In the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was a young teen growing up in far North Austin, it was a popular custom for many boys in the neighborhood to assemble at the local Stop-N-Go after school on a regular basis for some Grand Champion level tournaments in Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. The collective insistence of our mothers and fathers to get out of the house, get some exercise, and refrain from playing NES or Sega on the television only led us to seek out more video games at the convenience store down the road. Much allowance and lunch money was spent as well as hours that should have been devoted to homework among the 8 or 9 regular boys in attendance, often challenging each other to 'Best of 5' matches. I myself played Dhalsim and SubZero, and not very well, so I rarely ever made it to the 5th match. The store workers frequently kicked us out for the day only to have us return when they weren't working the counter anymore if not the next day.
There is something about that which has been lost in the present day. While people can today download the latest games on Steam or PSN or in the app store on your smartphone, you can't just find arcade games in stores and restaurants like you used to be able to. And so the fun of a spontaneous 8 or 10 person multiplayer video game tournament has been confined to places like bars, pool halls, Pinballz or Dave&Busters.
But in truth it was that ubiquity of arcade video games, how you could find them in any old 7-11 or Laundromat, which is what killed the original arcades of the early 1980s before the
Great Crash of 1983 when home video game consoles started to catch up to what you saw in the arcade.
I was born in the mid 1970s so I missed out on Pong. I was kindergarten age when the
Golden Age of Arcade Games took place in the early 1980s. There used to be a place called Skateworld on Anderson Mill Road that was primarily for roller skating but had a respectable arcade in its own right. It was there that I honed my skills on the original Tron, Pac Man, Galaga, Pole Position, Defender, and so many others. In the 1980s I remember visiting all the same mall arcades as others in my age group. There was Aladdin's Castle in Barton Creek Mall, The Gold Mine in Highland, and another Gold Mine in Northcross which was eventually renamed Tilt. Westgate Mall also had an arcade but being a north austin kid I never went there until later in the mid 1990s. There were also places like Malibu Grand Prix and Showbiz Pizza and Chuck-E-Cheeze, all of which had fairly large arcades for kids which were the secondary attraction.
If you're of a certain age you will remember Einsteins and LeFun on the Drag. They were there for a few decades going back way before the Slacker era. Lesser known is that the UT Student Union basement used to have an arcade that was comparable to either or both of those places. Back in the pre-9/11 days it was much easier to sneak in if you even vaguely looked like you could be a UT student.
But there was another place I was too young to have experienced called Smitty's up further north on 183 at Lake Creek in the early 1980s. I never got to go there but I always heard about it from older kids at the time. It was supposed to have been two stories of wall to wall games with a small snack bar. I guess at the time it served a mostly older teen crowd from Westwood High School and for that reason younger kids my age weren't having birthday parties there. It wasn't around very long, just a few years during the Golden Age of Arcades.
It is with almost-forgotten early arcades like that in mind that I wanted to share with y'all some examples of places from The Golden Age of the Video Arcade in Austin using some old Statesman articles I've found. Maybe someone of a certain age on here will remember them. I was curious what they were like, having missed out by being slightly too young to have experienced most of them first hand. I also wanted to see the original reaction to them in the press. I had a feeling there was some pushback from school/parent/civic groups on these facilities showing up in neighborhood strip malls or next to schools, and I was right to suspect. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First let's list off some places of interest. Be sure to speak up if you remember going to any of these, even if it was just for some other kid's birthday party. Unfortunately some of the only mentions about a place are reports of a crime being committed there, such as our first few examples.
Forgotten Arcade #1 Fun House/Play Time Arcade -
2820 Guadalupe June 15, 1975 ARCADE ENTHUSIASM
A gang fight involving 20 30 people erupted early Saturday morning in front of an arcade on Guadalupe Street. The owner of the Fun House Arcade at 282J Guadalupe told police pool cues, lug wrenches, fists and a shotgun were displayed during the flurry. Police are unsure what started the fisticuffs, but one witness at the scene said it pitted Chicanos against Anglos. During the fight the owner of the arcade said a green car stopped at the side of the arcade and witnesses reported the barrel of a shotgun sticking out. The crowd wisely scattered and only a 23-year-old man was left lying on the ground. He told police he doesn't know what happened.
March 3, 1976 ARCADE ROBBED
A former employee of Play Time Arcade, 2820 Guadalupe, was charged Tuesday in connection with the Tuesday afternoon robbery of his former business. Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ronnie Magee, 22, of 1009 Aggie Lane, Apt. 306. Arcade attendant Sam Garner said he had played pool with the suspect an hour before the robbery. He told police the man had been fired from the business two weeks earlier. Police said a man walked in the arcade about 2:45 p m. with a blue steel pistol and took $180. Magee is charged with first degree aggravated robbery. Bond was set on the charge at $15,000.
First it was called Fun House and then renamed Play Time a year later. I'm not sure what kind of arcade games beyond Pong and maybe Asteroids they could have had at this place. The peak of the Pinball craze was supposed to be around 1979, so they might have had a few pinball machines as well. A quick search of youtube will show you a few examples of 1976 video games like
Death Race. The location is next to Ken's Donuts where PokeBowl is today where the old Baskin Robbins location was for many years.
