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Author: dominicdonaldson | Total views: 29 Comments: 0
Word Count: 589 Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:57 AM

Blast From The Past Gaming Reviews

I have a confession to make; I have managed to avoid the gaming revolution despite being a child of the seventies. I grew up through the era of the Atari, the Spectrum and the Commodore; There were classics such as Pac Man and Space invaders, and although I did my bit and had a few goes, I wasn't one to be reading gaming reviews and swotting up on the state of the art graphics of asteroids in the wake of the tennis game Pong. I, in my childish naivete was convinced that computers and their games had a finite life, and would soon become unpopular and fade into abstract oblivion, and so stuck to playing Kerplunk instead.

Now that the graphic revolution has come to the forefront and I find myself bombarded by Wii, DS and Xbox 360, I fear I may have misjudged the future of technology and wonder if I will ever be able to make up the years and get good at using a controller. I feel I owe it to you to take you through my gaming past, so you can fully understand my position.

It started with playing space invaders on holiday in Mallorca, a one week affair until my spending money ran out and the arcade machine would just taunt me from afar with it's tantalising beeps and sonic squiggles. I fell for the classic addiction of the game every time, but level 3 remained elusive as my pesos ran dry.

A splattering of Donkey Kong and Pac Man on hand held console type things came next. These games to me are a classic 1970s fodder for kids and tasted of the future. These retro offerings amused me for the couple of levels I was capable of conquering and then got stolen by the boy next door, which I wasn't really that bothered about.

Shortly after that I received an Atari as a present, but only had one game, which I was rubbish at, so within a day or two that found it's way to the back of the cupboard with as much despondency as the loss of my Donkey Kong game, it was around this time that I came to accept that I had neither the dexterity or the mental capacity to conquer computer games. I left it here for a while, until my sister got a Game Boy, and I was properly addicted to Tetris to the point where I was in danger of failing all my GCSE's. At least it proved to me that my dexterity might have improved, or that in the face of important life changing situations I was more than capable of distracting myself with what was essentially an electronic jigsaw puzzle.

Well, following that I stayed well clear of it all until last weekend. Unfortunately, whilst visiting friends, it became apparent that the advent of the Wii has seemed to replace any other family activity that ever happened within the four walls of the family home. I bowled nonstop for around four hours, and to be honest, as much fun as it was, my performance actually deteriorated the longer I played. Destined to be another 2 day wonder, I opted not to buy one, and have come to terms that no amount of practice will give me the remote control, excuse the pun, that I need to advance beyond the very easy start level, and there isn't a games review on earth that could convince me otherwise.

About the Author

Dom Donaldson is an internationally published journalist.
Find out more about Gaming Reviews and make the right games choice for your consol at Pocket Lint.




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