan , hey Lesley , how are you ?

Lesley Meier 0:11

What's up , what's up , I'm okay yeah .

Megan Bennett 0:16

Same-o , same-o .

Lesley Meier 0:18

It's rough . It is as of when this episode my God , already we're 30 seconds in . I have no words . This episode .

Megan Bennett 0:29

Being recorded on February 2nd .

Lesley Meier 0:32

Will air on February 15th , the day after Valentine's Day .

Megan Bennett 0:38

Right , right now . We got the groundhogs . That's what we're dealing with today .

Lesley Meier 0:43

Groundhog Ah truth , Today's Groundhog's Day .

Megan Bennett 0:46

Little shit , mm-hmm , little shit , saw his . Groundhog Day Little shit saw his I know , Little shit saw his shadow . I can't say that .

Lesley Meier 0:57

I'm Satani Phil .

Megan Bennett 0:59

Motherfucker . Yeah , bundle up everybody According to the weather groundhog weather service .

Lesley Meier 1:08

it's going to stay cold , it's going to stay cold .

Megan Bennett 1:10

Now , as I think we mentioned in when we were talking about this podcast , I'm not sure that a groundhog takes into account global climate change . This is true .

Lesley Meier 1:20

I could be wrong , I mean they might be very advanced , they probably do , in ways that we do not , as human beings , like animals , are going to adjust and adapt in reasonable ways .

Megan Bennett 1:31

I would think so , but it probably has , fuck all to do with seeing their shadow .

Lesley Meier 1:35

Yeah , absolutely not . Yeah , I don't know that they are aware of the concept of a shadow , even let alone seeing one , and what it means for the weather .

Megan Bennett 1:42

No , they're just fucking pissed because they get yoinked out of a hole and like with all the cameras and all .

Lesley Meier 1:47

Yeah , no well , and where are the royalties ? Because they did inspire one of the greatest movies ever . It's a great movie , so fucking funny , and it feels like that right now in the united states of America . Every day we get up and it's the same thing , it's just worse every day , yep , it's the same , worse .

Lesley Meier 2:11

You get up and you like , maybe walk a different route and you try to use different words , or you try to be nice , and it's just like this endless stream of news and information that we , you know , no longer have access to . I'm waiting for the day when we wake up and it's a different kind of , and it's february 3rd . We'll see what .

Megan Bennett 2:36

Let's see that would be 2028 right , nine , nine , yeah , okay , this is a pretty long intro 28 , right 9 . 29 .

Lesley Meier 2:43

Mm-hmm . Yeah , okay , this is a pretty long intro , it is . We have things we're going to talk about today . They're going to be fun things . They are going to be fun things .

Megan Bennett 2:57

We're going to follow a format that I teased last time . You keep talking about that format .

Lesley Meier 3:00

I don't believe you , here's our things Bullshit and hot goss . We definitely have some info Shit that we're sick of today in our Gen Expert Not an Expert segment which will be all about things we need to distract us and have for our entire lives . For our entire lives Video games I love it , and the arcade . So let's dive right in with bullshit and hot goss .

Megan Bennett 3:29

Two parts relationships , relationships and dead people , the relationships that we have with dead people .

Lesley Meier 3:34

There you go something this was not the way I saw this going . Here we are , specifically relationships from the 80s .

Megan Bennett 3:41

We were just sort of chatting about valentine's day and like hot couples in the 80s or my god , yeah , like and , and some of the ones that we didn't realize were , I don't know , or maybe I just had forgotten . Absolutely , because I'm sure it was in all the tiger beat and all that shit right , but I didn't realize some of the people that were hooking up not in the 80s , uh , and because I forgot to like .

Lesley Meier 4:07

You know how hard is it to have this page just available ? Evidently quite difficult . Um , sort of in like an anti-valentine's day way , because , odds are , most of these people dated briefly or they are already divorced , although we found three couples yeah , there's a few that are still hanging out right , um , but we were talking about , oh , the very first one . It was Cher and Val Kilmer .

Megan Bennett 4:33

I had no knowledge .

Lesley Meier 4:34

I was like they went out .

Megan Bennett 4:36

I think it's a weird couple it is a weird .

Lesley Meier 4:38

I'm here for it . It's fine . Younger than her , unsurprisingly right right .

Megan Bennett 4:44

so long , sonny Bono .

Lesley Meier 4:46

I'm going with Val Kilmer I mean Cher loves men , she just doesn't need them . So she picks whoever she wants .

Megan Bennett 4:51

She picks what she wants Out of a tissue box , and I love that you pulled up a picture of him with the most amazing mullet . Actually , she kind of has a mullet thing going on too .

Lesley Meier 5:00

It was the thing , definitely , that's for sure . So that was a celebrity odd couple that I was not aware of . Did not know it . Who did you ?

Megan Bennett 5:08

pull up . Well , so Bruce Willis and Demi Moore , oh yeah . You know , kind of a long time .

Lesley Meier 5:14

Yes , long time thing , and I love that they're still friends .

Megan Bennett 5:16

Still friends . She's super supportive of him . I love it . It's great , wonderful um , and I think they went through some rough stuff right like the like , all like 90s , early 2000s I think with their daughter , and everything was a little rough okay , so then , and they came back together to be buddies , which is really cool , yeah , so that one was a fun one . I did know about that one , and then , um , all of the tommy lee wives oh my god , so many so heather lacklear was one yes amala anderson I think they got they were together right , a celebrity couple .

Megan Bennett 5:51

See , this is where this is where my brain just goes .

Lesley Meier 5:54

So those were two that we were like how , how many people did tommy league go with ? All of them ?

Megan Bennett 6:01

answer all of them . Who do you ?

Lesley Meier 6:03

have there , uh , madonna and sean penn .

80s Celebrity Romances Recap

Lesley Meier 6:06

Oh , that was a big one , if you remember that I do and it was like a big deal . That he was kind of a dick , like yes , he was a jealous this is my teenage brain remembering these things , right , it's like sort of a jealous , possessive kind of . That was not gonna fly for very long .

Megan Bennett 6:22

You know , dude . Yes , she got very um into her own self , which is good like she came into her own and didn't need that shit no more . Yeah , oh , you just uh scrolled past uh sly stallone and brigitte nielsen .

Lesley Meier 6:38

Yep , that was a big deal , mostly like that we were going through this list and I'm like I don't , was this important ? Like I don't remember , yes , which ones were important and the only one , that one was a big one .

Megan Bennett 6:52

I remember , I remember sly and bridget brigitte being a big thing , absolutely , and that probably because it was . I mean , that was like after they were in rocky poor together . That's why right like it was like .

Producer Tim 7:03

But this is what actors do , right . You have pseudo relationships and roles For all time .

Lesley Meier 7:09

And then you fall in love .

Megan Bennett 7:10

As children of the theater , we know what this is like and you fall in love , but you have so much money .

Lesley Meier 7:16

You could do whatever you want . Like there's no , you can move really quick . Us mere mortals , without movie star paychecks , cannot do these things .

Megan Bennett 7:23

No , we cannot , yes , we can't afford the prenups and all the things that we have to have right .

Lesley Meier 7:29

We have to fall in love and get married next week .

Megan Bennett 7:31

Oh , here's a good one . Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell . I love them .

Lesley Meier 7:36

Still together . So cute , a wonderful couple . Yeah , I hope they're not jerks because I'm saying that . No , I think jerks because I'm saying that .

Megan Bennett 7:47

No , I think they're probably okay , right , generally good people . Um , I know a lot about them . They're my personal friends . This not true . Sometimes we lie , um , so this , this one threw me , this one I did not know . Yes , matthew broderick and helen hunt went out . Yes , when last , when Last week . No , they briefly dated in 1987 .

Lesley Meier 8:05

Okay .

Megan Bennett 8:08

I was what like 13 , 14 ?

Lesley Meier 8:09

I had no concept of that I wouldn't even have cared about them in 1987 , because I was a young teenager . I was very young .

Megan Bennett 8:17

Yeah , I probably would have been interested in like what the heck Matthew Broderick was doing , because you know he was a rat packie . I don't think he was a brat packer , but but we're not reliable reporters no , we're not time , time , we time is a fluid construct the only reason I am scrolling through this really quickly .

Lesley Meier 8:36

He also dated jennifer gray oh , that was the other one . Thank you , he went out with jennifer gray .

