My name is Eric and I'd like to welcome you to eVidGames.com! I was a kid when the old-school or "classic" video games started coming out. Since I remember the early games first-hand I want to make sure I can share this history with folks who have not had the pleasure of playing some of the early games personally. Here is a brief timeline of some of my favorites:
In 1979 Atari developed Asteroids.
1981 was a big year for video games. In 1981 Nintendo came out with Donkey Kong and Atari came out with Centipede that same year. In addition, Milton Bradley came out with Frogger in 1981.
Discuss classic games as well as new games in our Gaming forum.
Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:52:36 GMT - Two quarterbacks contend the N.C.A.A. and a video game manufacturer should pay college athletes for using their likenesses in popular electronic games.
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:04:49 GMT - Hand over that Nintendo Wii Controller boys, there's a new gamer in town: Girls. While the video game industry has largely catered to males, a report released Tuesday by The NPD Group says that 28 percent of females are playing video games on gaming consoles. That number is up 5 percent ...
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:54:34 GMT - For anyone who has ever watched a crowd of teenagers gathered around a video screen, clutching Xbox controllers or playing "Guitar Hero," the news may come as no surprise. Some 26 percent of New Jersey's high school students spend at...
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:37:35 GMT - Thanks to the interactive Wii, you can lose weight while boxing, jogging and doing deep-knee lunges in video games. So let's take a look at a new slate of sports games that make you sweat, and some that don't.
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:16:51 GMT - A new charity is working to get video games into the hands of underprivileged children. NY1's Technology reporter Adam Balkin filed the following report.
Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:06:38 GMT - Laura (not her real name) works for a commercial bank in London. She is commenting on the frustrations of working in the financial services in the current climate.
GameTap for Classic Video Games
Before settling on GameTap I researched other options for classic video games. Here are notes on my experience downloading and setting up GameTap: Setting Up GameTap
I considered buying the Ultimate Arcade 2 Stand-Up Unit from Costco because it has 100 old-school classic video games. However on one of my visits to Costco I noticed the machine was broken and it got me thinking about what would happen if I bought a $2,000 machine and then it broke. As luck would have it that's when I started exploring other options.
Fortunately I came across GameTap. GameTap has over 700 games and I got started with just a $10 commitment($10 for the first month of the month-to-month plan plus one month for free because of the promotional offer). On the first day I started re-living old memories by playing Pac Man again.
One of the advantages with GameTap is that you can use it on your laptop meaning it is very portable.
Here are some of my favorite Old School Classic Games on GameTap:
Asteroids
Centipede
Defender
Dig Dug
Frogger
Galaga
Joust
Karate Champ
Pac Man
Zoooos
Zoos is a great system for toddlers. It is much simpler than most of today's video games. A friend of mine gave it to us as a gift and both my 3-year old and 5-year old enjoy it.
My friend gave us Sandy Lane, Thomas & Friends, SD Zoo and Bob the Builder dvds. Our 5-year old understood right away that the zoooos remote allows him to interact with the TV. Both kids like the girl in the zoo video a lot. Here is how my friend John describes the system:
quote:
It's really quite ingenious.. the cognitive activities. it's like Sesame Street, but totally interactive.
The auto setup didn't go on our Magnavox dvd player but it worked like a charm on our Toshiba player. I tried doing the Magnavox setup manually but that didn't work either. The number of codes needed was crazy. In the end we're happy with the setup on our Toshiba dvd player.
Free Video Games
There are all kinds of free video games on the internet. In fact we even have some free games right here at eVidGames!
For example, our
Tic Tac Toe game is pretty fun.
Steven Poole's substantial examination of the world inside your console combines an exhaustive history of the games industry with a subtle look at what makes certain kinds of games more engaging than others. For example, what works in which genres--the RPG (role-playing game) versus the god game--and the relationship of video games to other forms of media.
A writer and composer, Poole makes the case that video games--like films and popular music--deserve serious critical treatment: "The inner life of video games--how they work--is bound up with the inner life of the player. And the player's response to a well-designed video game is in part the same sort of response he or she has to a film, or to a painting: it is an aesthetic one." Trigger Happy is packed with references not just to games and game history but also to writers and theorists who may never have played a video game in their lives, from Adorno and Benjamin to Plato. At times this approach verges on the pedantic, dwelling at length on points that will seem obvious to serious gamers ("We don't want absolutely real situations in video games. We can get that at home"; "The fighting game, like fighting itself, will always be popular"). Nonetheless, Poole's book may be favored bedside reading for both the keen gamer and the armchair philosopher looking to understand this cultural phenomenon. --Liz Bailey, Amazon.co.uk
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