So, firstly — and this is an entirely self-serving thing on my part — if you’re involved with the Scouting movement (or even just curious about it), you should totally check out the new podcast I just launched, Scouting Stuff You Should Know. We’re only on the first episode right now; we’ll be recording the second next week. Mostly, it’s a chance for me to sit down and chat about Scouting — I’m kind of a big proponent of the Scouting movement, having been a youth participant therein for twenty years or so, and having been a leader for a further five years — with…well, the first episode features me and my good friend Colin, and also Brian Martin. Which makes it something of a trans-border podcast; Colin and I are involved with Scouts Canada, whereas Brian is involved with the Boy Scouts of America.

(Yes, that Brian Martin.)

When we took the kids out to Moose Lake (how Canadian is that?) earlier this summer, the weather was a bit inclement, so we spent at least part of one afternoon in my wife’s uncle’s trailer playing games. Card games, board games…and then he hauled out his Jakks Pacific Pac-Man retro arcade TV game. I don’t know if that’s what it’s called, exactly, but that’s still a decent enough description; it’s this little box that basically has a joystick and two buttons; you hook it up to a television, and you can play about a dozen different Namco Bandai classic video games.

Which my kids just ate up, Pac-Man especially. And Bosconian.

And then, a couple of weeks back, I was working on one of the computers at home and my eldest asked me what one of the icons — Commander Keen — was. So, I showed her…and since then, she has asked to play it at least once every few days. I really should indulge her curiosity at some point, because she’s not unfamiliar with platformers. Although I daresay that learning to grasp how Commander Keen handles (which, let’s be reasonable, is wonky as all get out) is very different from learning how to handle the (much smoother and more refined) controls of Mega Run.

So when I put together a small PC for the living room — we had previously set up a space for my wife to dock her laptop, but she doesn’t really do that anymore — I made sure to load it up with a few old games. Not Commander Keen, though; I think I might start them with Word Rescue, which is somewhat similar in design and handling…and does a bit of light literacy teaching.

I don’t think I’m going to go full Andy Baio, however.

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