I'm sure it's an enormous surprise to learn that I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about games and gaming, so I've found myself looking through old blog posts for research, inspiration, and to confirm or deny that strange "I think I've written about this idea before…" tingle that's recently set up camp in my brain.
So here's something I found today, which may or may not find portions of itself rewritten for my PAX East Keynote, but should zap some of you Gen X gamers squarely in the happy place…
There are all these video games that remind me of the happiness of my childhood: Journey, Riddle of the Sphinx, and Dodge-Em on Atari 2600. The robot gyroscope game, Excitebike, and Super Mario Brothers (the turtle trick!) on NES are just a few. Writing about those, I can feel the orange shag carpet at the house in Sunland, the blue berber carpet in La Crescenta, and I can see the little television in my friend's bedroom where we played RC Pro-Am until we had "NES Thumb."
Do you associate certain games with certain arcades or places?
- Donkey Kong will forever be associated with Verdugo Bowling Alley in La Crescenta, because that's where I first saw it. In fact, I thought it was some weird bowling game because the barrells on level one look like bowling balls, if you're nine years old and in a bowling alley.
- Centipede will always be Shakeys Pizza in Tujunga, where this young couple in their 20s let me play their last man at the cocktail version because their pizza was ready, and Ms. Pac-Man will always be associated with this head shop in Sunland, where I got to the pretzel level on the first try.
- Super Pac-Man, Defender, Gyruss, and Mouse Trap take me back to Sunland Discount Variety and Hober's Pharmacy (they've become interchangable in my memory) and Donkey Kong Country on SNES will always remind me of when I lived in Nice, France, during production of Mr. Stitch, and my brother and I beat it when my family came out to vist me for Christmas.
- Crystal Castles is Alladin's Castle at the mall in Eugene, Oregon, during the filming of Stand By Me, and Burger Time and Tutankham will always remind me of the smell of chlorine and concrete, from the basement-level pool at the Eugene Hilton.
Funny, just writing about those places I can almost conjure up sense-memories, like smells and other ephemeral things that I can't quite put into words but I can feel, but I can't quite make them out, like the boobie channel on cable in 1984 that was scrambled but would occasionally resove into view for two or three glorious seconds, which would be the subject of much discussion the next day at school.
Mmmmm… boobies.
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Oh no . I didn’t see Pitfall in there.. LOL
Hooray for Tutankham!
For me, that was the Peter Piper Pizza I worked at during high school and my first semester at the University of Arizona…
Centipede at an old deli with worn, cracked wooden floors. The old man who owned it chained smoked. I used to ride my bike 2 miles to play arcade games, pick up comic books and sneak peaks at dirty magazines.
You know, this is so true. For me, “Beastie Feastie” is the Round Table Pizza that used to be on 25th Ave in Seattle, right near the university campus. I remember having to climb on a chair to play that. And “Outrun” was the convenience store near my house, right by the slushie machine.
“Mmmmm… boobies,” indeed, sir. though, since i was 1 year old in 1984, i think i mean that in a different sense than you.
Ya know you’re a geek when most all your childhood memories can arcade game-related in some way…LOL. My oldest memories of family vacations are of the games they had at the hotel. I remember not liking the original Atari Football (X’s & O’s, y’all!) because the trackball gave me a small shock when I tried playing it. Of course it did not help that I had tried playing it right after I got out of the pool *heh*
Super Mario Brothers 3 is memories of my apartment in Hatboro, PA in the late 80s and early 90s and the move to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. My dad always played it and he got really good at it, and I envied his skill with the game. But at the same time, as a 2nd grader, just trying to get past the first world was an accomplishment.
For me, it’s Tempest and Tron at the Shakey’s Pizza in Downers Grove, IL, long since gone. Eating out at Shakey’s was a huge treat…it was where all of us usually had our birthday parties. Beyond the smell of the pizza, the red and white checked tablecloth, it invokes great memories of friendships and blown allowances.
Half way around the world and the 80’s were still the same. Tutankhamen was the North Fremantle skate rink and my favourite was a 2 joystick game called Karate Champ that was in the Split Second arcade, just down the street from the XXX bookstores in Perth, Western Australia.
On an unrelated note, and I know this is kinda rude, but I cant’ find another way to do it, but if I wanted to send you something snail mail, Wil, is there a way to do it? I have a book that’s up on Lulu and I wanted to send you a copy as a tribute/thank you for your writing and work over the years.
songs are my biggest game associations. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest = my shoegazer phase. Doom 64 = “Superman’s Dead” by Our Lady Peace. countless songs are now linked to endless Quake matches…
I think my strongest sense memory is playing Super Mario Bros 3 in my family room in suburban Chicago, particularly the ending. Queen’s “Innuendo” and Rush’s “Show Don’t Tell” were big at the time; those are inextricably linked as well. I can see my father’s complex stereo setup, the big red plaid pillow we used to sit on, the immense frustration trying to figure out that #%&$ing castle maze…
Mmmm. Good thoughts.
