Halo apparently released in 2001. My wife graduated in 2002, so she could have (and might have) played some Halo in High school. She's 28, so not that young.

I played Doom in Highschool myself. Late(ish) highschool (class of '95 here)

Sure, it's not "pure" black, but his argument is more that the average monitor's #000 text on a #fff background still has too much contrast for comfortable reading.

But I didn't get much out of the article discussing the idea of black on white for text. The majority of his post was about the color of elements on the page. I'm not saying I disagree with his point, but the talk about pure black when it doesn't exist in that context makes it seem strangely written. Looking at it in terms of contrast then it makes with the thought of grays versus black.