I picked up a copy of ‘Atari – 80 classic games in one’ yesterday and have been transported back to earlier times. Robin, on hearing all the strange old sounds, has already started planning for a new answer phone message. At around 20 cents a game it was hard to resist and it sure is good to be playing Asteroids again, not one of the newer clones, the original one that I always liked best. I even found it strangely satisfying to beat the computer at a game of Pong!
Looking at the complexity of games these days, it is strange to think how we were all captivated by these more simplistic examples from only 25 years ago (or thereabouts). Has modern gaming taken a wrong turn? After all this time these old games are extremely playable. There is little to learn about them, no complicated keyboard shortcuts to learn, just a couple of buttons and a heap of loud beeps to eat up your time.
I’d write more but I have a little spaceship to save from some bloody great rocks and damn those small UFOs!