Forgotten Arcade #2 Green Goth -
1121 Springdale Road May 15, 1984 A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a January 1983 murder in East Austin and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Jim Crowell Jr. of Austin admitted shooting 17-year-old Anthony Rodriguez in the chest with a shotgun after the two argued outside the Green Goth, a games arcade at 1121 Springdale Road, on Jan. 23, 1983. Crowell had argued with Rodriguez and a friend of Rodriguez at the arcade, police said. Crowell then went to his house, got a shotgun and returned to the arcade, witnesses said. When the two friends left the arcade, Rodriguez was shot Several weeks ago Crowell had reached a plea bargain with prosecutors for an eight-year prison term, but District Judge Bob Perkins would not accept the sentence, saying it was shorter than sentences in similar cases. After further plea bargaining, Crowell accepted the 15-year prison sentence.
I can't find anything else on Green Goth except reports about this incident with a murder there. There is at least
one other report from 1983 around the time of Crowell's arrest that also refer to it as an arcade but reports the manager said the argument started over a game of pool. It's possible this place might have been more known for pool.
Forgotten Arcades #3 & #4 Games, Etc. -
1302 S. First St Muther's Arcade -
2532 Guadalupe St August 23, 1983 Losing the magic touch - Video Arcades have trouble winning the money game
It was going to be so easy for Lawrence Villegas, a video game junkie who thought he could make a fast buck by opening up an arcade where kids could plunk down an endless supply of quarters to play Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids. Villegas got together with a few friends, purchased about 30 video games and opened Games, Etc. at 1302 S. First St in 1980. .,--.... For a while, things, went great Kids waited in line to spend their money to drive race cars, slay dragons and save the universe.
AT THE BEGINNING of 1982, however, the bottom fell out, and Villegas' revenues fell from $400 a week to $25. Today, Games, Etc. is vacant Villegas, 30, who is now working for his parents at Tony's Tortilla Factory, hasn't decided what he'll do with the building. "I was hooked on Asteroids, and I opened the business to get other people hooked, too," Villegas said. "But people started getting bored, and it wasn't worth keeping the place open. In the end, I sold some machines for so little it made me sick."
VILLEGAS ISNT the only video game operator to experience hard times, video game manufacturers and distributors 'It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100 .
Pac-Man's a lost cause. Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Ronnie Roark says. In the past year, business has dropped 25 percent to 65 percent throughout the country, they say. Most predict business will get even worse before the market stabilizes. Video game manufacturers and operators say there are several reasons for the sharp and rapid decline: Many video games can now be played at home on television, so there's no reason to go to an arcade. The novelty of video games has worn off. It has been more than a decade since the first ones hit the market The decline can be traced directly to oversaturation or the market arcade owners say. The number of games in Austin has quadrupled since 1981, and it's not uncommon to see them in coin-operated laundries, convenience stores and restaurants.
WITH SO MANY games to choose from, local operators say, Austinites be came bored. Arcades still take in thousands of dollars each week, but managers and owners say most of the money is going to a select group of newer games, while dozens of others sit idle.
"After awhile, they all seem the same," said Dan Moyed, 22, as he relaxed at Muther's Arcade at 2532 Guadalupe St "You get to know what the game is going to do before it does. You can play without even thinking about it" Arcade owners say that that, in a nutshell, is why the market is stagnating.
IN THE PAST 18 months, Ronnie Roark, owner of the Back Room at 2015 E. Riverside Drive, said his video business has dropped 65 to 75 percent Roark, . who supplied about 160 video games to several Austin bars and arcades, said the instant success of the games is what led to their demise. "The technology is not keeping up with people's demand for change," said Roark, who bought his first video game in 1972. "The average game is popular for two or three months. We're sending back games that are less than five months old."
Roark said the market began dropping in March 1982 and has been declining steadily ever since. "The drop started before University of Texas students left for the summer in 1982," Roark said. "We expected a 25 percent drop in business, and we got that, and more. It's never really picked up since then. - "It used to be fairly common to get $300 a week from a machine. Now we rarely get more than $100. 1 was shocked when I looked over my books and saw how much things had dropped."
TO COMBAT THE slump, Roark said, he and some arcade owners last year cut the price of playing. Even that didn't help, he said. Old favorites, such as Pac-Man, which once took in hundreds of dollars each week, he said, now make less than $3 each. "Pac-Man's a lost cause," he said. "Six months ago, you could resell a Pac-Man machine for $1,600. Now, you're lucky to get $950 if you can find a buyer." Hardest hit by the slump are the owners of the machines, who pay $3,500 to $5,000 for new products and split the proceeds with the businesses that house them.
SALEM JOSEPH, owner of Austin Amusement and Vending Co., said his business is off 40 percent in the past year. Worse yet, some of his customers began returning their machines, and he's having a hard time putting them back in service. "Two years ago, a machine would generate enough money to pay for itself in six months,' said Joseph, who supplies about 250 games to arcades. "Now that same machine takes 18 months to pay for itself." As a result, Joseph said, he'll buy fewer than 15 new machines this year, down from the 30 to 50 he used to buy. And about 50 machines are sitting idle in his warehouse.