Megan Bennett 8:41

yeah , so they played brother and sister and ferris bueller's day off , and then it was like , hey , baby , oh , that's a weird way to get together . I mean whatever Again but you're in the theater . You're , you know , in a play , in a movie , in a whatever , and you have this very intense , was that ? Paul Simon and Carrie Fisher . Paul Simon and Carrie Fisher , they were married briefly .

Megan Bennett 9:02

Were they really ? Yeah , see , this is what . I don't remember things , because then he married Edie Brickell . Are they still together ? I don't know the answer to that . Is he dead ? Is Paul Simon still alive ? Okay , paul Simon is still alive as of this recording . It just popped into my head .

Lesley Meier 9:21

I was like oh no , what if he's dead ?

Megan Bennett 9:25

Okay , paul Simon . Paul Simon is alive . Sorry , friends , paul . If you would like to prove that you are alive , we would love to interview you . He doesn't want to go here . If you're dead , you could just forget that we said anything . If you're dead , right .

Lesley Meier 9:45

He is still living . He is very much alive . Yes , Okay , thank you .

Megan Bennett 9:47

He is very much alive .

Lesley Meier 9:50

I'm hoping no one would ever , ever , ever share this .

Producer Tim 9:54

Long live Paul .

Lesley Meier 9:54

Simon Favorite , do you have like a couple from the 80s , 70s , 80s , maybe early 90s that stands out to you ? That was like the couple thought was cool or impactful or important .

Megan Bennett 10:06

Well , I mean the princess , die charles thing , it was kind of like the biggie right , like everybody but , we watched him get married . We , yes , followed the ups and the downs and she was like our age right yeah , our age , we could totally relate like right , she was a little older when they started dating .

Lesley Meier 10:25

She was like 16 or something she was a child he was like 19 , they just did different . Yeah , well , just the paparazzi was always in .

Megan Bennett 10:36

You could not get away from the princess dive thing . Yeah , if you tried , yeah that's for sure .

Lesley Meier 10:42

That was a big one . I think that I also remember .

Megan Bennett 10:45

How about Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet ?

Lesley Meier 10:48

Hot , super hot , god damn , did you want a scale of one to 10 ? They're like 20 .

Megan Bennett 10:55

Smoking hot they made a beautiful baby too . Yes God , she's gorgeous .

Lesley Meier 11:00

Zoe right . Super hot couple . God , I don't know .

Megan Bennett 11:07

It's out of my brain Cher also dated Tom Cruise . Oh my God . Well , is that right ? Hang on I gotta , I gotta clarify that tom cruise and share . Tom cruise met share at sean pedd and madonna's wedding in 1985 . I love her wow , she was .

Lesley Meier 11:25

She is still a collector of men's souls , and it is my favorite thing tom cruise and share got hot and heavy .

Megan Bennett 11:33

One of the most unusual couples that emerged from the 80s .

Lesley Meier 11:35

Yeah , yeah if I would say so . I think that's pretty wild .

Megan Bennett 11:39

I thought Prince and Kim Basinger going out was like you know I mean both cool people .

Lesley Meier 11:47

but Prince , like , come on , it's like coolest of all the coolest .

Megan Bennett 11:50

Well , and wasn't Kim , wasn't ? Isn't Kim Basinger like really tall , and Prince was notoriously not tall ?

Lesley Meier 11:56

I was trying not to mention that part , but yes , Prince doesn't care .

Megan Bennett 12:00

Prince doesn't have to care . That's accurate . Prince did not care .

Lesley Meier 12:04

Nor does any woman care .

Megan Bennett 12:06

Any person . Prince is a babe .

Lesley Meier 12:07

He was a babe . Keep Prince to a single gender . No person would care .

Megan Bennett 12:12

Sweet , how about this ? How about another infamous couple , infamous ?

Lesley Meier 12:16

Yeah , not like you know , give me an infamous couple .

Megan Bennett 12:18

Mike Tyson and Robin Givens .

Lesley Meier 12:21

Show me a picture . I don't remember this in real life . Okay , they Is . There a brief , very truthful synopsis about their relationship .

Megan Bennett 12:31

It was rough and scandalous . Few couples in the 1980s were quite as scandalous as Mike Tyson and Robin Givens . They met in early 1987 . Okay .

Lesley Meier 12:41

Was it like scandalous in like a violent way . I'm making a stereotypical assumption about .

Megan Bennett 12:46

Mike Tyson . I'm going to say yes , but I feel like , yes , this is me talking out of my ass .

Lesley Meier 12:56

We need some actual information , because we don't .

Producer Tim 12:58

They were married for a year .

Lesley Meier 12:59

Okay , one year Brief , tumultuous , ended in divorce after allegations of domestic violence . There you go , boom . Sometimes the brain works , sometimes Sometimes we remember things .

Megan Bennett 13:09

Amazing Jerry Hall , mick Jagger . Oh my gosh , so many fun Like Jerry Hall , mick Jagger . Oh my gosh , so many fun like just big time flashbacks . Oh , oh , this is a good one .

Lesley Meier 13:17

What Brooke Shields Nick Cage Interesting . I wonder what that was like .

Megan Bennett 13:26

I wonder if she talks about that in her book . I feel like she's way younger than him . Maybe I'm making that shit up too . She's our age , she's 50-something they dated briefly in 1987 before he his breakout role in moonstruck okay , so she's eight years older than me .

Lesley Meier 13:42

Okay , so just young 20s , yeah . And when was he born ? This is important 64 , they're only you're apart , how ? Oh , a year apart , how about that .

Megan Bennett 13:53

That's weird . That is weird she had .

Lesley Meier 13:55

Yes , that does not feel accurate or true . It doesn't In an emotional way . It feels like he was robbing that cradle it does .

Megan Bennett 14:03

But not , they're peers . God , Nick Cage was such a freaking babe too . I don't know .

Lesley Meier 14:19

I had a crush on him when I was for truths . Um cool , there we go .

Megan Bennett 14:20

So couples romance anti-romance it's just more like gossip than anything . Yeah , if there's some that we forgot and you want to like , let us know who we forgot please do , because our brains are faulty and I would . I'm sure we're leaving out some like there's wild hundreds .

Lesley Meier 14:34

I'd be super curious if anybody ever like waited on a celebrity couple in the 80s or like happened to see them like shopping in xyz stores no kidding or saw them at a sidewalk cafe and they're like actually he pucks his nose and it's really gross .

Megan Bennett 14:54

And she was disgusted by it .

Lesley Meier 14:55

They were totally bored with one another . There we go , so that's some bullshit and hot goss , and then , as always in this segment , we talk about people we lost recently At the grocery store . They just got lost , it just disappeared . Who's dead now ? And you had somebody from soap opera Did .

Megan Bennett 15:19

I , oh , yes . So the actress who played Monica Quartermain , leslie Charlson , monica Quartermain on General Hospital . She was in that role for like 50 years Longest running character an actress on general hospital . Wow , sad that she's gone . She in the more recent I still watch

Celebrity Deaths and Legacy Tribute

Megan Bennett 15:45

. I watch all the time . I don't watch real in real time , because life . But I record episodes and then here's here's my secret shame . I put my ipad up and I watch kind of general hospital while I'm like taking a shower and stuff I guess I was just playing there , so I like keep up on my

Lesley Meier 16:03

keep up on my shows but while I'm taking a shower . So what you're saying is that what they're saying doesn't matter . It's just watching the images . No , I can hear them , you can't .

Megan Bennett 16:12

It's more like hearing it and like I just oh yeah , I know it's gone , but so she is not . Monica's not been on the show in a really long time and you you knew like as a general hospital person you could watch like and see that she wasn't in good health , got you . And what's weird now is they're still talking about her like they're , they reference her like pretty much every freaking episode they're talking about monica and something that monica wants .

Megan Bennett 16:38

Like there's a whole thing going on right now . I love it . You know that there's a whole thing so good and so . So they reference her all the time and like I'm like in the back of my head I'm like , yeah , but she's dead . Like that's weird , I don't know . So they haven't , they haven't written her character off yet . She hasn't passed away . They will have to come to grips with that , probably pretty soon .

Lesley Meier 17:00

How does that work in a soap opera when the actor dies ? But I mean , you can do anything in a soap opera .

Megan Bennett 17:06

I cannot imagine they would recast her .

Lesley Meier 17:09

Do you sign a contract that says yes ? Please continue to talk about my character after they own the character .

