Monday, May 12, 2014

The Old Video Games Were the Best


I wrote in October about the Red Apple Rest, and one of my fondest memories about that place was that it was one of the last places that had the original videogames, like Pac Man. We used to play those games when we were kids, of course.
Ironically, I ran into a Mrs. Pac Man machine fairly recently, and with my son watching (and, surprisingly, not actually interested in playing), I went past the first three levels, surprising myself, since it had been years since I had managed to play at all.
Was I proud of myself for having done much better and gotten much further than I expected, given that it has been many, many years since I last really played that game?
A little, yes.
The thing is, to me, those were the golden age for video games.
Yes, I know, some young people (my son surely included) would contest this, and suggest, probably rightly, that video games are more sophisticated, have far better art work and graphics. There are tons of games to choose from now, and you can pick and choose the ones that suit your interest. Many seem to include rather complex story lines, and some even seem to have miniature movies attached to them. And arguments can be made that these are all indicators of improvement, steps in the right direction.
Maybe. Or, maybe that is all too much. Maybe this is a case where less is more.
Kids were really into video games back when I was a kid, too. There was Atari, which at the time, was huge. But slowly, this was overtaken by Nintendo and Sega Genesis. And already, kids, were spending too much time before the television screen, playing presumably hours a day to master the newest and coolest games.
For some reason, I never really graduated to that level with video games. Perhaps it was because, like cable, my parents really did not invest heavily in such things, and so we were among the few families that did not have cable or some elaborate video game system.
What we did have was Atari. The 2600 and the 5200 system, well after these had peaked, and so they were on the cheap.
Yet, they provided us a lot of fun, allowing us to play, and excel, at video games that previously, had only been available to us at restaurants and arcades, which always meant having a whole bunch of quarters at your disposal.
Among the favorite games in my family was Pac Man and variations (of course), Q-Bert, Pole Position, and Frogs and Flies. There may have been some others that I am not thinking of at the moment, and we had more games than these. But those are the ones that really stand out.
They were fun, without taking themselves too seriously. They tested you, and they could be intoxicating, as well. If you were not careful, hours could pass, without you having moved from being in front of the video games, trying to top your high score.
It might sound cliche (surely does, actually), but there was a measure of innocence to video games back then. They really were just for fun and, again, I need to stress, it was not deadly serious, the way that video games tend to be today.
Nowadays, people are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars for game systems, and upwards of thirty to forty dollars per game. Gone even are the public places to play them. You can't go to your local pizzeria, let alone the local arcade, and expect to be able to play. There was something that seemed a bit more social about a special trip to the arcade, where inevitably, a whole bunch of excited kids would be playing the various games. It was also an opportunity to meet new kids, or hang out with friends. It was a night out, and it was fun.
Yes, I suppose that people who like video games (and I'm definitely not just talking about kids here, there are people that are adults, even people older than me that are completely absorbed by this supposed "hobby") that try and make this a social event. Perhaps they have their friends over, and play games together. Perhaps they meet up online, and challenge one another. Yet, there is something decidedly lacking in this. It just is not the same as the old arcades, which by and large have gone the way of the dinosaurs.
I mentioned before how my son seemed quite reluctant to play Pac Man a few weeks back, when we ran into the machine. He was interested, clearly. I remember being the same way when i was a kid, always watching other people play Punch Out, a game that I never seemed particularly good at, but which fascinated me nonetheless. There was just something about that invisible green guy, and the challengers, who grew increasingly tougher. I watched people, kind of stood on the side, or looked over their shoulder, and this, too, was not out of the ordinary in the old arcades. Again, there really was a social element to video games back then that has been largely lost since.
Perhaps I sound like an old fart. Perhaps those old video games are the equivalent to what old programs in black and white from the fifties and sixties seemed to me when I was a kid: entirely antiquated and outdated, and virtually impossible to relate to.
But in defense of the old video games, I still actually enjoy the simplicity of those old games. Pac Man was not a difficult game to follow, or understand. Neither was Punch Out, or Pole Position, or Q-Bert, Donkey Kong, or the original Mario Brothers.
These days, video games are, again, like movies unfolding before you. I can see the attraction. But at the same time, the risk is that this is a far more elaborate world to lose yourself in, literally and figuratively. Kids are taking video games far more seriously, and if you are not careful, it becomes a lifestyle. My son admired a man that was older than me, who did not have a job or source of income (lived almost in poverty), but would play hours of video games.
And I see some of the kids, and just how completely absorbed they are in those video games, and I can't help but wonder if something has been lost along the way. Perhaps there is some equivalent. Perhaps it is like Main Street dying out to the malls and super stores (and now, the internet). Perhaps it is like common social gatherings being lost (also to the internet).
It feels to me sometimes that while the technological achievements of creating more complex and impressive things that can be seen with computers, with video games and their graphics, with cell phones with internet access, and with all of the other gimmicks and gadgets at our disposal, it is coming at a cost. There is a trade off somewhere, and people do not seem to stop at all and examine what it is that we are losing in exchange for all of this. Remember, that the end of the charm of a small town, with a real sense of community, was what was then deemed "progress" - malls with huge parking lots, gas stations with non-architecture that blot our living areas, and greater choices with prices, but the gradual choking off of Main Street economy in favor of ever bigger corporations, and less opportunity to actually engage neighbors in real conversation. Perhaps, without immediately being able to see it back then, we can recognize that this was the price of flashy and attractive convenience back then.
The real danger is that the unfortunate trend of enclosing ourselves into worlds of our own choosing, and on some levels, our own creation. This is an exclusionary world, and there is some unwritten and unstated (at least not outright) agreement among many that we all indulge in these worlds, which actually do us a disservice, since they prevent us from not only being able to relate to our neighbors, but actually prevent us from being able to really even tolerate our neighbors, unless they are interested in what we are interested in. Because indeed, computers and cell phones, and all of the other modern technological advances allow us many privileges, and that includes the internet and video games. But they need to be taken in moderation, lest the privilege become a curse, and even a trap. They can be every bit as addictive as alcohol or tobacco, surely. And if you get too used to spending endless hours virtually motionless, staring at a screen, chances are it is quite detrimental to your health, as well.
So, here's to the old video games, before heavy investment by the average consumer. All it took back then was the patience to wait your turn, and then a quarter or two to play the game, and hope that you did better than your last score, or at the very least, that you do not embarrass yourself with a terrible performance while so many people are looking over your shoulder and monitoring your performance. It was not always like tat, of course. But there certainly was more of that back then than exists now.
Video games may be more complex and sophisticated than they were back in those days. But they also are an indicator of just where we (perhaps particularly our kids) are socially, with less opportunities for quality socialization, and more of a risk of getting too wrapped up in a world of self-absorption.

Here are some links to free online games that I thought might be useful to anyone who, like me, is interested in playing some of the old games for free online every once in a while:





http://download.awesomeclassicgames.com/lp/multi/1/index3.php?p=RGxdm038&subid=RTO1GamePhrase

http://www.online-games-zone.com/pages/classic/punch-out.php


http://www.arcadefrontier.com/aj/891/7230

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