So, I've been building this arcade cabinet... I'd estimate I'm about half way there now (for pics go here). I've showed this to Kel before, but I thought I'd post it for everyone. Check out how this guy decorated his basement:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/arcade/gameroom.htm
Kel said that if we win the lottery she'd let me do this with our basement ;) She was quick to point out that winning $2 doesn't count... Any way, The Washington Post did a good article on this guy and his home arcade.
Awhile ago, Kellie showed me another article that I thought was really good. This one was written by Wil Wheaton of "Stand By Me" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" fame. He's been kind of a "geek" figure head of sorts for a few years now. He has a blog which you can find either here or here (depending on server issues, site design issues, etc.). He's done a lot of good writting over the past few years but but I really liked this article and the feelings it described.
The article describes Wil's journey to the Electronic Entertainment Expo in search of playing the new version of Guitar Hero that's due out later this year. Guitar Hero is a game where you "play" a plastic guitar in front of an audience. On a side note, Kel's brother Jerrod has the game and it's an absolute blast to play, whether you're a guitarist or not (Kel loved it). Any way, near the end of the article, after Wil had been completely blown away by the new Guitar Hero experience, he described a feeling I think a lot of people can connect with:
Desperate for someone to share my excitement with, I pulled out my cell phone and called my house so I could tell my stepsons, who play Guitar Hero with me almost every night, how I'd done. My younger stepson Nolan picked up, and relayed my 98-percent completion and five-star rating to his brother, Ryan, who wanted to know if I was bringing a copy of the game home with me.
"No, we still have to wait until November," I said.
"Okay. Mom wants to talk to you."
A second later, she was on the phone. "So I guess you got to rock out, huh?"
"Yeah, I totally rocked. Oh my God, it was so much fun. I played…"
"Wait. I have to tell you this: The plumber just left, and it's going to cost $2,000 to repair the shower, because they have to cut through the tile."
While I was busy pretending to kick girls' underpants off an imaginary stage, my wife was dealing with repairs that we can't afford on our 58-year-old house. The joy and childlike excitement I'd felt just seconds before was crushed out of me by harsh suburban reality. I sighed. "Okay, I guess we'll all keep sharing the one shower for a while."
Behind me, I heard the first few notes of Rush's "YYZ" boom out of the RedOctane booth, a brief reminder of my 10 minutes in blissful rock-star oblivion. The reality of my adult responsibilities contrasted heavily with my momentary rock fantasy, and I began to feel their weight as I headed toward the exit. On my way out, I saw about two dozen classic arcade cabinets, set on "free play." I smiled to myself, shrugged off the plumber, and recorded a Top 10 score on Tempest (imagining I was in Sunland Discount Variety, between the Mr. Do! and Stargate machines, of course) before bidding farewell to E3 and heading back out to suburbia.
E3 is pretty much all about marketing, but there's a reason people like all the games on display in this orgy of lights and sound. Whether by skating with Tony Hawk, wasting zombies with a fictional photographer named Ken, rocking out to Van Halen, or just slipping back to the uncomplicated days of youth with Tempest or Pac-Man, for a few moments, we can leave the real world and all its responsibilities behind, and just play. I'm cool with that.
yeah, I'm pretty cool with that myself :)
For the full article, go here: http://www.avclub.com/content/node/48774