Producer Tim 17:16

I'm sure we don't need to go down this rabbit hole , but , like where does that ?

Megan Bennett 17:18

money goes to her estate , I'm assuming well , I think the actress when she's done she's done , like like she's probably you know she's not making any money anymore because she's not performing anymore , right , sure ? So and the show owns the writing and the . The show itself owns the character so they could recast her , but I cannot imagine that they would do that . She will be missed . She was a great actress .

Lesley Meier 17:40

She's really good . I love that , though that's good enough . I love that . You know all of that and that she's been a constant on the show for a long time . It's , it's my secret shame it's not so secret anymore , it's out there here . It is guess what folks ?

Lesley Meier 17:55

uh , another incredible woman who passed away , cecile richards , oh , yes served as the president of the planned parenthood federation of america in its affiliate planned parenthood action fund from 2006 to 2018 . She just died and I've seen lots of tributes and memorials . She clearly impacted the lives of millions of people and lots of people knew her personally and well , I got to see her speak once .

Megan Bennett 18:32

I couldn't begin to tell you when that was .

Lesley Meier 18:36

Sorry .

Megan Bennett 18:37

Because you know , yeah , uh , but I do remember it being a really excellent event and she was a powerhouse . She was very much um there for all things women . She was there to support women , she was there to lift women up she was there to make sure that women had the health care that they needed when they needed it . So important , yeah , so she will be horribly missed . Um , I know that the new president of clam parenthood is rocking it as well .

Megan Bennett 19:08

So um , you know , I think she just blazed that trail and um , hopefully you know we will . I would love a world where we didn't need it personally , but but I'm I'm glad that she was .

Lesley Meier 19:21

She was there to lead us and lead Planned Parenthood the way that she did for as long as she did . Um , we need strong women supporting women right now . Just as a little bit of a tidbit , evidently she co-founded a new political action group , supermajority , in 2019 to further women's political agenda for the 2020 elections . So I don't know . I would assume that political action group is continuing . I'm going to go look it up because I didn't know that . Pretty cool .

Megan Bennett 19:52

Yeah , and then there's one other .

Lesley Meier 19:56

Well , there's two little ones . Not little ones . Marianne , faithfull died yeah .

Megan Bennett 20:02

She was a musician singer .

Lesley Meier 20:04

She passed away .

Megan Bennett 20:05

Started in the 60s right , like music in the 60s Born in 1946 .

Lesley Meier 20:09

Died January 30th , and we were kind of listening to some of her songs just warming up for this including one where she's saying with metallica , yep so which I did not know , I didn't either , and it's very .

Lesley Meier 20:24

The juxtaposition is pretty stark with mary ann faithful and metallica you would not put those two together normally , but it worked not at all . I was listening to her cover of Monday Monday by the Mamas and the Papas , beautiful voice on point , and then , as we were researching , this is the one that made me really sad and I don't know if this is really Gen X , because this movie came out in 2001, . But it is an important movie . Perry , the real life donkey , who inspired the iconic Shrek character , died . The donkey , perry the donkey , who was like the model for the animation . How old did you say Perry was ?

Megan Bennett 21:05

Perry was 30 years old Boys and girls . If you decide that you want a donkey , I would like to point out , donkeys apparently live to be 30 years old . That is a commitment , very long time . That is a big commitment . I suppose Perry probably had a good squishy life as a donkey right , Absolutely .

Lesley Meier 21:27

Perry was a famous donkey from Palo Alto and California .

Megan Bennett 21:35

Donkeys . Oh , producer Tim pulled up that donkeys can live 27 to 40 years .

Lesley Meier 21:40

There you go Longer than most marriages , quite honestly . And Perry's adorable , he's got you know little photos up and yeah , I see it , he does look like him . He looks like Donkey . They were going to hold a memorial for Perry .

Lesley Meier 21:58

His exact death date was . I don't know , I don't have it . This announcement came out January 5th , so I would assume kind of in the first couple days of January . Well , rest in peace , perry . We love you . Shrek's a darn funny movie . Rest in peace , rest in peace , rest in peace . So that's our bullshit and hot gospel today . It's pretty good . What are you sick of today , megan ? Or what shit are you sick of today ? We're going to stay on brand , stay on , brand , stay on brand .

Romance Scams

Megan Bennett 22:31

Well , the thing that we were talking about today , that was kind of getting our feathers ruffled . Things do that they get our feathers ruffled .

Lesley Meier 22:41

We have a lot of feathers .

Megan Bennett 22:42

Lots of feathers . We were talking about scams . We were talking about internet scams . We were talking about trying to protect our parents from internet scams Truth , while also trying to protect ourselves from internet scams .

Lesley Meier 22:56

Well , yeah , like what happens when technology begins to outpace even our you know , we've kind of grown up in the middle of it , so we were able to acquire skills in our 20s when our brains were fresh , you know , but when the the new scheme , when our brains were fresh and new , fresh and pink , and specifically we were talking about the romance scam epidemic and being in the sandwich generation and having older parents who maybe

[Ad] Messy Midlife: Honest conversations about hormones, identity, and change.

Lesley Meier 23:27

(Cont.) Romance Scams

Lesley Meier 23:28

Trying to keep your parents who are they were not raised when their brains were fresh and pink , with technology as much but trying to keep them from giving their social security checks to you know the hot piece of ass that they found on the internet .

Lesley Meier 23:49

I don't know if this is accurate but a Scottish guy in New Zealand , or . These are snippets . I was reading some things that people had talked about in the Facebook group , so it's not accurate . But yeah , don't send all your money to anybody really Really to anybody On the ? Internet , not all of it Right .

Megan Bennett 24:06

But these scammers , they are so good at making you feel like A they're a real human being , of course , and B Like A they're a real human being , of course , and B like they , you know , they know psychologically how to kind of mind fuck you to get you to be interested and committed and want to help them and they have a really good sob story that they have crafted and used and woof it's bad .

Lesley Meier 24:33

They're practiced and persistent . Um , we were looking at some websites and I found um . The stat came off of oops siberraio , the siberra um company , and they had made an announcement in 2023 . They were partnering with advocating against romance scammers , aars , but they had some stats from 2022 735 million dollars scammed . That is huge in 2022 huge industry . I'm gonna assume that that was international , like globally I mean maybe um , because they did not specify , but it's an international company .

Megan Bennett 25:30

So that's my human trafficked into these jobs . Yes , Quotation marks right Quotation fingers here , jobs where their goal and their job is to get you by text message into a conversation , yep , and you know we I don't know how many do you get a week , because I get those fucking every week .

Lesley Meier 25:50

So not by a text , okay , I have never , I don't get them by a text , never gotten one that just says hey , there , or is this Alice , or some shit like that . Oh , okay , yeah , I will share . Yes , you keep going .

Megan Bennett 26:03

Okay , and then I'll pull this up .

Lesley Meier 26:05

Okay , and I'll read it to you . I have it .

Megan Bennett 26:16

So , but anyway , these people are like that's their whole , that's get you hooked in . So you know they , they send you a text . Is this alice then your response ? You know , unless your name is alice is you know ?

Megan Bennett 26:21

no , you have got the wrong number , yes , and then they will text you back and be like oh my gosh , I'm so sorry . Yes , I um . You know I meant to try to get with alice , who I've , you know I lost track of , and blah blah , and she lives , and she lived in such and such , and you know you don't happen to live there , do you ? Or whatever . Then they ask you a question and the goal is to get you to have a response yeah , and then you get put into this conversation with this person and next thing , you know , if all things go right on their end , you're sending your social security check to them Dang .

Lesley Meier 26:57

So there was one that popped up , but I think I deleted it . It was that's probably for the best it was , it was good I stopped responding to . It was really the person had like sent a text that I just ignored and deleted it was just like , um , I'm making something , something for dinner tonight . Okay , can you come at eight ? And I just deleted it .

Producer Tim 27:18

Sure .

Lesley Meier 27:23

And I think it happened again like in a week , and I deleted it again , and then the next one was well , why aren't you responding ? And I finally just said wrong number .

Lesley Meier 27:29

And then they came back with the thing and I was like nope , not me , you know , it was super short responses . And then they was like nope , not me , you know super short responses . And then they were like oh , you know , I'm so sorry . Blah , blah , blah . I was like not a bother , fine . And then , well , you seem like a really nice person . And I was like mm-hmm , I am a really nice person . They're like if you're ever in such and such California , let me know , I'll buy you a coffee .

