بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم

Since retro games are a thing now.
Thought I’d share this.

If I may take you back to 1980… ☺️💯‼️

                 PART ONE

Pac Man hit the world.
It was definitely a craze.

Video Arcades were in every mall and then every neighborhood bringing about the birth of the strip mall.

Prior to video arcades, they could be found in 7-Elevens, laundromats, corner stores and such.

The pickings were slim.

Donkey Kong (really KING KONG) introduced us to Mario.

There were also Asteroids, Centipede, Galaxian and then came Pac Man.

That was about it until Pac Man and Ms. Pac got married and had Juniour.

Pac Man was EVERYWHERE even on the radio! They spelled it differently probably due to copyright. Nevertheless, when someone puts you in a song it pretty much immortalizes you.

Of course there was the usual merch: t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers…

Then the height of celebrity status at that time came – in the form of his very own Saturday Morning Cartoon!!!

I am wondering if I am forgetting a movie… 🤔

Anyway, soon the Atari video game console brought popular video games into the home.

(Incidentally also effectively bringing about an end to playing outside 😥 )

Slim pickings again. I just remember Dig Dug which I never understood and a game featuring the poison animal of fresh water which shall remain nameless. (Ewwww🤮)

My family came in on the updated version of the 2600 – the 5200 – and the game selection skyrocketed.

Pac Man
Pole Position
Double Dribble
Q-Bert
And so on…

Nintendo followed other less successful attempts such as Coleco and Intellivision and eventually, Mario (and his brother) relieved Pac Man of his number one video game status.

And he and his family silently retreated into video game ourstory…

In addition to the home consoles tho, also available were the handheld games.

If my memory serves me correctly, the very first was a football game consisting of dashes that represented the players. It was trifling but very high tech at the time… Think about it… a handheld videogame in 1981!

I don’t know how it may look to youngies but that shit was fun as hell!!!

Pardon my French! And I am a GIRL!,,

Then Nintendo came to the rescue with handheld heaven – the Gameboy.

Culturally and indubitably PAC MAN tho, was the Leader of the Pack. 😊

Until Super Mario Brothers debuted around 1985.

                PART TWO

I had a job at Sbarro’s in the Beverly Center when me and my co-worker became aware of this new game.

The little white boys would put their quarter on the console, “I got next” but instead of waiting, as was the custom, they would go play another game!!!

The introduction of the action adventure game.

It was so dope and revolutionized the Industry to the point of the complete obsoletion of the Video Arcade.

Personally, I thought I would use the joystick into perpetuity and I still cannot play on a keyboard.

But Nintendo brought Mario and his brother home and the video game industry has never been the same…

Sega Genesis burst onto the scene with Sonic and his krewe. I just loved the audio!!!

Around this time I had moved out; had my daughter; a full time job and was working towards my Bachelor’s Degree.

Needless to say, my interest in video games tapered off… ☺️

I still had a Nintendo tho‼️ Zelda and Mario Two on deck and would regularly impress my guests by correctly answering all the questions on Jeopardy.

(Little did they know, video Alex would invariably repeat the same categories that I played when they weren’t there. Ha-Ha!)

I also enjoyed Dr. Mario and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite backing Tetris at a friend’s house.

But I was reared on watching this very eccentric and artsy guy in the 7-Eleven on Venice before school who could get to the Banana and still had FOUR extra men!!!

I knew I wasn’t gonna get to play but it was fun watching him put his initials in the top scorers before hurrying off to school!!! ☺️💯☝🏿