Column by William Smith
Before Jon Billups became mayor and I ascended to City Editor of The Burlington Beacon, we worked together at Burlington’s oldest newspaper.
Billups was the maniacally positive circulation manager, I was a shy but steady reporter, and our desks were nowhere near each other. But he frequently found occasion to chat me up, as he did with everyone in the building.
Those brief conversations usually revolved around video games.
I wrote a weekly video game column for the newspaper for more than 13 years, and Billups would occasionally stop by the desk for general advice. Asking questions like, “Should I put a PlayStation 3 or an Xbox 360 in my boat cabin?”
It wasn’t that unusual. Just as most moviegoers aren’t hardcore cinephiles (nor should they be), most past or current gamers are everyday folks with a passing interest in a time-consuming hobby.
After writing a review for the recently reissued 1983 LaserDisc arcade game “Dragon’s Lair,” Billups approached me with a confession.
He was a hardcore “Dragon’s Lair” player back in ‘83.
I was floored. This was a much bigger commitment than buying a used PlayStation 3 for the occasional game of Madden football.
Consisting entirely of lush cartoon animation by Don Bluth (of “Sleeping Beauty” and “The Secret of NIMH" fame) the game was a revelation for the “Pac-Man” era of gaming, or so I’ve read. I was 3-years-old at the time.
It’s also damn difficult — nearly impossible for a softened, post-Atari gamer like me. I muddled my way along, abusing modern conventions like on-screen prompts and unlimited continues to survive. To this day, it’s one of the trippiest, most breathtaking pieces of visual media I’ve encountered.
The sequel not so much. But it’s still a fun romp.
Billups downloaded “Dragon’s Lair” on his phone after reading my review, presumably kicking much more ass at it than I. Considering every continues cost him 50 cents a pop back in ‘83 (twice the price of most arcade games at the time), he had no choice but to hone his teenage skills.
A few months later, former city councilwoman Annie Wilson approached me with her own confession. She’s a longtime fan of the “Fallout” video game series, a much more modern mix of first-person-shooting and role-playing set in a nuclear ravaged America.
Once again, I was pleasantly stunned. I’ve been reviewing “Fallout” games for more than a decade.
I thought these all-encompassing experiences were mostly for nerdy neck-beards like me, rather than local politicians who frequent the headline. I had been blinded by cynicism.
It’s been far too long since I’ve regularly written about video games, and it would be a mistake to assume the hobby revolves only around the newest releases. Nearly everyone has a favorite arcade or console game that briefly consumed them over the past 30 years, from Nintendo to PlayStation.
Starting Saturday, The Burlington Beacon’s website will feature a fresh, capsule-size review of a classic video game, every day. I possess a library of more than 1,200 retro games to choose from, minus the stinkers that wasted your parent’s money.
We’ll run the first seven-game reviews concurrently on our Facebook page. Both are free to access, but I’m not anxious to clutter our Facebook news coverage beyond the first week.
I’ve shamelessly loaded the deck this first week with arcade adaptations of classic popcorn films that speak to my generation – “Hook,” “Willow,” “Batman,” “Robocop,” “Aliens,” and the supremely odd, “Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker,” to name most of them.
Somewhere, buried deep inside your forgotten memories, likely resides a seasoned arcade cask bursting with similar digital nostalgia. I’m going to do my best to dig it out, no matter how many years it takes.