Today is the 30th anniversary of the arcade game “Pac Man” being released. To commemorate, Google has a playable version on their home page.

I hesitate to date myself but I remember when Pac man first came to our little neighborhood arcade (well, the game room at a local tourist attraction to be more precise). I had recently become addicted to this new discovery of mine called “arcade games” – an addiction that continues to this day, but my tolerance is higher these days, so I’m more of a functional addict. My favorites, back in 1979, were Star Fire, Sea Wolf, and Gun Fight. Those were the most advanced games in this game room, however, as the brunt of games in there were chain-driven shooting gallery type games and other boardwalk-type non-video games, as well as the ubiquitous pinball. However, the day Pac Man arrived everything changed.

My surrounding area was almost completely devoid of things for a kid to do. There were two or three other kids my age, a summer tourist attraction, and a lot of woods to get lost in. That was pretty much it, so I spent most days at this game room. I spent whatever quarters I could steal from my parents or hustle from the tourists (“Hey, for three bucks I can take you someplace really cool that’s not on the official tour”), and when the money was gone I would just watch everyone else play the games. One day when I came in there was a small crowd around this new game that just came in. It wasn’t a terribly advanced game, but it was definitely the most exciting thing in there.

It was louder than everything else in the room, the sound was better and more animated, and the video was much faster-paced and animated. You didn’t sit in a particle-board closet placidly shooting at boxy  TIE Fighters, you zipped this weird yellow thing around and ate stuff. “Really? The point of the game is to eat things?” It was noisy enough to call your attention and weird enough to hold it.

Hot on the heels of Pac Man came games like Centipede, Donkey Kong, Battlezone and Missile Command, and the golden age of arcade gaming was born. More games would come to our little game room, like Berzerk, Gorf, Phoenix and Tempest. All the chain-driven carnival games were gone, replaced by these new TV screen games.

My parents split up and we moved to a new town, which was a blessing because not only were there more kids to hang out with, more places to ride my bike, there were also more arcades to play in and more ways to score the valuable quarters to play those games. There was a small game room at the local university (where I played Defender, Frogger and Galaga), there was a game room at the local bowling alley (all fairly standard games, save for this one interesting game called Qix). There was a smaller pool hall that slowly turned into an arcade, where I played Moon Patrol and Qbert, but it was dwarfed by two really cool arcades that were each a block from this pool hall: “The Great Escape“ on Brinkerhoff, and “The Video Galaxy“ on Oak.

The Great Escape was terribly popular, and had all the most popular games like Joust, Spy Hunter, Tron, Dig Dug and Zaxxon. They used tokens instead of quarters, and because of that they were able to have “Happy Hour” every day where, for some three hours after school, you could get five (and sometimes six) tokens for a dollar rather than four. More game for the buck! They were also unique in that they were the only arcade that had monthly (or was it weekly) late-night Lock-In parties. Limited space, you would have to sign up and pay your 20 bucks, and you were able to attend this sort of after-hours party. The doors were locked to incoming traffic and place was open ’til 2 or 3am, they even served free pizza to the gamers. I’d never gone to any of these parties but I always wanted to.

The Video Galaxy, however, was by far my favorite. It was the seedier of the two arcades, had some of the less-favorable elements for its main clientele, and somehow I found it preferable for that reason. It was darker in there, there was loud music and even a disco ball (and later they served hamburgers and hot dogs at a small snack bar). If The Great Escape was where the respectable and more nerdy kids went to spend their money, Video Galaxy was where the hard core rockers went. There were some of the older games there as well as some of the less-popular (but no less fun) titles like Star Trek S.O.S. and Red Baron. I loved this place, I think the trashiness of it gave me a sense of exclusivity… the more respectable kids wouldn’t go to this arcade (especially after dark), but I was pretty much accepted as a regular by all the seedy elements inside. Just part of being a social outcast I suppose, but the place felt kinda homey in a weird sort of way, and I remember taking in long hours there in 1983 and 84.

Eventually, the arcade scene dwindled. Both because of the bad reputation these places housed as well as better technology and widespread use of home game systems, downtown game rooms started closing. By the time I was graduating high school only The Great Escape was open, and it was usually mostly empty. A few years later when I came home after doing some traveling it was gone altogether. Nobody wants to blow 20 bucks on video games in a day when they can buy their own console games for less than that. Plus, something happened between 1983 and 1988… I don’t know how else to describe it but arcades seemed to become less of a social destination and more of a consumer destination. It was still social, but it just wasn’t the same as in was when there would be more kids in the arcades than at the school dance on a given night. Well as is always true; all good things come to an end, and often much quicker an end than one might expect!

I’m no longer an arcade gamer (though my girl and I had fun at the York Beach, ME arcade 2 summers back), fully steeped in computer gamery (I don’t even own a console system, I’m 100% a PC game aficionado), but I couldn’t resist but to play the Google Pac Man simulator for something like a half hour this morning.