You've Come a Long Way, Baby!

Last night included one of those moments that always gives me pause. I dialed my cell phone, called my best friend in Baltimore, connected my hands-free cell phone headset, fired up my Playstation 2, popped in MVP Baseball 2005, and proceeded to beat his ass 6-3. Over the Internet. God Bless Al Gore and my Netgear Wireless Router!

We complained about Internet lag, about stopping the pitch meter (with one of the 10 buttons on the controller) in time, and even our cell phones causing audio touble.

Sometimes I have to stop and think back to the formative video game years of my life. Things were different then. We had a joystick, and one button. How did we ever get anything done with one button? Tank Pong, Bump 'N' Jump, and Ms. Pac Man were the order of the day. Of the two baseball games I had as a young child, both involved entire baseball fields filling the screen. In RealSports Baseball 2600, you could hit a ground ball to the left fielder and still be thrown out at first base. Your choices were the red team, or the yellow team. Guys were square-headed herky-jerky blocks. One baseball game (Atari Home Run) didn't even involve fielders!

I just find myself wondering what video games will look like by the time I have kids that are grown up to the age of 28. Will they pine back for the days of Playstation 3 while playing their hand-held virtual reality Playstation 12's? I chuckled, opened the secret cabinet that still has my old Atari 7800 (with 35 games), and wiped the solitary tear from my eye.

Getting old is a bitch.