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Video Wars and Real Wars


Children's patterns of play are continued within the behaviour
of adults. There is no doubt that the "the child is father to the
man."
 
In the early 1980s, the most popular indoor toy was the the
video game, and before that, the mechanical pinball machine
of the previous generation.

The pervasive theme of home video games was aggressive
combat with an unrepentantly hostile alien entity.

Sensitive manual skills and acute strategy were necessary
to defeat the enemy before it 'got' you. Hand controllers,
joysticks, and knobs gave precise control of the action,
which was depicted in high-quality colour visuals and exciting,
varied sounds. Most games offered adjustable difficulty
levels, to avoid either frustration or boredom at the extremes
of skill.
 
As the children who played video games in the 1980s have
grown up, they have transferred their toy preferences to adult
electronic equipment. Features of 1980's video games are now
standard on the computers of the 1990s; including colour,
the mouse, icon-style graphics, and sound effects.

 

© 1993- 1995 Alexander Manu ©1995 Danish Design Centre "ToolToys - Tools with an Element of Play "
The author grants permission to make a digital or hard copy of part or all of this work for personal use provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit. The copyright notice and the title of the publication must appear on all printed copies.