Games on the Internet

Games on the Internet...What did you do last night?
By: Scott Hendison � Published: October 1998

This month I've decided to write about something that's very near and dear to my heart: computer games. Now, I know many of you would never waste your valuable time playing games on a computer. I mean that's for children, for heaven's sake! Images of "Pac Man" and "Donkey Kong" racing around a screen simply don't excite you, right?

Last night two friends and I raced our Indy cars at Portland International Raceway. We raced against several other drivers from all over the world. Racing at speeds of over 200 mph, the track was a little slippery due to a recent rain. Coming out of the festival turn, the sun really glared off the windshield and made it hard to stay off the grandstand wall. The track was absolutely exact in its detail, all the way down to the GI Joe's banners.

The night before last, we felt like racing Superbikes. You know the high speed motorcycles that lean way over in turns so your knee just grazes the asphalt? We met in France on a World-Class Superbike track. The blistering speeds teetered on the brink of insanity, especially when you consider that we were racing with spiked tires in a raging snowstorm!

We then decided to test our dogfighting skills over the skies of Germany during World War II. We flew as a squadron against three other people. The planes were quite a bit simpler to fly back then, compared to today's modern jetfighters. The only problem was that when you fired your machine guns into an enemy plane at very close range, the smoke poured out of the target so heavily, that is was hard to see. This made for quite an eventful evening.

Computer "games" have come quite a long way since the early days of "Pong" and "Asteroids." They are now fully immersive 3D simulations of real life situations that most of us can only dream about. Recent advances in technology over the last six months have brought a new level of realism to these "games". Incredible realistic scenery and special effects can range from fog rolling on a highway at night, to seeing your own reflection in the ice on a hockey rink. Joysticks and controllers now actually simulate G-forces in a plane, and shake with weapons recoil or bumps in the road!

Of course, my friends and I were actually playing on the Internet. There are dozens of sites on the Internet that you can log onto for free and find someone to compete against, or you can team up with them against other players. Whether you want to play conventional games, like Backgammon, Bridge, and Monopoly, or you want to engage in a battle with any weapon imaginable, the world of "online gaming" is sweeping the world by storm.

These "games" aren't just for kids anymore. Who among us hasn't wanted to pilot a spacecraft to far away galaxies, command the Allied troops at Normandy, or play a round of golf with Arnold Palmer at Pebble Beach? I can tell you that it's a heck of a lot more entertaining than watching someone else do it on television!

note 2007:

Scott Hendison is the CEO of Search Commander. He is a former Portland computer store retailer that built a local on-site service business through Pay Per click and organic search engine optimization. In 2003, he started focusing exclusively on search marketing.

Today he is a search engine marketing consultant that serves clients in 5 countries, who find him on the front page of most search engines for "internet consultant" and related phrases.