On Tuesday, as a thank you to our department, our Director took us all out to lunch at Dave and Buster's. An adult Chuck-E-Cheese complete with bowling alley, billiards and lots of arcade games. I loved it.
We had lunch (average food) and then we were off to play games. We were divided into 2 teams and given a list of 4 games we had to play. Each team would pick their top score and try to out score the other team. The team that had the most high scores would win.
My team won.
Because of me.
I'm a very competitive person. You say something can't be done and I'll prove to you that it can. You make a bet and I'll take you up on it. There was no way I was going to let the other team win even if I would have to get the highest score for all the games.
The first game we tried was Skeeball. I got a 170, but another person on my team got a 200. I tried again for a higher score but the game only gave me 8 balls instead of 9. I went up to the guy at the counter to see if he could do anything about it but all they did was reset the game which meant I lost that last ball. I had 180 up until then. Our high scorer tried again and got a 230 on the second time. The other team only got a 200.
Another game we had to play was Need for Speed Carbon. My time (and the fastest of my group) was 3:18. That included one very stupid crash where I ran into the end of a median divider and had to wait for my car to be reset. The other team came in with a time of 2:48. They didn't beat me by much.
The next game we played I can't remember the exact name. Raizing Storm or something. It's a 1st person shooter. Oh, you should have seen how big my eyes got when they mentioned that. Everybody else on the team was excited for me to play but I had someone else go before me so I could watch and figure everything out (especially the timing of the enemy). They were horrible. I was the second one to play and I got about 60,000 points before I died. The other two people on my team played and I don't think any of them got more than 20,000 points, if that. The last person on my team watched everybody play so he had a really good understanding of the rhythm of the game and where and when enemies would come out. He played and scored 69,000 points. (Not to be deterred, after we had finished all of the games we needed to play I went back and played again and got 76,000 that time. Our scores were already submitted, but take that anyway.) My team had the highest score for this game as well. Even if that guy hadn't have beaten my score we still would have had the higher score.
The last game we had to play was Galaga. I laughed when that was announced. When everyone asked I told them I had that game. Granted, I haven't played it in a long time and playing it on a stand up cabinet would be a lot different than playing it on my comfortable couch and TV but the game's the same in any event. I let everybody else play first while I wandered around and looked at all the other games available. I played a game like a touch screen slot. Three rows and columns of fruit spin around like a slot machine and when they stop you're suppose to touch the screen of any three fruit (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) that are the same. The faster you do it the more tickets you get. I got a lot of tickers for my team (who then went and traded those in for a lot of sour candy that I don't like).
When my turn finally came for Galaga I swiped my card, sat (awkwardly) on the stool and started the game. I scored 19,400 points. I was rusty. The highest score the other team had was 13,360. Smoked it.
My team won and we got to pick first out of the prizes my director brought. They were all the same ($25 gift cards to various places) and the losers got to pick as well . . . just after all of us winners got the good ones.
It was fun and nice to get away from work and have fun with people that are usually crabby and ornery to be around. We all loosened up and had a good time. AND I GOT TO PLAY GAMES!!!! I still have points left on the cards they gave us and I kept it because I will definitely be going back there some day soon.
Walking through that arcade was like reliving moments of my childhood. There was a HUGE arcade by where we lived but my family didn't have the money to go often and it was too far to go on my own. I remember going a couple of times when we could afford it and it was always a magically place to me, made even more so with high infrequency at which I got to go there. The first cabinet arcade game I every played was Star Wars. It was just lines on a screen but it was wonderful. Casino's might have more bells and whistles in their games. But an arcade with cabinets old and new is paradise to me.
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2 comments:
That is awesome. Better yet, that you have a director that takes everyone to an arcade and makes them play games! I just have to ask though: This wasn't the same person that would get higher scores than you, was it? These were different people that would watch what you were doing, and learn what was necessary, right?
There's a Dave & Buster's near me, but I've never been (I don't have to get dressed to play at home ;p ). When I was a teenager, there was an arcade that a friend and I would go to every weekend to blow some money and kill some time. I don't remember much outside of playing a lot of Double Dragon, and NARC being the "hot new thing".
Yeah, the "guy" who did better than me in the shooting game for the official score was my director. He watched everybody play so he knew where all the enemies were.
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