One of my neighbors had an Atari game system when I was young. He was the only one in our country neighborhood to be so lucky. I would spend a lot of time at his place, fascinated by Space Invaders, Centipede, Pac Man, Dig Dug, and Pitfall. In fact, I loved Pitfall so much that, years later in college, when I happened upon an Atari system at a garage sale, I didn’t buy it solely because it didn’t have that game.

Many of those games were only for one player, so any of us there had to patiently wait our turn to play and hope we could prolong our game lives long enough to make it worth the wait until the next time around.

Despite my pleadings with my parents, all was in vain to get an Atari of our own. Instead, we got an Odyssey game system. Never heard of it? That’s not surprising. Upon some research, I discovered that only 350,000 units were sold. It actually predated the Atari, but couldn’t compete with such games as Pick-Axe Pete and Quest for the Rings. Still, it gave me a chance to play video games at home, and that was a step in the right direction.

Shockingly, when the original Nintendo system arrived, my parents bought it for us. This was a revelation! I focused on Super Mario Bros. and beat the game in a couple weeks. There was also Duck Hunt that came with the console. And imagine our shock when we found our mother in front of the television, playing Tetris! 

If you are a video game aficionado, you have watched video games transform in leaps and bounds. If you’re old enough, you remember having to make a decision if the phone rang or someone knocked at the door: Keep playing or give up your game? There was no pause button! Any young people reading this might have their jaws agape in disbelief. That’s right, no pause button, and the phones were attached to the wall!

When I was in college, my boss at the grocery store was able to get me a Super Nintendo that I only had to pay $60 for. It was a steal of a deal! When I could afford it, I added games, and soon, our dorm room became a hotbed of activity, just like my neighbor’s house back in the day.

The first Super Star Wars game was annoying. There were no save spots, so you had to make it all the way through the game to get to the ending. If you died, you started over on Tatooine. That was quickly rectified with Super Empire Strikes Back, where, as long as you reached certain levels safely, you could start over back at that spot the next time you fired up the game.

Don’t worry, I was able to play all of the Super Star Wars game since someone on my floor discovered these things called “cheat codes.” Yes, I’m old enough to have played games without those cheat codes.

We really used them when playing NBA Jam. You could add hidden characters or keep your player on fire the whole game or other neat extras. I even was able to use Bill Clinton as a player!

But the game that dominated our dorm floor was Tecmo Super Bowl. There were eight of us who would set up a season. If it was your turn, you’d better sit down and get your game in. Class coming up? Eh, there’s probably time to finish your game. At work? Better rush home so as not to keep everyone else waiting too long.

The funny thing is that I see so many of my students playing a game called Retro Bowl on their school computers. It looks an awful lot like that beloved game from my college days! (Of course, I shut them down when I discover it, especially if I see their player breaking away for a touchdown. After all, they have English work to do!)

My children used to enjoy playing some of those Super Nintendo games when they were growing up. Eventually, we decided to purchase the Nintendo Wii, and that was a big hit. Jayna still has it with her at college. Anton moved on to playing a Nintendo Switch, and that’s where I’ve fallen off from video games. 

I could probably sit down with the Wii or even dig out the old Super Nintendo (yes, I still have it!) and get the hang of it quickly. But there are so many systems that involve more than a simple controller. I don’t have the time or energy to learn new things like that! Remember, I started with the Atari controller with one button and a knob you moved around. The Super Nintendo had four buttons, plus two on top, and directions controlled by four other buttons. Actually, that seems like a lot when I type it!

Now I’m content to play Candy Crush on my iPad. The love for video games doesn’t really diminish. I know that if I hooked up the Super Nintendo, I’d want to play a season of Tecmo Super Bowl or try to beat Super Mario 3 once again. 

And I might need that Wii back. I never did finish the final level against Bowser for Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Word of the Week: This week’s word is militate, which means to exert a strong influence for or against something, as in, “The children worked to militate for their parents to buy them a new video game.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!