h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Video Games-A Personal Perspective - A733385
Author: cclaya - U183488

um...what am i supposed to put here? the text of my submission? is this where i say "duh"?

Video Games-A Personal Perspective



I have been playing home video games since before the introduction of the Atari 2600. I am now in my thirties and (more or less) gainfully employed, and have the financial freedom to indulge (well, not really) in what has always been a passion-electronic escapism.

My first experience with a home video game system was the Sears TV Game. This was just a Pong-type game with two rotating-dial "paddle" controllers, each with one button. The console was a heavy little box with horrible fake walnut veneer plastered on its sides and a couple of actual dials on the front.

My memories of the Sears TV Game are a little vague, consisting mostly of begging my best friends parents to let us stay up a little longer to play it when I spent the night at his house. That ping pong game was pretty addictive at the time, although I've tried to play Pong since then and was bored stiff after about five minutes.

Then came the Atari 2600. I was about eight or nine at the time, and arcade games were just beginning to become popular. Games in those days were always compared to arcade games. I guess the desire was to have arcade-quality games in one's home, but for me, something else was happening. My favorite games at the time were those that conveyed a sense of place, exploration or story. Berserk, Star Raiders, Adventure, Cosmic Ark, Demon Attack, Yar's Revenge and Pitfall are all titles that come to mind when I try to recall great moments in Atari-induced escapism. These games all had something that generic arcade ports didn't-they all made me feel like I was somewhere else doing something else. Of course, in those days, it took a lot of imagination and suspension of disbelief to "fall into" a video game. I guess imagination is something with which I've always been endowed in excess, so no worries there. I was getting something out of those games that previously I had only been able to get through books and (at that time) very few movies and television programs-only here the experience was interactive. A new obsession was born.

My experiences gaming on personal computers comes after the Atari 2600. I was as a youngster among the first generation to be exposed to PC's in the classroom. I had the dubious benefit of being able to sample from the cream of the "microcomputer" crop as it stood after its first harvest. Systems I had thrust upon me include the TRS ("trash") 80 by Tandy/Radio Shack; the Apple II, II+, IIe, IIc; Commodore Vic-20, 64 and Amiga; Atari models 400, 800 and 520st (upon which I played the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Zork text games by Infocom. Ahhh...memories...). I think there were a Timex Sinclair and a Compaq in there somewhere as well.

In the early to mid-eighties, I played a lot of text adventures (Zork, Death in the Caribbean, Enchanter, H2G2, Dragonworld), and the type of arcade ports available for the Commodore machines. It was the text and text/graphics games that did it for me in those days. What a wonderful concept-kind of like the ultimate Choose Your Own Adventure book. Not only were the games interactive to almost an infinite degree, but the experience depended entirely on the mind and imagination of the player. Direct descendants of the text adventure include games like Ultima, which at first used ASCII characters to represent the game environment. Modern RPG's were born of such humble stock. Those original text games were the ultimate escapism, allowing complete freedom of the imagination to visualize the game environment in as much complexity as the user's capacity allowed. The puzzles and stories were clever, logical and well-written, allowing an immersive experience akin to reading an interactive novel.

Recent PC gaming leaves something to be desired. There are some worthwhile games in my opinion, like Myst, but most of the popular PC games that I've tried are of the strategy/simulation variety or the ubiquitous first person shooter. I have not had the chance to experience games like Ultima Online or Everquest, but from what I hear, they have a great draw for people to enjoy escapism. My biggest problem with PC gaming is that it doesn't have the "plug-and-play" simplicity of console video games. I don't want to have to worry about whether my computer meets the system requirements listed on the game box. I don't want to have to configure systems or free up RAM or pay a monthly subscription fee for online play. I don't want to have to download patches to fix buggy gameplay. Maybe when the PlayStation 2 goes online soon (I hope), I will try the online thing, but not until then.

In addition to my dabbling in PC games, there were some other consoles that came out about the time of the Atari 2600. Mattel introduced the Intellivision, which touted more "realistic" sports games than its competition and had a really strange controller.

