All right, I'll say it: I'm 40 and I LOVE video games! (Hi 40! is your response). I back this pride up by saying I am not on the cutting edge of video games. I am more like on the spork of it because, quite frankly, I can't afford to buy a new system with its coolest game every time one comes out. Really, I marvel, then puke, at the sight of the line at Target or Wal Mart when the newest machine comes to the public for a mere $500 or so, usually around Thanksgiving weekend. Mmm, that sounds like an interesting time: have a huge feast, then go sit or stand in line subjecting everyone to your turkey or ham farts! But, even though I am way behind on the hip new stuff, I have still been able to watch the evolution of the video game world well, evolve!
1970s- my grandparents in Michigan owned a quaint (by today's standards) little device with two knobs. These knobs (sorry, PADDLES) controlled 2 short line segments that batted a square dot back and forth. It was called Pong and we all thought it was fun mindless amusement, especially to a little 6 or 7 year old me!
1981- I meet my new friend Jeremy Bitz who owns this really cool machine called an Atari, where you plug a rectangular piece of plastic into the machine and use a revolutionary gadget called a joystick to play the game! And these games were, by today's standards, pretty lame. But there was nothing 21st-century era to compare them to. So, these games ROCKED! One title in particular comes to mind: Air Sea Battle. In this game, airplanes fought each other, planes fought boats, boats fought planes, or boats fought boats. Well, needless to say, I knew this machine would just rot my brain, so I kept wanting to go to Jeremy's house to play.
1982: Santa's last gift to me before I disowned him as many kids do eventually, was an Atari. Jeremy got an Intellivision. I had trouble with that machine because of its keypad and joystickless controller. However, I played my machine relentlessly. My first 3 games were Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and the somewhat dull Combat (it came with the machine). Pac Man was pretty toned down from its arcade machine father and Donkey Kong just had 2 playing screens, whereas the arcade machine had 4 total screens. Still, as some years passed, I gathered other games, many of them lesser versions of their arcade geneses. Ms. Pac Man (a HUGE improvement over Pac Man), Popeye, Jungle Hunt, Star Wars, Empire Stirkes Back, Return of the Jedi, Jedi Arena, and Missile Command were my favorites.
1985- I got for Christmas a Commodore 64 computer. This machine pretty much changed my game-playing life. For one thing, my dad's office had a HUGE library of games that you could copy to disk! For free!! In fact, I bought very few if any games. Also, the graphics were slightly above the Atari and I could use my joystick on it. I got to play upgraded versions of my Atari games, most of them, anyway! Also-
1986- I get a device called a modem. This allowed me to hold up the phone line so that I could called local numbers on the phone/modem team and access bulletin board systems...one could call them Textbook because there were no pictures, but there were lots of posts by all the nerds in town that had a modem. You could also do this little thing called DOWNLOADING, where you used your phone line to bring in data for a game onto a floppy disk! My world was just getting better and better! My modem was a modest 300 baud in terms of data transfer. I think, from my memory, that 300 baud meant 300 characters on the screen per hour, that's how slow it seemed!
1987. I got a 1200 baud modem plus a new computer desk, and some new games. This was a good Christmas.
1992- I bought for $10 my cousin Erica's Nintendo. This is a perfect example of being behind the times, since the NES came out in 1985! I had played the machine at people's houses before, but now I had my own. I was 20 at the time, and my mom was mad that I wasn't seeking employment actively. The joystick had been "upgraded" to a controller with a directional pad and an A and B button so you could jump AND shoot!What was cool about was Nintendo was that I could RENT GAMES at the video store. My world was really opening up now. This period went for about 3 years.
1995- After gleefully trying out my brother in law's SUPER NINTENDO, I got one of my own when I was at Sonoma State University. It was definitely a step above the NES. This controller had a directional pad, plus A, B, X, Y, and Z buttons! My favorite game by far was Super Empire Strikes Back. Oh yes, I finally got my lightsaber duel after waiting for years. Shadowrun was also a good one, as well as Legend of Zelda. By now there were stores that existed solely to sell video games and computer software. Those games were a good balance to the turmoil of my parents' divorce and my coming into my own personality- and relationship-wise.
2000- I decided to trade in my SNES for a Playstation 1 (2 wasn't out yet). I was now introduced to discs instead of cartridges. The controller had shapes instead of letters. I got a few Star Wars games, Spiderman, and a few others that made life fun. I actually had this machine for only 2 years, for 1 reason only. In late 2002 I was in a game store and saw someone playing Rogue Leader, which contained a very awesome version of the Death Star attack in Star Wars! So...
2002- I traded in my PS1 for a Gamecube and bought Rogue Leader AND Jedi Outcast. The latter had the best lightsaber duel action I'd ever seen! (it is still a favorite) I didn't buy that much for the Gamecube since it was just amusement after a day of teaching.
2006- Traded the Gamecube for a Plasyation 2. Got lots of games, had fun, nothing obsessive about it anymore. Revenge of the Sith was fun, as well as Curious George, but it was an occasional diversion with my finacee, later wife Vickie.
2011- Traded in the PS2 for a Wii. I love bowling, tennis, Price is Right, and Lego Star Wars. Plan to keep this one for a while.
I also remember the era of video game arcades. The Berkshire Mall had a GREAT one in the early 80s before they remodeled to put in a food court. Showbiz Pizza also had a good one. I was lucky enough to go to a couple of birthday parties there before it closed down. The era of arcades is pretty much over, save for racing and shooting games you find here and there, My last memory of an arcade was at West Virginia University. Small, but packed with good games.
As to game systems, I know I missed out on more than a few. I never wanted an Intellivision, I totally missed out on the short-lived Colecovision, and Odyssey was a fast come and go. The whole Sega set just bypassed me. I'm not interested in the new Playstations or XBoxes. Why bother? It's like replacing your movie collection of DVDs with Blu-Ray. It was tough enough replacing my VHS collection, I still haven't finished that quest.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to grab a paddle. That little ball is calling to me!
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