The King Of Kong
Nancy and I went to the store for some beer and wine (and Ben and Jerry's of course) following Autum's game, and stopped in at the local Blockbuster. I found a great film. It is a testament to just how nerdy and obsessed I was with video games growing up. The film is a documentary by the name of The King Of Kong. 
I was thrilled to see guys my age, even dorkier than myself with a passion for something society had us believe, was a waste of time. The central focus is on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong, and a couple willies trying to become the Guinness world record holder for high score. While that in itself may not sound too exciting, the story is real intense, and it will have you engrossed in the characters, and story line. I highly recommend this film if you can get your hands on it. So this movie has inspired me to blog here a little bit.
Growing up, video games were a huge part of my day, and my life. One of my first gaming exeriences I can remember was the neighbors, the Carlin's, having an Odyssey (the original). This was nothng more than a PONG game. But it was revolutonary. Simple game play and simple graphics. Hitting that darn square "ball" back and forth for hours. That was all fine and well, until the next stage of gaming reared it's ugly head.
Atari 2600. Oh man, was that fine or what? We didn't have one, but I
knew quite a few people that did. Those games were great. Combat, Pac-Man, Yar's Revenge, classics. And that stupid joystick with the single red button and the soft rubber sleve that covered the "stick", that never seemed to stay on.... Once that fell off, you could never get it back on it seemed, so you would have to resort to doing without. Who cared. As long as you were able to keep going for the high score.
Atari reigned supreme for years. There was some competition, though..... Intellevision, with that stupid "disc", and the number pad with the two buttons on the side. I never really knew anyone with one except for, those darn neighbors, the Carlins.
The only game I can remember with any distinction, was Pitfall. Great for about 10 minutes, then it was the same, repetitive screens over and over, and over........ The Carlin's, on a side note were among the first of anyone I knew that had MTV when it first premiered. Man those guys were cool. Eddie, Ann, and Denise. They had it all back then.......
Anyways, I digress. There was also the Commodore, 64 or 128
variety,which was more of a PC, than a gaming console. These used the very simple Basic programming language. Super geeks would have a subscription to "Enter" magazine, which was filled with programming code to enable the reader to create a video game that could be played on the computer. It also contained news, and reviews of actual commercial video game releases. The Commodore 128, to my fathers chagrin, was not very resilient when plugging cables incorrectly into the machine.......... Poof! Gone........... 
The Coleco was fine with a true Donkey Kong game. They also produced the ADAM variety, which as my brothers can remember, my neighbor friend Joe Waters had. It was more of a PC than a gaming console. It was really pretty cool. That is unless Joe grounded you from his house............
Atari came out with the 7800, and I think the only people we knew that had one were Abuela and Papo. We rarely played. I can remember some racing game, vaguely.
Then Nintendo arrived. Now the world had 16 bit gaming, which made for incredible adventures like the immortal
Super Mario Brothers. This was, at the time, what every teenage kid wanted. We had to have it. It was like an addiction for me. I had to play SMB.. I would ditch class and go down to Ricci's Pizza and play for days. I couldn't get enough. Spent a small fortune on that game. And now that the game could be had in our own home, that was all I could think about. I was jealous because Charles was the first to get one, and he had some fine games. He also had his own TV in his room. He also had a key lock on his door. Bummer.
Nintendo was king for many years. They released the GameBoy, which was sweet. Portable gaming. Charles was the first to possess as well, if Im not mistaken....... There was even a short lived 3-D model at one point. This was given the name of Virtual Boy.
Years later, a game called Street Fighter II hit town. This was quite a phenemenon. A two player fighting game with 8-10 characters that you could chose from, each with unique attacks, and moves. What a fenzy this caused. Man, I ditched school daily, and walked down to Putt-Putt to play. I would walk miles and miles out of my way just to be able to play this one. And I'm sure that I wasnt the only one, arcades were full, with kids lining up, hovering around to watch Blanca battle Ryu, or Guile vs. Chun Li for a couple quick minutes, if you were lucky.
As time went on, the gaming consoles evolved, with technology, and became better, faster, and more visually stunning. Nintendo went to Super Nintendo, and then to Nintendo 64. Sega had their Sega console go to the Genesis, to the Saturn, and then to the Dreamweaver. Nintendo always had the edge in the market I believe. They produced a much more marketable product that kids would relate to. With the comicbook Mario, and Luigi beating out, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise every time. Nintendo was where it was at. Two turntables and a microphone.
Enter Sony and its Playstation, and years later PS2. This really was the cream of the crop, utilizing CD games instead of the bulky cartridges. The downside initially was that the game had to "load", and basically you had to wait. One of the selling points of the PS2 is that you can hook up to the internet and battle your friends, or anyone else online. The Madden games were ideal for this.
