From the Vault: Uses Joystick Controller

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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151 thoughts on “From the Vault: Uses Joystick Controller”

  1. I didn’t have as many arcades around me, but there are a few kickers:
    After Burner, Tron, Pole Position – Sunshine Skate Center. Nothing like trying to depress a gas pedal with roller skates on your feet. Awesome.
    X-Men (the six-player one), Cyberball, WWF Wrestlefest, Golden Axe – Jolly Time arcade. Wasted many a Friday night at the mall in my youth, and what a great place to do it. It was my preferred Street Fighter II haunt as well. Bonus: When I got hungry…Chick-Fil-A right down the hall.

  2. Arcade games associated with certain spots? Well, Bubble Bobble, Altered Beast, and Golden Axe will always make me think of Kirk’s Food Store, the corner store just down the street from my house that started adding a few arcade games when they realized they were becoming a popular hangout for the schoolkids.
    Meanwhile, the aracade version of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is forever associated with the video rental store/video arcade the next town over. That store seemed to change its name every six months, but I always remember that, from 1991 to about 2002, the marquee out front proudly proclaimed that “Highlander 2” and “JFK” were now in!

  3. I honestly wasn’t really into arcade games so much… but I do have a few memories that were dredged up by this post. Galaga in the laundromat, where my little brother and I wasted many hours attempting to be good at it. I always got bored with it though. Finally, there came the epic day that one of the washers flooded the place and the Galaga machine was silenced forever. I still associate that game with the smell of laundry– soap and hot clothes and the slightly mechanical,slightly perfume-y smell that infused the building itself.
    Then there was Gauntlet, which I played at the bowling alley (while my parents bowled, natch). I ALWAYS played as the Valkyrie, and ALWAYS died. I always remember the awful seventies-patterned carpet and the smell of smoke, the machine yelling “Green Valkyrie needs food! Green Valkyrie needs food badly!

  4. I think there are still a few Shakeys left……
    Most of my console games were VIC-20 or C64; Since they seemed to be better than what was there for the TRS-80
    and Sinclair.
    Wil, I think I remember you acquired a Atari 2600 a while back, but in case I’m remembering wrong; theres an estate sale here in OC that lists a 2600 as being among the items being sold, along with some LP, 8- track tapes and an 8 track player. PM me on twitter if you need/want details the sale starts Friday.

  5. Wil,
    Sometimes it actually hurts when your writing pokes my brain in that way. Crazy how you, me, and all these others share that same common gestalt. It’s not just that we all have those “sense-memories” of those early video games. Or that we can recall that feeling of what it was like at 12 to stare stare stare into the flickering scrambled cable to get a glimpse of boobies. It’s what those memories mean to us now, and how it literally affects us in some sort of primal way. It’s like you’re able to hit that perfect memory-frequency resonance.
    Thank you Wil for regularly tapping into that for me. In a way I feel younger for the experience. Not to mention that you often find the words for things I feel and think that I can’t always find. So it’s good reading for my wife. I think in some ways she understands me better for having read things you’ve written.

  6. I remember when Space Invaders came out, and there was a line at least 30 people long at the roller rink to play it. They eventually only had to rent a second one to avoid a riot, especially when people got good at it. To get the full effect, you have to remember that this was 1978 and you had to get a friend to block the light from the disco ball or it would really screw your ability to see what you were shooting.
    The real arcade magic, though, was Zaxxon; my best friend Janet and I traded the top scores on that at the local arcade for almost six months. It looked more difficult than it was, one of the first with really sophisticated graphics for its time, but once you learned the pattern, your longevity was determined more by whether you’d remembered to go to the bathroom and get something to eat before you started playing. I’ll forever associate that game with the music track from Spy Hunter, though, since our friend Joe would pump endless quarters into that game to amuse himself while Jan or I would try to beat one another’s score from the previous week.
    The local 7-11 will forever be associated with Donkey Kong, Joust (which I sucked at) and Sinistar (“I live….”)

  7. I got a few of these myself.
    Playchoice 10 (a nes arcade machine) in the dough boy pizza shop in fallston (MD)
    Altered beast in the skating rink in hampstead (md) (before it burnt down)
    Discs of tron in the bel air mall (md) (the run down one)
    Although not entirely a video game playing table hockey with my uncle at the arcade my mom worked at in the late seventies (md) (the other bel air mall across from the other one)
    Mortal kombat one in dream machine in westminster md and mortal kombat 2 at the capezios in hampstead md
    and finally marvel vs capcom/street fighter vs x men in the moved down the mall three hundred feet dream machine after class in college.

