Ode to the Old

I was a happy wee girl when I opened my Play Station One for Christmas. With it I got Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Gran Turismo and my favourite of all - Spyro: Year of the Dragon. I played it frequently and some of my boy mates from primary who were more experienced 'gamers' would laugh at me while playing. I assumed it was because my skills were not honed to win every time but really, it was because I would move sideways as I directed Spyro the little purple dragon where to go. Not only would I move with the controller direction without realising it, I would exhale every time I instructed Spyro to breath fire. This meant that every time Spyro was fending off his enemies I would wind up completely out of breath and completely exhausted. From my memory I remembered actually feeling dizzy after this part of the game (plus the guy who is narrating sounds really funny): Watch from 1.20 After last week’s lecture I realised I must have been very immersed in the video game and totally sucked in by its immediacy, even though I was controlling a little purple dragon through mystical fantasy worlds collecting dragon eggs... I became 'incorporated' (Gordon Calleja) with Spyro physically and emotionally. I was physically tired after a battle and when Spyro didn't win I felt an emotion to go with the result. This is intriguing in hindsight too as the graphics are certainly not very advanced and there were plenty of technical glitches, yet this didn't get in the way of my immersion in the game at all. Since then new Play Station models and consoles have been invented, each slightly better than the last. One of the technical developments was the addition of a gear stick on the controller. I didn't approve of this addition so continued with my four directional buttons until Play Station decided it would cause glitches in the game if you didn't use the gearstick like they intended. I have never been one to keep up with the latest technology (I still think the iPhone 3 is perfectly efficient) but I do have to admit that video games have come a long way. The Play Station 3 graphics are incredibly realistic and there are so many twists and options. Even the Wii is pretty amazing. The fact the character on the screen reacts to what the controllers actions are pretty amazing. Even with all this in consideration I still have to say, my favourite console was the Nintendo 64, even with the incredibly basic graphics. So much so that I hunted one down on Trade Me two years ago along with Mario Kart and set up weekly game nights with my friends. Ode to the traditional technology that allows you to stay completely immersed!