For eight years now, Susan has been waiting on (at least) one kid hand and foot — and, since 2005, she’s been waiting on two. (Some would say three.) Whether it’s cooking or doing laundry or cleaning up buckets of puke (last night’s gift from Morgan), Susan spends the vast majority of her free time working for the kids. I thought this was pretty funny, until it started happening to me. My jobs are admittedly different than Susan’s. While Susan is folding clothes or putting away groceries, I do “dad” duties like wrestle, or find movies for the kids to… (read more)

Imagine for a moment that every time you bought a new computer, none of your old programs would run on it. This is the problem that Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony face each time they release a new generation of video game consoles. It’s hard enough for many people to justify spending anywhere from $300 to $600 on a new game console, but if you tell them that the new machine won’t play any of their old games they’re liable to walk away from the deal. That’s why “backwards compatibility” is such a selling point for consoles. For the record, backwards… (read more)

Mason’s officially on Christmas Break, which unfortunately just means he goes to daycare instead of going to school. He doesn’t mind; it’s like a mini-reunion up there with all his old daycare friends. One of his friends has been bringing their Nintendo Wii to daycare this week, and apparently Mason promised to bring Rock Band for everyone to play. When I was informed of his little plan last night, I said no way. I don’t need two dozen kids beating on our drums, breaking my guitars and dropping my microphone. Of course this caused Mason to completely melt down and… (read more)

While there certainly were first-person maze games that preceded it, Wolfenstein 3D will always be remembered as the game that introduced the “first person shooter” genre to the masses. Even though the game has been copied hundreds if not thousands of times, Wolfenstein laid the ground rules for the genre. Likewise, while musical rhythm games have existed in one fashion or another for some time (Guitar Freaks predates it), it was Guitar Hero that took plastic bongos and maracas out of players’ hands and handed them their first plastic six-string (albeit, without strings). While the Guitar Hero franchise turned a… (read more)

(This is a long entry that talks about videogames. You have been warned.) I started collecting Sega Genesis games back in 2003, shortly after stumbling across the Digital Press website and attending the first Oklahoma Videogame Expo. Those two events drug me into the world of what people refer to as “retrogaming.” By definition a retrogamer is a person who plays, enjoys and typically collects “old” games. There are two basic groups of retrogamers — those who discover old games and systems, and those who bought them when they were new and never let go of them. I’m definitely a… (read more)

This past weekend at Penn Square mall, Nintendo had a display of twenty Nintendo Wii kiosks demonstrating Wii Fit. For my non-gaming readers, Wii Fit is a pressure-sensitive accessory for the Nintendo Wii that looks a lot like a bathroom scale. While standing on it, gamers can shift their weight and control videogames. When I stand on it, it says things like, “get off me fatty.” Wii Fit comes with a variety of games that fall into four categories; Yoga, exercise, exercise games and balance games. The twenty Wii kiosks were being manned about twenty college cheerleaders, with the biggest… (read more)