  9. Saturday morning, after arguing with my mother about abdicating my place on a bowling team after two years of proving I have no aptitude for the sport and being summarily dragged to the car sans kicking and screaming (I was 13 and to old for things that never worked anyway), I’d find myself at Timberlanes bowling alley in Traverse City, MI. In the way back, passed the snack bar and lockers, 3 games stood to mock me: Q-bert, Space Invaders and Pac-Man.
    I’d rather be mocked by 4 stupid ghosts and inept yellow dot than a bowling ball anyday. So that is where I ended up between games while my mother added up my team’s ridiculously poor score. I still cannot get passed the third level before my last life expires.
    I’m a bad geek.
    Or, given the percieved lack of hand eye coordination I am a good geek. yeah, I didn’t think you guys would let that pass 😉

  10. Long-time reader, first time poster.
    The time: mid-to-late 80s
    The place: barren, broken, rust-belt Western PA
    Ms. PacMan at Denny’s. I had an unfortunate habit of humming/singing “Out of Touch” by Hall & Oates, as it seemed to help me avoid the ghosts. I’m sure the surly and scary denizens eating at the nearby counter enjoyed it, though.
    DigDug in the vestibule to iHop. The table top model, which made everything seem just a bit classier. I could sip a martini and having it right on top of the game? Except you can’t get liquor at iHOpe, sooo…you could get iced tea!
    Centipede in the local movie theater, and the creepy dude who was always playing the machine with much verve. If you put up with his bravado, he’d let you finish his game when he had to finally stop and go do…whatever it was he was supposed to be doing.
    And in Hills (for those of you who don’t have them, think a whtie trashier, even more beat-down K-Mart or Target), that’s where I first saw Dragon’s Lair. Dude! It’s a cartoon! But it’s a video game! Teh awesome! Yes, reality was just learning a very precise sequences of joystick and button moves to navigate your way through a fairly constricted gameplay, but still!

  11. For me, some of the biggest memories is playing Gauntlet with my sister, brother and cousin at the PnE in Vancouver, BC… Atari 2600 games like Tank remind me of playing them in the house in Bellevue, WA, but Pong reminds me of being sent to bed early and sneaking to the stairwell and discovering Mom and Dad playing it.

  12. My local arcade was at Mall of the Americas in Miami and it was really cool. I learned how to play a real pinball machine thanks to a married couple of bikers. That was awesome! That arcade had the movie-type games on a huge screen that you could see from the the mall walkway. I remember playing a cowboy game there.
    I would usually play to win, but there were certain games that I would play over and over again: Tetris, Tetris II, Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers I,II and III, Pinball, Dragon’s Lair, Elevator Acton, Galaga, Star Force, Goonies, Cluck-Cluck Land, Frogger, Ghoul School, Street Fighter, Mortal Kobat I & II. (This is exhausting.)
    As an adult, I love playing Casio Kid and all the Simpsons games. This a place I love to visit which let’s you play online without downloading anything: http://www.virtualnes.com/
    I had an X’eye (SEGA CD + Genesis) which was the coolest thing ever! I played: The Rise of the Dragon, Who Shot Johnny Rock and Cliffhanger. There was one game that was so hard for me to progress in.
    Does anyone remember the name of the Sega CD game where you pilot a ship from one planet to the next and Michael Dorn does the voice acting?
    The NES games I always regret not finishing were: Faxanadu, Star Wars, Flying Warriors, Golgo 13: The Mafat Conspiracy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Out of the World for SNES.
    The games I regret never buying are: Lost in Las Vegas (SNES) and Voyager (SEGA CD) This is really embarrassing, but I confess I haven’t played Grand Theft Auto. I’m buying it tomorrow.
    What games do you regret not playing or winning?

  14. oh! almost forgot… as a side to this, my siblings and I will still play a game where we’d start humming a theme song from random childhood video games and see who would recognize it (and who would be totally off by humming one theme and thinking it was from another game) Pac-Man was always an easy one if you got as far as the wokka-wokka-wokka that signaled the game start. 😀

  15. When I think of arcade games, I think of Lakewood Mall, and the… Well, I am sure it changed it’s name a few times, but I think it was called the Bullseye Arcade. It always felt like you were going into this Old West Saloon, without the tables or Beer. The air was filled with the smell of Ionized particles and maybe a little soldering smoke, as rock music played over loud speakers, and you had rows of cabinets. It’s the arcade where I first played Venture, and Gauntlet, Firefox and Space Ace at. I would beg and save allowance to go there. I liked it because no one ever harassed me there. I think my father liked it because I would be ‘safe’ while he went next door to the Old Grenadier and checked out the War Games. In any case, I loved that arcade.

