Actually, for me, it was more of a way of resolving all my childhood "wants". As a kid I certainly had everything I needed; a decent education in a good rural school system, food to eat, clothes to wear, and the occasional Cultural Experience, but like practically all families my parents didn't have money for all the expensive toys I ever wanted. When I was 6 or 7 my dad got us an Atari 2600 (he was something of a computer- and gaming-lover) and a few games. The cartriges were each over $40 at the time, and the system was at least $200. The thing of it was that along with the games came the manuals and then this other little book -- a CATALOG. I wanted all that stuff...the voice synthesis modules, the alternative controllers, the latest system versions, and all of those interesting-looking games; ALL OF IT. But it was pricey, and way to expensive for us to buy too much. And there was the intellivision, and the colecovision, and then the Vic 20 and the Apple and the Commodore 64, and all of them had games and games and games and peripherals and accessories to make them better and more powerful and more interesting. But they were expensive. Not that I was suffering for lack of them, but my covetous youthful eyes and hands longed for these wonderful, exciting, futuristic toys.

But NOW..

O, Fortuna!

I have a job, and I make decent money, and the stuff is so cheap! Hail the local thrift store, where those game cartriges are $.50 for three and a box with a system, thirty cartriges (all with manuals and some still in the original boxes), controllers, and other add-ons is less than $20. I have the opportunity today to play some of my favorite old games (Adventure, for the Atari, really brought back some memories), as do my friends. Everybody had a favorite gaming system..either you were an intellivision kid or an atari kid, or you were an apple kid or a commie kid. And they love hearing the sounds and seeing the characters, and bringing back the special tricks they had discovered when they were little.

I never believed I could have all that stuff, and maybe it's unhealthy to indulge myself in this fashion in some freudian way.. maybe unfulfilled childhood longing for the expensive toys is "good for you". I guess I'll find out..it's worked out pretty well so far.

Anyway, the issue of getting other back to that time in their lives is why I wanted to make the themecamp structured around outdated computer technology..so people can remember.

Kathleen M. Ellis -- tgkelli@tiger.towson.edu -- no home page no mo'
PGP Public Key Fingerprint -- Key = 2048 bits of crypto-anarchist glee!
1996/08/30 Kathleen Ellis
pub 2047/21853015 F8 D6 96 B2 C6 5A 08 15 43 BE 9E CF 18 8F 1B F0