So I recently listened to both “Armada” and “Ready Player One” on Audiobook, by Ernest Cline. I, of course, have read both of these books long ago no worries on that score! I enjoy listening to Audio books for the books I like the most, though, as I often pick up things I missed in the books. Well, not missed per say but that pops out at me in a different way just because of the various media.
Amazon had done an Audibles thing a while back, where you could do a 3-month trial membership. I think that’s open all of the time if you use one of my image links below to go to Amazon and try it out. The trial gave me three free books (1 a month), and Ernest Cline‘s were two I choose (Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy being the third.)
As I have been listening to both books on Audible, something that caught my attention in a way it didn’t on the read was the lists of video games, movies, books, etc… from the 80’s. The difference being as Wil Wheaton’s voice read them off I was going “yep read it, yep saw it. So on, so forth, to the tune of there being ONE MOVIE between both books I do not remember seeing!
I do not mean out of just the film’s, but I mean every media listed, from both books, regardless of what it is, I’ve seen it, read it, listened to it, played it, and so on. I attribute noticing this in this way more because I felt like I was responding to someone mentally as opposed to reading a list.
Now I will list a caveat; there are SOME video games listed that when I say I “played,” I may have dropped a single quarter into it at the arcade, or fired it up on a console a total of ONE time and said “not my thing.” There are some damned obscure games on those lists that given my age at a certain point of time just did not work out for me. Take the references to the Atari 2600 Swordquest Games. Sure, I wanted to win those contests but believe me when I say I was a TAD bit young to complete them.
I, however, was NOT so young I could not play a perfect Pac-Man game, flip the high score on Space Invaders, work the madness of Pitfall, or, one of my favorites, blasting music while playing Megamania.
I remember a game of Defender in which I ended up with an audience of family members surrounding me in awe. I was in the zone, had been playing all night, and was in a trance. How I miss the day’s of playing video games with others, in person 🙁
I was born in 1973 though, and the Atari 2600 came out in 1977. I believe I got mine in 78 or 79 and of course had it for a very long time until I sold it all to my uncle. My uncle had amassed what was one of the largest collections I had ever seen (even in photos), but I had a very respectable collection on its own, yet didn’t collect. Was helping him out.
I was a bit young for finding Easter Eggs in games, solving the complexity of Swordquest (I think I eventually DID finish the first one), or figuring out how to address the stupidity of E-T.
I have played them all, though, and that includes pumping tokens into the Arcade all day with my mom on a Saturday or Sunday at the local place that had killer deals for exchange rates.
My mom’s favorite game? Joust! She still loves it, and growing up with such a mom is why I am the Artimus I am today, that can legitimately point at two books covering an entire decade of the best of the “geek” out there, and say “yep, loved it!”. Yes, I loved Joust also 🙂
Oh! A second Caveat, I of course also did not play any of the video games references that are questionable as to whether they even exist and such!
Another reason though I was paying particular attention to the lists is I have been “educating” me daughter in “geek”. No, not the games but movies and books are fair game!
She has full access to my library with over a 1,000 books in it. Although she rarely takes advantage of this preferring more modern authors overall.
Watching geek movies though is something that we do DAILY when she is staying at my home. As an example as I am typing this particular article I have Mad Max (the first one), playing for us.
So, when a particular movie was read off that I didn’t recognize, I did a double take and quickly emailed myself the name! That flick is… *Drum Roll*;
“Bishop of Battle”, or more specifically, Nightmares, in which Bishop of Battle is one of the four movies on this anthology.
I was, sadly, mistaken, though. I have in fact seen this movie and once I did more research vaguely remember it. For whatever reason, though I do not remember it and so would like to watch it again. Also, of course, introduce my daughter to it! Unfortunately, it seems you can only purchase as opposed to rent, and finances are tight right now so I will be waiting until I can either stream this or pick it up used, like at a garage sale.