Now, there is the PS3, the XBox360, the Wii. Seems every household has some type of gaming console. These can download games, play music, and allow you to play any type of game imagineable, including all the games we used to play on the much older consoles. They have become less of a luxury, and more of a common "appliance" if you will. If you have kids, chances are, you have one of these in your home. Good chance if you have a male in your household from the X-generation, you have one, if not more.
More and more I see people of all ages being engaged in what these games have to offer. They have a worldwide appeal, and are not being played by just teenagers anymore. While I take comfort in the fact that it is not just the nerdy, pimply faced geeks playing these games in homes, and enjoying what these consoles can do, it makes me sad and nostalgic because of what this has caused. Where are the arcades? Where can I go with a pocket full of quarters that I stole from my old man, and play Dig Dug, Centipede, Pac-Man, and a whole array of pinball games for hours on end? Where can I go to hear the cacophonic, yet comforting sounds of dozens and dozens of electronic sound effects, bells, and sirens filling a room full of primarily males with glazed eyes, and tense hands trying to get to the next level, or get that extra ball? Where have they all gone?
When my Mom taught at UNM, I would want to go with her to the campus. Not to feed the ducks, or go to the library and better myself, not even to listen to her class lectures. I wanted to spend a roll of quarters at the Student Union Building playing Tron. I can remember Mom and Dad taking us kids to Pistol Petes Pizza, or W.C. Frank's and giving us a bucket full of tokens, and we couldnt have been happier. I thought my dad was the Centipede champ. He loved that game. You could not have pulled me away from those games with a pack of mules.
It seems that the need for these electronic oases have been diminshed, as the perceived money making potential is out the window. Why invest in that? From a consumers perspective, why spend twenty, thirty dollars at an arcade at $0.50 to $1.00 a clip to play a game when you can go sit on your sofa, drink a beer, and play a skins match on Tiger Woods with some guy in Barcelona for next to nothing?
Personally, I dont always want that. I long for a place I can go with dingy, broken neon lining the outside of a building and windows. Where I can walk in and be greeted by all my old electronic buddies with glowing lights, and sound effects. I want the simple games I grew up with. I dont want games that produce tickets. I dont want crane games filled with stuffed animals. I dont even want Skee-Ball. I want to go where the change machine is never out of quarters, and they take the new $5 bills; where up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start means something to someone. I look forward to the time when again, I will be welcomed by all the gamers with their backs to me, furiously playing, but at the same time sharing their life stories without speaking. I would know their stories, and be able to relate. I would be able to share stories of my own. The book, for god sake, is co-authored by me.
I was thrilled to see guys my age, even dorkier than myself with a passion for something society had us believe, was a waste of time. The central focus is on the arcade classic, Donkey Kong, and a couple willies trying to become the Guinness world record holder for high score. While that in itself may not sound too exciting, the story is real intense, and it will have you engrossed in the characters, and story line. I highly recommend this film if you can get your hands on it. So this movie has inspired me to blog here a little bit.Growing up, video games were a huge part of my day, and my life. One of my first gaming exeriences I can remember was the neighbors, the Carlin's, having an Odyssey (the original). This was nothng more than a PONG game. But it was revolutonary. Simple game play and simple graphics. Hitting that darn square "ball" back and forth for hours. That was all fine and well, until the next stage of gaming reared it's ugly head.
Atari 2600. Oh man, was that fine or what? We didn't have one, but I
knew quite a few people that did. Those games were great. Combat, Pac-Man, Yar's Revenge, classics. And that stupid joystick with the single red button and the soft rubber sleve that covered the "stick", that never seemed to stay on.... Once that fell off, you could never get it back on it seemed, so you would have to resort to doing without. Who cared. As long as you were able to keep going for the high score.Atari reigned supreme for years. There was some competition, though..... Intellevision, with that stupid "disc", and the number pad with the two buttons on the side. I never really knew anyone with one except for, those darn neighbors, the Carlins.
The only game I can remember with any distinction, was Pitfall. Great for about 10 minutes, then it was the same, repetitive screens over and over, and over........ The Carlin's, on a side note were among the first of anyone I knew that had MTV when it first premiered. Man those guys were cool. Eddie, Ann, and Denise. They had it all back then.......Anyways, I digress. There was also the Commodore, 64 or 128
variety,which was more of a PC, than a gaming console. These used the very simple Basic programming language. Super geeks would have a subscription to "Enter" magazine, which was filled with programming code to enable the reader to create a video game that could be played on the computer. It also contained news, and reviews of actual commercial video game releases. The Commodore 128, to my fathers chagrin, was not very resilient when plugging cables incorrectly into the machine.......... Poof! Gone........... 
The Coleco was fine with a true Donkey Kong game. They also produced the ADAM variety, which as my brothers can remember, my neighbor friend Joe Waters had. It was more of a PC than a gaming console. It was really pretty cool. That is unless Joe grounded you from his house............