  16. Great post, Wil. I will always associate my first game of Joust to a Showbiz Pizza in my hometown. My parents had just decided to divorce, but we were still together that evening having pizza. It was a strained night, but I got lost in the flapping wings of my ostrich-like jousting mount.
    Also, Wil, I think you may have blocked me accidentally (I hope) from your Twitter feed. I’ve purchased all of your books and I’ve been reading your blog for years, so if I’ve offended I apologize, though I’m at a loss for why. If you could, sir, please reinstate me?

  17. Q-Bert will always remind me of dark rainy nights in Jefferson County hoping my older step-brother would let me play his Atari. Tank Wars reminds me of when he did. Also, Atari reminds me of chopping kindling for the wood stove.
    “Bible Adventures” reminds me of my sisters. We were devout atheists but were addicted to the “Noah’s Ark” portion.
    As an aside: Was looking forward to catching you and Nimoy at ECC but won’t be able to this weekend. Between the 6 month old and other commitments it’s sadly a no go. Please keep hitting Seattle as I hope to be there in the future. Enjoyed your talk in ’08.
    Had something witty to end this on but keep going afk to chase down my son.

  19. learning the pattern for pac-man at Zeppy’s pizza after a long day at the beach (Manhattan Beach)
    riding our bikes to Redondo Pier to play stargate (only place we could find it – and it’s still there!)

  20. Street Fighter, not Street Fighter 2, but the one with the giant red and blue buttons that you had to punch to get them to do anything, and it was impossible to do fireballs or uppercuts and there was a ninja and Sagat was the boss, yeah, that one. – The awesome arcade at Knotts Berry farm right next to where Kingdom of the Dinosaurs used to be. I have no idea if the arcade is even there anymore.
    SF2 – The liquor store directly on my path from home to high school. Save vs spending lunch money en route to class failed. 🙁
    Skate or Die – the arcade at the HB pier

  21. Tempest will always belong to an arcade a block from my high school. The place didn’t have a name–just a painted sign that said VIDEO GAMES. Inside it was the almost perfect representation of a lost arcade: Zeppelin posters taped to the wall, filthy carpeting, and the smell of pot coming from the change gate at the back.
    Ah, the Eighties.

  22. Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace, Bega’s Battle (“Sony! The Teleporter!”), Knock Out, Karate Champ, Pole Position and Empire Strikes Back — what used to be Videospace in downtown Seattle
    Star Wars (the vector-graphic version with the airplane-like controller and bonus points for using the force) — what used to be Arnold’s on Broadway (Seattle)
    Star Trek (the sit-down version), Sea Wolf, Dig Dug, Berserk and Starship 1 — what used to be the Fun Forest arcade at Seattle Center
    Asteroids and Lunar Lander — what used to be a 7-11 at 81st & Greenwood in north Seattle
    Space Invaders — the Skate King in Burien, WA.
    Night Driver — what used to be a bowling alley near the University of Washington in Seattle
    Buck Rogers — the arcade at what used to be SeaTac Mall (Federal Way, WA)
    Gauntlet and Spy Hunter — what used to be an arcade named Space Port on University Way near N 45th St in Seattle.
    Geez, not only are these games gone, but so are the places I used to hang out in to watch and play them.
    Now where did I put that rocking chair and shawl? Those damn kids better not be playing on my front lawn again.

