Joys of video games
a bunch of cartoon characters gives one joy
I remember getting my hands on a stick controller with a red button on top. On the screen was a green with what looks like an asphalt road in the middle, zig-zagging. It was a top-down view (as if you are looking at it from a helicopter) of a race car on the screen.
I can’t remember the exact name of the game, but I do remember I was mesmerized. I got mad at my parents for saying “let’s go, it’s time for us to head home”. I made them promise they will give me the wonder of a video game console. The magical box that moved by my command of that little joystick.
Fast forward a few years, I was on a ferry. I remember the experience vividly. It was one of the Greek islands on the Mediterranean sea that we were coming back to Athens from. I can’t remember which one though. There was a big console with a similar joystick, and a TV built inside the box. It was an arcade video game that many from that era are familiar with.
Yes, it was Pac-man. The Infamous arcade game.
As I progress through the gaming world, I don’t see any of those for a while after that. I used to live in Bangladesh, which didn’t have many of these machines around. I still remember we only had one channel, and that was the national one. Only people who had more were the ones that installed huge dish antennas for the satellite TV.
The idea of multiple channels was fascinating to me. I do remember seeing such an idea being demonstrated to me via a magic dial, that gave me different programs every time I turned it. Wow, what a concept.
Fast forward to my kids and modern games
This week I have played several hours of Mario Kart 8 with my son. He was always excited, especially since I bought him a set of those wheel extensions for the controllers. You know the ones that look like steering wheels, that allow us to control the controllers as if you are really driving the car with your hands.
The “magic” of these controllers to accurately detect motion and transfer that to the game, it’s simply incredible. But then we are living in the “magical” world of self-driving cars, and phones that guess how you are feeling and change colors as per the “mood”.
The technology of today will surprise the generation of the past to how truly “voodoo magic” they truly are. I’m in the tech field, and I still have a hard time keeping up with everything. A family friend’s kid (known him since he was 10), now graduated university for about 2 years and is working on auto repair windshield tech, using nano-tech.
I don’t know if that’s truly something already on market or not, but I know nano-tech is what he is working with. Imagine, millions of microscopic robots doing the insane repair job of fixing a windshield automatically.
Does that many any sense to you? Sounds like science fiction doesn’t it?
Why am I babbling about this?
Yes, this is another 2021 wrap-up article. I wanted you to take you in a short stroll through the history of when I was a kid, and the “wonders” I was seeing. Then take you through the “wonders” that my son is seeing now.
What “wonders” will we see in 2021 and beyond. What advances will we make, that seemed impossible just 10 years ago?
Remember, in the 1960’s they imagined a computer that fits into our desk in star trek. Back then a computer required a warehouse to store and run it. Today we have one fitting into the palm of our hands (smartphones).
Let’s go to the future with more optimism than we did in these past 2 years. Let us rejoice. Happy New year everyone.
