I was going through some old files and I found this video from a long time ago…
There is so much to talk about here I could go on for hours. A lot of it has to do with my fondness for Commodore computers. (My first computer was a Commodore-64; my second one was a Commodore-128. The first computer I ever touched was a Timex Sinclair, btw.)
But my real point has to do with where we have gone with computer education in the United States.
When I was a kid, every single adult I knew told me that there was no future in video games, you’d never be able to make a living playing video games, you’re wasting your time playing video games. This was a popular comic at the time:
Look at the date on that. Look at it.
It’s 2005…
…2005…
…12 years ago.
When that comic came out in the early 1980s, 2005 was in the distant future. Now, it’s in the distant past. What the hell?
You probably understand why looking at it, I feel a little bit like this:
Or this:
Because the fact is that you can now make a living working with video games, either playing them, designing them, or selling them. (I know a kid who made $6,000 his junior year in high school selling used video games on eBay. He quit when he had too much homework to do.)
Back to the William Shatner video…
He has a great line in it…
Unlike games, it has a real computer keyboard.
Later…
With a Commodore Vic-20, the whole family can learn computing at home.
The point he is making on behalf of the Commodore corporation is that look, video games may be fun, but computers are here to stay, and it’s all about “computing” skills, not just playing games. Our future is in computing.
But then at the end, he gives in…
Coming soon, Commodore brings you Gorf, the wonder arcade game, and Omega Racing, Home Version.
The graphics on those games are primitive at best, and if you’ve never played anything below a PlayStation 2, you have every right to regard them as primitive. But they required a level of imagination that young gamers simply don’t have today. If it’s not right there in front of them in all its 1080p 3d glory, they not only don’t see it, they can’t see it. They lack that skill.
But this is not about the resolution of video games. Rather, this is about how we regard technology.
It’s all too easy for us to miss the mark just because we don’t like something or don’t understand it. And because our parents thought games were silly distractions, they underestimated how much of an economic powerhouse they would become. Don’t dismiss a technology just because you don’t like it or don’t understand it. Play around with it, try to understand it, try to see what purpose it is meant to serve. Only then can you dismiss it.
https://techblog.kjodle.net/2018/08/18/where-we-went-wrong/
