by Scoob the Doob » 21 Apr 2018 22:37
I am known around this corner of the internet as Scoob the Doob. I hail from the frigid northeastern wasteland known as the Canadian Maritimes.
Basically, I am here for one reason: I have a great passion for arcade games, and I credit icycalm with sparking that passion through his wonderful essay on Arcade Culture, which I am still linking to my gaming friends to this day in an effort to get them to see the light (with mixed results). I have not yet found anywhere else on the internet where arcade games, and games and gaming in general, are discussed with the love and rigor that they deserve other than here, and so after enjoying the content on this site for many many years I decided to finally get myself an account and participate with all you fine people.
So, here's some backstory about how I came to this site and how my love of arcade games developed: Where I come from, arcades are few and far between, and as you might expect those few there are are populated with about 99% ticket-redemption crap as well as a dazzling selection of various Hunting Simulators (hunting is HUGE where I live and I guess people just need to experience it virtually as well), with some decent to middling racing games thrown in, none of which ever really piqued my interest. However, there was one arcade called Crystal Palace that I frequented as a child, and in and amongst all the gambling-for-kids "games" there was one that stood out: A full size dedicated cabinet of the original Mr. Driller.
That was my first exposure to a real, no-nonsense arcade classic, and even though I didn't understand it at the time I was drawn to that game more than any other, and despite being awful at it I spent many a quarter on it; Just mindlessly drilling and inevitably getting crushed or suffocating. Eventually, I stopped going there, the arcade closed down, and I forgot about Mr. Driller for many years.
Then, in my teens, I stumbled upon insomnia.ac, linked from a thread on the Escapist (yes I used to frequent that hellhole, I was young and ignorant) mocking the author for being a big dummy stupidhead who's real mean and ain't like the games that I do so therefore he be wrong. The article linked was Arcade Culture, and I read it in full and couldn't help but feel like people were missing something in it and simply being thrown off by the abrasive language and tone. This was also around the time that I started getting seriously into Super Street Figter IV, which had just come out, and through learning that game and reading icy's writings I started to realize just how much people ignored and outright mocked any game that was perceived as being "too hard." Fighters were routinely shit on on many of the gaming fora I read back in those days as being overly complex games for elitist shut-ins who did nothing but pour over tomes of frame data and wank over their own replays, and that was when I realized just how little most gamers know what the fuck they're talking about when it comes to any game that actually requires a modicum of skill.
And then I started thinking about Mr. Driller again, how much I loved that game and how much I really wanted to beat it but never did. So, I loaded up MAME on my laptop and started playing it again. I eventually did beat it, but I was having so much fun with it that I decided to set the difficulty higher and see if I could beat that. I did. Then I put the difficulty on hardest and beat that. Then I beat it on one life. But my hunger for drilling was not yet sated. I realized that there were several Japan-only sequels that I had never even heard of before. So, naturally, I set up a JP PSN account so I could download the PS1 version of Mr. Driller G. By this point I was playing on a proper arcade stick (a Hori RAP 3) and my skill had grown quite considerably, it only took me two weeks to clear the 2000m EX stage. But I wasn't done yet. I saw that the arcade version was far superior to the PS1 port, which was stripped down in many ways due to memory limitations (and also to fit in the extremely lore-rich and deep story mode).
The solution was clear: I needed to get the real arcade version of Mr. Driller G no matter what. I was way too far invested in this silly little puzzle game series to back down now. I was well and truly obsessed. I researched superguns and got myself a Sigma HakuRyu and a proper CRT TV to play it on, then grabbed myself a Mr. Driller G PCB and went to town on that game. And the rest, as they say, is history. That day I became a convert into the Arcade Master Race. It was like a fulfillment of a prophecy: I finally realized that every single word icy had written down in that Arcade Culture article was the truth. The thrill of overcoming challenges, the adrenaline rush you get when you're *so close* to beating a personal record, the quality of the games themselves with their perfect controls and fine-tuned difficulty... it was so clear. This was everything I had ever wanted from games. This was the pure undiluted essence of gaming, right here. No pretense, no marketing gimmicks, no convoluted-ass storylines, just 100% pure FUN.
So, now, here I am, and I look forward to getting to know you all! I don't really play online multiplayer games at all (I don't even own a modern console and I have a weenie Mac laptop unsuited for gaming), but if you ever see me in Discord and want to shoot the sheep about some arcade classics, I'm always down for that!
See you around!
Currently Playing:
Mr. Driller G (Going for WR)
Progear (2-4 67.5 Million)
Power Stone (Best Ayame Solar System)