Nostalgia comes in waves, apparently. It can't be a coincidence that my expedition to Funspot was followed the day after with my first exposure to the Atari Flashback 2 console. The shoddy documentation left me unable to recall how to configure certain games, but some needed no explanation: Combat, Maze Craze. And though I thought the previously unreleased sequels to games like Adventure and Yars Revenge would be new and exciting, it almost seemed sacrilegious to tamper with such a tried-and-true formula. Perhaps it's the rote ritual of games by which we conjure up memories of the past. Mastery does not necessarily denote ease of play, though; I'll never be able to predict the flight of Adventure's damnable bat.

Highlight of the day: watching a six-year-old and an eight-year-old eagerly take turns playing Pitfall. Kids don't need 128-bit, Blu-ray, 12-button, M-rated games today anymore than we did 24 years ago.

Witnessing the enthusiasm such simplicity invoked prompted me to research the coming of the Wii – especially after my evangelism of its technology and the ensuing revolution failed to solicit belief in the afore-mentioned arcade virgin. My sources for this investigation were both Wikipedia and Nintendo's own web site. I found the primary benefactor of this mission to be me: watching the variety of uses of the controller and reading the confidence behind the text invoked days of poring over Nintendo Power, drooling over what was to come. Am I reverting to fanboyism? If that's what it takes to rekindle my interest in gaming, I will happily swear fealty to the company that started it all. (Besides Atari.)

It has been a good – and holy – three days.