What I Am Playing(Day 1) | Pong & Atari

Since I am diving deep into video games and their history with the assigned reading, I have decided to take a little trip down memory lane myself and play some vintage games. Now I don't actually have an Atari to play Pong or other Atari games so I just broke out my copy of Atari Anthology on the XBox. Yes. The O.G. console. The original XBox One.

I don't have gameplay footage to show you, because I don't have a capture card but I can safely say that my experience playing Pong was probably pretty close to this.

For the time it was absolutely revolutionary and I have nothing but respect for Pong. But thank god video games have advanced far past this. This is barely even a game. It is so basic and boring that it puts the B in both terms.

 The biggest victory is when you get to stop playing.

I didn't stop with Pong though. I mean how could I? I had to experience what the rest of the Atari had to offer. So I played a couple more classics like Centipede, Missile Command, and Breakout before I decided to let slumber overtake me on a wacky Wednesday night.

This is screaming for a blacklight and a bong.

I definitely had a lot more fun with those three than I did with Pong. But that isn't saying much. It isn't hard at all to be better than Pong. I can see why all three were classics in their day. They had super simple controls and not much variety in terms of level design or challenge but there was something very satisfying about blowing floating insects, missiles, and brightly color bricks into pieces with 70's era sound effects.

At least the game was better than all of this.

Even playing these on what was a fairly modern console for the early 2000's, is like taking a step back in time. I could almost smell the wood paneling and feel the shag carpeting underneath my feet. Today's kids probably wouldn't understand why anyone would have had any sort of entertainment with games like these with such archaic graphics, sound, level design and controls. But I have no doubt that kids in the heyday of Atari were on a whole other plane of excitement and awe.

There really had been nothing like Atari before when it came to a plug and play console. It was the closest anyone could get to the experience of playing games at an arcade and it was mindblowing. Do all of the games stand the test of time? Nope. But Atari games and even games like Pong have a very special place in video game history. Milestones that without their existence would have erased the potential and playability of games today.

So in other words, respect your elder's folks. This crotchety old console deserves a little love and appreciation.