Monday, October 20, 2003

Atari Teenage Quiet
Via Scrubbles, here's an excellent piece demonstrating what kids of the information age think about the quaint time-wasters of yesteryear—meaning my childhood. On a related note, Chocobaby recently bought me an all-in-one Atari joystick that includes ten games right there inside it, so you just plug it into the TV as is. On the box, it has a picture of a kid holding it under the text, "Have Fun with a Blast from Your Parents' Past!" Ugh. Should I have multiplied already? (She pointed out that if we'd all started reproducing at 18 like good suburbanites, we could have 11-year old kids by now.) Anyway, it included such old favorites as the recently-mentioned Yar's Revenge, where the player is some sort of Space Fly Critter that blows things up while being stalked by a glowing minus sign (as if your math homework is hunting you), and Adventure, where the protagonist is a square with a sword chased by transparent dragons and—get this—the game continues even after you're dead. Four stars on the WULADometer. And a bonus star for getting to hear C-baby's grunts every time her stick figure crashed to the ground in Circus Atari.