|
Asteroids - The Timeless Video Game (by FETT)
When I was just a little guy, waaaaay back in the 80s, I remember one of my all-time favorite arcade games being "Asteroids".. The game was pretty basic, and didn't have a lot of colors or flare to it, but the music is what drew me in.. That Jaws-like "duh-duh-duh-duh" stuck in my head, even after growing up, and after arcades for the most part fell off of my radar. Today, well into my 30s, I'm still an avid game enthusiast and player. I remember getting a copy of the classic Asteroids game to play on my PC, but the whole arcade "feel" just wasn't there, with the classic arcade crate and buttons removed from the equation. It was better than nothing I guess, but just wasn't powering up the joy generator. Over the summer of this year, while talking with a friend in his garage, my eye caught something standing up in the back of the room.. I actually had to interrupt my buddy and say to him, "Whacha got back there in the corner??" He stopped and turned to look, and replied "oh that's one of them old video game thingys". The guy is well into his 50s, and judging from the way the machine was isolated in the garage, it was obvious that it wasn't a regularly-used item in their family.. It was buried amongst a stash of other "garage-type" inventory (you know, the norm- boxes, old clothes, etc.. basically things that are too cluttery to keep in your house, but just too difficult to severe from one's sentimental cache file, to be pushed out to the curb). My curiosity peaked, and I had to ask if it worked.. He said "oh yeah, works great- the power cable had been cut somewhere over time, so I had to fix it- But it runs like a champ. Ever since the kids moved out, it just sits out here.." At this point, the collector-addict side of my personality began to emerge, surfacing quicker than the Devil in Regan, the girl in The Exorcist.. Crossing fingers on both hands, and toes on both feet, I planned a strategy and took the plunge.. I immediately targeted the inner-child of this guy, and dropped the line, "my niece would really get a kick out of that". The sad part is, my niece had absolutely NOTHING to do with this want.. Ya, she would get a kick out of it, true- but there were MUCH larger forces at work here.. The
seconds after the words left my face, were like the time that would
pass after throwing a grenade and waiting for the explosion.. I wanted
to hunch over and cover my ears, terrified that the response was going
to be a crash-and-burn response like "nah, I just can't bring
myself to let it go", or something to that effect. He looked
at the machine, and looked back at me, and I heard the dreamy response
of, "go get your truck.." I had driven my old Chevelle to
the guy's house originally, so I had to take the car back and swap
vehicles at my house. I drove the '66 back to the house like I was
in the NHRA Summernationals, and returned IMMEDIATELY with my pickup. Getting the machine back to my house, at first I didn't even power it up. I just sat there, staring.. "I have, an original arcade machine, here… at.. my.. house.." It was like someone had just delivered trinkets from the Pharaohs to me. I finally brought myself to power it up, and everything worked exactly as the guy said- The ASTEROIDS banner on the top of the machine lit up, the monitor came up, and the added bonus was, this machine had already been configured to play sans-quarters.. As shown in the pic, the game now resides in MY garage, however my garage is my SANCTUARY.. It is not loaded with items that are in landfill purgatory, as most other garages contain. I'm
pleased to share this little piece of my life with our fellow-gamer
community. Please drop us an email if you too have a piece of classic
gaming history that you are proud of. * back to main *
|
