I just got back from a boy's night out - we saw that Iron Man movie. Not bad if you want to lose a couple of hours and forget that you have to wake up and go to work in the morning. But the real fun was that we got there early and had a little time to kill. So Salim and I ducked into the video arcade attached to the theatre. I mentioned offhandedly how cool it would be if they still had the great old video games from the 80s lying around, like Galaxian and Galaga. And sure enough when I turned the corner they had a retro 80s console with Pac Man, Galaga and some other games on it.
Galaga used to be my game when I was a kid. I used to spend hours pumping quarters into those old machines honing my mad skillz. So I powered that thing up and blew past round thirty - scored more than 260,000 points. That would have been a very respectable game 25 years ago when I still had the reaction times of a 10-year-old. All the old reflexes came back, like muscle memory, and from some deep recess of my age-addled brain I could still anticipate the attack patterns that the bad guys used on each round. I couldn't believe it was happening - it felt as if the hand of the Divine was upon me.
I only wish I'd been surrounded by a pack of teenagers so I could show the little jerks what *old school* moves look like.
Posted by case at May 27, 2008 01:02 AM