Producer Tim 27:51

And I said nothing at that point , I just like left it there .

Lesley Meier 27:55

But I was like it was the randomness of the things that were coming to my fan , like I'm making this for dinner , will you be there at seven ? And I was super apologetic .

Megan Bennett 28:05

Of course you know like , oh my gosh , you're such a nice person . Oh gosh , I was like am I ?

Megan Bennett 28:16

I just A was just fucking gorgeous , Like you don't really know me at all and I just , you know , kicked my dog Mm-hmm , which I did not , but you know , like they don't know anything , right , right , they don't know who you are . Well , the thing that I read , too , or the 60 Minutes , or whatever it was , was also talking about , like , the people who are in that situation , like that they are literally being forced to have these dumb conversations with you , and so I always feel a little bit . I feel a little bit I feel bad , right , for those people .

Producer Tim 28:54

And I'm like . I wish there was a way that I could like you know , hey , I'll tell little bit .

Megan Bennett 28:55

I feel bad , right For those people and I'm like I wish there was a way that I could , like you know , hey , I'll tell you what I know you're probably a human trafficked , human being that's sitting on the other end of this line you know here's okay .

Lesley Meier 29:04

Yeah , Are you okay ? Can you send me your location ? I'll send it to the local authorities . Right , we'll get you some help , like what can we do ? It comes up a lot in the group , though , with with folks , um , who are trying to help their parents or , in some cases , their friends , understand that the person that they're communicating with is not who they say . They are right , they , if they're asking for like gift cards or crypto or anything .

Megan Bennett 29:32

Oh , that gift card thing is like a . That's a big red flag , right they ?

Lesley Meier 29:35

want access to your bank account . None of that is real . It doesn't matter how convincing it is , None of it is real . Just walk it back in your mind and be like would I do this if I was in a pickle financially and needed help ?

Megan Bennett 29:50

Is this how I would solve this problem for myself and I know you know there's a lot of very , very lonely people out there that are . You know , parents are some of our parents , when you know if they're widowed . If they're , you know they've only got themselves and they're waiting for you to come visit them every , you know , every couple of weeks or something . Yeah , that's a lot of time to sit there in front of a keyboard and it can feel , it could feel real and yes , and it's real easy to get suckered in .

Lesley Meier 30:22

I think that probably one of the hardest and most frustrating parts is pointing out the inconsistencies and trying to say , hey , you know , like how do you share that with someone when they're so invested emotionally ? Right , I'm kind of brainwashed by the person . I mean it is an abusive relationship , um , so that it's even hard to like . You're kind of like cult mentality , yeah at that point .

Megan Bennett 30:45

Um , it's hard to like show them reality or whatever even yeah , and they don't want in a lot of cases , won't want to know that that's their , their boyfriend , on the other end , super hot scottish guy in new zealand totes he's lost .

Lesley Meier 31:02

He's lost , but we did totally like very lost . Um , we did look up some resources , just because we don't want to just freak out about this bullshit and not share information .

Lesley Meier 31:13

Like to find some reasons things that people can access and the things that were shared with us federal trade commission . Believe it or not , there's information on there . There's an organization called scam watch , the better business bureau , the cyber crime support network . Homeland security still has a page up all about romance scams and like what to look for . Aarp is a great resource . They actually have like a scam hotline . It is 877-908-3360 . You can just go to a plain old phone . You don't even have to send an email . Rotary dial for your phone . I hope so . That's the best way to dial . And then the National Council on Aging has a great page that has tons of information understanding the psychology of scammers , safety for sending money online , how to report things , limiting your information , contacting businesses directly . If somebody's saying that they're like oh , the one that happens here all the time is the power company . Everybody's always getting their power shut off , yeah , and you need to send $1,000 right away . So that is helpful for people who are being scammed , but also for those of you who are supporting people .

Megan Bennett 32:31

My husband had an issue like not too terribly long ago where somebody called him and told him that he had an outstanding warrant . Oh yeah , that shit happens all the time and needed to go immediately to like drop off money , yep , and he actually was working downtown , which you know , right by the courthouse , and there were lots of bail bonds places and stuff .

Megan Bennett 32:52

And so he's on the phone with this person . You know , he sort of had this spidey sense that something's not right . Yes , but also , like , the guy was so convincing yes , like and my husband is cynical as the day is long so he does not get bought into this shit very easily yeah , but this guy was super convincing and he ended up walking into a bail bonds place to see if they could run a report , to see if he really did have brilliant , you know , uh and a , an outstanding warrant . And so he's on the phone with the guy and he's like , hey , hang on a second , I'm at this bail bonds place , I'm gonna have him run that thing .

Megan Bennett 33:27

And the guy hung up on him like immediately and he was like yep , never mind everything's fine yep , but that's a big one too .

Lesley Meier 33:33

So that's happened um frequently locally to therapists . Wow , it was because our information is available . We're marketing ourselves all the time and because they don't . They don't know who you're seeing . Nobody knows who we're seeing , but they're like , oh , you missed a court appearance . You better show , show up . You know , it feels fairly convincing and it's our livelihood as human beings . So these things cycle around and it's frustrating , to say the least . Yes , there we go . So that's the shit we're sick of today .

Megan Bennett 34:09

Yep , everybody , stay safe out there . Don't fall for any of that bullshit . Don't fall for any of that bullshit . Gen X Women Are Sick of the Shit is supported by Lylas Love you like a sis , a Gen X Women's Social Club . What's Lylas Megan ? Lylas is our off platform , off the books of faces , off all of the other traditional social media . It is our space and place for Gen X women to come together , have conversations , meet each other . It's a social club .

Lesley Meier 34:43

It is a social club . It's a membership-based club . Memberships are $10 a month . That does help support us in growing the platform . We purchased a platform that would host a network of women so that you could come together and meet each other in real time .

Megan Bennett 35:03

In a safer space than a traditional social media platform and a much more personal space . So what do we do there , Leslie ?

Lesley Meier 35:13

We host movie nights where we live stream some of our favorites as they are available to us for group watches of films from the 70s , 80s and 90s . We host a space for a monthly book club . We host trivia nights . Once a month we have a live text chat prizes even four prizes .

Lesley Meier 35:38

that's true , um , we , the space , is able to host like weekly text chats so that you can kind of check in in real time with people . I would say the critical difference between kind of what this space is and any other social media space that I've experienced is that it is active .

Megan Bennett 35:58

You will have to engage in it or be engaged in it by other people , so it's not like a passive consumption thing , it's like making connections , yep , and if that's what you're looking for the opportunity to meet other people , to find people who are maybe in the same similar spaces as you are .

Lesley Meier 36:16

Like-minded , same time , phase of life , navigating all of those transitions , then this might be the right place for you .

Megan Bennett 36:24

So check out Lylas .

Lesley Meier 36:25

You can learn more about it at genxwomenpodcom so and so , and so I think we're going to talk about , uh , distracting ourselves .

Producer Tim 36:49

Why on earth would we need to distract for ?

Lesley Meier 36:50

all the freaking rooms right now . Yeah , distractions , the things that we do to occupy our minds entertainment .

Megan Bennett 37:00

What do you do ? What's your ? Just your uh distraction I read your escapism .

Lesley Meier 37:06

An insane amount of romanticy books , romanticy yep Ripping bodices made of brutally slaughtering . I mean , there is very hot sex but there's usually a lot of blood and swords .

Megan Bennett 37:21

Well , I just assumed that the bodices were like made of like dragon scale .

Lesley Meier 37:27

Yeah , it's more like that . Okay , strong female main characters as super . No , I won't say as , because they can get pretty supernatural .

History of Video Game Consoles

Lesley Meier 37:36

I want , no , nothing real . I want dragons , fairies , vampires , werewolves impossible odds . Overcoming brain bubble ? I don't want to . I don't want to have to think too much . Yeah , but usually you know yeah it can't be totally vapid you want a .

Megan Bennett 37:55

You want a completely different world . Absolutely and world building something completely different .

Lesley Meier 38:01

Yes , okay , cool , and that all kind of ties into life , so I think that's a go-to . And then we have like I have a phone game that I play quite a bit . What do you do for distraction ?

Megan Bennett 38:13

What do you do for distraction , my distraction when things , when I need to shut down my brain , I will go down into my basement and I will play some video games Nice .

Producer Tim 38:23

And mine .

