It also Began in or Around 1980

The other part of the story parallels, and intertwines heavily with, that of computers.

That other half is video games.

At the time Mr. Holmes was attempting to thrill a bunch of snotty-nose kids (and succeeding with one at least), a world-wide revolution came crashing at last into our sleepy little backwater.

The local hamburger joint got the town’s first Space Invaders machine.

No one had seen anything like this before -- a TV set in a cabinet, facing upwards, with controls at either end. One sat down, put in a coin, and shot down wave after wave of pixelly little aliens. Of course we had seen and played pinball machines, in that same burger joint and elsewhere. But this was something entirely new and exciting.

Needless to say, the game was an instant hit. Kids came from miles around to sit down and play this electronic marvel. We were lucky that with such a small population, we didn’t have a line of punters stretching out the door. But from opening time till six-bells, the hamburger joint would see at least four or five kids clustered around the wondrous machine, 20-cent pieces in hand and jostling for their turn.

After some initial scuffling a kind of etiquette grew up out of the chaos: First come first served, one game only, and if you didn’t place your coin on the machine's glass, in strict order of appearance, you missed out. This protocol came unbidden by any adults' rule or decree, and is a surprising testament to the resourceful cooperation kids can accomplish, when they want to. Must have watched too much Sesame Street.

So for most of the boys in town, and a few of the girls, it was hook-line-sinker courtesy of this space-age television-like thing that gobbled 20c pieces and went "pew-pew!" Generally speaking, no one went go to the cafe specifically to play; but a trip for a burger and chips was not complete without a couple of games on the "spacey's". At least, not initially.

It wasn't long before the proper playing strategy was worked out: Shoot precisely, pick the aliens off column-by-column, dodging their fire as you go. This marked the "good" players from the novice, who's naive stratagem invariably involved moving randomly and firing continually. Of course the top-10 positions were always taken by the older boys -- those who were more mature and wily, and had the time and money to play enough games to become really skillful.

Thus was my, and our town's, rude injection into the video gaming era.

(It's interesting to note that our particular video machine was not the classic original Space Invaders, but some contemporary variant whose precise designation I cannot recall.)

Now, I suppose I should frame this electronic phenomenon in some sort of cultural context. A country town, such as where I lived, of the late 70's was a singularly dull place, especially for kids. The few diversions that existed had an entertainment value somewhere around watching paint dry. Most young-uns subsisted on a cerebral hardtack of school, television and f*ck-all else, and don't even get me started on the dreary, monotonous, lowest-common-denominator tedium which counted as school curricula in those days. The adults in the town faired a little better; they at least had alcohol, wife-swapping and Bex.

We had two TV stations -- ABC and the local channel. ABC entertained us with test pattern music on most weekdays until 3pm, and on weekends aired predominantly sports. The local station aired soaps and "The Mike Walsh Show" during weekdays, to the delight of the housewives, with sports on weekends and maybe an old movie. (Fortunately both stations had a decent line-up on weekday afternoons after school.) Both stations closed down around midnight.

During summer holidays the local station would put on early morning cartoons, at least. However if it was cricket season, which just so happened to coincide with the summer holidays, we would be treated to enthralling games of cricket all day long, every day of the week. When the heroes in whites were not playing we would have engrossing tennis to watch in its stead. Not to be outdone, "Auntie" ABC would spoil us with exciting rounds of golf at the same time, over the same duration.

How many times did I turn on the ol' tube, only to see a bunch of toadying schmucks politely applauding some poonce in slacks for potting a ball into a hole. Then I'd change channels, only to listen to some sweaty wanker grunting like a rutting warthog as he smacked a ball down a court.

It was not just the week-long sports that the stations would delight us with. They also aired the footy from both the "Sydney comp" (as the NRL was known in those days), and the VFL (as the AFL was known in those days.) That was ok, at least those sports were not arm-chewingly boring to watch -- except that the stations would not limit themselves to the A-grade matches. They would also air the B-grade and Reserve-grade matches, and the more obscure stuff, all the way down to the local Rugby Union games with a total of 12 people in the crowd.

In summary: TV sucked.

Anyway I'm starting to sound like my other blog... that's all for today, more of my jaunting dally down memory lane next time.