Gaming has come a long way in the past decade. New game consoles play DVD movies, connect to the Internet for global competition and play games with characters that look virtually identical to their real-life models. There have even been rumors of the consoles being strong enough to be a threat to national security. And every time you walk into Future Shop, there is a newer, faster and more expensive one to buy.

But can you really beat the original? When it comes to travel gaming (not that anyone should need to play video games in transit, but that is another topic all together…) there is nothing better than a good old fashioned game of Tetris on the old grey GameBoy, complete with that strange shade of green that you can't see in the sun and those funny little sound effects.

Its hard to keep up with all the new versions of gaming systems that are hitting the market, and all of them have a new and improved something that for some reason people tell me I simply have to have. (And I'll admit, I was impressed when I heard about that interactive fitness game that yells at you if you skip too many workouts...) But its so hard to keep up-to-date with these things.

There is something so 90's about the GameBoy version of Tetris, you can't help but love it. It is so bare bones that there is virtually nothing that can go wrong — there is no backlit LCD screen with eight billion shades of red to stop working. The speakers aren't like the others, which are as powerful as a home theatre system but smaller, and don't need to handle blasting the theme song that was written just for the game by some famous punk band. And since there are no bells and whistles to show off, those four AA batteries last for somewGameBoys don't need to be able to play DVDs - that is what big-screen televisions and Famous Players are for. They don't need to play CDs or mp3s, because designers have done a good job with home entertainment systems and mp3 players. And as for computers, a desktop looks a little more professional for those career folks than an xBox in every cubicle.

The other problem with these multi-tasking systems is that when one component breaks (which it ultimately will) the rest of the gadgets will not work. So when the DVD wont stop skipping and you have to send it back to the manufacturer to repiar, along with it goes your CD player, PDF, handheld mini-computer, toaster, personal navigation system, your younger sister's diary and the fingerpainting from third grade that your mom still has hanging on the fridge.

What will you do to keep occupied while your Swiss Army computer is in the shop?

You will rummage through your closet and find your ancient GameBoy, and play some Tetris.