Megan Bennett 38:24

Nothing real , like nothing . You know it all has to be fantasy kind of out there stuff too , Although , although , although my favorite .

Lesley Meier 38:31

Yes , my current favorite video games are Assassin's Creed , sweet yeah , which are historically based .

Megan Bennett 38:34

Yes , my current favorite video games are Assassin's Creed , sweet .

Lesley Meier 38:37

Yeah .

Megan Bennett 38:37

Which are historically based , true , you know . So , like Valid , there's a French one , there's one about the French Revolution that you can , you could just walk through France during the revolutionary period and climb in and around and on notre dame and saint chapelle sweet and like , get into the nooks and crannies and the crevices of , like these amazing historic buildings . It's super cool , that's awesome , so that's really fun . A tour de france , right , exactly , you might say , and then you kill people . That is even more exciting . Fun , um , it's .

Megan Bennett 39:16

You kill an awful lot of virtually virtually you virtually kill an awful lot of white men that will happen in france . I'm just saying and it's kind of assassin's creeds , mo , um , yeah , so video games have always been a big thing for me . I love that . Yeah , like the , I'm gonna be the old granny that's still fucking playing video games I still play video games .

Lesley Meier 39:40

It's been a long time since I've done like a console game per se like I have a switch . I did the whole animal crossing thing during covid . Love it , love collecting things , loved all the lego games .

Megan Bennett 39:53

I wish I would have gotten into that . I missed that boat and I should have jumped on a boat .

Lesley Meier 39:57

I was like I was a few months in and I just didn't realize what it was . And then I had a friend who was playing it and I was like what is this ? Teach me to play . Yes , so that Lego games , all those Lego games .

Producer Tim 40:10

Oh my gosh , Look for every dang piece of Lego . The Star Wars ones are hilarious so funny , really good .

Lesley Meier 40:16

Play some Link . Oh yes , of course Got that out there , but you know , games didn't start in the 2000s , megan .

Megan Bennett 40:23

They did not start in the 2000s , no , but we , as Gen X , were so incredibly lucky . We were lucky . We got the video games .

Lesley Meier 40:33

And they started in the 70s yeah , absolutely yeah .

Megan Bennett 40:38

So we were talking about this , about like what we're , you know , talking about video games , and we wanted to do like a quick history , yes , of video games . We can then talk about our like how fantastic the fact that you could walk into a , a place in a mall , yeah , and just throw quarters at these giant boxes . Pre-consoles Like pre-home consoles , yeah , so we can talk about that , but the consoles themselves were cool , and the first one was launched in 1972 . It was the Magnavox Odyssey .

Lesley Meier 41:13

I was negative one , negative one years old .

Megan Bennett 41:16

So video consoles are older than Leslie . That's so cool . How about that ? That's one year , one year older . So that was considered the . It was designed by a team led by the father of video games . My God , it was huge , massive , and they could display three square dots and one line in a monochrome black and white right . So it's basically Pong . That it was giant . You get Pong , yeah , huge . I mean , look Look at that thing , it's got a couple controllers , it's got . You get Pong , yeah , but huge .

Megan Bennett 41:54

I mean look , look at that thing . It's got a couple controllers , it's got a whole keyboard . You've got the little cartridge spot for it . What ?

Lesley Meier 42:04

Are you on eBay ? This is an eBay . This might have been . This is an Odyssey 2 with three games . Okay , so that was later . That was later . This was a later one .

Megan Bennett 42:16

Like I kind of want to have one .

Lesley Meier 42:18

There is , oh , here's a 1980 Phillips Magnavox Odyssey 2 for $3,700 . Zowie , Vintage Magnavox , all these Odyssey 2s . There is a Yep . I can't find an original original that is actually available for sale .

Megan Bennett 42:38

That is so , so cool . But they say you know the magnavox odyssey gaming home . Without this , the magnavox odyssey , you may not have had other consoles . It was the the great-grandfather . I love that of all of them .

Lesley Meier 42:53

I think that's cool .

Megan Bennett 42:54

And then , like I don't know if you remember , but you got the 1975 the at Atari Home Pong was the next . So you had , you know , three years between the first and the second . So the 1975 Atari Home Pong was the first Atari game . So that's the first time that we hear Atari as a name . And then you have like a couple you got in 1976 , there was something called the Fairchild Channel F , and that was the first one that you had swappable cartridges .

Lesley Meier 43:25

Oh okay .

Megan Bennett 43:25

So that's when you started getting this idea of you could grab a cartridge blow the dust out , pop it in there and get a different game . So a small library , it says . So not very many games Pooped out , probably pretty quick . Yeah , that particular one .

Megan Bennett 43:44

Never heard of it , nope . And then the Atari 2600 . This is ours , right , this was 1977 . So the ? Yeah , the Atari 2600 had the joystick , okay , with a little red ball on the top Amazing , yeah , it made Atari a staple in the living room . It was not the first , but it did have swappable cartridges and had this idea of an expanding software library base with it . So that is in . 1977 is when you introduced pac-man , oh okay .

Lesley Meier 44:22

Space invaders , okay , asteroids , so you could play all of those from the comfort of your own home in 1977 okay , so the one that has been remade , the atari that they've like recreated , is that this one ? The 2600 , or is it one from ?

Megan Bennett 44:39

I think it's the later one that is like the kind of the reboot yeah , okay , yeah but this would have been the first um , the first atari , like big atari game , gotcha um . And then 1976 you had the calico telstar um , because everybody wanted in on all this . But calico had built-in games and it had hockey , it had handball , it had tennis , nice , so more sporty probably .

Producer Tim 45:03

Okay , I'm probably not remembering it right we ?

Megan Bennett 45:06

know right . Well , well , I think and I'm I'm probably gonna mess this up , but I think calico was the one that had the ball . So rather than a joystick , it had like a rolly ball were they the ?

Lesley Meier 45:18

uh , I think centipede was that calico no , okay .

Megan Bennett 45:25

So thank you , producer . Tim just pulled up calico had two little knobs like it looks like a flat radio right it has weird it does .

Lesley Meier 45:36

It looks like r equipment .

Megan Bennett 45:38

Yeah , so no ball , you had like little bitty joysticks . That's amazing , Clearly that sucker was focused more on sports . It looks like .

Lesley Meier 45:51

Yeah , cool , that's awesome . Okay , and then 1979 , you had Intellivision . Yes , I do remember Intellivision . My uncle had an Intellivision .

Megan Bennett 46:03

It was a Mattel company or a Mattel toy .

Lesley Meier 46:07

Yes , I totally remember this . We're looking at it . I absolutely played a whole lot of Donkey Kong on an Intellivision .

Megan Bennett 46:14

Yeah , look at that , it was probably in the 80s . And then the cartridges go pop in the side like that .

Lesley Meier 46:19

Yes , I remember those cartridges . Oh wow , the controller had a card . I forgot about that .

Megan Bennett 46:25

And you put the little the controllers when you're not using them , just stuck right in the top of the machine like that that's pretty cool .

Lesley Meier 46:30

That's a nice design . Yeah , it's all very compact . It's not bad like tucked away .

Producer Tim 46:33

Yeah , this is what we had growing up .

Megan Bennett 46:41

You had an Intell had growing up and in television . I think they're great , so it looks like the . You could tell me , tim , if this was right . But some of the games were burger time dig dug also had pac-man on that , donkey kong and nfl games . Oh wow , so it was the first instance of a licensed sports game hey , they had that .

Producer Tim 46:56

They had , uh , they had a baseball game . They had a baseball game , they had a basketball game .

Lesley Meier 47:03

We had an advanced Dungeons and Dragons game oh fun . That would have been more in the 80s , though , yeah .

Producer Tim 47:06

Yeah , but the map revealed itself as you went through the dungeon .

Megan Bennett 47:10

That's cool it looks like we have a little time jump between 79 and 1982 , when you had the . Colecovision . Okay , two when you had the calico vision , so um one of the most recognizable consoles of the early 80s slightly more impressed . Impressive graphics , um yeah yeah , so I recognize . Yeah , that's interesting , same kind of gist to it , right as the intellivision . Um , totally some titles that were included . There were ladybug , cosmic adventure and venter venture .

Lesley Meier 47:47

So cool , I don't remember those games , but I do remember that console donkey kong right there . Yeah , I know , that's what I always played .

Megan Bennett 47:55

And then then the biggie right then , like the great grandfather of all video games of all times .

Lesley Meier 48:01

Oh yeah , the OG 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System .

