Disclosure time: I've never been one for electronic games. Mostly, I suspect that's because I've never been any good at them. So far as my old brain knows, it takes far too much concentration for me to maintain the immersion into an entirely fictional existence ... and when you have trouble staying focused in reality I suppose one's usefulness in the pseudo-reality of the game environment just doesn't take hold.
However, I do remember being as jazzed about the games of the household computers early days as was any newcomer. Many of these were relatively low-brow knock-offs of what amounted to the arcade style machines of my youth, and it was pretty freakin' cool to learn you could play these at home (for a price, naturally) instead of plunking down a quarter in a machine wherein all your friends could watch you die a slow death.
As home computing and gaming systems continued to evolve into the CGI era, these quaint games of yesterday -- ones going under such titles as 'Zaxxon' and 'StarBlade' and 'Space Station Oblivion' -- quickly disappeared. Sadly, even the floppys (old-style discs, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term) eventually were about as useful as a beverage coaster as our desktop PCs grew too big for the britches and could no longer understand much less operate the outdated code.
Well, kiddies, get ready for a real blast from the past!
Space.com recently announced that many of these games are now available for play online. In fact, the article boasts that over 2,400 of them have recently become housed on the net ... and they're just waiting for your undivided attention.
So if any of you young Turks who are tired with capturing the flag in Halo want to go back in time and take a real good hard cold look at the kind of cutting-edge tension that blew grandpa's mind, you'd do well to click on over and check out what the future looked like in only two and three color graphics.
However, I do remember being as jazzed about the games of the household computers early days as was any newcomer. Many of these were relatively low-brow knock-offs of what amounted to the arcade style machines of my youth, and it was pretty freakin' cool to learn you could play these at home (for a price, naturally) instead of plunking down a quarter in a machine wherein all your friends could watch you die a slow death.
As home computing and gaming systems continued to evolve into the CGI era, these quaint games of yesterday -- ones going under such titles as 'Zaxxon' and 'StarBlade' and 'Space Station Oblivion' -- quickly disappeared. Sadly, even the floppys (old-style discs, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term) eventually were about as useful as a beverage coaster as our desktop PCs grew too big for the britches and could no longer understand much less operate the outdated code.
Well, kiddies, get ready for a real blast from the past!
Space.com recently announced that many of these games are now available for play online. In fact, the article boasts that over 2,400 of them have recently become housed on the net ... and they're just waiting for your undivided attention.
So if any of you young Turks who are tired with capturing the flag in Halo want to go back in time and take a real good hard cold look at the kind of cutting-edge tension that blew grandpa's mind, you'd do well to click on over and check out what the future looked like in only two and three color graphics.
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