The 1970s and 1980s saw the first generation of children raised in homes that had video game systems for their entertainment. For many who grew up in that era and those to follow, that childhood passion for gaming never went away. Nowadays it\’s common for households to boast a selection of game consoles, and the parents as well as children enjoy spending hours on end playing deeply engrossing games.

Video games and their underlying technology have evolved a lot since Atari, Intellivision and ColecoVision held sway over the video game market. Measured against today\’s systems, the sprites and backgrounds that comprised early video games are the equivalent of children\’s drawings. Pong, the original video game, featured two rectangles and a circle, and the player used a knob to slide the rectangle back and forth in a virtual game of ping pong.

The Atari 2600, the first game console with replaceable game cartridges to have any kind of popular success, established the paradigm of modern gaming with its joystick directional control and fire button. A gamer would use two hands in conjunction to move the figure and execute an action. The original classic games, though basic, were ingenious enough to challenge the player\’s hand-eye coordination, and the fun they offered is still enjoyable today. Many are available free online as flash kids games.

The controls of these online reincarnations are quite simple, and in adapting them for computer keyboards, there are lots of options for where the directional controls and fire buttons can be laid out. Often, the directional controls use the arrow keys, or the numerical keypad, while enter, control, or space serves as the action button.

In some cases, the mouse becomes a substitute for both the directional stick and the fire button, which some gamers may find very different from their original gaming experiences. For example, the arcade and Atari classic, Missile Command, where the player moves a cursor to a point on the screen where anti-ballistic missiles are aimed to explode in order to protect one\’s homeland from nuclear devastation at the hands of incoming ICBMs, often uses the mouse as its game controller. In pre-computer versions of the game, you used a joystick to move the cursor. Though the challenge is similar, the feel of the game is markedly different when you use the mouse with one hand.

For the most part, though, the experience is preserved when you locate free online games that recreate the classics, and many of the big hits are out there. It\’s still fun to weave behind the shields and pick off invading aliens in Space Invaders; it\’s still challenging to weave through trucks, cars, alligators and snakes in Frogger; and it\’s still nerve-wracking to race through the maze against the ghosts in Pac Man. In their new incarnations as free online flash games, they are often adorned with improved graphics and sound effects, but the original fun that kids of the eighties enjoyed is preserved. All the classic addictive fun is waiting online, for free.

For an awesome kids game based on your favourite kids show, check out the latest and greatest at YTV Games!

For an awesome kids game based on your favourite kids show, check out the latest and greatest at YTV Games!
http://www.ytv.com/games/

Author Bio: For an awesome kids game based on your favourite kids show, check out the latest and greatest at YTV Games!

Category: Recreation
Keywords: free,online,games,kids,family,computers,technology,arts,entertainment,leisure,tv,parents,recreation