There I am at a neighbor’s house a few summers ago, with some of the other neighbor-dads just talking about neighborhood stuff and drinking some beer. We bitch about the recycle service, weeds in our lawn, and wonder what’s going on with the divorced mom up the street. It begins to get late as we break up and make our drunken merry ways back to our houses.

Yie Ar Baseball?

It seems it was very late, since all the lights were off in the house except for a small window lamp, which lit my way into the house as I stumbled over the dog making a huge racket in the process. Finding my way to the hallway bathroom, I decide to use my ornate drunk skill of being able to pee in pitch black without making a mess. Of course not realizing that turning on the light wouldn’t wake the rest of the house up.

Not yet tired and ready for bed, I decided to jump on the computer and visit my favorite gaming forum. Nope not much going on there, so off I go to MAME, which has been installed on everyone of my computers for the last 8 years or so. If you’ve ever played a console version of your favorite arcade game and were left disappointed, you’ll appreciate the genius of this arcade emulator. The people involved can not be thanked enough for the hours and hours of work they put into this labor of love. Over the years, I’d have a dozen or so games that I’d have and play - The classics of my youth, DK, Pacman, Galaga, Frogger, Berserk were all there, but there are literally thousands of games one could play.

It can be overwhelming at times if you bounce from game to game, playing everything and if you’re not careful enough you might curdle your desires. Like eating your whole bag of candy on Halloween night and left with a belly-ache, so too with having this many games to play. Patience, appreciation and savoring each bit is king when it comes to both endeavors.

I started off with a sampling of Galaga followed by a rousing game of Bagman and then some whimsical Frogger action, when the alcohol from the yeast fermented barley began to really take hold. Similar to searching google for past girl friends and acquaintances after a few too many, I began scouring the lists in MAME seeing if I can find an old lost friend amongst the games. Always enjoying a good sports game, I decided to search "football" and found a couple little gems to play with 10 Yard Fight being one of them. That’s when I decided to see which kinds of baseball games where about remembering RBI Baseball, Baseball Stars and a few others. That’s when I was totally blindsided with what was about to happen next.

I clicked on a game called Champion Baseball, not remembering that I had once played this game before. A long time ago. The program opened up to a generic screen awaiting a credit and I hit “5” on the keyboard and followed by “1”. Before I could lift my finger off the button, a tune begins. A happy carefree tune. It takes a split second for the familiarity to register and I start drifting. Back, back I go. It’s hot out, obviously summer. I’m in a large room, an arcade! And then the sound which firmly plants me back into 1984 - "Playball!". Yes I was now in a boardwalk arcade, in the middle of the day during Senior week, back in high school. I was in a white t-shirt that said "Converse" in blue, a dark blue pair of swim-trunks and bare feet. My buddy Dave was a few machines down playing Galaxian. I though about what got us there and the few days after. The feelings were real and all there. Before long the game was over. There I stared blankly at the MAME menu wishing to play again, but decided it was late and time to head upstairs.

Run Back we think.

Finally stumbling into bed, I try to wake my wife up to explain the sheer brilliance of MAME, but she, thinking I’m looking for a bit of action, decides to play possum and just lie there fast asleep. Regardless, I go on about the game I just played and how a simple computer program could unlock so many memories that were once forgotten. Sure books can do that, and of course movies can as well, but a computer program? Those being the more traditional memory stirrers, but who could actually make a case for an arcade machine? Bah.. it’s just as well that she’s not listening, since she wouldn’t understand anyway.

March 2008

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