Sunday, September 3, 2017

Etch-a-Sketch ... Because It Was Magic from the Future


Zen Yogi:  did you have one of these, Silas?

Yep but I sucked with it.  The dials on each side move the non-cursor around the screen to draw and it was so difficult to make a straight line only the gods could do it.

Zen Yogi:  is this just an excuse because you sucked at it, Silas?

Nah since I doubt anyone would be all that impressed by the alternative with, wow, I was so killer with an Etch-a-Sketch at one time.  The toy was passed around between the sibs but I don't think anyone got all that good at it.  Even so, there was a tiny number of Etchers somewhere who could do incredible things with them.


Zen Yogi:  why should anyone care about an Etch-a-Sketch?

These things were boffo with a whole lot of kids, maybe even millions.

Zen Yogi:  even though they're almost impossible to use?

That seemed part of the intrigue but there was magic as well since a kid only had to shake it to erase the screen and start over.  For a kid who has spent his or her life with yellow Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils and sheets of paper, that's magic.


The magic didn't last, tho.  Atari came out with their PONG game in 1972 and the game was as dumb as chess with the dodgeball team.

Zen Yogi:  so that made it a big hit?

It sure did, Yogi, and the brainiacs in my family ate it up.

Zen Yogi:  did that include your lofty, pseudo-intellectual self?

Oh sure.


The Etch-a-Sketch represented evolution in action since, to some extent, it was the harbinger of PONG which was the start of the Video Game Seventies.  Life as everyone knew it ended with Reagan in 1980 so Etch-a-Sketch became an all the more important part of history.  After it came, the video games arrived, and nothing came after that except selfies and bad music.

Zen Yogi:  do you play any video games today, Silas?

Only if Mahjongg counts.

Zen Yogi:  why do you do it?

The game is mind bleach since whatever I may have been thinking gets poofed for the damn tiles.

Zen Yogi:  so it takes some thinking to play it?

Nah, it's just detailed and I've never seen any evidence that winning or losing in a solo game is anything more than dumb luck.

Zen Yogi:  so it really is mind bleach

Yep and there you have the evolution in action since video games were mind bleach with PONG in 1972 and forty-five years have revealed them evolving to ... more mind bleach.

Zen Yogi:  and it's all because of Etch-a-Sketch?

Well, I just showed you the steps.  You tell me, Yogi.

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