Friday, May 27, 2011

The Non-Gamer

The non-gamer - that's me. I'm old, horribly horribly old, almost fifty. Gosh, it hurts to even type that. Like I said, I'm old, and I'm not a gamer, at least not by today's standards. So if I'm not a gamer, why am I writing this blog? Good question.

My background in videogames is being around for the birth of Atari, specifically Pong. Yeah, you remember Pong, and if you don't, you probably saw pictures of it painted in animal blood on cave walls. Pong was the first of the Atari 2600 videogames, and the shot heard round the world that triggered an electronic revolution in the world of games and hobbies.

Pong was followed by fun stuff like Space Invaders and later personal favorites Starmaster, Adventure, and Yar's Revenge and even Donkey Kong. That last one was a keeper. It triggered the jump to the next generation of videogame, and also the point where I got lost. I had an Atari 2600, but I didn't get a Nintendo system until 1998, way beyond when it was cool or even cutting edge - and even then it wasn't my idea to get the system. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the videogame age.

A Super Nintendo system followed later, but only so I could play geek favorites of mine - Justice League Task Force and Super Godzilla, notably the only two games ever purchased for the system. Up until a few weeks ago, that was as cutting edge as I got. Then the PS3 came into the house.

This was a surprise, but apparently something The Bride had been thinking about for a while. I had initially asked for a Roku or a Blu-Ray player for Christmas but Santa was not accommodating. The Bride thought a PS3 would service both functions and have games so she got one. And here we are.

There's an old joke that the only thing that separates a full-time freelance writer from an unemployed bum is a videogame system. To keep that balance from claiming me, I'm starting this blog, recording my impressions as a decisive non-gamer into the gaming world of PlayStation. I'll try not to be too stupid or naïve, and maybe we'll all learn something. Welcome to my nightmare.

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