My daughter loves the new Jurassic World WiiU game and can kick some serious dino butt. Unfortunately the UI is completely whacked for this 45-year-old former Atari queen…
1982
My twelve-year-old self acquired a shiny new Atari 2600 and 3 games. Space Invaders, Astroids and Haunted House (which completely sucked ass). In less than 2 months I become the for most authority on Asteroids and the high scorer amongst my friends and family. I even made people sign my log book to prove that I beat them. I was ruthless and probably the biggest nerd on my block.
The beauty of Atari was that there were 4 buttons. On/Off, Color/B-W (look it up kids), Game Select, Game Reset. Within 30 seconds of firing up the Sears console TV you were playing the game!
2015
It takes me at least 5 minutes to even power up the WiiU, that’s if I can find the power supply to the hand held console. Then it takes me another 5 minutes to load the freakin’ game. Then it starts. Adventure play vs. Free play. Choose a character, locate the map. Save the game. Watch part of the movie in the game. Every 15 seconds my kid wants to know why she can’t move. “Try B, no press X, hold the thing upside down and shake it”. Now I’m pretty tech savvy for an old bird but come on, these new games are fraught with time sinking problems.
Do I have point to my story?
Sure why not. The point is that sometimes going old school is much easier than reinventing the wheel. Lock, load, blast those alien ass monkeys off the screen…make your best friend sign your log book because you beat her to the wall. Go eat some Pop Rocks and Pepsi.
I miss my Atari 2600.
Queen of the Girl Geeks 