It’s a little known fact, but I’ve saved the world many times. Or at least destroyed enough invading aliens to keep the world safe. Until they destroyed me. And I had to put in another quarter. To defend Earth again.
Yes, in the late 70’s I was young and so were video games. Asteroids was my favorite, and no pun intended, I rocked. Who would have thought that in only a few short decades, my awesome Atari abilities would somehow start to seem…quaint.
Luckily, I have young minds to mold. Over the course of a few months, I take third graders in the Art Room through a crash course in technological design: we use clay to make ceramic bells, yarn and looms to make cloth, tagboard to design airplanes, and finally, computers. We look at old pictures of when computers took up rooms, and they instruct me about the gadgets of today.
To show them how much cooler video games used to be, I draw two lines and a dot on the board and tell them this was the hottest thing in 1972. They look at me crazy. Then I go to www.ponggame.org and let them try it themselves. Soon they’re all lining up for a try, and cheering at each point their friends score off the computer. They even beg me to give them the website address when they leave. One student said he couldn’t wait to show his dad.
Just doing my best to make the generation of tomorrow competitive in the late 20th century…
Hey Jon,
Lisa turned me on to your blog and I’m really enjoying your “blogs” ( I guess that’s what you call the stories). I do remember when you and Matt were involved in video games and even wanted to purchase one for our house. We always said they were good for eye-hand coordination. I’m wondering if all the people riding the subway playing games on their I-phones are having as much fun as you did.
I loved playing this ping-pong game. I did best as a beginner but am working on intermediate. You know I will be back.
Please keep on blogging. You’re such a funny and talented writer.