Our newest obsession at work is old video game emulators. I now have about 3000 old arcade games in my MAME library and something like 8000 Nintendo games. Yeah, I know I could use my time to play those new-fangled games like Vice City. There is, however, something incredibly appealing about playing the simpler games of my, um, youth.
I can't tell you how many quarters Brad and I pumped into Cyberball over our high school years. I remember he and I would struggle at times to come up with the three dollars that it took to play an entire game. Now I can play four different versions of the game for free. And yes, Brad, you'd probably still beat me more than half of the time.
The craziest, though, are the Nintendo games. I had a Nintendo just like every other kid growing up in the '80s. I had a few games but didn't really play it that much. This evening, though, I fired us Super Mario Brothers. I was drinking a beer at the time. I think that's a first. At any rate, I was completely baffled by my memory for this stupid game. It has a copyright of 1985 so it has been nearly 20 years since I played it last. I could remember every move, every secret location, every pattern that the little mushroom guys made. Frankly, I found it to be very disturbing. I can't remember to take clothes to the dry cleaners but I can remember f'ing Super Mario Brothers. I wonder how many other valuable brain cells are taken up with such useless data.
Posted by mikewolf at October 12, 2003 10:43 PM>There is, however, something incredibly appealing about playing the simpler games of my, um, youth.
That "something" is called "playability". New games seem to be about button moshing and learning the "secret move". And flashy graphics.
>I can't tell you how many quarters Brad and I pumped into Cyberball over our high school years.
Dude! I *love* Cyberball. You better have an X-arcade joystick (http://www.x-arcade.com/) by the next time I'm in town so we can go at it.
--Smoking Quarterback Who Needs Repair
Never fear, my brain-cell-wasting friend. I'm the exact same way with Ms. Pac Man. I still remember the "pattern" I use to get through every level.
Posted by: Kirsten on October 13, 2003 12:50 AMYou must tell me how to get Cyberball on my computer. I must pratice. I now have a reason to come to New York. You all I needed was a good cause. Oh my God I do remember all those time we played. Yes we traveled form Marshall to Kalamazoo to play. That was a 45 minute drive, but well worth it.
Posted by: Brad on October 13, 2003 11:35 AMMy cousin and I rode our bikes to Hardees every day, ate lunch, then rode over to the ice cream shop, got ice cream and played a table-top Mrs. Packman. She usually beat me, but sometimes I could win.
We mixed it up by riding to the hardware store and playing Punch-Out (pre Mike Tyson), but I was never any good at it. I really just liked the expressions that the other guys made when you punched them.
At home we played Atari: Frogger, Packman, Pitfall, and most importantly MegaMania. I have no need for these Atari simulators - I have a real Atari at home with a copy of MegaMania! As an adult, I love Asteroids. There's nothing like shooting at a slightly pastel pixellated giant marsh-mellow, gotta keep those things under control.
Posted by: Meredith on October 14, 2003 09:49 AM