A long time ago, in a far away place (actually it was about 1987 in my local arcade) there was a great disturbance in the force. The Darkside was luring impressionable youngsters to part with their allowances by creating experiences so tactile and realistic, that kids everywhere were succumbing to this evil empire. (and yes, by this I mean Sega made kick-ass coin ops which were so addictive they almost literally stole your 20c coins). But enough with the Star Wars already (note: Sega made the best Star Wars coin op games too!). ENOUGH!
Outrun, Afterburner, Thunderblade and Power Drift. Power Drift! This was the game that enthralled me, occupied my every thought and dream for years after I first saw it at my local tenpin bowling alley. It was so vibrant, so realistic, so LOUD. And in my naivety I pondered that it would be impossible for any game to EVER be better than the lauded Power Drift.
Of course, a large part of my assumption was based on the fact that the gulf at the time between a $50k arcade machine and my humble $99 word processing/come gimped-for-games Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k was lets say rather large. To try to convert an arcade experience to hardware which was often 50 or 100 times less powerful than its source was foolhardy at best. But fools are made every day, and so we lapped up these games whose genetic and cosmetic resemblance to their Arcade parents began and ended with games' name on the printed sleeve of the box the tape came in. None of the digital content provided could ever be mistaken for the property it was trying to replicate. And it never really helped that these arcade conversions were often rushed out the door and awarded to the lowest bidding programmer to save on development costs. Games were often so unfinished that later levels were not included or so buggy they were un-finishable. Which didn't matter as you had lost interest and returned to the arcade for your next Sega fix long before you realized your home conversion was terminally broken.
Lust over these 80s arcade behemoths and the idea that we would never be able to truly own our dreams only added to the mystique. Even as time marched on, home hardware never really seemed to be catching up to the quarter crunchers. Every step forward seemed only to add substance to the myth that the gap would never be truly traversed.
The 80s became the 90s, and 8 bit turned to 16 bit and then 32 bit. And before the millennium was truly upon us, I was able to finally be able to try out an almost perfect version of Power Drift at home, courtesy of a Sega Ages compilation on Sega's powerful but sales deficient Saturn console. I had looked forward to that moment for so long, that on loading the game I had the suspicion that life was never going to get any better, that the moment in time I was about to experience was going to be the benchmark for every future life defining event.
The game booted, and it WAS arcade perfect. It was everything I remembered from the arcade back in the 80s. For that moment I was happy, content that finally I was able to own what I had craved after for so long.
I played for about 30 minutes, then put another game in my Sega and never played Power Drift again. I lost my Saturn in a move in 2002, and never bothered to download Power Drift when I bought a new Saturn a few years later.
More recently, I had the chance to download 3D Outrun on the Nintendo 3DS, the quintessential conversion at 60fps with stereoscopic 3D thrown in for good measure. And I did, a day one purchase to capture my dream of owning the ultimate 80s arcade experience. And I played it for about a half an hour, then loaded up the new Zelda and continued dungeon crawling for the rest of the evening.
There was something absolutely mesmerizing about the 80s. A level of sheen, a degree of bling, a coat of cosmetic vibrancy that was far larger than life, far deeper than the product it covered and often masked. It permeated through the 80s culture, and went much further than the technology constrained game and IT industry. It came out in their music, their fashion their movies and their ideals. It was Madonna, Michael Jackson, Flock of Seagulls and David Bowie. It was Top Gun, The Breakfast club, Thriller and Ghostbusters. It was piano ties and Family Ties, it was skateboarding, skater clothes and Back to the Future. Every one a classic but also hard to quantify.
"never meet your heroes". "we look back through rose tinted glasses". There are so many idioms to explain this phenomena. We should save our precious and often hard earned cash when we know that owning a piece of the past, a relic of our childhood, "the arcade in your home" is simply a marketing ploy trying to part you from your money through nostalgia value and the fog of the 80s.
And now Nintendo and Sega have announced that they are releasing a retro compilation for the first time in the west, which will include a 60fps 3D stereoscopic enhanced version of that classic 80s hit, Power Drift. I know what will happen when I re-acquaint myself with my hero. I am assured of a bout of disappointment or indifference at best. I have been down this road before, it always ends the same way.
And yet here I am, logged in on my favorite game site, pre-order at the ready. Damn you, fog of the 80s, damn you to hell...
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