So over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was honored to be part of one of Iowa’s largest video game and pinball auctions. These auctions happen twice a year. Normally during Easter weekend and Thanksgiving weekend. I’m not going to get in depth about the auction because I already wrote an article about it that will be part of an upcoming issue of Old School Gamer Magazine.
But every story has a beginning. As they were setting up the over 650 items for auction, I started to walk down the aisles and came across the only machine that was turned on in the vicinity of the game. It was Asteroids. As I said a few blogs back, all it takes is a smell, a taste or a site to bring back the memories. And the minute I saw this, I was pulled right back to my childhood. Like I was being sucked into a black hole, the memory was as clear as a bell and it would not go away.
The vector graphics were very clear and the sound was crisp. Not only that, but the controls were extremely responsive. But back to the memory. I can’t even recall the year, but I do remember it was the family vacation to Arizona. And we stopped in Colorado for a day or two because we stopped at the Cave of the Winds. And the hotel stay was at a Howard Johnson. Yeah, that was years ago.
But I had asked the person at the front desk if they had a pool. They did let me know that they did but it was closed because it was under construction. But there was an arcade up above the pool if I wanted to play. Uh, yeah I want to play games.
So after dinner, we went to the arcade and we had a problem. The games were there, but there was a giant window that showed the pool area. But it was extremely dark and scary. Just like that black hole that sucked me into the memory. I could only go to play if my brother went with me. And of course he did, but it was still scary. There were about eight games there. But nothing stood out to me more than Asteroids. As a brand new vector graphic game, it was so much fun to play.
The main issue that I had when I was playing it was, I tried so hard not to look at the pool. But it just couldn’t happen. It was like someone saying don’t look down. OF COURSE YOU ARE GOING TO LOOK DOWN!!!!! It just freaked me out to no end. That I was really excited to play, but I just couldn’t do it anymore after spending $1.
I can’t believe I was so freaked out that I didn’t want to play anymore. How the heck did that happen? Well times have changed and I am not afraid of going into a dark arcade. Now going into a pet store and going into the dark aquarium area is a completely different story. But for now, I will just….
Keep Calm and Insert Coin!