"I get calls every day from people who want to sell me their machines," Joseph said. "But I can't buy them. The manufacturers won't buy them from me." ARCADE OWNERS and game manufacturers hope the advent of laser disc video games will buoy the market Don Osborne, vice president of marketing for Atari, one of the largest manufacturers of video games, said he expects laser disc games to bring a 25 percent increase in revenues next year. The new games are programmed to give players choices that may affect the outcome of the game, Os borne said. "Like the record and movie industries, the video game industry is dependent on products that stimulate the imagination," Osborne said "One of the reasons we're in a valley is that we weren't coming up with those kinds of products."
THE FIRST of the laser dis games, Dragonslayer and Star Wan hit the market about two months ago. Noel Kerns, assistant manager of The Gold Mine Arcade in Northcross Mall, says the new games are responsible for a $l,000-a-week increase in revenues. Still, Kerns said, the Gold Mine' total sales are down 20 percent iron last summer. However, he remain optimistic about the future of the video game industry. "Where else can you come out of the rain and drive a Formula One race car or save the universe?" hi asked.
Others aren't so optimistic. Roark predicted the slump will force half of all operators out of business and will last two more years. "Right now, we've got a great sup ply and almost no demand," Roark said. "That's going to have to change before things get- significantly better."
Well there is a lot to take from that long article, among other things, that the author confused "Dragonslayer" with
"Dragon's Lair". I lol'd.
Anyone who has been to Emo's East, formerly known as The Back Room, knows they have arcade games and pool, but it's mostly closed when there isn't a show. That shouldn't count as an arcade, even though the former owner
Ronnie Roark was apparently one of the top suppliers of cabinet games to the area during the Golden Era.
Any pool hall probably had a few arcade games at the time, too, but that's not the same as being an arcade.
We also learn from the same article of two forgotten arcades: Muthers at 2522 Guadalupe where today there is a Mediterranean food restaurant, and another called Games, Etc. at 1302 S.First that today is the site of an El Mercado restaurant. But the article is mostly about showing us how bad the effects were from the crash at the end of the Golden Era. It was very hard for the early arcades to survive with increasing competition from home game consoles and personal computers, and the proliferation of the games into stores and restaurants.
Forgotten Arcades #5 #6 & #7 Computer Madness -
2414 S. Lamar Blvd. Electronic Encounters -
1701 W Ben White Blvd (Southwood Mall)
The Outer Limits Amusements Center -
1409 W. Oltorf March 4, 1982 'Quartermania' stalks South Austin
School officials, parents worried about effects of video games
A fear Is haunting the video game business. "We call it 'quartermania.' That's fear of running out of quarters," said Steve Stackable, co-owner of Computer Madness, a video game and foosball arcade at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd. The "quartermania" fear extends to South Austin households and schools, as well. There it's a fear of students running out of lunch money and classes to play the games. Local school officials and Austin police are monitoring the craze. They're concerned that computer hotspots could become undesirable "hangouts" for students, or that truancy could increase because students (high-school age and younger) will skip school to defend their galaxies against The Tempest.
So far police fears have not been substantiated. Department spokesmen say that although more than half the burglaries in the city are committed by juveniles during the daytime, they know of no connection between the break-ins and kids trying to feed their video habit But school and parental worries about misspent time and money continue. The public outcry in September 1980 against proposals to put electronic game arcades near two South Austin schools helped persuade city officials to reject the applications. One proposed location was near Barton Hills Elementary School. The other was South Ridge Plaza at William Cannon Drive and South First Street across from Bedlchek Junior High School.
Bedichek principal B.G. Henry said he spoke against the arcade because "of the potential attraction it had for our kids. I personally feel kids are so drawn to these things, that It might encourage them to leave the school building and play hookey. Those things have so much compulsion, kids are drawn to them like a magnet Kids can get addicted to them and throw away money, maybe their lunch money. I'm not against the video games. They may be beneficial with eye-hand coordination or even with mathematics, but when you mix the video games during school hours and near school buildings, you might be asking for problems you don't need."
A contingent from nearby Pleasant Hill Elementary School joined Bedichek in the fight back in 1980, although principal Kay Beyer said she received her first formal call about the games last Week from a mother complaining that her child was spending lunch money on them. Beyer added that no truancy problems have been related to video game-playing at a nearby 7-11 store. Allen Poehl, amusement game coordinator for Austin's 7-11 stores, said company policy rules out any game-playing by school-age youth during school hours. Fulmore Junior High principal Bill Armentrout said he is working closely with operators of a nearby 7-1 1 store to make sure their policy is enforced.
The convenience store itself, and not necessarily the video games, is a drawing card for older students and drop-outs, Armentrout said. Porter Junior High principal Marjorie Ball said that while video games aren't a big cause of truancy, "the money (spent on the games) is a big factor." Ball said she has made arrangements with nearby businesses to call the school it students are playing the games during school hours. "My concern is that kids are basically unsupervised, especially at the 24-hour grocery stores. That's a late hour for kids to be out. I would like to see them (games) unplugged at 10 p.m.," adds Joslin Elementary principal Wayne Rider.
Several proprietors of video game hot-spots say they sympathize with the concerns of parents and school officials. No one under 18 is admitted without a parent to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre at 4211 S. Lamar. That rule, says night manager David Dunagan, "keeps it from being a high school hangout. This is a family place." Jerry Zollar, owner of J.J. Subs in West Wood Shopping Center on Bee Cave Road, rewards the A's on the report cards of Eanes school district students with free video games. "It's kind of a community thing we do in a different way. I've heard from both teachers and parents . . . they thought this was a good idea," said Zollar.
Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall last year was renovated into a brightly lit arcade. "We're trying to get away from the dark, barroom-type place. We want this to be a place for family entertainment We won't let kids stay here during school hours without a written note from their parents, and we're pretty strict about that," said manager Kelly Roberts. Joyce Houston, who manages The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf St. along with her husband, said, "I wouldn't let my children go into some of the arcades I've visited. I'm a concerned parent, too. We wanted a place where the whole family could come and enjoy themselves."
Well you can see which way the tone of all these articles is going. There were some crimes committed at some arcades but all of them tended to have a negative reputation for various reasons. Parents and teachers were very skeptical of the arcades being in the neighborhoods to the point of petitioning the City Government to restrict them. Three arcades are mentioned besides Chuck-E-Cheese. Electronic Encounters in Southwood Mall, The Outer Limits amusements center at 1409 W. Oltorf, and Computer Madness, a "video game and foosball arcade" at 2414 S. Lamar Blvd.
Forgotten Arcade #8 Smitty's Galaxy of Games - Lake Creek Parkway February 25, 1982 Arcades fighting negative image
Video games have swept across America, and Williamson and Travis counties have not been immune. In a two-part series, Neighbor examines the effects the coin-operated machines have had on suburban and small-town life.
Cities have outlawed them, religious leaders have denounced them and distraught mothers have lost countless children to their voracious appetites. And still they march on, stronger and more numerous than before. A new disease? Maybe. A wave of invading aliens from outer space? On occasion. A new type of addiction? Certainly. The culprit? Video games. Although the electronic game explosion has been mushrooming throughout the nation's urban areas for the past few years, its rippling effects have just recently been felt in the suburban fringes of North Austin and Williamson County.
In the past year, at least seven arcades armed with dozens of neon quarter-snatchers have sprung up to lure teens with thundering noises and thousands of flashing seek-and-destroy commands. Critics say arcades are dens of iniquity where children fall prey to the evils of gambling. But arcade owners say something entirely different. "Everybody fights them (arcades), they think they are a haven for drug addicts. It's just not true," said Larry Grant of Austin, who opened Eagle's Nest Fun and Games on North Austin Avenue in Georgetown last September. "These kids are great" Grant said the gameroom "gives teenagers a place to come. Some only play the games and some only talk.
In Georgetown, if you're from the high school, this is it." He said he's had very few disturbances, and asks "undesirables" to leave. "We've had a couple of rowdies. That's why I don't have any pool tables they tend to attract that type of crowd," Grant said.
Providing a place for teens to congregate was also the reason behind Ron and Carol Smith's decision to open Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway at the entrance to Anderson Mill. "We have three teenage sons, and as soon as the oldest could drive, it became immediately apparent that there was no place to go around here," said Ron, an IBM employee who lives in Spicewood at Balcones. "This prompted us to want to open something." The business, which opened in August, has been a huge success with both parents and youngsters. "Hundreds of parents have come to check out our establishment before allowing their children to come, and what they see is a clean, safe environment managed by adults and parents," Ron said. "We've developed an outstanding rapport with the community." Video arcades "have a reputation that we have to fight," said Carol.
Kathy McCoy of Georgetown, who last October opened Krazy Korner on Willis Street in Leander, agrees. "We've got a real good group of kids," she said. "There's no violence, no nothing. Parents can always find their kids at Krazy Korner."
While all the arcade owners contacted reported that business is healthy, if not necessarily lucrative, it's not as easy for video entrepreneurs to turn a profit as one might imagine. A sizeable investment is required. Ron Smith paid between $2,800 and $5,000 for each of the 30 electronic diversions at his gameroom.
Grant said his average video game grosses about $50 a week, and his "absolute worst" game, Armor Attack, only $20 a week. The top machines (Defender and Pac-Man) can suck in an easy $125 a week. That's a lot of quarters, 500 to be exact but the Eagle's Nest and Krazy Korner pass half of them on to Neelley Vending Company of Austin which rents them their machines. "At 25 cents a shot, it takes an awful lot of people to pay the bills," said Tom Hatfield, district manager for Neelley.
He added that an owner's personality and the arcade's location can make or break the venture. The game parlor must be run "by an understanding person, someone with patience," Hatfield said. "They cannot be too demanding on the kids, yet they can't let them run all over them." And they must be located in a spot "with lots of foot traffic," such as a shopping center or near a good restaurant, he said. "And being close to a school really helps." "Video games are going to be here permanently, but we're going to see some operations not going because of the competition," which includes machines in virtually every convenience store and supermarket, Hatfield said.
This article talks about three arcades. One in Georgetown called Eagles Nest, another in Leander called Krazy Korner, and a third called Smitty's Galaxy of Games on Lake Creek Parkway "on the fringes of North Austin". This is the one I remember the older kids talking about when I was a little kid. There was once a movie theater across the street from the Westwood High School football stadium and behind that was Smitty's. Today I think the building was bulldozed long ago and the space is part of the expanded onramp to 183 today. Eventually another unrelated arcade was built next to the theater that became Alamo Lakeline. It was another site of some unrecorded epic Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat tournaments in the 90s.
But the article written before the end of the Golden Era tell us much about the pushback I was talking about earlier. Early arcades were seen as "dirty" places in some circles, and the owners of the arcades in Williamson County had to stress how "clean" their establishments were.
