The exhibition was called Game On, and it was an exhibition about the history of the video game. The bulk of it was made up of hundreds of playable free video games. The exhibition had everything from Pong and Frogger through Nintendo games like Donkey Kong and Mario World to arcade games like Pacman up to modern online role-playing games and the latest games for the Wii. It was a very crowded exhibition so it was hard to get at a lot of the games, but if you were patient, you could play whatever you wanted. We spent hours playing various arcade and video games. Neither Leslie nor I had TV or video games growing up, so while the exhibition didn't trigger feelings of nostalgia from our youths, it sparked a feeling of "Ha! Now we can play what the cool kids have always been playing!" Video games are still something of a novelty to both of us, so we were thrilled to be let loose in a giant centre filled with all the games we weren't allowed to have as children.
When we got hungry we left and went to a chocolate cafe. It's not a cafe that has prepackaged chocolate - it's a cafe that only serves chocolate. Chocolate bagels, chocolate pizza, chocolate fondue, chocolate cake, chocolate waffles and of course, seven or eight different kids of hot chocolate. Leslie got a bit of chocolate overload, but I was in choco-heaven.
I love being a grown-up. You can play video games and eat chocolate all day and no one can tell you not to.
The next day, inspired by the Game On exhibition, we bought a second-hand Play Station 2 and Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero
is a video game where you play a plastic guitar (with buttons where the frets are and a plastic toggle instead of the soundboard to strum) along with popular rock songs on the screen. Each fret button is a different colour, and you the screen shows you what buttons are coming up.Winter is coming up, so we figured now was a good time to invest in video games. Leslie brought out his Tomb Raider 1 game from Ireland and beat the game, and I'm having lots of fun rocking out to Guitar Hero. I'm not very good yet and still get booed off the stage sometimes, but it's a lot of fun.
It turns out that if you don't let your kids have TV or video games when they're children, they don't grow up to be adults who don't like TV or video games. We're getting really into both. We're reliving other people's childhoods.
Sorry that this post isn't about leaping off cliffs or going on exotic trips, but life can't be all action. Sometimes you just need to sit on the couch and pretend to play the guitar.
2 comments:
Delighted that the world has not had to lose a writer to gain a fiancee.
I seem to have a vague memory of seeing PacMan played at Laracor, so I am not sure you had such a deprived childhood as your latest essay suggests. That looked like a game I could live without but the general realm of computer gaming seems as if it has many interesting forms, sharing the territory with much which would seem pretty unattractive.
The lifelong, Irish-born, friend of the elder Leslie, Robin Edgeworth Johnson, a notable engineer, devised an electronic double-base that could be conveniently carried round in a small handbag. He thought that the idea did not catch on because the player would look ridiculous in the orchestra pit, unpacking such a small instrument amongst his traditional colleagues, but I now occasionally see such instruments amongst those contributing to dramatic performances. Would your instrument, allied with a suitable computer program, enable you to compose on screen, rather than keep only to music already there?
I hope Australia is a country in which plain chocolate can be found amidst all the outlandish forms available in your choco-heaven. Highly sugared "milk" forms have now swamped much of the UK. The enormous rampart of tins which appear in front of my local supermarket in the months prior to Christmas look as if they are sufficient to stop every heart in Moss Side.
On my own brief visit to Australia, one distinctive thing about the country seemed to be that food worth eating was quite easily available, - a lot of little cafes with sensible menus and machines stocked with fruitjuices and nuts, not to mention a mountain of oranges in Perth airport, where I spent a day on landfall, as the friend I expected to meet there had moved on and planes eastwards then only seemed to fly at 24-hour intervals. I was surprised, therefore, to hear a radio report of emigrants to Western Australia who experienced weight problems because they could only find the convenience foods conventionally available here.
Glad you are still finding Melbourne to be filled with interesting opportunities.
Eleanor and Frances were both in Manchester last weekend, for Mike's 32nd Birthday Party, and both seemed to be getting on well when they dropped in on me for a couple of hours.
Best Wishes.
Hey! It's been ages! Go adventure so the rest of us can read about it! Or even tell us something not-so-adventuresome, like cat antics or trivia parties or local politics. Just write: your adoring public is in withdrawal!
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