Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:23:45 -0700 To: brownde@cs.unc.edu From: "Tony J. Case, Super Genius" Subject: Hi! A Story for you and your web page: A long, long time ago- about 1978 or so, I got my first Atari 2600. At the inital release price of 250 dollars, getting one more or less by myself on my 8 year old's allowance was a real hardship (considering that I had my other vice to deal with: Star Wars toys), but I managed to save every penny- and oh it was glorious! I was the first one on the block to have one- I was king, I was The Man. Thats why I think I never lost the faith. Because I earned every game I bought with blood, I never got rid of them. Yes, there was the brief period after The Crash where I went on to bigger (yet not better) game systems- Intellivision, the C=64, a NES, the Amiga- but always keeping the old Atari around. Flash foward to life in collage. I met a tech geek who was just into the classic video game systems as much as I was- and resparked the smoldering intrest that was there all along. Next week I had my mother send down my Atari and it's 75 games. I set it up in my Dorm, and once again I was The Man. Everyone loved playing it, and some people even brought out Intellivisions and the like. We were the Classic Video Game people on the Evergreen State Campus. So- onto the crux of the story. Here we are, a year later. In that time, my collection has gone from 75 games to a WHOPPING 400+ games. I was oh so proud of my achievment. About this time, one of the students across the hall had her son move in with her. He caught wind of the games in short order and invited himself over to play (tho under close supervision- like hell was some kid going to break my system behind my back!) He layed eyes upon the marvlous stack of games, neatly arranged in Top Ramen boxes. He selected a game (forcing my heart to jump a beat as he tried to force the game in upside down!) played for a bit, and then announced loudly: "Is that it? These are all the games you have?" I could have killed- no court in the land would convict me! Was that it! It indeed! The cream of the 70's and 80's and this Nintendo-Zombie could only ask if thats all I had!?! Needless to say, he was not welcome in our dorm anymore. (Post-script: As I was about to give up on the Nintendo Zombie generation of players, I had a turn of heart. I was in a very cool used game store checking out playstation titles, when these two kids- who couldnt be more than 8 or 9, came in and bought the Breakout the owner had. Ok, so maybe not the WHOLE generation was a write off. :) -Tony tonyc@isomedia.com ***************************************************************** * Lines from Star Wars with key words replaced with 'pants': * * * * "You look strong enough to pull the pants off a Gundark." * * * * "General, prepare your pants for a ground assault." * * * * "That blast came from those pants. That thing's operational!" * * * * "I find your lack of pants disturbing." * ***************************************************************** Check out my Star Wars Page- http://www.isomedia.com/homes/tonyc/swstart.htm