I miss Atari. Unfortunately, I've somehow filled my mother's shoes--I suck at today's video games. I remember how deflated she looked when my brother and I would refuse to hand over the joystick, and now, I can empathize. Sigh. But I can't blame them. Who the hell wants to sit there and watch me panic and die within the first ten seconds? It's painful and embarassing.
Okay, sorry for getting off-track. Where's today's open thread?
Go for it folks...
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I've experienced something similar, but not with video games (though that might even be the case: anything I play is on the PC, so much simpler than the 12 button joysticks of modern consoles)
I am probably about 5 to 7 years behind on cell phone technology. Windows mobile? Bluetooth? web 2.0?
Ive no idea how to use any of that, much like my father.
Oh, and bonus "I sound like my parents" point:
One day one of my students was talking about how much she liked punk rock, then listed her favorite bands as blink 182, fall out boy and so. Man, I was all "that is not real music" on her. When saying you've seen the Ramones and the clash in person just generates puzzled looks from college students, that is a reference that your cultural references have become completely outdated... Same thing when Ice-t becomes that "cop on that tv show" as opposed to the guy of "cop killer" and "body count" fame...
@dlp,
When does one's technolust for things like game consoles start and cell phones start to wane? As a Gen X-er in his late thirties, I too am confounded by today's uber-controllers. As for cellphones, I can't see the value in getting into a pissing contest over the latest and greatest Crac- I mean Blackberry. I just need to phone, text, and take the occasional pic. Beyond that, I'm good.
What a drag it is gettin' oooollllddd...
In the '80s and '90s, gaming technology limits put emphasis on recognizing and responding to patterns in the game. I excelled in games back then. (If you saw "King of Kong," recall that the difficulty of that game was due to their ability to add randomness to the behaviors of the barrels and fireballs and such. I stunk at that game)
Improvements in technology and AI have made games a lot less predictable now and dependent on having a quick reaction time. I have the reaction time of a cruise ship and have watched my skills deteriorate over the years. I could track it with fighting games. I could beat the early ones, but by the turn of the century I was regularly getting the crap kicked out of me almost immediately. (They cheat too, but that's another issue entirely). Playing against another human being is just impossible for me.
I think that explains the rise of casual games as well, which tend to be pattern centric. They're great for us gamers who feel like we've lost our skillz.
The cool thing now is that we've grown up and started making our own indie games, which tend to innovate new ways of making pattern-style games interesting. I'm loving "World of Goo."
Don't feel bad Tessa. I'm 28 and I haven't gamed in years. When I go to my friends' places and try to play anything (even Wii) I make an ass of myself. It makes me feel like Grandpa Simpson.
I would kill for my old Commodore 64. But when Atari was out I had ColecoVision. Anyone remember the Rocky game? And what was the war game where you could climb into the different types of tanks? It's right on the tip of my tongue...
Anyone else out there in their early-mid twenties whose parents didn't let them have video games as a kid, and therefore can only play stuff like The Sims without dying within 8 seconds?
No?
Okay then.
*Goes back to reading*
The tank game was Frontline. Thanks Wikipedia!
Fallout 3 is great.
I'm playing it on the PS3 and it's completely captivating.
To all you NBA Jam fans. There was an interview with the creator. Pretty awesome stuff.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3668922
"When saying you've seen the Ramones and the clash in person just generates puzzled looks from college student..."
DLP, as someone who's been out of college for less than five years, I think your statement says more about your particular students' taste in music than it does about the state of current music. Unless they're Freshmen, then that makes a bit more sense. But I think most college students who know anything about music have a pretty good idea that the Clash is awesome, and that Ice-T used to sing/rap about killing cops.
I wish I had known about them docking Pippen's rating in crunch time against the Pistons. Might have saved me a lot of grief as a kid.
completely off-topic: John Cole sums up what must happen with conservatism on a practical level. Interesting to me because I'd very much like to see a healthy, honest conservatism take root in some form in America. I'm 28 so it has hardly existed during my adult life.
