Playing From Memory
I used to be the best Jet Moto player in the world.

This isn't idle speculation or boasting. Literally, demonstrably, empirically, and usually uncontestedly (at least until Nate Pendleton, our lead tester, started gunning for my crown), I was the best. Granted, only a few dozen people in the world had played the full game at that point, as it hadn't yet been released. But that's immaterial, don't you think?

Anyway, over the holiday weekend my youngest daughter broke out the game and began playing it on the PS2. So I joined her. Much to my chagrin, she nearly beat me on one level. Then we played my favorite (and, back in the day, my best) level, Nightmare. It's the one at the end of this trailer:



I definitely didn't have what it takes anymore. I guess a dozen years of almost no practice can do that to you. But while I ran into some troublesome parts of the track where I repeatedly screwed up, I was rather astonished by what I didn't screw up. Some kind of muscle-memory took over along many parts of the track, and I found myself repeating long-forgotten but long-ingrained movements to navigate trickier spots in the track. I didn't even remember what it was I was doing - if I thought about it, I'd screw up.

It's not the only time that's happened. While I now suck horribly at the old arcade game Shinobi (a game I used to beat on a single quarter), I do find myself making a lot of old moves and following old patterns I've consciously forgotten. It's a weird feeling.

Has that ever happened to you?

Labels: retro

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:07 AM (Permalink)