As a child at the tender age of ten, we had a Nintendo Entertainment System. The year was 1989, and like any kid at that time, I loved my Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. I can distinctly remember that prior fall, when we were getting it for Christmas, my sneaky brother peeked through the bag while my parents weren’t looking, revealing it to the both of us.

Be that as it may, we didn’t have the Nintendo for long, you see, not long after getting the Nintendo, our house burned down. Yep, we returned from my grandmothers house to nothing more than a collapsed roof over what use to be our home. And although we eventually got another Nintendo when our new home was built, this story is more about the summer that we didn’t have the NES. Not to mention a Nintendo was the least of our worries.

Soon after we moved into our other grandparents house that lived across the street. Since we didn’t have a Nintendo or a television at the time, my parents somehow found money among all the other obvious expenses, to get us kids some hand held games. Although the Nintendo Game Boy was fresh off the presses, we didn’t get one nor did I expect it. Instead we got two of those highly popular Acclaim handheld games, Knight Rider and ironically the Bart Simpson’s Cupcake Crisis. What was so ironic about having a Simpson’s hand held was the fact that we could not even watch the show. Probably rightly so, but the Simpsons were highly popular at that time.

Needless to say, we played these games for a lot, Knight Rider being my favorite. The technology in these games are laughable at best by today’s standards. The closest thing that I can think of that may be available like it today are those cheap hand held poker games. In the Knight Rider game, you basically moved from side to side shooting cars and avoiding traffic, much like a very simplified Galaga. As for the Simpsons game, I can’t really remember anything about how it played.

With the excessive amount of sensory overload these days, I find it hard for a kid of any age to find enjoyment in these type of games. The Nintendo DS consoles that my nephews have had for years now are much more powerful than my Nintendo ever was. Not to mention the power of smartphone games, in comparison to even today’s big boy consoles.

Simpler games for simpler times I guess. Certainly a summer without Nintendo, but still, plenty of fun to be had.