Producer Tim 48:05

The first NES .

Megan Bennett 48:07

Yeah .

Lesley Meier 48:08

This one In 85 . Okay , so I was like 12 when that came out .

Megan Bennett 48:12

I mean , this was like everybody's Christmas list .

Lesley Meier 48:15

Yep , huge Were video game systems always $300 , no what ?

Megan Bennett 48:21

I think decade they were in .

Lesley Meier 48:22

I freaking think so matter , or were they like a hundred dollars then ?

Megan Bennett 48:26

no , I no . I want to say it was like 249 or something I could I don't know for sure , but like yeah , like I remember it being like not in a a small amount of money I mean they've always been insanely expensive .

Lesley Meier 48:40

In 199 dollars , jeez , in 1980 , whatever , that was 85 , 85 .

Megan Bennett 48:48

I mean this is a significant amount of money , yeah so , uh , this one now introduced , you know kind of the r RPGs that you couldn't do in the previous . You know video games . You got Super Mario Brothers with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out , which I can picture so , so vividly Punch-Out with like the outline of the guy . You were Like you were the outline and then you were punching the solid guy . I remember that vividly . Punch out with like the outline of the guy . You were like you were the outline and you were punching the the solid guy . I remember that vividly . Did you have one of these ?

Lesley Meier 49:28

uh , we only have the atari . Okay , so I just I useless information . Do you want this ? Sure , I want this , sure I want this . This is going to be great . So it was the Kaleek no , and the NES system was $199 in 1985 . It would be $583.69 today .

Megan Bennett 49:47

I got to tell you that kind of tracks with what like a new , like the new Xbox , like the high end and super juiced up Xbox would probably be right around that .

Lesley Meier 49:57

I would expect . So , wow , okay , so there you go . I mean , you can get a system probably for like 399 bucks 586 , that's crazy , an increase of 386 dollars over 40 years . Yeah , we all will buy anything . So here's a question . Okay , that I when did upright like arcade games start to be manufactured like in mass , where you would have an arcade like at the mall ?

Megan Bennett 50:30

Oh , like where the first ones could be .

Megan Bennett 50:33

So there's a Netflix .

Lesley Meier 50:34

How early were those manufactured ?

Megan Bennett 50:46

There's a . Netflix special . I should . I'll look it up , but there is a Netflix special that is all about the video games and specifically about Pac-Man and like where those all came from and you know when they started and basically like the hoopla around all of that , but wild , like so early 70ss I want to say , is when you started seeing like the big games , right yeah , producer tim's pulling up information for us .

Lesley Meier 51:08

Cool . So it says 1971 , the first arcade game oh , you just left what I was reading . Computer space was created by nolan bushnell and ted dabney , the founders of Atari . The company followed on its success the next year with Pong . So is that Upright ? Okay , the Upright arcade game in 71 . So they kind of developed at the same time . I wondered if it was like a chicken or an egg , like one came first and then they created the other one . So it sounds like , if anything , these were sort of simultaneous , like the development technology was happening at similar times you got the big .

Megan Bennett 51:47

You got the big ones at the arcade , and then they were at the same time trying to like how can you smoosh this down into something that you can have in your own house ?

Producer Tim 51:56

I think a lot of the upright arcade games are kind of the descendants of the carnival games and things like that Sure . That , like you , would walk up stand up to pinball things like this . It would be like pinball .

Lesley Meier 52:10

But I'm talking about in terms of video game development , did one come before the other and it sounds like they were simultaneous .

Megan Bennett 52:19

Yeah , yeah , so the Netflix show show if you're interested is called high score . Oh nice , and it came out in 2020 , so it's a docuseries that traces the history of classic video games , featuring insights from the innovators who brought these worlds and characters to life . That's sweet , so yeah if you're interested in that it's uh it is pretty cool .

Lesley Meier 52:39

Uh , the source that we were pulling our timeline from yes , because we were quoting some information and we found that on kind of an interesting website .

Megan Bennett 52:48

So the website that we're getting our information from , with the kind of the timeline of these different video game systems , you can find that on Long Island , retro Gaming , there's an expo . Actually it looks like it's august 8th through the 10th in of 2025 and it looks like a blast , like just a bunch of people hanging out playing video games .

Producer Tim 53:12

Like playing old video games and new video games and an arcade game .

Megan Bennett 53:16

There's a little cosplay , oh check o check it out Oregon . Trail . Oh my God , we should probably talk about Oregon Trail and how it changed our entire lives . Well , let's go through this . Let's go through the rest of this timeline really fast .

Producer Tim 53:27

For

Evolution of Video Game Consoles

Producer Tim 53:28

sure .

Megan Bennett 53:28

Because then 85 also saw Tiger Electronics created the first LCD handheld games , uh-huh . So that's where you got .

Lesley Meier 53:36

like those , the sports games , right , like the football game and the baseball game and everything that you would have in your hand . We had one . It was like green and the football players were just like little red dots and they were like yep , I totally remember that .

Megan Bennett 53:50

Yes , yeah , so that was . Uh , they also had a gi joe and a teenage mutant , ninja turtles . Um , street fighter , turtles , street Fighter , amazing , yeah . So some cool games , and then 86 , you get the Sega Master System . So then you get the . You know , now Sega's like hey , don't forget us , and they jump in with their system , not the Genesis right , but the Sega Master System . And then in 86 , you get the other amazing Atari game . You get the .

Producer Tim 54:23

Atari 7800 .

Megan Bennett 54:26

So Centipede , pole Position 2 , dig Dug and the godfather of games , the creme de la creme . Galaga , Galaga , you were a Galaga girl .

Megan Bennett 54:38

I freaking love Galaga , I would take a giant stand-up Galaga , galaga .

Lesley Meier 54:39

You were a Galaga girl .

Megan Bennett 54:40

I freaking love Galaga . I would take a giant stand-up Galaga game in my living room and be quite happy , thank you very much Any day . Any day . In fact , Jeff , my husband and I actually talked about instead of getting a dining room table , which we desperately need , we thought maybe we just get one of those games that you would play at Pizza Hut , right when you could like sit and play . Centipede or Galaga and like just make that our dining room table .

Lesley Meier 55:07

Absolutely . I think you should do it .

Megan Bennett 55:09

What if they ?

Lesley Meier 55:09

make one for four people , and then you could even play some of the four person games that came later .

Producer Tim 55:14

That would be cool . That would be cool .

Lesley Meier 55:16

Really cool .

Megan Bennett 55:22

So what was your first game system as a young person ? I think my first one . Well , so my dad had an odyssey . Oh wow , cool . So after divorce he got an odyssey and then somebody broke into his apartment and they stole it and that was a big sad day day um , I want to say our first one at home was the was the atari 7800 .

Megan Bennett 55:44

Okay , I thought , I don't think we , I know well , maybe it was the nintendo , the nes and I can't remember , but I wanted I , I feel like it was the 7800 . Um , how about ?

Lesley Meier 55:57

you , I , we had the 2600 okay , 2600 the original nice and I remember getting that because we had space invaders and my mom , she loved video games , she loved computers and technology and she played space invaders probably for 24 hours . I mean it insane , we didn't get to play . The video games were for adults , not for children . You like , maybe got some time and I love that Space Invaders was the big one , uh-huh , asteroids .

Lesley Meier 56:31

I remember that . And then my next big memory of video games was I don't know what system it was on the original Pitfall . Was that on Atari ? It was Atari , I think it was Atari , and my brother was young he's probably six or seven , okay and won the Pitfall game , like made it all the way through , finished it . You would take a picture , a Polaroid picture , of him standing next to the screen with his high score , uh-huh , and we sent it , mailed it off , so that he could get the patch . Oh , that's so cool Because they would mail back a patch , if you like beat a certain high score and finished a game . I didn't know that . We would use the old fashioned mail with like stamps and things and we would write on envelopes and we sent this Polaroid picture in of him .

Megan Bennett 57:24

I love that With the highest score on the game , it was cool , they mailed back Patch .

Lesley Meier 57:28

I wonder if he still has the vest . I don't know , I'll have to ask him .

Megan Bennett 57:31

We weren't like our family . We had the very first Macintosh computer , oh right , on don't know like two and a half feet tall and weighed roughly the same as a Volkswagen and came in a cloth bag to unzip it . So my mom got the very first Apple Macintosh computer and it had a screen that was like this big . Yeah , and we played solitaire on that thing every , every day . It was just like on the dining room table , much to my grandmother's chagrin and just sat there and you would just play solitaire .

