I Love My Arcade Machine
Probably everyone’s favorite activity is when we have people over at our house is playing video games. No gathering is complete without at least a few games of Virtua Athlete 2K or NBA Jam, in particular, but there’s plenty of other options. Last night, after a group of people tagged in and out to complete a game of Ninja Baseball Batman (Yes, this is actually a thing, and no, it’s not what you think), a BFF and I stayed up way too late trying to beat Super Mario 3 for the first time in more than a decade. A few nights ago, our housemate played through a bunch of Sonic the Hedgehog. Prior to that, I had played the original arcade version of Joust for a solid hour with a couple of the children from next door. It’s always like this. This list of games from disparate platforms spread across so many years may make it sound like I must have an entire wall of game consoles and a tangled hell of cables, converters, and splitters, but not so. I just have... an arcade machine.
There it is in our old apartment, fresh after the initial construction. I had not yet installed the lights in the functioning coin door, but it really adds to the aesthetics when it is on. The damn thing is huge. It took four men a lot of effort to get the cabinet into the door without being crushed to death, after which I learned a valuable lesson about using lighter-weight materials to build things. Anyhow, I probably worked on the thing for the better part of a year, going back and forth between construction and the software setup. It was truly a lot of work: configuring, scripting, doing the artwork, setting up the menus... mostly because I have a tendency to go overboard on things and I made it difficult for myself. Plus, we all know that the world would end if a game lacked a title card in the front-end software, so I had no choice.
I actually wasn’t a huge gamer as a young kid. I had an NES and SNES, sure, but my friends weren’t really serious about it, like some were, and I didn’t really know anyone with a subscription to Nintendo Power, so I didn’t know things that I should, like that Metroid was something I should bother playing, or that I could double up on warp whistles to get to World 8 in Mario 3. I most definitely got into PC gaming around Middle and High School, playing way too much Counter-Strike even into college, but they lacked something more classic gaming had. Possibly my most valued gaming memories from those times are of being in a room with my best friends playing Super Bomberman or Goldeneye. It’s doing something in a room together that is most important, I figure.
The arcade has been a fixture since we first brought it in for just that reason. Apart from being a conversation starter, it’s a way for new friends or a guest to become a part of the group; even non-gamers can get in on some Rock Band or Karaoke. Our large circle bonds in front of it - blowing each other up, smashing through enemies together, whatever. When it’s just one or two people home alone, it’s still a fun way to kill some time here and there. Just pull up a stool, or execute a hunch over the panel if you’re getting really serious about it. Even the baby, as of yet unable to walk or talk, loves to sit up on my knee and mash his open palms down on the panel to hear the clack-clack-clack of the buttons and the sprong-ong-ong of the joysticks returning to position. It’s these things that make me really happy I took this project on.
I expect that the arcade will be a good thing for the baby in the future. It would have blown my pants off as a child to have such a thing in my house, for sure. I figure I can say that it will help his hand-eye coordination so I feel like it’s 100% constructive. Hopefully by the time he’s actually able to use the thing I will have both finished setting up the Arcade version 2.0. Why 2.0? The computer running the arcade is a bit underpowered and I’ve been itching to include Gamecube and Playstation 2 games in the collection, so I’ve begun moving over to a much more current system that can handle those emulators. The console up to Dreamcast and PSX and the like are great and all, but it would be nice to have some Smash Brothers or Katamari Damacy thrown into the mix. Some Robot Alchemic Drive wouldn’t hurt either. Anyway, that will be a whole other article, rife with the technical bits that it took to get everything working seamlessly. If I’m a bad enough dude I’ll have that done sometime this century - keep an eye out.
Christopher Peterson lives in New Jersey. He appreciates properly-sharpened knives, perfectly- split macadamia nuts and all things Norse.