Examining historic games

Well here I am back at chess.com. Why do I do it? Because chess is a good challenge. It provides enjoyment and is good fun. What more could you ask for? I was thinking about the modern age of chess versus the pre-silicon days of chess. In yonder years before computers and the internet people played chess. Indeed going even further back when there wasnt tv or even radio or many board games at all people would play cards and chess! What else was there to do in the evenings? Sit infront of the fire place and entertain one's self by candle light and a good book or chess or card game. That's how! So assuming all this to be tru and correct this would mean there were more people playing chess than now, right? Well maybe not! Because the internet has come along and brought chess with it, it seems to me that even more people have access to chess and you dont even need to own a board! There must have been more chess played in yonder years yet the modern day databases are full of modern games. Why is this. It may be because there appears to be no definitive historical record of old games.

There simply was not the technology to mass record chess games in 18th and 17th centuries. 

So in thousands of years time players will look at the chess databases and wonder why there was suddenly an explosion of chess playing around 1990 in the world.

I dont think there was. I think there was simply an explosion of players recording and sharing(via databses) in and around 1990!!