  23. Before reading this post, I was aware I’d spent an inordinate amount of time and money playing Gauntlet<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet_%28arcade_game%29> (the voice in my dream always said,”Blue Valkyrie is about to die!”), Pinbot<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin*Bot> and Pro Wrestling<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Wrestling_%28Nintendo_Entertainment_System%29> at the Lorain, Ohio 7-Eleven<“>http://www.7-eleven.com/AboutUs/History/tabid/75/Default.aspx> that was conveniently located at the end of my paper route. The post and comments immediately had me rummaging through the dusty recesses of my childhood memories. I was surprised by how the thought of certain games instantly conjured the exact locations and sensations so long ago associated with them. I remember arcade games in various places. I vividly picture my first time playing Yie Ar Kung-Fu<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yie_Ar_Kung-Fu> in an Elyria, OH Zayre Department Store<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayre> and happily rediscovering it while on vacation in Eagle River,WI (where I beat Blues for the first time). My chlorine-scented domination on Karate Champ<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_Champ> at a now defunct swim club called Riviera that was part of a great summer. I remember the awe-inspiring glimpse into the then-would-be-future of games with Dragon’s Lair<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon’s_Lair> at Aladdin’s Castle<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin’s_Castle> in North Olmstead,Ohio, to the time when myself and two friends were playing Rampage<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_%28arcade_game%29> at Aladdin’s Castle in Marion, Indiana when some unknown, random kid comes up behind us, reached in front of one of my friends, who was in the middle, to punch my other friend at the left station, in the jaw. (The ensuing fight got us kicked out of the mall but was quite entertaining.)
    I remember my first Apple II<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_family> experiences after school with Oregon Trail<“>http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=GameMuseum.Detail&id=266> and Karateka<.”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karateka_(video_game)>.
    I can recall countless hours spent in our basement with good friends playing console games. The console evolution unfolded throughout my early teens, from PONG<,”>http://www.pong-story.com/gi.htm>, to Combat<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_%28video_game%29> on the Atari 2600<,”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600>, to squeezing through the gap<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joust_%28video_game%29#Programming_bugs> to victory in Joust<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joust_%28video_game%29> on the Atari 7800<,”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_7800>, through my introduction to the oft-mentioned “turtle trick”<“>http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2009/12/the-turtle-trick-delivers-ultimate-victory.html> in Super Mario Bros.<“>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.> on the NES<.”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System>.
    Thank you, Mr. Wheaton, for starting me on this brief trip into my arcade of memories.

  24. Completing all 256 screens of Pac-Man at the little liquor store on Garden Grove Blvd, turning over Dig Dug at the 7-Eleven on Haster and Chapman Ave are two of many video game memories that are permanently burned into the ROM chip known as my brain.

  26. I had an arcade that I practically lived in where I played all the old favorites.
    I think that’s why MAME has remained so popular. You can play all of them the way they SHOULD be played…with joysticks, buttons, trackballs and spin wheels!
    I ended up making my own cabinet so I could stick a computer in it and play them all “old school”. It’s a little bit Frankenstein and a little bit Disney Nautilus…
    http://www.frankencade.blogspot.com
    Doug

  28. Before reading this post, I was aware I’d spent an inordinate amount of time and money playing Gauntlet (the voice in my dream always said,”Blue Valkyrie is about to die!”), Pinbot and Pro Wrestling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Wrestling_%28Nintendo_Entertainment_System%29 at the Lorain, Ohio 7-Eleven that was conveniently located at the end of my paper route. The post and comments immediately had me rummaging through the dusty recesses of my childhood memories. I was surprised by how the thought of certain games instantly conjured the exact locations and sensations so long ago associated with them. I remember arcade games in various places. I vividly picture my first time playing Yie Ar Kung-Fu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yie_Ar_Kung-Fu in an Elyria, OH Zayre Department Store and happily rediscovering it while on vacation in Eagle River,WI (where I beat Blues for the first time). My chlorine-scented domination on Karate Champ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_Champ at a now defunct swim club called Riviera that was part of a great summer. I remember the awe-inspiring glimpse into the then-would-be-future of games with Dragon’s Lair at Aladdin’s Castle in North Olmstead,Ohio, to the time when myself and two friends were playing Rampage at Aladdin’s Castle in Marion, Indiana when some unknown, random kid comes up behind us, reached in front of one of my friends, who was in the middle, to punch my other friend at the left station, in the jaw. (The ensuing fight got us kicked out of the mall but was quite entertaining.)
    I remember my first Apple II experiences after school with Oregon Trail and Karateka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karateka_(video_game).
    I can recall countless hours spent in our basement with good friends playing console games. The console evolution unfolded throughout my early teens, from PONG, to Combat on the Atari 2600, to squeezing through the gap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joust_%28video_game%29#Programming_bugs to countless victories in Joust on the Atari 7800, through my introduction to the oft-mentioned “turtle trick” in Super Mario Bros. on the NES.
    Thank you, Mr. Wheaton, for starting me on this brief trip into my arcade of memories.

  30. I was always a Tempest girl myself. I <3 that game... still do... met the man I love playing that game... *laughter*... Wil... I must ask... I've looked and looked all over your blog, etc... is there a reason you don't have a facebook page? Are they the world's great evil and I don't know? Enlighten me? Please?

