Cikgu talking about the games he played when he's young on Monday because of our project about doing anything Malay, including games. Marbles, bola
hamtam, glass thread
wayang-
wayang and five stones seems too old for me. But we do have our own generation of games! Maybe less ingenious but definitely equally exciting!
1. Block Catching
Most of us have played this before, the whole block turned into a maze! Its really fun being a catcher cos u get to run ard, unlike a hider who could only stay at a place and pray that the catcher wouldn't pass by. The structure of the old HDB are different from the ones we have now...there's a staircase in front of every apartment and u could hide on the staircase and no one can see you from the corridor. There's also 2 separate lifts at 2 different parts of the block, which made it more challenging. I can still rmb vividly the adrenaline rush when catcher bump into the hider, both will run like no tomorrow and jumping down the flight of stairs, literally! we dun walk down it, i can jump 8 steps at one go...reaching the ground floor would take only 30secs. In order to escape successfully, either pray that the catcher is breathless, the lift door closes just before the catcher managed to open it or hide somewhere intelligently without the catcher knowledge.
2.Playground catching
Same concept, except now is more of running instead of hiding. Frequent injuries will result from it. The younger boys always get bullied in this game...well, too bad! You have to grow up anyway! ;>
3. Go-li
Ours is a varied version, theres no large white marble as they are difficult to purchase. I rmb buying a few at a minimart in teck whye and treated them like gems. The objective is to hit the glass marbles out of the box with your own. Everyone first contributed 1 marble in the box, then the game starts and if you successfully knock the marble out of the box and your hitting marble didnt remain in the box, u took both! if any one lands in the box, GAME OVER...your marble is stuck in the box for others to claim. Marbles cost $0.20 for 5 at that time and we were super happy winning a few for that day. Its certainly a good social game, i made lots of friends playing this.
4. Styrofoam planes
These planes can be easily bought from minimarts, ranging from $0.50 to $3.00 depending on the quality. We also made some alterations to it, like cut and fold, hopefully to make it fly better. We got tired of flying it in the corridor, so we went up to the 12th(highest) floor and flew it down! The plane could fly quite a distance and sometimes the unfortunate plane made it to the road! Kena flattened of cos. Some of them had rotating blades in front but i rmb the best plane doesn't have one and is blue in colour, a japanese fighter plane. Its not easy to buy a good plane...the kids know the goods and the best ones would get sold faster, leaving behind the CUI planes.
5.Bicycle Racing
This is simply racing with bicycles! It evolved from racing at the corridor to racing circuit below our blocks. Its close to F1, the circuit has slopes and there are parts of it which is easier to overtake. Of course, there's obstacles which are the pedestrians. This activity is dangerous as a slip or collision would result in serious wounds due to the high speed nature. Never see kids playing this now, i think their parents would most likely screw their kids upside down when they see the injury. My mum just shake her head when she saw mine :)
6. RC car racing
Another racing event, but much safer. It started when RC cars are super hot and almost everyone have one! Its not cheap though, mine costs $40 and its considered low budget. RC cars now costs $20 and no one is buying it...
7. PS1 and arcades
Starting to have more pocket $$! Able to invest on PS1 and play arcade games at home! 1990s classics have Marvel vs Capcom series, DDR, Metal Slug, time crisis...hours of fun with it and best of all, the games are real cheap(u know wad i mean). PS1 attracts my neighbours to my house until my mum had to chase them away. Arcades at that time were also crowded with ppl. I went there almost every week and had to lie to my parents im doing project at cck library with my classmates. HeeHee. Daytona and the fighting video machines are everybody's favourite. You could see people crowding around a video game watching the guy play.
8.PC games
This electronic gadget changes a generation of leisure. Gone are toys, games and playgrounds. In comes Red alert, Need for speed 2, IRC, the sims and Neopets! Even today kids are still obsessed with this gadget. My cousins are fighting for it when they come to my house on cny. My first pc was an acer and it has 56k dial-up with limited 25hrs of internet!
9.Digimon and Proyo's
The craze for gadgets started around the late 1990's. Parents were forced to buy one for their kids if not their kids would miss out on what their friends are talking about. I had D1 and D2 cos the latest versions were more expensive and came at a later time. Cheat code were made by using plastic farecard strips to screw up the electronic board and voila! A teddy-mon appears on the screen! D6 had a rather stupid device which requires users to shake the gadget. 1 shake is 1 step and the more u shake the faster it would grow...i tot its pretty dumb!
10.Pokemon Cards
Who could forget Pikachu? I still regret on spending my pocket $$ on these cards. The starter pack costs $70 and the booster costs $5 for like 7? The card shop at CCK MRT station is always full of traders who are students. The foil cards like Charlizard were super rare and going for $25 a piece. I think my best foil card is butterfree, no luck in getting the big 3.
Teck Whye estate is really a great kampong to live in. I would not have experience so much if i stayed in Choa Chu Kang. Teck Whye was supposed to be a temporary living place as my parents were eying for a flat in Sembawang. Think Teck Whye is one of the last "kampongs" in Sg. Nowadays people stayed in their flats and closed their doors. The only "door" which is opened is MSN...applies to me also.
Sidetrack, Cikgu mentioned that he heard a pontian** when little, and said that it sounded exactly like a duck. Beware if you heard a duck quacking, DO NOT TURN AROUND!