This other article from a couple of weeks later tells of how area school officials weren't worried about video games and tells us more arcades in Round Rock and Cedar Park. Apparently the end of the golden age lasted a bit longer than usual in this area.
At some point in the next few years the bubble burst, and places like Smitty's were gone by the late 80s. But the distributors quoted earlier were right that arcade games weren't going completely away. In the mid 1980s
LeFun opened up next in the Scientology building at 2200 Guadalupe on the drag. Down a few doors past what used be a coffee shop and a CVS was
Einsteins Arcade. Both of those survived into the 21st century. I remember the last time I was at Einsteins I got my ass beat in Tekken by a kid half my age. heheh
That's all for today. There were no Bonus Pics in the UT archive of arcades (other than the classical
architectural definition). I wanted to pass on some Bonus newspaper articles (remember to click and zoom in with the buttons on the right to read) about Austin arcades anyway but first a small story.
I mentioned earlier the secret of the UT Student Union. I have no idea what it looks like now but in the 90s there was a sizable arcade in with the bowling alley in the basement. Back in 1994 when I used to sneak in, they featured this bizarre early attempt at virtual reality games. I found an old Michael Barnes Statesman article about it dated
February 11, 1994. Some highlights:
Hundreds of students and curiosity-seekers lined up at the University of Texas Union to play three to five minutes of Dactyl Nightmare, Flying Aces or V-Tol, three-dimensional games from Kramer Entertainment. Nasty weather delayed the unloading of four huge trunks containing the machines, which resemble low pulpits. Still, players waited intently for a chance to shoot down a fighter jet, operate a tilt-wing Harrier or tangle with a pterodactyl. Today, tickets will go on sale in the Texas Union lobby at 11:30 a.m. for playing slots between noon and 6 p.m.
Players, fitted with full helmets, throttles and power packs, stood on shiny gray and yellow platforms surrounded by a circular guard rail. Seen behind the helmet's goggles were computer simulated landscapes, not unlike the most sophisticated video games, with controls and enemies viewed in deep space. "You're on a platform waiting to fight a human figure," said Jeff Vaughn, 19, of Dactyl Nightmare. "A pterodactyl swoops down and tries to pick you up. You have to fight it off. You are in the space and can see your own body and all around you. But if you try to walk, you have to use that joy stick to get around."
"I let the pterodactyl carry me away so I could look down and scan the board," said Tom Bowen of the same game. "That was the way I found out where the other player was." "Yeah, it's cool just to stand there and not do anything," Vaughn said. The mostly young, mostly male crowd included the usual gaming fanatics, looking haggard and tense behind glasses and beards. A smattering of women and children also pressed forward in a line that snaked past the lobby and into the Union's retail shops.
"I don't know why more women don't play. Maybe because the games are so violent," said Jennifer Webb, 24, a psychology major whose poor eyesight kept her from becoming a fighter pilot in real life. "If the Air Force won't take me, virtual reality will." "They use stereo optics moving at something like 60 frames a second," said computer science major Alex Aquila, 19. "The images are still pretty blocky. But once you play it, you'll want to play it again and again." With such demand for virtual reality, some gamesters wondered why an Austin video arcade has not invested in at least one machine.
The gameplay
looked like this.
Bonus Article #1 - "Video fans play for own reasons"
(Malibu Grand Prix) - March 11, 1982
Bonus Article #2 - "Pac-Man Cartridge Piques Interest" - April 13, 1982
Bonus Article #3 - "Video Games Fail Consumer" - January 29, 1984
Bonus Article #4 - "Nintendoholics/Modems Unite" - January 25, 1989
Bonus Article #5 and
pt 2 "Two girls missing for a night found at arcade"
(truly dedicated young gamers) - August 7, 2003
Rubbing my eyes, I sat up, looked around and...
...for a second I forgot where I even was. I'd just been evicted from my shit apartment. Great. I'll just sleep in my shit car for the night, figure out the next steps, right? But of course, my car was gone. Towed for parking less than half a foot outside the yellow line. Seriously, less than half a foot, on a dead-end street. Half a fucking foot.
Now I was homeless, jobless, car-less, moneyless, and sleep-deprived. Fantastic. So I wandered into Maplewood Shopping Center, lay down on a bench, shut my eyes, and then… I woke up.
I woke up, and everything was dark. The whole place was empty. Storefronts gated. Kiosks draped in blankets. Even the bathrooms were locked. I didn't know they locked the bathrooms at night.
Why didn't somebody wake me up?
Still groggy, I looked both ways down the darkened hallways. This place hadn't been reno'd since the nineties, and you could tell. The main giveaway was the carpeted floor. You know exactly the type of carpet I'm talking about too. That short, worn-out velvety shit, splattered with random squiggles and colorful shapes. Nineties people really had a thing for squiggly shapes, god bless 'em.
Worse still, shopping malls always creeped me the fuck out. Maybe it's the maze-like layouts. Maybe it's all the faceless mannequins. Maybe it's the giant posters of happy smiling people with perfect teeth and perfect clothes and perfect hairlines.
It's probably the mannequins.
