Remember a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post saying I would be positive on Wednesdays?
OK so it only lasted one week but I thought I’d give it another go because everything deserves a second chance doesn’t it?
Well, except banking executives.
Anyway this week I want to you to tell me what home arcade game used to make you go weak at the knees.
I’m not talking about Xbox 360 or PS3 type of stuff … I’m talking about the sort of game that existed before characters like Sonic or Mario were even a twinkle in a nerds eye.
Again I’ll start to get things rolling …
Actually this is quite difficult because there were a lot of games that did it for me.
I never got an Atari 2600, I had a Phillips G7000 … mainly because my parents were anti games systems and because it had a keyboard, I was able to convince them it was something that could also help me at school.
The fact this was 1981 and it had all the computer power of a $2.84 calculator from Asda is besides the point, ha!
Whilst the Phillips system was fun … and it had games that were obviously ‘inspired’ by the Pacman and Space Invaders classics … I got more enjoyment from handheld games than stuff you played on the telly, though I have lots of good memories of playing
Over the years I had all sorts of gadgets … from the absolutely shite Merlin [which at the time was truly cutting edge, hahaha] … to Tin Can Alley [which my Dad had to put together one Christmas at 3 in the morning for his over excited son] … to a plethora of ‘Game & Watch’ machines to the shrunken Galaxian arcade genius that was ‘Astro Wars’ … however the 2 games that stand out – even though they were nothing more than battery operated clockwork machines’ – were BLIP and Demon Driver.
Blip was a tennis game that was advertised as being cutting edge because it had a LIGHT EMITTING DIODE. Yes, I remember when an LED was the sort of stuff NASA were producing.
Anyway you could play against a friend or against the ‘computer’ [hahaha] and it revolved around you returning the ‘ball’ by pressing button 1, 2 or 3 in time.
It was so basic that it’s almost embarrassing to admit I loved it – but I did – and when I first saw that LED light up, I thought I had met God.
Demon Driver was a racing game.
It came out after Atari launched their POLE POSITION arcade classic. The only similarity was that it featured racing cars because the ‘home version’ basically featured some racing cars printed on a cellophane loop that you had to avoid so you could go the furthest distance in the time allowed.
The time allowed was dictated by what is now known as a kitchen timer but the piece de resistance was that Demon Driver had a little gearstick allowing you to change speed between gear 1 and gear 3.
I think I was about 8 or 9 years old when I got these toys but even now at 38 – with all the toys you could want [or not] from Xbox’s and PS’s through to R2D2 and Nabaztag’s – when I think of them, I still feel the same pang of excitement and warmth as I did back when I ripped open the wrapping paper and for the first time saw the ‘future’ …
I’m not really sure why those games made such an impression on me … maybe it’s because they were the closest thing to the real arcade games I would get to play when my parents took me to Goose Fair … maybe it’s because they were the first toys that made cool noises … maybe it’s because rather than being kiddy coloured, they were in evil matt black … maybe it’s because they revolved around sports that were more ‘adult’ than an 8 year old kid was used to … but nothing has come out that has made me feel the same sense of awe as those 2 and I know that makes me sad, especially with the amount of money I blow on technoshit.
So folks, despite the fact some of you were born in a decade where you regard VCR’s as old fashioned, what home arcade game made you go weak at the knees?