This is the personal website of John Watson: father, software developer, artist, guitar player. Follow me on Mastodon or Twitter or Twitch or itch.io or GitHub.

The more things change...

I used to play a game called Traffic on my Commodore 64, 1984-ish (photos from C64 Wiki). I loved that game. Played it for hours and hours. You controlled traffic by changing the signal lights. If too many cars queued up at an intersection, the game would end. Otherwise you just tried to see how long you could play. It might have been the first city simulation style game I ever played—Sim City wouldn’t be released until 1989.

And here’s a game called AutoTrafego that I just downloaded for my phone:

Exactly the same game. Arguably a little prettier. Also, my Commodore 64 screen could display 320x200 pixels in 16 colors. My phone can display 320x480 pixels in 65,536 colors.