Say Pac-Man.

I do remember the first time ever I saw Pac-Man and by first time I mean they day it became a new thing to the world. It was at a local bar/pizza place that I would go to with my dad on occasion and it was a place had the best stuffed pizza and just thinking about makes me want to experience again right now but I doubt they still exist. It was a bit scummy but the food was fantastic and it was one of the places I got to play video games, the owner collected video games and pinball machines and would cycle them though. My fond memories of Battlezone and Missile Command with its “Oink-Oink” sound of nuclear armageddon will mix with that barroom. One Saturday night (for the sake of my fuzzy memories from 30 years ago I am going to just declare it was a Saturday and call it good) there was a new machine there with a large gang of kids surrounding it with amazing graphics. The shiny new machine had been just delivered, hooked up and stuffed full of free credits that the delivery guy added before closing the machine up. There is a saying I am sure you know: “The first hit is always free” and I wonder if it was normal procedure to make the game free for a day when it showed up in places like that but that just stands out as one of those moments of sheer awesome. These days the idea of having to pay to play each game has got to be kinda foreign but with WOW and other on-line games I guess it all comes back.

It took most of the night to actually shove in for my free play but it was entertaining enough to just watch and talk about the rumored fireworks animation. The cut-scenes between levels were believed to be fireworks as nobody around me had seen it first hand and the idea of shit happening between levels was a new concept. I got to play it quite a bit after that day and over the next few years of total Pac Man mania hit the country. I am sure there was even Pac-Man soap and you know it all goes too far when it gets a Saturday Morning cartoon where they stretch a concept as thin as it could ever get. Damn, even as I type this I have the song “Pac-Man Fever” stuck in my head. I never owned that album in those days but my friend Dave did and when he moved out for College I kinda wanted to ask him for it but was a bit too embarrassed to bring it up as it was such a tacky thing. The thing was a horrible case of cashing in on a fad but I admit I like it, then again I am the same sort of person that can appreciate the Shaggs so take this opinion with a grain of salt.

It took a full two years of anticipation to get my hands on the first home version. The day it came out of the Atari 2600 I dragged my parents to Child World to be one of the first to get it and I can still remember the pie-in-the-face moment of actually getting to play it. The flickering ghosts and off key intro music that became such a cliché afterwards for shit video games will probably haunts gamers as much as the NES version of Superman 64. These are the defining moments when you die a little inside, just ask anybody that got E.T. on Christmas morning.

I know I have no real point to this so I just would like to say thanks Google for bringing it back for a day but when all is said and done, I still prefer Ms Pac-Man.

Pong Dance

Early on I became friends with David, the son of my dads friend and sometimes we would all go out for dinner. Around 1972 at one of these dinners I was introduced to video games for the first time.  

For the life of me I can’t remember the name of the restaurant but I can still see in my head the dark lighting and wood paneling that was popular at the time. Far in the back of the place there was this strange little machine called “Pong” and was perhaps coolest amazing new thing I had ever seen.

In 1972 you didn’t just run into new technology that often, digital watches were not even mainstream then and a bit of technology like seeing video games for the 
first time was a fucking amazing sight. The idea that you could do more than watch tv was too cool for words and we took to it within seconds.

The only problem we had was the device was on the far side of a dance floor that was teeming with dancers.

To cross this strange territory required us to blend in so we grabbed hands and
began an exaggerated and sarcastic tango across the dance floor.

This is how the night progressed:

   1) Eat some food.
   2) Beg for quarters.
   3) Tango across dance floor with great sarcasm.
   4) Play Pong.
   5) Dance Back.

This was perhaps the first major bit of electronics I ever got to play with and was the beginning of a lifetime of technology obsession.  

Thankfully, I don’t have to dance for it anymore.