Megan Bennett 58:11

I don't know that . I don't know that it did anything else I don't know did you did with it . I don't know what I just said .

Lesley Meier 58:17

I I don't think we did anything with it other than play solitaire because was it a word processor , sure would you have been able to type , I think . I mean it had a keyboard it had .

Megan Bennett 58:27

In fact it had a curly like q cord . That okay you know . So it was right there right on don't know , only ever played solitaire on it .

Lesley Meier 58:36

That's all that matters .

Megan Bennett 58:37

But that was our gaming .

Lesley Meier 58:38

That was pretty sad . So those are . We kind of had our home console games . Those are early memories of that . What about arcade games ? I was doing the whole chicken and egg thing like which came first . Did you go to the arcade ?

Producer Tim 58:54

as a young person , yeah , and like when , what ?

Megan Bennett 58:56

was that what was your arcade era about Definitely the same era of just going to the mall . Okay , there were a couple of different malls that have different arcades and of course all had different games , you know , but then this was like pre-dance dance revolution kind of thing . It was just rows and rows of stand-up .

Lesley Meier 59:19

Centipede Burger-man , miss pac-man , you know , gallia , thank , you very much and these are all like 16 bit games , right , pretty pretty much , yeah , pretty early on , at least early on .

Megan Bennett 59:32

Yeah , they would get a little trickier . You'd have some that were a little fancier . Do you remember when , um , oh shoot , what was the one called the dragons ? Dragons quest , dragons eight ? It was dragons quest , like I'm looking at producer tim , but the one that was like the most advanced graphics , um , and it had like a night that . No , it was a stand up art , it was a video game . That , when Dragon's Lair Dragon's Lair oh yes , freaking A man .

Megan Bennett 1:00:02

That one the most frustrating game ever . Everybody spent at least $200 trying to just get out of the castle . Nobody ever did it .

Producer Tim 1:00:11

I do remember that , but that was like the next . That was the next phase .

Megan Bennett 1:00:15

Yes , when they started getting way advanced yes , agreed that was a good development there super beautiful to look at , impossible to play . I remember this . I bet nobody's ever finished it I would love to know .

Lesley Meier 1:00:27

That would be awesome .

Megan Bennett 1:00:28

But yeah , so we should mostly like mostly the 16 bit okay so yeah , I remember like playing frogger .

Lesley Meier 1:00:36

my mom mom loved Balloon man , do you remember ?

Megan Bennett 1:00:38

this game ?

Lesley Meier 1:00:39

Oh , I don't remember Balloon man it was a guy like on a unicycle , like a clown . Balloon .

Producer Tim 1:00:44

Man .

Lesley Meier 1:00:44

Okay , and he would just like ride back and forth and the goal was for him to catch balloons on top of his head . Okay , and then there , center console like centipede had that balloon man was also a ball in the center console . It was definitely in the eighties . Yep , there you go , balloon man , and definitely at showbiz pizza .

Lesley Meier 1:01:11

Oh , I remember showbiziz , and that was back when a youth children's pizza establishment had a lot of entertainment for adults right it was an arcade keep them busy and there were kid games , but I remember like it was mostly the parents I mean the kids played , but like anybody was there for skeeball fuck , yes , skeeball we have to go play some .

Megan Bennett 1:01:39

Yes , let's do that . I love that'd be super fun . So much I do too , and again , very competitive with that oh so and then there's that whole like the world changed right and the video games suddenly had seats to them do you remember when that like kind of happened too , like you got the star wars games . I think there was an indiana jones game okay that you sat down in um , yeah , or , and then later jurassic park . There was like a jurassic park game where you were in a jeep sure so that's .

Lesley Meier 1:02:10

This is an interesting part of the video game journey , because when video games started at the very beginning , like the whole star wars franchise , didn't exist yet right so there weren't necessarily video games based on movies . So I'm kind of curious about like the crossover , like when somebody was like oh look , you know , I mean star wars , obvious entry point , lots of things to fly light sure all the things , but that had to open up a whole new era of video game development I'm sure , because now you had the marketing aspect to it right like a whole branding piece , that on another layer to what they were doing , because before that you could do defender , yeah , and you could have defender and defender was just defender right .

Megan Bennett 1:02:51

But then now you've got like a right , like a star wars tie , fighting , shooting , which would have been drastically different .

The Golden Age of Video Games

Lesley Meier 1:03:01

Our brains have been through a lot . They have , when you think about marketing and the development of marketing and how branding basically I don't want to say totally came into existence . This is a little bit of Gen X exceptionalism , because we only know what we know , we know what we know . But this whole thing developed like sheets , action figures video games clothes Like this was our childhood .

Megan Bennett 1:03:26

You can kind of start blaming it on Disney a little bit right , Because like I remember as a little little kid having .

Lesley Meier 1:03:32

Bambi sheets . Okay , right on , yeah for sure .

Megan Bennett 1:03:35

So like that kind of stuff branded Well and even Holly Hobby , but those were .

Lesley Meier 1:03:40

I remember them being popular in middle school and Holly Hobby is much older than the 80s . Well , and probably all right , I'm going to de-center us . There was like I mean , you had Coca-Cola , davy Crockett , that was like you know , there was that marketing , like there was Davy Crockett wallpaper and the hat like the old Wild West stories . But I would say certainly in the 80s shit blew up .

Megan Bennett 1:04:02

Yeah , the wheels fell off the bus and yeah , it went crazy . Agreed , because you know video games around movies .

Lesley Meier 1:04:11

This story is brutal the development of the Atari . What producer Tim is showing us right now is the Atari ET video game .

Lesley Meier 1:04:20

And I think this was on a show that we watched the development of this game . They were pushing so hard to get this game out to coincide with the movie , to get the Christmas sales , and so they were working 24 seven like around the clock . I had that game To get this game out and it was like the most expensive and the biggest flop . Is that true , am I ? But this game tanked so hard .

Megan Bennett 1:04:49

Well , if I recall , it was pretty impossible to play and I know you were on a bicycle and there was a flower involved and I just I'm like trying to remember a little bit of this , but I do remember playing it yeah , but it was pretty brutal .

Lesley Meier 1:05:05

I mean it was unlike any other . It was the height of like kind of commercialism and pushing a product to come out with a movie well , the developers probably only had you know this tiny little window right , because the movie gets into into production .

Megan Bennett 1:05:22

And you I mean , like I think about the , the movies or the games that I play now , like all of those assassin creed games , they take years . Yes , years and years and years to put out , and if you're trying to back in the way , old ancient days , even with the 16 bit , right , you only had a tiny little window to get this shit built . Yes , and then it also still somehow had to have some sort of theme to the movie .

Lesley Meier 1:05:48

Right , like it was supposed to tie in and you should care about it , and it should feel like an extension of the film and game .

Producer Tim 1:05:54

Development up until that point had taken decades , right , well , and I think , if memory serves like the developers hadn't seen the movie yet , because the movie wasn't done , there was no screen .

Megan Bennett 1:06:06

Right If they're trying to get it out at the same time .

Producer Tim 1:06:08

So they were like getting like photos of the production , artwork and stuff .

Megan Bennett 1:06:13

And they're not going to give them the whole script and they're not going to you know , because if any of that gets out , that's like just terrible for a movie .

Lesley Meier 1:06:23

That's wild . Yeah , so I kind of missed . I know the next development was like the Game Boy and that kind of handheld .

Producer Tim 1:06:31

And that sort of went over my head .

Lesley Meier 1:06:34

Not like it was too hard , but I just was moving on to other things over my head . Yeah , not like it was too hard , but I just was moving on to other things .

Megan Bennett 1:06:38

Yeah , I went off into college . I remember the . I think the end for me , I mean the break for me , because I'm back into it , but the I want to . Oops . I want to say that in junior high and my freshman year of high school we had at-putt in our like right down the street from us oh , okay , right and of course that's miniature golf for anybody who doesn't have putt-putts or didn't have putt-putts , um , but they also had an arcade that was next to the putt-putt .

Megan Bennett 1:07:10

Nice , and you'd go in and you could get your , get your ball in your , in your and your stick and go play putt-putt , or you could hang out in the arcade , okay , and my friends and I would go every , every , every Saturday night and play video games .

Lesley Meier 1:07:27

Nice .

