Monday, October 08, 2007

Back in the 80s, I absolutely loved arcade games. Back then, they were simple and fun and didn't take a lot of thought or dexterity. One summer when I was 10, I actually built up a callus on my thumb from playing too much Ms. Pac Man. I could take a pocket full of quarters down to the arcade and spends hours there. When they came out, we bought an Atari, and I spent many more afternoons in a darkened living room after school playing Space Invaders, Breakout and Pitfall in between watching videos on MTV. Soon, more and more game consoles came out and I grew up, too busy with life to play video games. Years later, when I did try to play a friend's Playstation, I found I no longer had the hand-eye coordination required to play today's complex games. Also, they didn't really interest me. I wasn't interested in saving the world...I'd rather play Tetris.

Then came the Wii. All of a sudden, I've been hearing great things about this game that involves virtual interaction with on screen characters via motion sensitive controllers. I've often referred to chronic gamers as "(fill in derogatory word here)." Then I heard my sister say my nephews had borrowed one from a friend, and my mom, 67-years-old, played the bowling game for hours. Hmm...my interest was piqued. I'd seen people play Guitar Hero and was enthralled. My friend, Rob (chronic gamer) has been trying to convince me to treat myself and by a Wii for some time. Well, I finally did it. I moved one more step toward geeky and bought myself a Wii online over the weekend. Now, I'm spending a lot of time on the internet trying to figure out what games I want to buy for it. I saw a game coming out next month with carnival games like darts, ping pong toss, and skee ball. I already see myself playing virtual skee ball at 2 in the morning.

The song of the day is "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey off their 1981 album Escape. Anyone remember the Journey video game? You had to play it at the arcade. It was right next to Joust and you had to use TWO quarters instead of one. I wonder what marketing genius decided they needed to design a video game based around a band?

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have had a wii for about six months. My parents bought one after bowling at my house. I like wii sports and wii play. Just don't get Mario Party 8- it is awful. Ten year olds like it- but I don't. Do they have wii hockey yet? I like bowling and boxing the best. Boxing is actually quite a workout. Fishing is fun too. The driving game came with a steering wheel.
Jen

4:02 PM  
Blogger Diane said...

The golf WII looks pretty cool - I've only played it with a little kid's game

7:25 AM  
Blogger dnetrunner said...

I remember Joust, but not Journey. I liked Centipede the best. I'm with you on the Tetris thing, some games are way too complicated. With the Wii you get excersize too (by standing up and moving your arm :) I laughed so hard watching my kids play that I had to play too. It was soo fun! Boxing would be fun...maybe like a cross between tai bo and gaming!

8:20 AM  
Blogger Kings Fan said...

I haven't stepped up to the world of Wii yet, but after reading your post, I'm getting very interested. I am still playing hockey and baseball with my XBox and find that I don't want to go to work in the morning if I try and get in a game when I wake up. Who knows if anyone will see me again if I get an interactive game.

Don't remember the Journey game, but I stuck with the games I liked back then.

11:39 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I remember the Journey game. I think there was a round (maybe bonus), where you play a bouncer and protecting the band while their on stage.

Have you seen King of Kong? Pretty good documentary on Donkey Kong.

12:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

TIFFANY! I MUST play the Wii!!!

5:19 PM  

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