After the NES came the 286, then the Playstation 1. At some point between Commander Keen and Ridge Racer, I decided I wanted to design my own games. I didn’t to much programming though. Around the age of 10 I started writing .bat scripts… which never did anything useful. I hacked (mostly unsuccessfully) on ZZT.

When I was 13 I created an awesome Star Trek fan site on GeoCities giving me my first taste of HTML. Taking that to what I thought was the next step, I learned VRML… which turned out to be a step towards nowhere.

No, I didn’t do any real programming until college. Here I learned C, Java, ML, Prolog, Lisp, and Icon. Along with learning what real programming was, I learned that programming games is hard. I came to the realization sometime around my senior year that being a game developer would be awesome, but probably wasn’t in the cards for me. A dream job that I might have someday.

Towards the end of my college career, I started doing web development as a research assistant using JSPs and Servlets. This turned into somewhat of an expertise for me, and ended up landing me my first job out of college.

Still using Java at the time, I was introduced to Ruby and Rails by an outside consultant. This consultant was brought in to explore the possibility of using Rails on a new project. But like so many other companies at the time, using Rails (which at the time was new and unproven in the eyes of enterprise businesses) was too high of a risk. They went with the tried and true Java approach.

I didn’t take the Java approach. I left the company shortly after and joined a startup where I got paid to do Rails full time. I had drank the Rails kool aid. I was mainly hooked on how quickly you could implement ideas. I could come up with an idea in the morning, and have a working web app by the afternoon. I could gather requirements and show off working code the same day. I loved it.

At some point, I looked back and realized that game development wasn’t for me. Rapid development of games doesn’t exist the same way it does in web development. I’ve been a happy web developer ever since.

Follow these easy steps to get started with the Wii Sports Ab Workout:

Step #1: Load up Wii Sports and start a round of boxing.
Step #2: Hold the Wiimote with the toes on your right foot (If you cannot hold the Wiimote between your toes, you may consider attaching them to your feet, or a pair of sandals, using medical tape).
Step #3: Hold the Nunchuck with the toes on your left foot.
Step #4: Lay on the floor.
Step #5: BOX!

Note: you cannot use your arms/elbows to prop yourself up! It will require the use of your abs if you want to watch the screen.

For an extra bonus, play with a friend! The shear hilarity of the experience will make surely make you laugh until tears roll down your cheeks and thus increase the burn to your abdomen even further!

In addition to these tips, I would suggest trying department stores in the ghetto. No offense to people who live in the ghetto, people who are “ghetto fab”, or fans of 2pac’s Ghetto Gospel. Stores in lower income neighborhoods are going to be much more likely to have that elusive gaming console that you seek. This is where I found both my Wii and my DS Lite.

Wii Sports is a great showcase of the controller’s abilities. As a single player game I think it’s a tad shallow and would get boring quickly. As a multiplayer game I think it would be worth hours and hours of fun. I was able to pick up a couple of extra controllers this morning, so I’ll be able to try some multi this evening.

My roommate who is neither a gamer nor a geek was able to pick up and play Wii Sports in moments. All the controls were so intuitive that the learning curve was practically non-existant. There is no explaining “hold the x button to increase the power and release it when you want to swing the bat”, it’s just “swing the controller like it’s a bat”. Everyone knows how to do that.

Prior to the Wii, game controls were the major limiting factor when trying to get the general public into games. Everyone can watch someone ELSE play a game and understand what going on, but when you place the controller in the hands of the non-gamer they have a hard time interacting with the game. The Wii solves half the problem by providing the controller that can be used in an “ohh, that makes sense” manner. The other half of the problem is left up to the game developers who need to program the games take full advantage of the controller. Wii Sports does this almost perfectly.

I haven’t played enough Zelda yet to form a solid opinion of the game.

So far, I give the Wii and 8.5/10.

I was seriously considering pre-ordering the Wii, but the thought of buying a $250 GameCube doesn’t make me a happy camper.