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This brings back a lot of memories. My part time job in high school during the early 80s had me working as video arcade attendant on evenings and weekends. Unfortunately, for the arcae manager, he had not properly done the research into traffic flows and how to actually make an arcade fun to visit - So, much to his chagrin, the patronage to this arcade was pretty low. However, this was great for me, as I had the keys to the games and could load up free credits on them to my heart's content before or after hours. We had Defender, Pac-man, Centipede, Galaga, and 8-10 others which, because traffic was so low, the manager encouraged that I play so people might be enticed to come in. Eventually, I noticed that one of the few regulars, a kid around 12 years old, had the ability to play of Galaga just to the point he would roll the high-score counter on a single quarter. Then he'd move over to Pac-Man and do the same. Curious, I asked him to show me how he did it in exchange for free credits on the other machines. He demonstrated that there was a pattern on Galaga that, if you followed precisely, would allow you to cruise through each level. The first key step, of course, would be get your ship captured so that you could free it and double your firepower. He also demonstrated that there was also a pattern on PacMan, and again, if you followed the pattern precisely, it would also allow you to cruise through each level, while maximizing points. Over the course of a few days, I committed the patterns to memory. Then, with this new-found skill, I was able to go to other arcades around town and obtain the high score. (At that point in my life it was the absolute best feeling to see every line High Scores Screen filled with my initials). Shortly afterwards, the arcade where I worked closed (I can tell you it was a sad day for me when the truck came to pick up all the games as I was hoping to buy one on the cheap). I then found a new job, which involved a lot of physical activity, which caused me to lose a bunch of weight, which suddenly made girls show an interest in me, which then made video games much less attractive to me... and so, I forgot the pattern. (geez, I sound like an old man - I guess soon I'll be yelling at kids to get off my lawn ...) |