Gaming issue, regarding them new-fangled controllers: does anyone else have trouble playing shooters, 1st or 3rd person, on consoles? Especially XBOX. I just completely suck at it, I can't get a bead on a guy, can't be accurate or precise. I suppose keyboard-mouse is superior in its ability to fine-tune itself to your movements, and I'm not such a great shooting gamer anyway, but damn, I couldn't get through Halo 2 on the old XBOX at all - just was all over the place.
Thoughts?
Also -- yes, this nu-punk nu-nu-metal stuff is just embarassing.
Actually, I find the games of today to be easier than the old games, so long as you stick with it....They're usually very hard at first, then, once you get the controls down and get familiar, they're easier to beat than the games of yore....I chalk that up to the high quality graphics...it seems like as the graphics got better, the challenges got easier.
I'm 29 and the Xbox 360 is still near impossible for me. I was able to beat Mass Effect, but I didn't have the patience or time to figure out the controls for Assassin' Creed(fighter pilots have simpler joysticks). I got got killed riding a horse through a town. Embarassing. Don't even let me get started on Gears of War.
I miss my old Sega Genesis. Streets of Rage and Golden Axe were awesome.
We used to have a no reading at the table rule 'cause my three sibs were such fiends. When my dad was out of town my mom would let the 'no reading at dinner' rule lapse. Wild times. Not surprisingly I and my sibs suck at video games.
I am the proud owner of both an Atari and a Wii. And both get played! (Mario Kart is great, but Kaboom still holds up, too...)
Yesterday, when bowling with some friends, the staff were playing wii bowling for hours, while there were perfectly good real
oops, the rest of my message didn't post.
Anyway, I was saying that there were perfectly good real lanes open.
Since I moved in with my fiancee, computer gaming has dwindled to zero. Absolutely zero. As a teenaged video game addict, I never imagined this would happen to me. But it did.
C'est la vie.
Cyberball was my favorite video game of all time.
Last video game I regularly played was Techmo Bowl. I did play a hole of Tiger Woods Golf on Wii last year. I was lucky and got a birdie so I decided to quit before I started to suck.
I'm 29 and the Xbox 360 is still near impossible for me.
I didn't have too many troubles learning how to play shooters on the 360, despite not being familiar at all with console controls. I'm certainly a lot more comfortable with PC shooters, but console shooters seem to all have auto-aim anyways. I do remember that it was difficult to pick-up the mouse-keyboard controls of PC shooters at first as well.
I think it's more that adults have less time with leisure, so are less willing to spend time learning how to play a new system. I don't believe that there's something inherent in being old that would prevent learning it.
I skipped many a day of school to play Galaga. I learned through assmosis - triggered by my father - that video games are evil. I refuse to buy any of them. I would never get any work done. I can barely control my addiction to political blogs.
For my 40th birthday this month, I went to the Boardwalk at Santa Cruz where they have a fabulous arcade. I couldn't do any of the new games, but they had PacMan, Ms. PacMan, Space Invaders, Frogger and, my fave, Q-Bert. I felt like a kid again. Amazing how powerful those memories are, and how resilient the muscle memory was, too. Those joysticks were a piece o' cake.
They also had a good selection of pinball machines. I couldn't do those either. They came from the generation before, I guess. I don't know how much of my inability to play current games comes from not being willing to be bad for as long as it would take to get good.
For what its worth, if any of you haven't seen King of Kong yet, you absolutely must.
I'm going to be Billy Mitchell this Halloween...
Damn, I had a question for you earlier and was like, "I wish there was an open thread for me to post this to," but now have no memory of what my question was...
Just had to say, shani-o, I feel your pain.
How open is an open thread?
Because I went to Del Taco today for the first time, and at the soda fountain was Pibb Xtra. What was so bad about the name Mr. Pibb?
I'm told, with great authority, that the Jonas Bros. are "today's Beatles."
The Addams Family pinball game is my all time fave.
