Thursday, March 17, 2005
Old School
I'm about to blow up old school!!! I am talking Atari, the original Atari that is. I will never forget getting it when I was like young. It was unbelievalbly cool and an instant hit to my brother and I. We played pong like a mug!! Then eventually there were other games added: dig dug, river raid, pac man, pit fall, etc. Now there was this game that I played with some of my friends like everyday when it came out. It was a great game because we could get into teams of two and compete against us. I thought it was the greatest game of all time (at least up until the greatest game was released). The game....Space Invaders.
We would play and play and play until we couldn't see straight (or the game box got too hot and quit working properly). Anyway, we loved to play it. My friend Paul and I were a great team. We were killing space invaders right and left. You see we had a system. At the start of the game we would immediately kill the first 3 rows across. That way we would have more room to move around and more open shots as the invaders came closer and closer. This system worked really well for us. We were awesome at it if I do say so myself.
Now a days there are all kinds of games out there. They are little too much for me. I am much more a Space Invaders kind of guy. You see I can't seem to figure out a good system or way to play the newer games. They are too complicated and involve more hand-eye coordination than I am willing to apply. Its all about the system. The way you do it. The focus of the game for me is key. The focus of Space Invaders was kill the invaders systematically. The focus of the new games, for me, is trying to figure out how in the world the controller works...which button does what...how do I jump, run, hop, reload...too much of a distraction.
Its funny, something seemingly so hard and complex to me is so simple to others. I have friends and work with teens that play these new games with ease. They make it look so easy. Its like second nature to them...like Space Invaders was to me.
Of course if you play something long enough and figure out the pattern to you can totally ace the game. You start to remember everything about every level you play. Each time you die or lose, you learn something new. Before long you find yourself conquering level after level. You are the video game god!!
What in the world am I rambling about. I wonder if we do the same in our regular life. You know, do something over and over and over until it becomes so much of a habit that we don't even realize we do it. There is a saying I read the other day, "I don't know who discovered water, but I am sur eit wasn't a fish." Meaning: We take for granted that which we are surrounded by everyday. Makes me concerned about all the stuff I surround myself with. Am I getting 'desensitized' to my surroundings. So much so, have I forgotten what is real and what is not? Have I forgotten what is important and what is not? Do I make living with the current cultural status quo look as easy as Carl does playing Halo 2? Maybe I am an Atari guy stuck in a Halo world. Its possible I have become the fish, but its definite that I shouldn't be loosing my breath. I am filled with Breath. I am filled with Life. I think it is time to stick out a little more. Its time to BE the Atari guy in the Halo world. That's old school.
We would play and play and play until we couldn't see straight (or the game box got too hot and quit working properly). Anyway, we loved to play it. My friend Paul and I were a great team. We were killing space invaders right and left. You see we had a system. At the start of the game we would immediately kill the first 3 rows across. That way we would have more room to move around and more open shots as the invaders came closer and closer. This system worked really well for us. We were awesome at it if I do say so myself.
Now a days there are all kinds of games out there. They are little too much for me. I am much more a Space Invaders kind of guy. You see I can't seem to figure out a good system or way to play the newer games. They are too complicated and involve more hand-eye coordination than I am willing to apply. Its all about the system. The way you do it. The focus of the game for me is key. The focus of Space Invaders was kill the invaders systematically. The focus of the new games, for me, is trying to figure out how in the world the controller works...which button does what...how do I jump, run, hop, reload...too much of a distraction.
Its funny, something seemingly so hard and complex to me is so simple to others. I have friends and work with teens that play these new games with ease. They make it look so easy. Its like second nature to them...like Space Invaders was to me.
Of course if you play something long enough and figure out the pattern to you can totally ace the game. You start to remember everything about every level you play. Each time you die or lose, you learn something new. Before long you find yourself conquering level after level. You are the video game god!!
What in the world am I rambling about. I wonder if we do the same in our regular life. You know, do something over and over and over until it becomes so much of a habit that we don't even realize we do it. There is a saying I read the other day, "I don't know who discovered water, but I am sur eit wasn't a fish." Meaning: We take for granted that which we are surrounded by everyday. Makes me concerned about all the stuff I surround myself with. Am I getting 'desensitized' to my surroundings. So much so, have I forgotten what is real and what is not? Have I forgotten what is important and what is not? Do I make living with the current cultural status quo look as easy as Carl does playing Halo 2? Maybe I am an Atari guy stuck in a Halo world. Its possible I have become the fish, but its definite that I shouldn't be loosing my breath. I am filled with Breath. I am filled with Life. I think it is time to stick out a little more. Its time to BE the Atari guy in the Halo world. That's old school.
