Leage Finals and a Little Piece of My Youth

Last nite we had league finals over at TK’s house. I tanked, bad. I lost my first fight, then won the next, then lost the best of 3 match against MK, and that was the end of me. My playing sucked and I was disappointed that I didn’t even finish well in the B group. This whole season of league has been plagued for me with bad playing, and outside forces occupying my mind and making my playing suck. Oh well. What was far more fun that evening, and more noteworthy was TK had a mame cabinet, and a couple of my friends fired up Track and Field. I was watching them play and giving them tips, tips that I dug out of the depths of my brain and I didn’t know were in there. I had not played the game I think since I was about 15 or 16 years old! So they goaded me into playing it. I forewarned them that I would most likely suck at it now since it has been so long…

To put it mildly, I kicked that game’s ass. For those who may not remember it, or know it, Track and Field is an old arcade game in which you partake in olympic events. The controls consist of two run buttons and a jump/throw button. To make yr character run, you have to alternate hitting the run buttons as fast as humanly possilbe. It is quite a physical game, I mean you realy have to whale on those things nitro fast! Back in my time, I was the best I knew at the game. In fact – I even once won a trophy for high score of the week at the local arcade when they first got the game. I have saved it all these years as it is the only trophy I have won to this day.

When I was young, it fell off a shelf and broke, and I had to repair it. Damn near broke my heart that it did, but at least it was able to be fixed somewhat.

Anyway, after you cycle thru all the events on the machines I always played, the game would end. However that was a setting on the game the operator could adjust. The one I played last nite was set to let the game continue after all the events were won, and upping the difficulty on the next go-round. Also you got a free guy every 100,000 so if you failed to qualify, you could still go on to the next event at the cost of one of yr reserve men.

I proceeded to play for over 2 hours on the same game. It stopped getting harder after about the 3rd time through. I was on the 14th time through when my game finally ended. The only thing that stopped me from playing forever was fatigue, and pain, which eventually got to be greater than my ability to overcome them and hit those buttons faster than any mortal man. Below is my final score

By the time it ended, my arms were so sore I could hardly lift them up, and something else happened to me that never happened to me in my youth that involved full days of game playing….

I got blisters! Shown you can see the worst of them on the middle finger, but the middle finger and index finger ON BOTH HANDS have them! And they fucking hurt! In fact it hurts to type this now. MXV age 15 could do such things at a marathon game and not feel the effects, however mxv age 33 apparently is prone to fatigue, and does not have super powered skin!

Needless to say everyone at league was amazed that I was playing that game for so long, and how fast I was. Was it worth the pain that is still with me the next day. OH HELL YEAH! I mayb be older, and I have long retired from being a game tester even, but every now and then I still have it! Plus I swear I burned off the entire day’s calories, that game is quite a workout.

Yr video olympic hero is now off to bed.