[GIFTED] Arcadie

VIDEO GAMES: everyone used to think they were the coolest things in the world.  Before computers were on our desks, in our bags, in our pockets, and embedded into our brains (it's coming, WATCH OUT), they were considered super cutting edge.  The whole family would crowd around the first generation Nintendo set to play Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers.  Kids would go down to the arcade on Saturdays, wasting their time and money and ruining their dexterity.   

Then, just as video games were getting super realistic and ridiculous, they started to get a bad reputation.  Legions of rich white ladies got all up in arms.  Video games, they said, are the reason why kids are fat and unable to socialize and eventually shoot up their schools.  So now every video game that comes out involves some kind of exercise and positive life lesson.  BORRRRRRRRRING. 

The Arcadie ($27.95, Convenient Gadgets & Gifts) harkens back to simpler times, when you could spend the entire day playing video games and not get the eye from your mother, wondering if you're going to turn her life into the storyline from We Need to Talk About Kevin.  

How does it work?  You download free Arcadie games from the iTunes App store, load your iPhone into the Arcadie console, and play vintage, pixelated games like Pong.