4 replies to this topic

[ComputerSpaceFan]

... then what does that say about us Atari generation kids? Sheesh I feel really old now.

http://kotaku.com/58...sic-video-games

Some choice quotes to make you all feel crotchetty....

"Gone are the days when I would see kids playing Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, or Chrono Trigger"

"I was thinking of maybe moving the child through old consoles I have, as far back as the NES and up to the modern consoles"

Damn NES kids. Get off my lawn!!

[Trinity]

LOL!!!

[Cynicaster]

Quote

Certainly these new games deserve attention as well, but it is good to understand where the games today started out. Therefore I want any children of mine to first be introduced to older games. I don't really want to force it on them but I think it would teach them many things that are often taken for granted in modern gaming.

Ok, so his answer to the part in bold is to educate the kids on consoles "back to the NES". At first, as an Atari loyalist, this made me cringe a bit.

But on second thought, it's not as bad as it looks. After all, he is saying that he wants to show where "games today started out" and I think a case can be made that the NES-era paradigm of a videogame is a lot more consistent with modern games than that of the Atari era--and I'm not talking about graphics. It was during the reign of the NES where purely skill-based, often single-screen, arcade-style games based around high scores were supplanted by platformers based around completion of a journey.

The design criteria of games today have diverged so much from the games of yore that it almost makes me feel like we shouldn't even lump them into the same category of entertainment. Missile Command is a videogame, God of War is an interactive virtual adventure. But I digress. [EDIT: the quote in my signature bears relevance here.]

My point is, maybe you don't need to go all the way back to the ancient pyramids to get a glimpse of how modern architecture came to be.

Edited by Cynicaster, Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:03 PM.

[Reaperman]

What will be fun will be in 20 years when the CoD generation is saying the same thing.

[atarilovesyou]

I think the only real way you could do such a thing is start young, like in their twos and threes, with gaming on old school systems. But since most five year olds know how to use the internet (well, at least enough to get games happening on kidfare websites), the graphics are always going to win the wow factor.

I just don't see it happening, frankly. Kids are (just like we were) always gonna go with the latest and greatest. If you have small children who are competitive, then I can see them getting into some old school games, but really, it's apples and oranges.