The Ramblings of an Ornamental American

An update on Raymond's quest of life, liberty, and the pursuit of sandwiches.

Sunday, September 16, 2001

Rob and I drove down to San Jose to meet up with Van, George, and Jason at the California Extreme classic arcade-game show. It was pretty rad. I got to play lots of old favorites like Zookeeper, Punch-Out, and Indiana Jones. Plus I got to play some pinball and see some really weird prototypes like the Gallagher--yes, the watermelon-smashing guy--shooting game. The highlight of the show was undoubtedly the hours I spent playing Midway�s Journey game. I love the band. I love the music. And now I love this game. It�s pretty progressive for 1983: it mixes platform and shooting gameplay, has digitized faces of the band, and has midi tracks of their songs. The Steve Perry level features �Don�t Stop Believin'.� How cool is that?!?! This is the first arcade cabinet I saw that I must buy at some point. After doing some research on the net I discovered it comes in a cocktail table version as well. So cool! I�ll stop typing now as my thumb hurts from all the arcade games.