Old School pt. 2

Dear Ian:

As will happen, I think I got a bit sidetracked and never really got to my point, which wasn't about strange nicknames, yearbooks, or Fat Tom (by the way, I know this is a really mean thing to have called him, but in our defense, there were two Toms who worked at the 7-11).



What I was hoping to get around to, and will here, now, was how much video games have changed over the years. I suppose video games, or at least how they were designed, had their start in pinball machines.



Pinball was a huge hand-eye coordination game that cost a quarter (a dime or a nickel in great-grandpa's age). Pinball has all kinds of lights and noises designed to distract you. You get three balls (or "lives" as they will soon become). There are multiball bonus rounds and unlockables for completely certain tasks. Replays are awarded for high-scores or random "matches." Originally, pinball did not have leaderboards, but after Pac-Man nearly killed pinball, digital scoreboards were added, and I could once again enter BOO to prove my awesomeness. (I think my best game was Addams Family. Cool and Creepy all at once.)

Neither pinball or the original video games (Space Invader, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Pong...) had a "save" or continue feature. Pole Position may have been one of the early leaders in that field. Add another quarter, continue from where you left off. Gauntlet, a four player-dungeon crawl, was definitely my first experience in the addictive possibilities of old school games.

When the third and final life was used up, you basically had 15 seconds to fish another quarter (or token) out of your blue jeans pocket and add another three lives. Not really the "save" feature that would show up later in XBox or Playstation, but pretty close.

Anyhow, I guess the point that I was trying to make before was that poor performance or inattention actually seemed to have consequences. Do poorly and it's game over. With modern video games, it's just a quick reboot and you are off and running again.

A lot of people poo-poo on the old 2-D games. Not me.

I like my nostalgia rolled up tight. Like quarters.