"I haven't" "I hadn't" "I didn't" Which one is the best in the context?

Question

Please imagine you liked Super Mario when you were a kid and that you are going to play it for the first time in a decade or two.

Before playing it, you'd say

"Oh, I haven't played Super Mario since I was a kid."

wouldn't you?

Then, what about when you are playing?

1A) Oh, I haven't played Super Mario since I was a kid.

1B) Oh, I hadn't played Super Mario since I was a kid.

1C) Oh, I didn't play Super Mario since I was a kid.

How about when you have just finished playing it?

2A) Oh, I haven't played Super Mario since I was a kid.

2B) Oh, I hadn't played Super Mario since I was a kid.

3C) Oh, I didn't play Super Mario since I was a kid.

Thank you.

Answer 1

A is normal.

C is ungrmmatical in my British English dialect, whch doesn't allow a simple past with since. I believe this is not true of all varieties of English.

1B is possible but not in the circumstances you describe. When you use the so-called "past perfect" you are choosing to view the event(s) from some later time in the past; so if you are telling somebody about it tomorrow, then you might say "I hadn't played SM since I was a kid", implicitly setting the temporal focus to when you played it today (in the past when you are talking).

For the same reason, 2B is just about possible: for some reason you are choosing to set the temporal focus at the time (just past) when you were playing it. But 2A would be just as good.