Asteroids and Galaxian at the Super 7 just down the street from my house. It was the only store my brother and I could bike to without crossing a ‘big street’ so it was OK when we were 10 and 8. Space Invaders was OK, but when we saw these two, we said, “hang on, these video games are starting to get intense.”
Lots of games at the Dairy Queen, but most memorably Track and Field and Dragon’s Lair. Grandma and Grandpa would pick us up after school and take us for an ice cream, and we’d scam a few quarters from them for the arcade there. I got in trouble for yelling, “WHAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM” when I got excited. I had no idea what it meant, I just thought it sounded badass.
Galaga at the Family Fun Center while I was in high school. It was anything but “family fun” — smoky and filled with all the rowdy mulleted teens. These were guys who’d normally just want to crack my skull, but I could play games so I fit in OK. I learned the tricks to Galaga and was able to play just about forever; I rolled over the machine on a quarter one night. About three hours on a quarter; it was both exhilarating and, well, boring too.
And then Gauntlet at the Village Pantry near the McDonald’s where I worked. I was a senior by this point, and I’d work the closing shift, getting out at 12 or 1AM. I’d drop by the Village Pantry for a few quarter’s worth of Gauntlet before bed… and then in my dreams, I’d hear “Valkyrie is about to die!” over and over.
I think the “robot gyroscope game” you’re thinking of is Gyromite. I always loved that game. Squishing enemies (and oftentimes yourself) always made such a satisfying sound.
My first exposure to TRON, and my earliest memory of Disneyland, is seeing a row of the machines in the Starcade, each with one of those exhibition monitors on the top that lets others watch the game as you play. It blew me away, and I’ll always associate the game with that arcade.
Oh Wil! Why did you have to bring up Shakeys’ Pizza? I had my FIRST pizza there in Richmond, BC about 40 years ago. I loved Shakeys. They had the best crust ever. They started to vanish in the late ’70’s and I had to drive further and further to get to an open Shakeys. In the ’80’s I even had to drive to the USA! There was one in Blaine, right on the border, then Bellingham, WA about 20 miles south, then Mount Vernon, then Seattle. Now they are all gone!!! 🙁 I think there are some in Indonesia, but they are not the same restaurant, having been bought and sold a couple of times over the years. Only the logo remains. Thanks for bring back the memories, Wil. I now have a craving for pizza in a town that has no pizza – the nearest one is a 3 hour drive away. A 3 hour drive…
I always thought that track ball pinched my hand because I was a little kid with small hands, so when I saw that game at E3 in … 2006, I think it was … I tried it out.
Turns out that the size of my hands had nothing to do with it, it was just a pinchy controller.
And the Mojos. Don't forget the Mojos.
Mmmmmmm …. ojos.
Galaga – Forever associated with Andrew’s Fish & Chip Shop – or as we abbreviation-loving Aussies called it “The Fishy” – around the corner from my childhood house. It’s where kids crowded around and watched me set a record that nobody thought I was capable of.
Moon Patrol – the Belmont Squash Centre. I spent hours playing this game while my parents played squash in the 80s.
10-Yard Fight – Bennet’s Green Indoor Cricket Centre. I spent hours playing this game while my brother played indoor cricket. I’m beginning to sense a theme here.
Pac-Land – The Time-Out arcade at Charlestown shopping centre. We’d go here every afternoon after school. While my peers would play games like Street Fighter and Double Dragon, I was always more interested in games like PacLand and Wonderboy and the pinball machine called Dr Dude.
I never really did arcade gaming, I’m too young. But I did sit next to my brother while he played all of the classic Nintendo, NES, N64 and occasionally Xbox games. I was so crappy I never got much out of playing myself, but enjoyed watching him. And I’m sure being awesome in front of an audience was ok.
My most specific video game memory was my prom night, high school. I skipped prom, and instead went to go hang out with my brother and his cool college friends. Food, pool, and then I played Simpsons Road Rage on his Xbox until my fingers were too stiff to move. Good times.
The Twitters have been telling me all day that they're going to turn the Starcade at Disneyland into Flynn's arcade. If this is true, I'm renewing my annual pass.
Dude. Ten Yard Fight!
I just loved that voice that sounded like it was screaming, "READY! FOOTBALL! HUT! HUT! HUT!"
