The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Showing my age, I have to say that the last gaming console I owned was an Atari that I won in a raffle in 1983. I was tremendously excited, literally running all the way home to show my parents. I played and played, and loved to see those little coloured, square pixels move across the screen. But I was also incredibly disappointed when about six months later, Intellivision and Colecovision hit the market with much more upscale graphics that were made of much smaller blocks that actually looked like people. I was jealous of my friends and saw the plummeting value of my Atari. Since I've owned a computer, I've been playing all kinds of games, but now that my kids are six and eight, I thought about buying a gaming console. When the new Xbox 360 hit the market I looked into buying one of them but ultimately decided to wait for the new Playstation 3 that's supposed to be arriving this fall. In Best Buy over the last few weeks, I've learned from a sales associate that these gaming machines are going to hit the market at above $700! Granted, they will be very powerful, able to play CDs and DVDs, produce tremendous graphics, and able to play online as well, but I've decided that I won't be able to stomach paying this much for a game console. So instead, I bought two Nintendo DS Lites for my kids, and I have to say that I've been blown away by these little machines and what they can do. These little consoles are 13 centimetres by 7.5 centimetres and are only 2.5 centimeters thick. They have two small screens that are very bright and easy to use, with the bottom screen used in many games as a touch screen. What I've found most interesting in these little machines is that some of the games are very different from those available for computers. Some use the top screen and the bottom screen together to display a larger picture; others use the bottom screen as a touch screen to direct some of the action on the other screen. They also have a little microphone that one day I caught my eight-year-old blowing into. Amazed, I asked him what he was doing, only to have him tell me that one of the mini games he was playing required him to blow up balloons to survive. Definitely different kinds of games from those on my computer. These machines were released first in Japan and were an immediate hit, with one of the biggest being a game called Nintendogs. In this game, the player chooses and designs a dog, which they then have to look after as a virtual pet. Using the stylus on the touch screen, they have to pet the dog, feed him, and play with him by tossing a frisbee, etcetera. It was an instant hit and kids are still crazy about it. In the end, my kids have been very happy with these machines and my wife and I have been playing head-to-head against each other at night as well. With many of the newer games, these machines can log onto basically any Internet wireless network and play online against people anywhere in the world. Powerful for a small handheld device. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