Unrelated to anything I'd like to have a contest wherein we make up stories about the worst fears of Obama haters come true. In their worst nightmares, what's gonna happen in an Obama presidency, day 1?
Like this:
-After Rev. Wright performs the swearing-in ceremony at the Inauguration, an upside down American flag unfurls on the (now) Black House lawn.
-All US Army balistic nuclear missles get sold to Iran and the proceeds go toward reparations.
-Ayers assumes the role of Attorney General, while Farakhan gets the first open seat on the Supreme Court bench.
-Biden scurries 'round the west wing wearing a jester's hat and tap-dance shoes, his new name is Boy Biden, Boy for short.
-Hawaii confesses Kenya holds the President's actual birth certificate and upon that certificate his real name is revealed: Apocalypse Jihad Obama.
*Note I have to admit I didn't make this stuff up, my friend did, I'm just posting it here.
I have a Playstation 2 and I have only used it to play "Taito Legends" (an anthology of arcade games from 1978-1996) "Taito Legends 2" (ditto), and the Activision Anthology (old Atari 2600-playable games). I bough "Viewtiful Joe" (it was $3.00) and some NRA-endorsed target-shooting game, but I have yet to play either one.
Nostalgia washed over me when I found an old Galaga game at a bowling alley while I was visiting relatives. Did anyone see that NewsRadio episode when Dave lost a whole night in front of a video game at the station? Just like Dave, I whispered wistfully "Hello, my old friend." My relatives were concerned. Disturbingly, I've also lost whole weekends to Doom. I told myself that those fight or die games were preparing me for Armageddon...and then hate myself for it.
The big difference between today's video games and yesteryear's is the self-awareness on the part of the creators working in the medium. Whereas you kinda had to infer an emotional impact from games of the past ("What do you mean Samus Aran is a girl?!"), designers now are trying to deliver that same punch intentionally ("The cake is a lie!").
@Glaivester: Viewtiful Joe is a great retro-inflected game that gently plays around with some metatextual elements. It's not enough to beat up the bad guys, you get points by looking good as you do it. Great art style, too. I highly recommend Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Beyond Good & Evil.
@AMT: Try to check out Castle Crashers on Xbox Live. It's an old-school side-scrolling beat-em-up that's really funny. There's a lot of cool experimentation with downloadable games and I think you're going to see a lot more.
@ethan salto: Preach.
speaking of side-scrollers, one word:
IKARUGA
When it comes to reminiscing things from the 80's and 90's...i often don't revert to video-games as much as i do to music ... and several groups and sub-cultures come to mind... if your'e a hiphop-head like me, u probably remember (of course)...wu-tang...but also one click that stood out when it came to sound. The Boot Camp Clikk...the sound that made Brooklyn (home of the OGC BAYBEEE) famous, before Jay and the rest of the Rock. Now, i'm a 80s baby...so i don't remember all of it, but most of has stuck with me...
1981 - the first year rap begun
The first time I saw a backwards spun
I was in my living room practisin
Watchin the tube, _Facts of Life_
Different Strokes in the afternoon
Scarface looked mean in the flicks
Everybody who pumped coke back then was fiendin for bricks
'86, no fades, afro tops
In those days your whole ave was the spot
The scene locked with Lee patches, Cazel glasses
Suede Pumas and rumors of rap not lastin
Till the class of '89 came through
High top fade, tailor-made Gucci suits
Jordan was champ, Mike Tyson was amped
Reagan was the pres and the border was a place to camp
Just think back like this
As you reminisce, reminisce
song... Boot Camp Click - think back
Clearly you guys don't have the Madden and NCAA football addiction I do or the controllers would fit you like a glove. As I get older, I find I'm more willing to wait on or even skip the newest Grand Theft Auto or bad-ass RPG, but football's exactly the same for me at 34 as it was at 24. Decades from now when we're all in holodecks or hooked up to the matrix I'll still be obsessively turning crappy football teams into juggernauts over and over again.
Shani-o, I'm 24 and I didn't play my first video game until after I was old enough to drink.
