Essay by Ernie Hilbert that has sent my own memories spinning out, unfurling. Too much to excerpt or even comment on ... just go read the whole thing. If you grew up in the 70s and early 80s, I can't imagine that his essay wouldn't have deep and powerful resonance for you.
For example:
It is instructive to think back a quarter century or so. I can only just remember playing Pong (1972, Atari, though I would not twist the paddles until at least 1977) while sprawled on the yellow shag pile at a friend’s house, around the time I first saw Star Wars at the drive-in movie theater. By the time I was ten, I had played Space Invaders (1978, Taito) and Pac Man (1980, Namco) in the back room of the local 7-11 convenience mart, which went out of business and was replaced by a 6-12 (I am not making this up). I also enjoyed the more whimsical games like Q-Bert (1983, Gottlieb) and Donkey Kong (1981, Nintendo), which produced the long-legged franchise of the Mario Brothers, largely via the later home system). Video games were not yet a legitimate business. There was something sordid about the whole enterprise.
And observations such as:
While trolling through my own bleary memories of zapping and zoning out to beams of colored light, I recovered something that might speak to the entire suburban experience, at least as it existed for some of us. My games of choice scrolled from top to bottom on the screen. Powerless to move my vessel in any other direction, I dreamed of breaking free and exploring. I would invariably master a game and then—while dutifully glued to the screen—begin imagining what was happening off-screen, in the rest of the game universe. We were permitted to see excruciatingly little of the worlds we were so intent on pummeling and blasting, so these untouched fields to the left and right of the screen developed an incredible allure. Who knew what challenges waited?
But oh, so much more. Go forth and read the whole thing.
His essay is included in a collection called Gamers: Writers, Artists, and Programmers on the Pleasures of Pixels, edited by Shanna Compton
Posted by sheila | TrackBackWow. I must have that book. If only to identify how to make my own observations about game publishing in my own way.
Posted by: wutzizname at December 3, 2007 10:11 AM