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Kids Play

27 Oct 2003 by Matthew Linderman

“Was the age of Pong, Atari, Mattel handheld football, and Donkey Kong really all that great, or are we just blinded by fuzzy, warm nostalgia?” asks Electronic Gaming Monthly. In Kids Play, the magazine captures reactions from today’s kids to games from the 80s. [via Webmonkey]

Magazine: [In Japan, Space Invaders] was so popular that there was a shortage of the coins used to play it.

Kid: But you can get this game on a cell phone. Why would you want to pay for it in an arcade?

10 comments so far (Post a Comment)

27 Oct 2003 | Don Schenck said...

What a fun article! I loved the section about Pong.

27 Oct 2003 | One of several Steves said...

God, that's hilarious.

And, man, do I feel old. I thought Pong was the shiznit when it came out. A friend had the home console. I practically lived at his place for a couple months.

27 Oct 2003 | Tibloto said...

Where did they get these kids? I don't know too many adults that talk or act this mature.

Brian: I saw a documentary on this. The game was so popular in arcades that it got jammed up with quarters.

Brian's 11, and he's watching documentaries? I was too busy playing Kaboom! when I was 11.

John: I'd sooner jump up and down on one foot.

What 11-year-old kid uses the phrase "I'd sooner"? Can you even say that out loud without using a snooty British accent?

Andrew: Someone take over before I lose my dignity.

Maybe kids these today feel dignified playing P2 games, but in the old days, there was no way to keep your dignity when you spent 6 hours a day playing Adventure.

Tim: Oh wowshe's one of those pole dancers.

I'm guessing Timmy takes time out from playing P2 to watch Cinemax on Saturday nights. At that age I spent every Saturday watching Dungeons & Dragons.

Becky: Maybe another movie company that didn't want you to like E.T. made this game.

Andrew: Yeah, it was some sort of corporate sabotage.

If I meet a 12-year-old that uses the phrase "corporate sabotage", I'm asking him to do my taxes.

27 Oct 2003 | Darrel said...

Everything written here was actually said by these kids. Really. The only change we made was to remove the more gratuitous usages of the word "gay".

Kids never change...

27 Oct 2003 | Tim said...

I remember when my friend got Zelda for the NES (probably too new for this discussion), but I just sat there and watched him play it for hours. I thought that those little pyramid cubes that made up the dungeons were mind blowing...I remember thinking, "That's so 3D!"

I wonder how this fits in with Nintendo's allegedly desire to develop games that are less complex...?

29 Oct 2003 | Louis said...

I'm a bit too young to remember the Atari 2600, Pong, Donkey Kong and whatnot. My first console was a Sega Master System, which was state of the art when I got it. I still remember playing the original Shinobi, Safari Hunter, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Hang On, Out Run and After-Burner.

Today's games are just mind-blowing in comparison, so you can't expect today's kids to enjoy 80's-era consoles like we did. And the pace of game console development has accelerated. For example, Sony is already well into development of the the PlayStation 3.

12 Jan 2004 | casino said...

Nice and enaging blog, but all the spam is starting to ruin many sites like this one!

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