Wed 14 Mar 2007
Remember your earliest visits to a video arcade? I do. Mostly what I recall is never having two bits. But, the first time was a revelation. [Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for 1972.]
My brother had explained a new game to our mother, convincing her that we could be set loose (at the Saginaw Mall!). “Stay with your brother!” she called out. I knew she was not talking to me.
Suddenly I was running, trying to keep up with my big brother, weaving and rushing until we found it: Alladin’s Castle. Then, roaming down a long aisle of tall, strange boxes with knobs and dials that reminded me of Mom’s new dishwasher.
My older brother urged me along until we came to about a dozen kids standing shoulder to shoulder; the small crowd with mouths agape, huddled behind a boy facing up against one of the appliances. I wondered what all the hurrying was about. Why were these kids interested in appliances?
And, then I saw it.
A small television screen flashing bright colors out of the front of one of the washing machines, and the boy tapped frantically at buttons on its console, his body tense with energy, dancing with the body english we all used at a pinball machine. His ducking and jerking seemed to guide a small spaceship, darting about among a sea of rocks hurtling in every direction, slowing only now and then to blast a rock to pieces.
Asteroids.
After that, much of what I remember of video arcades involves hanging around, leaning against other kids that didn’t have any quarters, either; all of us watching as someone blasted metoers into galactic rubble, hunted colorful dragons, or mounted an attack on magic aliens. Sure, I went on later to spend a fortune in paper-route and lawn-mowing money on Donkey Kong, Tempest, and Breakout. But those early days found me content to stand shoulder to shoulder, watching a foreign world being conquered.
Even that was entertaining enough to keep me coming back.
Having read about Second Life about two years ago, I have since known that I would eventually enter the grid. My first glimpse into the world of Second Life (SL) came in a video presentation of the Linden Lab creators speaking to the uberGeeks of Google. If you are already familiar with SL, and are curious about the technology behind it, I recommend this video, as written in an earlier post. The presentation, a Google TechTalk, was mostly Q&A. This worked well for the subject. The conversation allowed for anecdotes aplenty, fitting for this topic that spans a virtual world.Here, I will continue to explore SL content development.