On the machine I played, it was like he was screaming though a megaphone, into a tin can connected to a tight piece of string and broadcast through a 20-year old clock-radio.
And the click-click of the players’ footsteps.
And the muffled way the ref announced “first down!”
I think we were playing on the same hardware, because my memories are identical.
"FRAST OUN!"
last year at the SDCC they had a Flynn’s arcade (complete with working versions of Space Paranoids and Journey on the jukebox) set up a couple of blocks away from the convention center. I am pretty sure it’ll be back for the 2010 con.
http://tinyurl.com/yfzw9uq
Now that you mention it, I remember the pinching too. Ouch. Between the pinching and the shocking, I think that was a game made to injure children *lol*
Oh crap, I HAD forgotten the Mojos! How could I forget the Mojos?
/shame
Missin’ my mojos…
Not a video game, per se, but mine is the “Flash” pinball game (which has nothing to do the the comic book character – mostly just had a thunder-and-lightning-bolt heavy-metal theme going). I practically lived in front of that machine at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in The Dalles, Oregon, circa summer 1979.
I actually found a Visual Pinball version of that table about five years ago, and played it quite a bit for old times sake. Wasn’t really the same, though. 🙂
Was it the fast Ms. Pac-Man or the slow? I was only good on the fast version.
nice post Wil. some of my earliest, cherished 80s arcade memories were at the Hessisch Oldendorf Air Station (tiny Air Force base in the middle of nowhere, Germany — i was a military brat): Pengo, Phoenix, Crazy Kong, Star Castle, Ladybug, Time Pilot, and the Harlem Globe Trotters pinball machine, which also took Susan B. Anthony coins to give you 5 credits. A trick we learned was if you quickly spun a quarter into the slot it sometimes gave you 5 credits. I also vaguely remember hearing Star Wars Disco (along with Flash Gordon theme/football fight) on the community center’s jukebox.
then of course we moved and it was all about Gyruss, Dragon’s Lair, Star Wars, Karate Champ (VS.) and getting all the kids at the bowling alley to man a button on the cocktail version of Hyper Sports. You had to mash those suckers quick.
It’s funny, back in the 80s you couldn’t help but find an arcade SOMEWHERE. I could always sniff em out, whether they were buried in the basement level of an American hotel in Berchtesgaden or if it was just a single machine in some little takeout joint.
Sinistar at the arcade section of a roller rink in Batavia, IL that I do not think is in business anymore and sadly cannot remember the name of.
SINISTAR, PEOPLE! I WAS 5 YEARS OLD! HAUNTED FOR LIFE!
Ah, video game memories. Dig Dug was the town Pizza Hut, and watching my dad’s boss eat seven and a half medium pizzas. Kick(a clown on a unicycle went back and forth and kicked balloons)was the nearby laundromat we used when our washing machine broke, and my mother had the darndest time getting enough quarters. Mr. Do was an estranged uncle’s apartment lobby that I spent time with once when my parents needed a sitter for me so they could go see George Carlin in concert. WWF Wrestlefest was a mall arcade in the next town over, and 1943 was the movie theater in that mall when my parents took me to see Amadeus and I was bored stiff, and in agony because I knew the entertainment was just outside the theater. Karate Champ was the hotel lobby that was my first trip away from home without parents(Mathcounts competition), and I had the hotel room all to myself. Star Wars(the old vector graphics one) was the gas station down the street where I used to buy baseball cards. NBA Jam was my college dorm’s arcade, and the free play nights where a friend and I took over the machine all night in a winner-stays-loser-to-the-back-of-the-line format. Starfox was a friend’s house, shortly after I moved to a new school, and I managed to make enough friends to get invited over to someone’s house for an all night videogame marathon.
And yet, that’s not even close to all the memories I have attached to specific video games.
Atari “PONG” First stand up Video game I saw, (Late 1970’s at Pietro’s Pizza Parlor Longview Washington. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong Everytime we had pizza there I had to talk my Dad into Money to Play it. (We thought it was Awesome) LOL
Dig Dug RULES in College I could Play Dig Dug for 1hr on a single Quarter. over 500,00 points (Now I can’t play 3 levels LOL)
And Yes another Pizza Place, I can’t remember the name, but the owner new me, cooked my pizza “Perfect” in fact I’d call and she would recognize my voice from “Hi” and say “Usuaual” I’d say Yup! and then hang up!.. (Oh they had a REALLY Cute Waitress there. what a hottie.)
Good Good Memories.
oh yeah, anyone remember Pacman Fever?.
probably the first album I ever bought as a kid. I still have it. (holy shit).
