Child's Play I+II - Little Kids Commenting on Yesterdays Games - Funny Stuff

[mouser]

Here are two long pieces which provide transcripts of an experiment where kids of today (age about 10-13) are allowed to play games from 1970s-1980s and their reactions are transcribed.  Some great stuff..

Donkey Kong is "lame." Tetris is "boring." Space Invaders "needs a superbomb or something." And why play Pong when it's more fun to "jump up and down on one foot"? Hey, save your irate letters--we didn't say this stuff. The nostalgia-nuking commentary is from our original Child's Play story in EGM's November 2003 issue, in which we had kids of the PlayStation generation playtest classic games from the '70s and '80s. Mortified gaming grown-ups wrote in to call it blasphemy--and call these outspoken scamps a name that rhymes with "brittle truckers."

It was our most popular article ever. So we're doing it again, with a new batch of brittle truckers and a new bucket of classic games.

Read Child's Play I..
Read Child's Play II..

from http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/

[app103]

I have a working Atari 7800 and it's always fun when my daughter introduces friends to old school gaming.

Now just imagine introducing a room full of teens to Activision Decathalon...or California Games. 

The language used and opinions expressed are similar, yet much more mature in nature.

The boys had a blast teasing each other while playing Decathalon with a really high quality Hot Shot 8 direction, quadruple button, joystick that all you had to do is pick it up and shake it and hit the trigger button with the thumb of the same hand you were holding the stick with. 

It was almost like watching perverts play with a wii.

[nudone]

sounds a lot like how postwar generations would guffaw at how prewar(ish) children would play with a hoop and a stick or spinning-top, etc.

games have always been about the imagination required to fill in the gaps to make it seem real - but it seems like we are becoming increasingly lazy and increasingly critical so that only 'virtual' reality will suffice the next generations of kids.

[Gothi[c]]

Aaaagh, thanks for making us all feel like old farts

[mouser]

Those kids sound jaded and burnt out at age 10.. Here's an example - keep in mind these kids are aged 9-12:

EGM: Who's that chick Mario is rescuing up there?
Brian: It's Princess Peach.
Kirk: It's a hooker.
Niko: She looks cut in half.
Tim: Oh wow—she's one of those pole dancers.

[nudone]

they'll have to remove the word 'innocence' from the dictionary in a few years as no one will remember its meaning.

[Loonier]

They should take them back even further, before Atari.  The wonders of Star Trek on a Decwriter, The Wumpus, Colossal Cave, Zork...  The kids will think it unbelievable that anyone actually used a computer to play such stuff (and what's a "mainframe", anyway?).

Boy, am I old...

[Edvard]

Those kids sound jaded and burnt out at age 10.. Here's an example - keep in mind these kids are aged 9-12:

I don't know whether to break out the heart medication or the Board of Correction.

Outside, you Brittle Truckers!! OUTSIDE WITH THE LOT OF YOU!!!

[mouser]

Loonier, i think if you put these kids in front of one of those text-only adventure games that many of us grew up on, they would plain out cry.