Does anybody remember the computer game called "Pong" made by Atari? For those who are wondering what on earth I must be rambling about now, I’m talking about my first addiction to a computer game.
My brother and I in my younger years were fortunate enough to be amongst the first owners of the Atari games console. We used to sit spellbound for hours on end watching a "square" ball travel its diagonal course from one side of our TV to the other. He would be in charge of one paddle, and I the other. The idea? To get the other to miss the square ball as it crossed to our side of the screen.
| |
StarReviews Top 3
Game Rental Websites |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Of course, since then much has changed ... alas no, everything has changed!
I moved onwards and upwards to an
Atari 400 computer, my parents fool heartedly thought that I would get into writing
Atari programmes rather than just playing games with it. But, there was a missing sense of direction in my life, and at the grand old age of 10 I became addicted to
Donkey Kong instead. My brother had been sent off to boarding school at this time, so my father took his place as the opponent and we became addicted together.
We then moved sideways to move upwards so to speak, and in all honesty should have become shareholders in the Ever Ready battery company as our next acquisition, the hand held
Space Invaders game, absorbed batteries in the same way that cities absorbed electricity. If it wasn’t for the fact that my father couldn’t accept an 11 year old boy regularly beating him at a game, then I think it extremely unlikely that the batteries would have kept coming and
Space Invaders would have become a quick and distant memory. It was the family accountant whom eventually informed/persuaded my father that there were much cheaper and more interesting alternatives available that could run off electricity, and so we briefly returned to buying the
Atari computer games once more.
Nothing much changed for a while and my own education took over, I did write a few games in my spare time, but never had the same aptitude shown by a couple of my class mates who were
writing games professionally by the age of 13, and I quickly lost interest in the writing side. (Yes, I too cringe at what might have been, every day of my life!)
The next console we bought was many years later and was the
SEGA Mega drive. Now I think we missed out somewhere along the line as this presented us with a whole new breed of game. We started playing platform games such as
Mickey Mouse and
Sonic the Hedgehog through all hours of the night, sometimes not going to bed at all. Whilst my brother and father were out at the golf course on a Saturday morning, I would be winning pro golf tournaments on the
SEGA mega drive. Then, on came the
strategy games,
Command and Conquer was my favourite and I began swapping winning tips and then games with my friends as everybody seemed to have acquired a
SEGA mega drive console. All in all The
SEGA mega drive was probably the best console I have used to date in terms of ease of use, fun and variety on offer.
But life moves on and so a new generation of little men came onto the scene. After another several year gap my son persuaded me to part with my ageing SEGA Mega drive and upgrade to a
Sony Play Station.
Since then and in quick succession we have gone through the play station, an
X-Box and now with an
X-Box hard drive which now lays in the cupboard gathering dust awaiting the next bonus cheque before we inevitably move on to something like a
Nintendo Wii.
So, what of the
Electronic Games revolution and where do we stand today?
Personally, I think we’re ready for a new revolution as I am getting older and quite bored with what has been on offer recently. All these blood and gore games just don’t push my buttons.
My hope and salvation I believe may have arrived in the form of the
Nintendo Wii, but until the recession is over and things return to normal I will content myself with playing those simple and
old fashioned games that are becoming more and more popular once again, simple but addictive games such as
Tetris and the like.
Who knows what the future will bring?