The spring semester has started, yet the macro-blog posting goes on! I thought I'd take another break from film and do something like a macro-blog Yelp review. But it also might be a macro-blog game review? Form still alludes the macro-blog.
One of my other favorite places in Fayetteville is the Arkadia Retrocade in Evelyn Hills. I spent most of my first year in town haunting Evelyn Hills establishments. There's a great tabletop gaming store around the corner. The original Doomsday Coffee location (RIP) was down a ways. And my girlfriend MK and I have had dates at the Tacos 4 Life and the Dollar General (don't ask).
On my first visit to Arkadia, I stuck to the classics. Two-player Tetris is right by the door, the Pac-Man family a few steps away. There's two Star Wars games, plus a WWF fight game. On my next few visits, I started to expand my gaming horizons.
First Q*bert, which I recognized from Wreck-It Ralph. Second, I tried the multi-player Marvel fighting games. Capcom Bowling, third, was competitive, with an interesting trackball control. Which brought me, fourth, to Missile Command, my new favorite arcade game.
Missile Command appears simple. You command three missile launchers, denoted by a left, center and right button. A trackball control is your crosshair, controlling the target for all three launchers. Seems simple enough.
Between the three missile launchers lie cities. Someone, and I presume the Russians, intends to obliterate these cities. On the first level missiles already fill the screen, careening like downhill racers. At least your missiles have a blast radius, able to take out many enemy missiles at a time.
All these ingredients combine into that great Tetris intensity. But the game never gets too nail-biting, nor is it prejudiced towards the player. Any loss isn't the game's fault. The game is holding the player accountable for their own pileup of blunders. Within the coding is a sort of innate morality.
I intend to get on the leader board for Missile Command. Beyond selection, another perk of Arkadia is you only pay for admission. For five dollars, you can sit and play a game as long as you'd like (until closing). I think I'll choose my initials: DOH.
Playing Missile Command bought me back to another arcade. In my hometown in south Arkansas, a pizza restaurant, long closed, had a small arcade in the back. Its main attraction was a terrifying Nightmare on Elm Street pinball machine. (Another great establishment in Fayetteville, the pinball bar Pinpoint, has its own.)
Beyond arcades, another place in town that brings up childhood is the Harps on Garland. Most of my friends don't get why I like it so much. There's the utility: its the closest grocery to me (and I don't shop at Wal-Mart). But it also reminds me of my hometown Brookshires.
If you've seen the great slasher Intruder you'll get the vibe both stores have. Harsh white linoleum and fluorescents. An actual butcher on staff. A selection of paperbacks by the pharmacy window. Olivia Newton-John is always playing.
In a space that should be hectic, there's something unhurried about a demode grocer. As mentioned, I'm getting old. I was sour on nostalgia growing up, hostile to what felt like force-fed 80s nostalgia. I still haven't come all the way around on it yet. But I've come to appreciate something like oblique nostalgia.
I don't have a direct connection to Missile Command or Harps from my childhood. This isn't that feeling of rediscovery, e.g. "oh, I forgot about that book series." It's more akin to finding something you wish you had growing up. Or something that recombines and recounts those overwhelming concerns only kids have.
For me, its either longing for adult free will or feeling wholly out of your depth. I think the semester starting, too, brings on that American Football feel. But I associate that particular feeling more with the fall semester. Spring semester was always my least favorite, what with the cold and no college football.
But anyway, if you're ever in town check all these places out. And play Missile Command if you can get a chance. Its a Cold War gem that's back in season. But speaking of the Apocalypse . . . .