Jo Garcia: Evolution of Gaming

I'm all wrapped up in a whole history of games!

When we came up with the idea for this video, it just seemed to me that we’d found the perfect match. The last few decades of video gaming have been building up to a fever pitch. We’ve basically seen gaming go from a long slow burn into a cultural explosion—it's mainstream and everywhere now. I thought celebrating that with something sexy and authentic would be perfect. And it also makes me think about how I've grown up with gaming as such a big part of my life. It even got our team here so excited we combed the internet and vintage Playboy magazines on  iPlayboy and made a crazy gallery of old video game ads.

My personal gaming history

We’ve evolved to a new state of gaming with 3D graphics and motion controls, but the old games still rule. Take Frogger and Q-bert for example. I used to have them on the ColecoVision. I played that thing every day until my dad got Tank Wars. Then he played all day and would tell me I couldn’t play because the TV was too hot and he was afraid it would break or start on fire. We don’t worry about TVs overheating now; instead, we worry about red rings of death.

Recently I went back and decided to play some Frogger. I was blown away. The graphics are crude, but the game is hard and enthralling and challenging in a way that lots of today’s games aren’t. Not to say that the latest games aren’t good, but as gaming has evolved it’s allowed for the strong games to survive and thrive. Live Arcade, Virtual Console, smartphones, tablets, etc. are the latest devices for gaming. They excel at bringing old games to a new generation.

Portable gaming changed my life

Pokémon on the go on your Pokéwalker

As a kid the idea of portable gaming was insane. Dr. Mario on Game Boy rocked my world. It helped make car trips tolerable. I was obsessed with my Sega Game Gear. Everywhere I went, Game Gear went too. I used to play it while I was taking baths. I took it to school (slightly against the rules) and I still regret that. It ran out of batteries and I plugged it in behind the teacher’s desk. Someone stole it. The principal wouldn’t do a bag check to find it either because we weren’t supposed to have them at school. It wouldn't have been a problem now, in an era where folks like Ben Heck and the people at Project Gaems are making Xbox laptops and portable PS3 and 360 consoles that really take mobile gaming to crazy places.

The Dreamcast came along and I used to love the memory cards. You remember the Tamagotchi-like pets that you could play games with and care for on the cards? It was genius. When I couldn’t be playing Dreamcast, I had the memory card in my pocket and would play with that. I was at the Red Bull LAN this year and a diehard Halo player was taking a break to take care of his Pokémon on his PokéWalker. As gaming evolves it’s awesome to see great classic ideas rolled into new ones and to see hardcore gamers playing every type of game.

Cheaters prosper

I used to be big into the Game Genie. I had one for every system. Live forever, jump absurdly high, extra lives, glitch creation. I used to be the biggest cheater in the world. Think about it: Save states were a massive evolution that ruined the Game Genie. I used to use Game Genie to get back to a specific part of a game that I played and wanted to replay. Game Genie made it faster.

It’s a brave new world

Good virtual reality would be awesome, but we need sexier clothes than a blue jumpsuit!

Fast-forward past 64-bit gaming, rumbling controllers, online gaming, guitar and band games, and we’re now in an age of anything-goes gaming. When the Wii came out there was a learning curve. Not huge or painful, but you really had to sort of learn how to get the Wii Remote to interact properly. It’s gotten better, but Kinect is genius. You walk up and use it. When it came out last year, the Kinect blew me away. That’s the future and nothing touches that technology right now. There are some bugs in the Kinect and places to improve, but that’s the future. Dance Central is one of the coolest games in years.

Long-term, I hope the industry gets back into virtual reality gaming. I want them to find a way to make that cool. The old virtual reality games were clunky and cheesy, but there was promise. There are some companies out there like Vuzix taking some steps back towards virtual reality, but I want more. Take the Kinect and combine it with goggles and completely immerse me. Augment my reality!

The 3DS has hints of augmented reality gaming, but imagine walking around your house with monsters jumping out from behind walls of the living room. Taking cover behind your couch could be the next way to turn gaming into an athletic activity. I could even see the return of massive complexes or arcades that allow for playing games like Call of Duty in a massive Laser Tag type of set up. That would be incredible. I can't wait to see how gaming evolves from today.

Your turn

Let me know about the best moments in your personal gaming history and what you see in the future in the comments section below or on my Twitter feed @gamernextdoor.