As far back as I can remember, which is the mid-70s on most good days, my parents used to drag me to bars and bowling alleys – I loved going, but not because I was a big time bowler or an early drinker -- this is where I would perform the beg-for-quarters-ritual-dance so that I could venture off to that local establishment’s electric dreamland – the arcade. As my parents would get more sedated, the quarters would begin to flow. I remember the shuffle alley bowlers and the early video games such as Outlaw- but it was really the pinball machines that just seemed like pure, unadulterated magic!

So fast forward to somewhere in the early 2000s, I was scanning craigslist for some birthday ideas for a friend and ran across an ad for Hard Drivin’ – a sitdown driving video game where we used to compete with our raging, newly learned driving skills. We used to play at the Game Room, a long time running (but now defunct) local arcade in the late 80s/early 90s. In this one   ... Continued here »