I'm a computer and video gamer from waaaay back.
I remember when Pong came out.
I owned a Fairchild Channel 1 video game system. That came out just before the Atari 2600 for you video game buffs.
I played games on my TRS-80 model 1 computer in 1979.
From adventure games and first person shooters to strategy and massively multiplayer online games, I've been there and done that.
Computer and video games have a way of teaching us how life is.
So I've compiled this list of lessons that I've picked up from decades of playing computer and video games.
I hope they help you on life's journey.
1) If you get hit with too many bullets, just duck behind a box or wall for a few seconds and you'll be completely healed. See, miracles DO happen.
2) If you don't know what to do next, look everywhere in the room for an obscure object that is certain to solve your dilemma. You may have to search every pixel, but believe me, it's there.
3) Victory is defined by how many gems you can match. Try pulling this off at your local jeweler's display case for extra fun.
4) Life is all about hours, days, weeks and months spent in the pursuit of better gear. Life? Who needs a life?
5) You can never have enough power-up mushrooms. Who would have thought that a fungus would be so empowering?
6) These aren't the droids you are looking for.
7) Real families are a cakewalk compared to the demands of virtual families. However, you can't place your real family in a 4x4 grid and laugh while they pee their pants. Not legally, anyhow.
8) Never underestimate the ability for little white pixels to steal your pride, shame your name and crush your spirit.
9) In case of zombie apocalypse, always shoot for the headcrab first.
10) If all else fails, you can always turn to a life of crime.
Feel free to Digg, Tweet or otherwise share this list with others!
My son will love this. I guess now dear old Dad has to admit that something... good... well maybe not... but something came out of his pursuit of video games. Hey and you didn't turn out too badly...
Haha. You just made my Friday. Thanks :)
Love this! This is funny! Thanks for a good laugh Joel!
oh! boy! ia m laughng my head off here. :0
in fact no more work i am powering up my system right now for 1 hr of
freedom fighters video game
Never though that much could be gathered from games. Thanks for making my Friday
Hi Joel,
Found your post most interesting. Before the Fairchild was mine at Coleco. We beat out Motorola for the Feb. Toy Show in NY back in the mid 70's. Yes I was the product designer for the first video game to hit the market. It did teach me a lot!
indeed, games teach you from life. Whatever happens to me in the game, any game not only in the computer, it is a "darn" reflection /mirror of my life! Amazing!!!!
I can truly relate to those words of wisdom.
Figured I'd see a "Frogger" or "Wolfenstein" in the top 10. I so remember the TRaSh-80. Hard to believe we carry more computing power and storage on our phones the the pc's of those days.
Thanks for the "Blast" from the past..
Hey Joel how this reminds me how much l miss the Commodore 64 and the super Quick tape deck to load games, it was amazing l could go shopping , eat lunch then come back home and still have about ten minutes to spare before the game was loaded how l miss those days !
Nice Joel! But what, no space invaders? I'd love to hear what you'd say about those annoying aliens that fly crazy and try to come and kill my spaceship!
Thanks for the smile :)
Victoria
Me too. I also love to play video games. Its teach me many things even my parents not agree with me several years ago.
Hi Joel great one, if you like games you might want to check this one out.
http://www.instantaction.com/ check out derwydd if your up for a battle. It's a free browser based game and one of the best I have come across. Enjoy
Love the video game references. I have a collection of video game systems including all the original Nintendos. I can still beat the first Mario from start to finish in one sitting.
And COD ROCKS!! it will consume more hours of your life that Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace combined. You rocking Xbox of PS3? Though if you play Hardcore, you don't get the chance to heal quite so often. More life real life, sometimes a single shot drops you.
Hey Joel...being a huge gamer myself this list put a huge smile on my face. I'm surprised you kept it at 10 as I'm sure you can come up with 100 easily, haha. Fairchild 1 eh? Did you have a Timex Sinclair too? How can you not mention a Commodore system...shame! I remember the days of pre-paying for my systems even before they came out. Little did I know I was part of a launch sequence ;P Lessons learned from video games....so true.
