One thing I remember happening when Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace movie trailers came out was people were so dedicated to Star Wars went to any movie that was showing the trailer.  They went into the movie, watched the trailer and left.  Wait, pay $12.00 to sit and watch a trailer and then leave?  You have got to be kidding me.  That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.  Haven’t these people ever heard of the Internet?  Al Gore made the Internet for a reason!   I guess technology needed to updated,  Where was I going with this?  Oh yeah.

So I loved video games a kid.  And I always tried to find an outlet to play as much as possible. One place I always able to get my fix every Friday or Saturday night was Skate West.  Oh man, I loved that place.  Put on a pair of four wheel skates and skate in a circle, play dodgeball, listen to Michael Jackson and the other hits of the 80’s.  And most importantly, play the video games there.  This place tried to shove as many games in every corner that they could.

One game that they were able to shove in there right next to a game called Mikey, don’t ask, that was a messed up game.  But the game that I am talking about involved a little cute penguin named Pengo.  How difficult can a game with such a cute name be?  Well, it sucks!  For my age, Pengo was one of the more difficult games that I ever played.  But according to K.L.O.V.  (Killer List of Video Games), they make it sound so much easier.  “You are a penguin in a maze of ice-blocks. Slide the blocks to squash the Sno-Bees chasing you or electrocute them by trapping them along a wall.”

Yeah, not as easy as it sounds.  When you are greedy trying to get to the bonus diamonds, you just aren’t thinking of the Sno-Bees that are running after you.  But one of the best parts of the game is being able to smash the enemies against the other cubes of ice.  And every time I did that, the kids that were around me were yelling. SMOOOOOOOSH!!!!  Yeah, kids say the darnedest thing!!

And to top it off, I was playing this game for the first time and I got to play $1 worth of the game because it was my birthday.  Oh how I remember those days.  I even got a Def Leppard t-shirt, a Donkey Kong board game, a Pac-Man board game and expansion manuals for Dungeons and Dragons.  Oh, yeah, I was a geek….wait I still am.  But anyway, the point is people will go through the strangest  hoops to get what they want.  Hungry people go to McDonalds for a quick burger fix, people will to to the library for a quick book fix, and married men will go to the strip club….. You get the idea.

Not every blog will make sense, like I said before.  These are just my random thoughts.  I’m actually finishing up with moving from an apartment to a house.  And you know what that means?  I officially have space for an arcade game.  Now I have to build it. And that I will.  Soon, I will blog about the construction of the retro machine.  Can’t wait to get started.  I just have to take all the crap out of my, I mean our garage.  For now…

 

Keep calm and insert coin!

Brad Feingold Brad Feingold (118 Posts)

Brad has been a die hard arcade fan ever since he can remember. From the first time he played Space Invaders, to the first time he played Pacman, Brad has always had a love for video games. Hanging out at either the Great American Fun Factory in the mall, or spending the night in front of the glowing games at the local roller rink, he was always thinking about when he can spend the next quarter. He also worked at Babbages, which is now GameStop, for over six years. Mostly because they had a really sweet checkout policy on new products and great discounts. But since he had the Atari 2600, he has never looked back and owned some of the greatest home machines, NES, SNES, GENESIS, Turbo Graphix 16, GameBoy, Game Gear, Lynx, Playsation 1,2,3,4 and Vita, XBOX, Gamecube, and N64...just to name a few. Brad is also a reviewer for Mobile Beat Magazine as well as a freelance videographer, part time disc jockey, performing artist and photographer. But has a true love is for video games and Star Wars, as he is a member of the 501st Central Garrison. His ultimate dream is to own a fully working pinball machine and arcade machine. Difficult to say which one, but a Star Wars one would be nice start.