I pushed up from the bench, stretched out my arms, and yawned. At this point, I was annoyed, but not much else. This was an easily solvable problem: Find security, explain what happened, they'll let you out, and that's that. I wandered down the dark hallway, passing storefront after storefront. Every single place had a sale going. What's with that? Like if there's always a sale, then doesn't that mean there's never a-
-Behind me, something THUD against glass. I spun around, and gazed into the darkness. The sound echoed in the hallway, like somebody had slammed their forehead against a window.
"Hello...?"
No response. Only the sound of my own voice dimly echoing back at me. Regressive darkness stretched down to a Walmart entrance. Gated bars like clenched teeth. Glints off the logo above like spider eyes. Creepy. I shrugged it off, turned back down the hallway, and pushed forward.
Of all the malls to get trapped in - Why'd it have to be Maplewood Shopping Center? This place was a minefield of better-time-memories; Memories that only reminded me of how far I'd fallen. The same mall me and my buddies roamed as kids. We'd sneak in vodka filled water bottles, shoplift Pokemon cards from Toys R Us, and play Streetfighter II at the now-defunct Boxer's arcade. This was the same mall I took my first date ever. We watched Two Towers at the matinee cinema and went on the indoor Ferris wheel and held hands in the food court. The same mall I worked my first job, blending smoothies at Fritter's Fruits (Also defunct now. Thanks, Booster Juice).
I don't wanna sound bitter, but I know I'm not alone in hating shit that reminds you of your past. Especially when your past was infinitely better than your present. Sure, I wasn't the coolest kid in school, but I would've broke the top five. Easy. Just the fact I have to tell you how cool I was, proves how far I've fallen. I was Chuck fuckin' Bastion. But everyone just called me Bastion. I could do a backflip off solid ground without even trying. I could drink a whole two six without even puking. I simultaneously held the Streetfighter II high score and the second most touchdowns in high school football. You ever heard a whole crowd cheering your name? BASTION - BASTION - BASTION - Feels pretty good man.
My future was brighter than the fucking sun.
But now? Now, I can't make it up a flight of stairs without losing my breath. Now, I can't sit OR stand for more than an hour without my lumbar spine screaming at me. Now, I'm just some broke loser trapped in Maplewood Shopping Center on a Monday night-
-My eyes caught something. I looked up: A sign. Directional arrows pointing to Customer Service, washrooms, and the only thing that mattered: Security; Turn left here. Thank god. I picked up pace.
All the while, two thoughts were buzzing in the back of my head like a slipped disc: 'What made that thudding sound?' and 'Don't they usually leave the lights on at night here?'
Maybe they jumped on that eco-friendly train.
Either way, I reached security in good time; A little office tucked in the back corner of a dead-end hallway. As I approached, I could see the blue glow of a TV screen, dancing off the walls, bouncing off the windows. Praise Odin. Part of me was starting to worry that security wouldn't even be here. Maybe it was the weird energy in the air; Everything felt so still, like a paused VHS tape. (The fact many of you don't even know what a VHS tape is, again proves my irrelevance.)
I peered in through the shuttered windows; The office was barely bigger than a walk-in closet. One desk in either corner and a washroom door between them. An antique car calendar pinned up on the wall, a half empty cup of still-steaming coffee sat on the desk. An off-white cube monitor cycled through security footage. But nobody was there.
Maybe they were in the washroom? I gently knocked on the glass. No response. I looked down to the bottom of the washroom door. No light. Maybe they're on patrol? Either way, something felt off. I should just dip out through a fire escape.
My eyes drifted to the computer screen. Black and white security footage still played out, switching through different cameras all around the mall: The water fountain by the food court. The Ferris wheel by the movie theater. The bench outside the Wal-mart…
…The bench I'd been sleeping on… But it wasn't empty. Now, somebody was sitting on it: a dark and pixelated shadow, hunched over, elbows resting on thighs. Maybe the footage was delayed? Maybe the pixelated person was just me from a few minutes before. I checked the time on my wrist: 2:57 AM. I checked the timestamp on the footage: 2:57 AM. Okay… There's somebody else in the mall. Who cares. Maybe it's security? Maybe you should go back and-
-Behind me something THUD against glass - I spun around. The sound echoed in the hallway, the same sound from before: like somebody slammed their forehead against a window. I stood there, frozen, eyes scanning every dark corner, every gated storefront. But there was nothing. Nobody. Nothing.
Wary, I turned back to the security screen. I almost expected the stranger on the bench to be gone. They weren't. But what I saw was somehow worse: They were sitting upright now, head turned down the hallway, tilted like a hunting dog listening for prey. Completely motionless. Body language rigid, almost mechanical. And then, another echoing THUD. This time right beside me.
The stranger on the bench slid to standing, bolted down the hallway, and off the screen. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck me. I started to panic, mainly because I knew exactly where they were going. They were running towards the source of the sound. They were running towards me.
Now let me be clear, I'm no fucking hero, but I've never ran from a fight either. Even when the odds were vastly and obviously against me, I've never ran from a fight. Even this one time, when the other guy was twice my size and armed with a knife. I didn't run. I should've run, but I didn't run.
All that being said, this was different. I didn't even know what I was up against. I didn't even know what this person wanted. All I knew was it felt like something truly incomprehensible and horrific was bolting through the mall, running towards me, hellbent on only Jesus himself knew what. Eternal misery felt imminent.
