The evolution of computers as entertainment from a 30 something's perspective

When I was a small child video games were just coming onto the scene.

The first arcade game I remember was around 1976. It was an old west shoot out with a couple of crudely animated cowboys shooting at each other while dodging behind covered wagons.

If your guy got shot he would grab his crotch and exclaim " arrrg you got me pardner!"

Pretty lame, but for that time period that video game may as well been powered by magic and mystical forces. At that time computers were these big things people saw in the movies with spinning tapes, flashing lights and men in white lab coats milling around with clip boards looking important.

In 1976 25 cents was a lot of money to a kid, heck a quarter could buy you a large ice cream or a packet of green army men. Spending a quarter on a video game that lasted maybe 30 seconds was not a wise way for a kid to spend his dollar a week allowance.

There must have been plenty of people out there with quarters to spare because before you knew it arcades were popping up everywhere. Some of my early favorites were Star castle, Vanguard, Battle Zone, and of course the ubiquitous Pac Man.

In the early 80's even the stupidest games made millions. One example that comes to mind was Space Ace. This game utilized the then new Laser Disk technology. Why was this game stupid?

Space Ace was a decision and scenario based game where a short cartoon of your situation would be shown and then you would move the joystick up down left or right to choose what action you were going to take. No skill or dexterity was involved. If you made the correct choice it showed you the next scene, if you made the wrong choice it would show you getting eaten and ask for another quarter. I guess the game was popular because it showed high quality cartoon images (even though you couldn't move them) rather than the boxy pixelated graphics we were accustomed to.

For Christmas 1977 we got this JC Penny TV pong game. It was really frigging awesome to be able to play pong and breakout for free in the privacy of your living room. ..even if it was in black and white.

In 1982 my Grandmother bought me the Atari 2600 game console. I was beside myself. At that point in time an Atari was every kid's dream. Every spare dime I had went into buying games for that thing. Life was good.

I met a friend in the seventh grade whose parents were computer programmers for a research institute. They had a direct link to the laboratory from the computer room in their house.

This was my first exposure to a home computer. They had a TRS 80 and Atari 800. There was a printer set up with the lab mainframe where we could play text based games like Zork. This also was my first exposure to a BBS where you could chat with people all over the world, or play simple text based games with a 300 baud modem.

I really didn't get to use a computer again until college. It was nice to be able to throw away the typewriter and correction fluid. My job also required me to do data entry. That is when I got to see a for real 386 processor PC with a VGA screen which cost about $4000 in Christmas 1989. Back then it was amazing to see any kind of clear picture on a computer monitor, previous to this everything was 8 or 16 colors and looked like a crap.

When I got promoted in 1991 I got my own office with a brand new dell desktop PC. I would stay after work and play games, and learn everything about, networking, dos, windows etc.. those were great times.

I quit my job and used my last paycheck to buy myself a IBM 486 /33 around May of 1994. The Internet wasn't the shit yet and people still used the dial up Bulletin boards for Email, downloading and message groups. The biggest plus to having a new home computer at this time was the 3d video games available like Doom, Duke Nukem, Catacomb Abyss, Quake etc...

By summer of 95 I had a job working in an MIS department learning how to build and repair PCs, plus run a large network and telephone system. I finally had access to the Internet as well. At that point in time I noticed the world begin to change and start becoming the online point and click community like we are today.

Around 1997 I started building computers and doing home setups for folks as a favor and it soon turned into a full time business for me. This may sound silly but I attribute my success as an entrepreneur to computer porn.

Everybody wanted it. I must have set up 7 to 10 computers per week. If someone broke their PC and couldn't get to their porn they would pay any amount of money for me to go out to their house to fix it.

The last ten years haven't seen much innovation as far as I can tell. Graphics are a little better, machines a little faster and buying things is easier. Other than minor technical improvements everything else is pretty much the same from the consumers point of view.

It's taken over 20 years but the home PC has become an major component in our entertainment and leisure, education and the way we communicate. I would venture to say that most people would give up their TV before they would part with their computer.