Bring back the good old Pinoy Games!

 

 

You know that you’re a child from the 90s if you played authentic Pinoy games like Patintero, Chinese Garter, Jumping Rope, Siato and even Bato, Bato Pik in your neighborhood and in your school. Where have all the good games gone?

Needless to say, we were the children who spent time playing games, not computer games or psp and other electronic games, but games that got us jumping, tumbling, getting dusty and dirty, and running breathlessly. We often fell and skinned our knees, but we promptly picked ourselves up and dusted ourselves off, the better to get back in the game.  We remember our mothers chasing us with tubes  of Terramycin so  they could rub the ointment on our galos, sugat, paltos, gasgas—-and we learned early not to “kutkot” our wounds and let them heal with every dab of Terramycin Plus (Polymyxin B Sulfate +  Bacitracin Zinc +  Neomycin Sulfate) Antibacterial Ointment. But more than anything else, we were the generation that played outdoors.

I especially loved skipping rope in our garden when I was a child. That’s why I was elated when I saw this Disney movie that gave skipping rope a revival of sorts. Corbin Bleu of High School Musical fame starred in a movie called Jump In, where in we saw the evolution of skipping rope as a highly competitive sport. Frankly, I was intimidated by the moves and tricks Corbin did in the movie, and if I were asked to skip rope right this minute, I’d feel that my own tricks of just crossing  and uncrossing my arms when I skip rope isn’t amazing enough, especially since  the skip ropers of this generation even break dance and tumble and soar while doing their footwork. Yes, everybody seems to have all leveled up.

I actually sat up and noticed when a local commercial featured this childhood song  “Nanay , Tatay, pahinging tinapay. Ate, Kuya, pahinging kape”, while the kids executed some kind of hand game and fancy footwork. I chuckle at the second half of the stanza …”Lahat ng gusto ko ay bibigay nyo, mahina lang ang pingot ko”.  Is this proof that this generation is softer, or just a little more spoiled and indulged? If I had said, “lahat ng gusto ko , ay bibigay nyo, ” I d have been on the receiving end of the “pingot”,  and not the other way around!

Meanwhile, my son just got home from school. And before we start dinner, he insists that we play “Overload.” No, it’s not some sophisticated computer or psp game.  It’s the “bato,bato,pik ” of his time, only our weapons are not stone, scissors and paper, it’s RPG, Bazooka and missile. I insist though that we play outside. There’s nothing like the feel of the afternoon breeze on your faces as you try to outwit and outplay your son at a game that is so like the one you played at childhood—but at which you suck, and epicly fail, all the time.

And no wonder!  With our childhood version of bato , bato , pik, I could always summon “ulan” when I was  close to the brink of losing to a playmate. I remember how many fights ensued when I did so,   as using “ulan”  (or rain, where all your fingers closed and opened to simulate the falling drops ), was plainly  a “palusot”, or  what electronic gamers today would call a “cheat”. I wonder if I can invent a cheat for Overload ? At the rate we play it,  I doubt it, and my only consolation is that maybe Overload just isn’t my game. But then again, maybe after my son beats me (for the nth time) at this game, we can just skip rope together. Just don’t count on me break dancing though!

—soccermom97