E-Adventures past and present

DaVinci is super fun to hang out with. She is wicked smart, has a great sense of humor, and can walk a good distance without complaining. One of the things we are having a great time with right now is a videogame called SimAgents on the Wii. It is a fun game with a good mix of puzzles, mini games, funny dialogue, and cute costumes. She controls the main controller, and I use the nunchuck for moving the character around. It is so much fun to spend time with her playing a game so cooperatively with her.

One of the best parts about it is that it takes me straight back to the mid 80's, playing games with my dad. We had a Tandy Computer, which at the time was very fancy. On floppy disk we got the game King's Quest (and its sequels). The game was so much fun, for many of the same reasons I like SimAgents. I clearly remember my dad laying on the floor next to the computer desk, head propped up on pillows. I was in the office chair, controlling the game. Each time you left one screen for the next (using, of course, the arrow keys... at this point there was no mouse) you had to wait about 2 minutes for the next screen to load. This was time for my dad and I to hang out. I never remember talking as much with my dad as I do during those games. We drew maps of the land to help us get around (with two minute per screen loads, you did NOT want to get lost) and only sometimes had to use the hint book - which came with a yellow marker that would make the hidden hints visible.

So many people have a gut reaction to video games, and say that they are only bad. I understand that unchecked kids can make bad decisions (as they can about almost anything). But the experience and memories I have of time spent with my dad in front of the computer, and the good times I am now sharing with my daughter are only enriching our lives. The game is one of many many things I do with my daughter, just as Kings Quest was only one of the many things I did with my dad, but it is without a doubt, a good thing.