24 hour Breakout fever

By Christian Price, News9.com INsite Team

I just came back from my days off and I couldn't be happier.

I bought my son a game that just has joy stick and it plays 10 of the old Atari games like Asteroids.

My son was blown away by the archaic graphics of the games and couldn't get over the overall simplicity.

Once my boy passed out asleep, I decided to revisit my days of yesteryear by playing a couple of the games just to see if I still found them entertaining.

I started out with one of my all time favorites, Yar's Revenge. I started kind of slow, but within a matter of moments, my fingers found their proper place on the controller. It was just like the old days. I was unstoppable. I stopped after I realized that I had been playing for a couple of hours.

Then, while I was putting up the game system, my dark side talked me into "just one more game."

I turned the system on and went to play a game that I enjoyed and loathed at the same time. Atari's Breakout was an easy game to learn, but agonizingly hard to play.

I started out slow, but just like with Yar's Revenge, I quickly came into my own comfort zone. I found myself missing easy plays and saying constantly to myself, "Just one more."

At one point, I actually broke through the rainbow colored barrier, and my ball bounced on top of the barrier, chipping away at it with every hit. Unfortunately, within a matter of moments of being topside, I messed up and missed a ricochet shot that would have kept me alive. "Who cares?" I thought to myself. "I'll just play one more time."

As soon as I pressed the start button, my wife and son came into the room. My wife asked if I had been up all night, which I replied "yes." I then tried to get her to understand my addiction to the game by having her play it once. She wasn't impressed.

 My boy, however, screamed out how it was his turn to play, so I let him play as I found some cereal to eat.

Before I knew it, the day was over and my boy and I were still in our pajama's eating cereal playing Breakout. I didn't get any of my honey do's done, and my wife wasn't too happy about me wasting away the day.

On the other hand, I hung out with my boy playing games from my past. I don't get many of these kinds of days. I know my boy appreciated it, and I actually enjoyed my day off more than regularly.

If you get a chance, share something of your past with your children. You might lose track of your day creating memories you and your children will treasure for the rest of your lives.