Video Games of Yesteryear
Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and the Macintosh Plus are but a few of the names you would hear when it came to the 1980’s and technology. More specifically, video games. If you remember games like Arkanoid, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter II, Kirby’s Adventure, or Oregon Trail, then you lived in a wonderful time period of video games. A time that was free of “in-app purchases” and “microtransactions”.
Full disclosure: I was not born in the 1980’s, nor did I own an original NES or a Saga Genesis. However — I did grow up with Macintosh computers in my house, even having a Macintosh Classic in my bedroom at the same time as I was learning English in kindergarten. With a whopping 1MB of memory and 40MB of hard drive space, I would play all sorts of games with my family, but never with a Cat 5 cable plugged into the back of the computer.
These were simpler times, with no internet connectivity. If you wanted a new game, you had to go ask your parents to get in the Oldsmobile and drive you down to Westworld Computers in -20 degree weather and fork out $69.95 back in the early nineties (about $130 now) for a single video game. There were no 99¢ games, no in-app purchases, and definitely no iPads.
Do you remember where you were on January 27, 2010? Probably not, but I do — I was watching the live release of the first Apple iPad. 3 months later, on April 5th, my iPad that I ordered from some guy in the USA (Canada wasn’t selling them for a few more months), finally arrived at my door. I was in love. So simple, so elegant, it made my Hilroy notebook look like a stone tablet.
In the seven years since the iPad was first released, there has been a incredible increase in the use of tablets. However, while iPads and other tablets are indeed being used by medical clinics to review patient files, in shops as cash registers, and as something your mother uses to comment on your Facebook photos, one of the biggest users I’ve seen are children. Walk into that medical clinic, that car shop, that hair salon, and there’s a good chance you’ll see little Johnny playing a game on his iPad.
At this point you must be thinking ‘what a hypocrite — he loved video games growing up and now he’s just old and out of touch and doesn’t know what children of today play on’. Yes, it’s true, when I had to wait for something as a child I would play on my Gameboy, or one of the two game options on my dad’s first Motorola — snake or Tetris. I don’t have an issue with video games and children: properly monitored with time limits, I think children should be allowed, even encouraged, to play video games. That said, iPads, iPhones, and android devices have created a shift in video games with children.
Parents have bills to pay, a mortgage, dance classes, swimming lessons, the list goes on, and when a $249 device with almost unlimited options for games, apps, and self-entertainment for just a dollar or two is an option, it’s not easy to say no. But those one-dollar games are designed differently. Game developers simply cannot make money with $1 game purchases, no matter the volume. The $1 games are designed with quick bursts of satisfaction, and lots of them. You can level up or gain armour, skins, or other items in the game quickly and frequently, but the more you play, the harder it is to reach the next level. Buuuut, if you pay just 99¢, you’ll get to that next level right away. Come on. It’s just a buck.
Games that costs $75 and $1 may both just seem like video games, but what you lack with a $1 game are deep stories, beautifully composed music, and intricate gameplay that really make a child (or adult) think. Ask anyone to hum the song from the first level of Super Mario Bros and they’ll go “tenen-ten-tenen-ten-ten” without skipping a beat. Tell someone you were moving at a “gruelling pace” and they’ll think of Oregon Trail before they think you actually endured something difficult.
That’s what makes the $74 difference. Video games can impact children for a lifetime. The games they play should be challenging, thought-provoking, and should never ask you to pay to advance to the next level. It doesn’t have to be Mario and Luigi, but there should be memorable characters, there should be complexity, and concentration and patience should be required — not a game you can pick up and play for 5 minutes.
So go on eBay and sell the iPad. With the tablet gone, spend some money on a great video game. Your kids will be glued to the screen — but this time they’ll be thinking, not just tapping.
This article was originally published on December 30, 2017
