Is it sad that I used to find it hysterically funny how the tanks spun around when they were shot? Probably more consistently funny than Fawlty Towers or The Young Ones, anyway.
Sorry, that was irrelevant to the the point. However, as someone nearly approaching 40, I'd like to point out that I don't resent the younger generation. I just hate them.
The only consolation is that they have spots and self-doubt. I just have self-doubt.
haha! i have been on both sides of this conversation with my parents and with my own children.. i get the same looks now that i gave my parents back when.. love this strip.. love your work.. thanks for what you do, Scott!
I would have at least used the "jazz hands" on him. Again. Pity you didn't scare him off for good the last time he came trick-or-treating and you filled him up with...what was it, Mr. Pibb?
On the other hand I used to do things that would be quite impossible to do for a today's kid ... of course, all very dangerous, and from a parents perspective, quite stupid. But somehow, those are the best remembered and dear memories.
I sometimes wonder, if I had known in the 80s how incredibly superior video games would become in the late 90s (beginning with the advent of Half-Life and Starcraft), and how lame in retrospect the 80s games would seem to my future self, would I have still wasted so much time playing the old games?
VIDEOGAMES? In my day, we didn't have any blocky vee-dee-oh, we had to make do with text and our imagination (here's a couple of fine examples here [ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/pc/adv_crowther_win.zip] and here[ http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html]). To actually have to think and use our brain for entertainment, you numbskulls never had it so good today.
Excellent strip. I got to be respectful of elders, that seems to be gone now too. And "we" did that for them too. :) What about tv's? We had to tune em using a rotating knob, where you had to wind it out 500 times, between each channel. Took forever.
Rotary phones. My parents still have one. It took forever just to dial a number. Also, if the other person did not hang up you just had to wait until they did. I used to call my friends and just leave the phone off the hook. They could not make or get calls until I hung up.
Some of the older ones are being remade, like Bionic Commando. Why? Because they kicked much ass. I was telling my students about it the other day. To beat the game you had to fall 50+ levels and shoot HITLER IN THE FACE! WHILE HE WAS FLYING A HELICOPTER! If you missed, you lost. Also, you had to choose your weapon correctly at the start of the level, or you were screwed. Finally, if you died you had to do the entire level over again.
How I do miss our sewer pipes with lead based paint. Where'd you grow up Scott> I thought we were the only lucky chumps that got to hurt ourselves on those things in the name of good clean fun.
we had to get UP OFF THE COUCH to change the tv channel! and to answer the phone. remember when you would tell your friend, i'll meet you outside the cinema at 6, and that was the last time you'd hear from them before you met at 6, outside the cinema?! it was a different, more trusting time then.
Hilarious, but the title should really read either, "How to tell kids how lucky they are." or "How to tell a kid how lucky he is" in order to have correct subject- verb agreement. That's another thing kids have easier these days, they don' t have to use proper grammar!
As an old codger I feel entitled to be irritating and self righteous while correcting everyone else's grammar.
Remember before there were any video games? We played neighborhood games like baseball, football, basketball, dodgeball, kickball, even "smear the queer". Indoor games? we had Hot Wheels. The best indoor game of all time, and you can still get it today- Battling Tops. I still play it now days when I can find someone who doesn't mind playing a child's game. So now, thanks to video games, we have a nation-wide crisis of childhood obesity !
My own favorite was telling my son at the store, 'when I was your age, you had to bring CASH MONEY with you to buy stuff, and if you ran out, you had to go _into the bank_ (when it was open) and interact with a teller to get more. Out of money on a weekend? Sorry, wait until Monday.' The look I got was priceless - I might as well have been recounting my youth among the mastodons.
That said, I know that some things are better/easier, and some are worse/harder, today than when I was a kid. E.g., I never once got stuck up at gunpoint with my dad while out walking in the neighborhood I grew up in. Only one of my two sons can say that.
May 17, 2009
Reader Comments (27)
"DeprIvation". Although your youth may have been depraved as well.
Hey Scott, is the game you're describing in this strip "Blasto" for the TI-99/4A, by any chance?
Is it sad that I used to find it hysterically funny how the tanks spun around when they were shot? Probably more consistently funny than Fawlty Towers or The Young Ones, anyway.
Sorry, that was irrelevant to the the point. However, as someone nearly approaching 40, I'd like to point out that I don't resent the younger generation. I just hate them.
