The Summer of Gorf
My parents sent me out to San Diego for a week in 1982 to spend time with my relatives on my dad's side of the family. I was thirteen. I was an aspiring computer-geek-to-be, having learned the basics of BASIC programming on our Sinclair ZX80, and excited for the arrival of our Commodore 64, which had been on order since spring but had still not yet shipped.

While I did enjoy the sun and surf and the traditional pleasures of sunny southern California during summer vacation, my geeky tendencies combined with the self-centered worldview that seems to come with that age probably didn't endear my to my relatives much. Jogging with my aunt, a picnic, going to the beach, reading Brewster's Millions, and hitting the movies were all part of my regular activities that week, but it was the unplanned activities during the middle of the day that I think got on their nerves. See, there four arcades within walking distance of my relatives' house. This made San Diego some kind of nirvana (nerdvana?) in my book.

(Speaking of movies, while it was pretty old by that time, Raiders of the Lost Ark was still playing in at least one budget movie theater - and the San Diego newspaper steadfastly stuck with publishing the one-paragraph synopsis of their original review that called it a no-star "turkey.")

But my cousin, Denise, was also a videogame geek, and the girl knew not only how to get to the arcades, but also where the best games could be found in other locations along the way. Was it sad that we'd stop by a 7-Eleven on the way to an arcade to play a quick game of Gorf and Vanguard, or by the bakery to play Space Duel and Phoenix?

Yeah, probably.

Denise was very good at Ms. Pac Man. She's play through a couple dozen mazes on a quarter - repeating the cycle of maps at least twice. She couldn't understand me - I would rarely put more than a dollar in a single machine before moving on to the next one. For her, it was about mastering a single game. For me, it was about taking it all in. She encouraged me to pick one game to really focus on and become great at. I half-heartedly chose Gorf, which just demonstrated my ambivalence: Gorf was sort of a collection of around five different types of top-down shooters (variations on Galaxian and Space Invaders, two marginally original games, and a boss battle against a giant mothership).

I still played a lot of other games (there were simply too many to choose from - all within walking distance), including a LOT of Space Duel. But I fed Gorf plenty of quarters, obeying its voice-synthesized demands. One arcade had Wizard of Wor, a game I had only heard about but never actually played. I was thrilled with the discovery, and promptly sent several quarters into the slot before realizing that the game wasn't quite as fun as I'd expected it to be. That's just how it went, sometimes.

To this day, I still have vivid memories of walking under the brilliant blue sky to yet another new arcade with my cousin, both of us wondering what new games we might discover there, telling each other tales of our favorites. With the absence of the Internet or even any quality magazines, and with new games appearing weekly - without warning - there was a constant thrill of discovery. Or just the hope of discovery, as in a treasure hunt. Even old games seemed new, if you hadn't played them yet.

It was an amazing time. It never even occurred to either of us that while videogames might not be a fad, the reign of the arcade we were thoroughly enjoying would soon be coming to an end. The newness was wearing off, and a gradual fading started the following year that is just shy of complete today. It was the first and last time I found arcades on practically every street corner.

It was the golden age of arcades, and the summer of Gorf for me. I'm glad I was there. And I'm glad my cousin's family has since forgiven me.

To a point, I think the replacement for the arcades is really downloadable games. The arcades are replaced by... well, Microsoft Live Arcade or gaming portals. But they lack the sense of community we had back then - the social aspect of gaming that was alive and thriving amongst the arcade geeks of the time. There's no sense of scarcity, so there's not quite the feeling of the treasure hunt to find rare, hard-to-locate games. We lack the novelty of a young industry. There's little of the buzz.

I miss those days, and really can't see them coming back. But I do wonder if it's possible to recapture any of that spirit from that era, somehow.

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 2:20 AM (Permalink)