Centipede...and All Things Since

Life was different back in the early 1980s.  Not so much easier, or harder; more stressful, or less stressful...just different.

I mean, all this came after the time period I am writing about:
-the CD-ROM was introduced in 1984
-the Apple Macintosh and the Windows Operating System were both sprung on us in '84 and '85
-disposable cameras were introduced in 1986
-the World Wide Web and GPS technology would not be available for about another decade
-although I eventually purchased a bag-phone later in the '80s, there were not millions of folks walking around with cell phones in the different days of the early 1980s.

In the early 1980s, as I served a church near the Indiana State Fair grounds, I had more disposable time that I would have in the years just ahead.  (There is a very good chance that this extra amount of disposable time available to me came as a direct result of a not-so-good work ethic...which would be somewhat corrected in years-yet-to-come.)

Back in those different times, I would often head over to the Glendale Mall to play video games in a rather large area set aside for just that purpose.  One quarter = one exciting play!

I wasn't very good at playing most video games...my main gripe with them was that there were no clear written instructions on how to play the game, and it took a few quarters worth of play-time to figure each new game out.  And so, I stuck with games I knew...and could play sorta well.  Centipede.  Centipede was the game I spent a whole lotta quarters, and time, playing.

Atari developed the game in 1981.  The object was to defend against swarms of insects, and the occasional mushroom, spider, and scorpion...all while a giant centipede worked its way down the video screen.

So much has come, gone, and changed since those early 80s. Not all of it good.  Not all of it bad.  Much of it, I do not understand fully.  There are no clear written instructions that come with the passing of years, and with the changes that take place over any span of time.

Maybe some truths we all know (or, should know), but perhaps have not yet employed, would serve us well as we try to master...or at least survive...the passing of time, and the changes time brings our way:
-Change happens (like it or not)...
-Get ready, you are about to learn something...
-To see new things, new eyes are required...
-No ideal world is waiting to be discovered, only ideal responses to the world we already know...
-Everything we do today is preparation for what's coming tomorrow.

Oh, and you can play Centipede on-line these days.  (But its not near as much fun as it was back in the day at the Glendale Mall.)