I still don't feel like I missed much.
But I do already see a generation gap between myself and my younger sister, who doesn't understand why I don't text message and why I still own cassette tapes when I could be using an iPod.
The greatest joy I had while I was in law school (with a family) was playing "Spyro the Dragon" with my young daughter. A family friend gave us an old Playstation (1) and a few games. We couldn't afford anything better.
Eventually I conquered the thing. I learned how to kill the bad guy, get all the gems, etc., and that meant more to me than getting good exam grades.
Great music from Stewart Copeland of the Police, too. The music would follow me all day long.
and at the soda fountain was Pibb Xtra. What was so bad about the name Mr. Pibb?
Is Xtra Pibb with caffeine in it? I mean, they're putting that shit in everything else.
The one thing modern games have up on the old ones is save points. I love games where I can save early and often.
Having said that, the only 'hardcore game' I own is Resident Evil IV, and I haven't finished it in over a year. I'm still shooting shit in the face, though.
If you like the old-school games, get an Nintendo DS. They have all kinds of retro stuff on that system, and a ton of awesome puzzle games. And for people unlike treebeard who just pretend to be lawyers, the Phoenix Wright series is a trip.
I fell for a gamer and we are both in our late 20s and play videogames an awful lot, sometimes together, sometimes apart. But before him, I picked up console gaming again in my 20s. There's just a learning curve involved. The controllers are intimidating and look like they have so many buttons and joysticks you'll go crazy, but if you start slow you get the hang of it again. But you just have to take your time and perhaps pick the right kind of game. Katamari sucked me back in, then I moved on to Okami and the new Zelda games. They're about the right level of difficulty for me.
I can't do anything newer than pinball.... Gimme a mechanical game, these electronic thingies just leave an old fart like me in the dust.
@JustSomeGuy:
The Addams Family pinball game was the best ever.
Also, while sports games, first-person shooters, and RPGs are all great, the greatest electronic game of all time is still the Civilization series - epsecially Civ II and Alpha Centauri.
I consider myself to be an active gamer, and though I'm 32, I don't *think* I have much of a significant disadvantage over younger players.
That said, I don't play a lot of first person shooter type games that require super precise aim/reaction time to excel.
Then again, I mostly play a rogue in World of Warcraft, and I'd suppose that they're probably the "twitchiest" class to play in that game, and I'd say I'm better than average when it comes to playing against other players...
Maybe that will change as I get closer to 40?
Maybe the people beating me are all in their teens and early 20's?
Maybe I'm lying to myself so I can sleep at night?
Anyway, I will say that, the older I get, the more I tend to prefer role-playing type games that rely more heavily on story, character building, and strategy, and less on reaction time and precision :)
@Shawn:
Damn, that Addams family game was the shit. I fed more quarters to that machine than any arcade game I ever have or will play.
@ Tallape and ThatGirl:
Thanks, guys. I like tech as much as the next person, but the gaming world was pretty much lost on me... and I really don't feel like I missed anything.
@Persia - Mr. Pibb always had caffeine in it. I think they may have *slightly* tinkered with formula to justify a rename that was really meant to differentiate the brand from Dr. Pepper. I mean, Mr. Pibb is almost as obvious a knockoff name as Dr. Perky (a store brand I saw in Virginia at, I think, a Food Lion - absolutely the best store brand name ever).
Actually, Dr. Perky sounds like a name for something you'd find in and adult book store.
Sorry, it's Friday. I hadda say it.
I'm find myself gravitating towards the RPG and strategy type games on the consoles. There are exceptions, though. Both me and my gf had a blast playing through Devil May Cry 4, for instance, although that's not a game that requires ultra-precise aim.
I'm just getting a little to old for with cross hairs that require a lot of fast twitch action. There's no shame to that since everyone's reflexes slow down over time. Fortunately, there are still a lot of great titles that don't require you to precisely line up pixels in real time.
In Africa, they don't have Atari's. They don't have video games. They don't have nuthin'.
So let us be thankful, y'all.