The year was 1981, and I was 8 years old. Shut up, I know that I’m old. My dad, brother and I went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark at the River Hills theater. Gotta say, I peed a little during the ending of thay movie cause it was loud and scary. I said I was 8! Anyway, one thing that I always looked forward to after seeing movies was playing the video games in the corner of the lobby or at the arcade across the hall in the mall.
So as we got out tickets, I looked in the corner to see this odd shaped machine with a monkey on the side. And as I got closer, I started to see the controller and then the screen to Donkey Kong. Donkey what? There’s no donkey in the game!! What is going on? There it was a Monkey kidnapping the lady and the carpenter had to save her. Like I knew who Mario was. The music was catchy and the colors were pretty. I had to play this.
So I put the quarter up on the glass lined up to make sure it doesn’t fall off and I waited. It sucked to be 5th in line, but I was patient. One by one, players played and then left the machine. Then it was my turn. I moved the joystick around to see how it felt and kept pushing the jump button. But then I put my quarter in and hit player one. Then the monkey climbed.
The music sounded like something that I have heard before, but hadn’t. It was exciting!! And my eyes got bigger as the game asked how high I could get. Then it was my turn. I couldn’t believe how much fun I was having with this game. It was so much fun, I didn’t want it to end. Over and over, I was adamant about getting the hammer and smashing the barrels. But my timing was off and I kept getting hit by the barrel right after I lost the hammer. Discouraging!! Granted, I sucked at the game, but what did you expect to happen from the first couple times? Breaking a record like Billy Mitchell?
Sadly, I only got to the second level. I kept trying to cross over in front of Donkey Kong. Apparently, that doesn’t work. I was able to play the game two more times. And it was a lot of fun. But After the third time, I decided to hold my head high and play Asteroids that was right next to it.
Curse you Donkey Kong, curse you!!!! But I shall return!!!!!!!!
Until then:
Keep Calm and Insert Coin.
