{"id":1835,"date":"2012-12-03T15:02:40","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T15:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2012-12-03T15:02:40","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T15:02:40","slug":"my-top-100-45-star-wars-trilogy-arcade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.controlpadblues.com\/?p=1835","title":{"rendered":"My Top 100: #45 – Star Wars Trilogy Arcade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1998 – Sega (Arcade)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sadly, this is one of the few games on my countdown that I will probably never\u00a0own.\u00a0 I might be able to pick up an old\u00a0console here or there, and maybe a\u00a0cartridge or two that I remember playing at some point…\u00a0 but paying thousands for an arcade cabinet like this, then finding room to put it?\u00a0\u00a0That’s not entirely likely to happen any time soon.<\/p>\n

If you look at\u00a0video games as being part of one big family tree, arcade cabinets would be situated\u00a0at the very top as the family patriarch.\u00a0 If it weren’t for Nolan Bushnell and\u00a0Allan Alcorn putting that first coin-op\u00a0Pong<\/em> machine in that bar all those years ago,\u00a0then reaping the benefits from all those quarters and bringing gaming to the masses,\u00a0who knows\u00a0how we’d be wasting our lives\u00a0these days!<\/p>\n

Then again, if that butterfly hadn’t farted in China all those years ago……….\u00a0 I won’t go there.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, I’d see games like Centipede<\/em> and Galaga<\/em> at our local Co-Op store, but I barely paid them\u00a0any attention until after my introduction to home consoles.\u00a0 There were the Contra<\/em> and Arkanoid<\/em> cabinets next to the Village\u00a0grocery I mentioned, and\u00a0countless games that would have come and gone at the\u00a0Electronic Avenue arcades here in town (of which there were two).\u00a0 They\u00a0had the occasional great beat ’em up, as well as\u00a0a few\u00a0interesting games\u00a0that\u00a0I couldn’t experience at home.\u00a0\u00a0Nothing\u00a0that really rocked my socks off, though.<\/p>\n

In grade 10, on the last day of school before exams and\u00a0Christmas break,\u00a0my friends and I\u00a0walked to the Fredericton Mall – not the Regent Mall, but a smaller\u00a0one located closer to\u00a0school.\u00a0 My friend Melissa was holding a party that night, my first such experience since I started high school.\u00a0 I was in the double-digit grades now, man!\u00a0 It was time for me to let loose, and…\u00a0 go to a party where there would be no liquor…\u00a0 not that I would have\u00a0had anything to drink, anyway…\u00a0 but still!\u00a0 It was gonna be a blast!<\/p>\n

There would also\u00a0be a few\u00a0girls there, so I was in for a night\u00a0with a wide array of\u00a0confusing emotions.<\/p>\n

First, it was time to down some quarters at the arcade, while we waited for her parents to pick us all up and head over\u00a0for the party.<\/p>\n

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