Have You Played Atari Today?

For his 9th birthday, Zach is having a sleepover with four of his friends from the neighborhood. We did the usual birthday party stuff earlier in the evening: we had the organized games, the singing of Happy Birthday, the cake and ice cream, and the opening of the gifts. We figured that as the night went on, they would probably end up spending a good amount of time on multiplayer videogames for the Wii.

But so far tonight, the big winner has been the old Atari 2600, which we dusted off and set up the other night. It has kept them entertained for over three hours so far.

Apparently, Guitar Hero and Super Smash Brothers are no substitute for 25-year-old classics like Ms. Pac-Man, Combat, Megamania, and Outlaw.

In A Galaxy Far, Far Away...

Last night, Linda, the kids and I joined a bunch of the kids' cousins at the Star Wars exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

The exhibit included props and costumes from the Star Wars movies, as well as interactive stations which demonstrated R2 D2-like robotics, vehicles which use magnetic levitation, the planning and construction of Curasant-like cities, and other advances similar to the futuristic technologies depicted in the Star Wars universe.

Zach's favorite station featured a computer game which was played by placing special cards on a rotating table. Each tile represented a building -- things like power generation stations, or farming machinery, or a shelter. A camara pointed at the table, and rendered the buildings on the monitor, creating a virtual spaceport, or moisture farm community, or Jawa settlement. During the course of the game, the player had to re-align the buildings to maintain the optimal balance between various production, security, and social factors. Very cool game.

Phoebe liked riding the "Air-chair", which floated on a cushion of air (not unlike Luke Skywalker's landspeeder.)

And Ben's highlight was undoubtedly when we bought him a souvenier light saber on the way out of the building.

I was somewhat disappointed by the lack of a Princess Amadala exhibit, which (naturally) would have involved Natalie Portman look-alikes.

School of Rock

The kids and I spent the evening yesterday playing the outstanding Guitar Hero III for the Wii. (Guitar Hero is a series of music-based video games where the player pushes buttons on a guitar-shaped controller to play along with the on-screen band.)

Zach has picked it up pretty quickly, and is working his way through all of the songs on the beginner setting. Phoebe is still working on her timing, but she's got the makings of a future rock star.

Ben mostly just likes to hold the guitar controller. And when he's not asking for his turn, he likes dancing around the room to the music while the rest of us are rocking the house.

Wii Envy

One of Zach's good friends from the neighborhood recently got a Nintendo Wii. In response, Zach has launched into a full-fledged campaign to get one of his own. His longing for the shiny new toy is palpable. (Understandably so -- I haven't played with one yet, but they look really, really cool.)

Now, it has been our unofficial family policy to not buy the newest and latest videogame systems as they come out, but rather to stay about 2-3 years behind the cutting edge, waiting for prices to drop significantly before upgrading to a new videogame system.

But this time, it might just be unavoidable. The holidays (and Zach's birthday) are coming up, the extended family is looking for gift suggestions for the kids, and Linda likes the idea of video games that involve the kids being up and moving around rather then just sitting still.

I won't put up much of a fight, either. Video games are a guilty pleasure of mine, and have I mentioned that the Wii looks really, really cool?

Anyone in the market for a well-used GameCube?