Megan Bennett 1:07:28

And we were a pretty decent , like normal group of kids . We weren't terrible troublemakers or anything like that . We weren't trying to burn the place down . Not trying to burn , but we just would go in and hang out and play video games okay and we got to be good friends with the police officer who was there just to keep people from having fights right and he got tokens for free . So in the back of his police cruiser he had buckets of tokens from Putt-Putt .

Megan Bennett 1:08:00

And he would hand us , like giant , like tumblers , cups full of tokens every time we'd come in , not for everybody , but just for my little crew , and so we would sit and play for hours for free . That's awesome , it was so great we played Gauntlet . We played the shit out of Gauntlet . Remember that one ? No , I mean , that's freaking Dungeons and Dragons , right there . Show me what it looked like . Gauntlet had a warrior , it had a Valkyrie .

Lesley Meier 1:08:27

Oh , sweet An elf .

Megan Bennett 1:08:29

It had a wizard . It had .

Lesley Meier 1:08:33

Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah .

Megan Bennett 1:08:37

And then you got , like you know , if you were about to die it'd be like valkyrie is about to die .

Lesley Meier 1:08:42

Warrior needs food , so yes yes , so there was a place that was by the house a few years ago and they had this in it and their arcade . Their uprights didn't always work , but a girlfriend of mine and I were there one evening and we played the shit out of this and we laughed a lot at it because it was really funny .

Megan Bennett 1:09:03

It's so fun .

Lesley Meier 1:09:04

I don't even know how we ended up there that night .

Megan Bennett 1:09:07

There's nothing more frustrating than when you go and you like nowadays and you put a quarter in and like one of the characters doesn't work . Oh , it's just like yes , absolutely , I just it's just like yes .

Lesley Meier 1:09:17

Absolutely . I just want to play with my buddies . Those games are great . The other game we played there was a Michael Jackson video game .

Megan Bennett 1:09:25

That was called Moonwalker .

Lesley Meier 1:09:26

Talk about branding , I think , and it was also an early and we were just like what . I did not remember this .

Megan Bennett 1:09:34

I didn't remember a Michael Jackson one . I remember Michael Jackson .

Lesley Meier 1:09:36

Super weird .

Megan Bennett 1:09:37

Here it is . Yes , oh , my goodness , do you make him dance .

Lesley Meier 1:09:41

Yes , and he has like powers . Yes , we played this a lot , but this is I played it as an adult . I didn't know it exists . Okay , it was a Sega Genesis game . It's kind of magnificent . It's just so surreal and weird .

Megan Bennett 1:09:57

That's so 80s , I can't even stand it .

Lesley Meier 1:09:58

That was really pretty fun and we have a couple of arcades here in the city of Indianapolis retro arcades that you can go to and play many of these games .

Megan Bennett 1:10:08

I think you and I need to go do that , because the one downtown also has skeeball , yes , so we should go do that , and they have a gauntlet game oh wait .

Lesley Meier 1:10:17

Yeah , I posted from that last year because we got to go as part of gen con we got in there for that event and they have a skee-ball upstairs . That was super fun so yeah , maybe we can get some like little mics and we'll just like narrate ourselves playing that'd be fun , okay .

Megan Bennett 1:10:32

question if you go back in time , yes , walk into an arcade . Okay , you have a handful of quarters . You can play any game you want .

Lesley Meier 1:10:41

Which one do you pick ? I have to go back in olden days brain . I probably would have played . It was Pac-Man . I played a lot of Pac-Man .

Megan Bennett 1:10:50

Pac-Man .

Lesley Meier 1:10:51

Yeah .

Megan Bennett 1:10:52

Now , did you prefer Pac-Man over Ms Pac-Man or did you like Ms Pac-Man better ?

Lesley Meier 1:10:57

I like the original . Okay , I played . I was an equal opportunity Pac person as Pac people go , I really enjoyed the original Pac-Man . This takes me back to the Pac-Man Christmas special that you didn't know existed .

Producer Tim 1:11:11

I didn't know it existed .

Lesley Meier 1:11:12

We talked about that that was pretty funny , but Pac-Man probably . So what would you play ? I feel like I know , but I don't know if you go back to the beginning .

Megan Bennett 1:11:22

It would have to be Galaga .

Lesley Meier 1:11:24

Okay .

Megan Bennett 1:11:25

And that's partly because I played it so much that I got the pattern down .

Producer Tim 1:11:29

Oh , right on , and then it was almost like cheating , right .

Megan Bennett 1:11:31

Yes , because after a while you're like I played so many games of it that I know exactly when the next round is . I know where , that you know where the ship's coming down , I know when it's going to drop the little missile .

Lesley Meier 1:11:42

Yes , you know , I know when the alien's coming . That was part of the skill of it . Yeah , it was the pattern recognition and the development of like . I mean that's how you got good Right At video games .

Megan Bennett 1:11:54

Yeah , oh , look at that .

Lesley Meier 1:11:56

Oh , there's a little Galaga guy , there's a little alien that's going to take my ship and Galaga came out post Space Invaders and post . Was it Mission Command or Missile Command ?

Megan Bennett 1:12:07

Missile Command . It was an AT&T game . Oh , I hated Missile Command . I hated that one , my Atlanta Atari game .

Lesley Meier 1:12:13

I didn't like that one at all , but these were precursors to this .

Megan Bennett 1:12:17

Yes , galaga was like a better version . Yeah , it's a little more fancy . They had , like the ships were a little more detailed and stuff like that . So I need to go to video games .

Lesley Meier 1:12:28

I'd be a good time . I'm glad we have them . I like to play some video games . I like to play them .

Megan Bennett 1:12:34

They are not just for little boys .

Lesley Meier 1:12:40

No , um , they are not just for little boys . No , they are not just for little kids , no , they are for old people too video games are for grown ups .

Megan Bennett 1:12:44

Embrace your video game . If you are looking for a way just to uh , de-stress , I strongly recommend , highly recommend , and that's not just phone games which are fine right other place , but we're just like touching a screen with your finger .

Lesley Meier 1:12:58

Yep Like get on a nice console game , hold a controller , go to the arcade , meet some people , look around , touch grass .

Megan Bennett 1:13:08

Touch grass or hide in your basement and play Assassin's Creed until the world heals itself . Go to France . Go to France in your , your mind or on your video game this has been fun .

Lesley Meier 1:13:21

That's been fun . You have been listening to gen x . Women are sick of this shit . Hey megan , hey leslie , what do people do if they want to find us ?

Megan Bennett 1:13:31

well , we have a website that people can find us on , and that is genxwomenpodcom . We also have a Facebook page . We have an Instagram account as well . We have a YouTube account where we put YouTube shorts and other little tidbits up there . We have a TikTok account .

Gen X Podcast Merch and Fame

Megan Bennett 1:13:53

I don't talk the dick or tick the tock . You don't tick the tock , I do not . I barely talk the tick , but I did put a TikTok up . We're explaining TikTok account . I don't talk the dick or tick the tock . You don't tick the tock , I do not . I barely talk the tick , but I did put a TikTok up .

Lesley Meier 1:14:00

We're explaining the internet to people again .

Producer Tim 1:14:03

That's okay though it's great .

Lesley Meier 1:14:04

We need to know how the internet works .

Megan Bennett 1:14:06

Can people buy merch ? They absolutely can . We have a merch store on the website itself , and we also have an Etsy store too , so that was just pretty easy to find you . It's just Gen X women on Etsy .

Lesley Meier 1:14:20

And if you are listening to this podcast , presumably you found it somewhere . And while you're there , give us a review . Yeah , let us know what you think .

Megan Bennett 1:14:30

Throw some stars at us .

Lesley Meier 1:14:31

That'd be great .

Megan Bennett 1:14:32

We'll take one , two , three , four or five , ooh , five , maybe ten , and also make sure that you are hitting subscribe so that you're notified whenever a new episode drops .

Producer Tim 1:14:43

Most important .

Megan Bennett 1:14:44

We also have a five minutes of fame that I think we should tell people about too .

Lesley Meier 1:14:47

Hell , yes , we want to know your stories , your five minutes of fame stories . You can send those stories in on the website or you can call 1-888-GEN-X-POD and leave your story for us and we will play it live in our next episode .

Megan Bennett 1:15:05

We'll listen to it on a little red phone , just like .

Lesley Meier 1:15:10

Batman . That'd be cool , let's get a bat phone . I think that's it . I think you're right .