October 17, 2003Today's Kids Review Classic VideogamesWhat an excellent idea for a story. Get a bunch of 10- and 11-year-olds to review classic video games. Here's some of what they had to say about Pong: Niko: Hey—Pong. My parents played this game. Brian: It takes this whole console just to do Pong? Kirk: What is this? [Picks up and twists the paddle controller] Am I controlling the volume? John: I'm just going to do this [twists the paddle controller as rapidly as possible]. Tim: John, don't do that. You'll die. Andrew: This is a lot like that game. Um, whatchamacallit—air hockey. Sheldon: Except worse. Andrew: Blip. Blip. Blip. Blip. Becky: I don't even see the point of having sound on this. Andrew: Wow. The score is tied. It's so exhilarating. Brian: I saw a documentary on this. The game was so popular in arcades that it got jammed up with quarters. John: In this thing? [Points to the Pong game console] Tim: I would never pay to play something like this. John: I'd sooner jump up and down on one foot. By the way, is this supposed to be tennis or Ping-Pong? Becky: Ping-Pong. Gordon: It doesn't even go over the net. It goes through it. I don't even think that thing in the middle is a net. Tim: My line is so beating the heck out of your stupid line. Fear my pink line. You have no chance. I am the undisputed lord of virtual tennis. [Misses ball] Whoops. John: Tim, how could you miss that? It was going like 1 m.p.h. Sheldon: Hey, why does it say Sears on the controller? EGM: Sears sold it for Atari. Andrew: Isn't Sears, like, a clothing company? Becky: Sears makes everything. Actually, I've never been in there. EGM: Guess how much this thing cost when it came out. Kirk: Twenty bucks? EGM: Higher. Brian: $50? EGM: Higher. Brian: $100? EGM: Yep. Kirk: My God—I could almost buy a PS2 for that. I'm sure when this came out, it was better than whatever else was out. Want to play chess with me, son? No way, Dad. Brian: I want to play Pong! Tim: Oh, I'm starting to suck. John, you drained my skill. John: Yes, I used a power-up. Tim: What? There's no power-ups in Pong. The concept of a power-up hadn't been invented yet. (Via Blogdex) |