The only consolation is that they have spots and self-doubt. I just have self-doubt.
My dad has never tried to pull this on me, given he spent his adolescence in 60's liverpool...
Combat = best video game ever.
What happened to that kid's head in the second panel? :o
haha! i have been on both sides of this conversation with my parents and with my own children.. i get the same looks now that i gave my parents back when.. love this strip.. love your work.. thanks for what you do, Scott!
I would have at least used the "jazz hands" on him. Again. Pity you didn't scare him off for good the last time he came trick-or-treating and you filled him up with...what was it, Mr. Pibb?
Jazz hands are good, but the four-finger point rules!
On the other hand I used to do things that would be quite impossible to do for a today's kid ... of course, all very dangerous, and from a parents perspective, quite stupid. But somehow, those are the best remembered and dear memories.
I sometimes wonder, if I had known in the 80s how incredibly superior video games would become in the late 90s (beginning with the advent of Half-Life and Starcraft), and how lame in retrospect the 80s games would seem to my future self, would I have still wasted so much time playing the old games?
VIDEOGAMES? In my day, we didn't have any blocky vee-dee-oh, we had to make do with text and our imagination (here's a couple of fine examples here [ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if-archive/games/pc/adv_crowther_win.zip] and here[ http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html]). To actually have to think and use our brain for entertainment, you numbskulls never had it so good today.
This is a hard one to sell. Less TV and less realistic video games. But worse? No way! I loved Jet Set Willy.
Excellent strip.
I got to be respectful of elders, that seems to be gone now too. And "we" did that for them too. :)
What about tv's? We had to tune em using a rotating knob, where you had to wind it out 500 times, between each channel. Took forever.
Rotary phones. My parents still have one. It took forever just to dial a number. Also, if the other person did not hang up you just had to wait until they did. I used to call my friends and just leave the phone off the hook. They could not make or get calls until I hung up.
Some of the older ones are being remade, like Bionic Commando. Why? Because they kicked much ass. I was telling my students about it the other day. To beat the game you had to fall 50+ levels and shoot HITLER IN THE FACE! WHILE HE WAS FLYING A HELICOPTER! If you missed, you lost. Also, you had to choose your weapon correctly at the start of the level, or you were screwed. Finally, if you died you had to do the entire level over again.
Kids today with their "saves".
How I do miss our sewer pipes with lead based paint. Where'd you grow up Scott> I thought we were the only lucky chumps that got to hurt ourselves on those things in the name of good clean fun.
this "drawings" make me come back to your site day after day. thank you
it's how the kid is expressing his disdain!
we had to get UP OFF THE COUCH to change the tv channel! and to answer the phone. remember when you would tell your friend, i'll meet you outside the cinema at 6, and that was the last time you'd hear from them before you met at 6, outside the cinema?! it was a different, more trusting time then.
Lets start an old codgers club!
Hilarious, but the title should really read either, "How to tell kids how lucky they are." or "How to tell a kid how lucky he is" in order to have correct subject- verb agreement.
That's another thing kids have easier these days, they don' t have to use proper grammar!
As an old codger I feel entitled to be irritating and self righteous while correcting everyone else's grammar.
Nope. "They" as a singular gender-neutral pronoun has been correct English usage for a *long* time. There's nothing wrong with Scott's title.
You old fart. ;)
Remember before there were any video games? We played neighborhood games like baseball, football, basketball, dodgeball, kickball, even "smear the queer". Indoor games? we had Hot Wheels. The best indoor game of all time, and you can still get it today- Battling Tops. I still play it now days when I can find someone who doesn't mind playing a child's game. So now, thanks to video games, we have a nation-wide crisis of childhood obesity !
There's a subtle difference between "common usage" and "correct usage" XD
My own favorite was telling my son at the store, 'when I was your age, you had to bring CASH MONEY with you to buy stuff, and if you ran out, you had to go _into the bank_ (when it was open) and interact with a teller to get more. Out of money on a weekend? Sorry, wait until Monday.'
The look I got was priceless - I might as well have been recounting my youth among the mastodons.
That said, I know that some things are better/easier, and some are worse/harder, today than when I was a kid. E.g., I never once got stuck up at gunpoint with my dad while out walking in the neighborhood I grew up in. Only one of my two sons can say that.
I can't help but think the kid is reading the speech balloon in panel three.
Woot, atari 2600 forever