Things I Love: Galaga

Every Thursday, I post about the things that I love, and God only knows what those things might be.

Growing up in the 70’s, I got to witness the beginning of the video game revolution first hand. I played Pong when it came out thinking that this floating white square might be the coolest thing I had ever seen. I owned an original Atari and had those little hand held video games that were made entirely of little blinking red LED lights.

I went to the corner store to play Asteroids (badly) and, ultimately, poured quarters (and tokens when the arcades got smart enough to force you to use the whole dollar) into games at the arcade.

I played a lot of games at that arcade – Defender, Centipede, Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Stargate, Dig Dug, Missile Command, the list is long. On most, I was average, but there was one game in which I excelled: Galaga.

Last year, I went down to Joystix on a Friday night to get re-acquainted with some old friends (no, not vodka). Shining back at me like a beacon in the bleary night was a beautiful Galaga arcade game. For years, I’ve sworn that one day I’m going to own an original Galaga upright video game just because.

I needed only a single quarter to hit the high score and I hadn’t played Galaga in at least 5 or 6 years.

By the time I was done, my forearm was cramping. Being out of video game shape is very similar to being out of game shape in pro sports except that instead of rock hard abs, endurance and, you know, talent, you need a forearm like Popeye and a stomach lining made of lead to endure the hours of shitty nachos, stale popcorn and flat fountain drinks you’ll consume while destroying your vision in a dark, dank arcade. It’s like being a super hero and your power is social awkwardness.

Sure, your hand eye coordination will improve, but not for anything other than pretty lights on a screen. This might come in handy if you need to swat at a fly that lands on your television screen. Otherwise, it’s pretty useless, but it doesn’t matter because Galaga is awesome and you can suck my Challenge Stage with two ships if you don’t like it.

A little Galaga humor to end my post. Hope you enjoyed it and, if you did, I really wouldn’t admit it to the general public.