This afternoon, I introduced my kids to Battleship. It was a game I played as a kid in the 80’s. We didn’t have the ABS plastic set, as most kids during these times transcribed their imaginations into paper. The grid notebooks were the best for Battleship of course — but it was also easy to cheat, as we would often draw odd shapes (an Aircraft carrier shaped like an L!) to confuse our opponents.
It was only years later that my parents bought my brother and I a plastic set. I even remember my cousins having the one that had sounds.
This afternoon, I got to re-live lazy 1980’s afternoons with Battleship — albeit online. Being digital natives, I cannot take it against them to prefer the version on the computer. And I was glad to find a gaming site that had a pretty fun version with animations. This version is a little different from the one I played when I was a child. It allows for 3 shots to be called by one side before the turn ends. I remember playing it differently — players took turns calling out coordinates.
I checked out a bunch of other games that Solitaire.org had in its stable and I have to guiltily admit that this took away about 20 minutes of productivty from my desktop work. I do have to admit it’s quite easy to find apps on your iPad or smartphone that can easily rival the site’s collection, but the charm and appeal of the site is its sheer volume of games that’s easily accessible on the browser. Think of it as a huge collection of casual games all accessible in one place.
I mean, just look at this! Solitaire and Crossword alone can take up almost an hour of my time. As I get older I tend to gravitate back to classic games — I’m not entirely sure why. I’ve been listening a lot to my dad’s old music (am I turning into my dad?) and I guess these re-discoveries are milder forms of entertainment (versus playing games like Diablo III or Genshin Impact) that don’t give me a huge rush of adrenaline. These browser games are relaxing, especially in this new work from home environment where a good game of solitare is enough to reset your brain.