  31. There's an unofficial fan page that's run by some longtime readers and former Soapboxers (teh soapbox was my old BBS years ago), but I don't do anything directly with Facebook at the moment.

  32. “Red Warrior needs food… badly.” Many a BC Ferries trip was spent hearing that over and over.
    Yeah – Track and Field and a comb or a pencil to manage the super-tap needed to get really good speed. Played, in the basement of the lodge at Manning Park with its faux-wood paneling, and concrete floors.
    Galaga in the white gyprock corner of the corner store at Whalley exchange – many buses missed due to getting good at that game.
    Space Invaders, cocktail version, in the dark orange and brown lobby of the Harrison Hotel.
    I knew those too.

  33. Centipede in the too white (floors, walls, ceiling) Fred Meyers in Bellingham, just beyond the cash registers, near the bathrooms. Where you couldn’t trade four Canadian quarters for four American ones for “some reason” – you always ended up with three quarters and some other change.
    Who wants to shop with mom and dad when you can kill centipedes and chip away at mushrooms?

  35. LOL – whenever any to people are about to combat each other in any way I still find myself saying “Fight!” in that Karate Champ Referee sort of way. The leg sweep was deadly!

  36. Was that south of Lougheed Mall near the #1? I think I recall one there but I can’t remember. I recall going to Shakey’s but I think I might have been thinking about the one in Blane or Bellingham.
    I do remember when Godfather’s Pizza opened in Guildford though – and the cocktail Super-Pacman in there.

  38. Had Omega Race for the Collecovision – got extremely good at it – then I tried it on an emulator recently and sucked horribly.
    CV Emulator would be where I’d go – I never even saw the arcade version ever.

  39. I remember Asteroids at that arcade in Playland – that place was ALWAYS dark – even when it was bright and sunny outside – I’d always come out of there like a bear coming out of hibernation to a bright spring day (about as grumpy to have to leave too!) blinking, squinting and shielding my eyes. 🙂

  40. One game that I died for at the end of the eighties was a game called Cyberball – Madden had nothing on this for so many years! We’re talking robots that played football and exploded if they were holding the ball when they failed to get a touchdown on fourth down.
    The secret was upgrading your RB until you had the fastest upgrade – then letting him go on sweeps to the outside where he’d out “run” everybot all the way to the endzone.
    Played it in a 7-11 on the corner of King George Highway and 102 ave in Surrey, BC. The 7-11 is still there, but I’m afraid there’d not even one video game in there any more.

  41. Another game I played on the ferries (even during rough water that noticeably shifted you side to side or front to back) was 1942 – the chance to do loops and rolls to avoid those times when you simply couldn’t avoid ALL those enemy shots.
    How many games ended up copying that one?

  42. I think you might be right. About 90% of the game took place undeground. It was only in one arcade amd wasn’t as poular as some of the bigger games.
    There was also an arcade that a friend took me to that had TAITO games. There was a skiing game that was really cool.
    They only seemed to exist at this one arcade. I’m guessing they were Japanese game possibly. Had to drive 30 minutes to get there.

  44. Chuck E Cheese turned the gaming world upside down – as it was the first BIG arcade within driving distance – it was there that I first saw and played Mach 3.
    I was never really into flight simulators – but when I saw Mach 3 enclosed/sit down version in the 80s – I enjoyed the heck out of blowing up enemy bogeys – I spun and fired constantly just to get the most out of the feel of the game – if you could button-mash with a FS that’s what I did with M3.

  45. So many games, so many memories.
    Phoenix as a little kid bumming quarters at KOA Campgrounds all over the US while Mom carted us kids to various parks.
    Black Knight Pinball at the Holiday Bowling Alley, where everything was dark because of the ancient wood veneer on all the walls.
    Discs of Tron at the Spaceport arcade in the Burlington Center (Long since turned into a travel agency or something). Gauntlet, Super Dodge Ball and the classic (Yet strangely forgotten) Major Havoc. (Vector graphics and spinwheel controller that wasn’t Tempest!)
    Street Fighter II Champion Edition at the Fort Dix PX arcade.
    Thanks for the nudge towards memories, Wil.

  47. I played a lot of metroid on the NES as a kid. When I think of the game I always can picture playing it in my best friends bedroom.
    Oddly enough there was a Paul Vandyke song that sampled the theme from metroid. I listened to that album constantly when I first went to college, especially on the bus… and at the time I was reading seize the night by dean Koontz. So.. every time I hear the music from metroid I think of events in that book. It’s a fairly odd juxtaposition.

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