FF Pac Man Fever

 

I look back fondly to the joys of my youth way way back in simpler times.  Kids today are growing up with computers in their pockets.  They have access to almost everything in the world at any given moment.  If we weren't at home at 8 pm on a Monday night in front of the television set, we didn't get to watch 'That's Incredible.'  There was no on-demand, DVRs, or binge watching at our convenience.

Video cassette recorders (VCRs) were in existence during the television run of 'That's Incredible' from 1980 to 1984.  Unfortunately, my family did not procure one of those fancy electronic devices until about 1985.  Interestingly enough, we only got one then, because my mom was dating some rich guy who bought it for us.

Being alive when new life changing technologies come into existence is incredible.  Unfortunately, today's youth get to see the birth of sentient robots that are quickly en route to the extinction of mankind. #sucksforthem  Back to the good ole days before even Blockbuster Video existed.  Many don't even know what Blockbuster is.  I might as well be referencing rotary telephones.  Way back in the year of 1980, the city I lived in got its first Video Game Arcade, Outer Limits.

Today's Flashback Friday piece is also from 'Boring Nights' circa 2000.

PAC MAN FEVER

Summers in my neighborhood, no school, still too young for work, it was just day after day of fun in the sun.  Actually, more like day after day of nothing to do except get sunburnt.  Two-hand touch football in the street was a Lemon Street staple, but the lethal smog and the unbearable heat have forced the Lemon Street Bulldogs to seek the shade.

Mom works days at the post office and our step-dad is spending time incarcerated, so my younger brother and I are left home alone to wreak havoc.  But, the city has just become exceedingly more interesting.  Downtown a video game arcade called 'Outer Limits' just opened up.  Needless to say, pretty much every kid in town has Pac Man Fever.

Our summer days weren't completely without boundaries.  We had two rules.  We were specifically told not to leave the neighborhood, and we had to do all of our household chores.  Two little unpaid house boys, mom needed all her money to feed her nicotine habit.  I guess.

This day the extent of our household chores was searching the couch and the rest of the place for change.  We scored some silver, and that's all it took.  The arcade was located about 2 miles away on the other side of town.  It was a mild summer day only about 110 degrees.

With that seventy-five cents burning a hole in my pocket and my brother with his fifty cents, we began our journey to the OUTER LIMITS.  Fueled by visions of cherries, limes, bananas, power pellets, and blue ghosts, we reach our destination in no time traversing that mileage with the greatest of ease.

Upon entering the double doors into an air conditioned paradise, we are hit by a barrage of colorful neon lights and various sounds from bells, buzzers, beeps, rocket ship jets to laser blasts.  My eyeballs bounce around like ping pong balls in a high intensity championship match.  

I see Asteroids immediately to my left, colorful Q-bert located straight ahead center, Missle Command to my right, a row of pinball machines along the back wall, Space Invaders doing battle in the far corner, Donkey Kong, Centipede and Joust all in a row, Tempest on the opposite wall middle, next to the sit-down Pole Position, Berzerk nearby between Galaga and Gorf, and an awesome space Trilogy of Defender, Tron and Star Wars down near the pinball machines at the end of the left wall.  Easily the most obvious of all these electronic addictions as all the other sounds fade and the other colors blur, I lock-in on the one and only Pac Man.

Our quarters must be converted to tokens in order to play.  We see a guy heading for the token machine.  He inserts a five dollar bill and we experience the beautiful sound of raining coins as a large quantity of tokens clanks into the metal tray.  The singularly sounding clink of one token is less satisfying as I individually convert my three quarters.

My mind is racing as I approach this paramount of pixels.  I quickly insert my first token, and life gets good.  Some mere minutes later my pocket is empty, and my heart is broken.

It's bad enough being penniless and pathetic at home, but it's infinitely worse when there are twenty to thirty video games beckoning one to play.  My brother and I hang around for about another hour, watching, and wishing we had some tokens.  The sound of raining tokens fill my waking dreams.

I keep hoping some cool rich guy will walk in and notice the sad desperation in our eyes.  After changing a twenty from his bucket of tokens, he offers up a handful to each of us.  Reality dictates otherwise.  I would panhandle for tokens, but I don't think it would work.

As we begin our journey back, we don't regret the trip, but the heat is definitely more of a factor now.  We have no paradise to look forward to just a dirty house that we have to clean.  

We make it back to the hood shortly before mom makes her return, so she hasn't a clue that we disregarded both of the rules.  For all she knows, we just didn't clean the house for which she is pissed.  We expected the yelling which was her only recourse since there isn't an allowance that she can withhold.  After the verbal beating, we begin the cleaning with Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Clyde, and Pac Man still racing around in our heads.

A couple of weeks later upon the release of our non-beloved stepdad from a nearby minimum security prison where he was serving time for being a deadbeat dad to his previous wife and children, I remember riding with him in the car to pick up dinner.  I'm asking him about the slammer, and he's giving me details.  I tell him that if I'm ever locked away in prison for the rest of my life they could keep me in solitary confinement for all I care.  It wouldn't matter a bit as long as they allowed me one thing, a Pac Man machine.  He just laughed.

Looking back on that statement as an adult, I realize how young, innocent, prepubescent, and naive that I was.  If I was back in that same hypothetical solitary confinement prison situation and I was given that same choice knowing what I know now, the choice is obvious.  I wouldn't waste my only request on a little kid's game.  With my worldly knowledge and my masculine desires, I would choose much more wisely.  I'd make a manly choice.  It's so obvious that I'd have to choose Donkey Kong.

Fun fact-  Pac Man was originally named Puck Man in Japan.  The name was changed for the units released outside of Japan.  Acknowledging the depravity of youth and their penchant for profanity, creators feared the games would be defaced.  Anyone up for a game of  'Fuck Man'?  

A significant amount of time has passed some forty plus years since my brother's and my initial trek to the Outer Limits.  Nowadays, I only have to make my way to my living room to reach the Outer Limits.  I built a home arcade machine recently that contains most of the original classics from 1980.  It also contains the original Puck Man game (only differences in the coded game are the character names).  

It was clear to me from the inception of the idea of building an arcade machine what I would put on the marquee.