7.7.04

Everything Old is New Again.

I have to brag about some birthday gifts I received. Mrs. Austin was wise enough to listen to my obsession over cool T-shirts and purchased some Think Geek Loot. On top of my I Eat Glue, Wise Ass and Guinness shirts from Father's Day, I now have just enough cool shirts to get me through the week. It's unfortunate that I can't really wear them to work.

Travel back with me, if you will. The year was 1981. Sandra Day O'Conner was the first woman to be named to the Supreme Court. Ronald Regan was inaugurated as the 40th President of the US. Prince Charles announces his engagement to Lady Diana Spencer. And a man named Howard Scott Warshaw created the groundbreaking Atari game, Yar's Revenge. Apparently, Yar had been wronged somehow and his only recourse was to endless chip away at some kind of forcefield that held his focus for vengeance, all the while being pursued by a glowing cursor of death. But don't fret, Yar has a safe place, a happy place in the form of a thin band of TV snow.

Ah yes. The height of 8-bit technology. Yar's Revenge was released just short of the onslaught of Intellivision, Colecovision and it would be years yet before Nintendo would be a household name. Atari, along with creating classics like Combat and Space Invaders, was also notorious for adapting arcade classics like PacMan, Asteroids, and Centipede. But at the time, we couldn't get those 3x3 plastic cartridges into our homes fast enough. In fact, I may have a certain father type person who possibly still possesses an Atari 2600 with a fair amount of games. ebay here I come.

Knowing I'm a Child Freak of the 80's, Mrs. Austin again tops herself by surprising me with the 10-in-1 Classic Atari Game Controller. It was as near Nostalgic Bliss as I think any 30 something could probably get. Not only was my friend, partner, wife understanding of my addiction to all things 80's, she was a down right enabler.

It's a good thing she did, too. I have young minds to turn on to such classics as Breakout.












Oh, hey. Happy Belated Birthday, America. I know that we've disputed the claim to who found you, who established you, and who named you, but just because your mom and I got divorced, doesn't mean we don't love you. Anyway, I hope you had a happy 228th birthday.

To celebrate, the Austinistas and I headed down to Zilker Park for some symphonic and explosive festivities. Getting down there wasn't bad. Austin's Metro mass transit system was kind enough to provide shuttles from downtown to the park, for free. So the transportation was free, the concert was free, and the enjoyment was free. I guess they only thing we had to pay for was the 2 mile walk to get to the park from the drop off and the hour wait to load the shuttles going home. I hate to mar such a precious memory of family watching fireworks, but I tend to focus on things like carrying a tired 3 year old on my shoulders because she has a blister from walking so far.

I suppose it wasn't THAT bad, the rest of the evening was pleasant.

And now, on with the event photos.











2 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I like retrogaming, this is an activity for geek like me.