In the distance, shoes squeaked against tiled flooring. Each step slamming louder and louder, closer and closer. Each impact filled with unspeakable intent. My eyes shot around, desperately searching for a weapon, someplace to hide, anything-
-Bingo: A row of old arcade machines, lined up against the far wall. I knew from experience searching for fallen coins; the machines were always placed about a foot away from the wall. My feet carried me over before my brain even gave the order. All the while, the approaching stranger was getting closer and closer - about to round the corner and-
-I slipped behind the arcades. A little more cramped than I would've liked, but better than being out in the open, cornered in a dead-end hallway. I wedged myself further into hiding.
The running slid to a stop. I couldn't see them, but I imagined them standing there, about fifty feet away, manic eyes scanning the dead-end hallway, searching for the source of the sound.
A long and deafening silence crawled by. Nothing but the musty smell of soda-stained carpet to keep me company. A few more minutes went by until - a footstep… but this was different. It wasn't the sound of a shoe against tile. It was the sound of a sock, gently scraping against carpet. They ditched their shoes. This motherfucker was wearing socks now.
A sickening chill went up my spine, a chill of fear. A twisting fear that was quickly replaced with shame. What the hell happened to me? Hiding from one dude. Cowering behind arcade boxes like Norman fucking Wallaby. The old me, the king of the mall, Bastion the Scrapper, he'd be out there kicking this guy's teeth in by now. Or, at the very least, trying to. I huffed, shifted forward, and took a deep breath. No more hiding-
-But my burst of bravery jumped ship, and it jumped ship for good fucking reason. It jumped ship because I could now hear the stranger speaking. About twenty feet away, the stranger was whispering to himself.
"This fucking mall…" he stammered, "First date at the Ferris wheel… same Ferris wheel… That's the same Ferris wheel... I wonder what she's doing now?" he whispered, numb and empty. I don't know why, or, more importantly, how, but this guy was repeating my earlier thoughts aloud. Like he'd been listening in; Like he was a broken recording of my own mind.
"Why did I dump her?" the stranger continued, "I wonder if she's married now... Oh wait, she dumped me. Cause I cheated. Right... Fuck that was stupid. You're so fucking stupid Chuck." he chuckled bitterly, "Huh… is the tape delayed?" the stranger sighed, "Who's this guy on the bench? Security maybe...?"
This was not my night.
I leaned back into hiding. No way I was getting out of this through force, I hadn't been in a fight since college anyways. So instead, I waited. Breathing quiet. Peering out through a crack between the arcade machines. Watching, as the stranger paced back and forth, whispering, rambling, occasionally hitting himself in the head with a closed fist. I shut my eyes and focused on breathing. One breath in. One breath out. One breath in. One Breath-
-Right beside me, a whirring of fan's, beeping and buzzing sprang to life. My eyes snapped open.
"-STREEEEEET FIGHTER TWO" A baritone voice proclaimed.
The machine I was hiding behind had turned on by itself - fuck - fuck - FUCK.
"INSERT COINS…" the over-zealous announcer insisted, "INSERT COINS…"
I peered out through the crack. The stranger was looking towards me now, head tilted, again like a curious hunting dog. He took a step closer. Another step. The dancing glow of the arcade machine bounced off his face now. He was still too distant to see fully, but even from here, he looked… ordinary. Bland even. Just an average, thirty-something white guy. No carnival smile. No long teeth. No over-sized mouth. Just a bored-looking dude with a boring looking face; The kind of face you forgot about the second it left your line of sight.
I don't know why, but seeing this was somehow worse than seeing a grinning maniac with 'too many teeth'. There was something vaguely familiar about him too, like I'd seen him before. Maybe in a dream.
Finally, I snapped back into problem-solving mode. First, I reached down and yanked out Street Fighter's power cable. Darkness. Silence. I looked up. The crack between the machines was now blocked by shadow. The stranger was standing right there, peering through, staring directly at me. Faint moonlight reflecting off his unblinking eyes.
"It's okay…" he said calmly, "It's okay… don't run…" He stepped closer, and slid his hand between the machines towards me, "Don't run…" he reached closer, "Don't be a Norman - W-wallaby-" his calm facade broke into laughter, like he just remembered the punchline of some ancient joke. A strange, stammering, forced laughter, "Bastion…" he said, wheezing as he reached towards me, eyes bulging, "Chuck… Bastion…" his laughter grew more hysterical with each passing second, "Chuck FUCKING Bastion" he howled, hand mere inches from my face now. Reaching. Stretching. Grabbing.
Enough.
I reached up, grabbed his forearm, and yanked him closer. His laughing only grew louder now, more hysterical. Like a poor man's Joker. I pushed his arm to the side, pressing it against the corner of the arcade box. His laughing turned slightly confused. I grit my teeth, and with all my strength, all my weight, I lunged forward and-
-his forearm snapped with a satisfying CRACK. Like a tree branch breaking in the wind. But he didn't scream; he didn't cry. He just kept laughing. Louder and louder. Manic howling. His voice seeming to reverberate from the walls now, from the air itself. "OH… Oh no!" he wheezed, staggering back from the machine, gasping for breath between each burst of forced laughter. His snapped forearm was dangling uselessly beside him. But I didn't care about that. Now, he was right where I wanted him; He was in the fucking dead zone.
