Digital Games : Now and Then , and what's next

I still remember my first digital game. It was back in 1981 where I first got the Nintendo Game and Watch. The first set was the Parachute Games followed by the Octopus. Our family stayed in Johor Bahru and my parents bought it in Singapore. It was a family games. Even my mother played the games. But most of the time concured by me and my elder brother. 2 years after that we moved to Kedah. Nintendo Game and Watch was still the market leader until the released of new digital games like the CASIO Western Bar and the Kung Fu Games. It has much better sound compared to the Nintendo Game and Watch. I can still imagine the sound until today. That killing sound distracted almost every single kids to put it in their wish list.I was hoping to get one too but I guess my father refused to buy one because my sister just bought me a computer game called Vectrex. It was like a small TV with joystick. Better sound system and required cartridges to change from one game to another. It has no color but with colored plastic filter for every single game. Not bad for video games in the early 80's. My sister was so generous to purchase another video game called the Tomy Alien Chase. Its smaller but has good sound too. The only thing was , it has only same game. Capturing the alien and place them into the cage. Pretty boring but better something than nothing. I can still remember the sound of that game until today. Probably video games sound have been embedded in my brain, and it is hard to get rid of them.

Being a teenagers during the boost of electronic games has really caused headaches to parents.The video games arcade has been my second home after school. Video arcade emerged so rapidly in our town. The famous games during the time were the 1942, Raiden, Street Fighters and those car racing games. On contrary, my parents were not so conservative about it. Probably they knew that stopping kids from going to video games equals stopping giving food to them. There is always a limit in liking something. Its how you discipline yourself or your kids to be liking it efficiently and positively. This is way to subjective to be discussed.

That was 25 years ago. Kids nowadays are facing a bigger cyber world madness with games that can link to almost every parts of the world. My kids who are 5 and 6 are yet to join the bandwagon. But in 3 to 5 years time I guess they will too. Their first digital game was the Game Boy SP. It was the only game that last long in their posessions. It's durable too. I would rather invest those kind of games rather than Barbie Dolls or Ben 10 Omnitrix which only last few days before they landed everywhere on the floor. Something that ignite mumbling manuscripts from my wife. My wife, on the other hand also enjoys the digital game. But she only likes Tetris or puzzle kind of games. That motivated me to get another digital game which is the Sony PSP. Now almost everyday PSP becomes the soulmate of our family members. My daughter loves the puzzle games just like her mother. My son loves the action Games like Ultraman, Transformers , Ben 10 and car racing games. My favourites are the Soccer game and the RPG : Star Wars : Force Unleashed.

On the other perspective, Cyber Cafe business is also doing good even in a small time where I live. If 25 years ago parents having problems to find their kids in video arcades , now I can see parents having headaches to find their kids in cyber cafes. A friend of mine approached recently on acquiring a cyber cafe for business. It was a good proposals though I dont really feel like doing it at the moment. Though you like something, doesnt mean you like to manage that something. Probably it is a sunset business as it has been there more than 10 years already. What's next ? Anyone can guess ?