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Archive for May, 2009

If you were born in the 70’s or early 80’s, you probably remember how exciting it was when Pong came out. It was a dot that went from one side of the screen to the other. The most rudimentary of computer graphics, but it was perhaps the coolest thing in the history of the world at that time. I remember wanting an Atari so bad I could hardly stand it. Donkey Kong, Frogger, and Pac Man it was all so amazing. With every new game we were more and more astonished at how awesome this invention was.

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any better, along came Nintendo. The world had never seemed happier or better than it did in that moment. I played Super Mario Bros. for thousands of hours. I had the arrows from the direction keys pressed into my thumbs for days. Conquering that game seemed impossible. The thrill of victory when I did manage to get through all the levels and save the princess was amazing! Even to this day, I have an old school Nintendo and my kids think I am a video game rock star because I can beat Super Mario.

Throughout the past 20 years or so, there have been many gaming systems come and go. All of them leading up to the next one with new features and better graphics and even Blue Ray capabilities, the competition between Sony , Nintendo and Microsoft has led to gaming systems that are technological feats and usually quite reasonably priced.

In 2001 Microsoft introduced the Xbox. This was in direct competition with Nintendo’s Gamecube that came out that same year. The Xbox blew the game cube away. The Xbox exceeded Gamecube in RAM, MHz and Memory Bus Bandwidth. In addition to these features, the Gamecube seemed to be more geared to younger gamers. The controls and the cosmetic look of the system itself seemed to suit an elementary school child more so than a teenager.

Also, the games for the Gamecube did not fit into the same genre of games that Xbox provides. While Gamecube had the good old fashioned games like Donkey Kong. Xbox had Halo. Let’s face it; teenage boys would rather shoot guns that be a monkey throwing barrels. Teenagers drive the market for video games. This could be on of the reasons that Xbox has still flourished almost 9 years after it’s release.

How many of us have ever heard our mother’s telling us that the TV will rot our brains?
Remember the first time you ever stayed up until the sunrise playing video games? Mom had a few choice words to say about that as well.

While it truly is not a good practice to stay up all night playing Halo 3 or staying up all night for any reason really. Video games have come a long way in providing not just entertainment but also educational games as well. You can find games for pre-school aged children all the way up to games to sharpen adult’s minds as well.

X-Box 360 offers many types of games that are educational for the young and old alike.
You can find everything from puzzle games like Bejeweled or even Tetris like games that require quick thinking and movement of shapes that sharpen decisions and reflexes to trivia games that test your knowledge of different subjects. You can play different versions of Scene It, the game that tests your movie and TV knowledge or you can play Are You Smarter that a 5th Grader. I guarantee you; you will walk away from that one feeling like you should maybe start school all over again.

There is even a game called Brain Challenge. This game offers a wide variety of activities that boost brain activity and develops stress management skills.
Even some of the strategy games that are available are useful. While at first glance they may seem like just another game to conquer, they are actually very good at helping to sharpen the mind to think ahead and plan strategically in situations to get to the end result. Like playing chess, you must always think 2 moves ahead and have a specific objective.

So, while not all games are considered educational. There are some that are out there to be more than just mere entertainment. So, rather than rotting your brain they may actually improve upon it.