Vintage Gaming

It's a rainy day and Sarah and I have spent some time playing games on our PlayStation. Last weekend I got a collection of classic Atari games: arcade originals like Asteroids, Battlezone, Missile Command and Space Invaders, plus dozens of games for the Atari 2600 console.

I was eager to introduce Sarah to Pong as one of the first video games ever, and then play 2600 games like Combat that I used to play as a kid (well, a teen). I wasn't sure what her reaction would be - maybe she'd dismiss these primitive blobs and squeaks, having mastered much more sophisticated gaming - but she enjoys them.

Vintage games actually have a few advantages over modern ones for family gaming. They're short, so there's no waiting for load times, and we get to start over every few minutes. And the games are much more likely to support two players, often at the same time instead of taking turns. This is rare in current games.

I think those first generation games will live forever. They're simple and easily adaptible to new technologies (my iPod shipped with Breakout, and many can be played on mobile phones). But they're also very well-designed and fun to play.