In-car technology replacing 'License Plate Bingo'
Remember “license plate bingo”? It sucked. That's according to today’s
Playstation generation, anyway.
It may put a tear in Clark W. Griswold’s eye, but road games ain’t what they used to be. Today’s Sony PSP, Apple iPod and in-car DVD players are forcing time-honored favorites like the Alphabet Game and Cow Poker to go the way of the hubcap. And with the looming spectre of in-car internet, point-and-click Windows will soon convert the precious few remaining practitioners of point-and-see windows.
It’s been rumored that a certain hidebound Autoblog staffer still holds his breath passing every graveyard, but even he can agree that kicking rounds of Row, Row, Row Your Boat to the curb is a good thing, no matter who or what is responsible. Regardless, some of us gadget-happy geeks will always hold a soft spot for road games. Yeah, we're a bunch of soft-headed interstate nostalgics... anyone for a spot of Travel Scrabble?
[Source: Cox News Service via Helena Independent Record]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike Warner 5:15PM (12/28/2005)
What are you talking about? I'm confused.
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Hey Bush, Quit Reading My Email 5:27PM (12/28/2005)
What in the world is Cow Poker?
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JayNorth 5:36PM (12/28/2005)
I remember when I was a child, I had this travel treasure hunt game. You had a square with blocks in it that had pictures of things you would see on the road, when you found one, you flip over the block. And whoever had all their blocks turned over first, was the winner.
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dave 8:20PM (12/28/2005)
Oh, yeah, I remember that one--it was a kind of like Bingo, but with railroad tracks and cows and such ... Personally, I can't stand the thought of my future children playing Xbox on a road trip, when there's so much going on outside the car (except on I-85 in North Carolina, anyway) ... hopefully by that time, there will be a resurgence of old-school family fun, or something ... either way, they'll have to learn to like it, because I and my fiance have already agreed to ban car-based video-gaming in the future, save for extra-long trips (which won't happen, because we'd prefer to fly very long distances ... so, by default, no onboard gaming).
My personal favorite was a geographical name game, where someone would say the name of a geographic location, and the next person would have to follow it with one that began with the last letter of the person's before him. So, for example, if I said, "Washington," my brother would have to say somwhere that began with an N, like "Nigeria," then my mom would say "Atlanta," and so on. Good times.
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Non-Bizarro Adam 9:42PM (12/28/2005)
I for one agree that it would be a shame for "old-timey" road-trip games to disappear. The Alphabet Game, Zits, License Plate Bingo, and the such force you to look around you, observe the beautiful country we live in, and get a sense of your surroundings. Kids can sit and stare at an LCD screen anywhere. I for one will outlaw all in car video games when I have kids, and they will probably bitch about it, but they will thank me in the end.
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ZoomZoomin' 12:17PM (12/29/2005)
"force you to look around you, observe the beautiful country we live in"
...apparently, you've never had to drive cross-country through Texas on the 10. :) I think the nostalgia-factor is kicking in here. Much of the U.S. (particularly the "middle"/inland parts) is pretty undeveloped and empty...some parts are downright scary/creepy. Looking out of the window on most road trips quickly becomes about as interesting as staring at a wall for an ungodly amount of hours (especially when you've already done it before). Hence the reason for the previous distractions of old games, books/magazines, etc and the "are we there yet?" jokes.
Today's in-car distractions are just getting more sophisticated and comfortable.
The two best parts of a trip (plane/car/whatever) are leaving for the destination and arriving at your destination. The middle is mostly filler.
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Carol White 6:25PM (12/30/2005)
>>Looking out of the window on most road trips quickly becomes about as interesting as staring at a wall for an ungodly amount of hours
We traveled 37,500 miles in 12 months -- through every state in the contiguous 48 -- including Texas on I-10 -- and we never got bored of looking at the scenery. This country has so much variety and each has its own beauty.
So what did we look at on "the 10"? We were mostly fascinated with the change of flowers and shrubs as we moved west -- the bluebonnets gave way to small roadside flowers and tress almost completely disappeared as the desert overtook us. We thought it was beautiful. We drove from Fredricksburg to Ft. Stockton on a hot sunny afternoon on our way to Big Bend National Park. We managed to see all our National Parks on our sojourn.
See our websites:
www.roadtripdream.com
http://home.att.net/~retirement_lifestyles
Carol
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