Atari came out with the 7800, and I think the only people we knew that had one were Abuela and Papo. We rarely played. I can remember some racing game, vaguely.
Then Nintendo arrived. Now the world had 16 bit gaming, which made for incredible adventures like the immortal
Super Mario Brothers. This was, at the time, what every teenage kid wanted. We had to have it. It was like an addiction for me. I had to play SMB.. I would ditch class and go down to Ricci's Pizza and play for days. I couldn't get enough. Spent a small fortune on that game. And now that the game could be had in our own home, that was all I could think about. I was jealous because Charles was the first to get one, and he had some fine games. He also had his own TV in his room. He also had a key lock on his door. Bummer.
Nintendo was king for many years. They released the GameBoy, which was sweet. Portable gaming. Charles was the first to possess as well, if Im not mistaken....... There was even a short lived 3-D model at one point. This was given the name of Virtual Boy.
Years later, a game called Street Fighter II hit town. This was quite a phenemenon. A two player fighting game with 8-10 characters that you could chose from, each with unique attacks, and moves. What a fenzy this caused. Man, I ditched school daily, and walked down to Putt-Putt to play. I would walk miles and miles out of my way just to be able to play this one. And I'm sure that I wasnt the only one, arcades were full, with kids lining up, hovering around to watch Blanca battle Ryu, or Guile vs. Chun Li for a couple quick minutes, if you were lucky.As time went on, the gaming consoles evolved, with technology, and became better, faster, and more visually stunning. Nintendo went to Super Nintendo, and then to Nintendo 64. Sega had their Sega console go to the Genesis, to the Saturn, and then to the Dreamweaver. Nintendo always had the edge in the market I believe. They produced a much more marketable product that kids would relate to. With the comicbook Mario, and Luigi beating out, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise every time. Nintendo was where it was at. Two turntables and a microphone.
Enter Sony and its Playstation, and years later PS2. This really was the cream of the crop, utilizing CD games instead of the bulky cartridges. The downside initially was that the game had to "load", and basically you had to wait. One of the selling points of the PS2 is that you can hook up to the internet and battle your friends, or anyone else online. The Madden games were ideal for this.
Now, there is the PS3, the XBox360, the Wii. Seems every household has some type of gaming console. These can download games, play music, and allow you to play any type of game imagineable, including all the games we used to play on the much older consoles. They have become less of a luxury, and more of a common "appliance" if you will. If you have kids, chances are, you have one of these in your home. Good chance if you have a male in your household from the X-generation, you have one, if not more.
More and more I see people of all ages being engaged in what these games have to offer. They have a worldwide appeal, and are not being played by just teenagers anymore. While I take comfort in the fact that it is not just the nerdy, pimply faced geeks playing these games in homes, and enjoying what these consoles can do, it makes me sad and nostalgic because of what this has caused. Where are the arcades? Where can I go with a pocket full of quarters that I stole from my old man, and play Dig Dug, Centipede, Pac-Man, and a whole array of pinball games for hours on end? Where can I go to hear the cacophonic, yet comforting sounds of dozens and dozens of electronic sound effects, bells, and sirens filling a room full of primarily males with glazed eyes, and tense hands trying to get to the next level, or get that extra ball? Where have they all gone?
When my Mom taught at UNM, I would want to go with her to the campus. Not to feed the ducks, or go to the library and better myself, not even to listen to her class lectures. I wanted to spend a roll of quarters at the Student Union Building playing Tron. I can remember Mom and Dad taking us kids to Pistol Petes Pizza, or W.C. Frank's and giving us a bucket full of tokens, and we couldnt have been happier. I thought my dad was the Centipede champ. He loved that game. You could not have pulled me away from those games with a pack of mules.
It seems that the need for these electronic oases have been diminshed, as the perceived money making potential is out the window. Why invest in that? From a consumers perspective, why spend twenty, thirty dollars at an arcade at $0.50 to $1.00 a clip to play a game when you can go sit on your sofa, drink a beer, and play a skins match on Tiger Woods with some guy in Barcelona for next to nothing?
Personally, I dont always want that. I long for a place I can go with dingy, broken neon lining the outside of a building and windows. Where I can walk in and be greeted by all my old electronic buddies with glowing lights, and sound effects. I want the simple games I grew up with. I dont want games that produce tickets. I dont want crane games filled with stuffed animals. I dont even want Skee-Ball. I want to go where the change machine is never out of quarters, and they take the new $5 bills; where up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start means something to someone. I look forward to the time when again, I will be welcomed by all the gamers with their backs to me, furiously playing, but at the same time sharing their life stories without speaking. I would know their stories, and be able to relate. I would be able to share stories of my own. The book, for god sake, is co-authored by me.
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