I was reminded this morning of the first video game I
remember,
Pong.
Vanity Fair ran an
excerpt
from a new book coming out on the rise of Atari. I remember that first
Atari well. It not only had
Pong, but
Soccer, and
Tennis—which
were basically…
Pong with slight variations. Oh how the Atari brought the
family together, hitting a little square back and forth. My mother marveled
that it would help with my “hand/eye coordination.”
Our next system, the
Atari 2600 was a definite
step up. Cartridges this time, and in color with what seemed like awesome
graphics! Oh the time we spent playing
Bowling and
Space Invaders
as a family! At first the system was in the living room, and my play was
limited to a half hour after school and some on the weekends. I remember when
my Dad brought home the hot new game
Missile Command! My favorite game
on the Atari 2600 was
Pitfall. I tried so hard to get to 20,000 points
and be able to send in for the Pitfall Harry patch!
I amassed quite a collection of
Nintendo games over a span of a few years,
but the ones that stand out in my mind include
Super Mario Bros,
Castlevania,
Metroid, Double Dragon, Legend of Zelda, and a strategy war game
set in feudal Japan called
Nobunaga’s Ambition. Nobunaga has the
distinction of being the first video game I ever stayed up all night playing.
Now these were the best graphics! Arcade quality!
Eventually, one of the guys I was in a band with bought this
new system called the
Playstation by
Sony.
We’d have band practice on Friday nights until about 10 PM. Then
he and I would literally stay up all night playing
NFL Gameday. I don’t
think I ever beat him once, but I fell in love with the Playstation, and
NFL
Gameday. I had to have it. I bought a Playstation, and got
NFL Gameday
as soon as I could possibly afford it. All I played on my Playstation was
NFL
Gameday. When a new version came out, I had to have it, as it would have
the updated rosters for the upcoming season.
Then along came the Playstation 2. Now, the PS2 was a video
game system that made sense. It was like an investment. I didn’t have a DVD
player, but the PS2 played DVDs! It was backwards compatible to all Playstation
games, so I could play all my old NFL Gameday games on the new system.
So I bit the bullet and…decided to invest in a PS2.
Now, I stuck with NFL Gameday on my PS2 for at least
3 years. Then I want over to a mutual friend’s house and played Madden.
Yes, I’d heard about Madden, but I was skeptical. I was a Gameday
guy. Well, one night of Madden and I was hooked. I picked up a copy of
the latest Madden soon after, and bought the latest Madden every
year up until recently. When you have kids, it’s tough to stay up all night
playing videogames, but I assure you that Madden is the one game
I’ve spent the most all-nighters playing. I’ve gone though whole seasons in a
night!
Then along came the
Wii. I
admit I was a little turned off by commercials with the fakey bigheaded game
characters. But the wireless controllers were interesting. I was actually my
wife who convinced me we needed one, to give the family something new to do
together. We initially all had a lot of fun playing the sports game that came
with the system. We’ve also all spent a lot of time with
Wii Fit Plus, and
my son and I spend a lot of time playing
Lego Star Wars. For some
reason,
Madden on the Wii doesn’t do it for me though! But the biggest
use of our Wii is to stream Netflix.
With the smartphone revolution, video games have come full
circle. The graphics on the smartphone games match the quality of nearly any of
the TV based systems. Plus, they keep the kids busy! I must admit, I do play
the occasional game of Chess on my phone, but it’s mostly the kids
playing Angry Birds, Ant Smasher and Hungry Shark.
I do have to say though, the greatest app on my phone, game
or not, is called Jedi Light Saber. You can choose your light saber
hilt, color, and even your “Star Wars” theme song. When you move the phone back
and forth, it makes the famous light saber sound. My son and I have light saber
duels with my phone and my wife’s! I can’t imagine what cell phones will be
like when my son is “ready” for one, or what video games will be like for that
matter!