At this point, I feel I must digress and discuss early video game controllers. The earliest systems like the Sears TV Game and Magnavox Odyssey had paddle controllers that resembled small dials on a palm-sized box, each with one button. These were suited well to the games they supported (i.e. Pong and its ilk). When the Atari 2600 came out, it was supplied with (thankfully much-improved) paddle controllers and joysticks. Those joysticks were horrible. I'm sorry, but I hated them then and I hate them now. They were stiff and unforgiving and the darn fire button was on the wrong side. You were required to move the joystick with your right hand and press the fire button with your left. This meant that you also had to grip the base of the controller with your left hand. As a righty, and hopefully like all other righties out there, I was not that strong or dextrous in my left hand and it was uncomfortable and awkward in the extreme. Plus I couldn't mash the fire button as quickly with my left thumb. Yes, I'm griping, but the reason I am griping is this: When the Intellivision was released and I saw it for the first time I said "What a bizarre controller!" But it wasn't bizarre. It was ingenious and prefigured every video game console controller to come.

The Mattel controller didn't have a joystick, but a small disc to be manipulated by the thumb of either hand. There were also LOTS of buttons-not just one-so that games could have more intricate control schemes and therefore be more complex. Lots of people initially rejected the Mattel controller (myself included), and there were even lttle stick-on joystick handles sold to modify the control disc, but the revolution had begun. No longer would gamers be forced to use their whole hand to move a character/ship/whatever around the screen. A simple (and much more accurate) press of the thumb did all the work, freeing up the other fingers to press buttons on either side of the controller. It was a turning point.

Beyond that, the Intellivision wasn't that great if you weren't into sports games, and at the time, I most definitely was not. I never owned one.

Another system that came out about the same time was the Colecovision. This was another console that I never had the privilege of owning, but, as usual, I found ways to get to play them. One of the older boys in the neighborhood was a bit strange, but his parents were loaded, so he got all the latest stuff, including game consoles. He got a Colecovision and the keyboard sold for it. The components (sold seperately, of course) combined to form a personal computer/console hybrid called Adam. This could be used to program in basic and had some preprogrammed software that supposedly helped kids do their homework, but we all knew that this was just a helpful ploy to get our moms and dads to buy us video game systems. Anyway, this kid got a Colecovision and of course told everyone about it, so we made friends and hung out in order to play the games.

The Colecovision boasted the best graphics yet in a home video game system, and it delivered. The machine's software consisted mostly of arcade ports, and they were phenomenal by the standards of the day. Donkey Kong especially was an amazingly faithful recreation of the original. Here again, though, the games available for the Coleco system failed to ignite my imagination, so I never manipulated my parents into buying me one.

The Atari 2600 ruled the home gaming scene for a long time, even with the stiff competition offered by Mattel and Coleco. Atari even released a new system called the 5200, but it didn't catch on. Then something bad happened. There was some sort of financial catastrophe involving Atari, and the bottom fell out of the game industry. It seemed like the end, especially since home computer systems were becoming more and more popular, but a new player was about to enter the console scene. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)was on the horizon, and its release and subsequent popularity would revitalize the industry.

The NES changed home video gaming forever. Nintendo was based in Japan, and had been selling games and systems there for some time. they had a library of games and a foothold in the arcade world that they could exploit in the U.S. market. Nintendo of course was the creator of the ultra-popular Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. coin-op games, and they used these big names to market their consoles. The NES came packed with the legendary Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on one cartridge, and a light gun.

Nice account of nearly a lifetime's worth of gaming

I'd say you should add a few headers in between and do something with the end. It falls off rather abruptly. How about a conclusion sort of thing, or a forecast? Do you have plans for that X-box thing from M****s*ft ?

Personal Perspective entries *do* stand a chance of making it into the Edited part of the Guide. If that is where you're heading then just try! If not then you may want to contact Shazz from <./>thePost</.> , h2g2's very own online newspaper