Hi-Tech Nostalgia

Isn't technology really just so amazing?  My son is playing Battle City.  It's 2010, and he is playing a video game that I had played with my younger bros in the 90s, almost two decades ago.  Not only that -- he is playing it on a knock-off Family Computer unit.  My mind is totally blown!

And as I take this scene in, I am also amused by how much we have advanced, and yet it seems that we haven't really quite grown up :-)

Thanks to the internet, we've introduced our kids to Star Wars, Transformers (the original boxy designs that look way more fun and recognizable), Voltes V, Voltron (the Lion edition), Sesame Street, Michael Jackson, Jaws, Mario Bros., Back to the Future, and many, many other good things from the awesome 80s :-)

When my husband got me my own PSP Slim unit a few years back, he put in a NES emulator with over a hundred games.  My geek knows the way to this geekette's heart.

I was so tickled to see that I still remember the secrets, tricks, easter eggs in games like SMB 3, Circus Charlie, Mappy, Adventure Island, Solomon's Key 2, Road Fighter, Excite Bike, Pinball, Lunar Ball, Ice Climber, Popeye, Pac-Man, Clu-Clu Land, Bubble Bobble, Donkey Kong, Arkanoid, Bomberman, Galaga -- just to name a few :-)  I do play new video games, but there's really nothing like those old, simple games.

Maybe I'm just being nostalgic.  After all, these are happy things and fond memories.  The fact that we're able to continue enjoying them today is a very good thing, because when you grow up, you'll realize that your parents were right -- being a kid is more fun.  Adulthood is not all it's cracked up to be (or not what we thought it should/would be).

So keeping that little geeky kid inside you happy is a healthy thing to do.  You are entitled to go back to those simple pleasures -- given, of course, that you don't forget you're not really entirely a kid anymore, and you've got responsibilities.  Do your big person's roles first and then go play when you're done :-)