![]() However, the reason why it did a number on me was its horror theme as I had already expressed an interest in the macabre by this point and it catered for my needs exquisitely. It was also my very first side-scrolling platformer and one of the most challenging games I have ever played to this very day. It just so happened that my growing fascination coincided with the launch of dozens of increasingly complex challenges.ġ985 saw the launch of Capcom’s Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins and this was far more suited to my sensibilities than ushering amphibians across hectic freeways. ![]() I was now a fully fledged gamer and it wasn’t long before I craved something more. Fiendishly addictive, it almost always ended in tears and tread marks as the toad in question seemed unable to time his dash and cursed my poor control for sending him hopping to his doom. ![]() Making it to the safety of the lily pad in one piece was a perilous pursuit, made all the more thankless by rolling logs and cantankerous crocs en route. Frogger was next on my to-do-list and also taught me about the perils of running across busy roads without the necessary care and attention. I couldn’t get enough of video games and it seemed that a new contender announced itself almost bi-weekly. This time paddles were superfluous to requirements and a joystick provided us the power to run the gauntlet from these persistent spooks. At all four corners were strategically placed power pills which, when consumed, turned the tide in Pac Man’s favor for a limited time and occasionally a piece of fruit would appear as an additional sweetener, thus affording one of his five-a-day. Here the object was to navigate our ravenous yellow sprite around a close-quarters maze gobbling pellets, whilst attempting to remain one step ahead of a posse of particularly inhospitable ghosts. Space Invaders was a dominant force, while Pac-Man always appealed to me more personally. Videogames had my attention and frequent visits to my local arcade introduced me to all manner of other marvellous time wasters, all capable of relieving wide-eyed kids like myself of their pocket-money. The goal was to attain eleven points and, while somewhat long in the tooth by today’s standards, back then it represented the absolute height of technology. This two-dimensional sports game simulated table tennis and was controlled by paddles, which afforded vertical movement as you competed against either a CPU opponent or another human player. By then it had made its transition from the arcades to home console, courtesy of our good friends at Atari and was proving something of a winner on this format. One of the earliest arcade video games, Pong was introduced while I was still one of six million sperms swimming around in my father’s nut sack and I was six-years-old before it got its hooks into me. It’s hard to know exactly where my interest initially piqued although all signs seem to point to Pong. For over a decade I ran an independent video game retailer and, for the entirety of that period, film had to be content with taking a back seat. However, playing games is an altogether different proposition and, while it is over three years since I hung up my joy pad for the last time, I have lost count of the amount of hours I have invested to being a gamer. However, as a form of escapism, it is a decidedly poor second and cannot boast of engaging as many senses. I like music a great deal and have wildly varied tastes so there is plenty of fun to be had with that too. Should I be looking to be entertained, then placing myself in the hands of whatever film I have selected for 90+ minutes is a sure-fire way to pass the time and, dependent on my selection, a dash of learning isn’t entirely unthinkable either. Watching movies has been my number one pastime for as far back as I can remember.
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