39 and played a little bit of AD&D during the 80s, and much more DSA (Das Schwazr eAuge = the black Eye = Pen&Paper RPG that was as popular in germany as AD&D was in the USA).
Also played most of the AD&D computer games, beginning with the Pool of Radiance Trilogy from SSI (and also including AD&D Strategy games like Stronghold and, my favorite, Fantasy Empires).
Also played (among loads of other TBS games, which, of course included all parts of Civilization) the game which probably was the biggest inspiration for Elemental (but also Heoes of Might and Magic), i.e. Master of Magic.
As for Stardock ... GalCiv must have been my first game from them. Played a lots of their games afterwards, including GalCiv 2, SotS and Elemental 1
As for the intelligence of younger players nowadays ...
I think the main problem is, that gaming nowadays is mainstream.
During the 80s only a small percentage of people owned a computer amd/or played games. Many if not most of them were people who would be called geeks or nerds by their classmates and most of them would have an IQ well over the average.
Nowadays almost everyone who can afford it owns an PC and a large percentage of the people play games ... even people who, had they grown up during the 80s, would have called their classmates geeks for owning one 
Therefore the average intelligence of gaming consumers nowadays de facto is lower than that of the gaming consumers during the 80s.
Also means that the people in suits of most gaming companies nowadays seem to prefer to play it safe and tell their developers to develop games that even an idiot can play (as, if ha can´t he won´t be motivated to spend money on the game ).
