Althouse: "Nintendo is, well, almost the most fun a kid can have."

April 16, 2009

"Nintendo is, well, almost the most fun a kid can have."

(Via Bloggingheads.)

24 comments:

Anonymous said...: Gee wiz, Mr. O'Reilly is really happy and stuff. Wow, neato. Never seem him that happy before.

4:08 - George Will creamed his pants.; 4/16/09, 9:22 AM
Zachary Sire said...: That may be the best video I've ever seen. The operators in the customer call center are incredible.; 4/16/09, 9:23 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "4:08 ..."

LOL; 4/16/09, 9:24 AM
BJK said...: It's easy to laugh at, but if memory serves, the Nintendo call center was a pay-per-call operation. (Never used it myself, not because I didn't need it, but because everyone my age I knew at the time was also a Nintendo gamer....so I had a different support system.)

For someone who grew up around video games, there's a ton of nostalgia for seeing all the old Nintendo advertisements and retail dressing. If I didn't know it was shot in NY, I'd swear it was taken at the electronics department of my local Kohls store (back when they actually had a TV/radio/video game - type electronics department).; 4/16/09, 9:33 AM
Unknown said...: Wow, what 20 years will do: improvements in video game graphics, changes in hairstyles (some mullet there) ...

But the most astonishing change is that a daily news (or news-like) program of any stripe spending nearly 5:00 on one segment! I kept moving ahead because the pace of that story was so slow.; 4/16/09, 9:36 AM
rhhardin said...: Video games have passed me by from the start.

I did have a nice guess-your-age program on the Kmart's demo Vic-20

I can guess your age.

Is it 0?
n
Is it 1?
n
Is it 2?
n
Is it 3?
CTRL/C [angry shopper aborts program]

READY

That and EIGENSMASH, which sadly was too big to type in. It zero'd the off diagonal elements of a real symmetric matrix with elaborate audio and video destruction effects.; 4/16/09, 9:41 AM
Superdad said...: Here is the best part. You can download these old games to you Nintendo Wii. To play them you just turn the Wii-mote sidways and you back to the old controler.

I ma so happy I have kids. I can just say that the Wii is for them and play away.; 4/16/09, 9:43 AM
hdhouse said...: bill without condescension, gourds and phonesex...wow that takes me back.; 4/16/09, 9:46 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Ah....the nostalgia. I've been a video gamer since Pong and Zork.

Nintendo was big at my house when it came out we HAD to have it. My daughter and her friends would play after school. I would play, too. OK I admit it. I bought the game system for myself.

Legend of Zelda FTW!! Donkey Kong. Paper Boy. Roger Rabbit. Frogger ....good times.

Graphics (and hairsytles) sure have come a long way. Now, I play high intensity games and on line games (MMORPGs) that require a designated computer with lots and lots of power, memory, graphics cards.

For the Horde!!; 4/16/09, 10:02 AM
The Dude said...: Someone ought to take you back - back to where you pay your taxes and learn English.

Please publish your name and SS number so we can report you to the IRS. It's the least a little cheat like you can do.; 4/16/09, 10:03 AM
john said...: Ron Leingang needed an anti-static mat.; 4/16/09, 10:09 AM
Anonymous said...: Man, the voice of that correspondent takes me back. That's Joel Loy of Rochester, NY and I grew up watching him on PM Magazine... just googled him and found out that he passed away from lung cancer in '97. RIP.; 4/16/09, 10:22 AM
TosaGuy said...: Wonder what happened to Ron Leingang?; 4/16/09, 10:36 AM
Anonymous said...: TETRIS!; 4/16/09, 10:41 AM
jayne_cobb said...: It should be remembered that the NES (or Famicom) was instrumental in saving the entire video game industry after ET helped kill it in the early 80's.

Man I loved that system. LOZ (in its golden glory), Super Mario Bros., Metroid, Duck hunt, tetris, World Class Track Meet (with the power pad), Contra, etc.

The only issue is that games would freeze and you had to remove the game and blow into the system tray.

Oh, and those tip lines were a complete rip-off; only chumps used them.; 4/16/09, 10:54 AM
Anonymous said...: TosaGuy said...Wonder what happened to Ron Leingang?But his hair lives on!; 4/16/09, 11:00 AM
save_the_rustbelt said...: Some of the games have been up-graded for now technology, so now I can play with the grandchildren.

My 5 year old grandson beats my butt for real on Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

And that is way fun...; 4/16/09, 12:41 PM
David said...: Yeah, except for Mary Alice Wilder.; 4/16/09, 12:50 PM
Jennifer said...: Like Superdad, we bought the Wii for the kids. Very thoughtfully, we also bought old school Super Mario Bros and Sonic for the kids.

I haven't checked in a while. If they have the original Tetris available for download now, I will so jump on that for those lucky kids.; 4/16/09, 1:44 PM
blake said...: I was watching The Fury last night, as I am wont to do, and noticed that during the happy-psychic-compound-fun montage, they were playing a Channel F.

That was the first system to come up with the cartridge concept. Before that, systems had a specific set of games on them. (The only other game I had, actually, was this awesome dedicated "Breakout" machine.)

But I gave it all up for computer games. Colossal Cave on the mainframe, Scott Adams and "Beneath Apple Manor" on the Apple ][--plus I could make my own, which was way more fun.; 4/16/09, 3:46 PM
An Edjamikated Redneck said...: Wat back when the NES system was new my Dad bought a system for my younger brothers for Christmas. He was working night hsift at the time, and would spend several hours a day practicing Super Mario. His goal was to be able to beat the boys on Christmas morning.

Imagine his suprise when as he finally beat the first level and entered the castle to find out the princess was in another castle.

He began his quest to beat level 2, but time beat him and Christmas morning came. At leaset he figured he could beat them on level 1.

Christmas morning he took player one and made it almost all the way to the castle. Proud of his accomplishment, he passed the turn to my youngest brother, player 2- he was about 5 at the time.

My Dad had no idea the secret boxes, coins, mushrooms, weapons or growth charms existed. I don't think he ever touched that machine again.; 4/16/09, 5:26 PM
John Stodder said...: Brings back memories of when my son and stepson were still little and when I could actually play electronic games without wondering what about half the buttons were for. Nice.; 4/16/09, 6:56 PM
kentuckyliz said...: I still have a Super Nintendo system with Dr Mario (falling pills) and Tetris as my fave game. I didn't really cotton to gaming.

My nieces and nephews have all the latest stuff, but when I visit, we break out the old stuff and have Dr Mario and Tetris competitions. Man, the kids are getting older. They can talk trash like an urban gangsta and they're white Iowa farm kids. LOL; 4/16/09, 8:07 PM
Xmas said...: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C1BSbq5aB0

Contains some naughty language...; 4/17/09, 9:51 AM