Young people might find it impossible to fathom, but there really was life before electronics.
Contrary to my own kids' belief, I'm not quite old enough to remember it. I am advanced enough in years, however, to clearly recall how easy it once was to amuse one's self without benefit of computerized or video games.
Forty years ago, going high tech meant plugging the fabled electric football into an outlet, then watching all your pregame planning fly out the window because your ball carrier suddenly vibrated his way into a different direction and began heading toward the wrong end zone.
When I did a column on the legendary sports game known as "Strat-O-Matic" in early December, I received a few responses from folks who had experienced a different sort of '60s flashback after reading it. One Valparaiso man, in fact, even detailed the Strat-O-Matic league he and his neighborhood buddies formed back in the day, sort of a forerunner to today's fantasy baseball craze.
That got me to thinking about other classic games of yesteryear, almost all of which required nothing more than a board and either dice, a spinner or some sort of playing cards to enjoy. Oh yes, there was also one other essential ingredient: imagination.
Sadly, that's too often missing from current offerings. That isn't to say they're not impressive -- some of those PlayStation and Xbox games are amazingly realistic in their depiction of specific people and places -- but the games do everything except flip the "on" switch.
What fun is that to have a machine, evenly a highly sophisticated one, do all the work? The archaic nature of older games forced individuals to dream up some of their own situations, which only enhanced our attachment to them.
Am I being overly sentimental here? Perhaps, but I suspect the youth of 2010 won't reminisce much about Madden Football when 2040 rolls around.
During a housecleaning binge many years ago, I foolishly purged myself of most of my sports games, choosing to pass them along to a younger neighbor. Little did I realize that, a decade or so later, I'd encounter a brother-in-law who was also a little reluctant to leave that game-playing portion of his adolescence completely behind -- and unlike me, had been shrewd enough to keep some of his favorites.
Included among my giveaway items was a game by the Cadaco-Ellis Co. Called "All-Star Baseball," it featured player disks that were numbered 1-14, with each figure representing a certain type of play (strikeout, walk, groundout, etc.)
An interesting facet of the game was that it was all about batting. So even though pitcher disks were included, there were no pitching stats on them -- and, in the case of guys like 1970s White Sox stalwart Wilbur Wood, there weren't any hitting stats, either, at least none that wasn't laughter-provoking.
All-Star Baseball, like the era itself in many ways, was simpler. And, in retrospect, that wasn't so bad.
While today's kids seemingly need to find something newer and flashier every month to hold their interest, we never got bored with the boards.
This column is solely the writer's opinion. Reach him at kenneth.karrson@nwi.com.
