A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed. Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of my existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine how handheld gaming made an entire generation people of preparedness.
Always Be Prepared
For a young gamer during the days of neon-tinted colors adorning every piece of wardrobe a kid could wear, surfer language turning into common vernacular, and the best drinks coming with a straw to puncture and drank from a pouch-like container, the 1990s felt like the greatest time to grow up. Thanks to technological advancements seen throughout various entertainment mediums with its creators still respecting the past that laid the foundation for what was to come, consumers were gifted the abilities to test the boundaries of what once seemed impossible. But not everything was perfect for those on the cutting edge of technology back in the day, especially gamers. Many gamers both old & young were first introduced to their new favorite hobby courtesy of a box connected to a screen – that box being a console or a computer (or even both). In the 1990s another medium for gamers arose and gained popularity: handheld gaming. Unfortunately the limitations of then-modern day technology and game designers trying to make money via cartridges the size of graham crackers created a situation where the players themselves would forever be spending cash to continue gaming on the go, or be left listening to their parents talk about annoying people you’ll never meet in an extended car ride because back in the ‘90s our parents’ cars didn’t have televisions and DVD players!
Nintendo released its original iteration of the revolutionary Gameboy handheld system in the late 1980s, but it wasn’t until the decade when Billy Corgan could introduce himself smiling politely that the handheld console hit its stride thanks to a fantastic software offering outdoing a lot of the stuff released on the NES during the console’s last days. Sadly for a lot of gamers, completing those Gameboy games took more cash than it did effort due to the handheld only powering on when four AA batteries were plugged into the console’s backside. For yours truly, my first handheld was actually a Sega Game Gear and Sega’s handheld offering was actually more of a wallet killer than Nintendo’s console as the Game Gear used six AA batteries – causing me to invest in an official Sega Game Gear rechargeable battery pack to avoid continuously buying an 18-pack of Rayovac of batteries from Wal-Mart for five bucks every couple of weeks. In truth, the arduous task of replacing batteries to keep my gaming momentum going also opened my eyes to the fact being prepared is the only way to live. In truth there are some things in life you can’t be prepared for, but for other moments – like that midday power outage in the middle of summer that leaves you with nothing to do to keep you from thinking about how unbearably hot it is until you forget about all of your problems while trying to beat your personal high score in “Tetris” – preparedness can mean the difference between being told by life itself that, “A winner is you!” or, “Welcome to die!” (okay maybe not in that morbid tone, but how could you not quote that always-prepared “Master of Magnetism” to make a valid point – it works in video games and in real life)
Have you learned any major life lessons from playing video games on the go; be it Gameboys or on your phone? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.
