The Mourning

Pushing Buttons: Why I’m mourning the death of the true arcade game

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/sep/27/pushing-buttons-video-game-arcades

As a child living in Cheshire in the 1980s, I spent many happy summer days in the arcades along the Golden Mile in Blackpool. These vast cathedrals of leisure, their exterior walls covered in flashing multicoloured light bulbs, were crammed with the video games of the era. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, HyperSports – all lined up in the semi-darkness beside 1970s light gun ranges, pinball machines and one-arm bandits. In the corner, there was always a bingo area, where pensioners in their best outfits sat in front of banks of glowing numbers, drinking 10p cups of tea, eyes down all day. But of course, I was here for the flashing, pinging, reverberating games that they disliked because the noise drowned out the bingo caller. Yet we all came back, day after day.

My readers, you know he is, an Englander when he is crying like a baby like that over that. What do you think is he privileged for being able to do that or what? Be gentle. He in mourning.