Game Over? Not Quite

Back before my wife and I were married, our dates usually consisted of going out for pizza—and playing the arcade games commonly found in those establishments. She liked Ms. Pac-Man; my game was Galaga. This was in the eighties when such games were popular and new.

As teenagers with nothing else to do, we spent a lot of time playing them. And a lot of quarters too! Yeah, I know, kind of a waste of money. But it was an easy way to find entertainment. And as entertainment goes, it wasn’t really all that expensive—especially after a few months, when we got better at the games. Once we’d “mastered” them, we could spend an hour or more on just fifty cents: a quarter for her and a quarter for me. Of course, we did still have to buy a pizza, but thirty years ago, that was only about five bucks.

After we got married and life became a little busier, we never really had the time to play that much, other than when we happened to run across a Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga game somewhere. Through the years that happened less frequently as the games of our era were replaced by the “new” and “better” arcade games. As you might imagine we were less than impressed with the new games.

When our kids started getting older and things like Nintendo, Game Boy, and Play Station began showing up in our house, we were happy to see our favorite games of yesteryear had been included on many of them. But playing the games on the new consoles was just not the same. The buttons were all wrong, they were missing a joystick, and the set up was completely different from that to which we were accustomed. This all proved too adverse for us. And frustrating too, since our kids could play the games, but we could not—at least not very well.

So, for the last several years we haven’t really played much. Sure, there are still a few old style games to be found here and there but most of them are worn out. The joysticks don’t work right, the fire buttons are unreliable, and the screens are so fuzzy a guy can’t see what he’s doing. And yes, I know, new stand-up “Original” arcade style games have been available for a while—at Wal-Mart and other stores—but I wasn’t willing to spend $300, or more, to buy one. So, it looked like our Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga days were over.

But then...

After years of listening as we lamented the passing of “our” games, a month or so ago, our son showed up with two small packages: one for his Mother and one for me. We opened the packages to find a couple of mini-arcade games—Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. They look just like the old stand-up games, complete with a joystick and the original buttons, but they’re small enough to carry around from room to room—with one hand. You can set them on a counter or table and pretend it’s the eighties! And although the screens are much smaller, the resolution and dimension ratio are true to the originals. The main difference is they don’t cost a quarter to play! Good thing, ’cause with the price of pizza these days, I can’t afford another fifty cents for games! ~

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, The Lana Denae Mysteries, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook at www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS and paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million.