New-Age Video Games
New-Age Video Games
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco [Video Troll]
Published in: The Manila Times, January 18, 1988
A WELL-KNOWN educator who stops by for dinner every now and then likes to chew me out for the amount of video viewing I allow my four kids. Television is a passive form of entertainment, he insists, while reading a book or playing an old-fashioned board-game requires effort, discipline and commitment.
I'd like to know what he has to say about our brand-new NINTENDO "Family Computer," a tidy little game-machine if there is one. Japanese technology mass-produced for the working-class-world-market by the "Game & Watch" people, this TV-compatible device retails locally for about P2,000 in better appliance stores. And the television entertainment it delivers is far from "passive!"
Naturally, we've put our old ATARI out to pasture.
The new NINTENDO machines offer you direct access to many, many game-cartridges, all of them available locally for as little as P190 for shorter games. Some stores in Manila offer "trial periods" in which to return or trade-in cartridges you no longer fancy. And the games themselves range from "Mahjong" to Formula One racing and beyond space.
The unit we have is made in Japan (imitations from Taiwan abound, not all of them bad) and comes accessorized with a built-in microphone for audio-triggered games. A pair of tiny joysticks is piped into the machine, and are all the controls you will ever need.
Many enterprising Betamax rental-outlets have already converted their storefronts into "mini video arcades," hiring out a row of these NINTENDOs for P35 an hour. Children wait in line for their turn, and the video shops are raking it in. (What's the VAT on that?)
Renting games for overnight use will soon be possible, I am told, with the recent introduction of a compatible disc-drive for the NINTENDO. Games can be transferred from the original cartridges to any number of standard floppy-diskettes, and may then be rented out like video cassettes. Even now you can have games copied onto your own discs for about P30 a game.
Video Troll gives its seal of approval to the NINTENDO "Family Computer." You can't beat the Japs at anything anymore.
Sayonara, ATARI and Mattel! (Next week, a list of the best games for your NINTENDO. Also, a new live-action game-machine from the American inventors of "Teddy Ruxpin.")
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “New-Age Video Games” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, January 18, 1988
