Sunday Scribblings - 11/29/09

Game

I'm not much of a game player at all.  I'm not all that competitive.  Board games mostly bore me to death.  I think my favorite type of games are those in which something happens - pinball and tetris, for example.  In pinball, you can see the ball crash into everything and make all sorts of noises.  That pleases me.  I don't even bother noticing the points.  Tetris is visually appealing.  You see gaps filled and rows disappear.  You have to use your visual-spatial skills to figure out where to put the pieces next.  You have to plan ahead and think about what pieces might be coming up.  Those are the kinds of games I like to play.

I also like bowling.  I like the feel of the ball as it leaves your hand.  I like the satisfaction of seeing the ball crash into the pins and waiting to see how many get knocked down.  I like seeing the pins fly about after a good swing.  I like waiting for the ball to reappear for the next attempt.  Again, I really don't care about the points.  The journey is the destination for me.

When I was younger, we had an original Nintendo system.  You weren't cool unless you had one, so having one automatically made me feel cool.  Of course, Super Mario Brothers was the favorite game to play.  I must have spent hours playing that.  I also enjoyed Bubble Bobble and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game.  Video games were primitive back then, but a lot more innocent and even more fun.  Today's video games are like movies with controllers.

We didn't have a Sega Genesis, but when I did get to play on one, I really enjoyed Sonic The Hedgehog.  Oh my lord, was that a fun game.  Watching Sonic spin around and fly about was one of the pure joys of my childhood.

There was a very popular video game arcade in town called Wonderland.  Most games were only 5 cents per play.  Even in the 80s, that was cheap!  For $5 plus admission, you could spend all day there.  I didn't think it was all that great until I discovered that the majority of the games were upstairs.  When I saw the number of games up there, I was in heaven.  I'd play one game, then move on to the next.  That was a great place for kids. 

When I was a teenager, we had an original Playstation.  The racing games were my favorite.  Demolition Derby was great fun.  The music was good too.  The whole point of the game was to crash into other cars.  How awesome is that?  I also enjoyed the jetski game, even if I never progressed beyond the three basic levels.  It was very pleasurable to see the onscreen jetskis moving about, turning, jumping, flipping.  It was a beautiful game, too, with exotic locations and clear blue water. 

I don't play games too often now, but every so often I'll play online tetris or other little amusing flash games.  Even today, tetris is my favorite.  It's the game for people who don't like games.