Like most things about gaming, lifestyle photos that pretend to represent a snap shot of gaming life have changed dramatically over the last few decades. Thanks mostly to the Wii, our eyes are regularly offended by pretend perfect people pretending to play games in pretend perfect studio apartments. We find the whole thing putrid and distasteful. Here's a sick-making example of gaming through the lifestyle lens so you know what we're talking about.

Look at them. These people are not real.

But have these contrived glimpses of gaming life always been so offensively shitacular? To find out, we did some investigative journalism using Google image search and - presto! - discovered a wealth of old-school gaming lifestyle pics from the 70s. This is about as retro as it gets kids, so love it up. Let's time warp!

This stuff was so far in the future that it actually had to be played in outer space. Probably in a decompression chamber or something so their heads didn't explode like that bit in Total Recall.

Still in outer space, but this time with a splash of technicolour. And the dude is definitely checking out her tits.

Back in the day, lifestyle shots were actually representative of the real deal. Four men with hair helmets playing QuadraPong while a girl hangs about like a lonely fart would, we imagine, have been pretty much spot on.

This is gaming and foreplay all at the same time.

The fact that she's actually getting paid to pretend that she's interested in games still isn't enough for this 'Mom' to even pretend that she's even vaguely interested in games. Mom: "Games? Yes, very nice dear."

An artist's impression. Look at this while thinking of the theme from Shaft and you've got a pretty good impression of what the 70s was like.