It Was Called Pong and It Changed The World...

I was reminiscing today about computer games. It has been an interesting journey that the games and I have taken over the years.

Firstly, I should mention that as a general rule I suck at games! Most especially if it takes any kind of hand-eye co-ordination, with the possible exception of Gottlieb’s Pinball Arcade. Great program, I highly recommend it. It is actually six or seven games that cover the very first coin operated game to more or less the present day pinball game. I would say that I will send you a copy if you wanted one, but you and I both know that is not only morally wrong, but actually illegal.

I wonder how software pirates dress? Do you think they have tricorn hats, long overcoats, thigh high boots, a sword and scabbard and pantaloons? Wait a minute! That sounds like a dominatrix. That is possible I suppose, kind of erotic too.

The first computer game that I ever owned, was oh so much more than fantastic! You and your opponent would each control a paddle that you could move up and down in order to stop a white ball on the black background that would not only bounce off of your paddle, but off of the top and bottom of the screen. Gee, when you describe the game it sounds pretty lame. We would play this for hours. I will admit that there wasn’t a lot on the TV at the time and compared to board games, this was too cool.

The next game system that I had was an Atari consol. You would put different cartridges in and could play many different games from Space Invaders to Millipede and Pac-Man. I said that I bought these for the kids, but that was a lie. They were really good at them though and I pretty much sucked! I do credit the Atari system with my flexibility in my right wrist and hand. You see I put a circular saw into my wrist (not intentionally) and while I was off of work, healing, I would play these games for hours. The continual movement of the joystick helped to strengthen my wrist. I have pretty much full mobility and just a touch of numbness from time to time.

The Commodore 64 brought my family and myself into the computer age. We could play games like Skateboard Paperboy, Skiing, etc but also use it to type letters and reports. I still preferred to hand write letters, and letter carriers didn’t have to write reports. I could have if I wanted to though. The kids were older by now and although there were games on it I didn’t get much opportunity to use the machine at all. Still pretty cool though.

We went from one computer to the next and when I bought each one I couldn’t imagine ever needing more memory. The games and programs became more and more complex and ate up giga bytes like they were smarties at a fat camp.

My current computer has 500 giga bytes with an expansion slot for a terra-byte or more of memory. There are amazing games that you can download from the internet, but these days I play a lot of Spongebob games with my grandson.

I play them, because he doesn’t quite have the motor control. That will soon change and he won’t need his Poppa to help him play games. In fact, I would imagine that he will roll his eyes when I tell him about how you and your opponent would each control a paddle that you could move up and down in order to stop a white ball on the black background that would not only bounce off of your paddle, but off of the top and bottom of the screen. It was called Pong and it changed the world...