Entry Title: Into the Arcade part 2
The newest machines drew a crowd, that was true, but in the 'real' arcades it was the good games, the heavy hitters, the ones destined to become 'classics' that the real arcaders swamped, put down their money and waited.
Depending on the game, the wait could be a few minutes or could stretch into an hour. If a kill screen player was in the zone, you had no chance. You just stood and watched, trying to learn his patterns, watching the way he held the controls, watching and drinking in as much of his skill as you could, while others did the same. Once he busted and that last life was gone, the next player, filled with the aura of the player before them, slotted the coin in and hit the start.
And what of the music? Well, I mentioned before that it tended to depend on what shift the coin guy was on. The coin guy was the law in the arcade and his perspex booth with holes drilled in a rough circle to allow the odd syllable through, mostly "10p's please mate..." with a grunt in response as a perfectly aligned stack of 10 10p coins were slid toward you across a strip of veneered wood that was worn through to the shiny white plastic, was the hall of justice.
If the guy in the perspex box was the owner, he was a middle-aged, slightly sweaty but very grumpy soul and the music would be generic pop, probably from one of those K-Tel compilation tapes sold at Woolworths. If you were truly unlucky it would be cover bands and that, despite the distortion, sucked.
On the other hand, there was a guy who was in his late teens, probably a student, probably a skater, probably a punk, and definitely a gamer. The tapes he brought were of his own crafting. Mix tapes of current music that actually synched with us as we played, combined with his personal favourites that smashed whatever life was left out of the ripped, cigarette-burnt speaker cones. The guy was an absolute artist and he created soundtracks that connected your ears to your hands and guided you to the top of the high score table. I wonder what happened to this legend? I hope he is still keeping it real because his music choices stayed with me.
For those who don't know, the music choices were not actually part of the change guy's job. No, his main job was to stack coins into neat rows and slot them into racks made from either plastic or wood that held a pound's worth of change. Mostly 10p's but sometimes 20p's when it all went up and games went from 10p to 20p overnight sometime in 1985.
His other job was to be master of the keys, a gravely ceremonial job where, if you had a problem with a game, say your coin was stuck or worse the machine didn't give you that credit after the coin was swallowed, you had to go to the perspex tower in the middle of the arcade and throw yourself on the mercy of the change guy who would either shrug and ignore you till you went away, or if he was in an ok mood would silently slide a single 10p toward you with the unspoken command not to ever come back, or (and this was only if he was really bored) open the door on the back of the booth, grab a bunch of keys the size of a football and follow you to your stricken machine.
I have to note here that if you arrived at your machine and there was another gamer playing, the look the change guy gave you was enough to melt lead and he would silently turn and make his way back to the perspex tower like a miniboss reaching the limit of their patrol.
But if you got to your machine and it was still not working, he would silently take the jailer-sized keyring and, without hesitation, find exactly the right key for the machine. I mean, it's absolutely impossible but I witnessed it myself on many occasions. 100 machines, 100 silver keys and the guy just knew which one. The coin drawer would open and there was the stuck coin grinning at you, knowing it had put you through the gauntlet of the perspex tower. The change guy then took your coin, ran it through the mechanism a few times and then closed the door and stamped away, oblivious to the thank yous in his wake and the games continued.
There was another part of his job that I haven't mentioned, a part so wonderful, so amazing and so utterly mind blowing that, for a time, all I ever wanted to do was work in an arcade.