When I was growing up, the idea of directly interacting with what was on the screen was amazing. I'm not talking about using a controller like a remote control for my virtual avatar, but the idea of pointing with something to the screen (a pen, a gun, etc) and seeing that the TV knew where you were pointing and responded. For whatever reason, that was the thing that made gaming real to me.
The "game" I remember the most was one where a maroon light pen was used to draw. I remember my dad and brother working on other things with it (I can't quite remember exactly what, I think my dad was programming some game that tracked the pen but I'm not sure), but really the ability to paint on the black canvas of the TV was amazing to me. Sure it had the same result as using crayons, in fact it was less effective than crayons because back in that day you couldn't even save the drawing (or if you could, the cost would be huge) but it was just fun. I fumbled, I scribbled, I tapped on the TV too hard so my dad thought I would break the screen. Reaching up to the screen so high above was hard for my little arms, but I loved every second of it. I loved it so much, that even when the system was off, I loved that light pen with the curled cord and played with it. I now know that it was little more than a photo resistor and a good timing connection, but back then it was magic.
I now look at my children and wonder what they think when they use a tablet. I had a slight glimpse into this when, back before A was born, I was reading G one of those Little Mr books. On the back, there are pictures of all the other Mr and Mrs characters to advertise the other books for sale. In my youth I would look at them and imagine what their stories would be, but my daughter did something different. She tapped a Mr and then opened the book again. Looking confused she closed the book, looked at the back, tapped a Mr, and opened it again. It dawned on me that she was trying to press the icon for a different story and load up new pages. Maybe that will happen one day, but not yet, so I had to explain to my disappointed 2 year old that this was the only story and she would have to pick up another book from the shelf.
Now my 3 year old son remembers our 4 digit unlock password for our tablet after having been told it once on a car trip. Both A and G flick and swipe Sonic through randomly generated stages. They both drop blocks in seemingly random places in Cubify for me to print their creations in 3D. Instead of waiting for an infomercial to stop before their favorite show comes on they have never experienced such a thing and instead flip through an endless array of shows on Netflix. An endless stream of diversions all made infinitely more possible because of them being able to touch.
And still, every now and then, both the kids pull out an app that is just a black canvas where they can draw vibrant colors, sometimes with sound effects and rainbow lines. They fumble, and scribble, and tap on the screen. At those times, I think I know exactly what they are thinking.
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