Sit Down Ms PackMan Ruled! A friend of mine nowever could “ROLL” Space Invaders.. Oh the College Years LOL
oh yeah, moon patrol. classic!
and Robotron and Mr. Do. dammit. boots up Mame
BEWARE! I HUNGER! RRRRAAAAAAWWWWWWWEEEEEEEERRR!!!!
RUN! RUN! RUN!
Gosh, what's not to be scarred for life by?
Elevator Action and MunchMobile are forever at the Short Stop convenience store and gas station between and Applegate’s Landing restaurant and Apple bowling alley in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Crystal Castles is at the Best Way Food Mart on Frank Phillips Boulevard in the same city, and it was always played by the same two guys, one smelling heavily of a presently-legislated herbal preparation rolled in rice paper and inhumated.
Galaga, Qix, Defender, and a few others I can see in my head by can’t remember the names of…Shane’s Games, which took the place of the aforementioned Applegate’s restaurant.
But there’s one particular Jack Griffith’s Gas-Up in Stillwater, Oklahoma–just off the OSU campus as you head off from Bennett Hall–where there’s a big screen with all the controllers that was always telling my friends in a calm but insistent voice, “Don’t shoot food.”
What was the game in the insane asylum that John Whorfin escapes from in Buckaroo Banzai’s Adventures Across the Eighth Dimension? Been trying to remember the name of that one for years. Shane’s had one of those. Cycloptic vector art alien in it. Anybody? Anybody?
i remember playing a Space Invaders arcade that actually had the acetate overlay to give the appearance of color graphics.
moving back to the states was a little bit of culture shock… tokens? i can get 5 for $1? awesome!!
I remember seeing people sitting at cocktail arcade games in the bars of restaurants when I was a kid. They weren't even playing! They were just sitting there drinking whatever they were drinking, and TALKING! TALKING WHEN THEY COULD BE PLAYING THE GAME!
11 year-old me just couldn't abide that kind of craziness, man. Stupid adults.
Wow…where in the world did I get “inhumation?” I think I must have been on autopilot recalling the fumes.
Asteroids, Phoenix, and finally Tempest – The Pick Kwik on the way to and from middle school. The one where I’d spend part of my lunch money on a Mountain Dew every morning (25 cents after the 10 cent refund for returning the glass bottle). That back corner is where we learned the arcade etiquette of lining up your quarter for a future game and also how to make the classic fake fart sound with an armpit.
Chiller always bring me back to Flippers, a full-blown arcade near our midnight movie theater. Chiller was the last-ditch game when you were broke because it was set to award free games if you scored high enough. We could play for an hour on one quarter before going on to fall asleep halfway through The Wall or Rocky Horror.
All of my happiest childhood memories revolve around gaming as well. From Zelda sleepovers to skipping school to go to the arcade, gaming has always brought me joy.
I hope I get to see you speak at PAX east. I was still sick when tickets sold out but I am competing for the reddit IRL PAX. Going to keep my fingers crossed and hope.
It's a perfectly cromulent word, and you used it in a thoroughly professionate way.
Oh man! Shakeys’ Pizza. In Coquitlam BC we had Farrell’s Ice cream right beside it. Those were some awesome memories.
I don’t think we’d invented video games yet though.
I was too busy when video games became popular- reading, writing, and babysitting were my life when others were playing Asteroids, Pac Man and Frogger. We did have an original Atari at home, but I got bored very quickly with it. I loved the old pinball machine at the Millside Tavern, though. I’ll never forget the loud “CRACK” when you won another game. And a game of pool there was a quarter, as were the 16 oz glass bottles of soda from the vending machine- Nothing beats an Orange Crush in returnable glass!
Playing Tempest and Star Castle, a tiny arcade in Coquitlam BC with my buddy Bill. Sometimes, skipping school to do it. Discovering Tempest at that same arcade, thinking it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.
Donkey Kong, however, brings up amazing memories of the second decent home computer we had. My dad bought a Radio Shack CoCo II, and nobody else in the family ever figured it out. I must have spent two months typing Donkey Kong in Basic, hoping that THIS TIME I’d get it right, and it would work. Saving the file to cassette tape. The nights spent in the basement with glorious 4K of ram! Wow.
And what was the stupid game where you were climbing the outside of a building, and people dropped flower-pots on your head? Wasted too much time and quarters on THAT one. Ai-yi-yi.
Crazy Climber!
I know this isn’t quite so old-school, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the movie theater. Almost 20 years ago, when my husband and I started dating, we’d play that one while waiting to get in to see a movie. The best part? It’s still there, so we can introduce our kids to it!
Crazy Climber!