I still remember the day when I first experienced Nintendo. I was just a little kid, probably 6 or 7 years old, when my neighbor invited me over for a surprise. It seemed like an eternity as I waited in his basement for the announcement to come upstairs and see what the big surprise was. The time finally came. I ran up the stairs and my eyes settled on the TV in the family room. What was on the screen was one of the most wonderful & magical things I had ever seen in my 6 (or 7) years of life; Super Mario Brothers.

It took a while before my neighbor surrendered the controller so I could play. But when he finally handed it over to me, I began to try to figure what each button did – the “A” button and the “B” button.

Fast forward 20 years. Video games have come a long way! The era of the two-button controller has ended. Now some of the controllers have more buttons, knobs & joysticks than my car. (I just realized that I sound like I’m getting old… “Back when I was your age…”) I don’t play video games that often anymore except for the occasional game of Mario Kart with my brothers-in-law. When we do sit down to play, something in me misses the simplicity of the two-button era. Click to continue »