I twisted sideways, pressed my back up against the wall, and my feet up against the back of Streetfighter II. I pushed with all my strength, and the machine lurched forward. Crashing on top of him with an echoing BOOM.
I lunged over top and scrambled away, glancing back over my shoulder just before rounding the corner. The stranger lay on the floor, both legs pinned beneath the arcade box, snapped arm flailing limply at his side. Somehow, he was laughing even harder now. Laughing so hard it looked like his eyes might burst right through his skull.
"CHUCK fuck-ING BASTION," he wheezed, head shaking with every syllable, but I was already gone, hauling ass. Running faster than I'd ever run, Lonsdale High game-winning touchdown included. I skid around the next corner, and my eyes landed on a sign that read: FIRE ESCAPE. Joy. Just in time, buddy was somehow in hot pursuit once again. I had no clue how he was running with two mangled legs, but I didn't have time to think about it.
"CHUCK, WAIT!" He screamed, still barely able to get a word out between all the laughter, "CHUCK! I WANNA SHOW YOU SOMETHING! CHUCK… C'MON CHUCK!"
I burst out through the doors into…
…A maintenance hallway. Fuck. Another concrete maze. Three different paths. All the while, laughing-boy was gaining on me. I glanced up:
FIRE ESCAPE —>
I bee-lined rightward down the hallway. Barely made it twenty feet when the doors behind me burst open.
"W-wait" he gasped, sounding out of breath now, "Please… wait!" he said, "Don't leave!" he wasn't laughing now. He almost sounded scared.
I sprint down the long stretch of hallway. The exit felt impossibly far away, like the length of a football field. But I kept running, pushing harder, faster. Tingling pain reverberating through every inch of my aging corpse.
The stranger was getting closer with each passing second, "Bastion... Bastion... Bastion..." he said, his voice building each time. His voice splitting into dozens, hundreds of different voices, a growing audience, applause included, "BASTION. BASTION. BASTION." but they weren't cheering my name, they were mocking it. Like patronizing bullies cheering for the slowest kid in the race, "BASTION. BASTION. BASTION..."
I only ran faster, the door pulling closer and closer all the while. Red EXIT sign like a beacon of desperate hope.
"-WAIT. CHUCK. PLEASE," he whined, his voice back to the singular. "PLEASE CHUCK, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE..." and now he was weeping. Weeping and terrified.
"CHUCK, PLEEEEASE" he moaned, still somehow gaining on me, right on my heels until-
-I burst out through the door. Spun around and slammed my body against it, bracing for a struggle…
…But no struggle came. No banging on the door. No weeping. No laughing. Only complete and utter silence, as if the second I stepped outside, the stranger ceased to exist. I waited there, bracing against the door for a good minute. But then another thought crept over me: Other exits. What if he was going to another exit? I set my ear against the cold metal door and listened.
Muffled whispers: "Fucking loser. Fucking loser. Fucking broke loser. You used to be a hero, used to be a fucking HERO. Now, you're just an aging, homeless, fucking nobody. Fucking worthless."
The stranger was back to whispering my own self-abusive thoughts aloud. Fuck this. I stepped carefully back from the door and crept away backward, bit by bit. Eyes locked on the door all the while. I did this for about twenty feet. Then, I turned around and ran; Ran in a straight line down the cold winter streets of my childhood town.
I ran past Greenridge Park, the same park Chris got into a fight with Jason back in Freshman year. I ran past Amy's house on Baker's street, the same house we found her cat Marble, under the couch nursing a fresh litter of kittens. I ran past Bakersview Hospital, the same hospital my grandmother died in her sleep while I slept in a chair in the corner of the room. I kept running. Breath fogging. Lungs burning. A run that turned into a jog... a jog that turned into a walk. But I just kept going. Exhausted. Dragging my feet. Getting as much distance between me and that mall as humanly possible and...
...that was it.
Disappointing, I know. But don't worry, it gets even more disappointing: I never went back, I never investigated. Honestly, I don't even care about what happened. I'm perfectly content not knowing. I never found a psychic priest or someone who explained what went down and what I needed to do to defeat it. I never found an old book in a dusty library telling me the stranger was a demon from the seventh circle of hades, intent on devouring my soul or something. None of that shit. Just a weird, traumatizing encounter with god knows what. Unexplained. Meaningless. It's been three years since that night in the mall, and I'm still getting over it.
Something tells me it's not the last time I'll encounter that mind-reading lunatic, but who knows. Either way, I'm just glad to be free.
And my life? Thanks for asking.
I'd like to say that I turned myself around. But I didn't…. I mean, sure, my life's a little less shit than it was three years back. I'm living with my half-brother in Tulsa now; I got a part-time gig selling used phones. But everything's still shit; Especially compared to my peak. I guess we all peak at some point right? Everybody hits the best day they'll ever have, and then it's all down hill till death bed. I think my peak was in high school, scoring the game-winning touchdown against Lonsdale High. Your peak might be today. Tomorrow. Five years from now. Five years back. That's it; Everybody peaks; That's all. There's a lesson, I guess. Maybe? Fuck. That's probably not a good thing to believe, even if it's true. Either way, I'm not the guy you should be taking life advice from anyways...
...But now that I think about it, I guess there's one more thing here. Maybe the most important thing of all. The moral of the story, so to speak. The lesson of the day:
Don't get locked in Maplewood Shopping Center after dark.
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