Further musings on arcades and classic Star Wars toys
As a sort of post-script to this previous post, in which I held my memory upside-down, shook it hard, and watched old quarters tumble out, and while glancing through a catalog that was still stashed away in the back of one of these recently acquired Star Wars goodies, I had another memory come tumbling back into focus, reminding me of just how intertwined my memories of old toys and old video games are.
I remembered my tenth birthday, July 1982, with great clarity. Unbeknownst to me, my mom had been stockpiling Star Wars goodies for quite a while, getting what she could when she could, and was getting ready to foist all of ’em on me at once. But she needed me out of the house for this. The solution? She had my older brother drag me down to the arcade for a while – a long while. We were there for at least a couple of hours, so I’m assuming he was buying some gift-wrapping time. I distinctly remember playing Star Trek and Kickman aplenty during this sortie, which may subconsciously be the reason that one of the latter is sitting behind me right now as I type this. Shawn kept shoveling quarters into my hands, and we were actually there long enough for me to get a little bit bored with it. (Me? Bored? In an arcade? I must’ve been running a fever.) … Read more
