Old School

Remember Atari? Atari was like the first video game to come out after pong I think. Those were the good ol days - Asteroids, Galaxian, Space Invaders, Pac-Man. Recently, we saw something on TV that had the old sit down Pac-Man game in it. Remember that one? The table top deals with a place on both sides of it for a player to sit on a chair and play? I want one of those. Gotta find one for the house.

In the meantime, tonight at the grocery store, Will found a little game on the sale table that had some of the old Atari games on it - Adventure, Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Circus, Gravitar, Missile Command, Pong, Volleyball and Yar's Revenge. Old School, back to basics fun. He's sitting here playing it now. Do you know how primitive those games were next to the ones the kids have today? And to think, at one time my Atari 5200 was all the rage! I still had it (even though it did not work) probably 10 years ago. I think I finally threw it in the trash, although I was hoping someone would someday fix it for me. But today with all of the fancy technology we have, we have things like Playstation III and X-Box whatever and Wii. With a shit load of games! Games from real life golf (Tiger Woods 09) to car racing (Driver) to surfing (TransWorld Surf) to beating someone's ass (Backyard Wrestling). You can do just about anything you want through a video game. No need to go outside and play anymore when you got it all inside!

The thing that bugs me the most is, kids are missing out on so much! What about making mud pies, or chasing stick boats down the gutter when it rains? What about playing in forts and treehouses and playing kick the can after dark out in the street? What about riding your bike, skateboard or roller skating? What happened to being a kid and not having to have your parents check out the rating on a video game that you want?

We as adults need to think back to a better time and remember what being a kid was all about. KICK YOUR KIDS OUTSIDE. Make them step away from the TV, video games, DVD players and Ipods. Make them go out and play and enjoy life a little. Get them back to nature. Take them camping, fishing and hunting. Go water skiing or snow skiing. Build a snow man when you can, lick an icicle and go ice skating. Take them back to a simpler time when being a kid was having fun outdoors!

Enough ranting and raving for now. Gotta go make the big kid take a break before he gets thumb cramps or has joystick injuries.

Anyone have a table top Pac-Man for sale?