Contra

It was a summer of 1992. And for the first time, I was witnessing moving figures on TV actually responding the tune of fingers of the users.

The system was called "Media-GameBoy" and the game was called "CONTRA". Little did I know that I was just uncovering the tip of an iceberg. A whole entertainment industry which makes billions of dollars even with all the piracy around.

The experience was amazing. The whole game plot with umpteen levels and secret passages; it was a delight for the dream-mongerer. CONTRA was given company by MARIO. Another highly popular game. And I was just discovering what a phenomenon it was.

The commando painted himself black and stepped into the unknown worlds of villians and alien creatures. Each world conquered with war cries and foot thumping. The sheer gesture of triumph on getting past an obstacle which was previously undodgeable was a statement of heroism. There came along admirers who would watch me play those levels again and agin to get that extra "oomph" when the player on screen would dodge bullets and spread his own blitzkreig into the nether world.

With advances in technology and the systems becoming popular even in small towns, there was a barrage of games which had to be mastered. After all it was a question of prestige!!! Games like - "Adventure Island", "Motocross", "Ninja Turtles, "F1", "Road Racer", "Load Runner", "Tennis"... and not to forget the all time favorites "PacMan" and "Galaxian".

The commando was fighting his way into the enemy territory. And then, he was introduced to a more lethal weapon. It had by tradition 104 keys and a pet to accompany it called by the name of - "Mouse". And the commando used his new weaponry to fight another round of battles, break yet another secret and kill yet another super-villain.

This new round included games like "DOOM", "WOLF-3D", "DUKE NUKEM", "Prince of Persia", "RoadRash", "Air Xonix", "PinBall" and "Word Twister"!!! But the baap(s) of them all would turn out to be the trio of "Age of Empires, "Quake" and "Unreal Tournament".

Age of Empires holds a high esteem in my life. Simply because it has been responsible of many sleepless nights which I spent thinking how a "palladin" can cut through a horde of "eagle warriors". There have been nights when Unreal Tournament was loaded on the PC with the monitor shut and no game being played; just to hear rhe repeated music of the background action-packed score.

Gaming has been a cult and rage. Wonder when I would lay hands on a X-Box or Sony Playstation and upgrade my arsenal. And then someday, which is not vey far, a kid would be wearing a VR (Virtual Reality) pod and having the "in-game" experience. It would start a new passion of the man and the machine.

howdee mate?

Family Pattu

I read this delightful piece of anecdote in yesterday's Times of India.

(paraphrasing Ravi Shastri) - Sometimes back, I was commentating for a Srilanka game along with Jeff Thomson and Attapattu slams a double century. The camera moved amidst all the cheering crowd to pick up Attapattu's parents, who were clapping and beaming with pride. The co-commentator comes up with this gem to describe the situation:

"Joining in Attapattu's celebration and joy are Mamapattu and Papapattu."

How "Computer Courses" flourish??

Picking up from the last time. The Indian kid gets his first tryst with destiny on a box which he has been told has get gone through several "generations" of changes to be in front of him in this shape. His classbook tells him that is 5th in the genration. Charles Babbage is the Adam of this species and Lady Ada Lovelace (may her soul not get offended by this) is supposedly the Eve. Then came great grand-daady EDVAC, ENIAC and others (man, we had to cram up the acronyms to get the elusive 'A' grade!!)

The kid burns his hands with 1's complement and 2's complement. Gets to know Gray Code as if it were a part of some great Conspiracy Theory. And to add spice to all this, are codes to print the reverse of an input string.

So far so good. Kids get their first lessons and then they start experimenting with the stuff. And suddenly there will be a bright kid who would develop a PacMan game in BASIC with key handling, graphics and even music added!!

Now, a peep into another section of learners. They get enrolled in those sprawling computer classes, ones which dot the suburbs like net-cafes and PCOs. There you have an instructor teaching the kids "Windows". Teaching Windows?? As in teaching Operating System fundamentals, threading, memory management,.... naahhhh. They are kids, begineers; you don't teach them such stuff. So what in the name of "Windows" do they teach. They teach how to open folders, how to "copy-paste" (first step towards becoming a great programmer :), how to undelete files from Recycle Bin!!!

People have to satrt from some poine. Well this is a good starting point. But the cost paid is highly improportional to the learning acheived. I believe that learning computers as a technology\device\science has an exponential curve to it. Somebody has to give that initial push. Rest of the ground will be covered by the inquistive mind. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen for most of the "computer literate".

Imagine a course claiming that they will teach you Internet. Do they teach IP addresses?? Do they teach DNS?? They teach HTTP or TCP/IP?? These are the basics of learning Internet technology. What they teach is how to opne Internet Explorer window and where is the address bar. That's all... and tha's all what is needed. After that the mind will take the person surfing in the waves of the Web. How much price should be taken for teaching somebody where the address bar is?? A look at the course fees of such institutes will tell that education is real COSTLY.

Here's my two cents to how a kid should be learning the computer course. Let him be instructed to where the UPS is, where the power switch of the CPU is and let him boot automatically to Windows. (Sorry guys, Linux is too techy for a kid to start learning with!!) Tell him where "Start" is, how to open notepad, how to open "Solitaire" and how to save files. Sit with him for th first few sesions. Let him be interested in the multimedia part first. And believe me, today's kids have access to remote controls of TV which have more options than all the key controls for the DOOM game!!! They will pick up things like lightning. Once they get used to the environment, and are of proper age (6th standard prseumably); make them start with the programming language like BASIC. Again a short course which teaches them how to get a couple of PRINTS and palindromes done will be sufficient to get them going. Just make good books available to them. GOOD books. And form there you just have to sit back and relax. They will be on their way to super-geekdom.

Computer Science is the only subject I believe which cab be self-learnt to proficeincy by having access to a PC and good books.

c out!! what?

Okey dokey.. Free my mind. That's what Morpheus told me. And I took the red pill. So, this is the real world and I am now blogging. Roll the carpets, blow the trumpets, bring in the cavalry..... hoaaa.. am I getting nervy?

Nervy....?? Topsy-torvy....?? That sounds familiar. Deja Vu. Been there, done that. Flashback. 1994. My close encounter of the first kind with the thing. "AI". Naah.... me nervy again. It was a 386 machine with no hard disk.

I was a student of class 8th. Getting my practical classes of Computer course. We booted using 5.5" floppies. Those paper thin ones, through which I tried to see a solar eclipse.

Hmmm.. so I said this is neat. I can make generate inverted triangles using '*' symbol. I can flood the screen with prime numbers. I am the geek. Big deal.

I was considering myself an advanced programmer in BASIC. Advanced BASIC. Oxymoron? Or was I the oxy moron? Just a kid, people, you can sympathy me.

I didn't know what was C and why it had a brother with better grades; C++. By the time I came to know that PRINT ib BASIC is printf(); in C, somebody said to me "cout". I heard "see out". Couldn't see anything; just a dog wagging his tail. Then the guy blared "cin". I "see in". Nothing again. Hit the guy; got the deliverance. "cout" and "cin" were advance form of printf and scanf. Man, thing are so complicated.

Will add more to how an average Indian kid "learnt computer" (whatever that phrase may mean) and how the parents swell with pride when they tell prospective bridegrooms that their daughter has done a BCA course.