Suffice it to say, I've played my share of video games in my life. I don't want to think of the number of months.. if not years of my life I've actually spent playing. And I don't mean figuratively. I mean literally. If you clumped all the hours I've played video games... how many months of 24/7 time have I played? As I said, I don't want to know. It actually depresses me that WoW keeps a log of the amount of time played on a character.
What's that? You want to know my lifetime "/played" in WoW?
A lot.
Anyways, since moving up to Chicago.. I've been introduced to a new form of gaming. Not "new" in the sense of something never before seen.. but more like, the accessibility of a few type of gaming. Cabinets. You know, the things that sit in arcades.. take quarters. Well, my co-worker Geoff has a few cabs.. and has definitely piqued my interest to the genre.
There are cabinets called "Candy Cabs" which are very popular in Japan. Video games are called "PCBs" and a certain format of PCBs can be run in any Candy Cab. There are also other motherboards for other types of games.
So basically, imagine owning a cabinet in which you can play any game you ever played in the arcades.. you know.. all those quarters lost.. and now you can play any of those games as much as you want... virtually for free. Well, you have to buy the boards, or cartridges, or whatever.. but after that.. unlimited play.
The cabinets are imported from Japan.. by a guy in California. Now, shipping one of these is expensive... so I wasn't quite ready to buy one. But I was keeping an eye out for any that popped up in the midwest at a reasonable price. Well, one popped up in Cleveland.... at a good price. So I drove out and got it.
I replaced the buttons, sticks, and cleaned it up. So it looks a little like this now...
The buttons are incredibly snappy.. the joysticks are flawless... so very very nice. And yes, you are meant to sit down at this machine. Which sort of sucks, since they were not designed for a man of my height in mind. Crazy Japanese.So, now I have a cab.. but whatever do I fill it with. Games of course. I've become hooked on vertical shooters lately... shoot-em-ups.. or shumps for short. So I finally broke down and bought DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou (one of the hardest vertical shooters ever made) a few Metal Slugs.. a game that I've loved since I first played it way back when. Also found a few other gems on the forums I've been cruising... and amazingly enough.. they all arrived this morning at work.
Yeah, I took a long lunch.. what of it?
So the games, laid out in all their glory.
No, I don't have a problem.
Well, maybe 1. That I'm at work rather than at home working on these games.
Later
1 comment:
Of course.. The blue thing is by far the best shooter I've ever played.
And I'm stoked to get into the metal slugs.. so much fun as I recall.
In fact, off to play a few credits right now.
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