Playing with Power: A bout with the world champion

“Now you’re playing with power.”

I remembered the cheesy slogan from an old Nintendo Entertainment System commercial back from the mid-1980s when I found and bought one of Nintendo’s NES Classic Editions recently. Sure, video games look much better and shinier than they did 30-plus years ago, but I have fond memories sprawled out on the living room floor playing “Super Mario Bros.” and “Donkey Kong.” Decades later, these games still put a smile on my face. As I make my way through the system’s 30-game collection, it’s been fun to reminisce about games in an era before complicated control schem...