Now you've done it Joel. I've been so good lately at staying away from my Xbox because, once I'm on it, that's it... I'm STAYING put and it'll take a bulldozer to shift me from it. 8 hours easily gone just like that with not an ounce of work in sight... just full-on gaming... and a toilet break or two. But now your post has got me itching to fire up my machine.
If my wife complains I'm spending way too much time blasting pixels, and not enough time with her, I'll blame it on you ok?
Thanks for the good ole memories - space invaders, asteroids, pac man, donkey kong, doom, street fighter ("hadouken!")...
Mickey
P.S. "If all else fails, you can always turn to a life of crime." I wonder if anyone would put that at the end of a special report or ebook? Now that would be some advice, eh?! ;o)
Hi, Joel!
Your article evokes fond memories of the good old days! Oh my, the games of those days weren't as fast-moving, sophisticated and colourful as today's, for example, 'Space Invaders'.
To our nostalgia
Andy Kong
Joel,
That is the way to look at this stuff. Some people just take it way tooo seriously. I just got my laugh for the day.
Thanks!
Hi Joel, This was AWESOME. LOL.
I like you have been a die hard gamer from way back. The only difference is I was never a PC gamer. I had from Atari to every other system that was, well... worth it. I learned a lot too from games. I gained excellent hand eye co-ordination. I also learned to solve puzzles. It expanded my intuitive mind. The Fair-child Channel 1 video game system? Wow Joel. That's like even before I started. LOL. Good stuff. I started out on the Atari. This made me smile. Thanks for the great post.
@Lyndon Irvine.
Hah, me to. I was 5 in 1979 :)
TRS 80 / Spectrum ZX at school (I was 7-8 I think)
First computer I ever owned was an Atari 400, cartiridge and tape drive.
And I programmed on it too :)
$400 NZ when I was 14, and I paid every last dollar myself.
Wow! Now that brings back some memories!
Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
I started out with the Coleco system myself. Had the opportunity to program on the TRS-80 and Apple IIe at school, then moved on to the Commodore 64 at home.
Those were the days! Remember getting my first 30MB (yes MB) hard drive and having to partition it because DOS couldn't recognize more than 20MB in a single partition.
My, how things have changed!
Have a great one my friend!
Cool list, Joel! Yeah, the TRS-80 was very popular. I was a bit of a rebel with my TI-99/4a :-)
I still have an original Pong home system (not my original from all those years ago, but re-bought one later as I just had to have it for old times sake.
Btw, I noticed in one of your recent vids that you have a stuffed piranha on your bookshelf just like the one I have! That, combined with the fact that I also had a flying screaming monkey before I saw your team playing with one and, well, just further proves that great minds think alike! :-)
Thanks a million
LOL this is really coool i love video games and seen another post just like this one with other life lessons plus i played most of these lol
Give me a high-5, Joel! I didn't know you're such a video game freak. Worse, I didn't know you are such a video game academic :)
Rangers lead the way!
lol good one Joel! especially love the part where mario stomps and crushed the green pipes.
Joel, such memories. I still have my TRS80. It still works, has 16K memory and 3 floppy drives! No hard disk at all. Apart from games, I learned to program in Basic and wrote my own accounting program that I used in my business for ten years. There was no such software around in 1979!
Ha. Great list Joel. I also grew up on video games. Not sure exactly what I have learned from them. Maybe competitiveness and gumption I would say. It is unbelievable how games have changed and now all or mostly played online (computer,xbox live, etc.). I wish I had more time for them these days. lol. Anyways good list had me thinking back years ago and had me laughing.
Laughing my head off on this one while reminiscing the days when video games was much much simpler :)
Good post Joel, but you gotta include Sonic the Hedgehog somewhere (Sega fan!.. lol)
#7 was hilarious. And #10 will come in handy if I can't find a way to increase my income soon. :p
I never thought people will lean something about the life after playing computer and video games. Its funny isn't it? I must take a serious read of this article.