Hall of Monuments - Dragon's Lair 
From an idea of \u200b\u200bthe old blog at MSN Spaces, back here again, the Hall of Monuments.
Fragments of past life, from then until now.
A nice way of letting go and freewheeling thoughts in the middle of the night, with the nostalgia that keeps me company.
In 1983, the arcades were filled with expensive cabinets, and we children watched stunned the game graphics, which we could never see on your home computer.
A home video game character was nothing but a series of cubes with sharp edges, even less realistic Lego; needed a lot of imagination to imagine the world in which he lived.
Perhaps the beauty was in this too.
Then game room did not mean only slot machines and gambling as it is today: a place to live was fantastic adventures.
In 1983 I was at sea, I walked into a playroom built in a huge warehouse in a pine forest, and saw for the first time a video game completely different from the others.
Before my child's eyes were gone a few cubes to represent a character, but a real cartoon.
A strong and fearless rider ran into a castle filled with danger, searching for his lady to save.
The commands were simple: up down left and right sword. But for every misstep
people died unceremoniously. There was no Internet where to find
driving with the exact sequence of moves: you could just watch them play more experienced players, hoping to learn something, to overcome an extra room.
Before my game so far: I put 200 pounds in the cab, I could not find the start button, I went and disconsolate.
watched silently from a distance a guy that went there for the event played my game, losing almost immediately.
for help I went to the landlord, a big man in an undershirt and slippers, and pity that helped me to press start, and also made me stand on a chair, one of those old bar with braided strips of colored plastic, because I was too low to reach the joystick. Lost
the game within a minute, without combining any good.
A few months later in a Rai afternoon program for children called "Bread and Jam", led by a young Fabrizio Frizzi, one of the tests in the study consisted of a challenge to those who made more points, just on that game.
Frizzi was the commentary live the adventure of the protagonist, which he had renamed "Baldassotto.
Each competitor was a bad end in a short time, I continued to dream of the adventures in the castle.
By the way, in the 80 afternoon children's programs on TV were like this and Bim Bum Bam. Today there are only supposed
current affairs programs for housewives, with models, dreams, the VIP party where no one can miss, mysterious murders of minors, firm asses just toned plastic surgeon, and a lot of other stuff from which I am happy to stay away thanks to the Internet, DVD and Sky.
All that stuff is great for forging voter perfect. Here
a rare piece of bread with jam.
Every now and then in the afternoon I picked up the joystick of my prehistoric Atari 130 XE, worse than even the Commodore 64, I closed my eyes and imagined every scene in the game, accompagnadole with the lever.
the way, that computer was always well packaged in its original box, because My mother did not want to see wires for the house and forced me every time I wanted to use to mount it from scratch on the kitchen table.
When I went to sea in Marina di Grosseto the cab of Dragon's Lair was a fine show of himself in the small game room at the Luna Park.
In the afternoon I do not play anyone.
The night was completely surrounded by people who went to see play the expert on duty, and as if it were a play ended it without missing a beat, and the written order would go away in ease, smiling, greeting without any of the spectators.
Years later there was the Amiga. A CVT
record, horrible graphics, pictures everywhere, but I played I anyway, thanks to the shop via degli Alfani, where as if nothing had copied from the floppy 3.5, complete with a tail off during peak hours.
Always at sea, mini golf, place the cab of Dragon's Lair 2.
Even we mere mortals could finally enjoy it, thanks to the flash on the screen suggesting the moves.
With a dear friend then spent a whole month, and lots of chips in an attempt to finish it, and never reach the ultimate level.
Years later still, to my surprise, I found the DVD version in a hypermarket in Prato, in one of the most important days of my life, important for reasons quite different from that.
In short, during the years I played Dragon's Lair in all possible versions, even iPhone.
Today came out on Playstation 3, and I bought it new.
once imagined him with only imagination, holding a joystick disconnected from the computer.
Now I have it on 50-inch plasma TV, high-resolution.
Before he died, perhaps wear a virtual helmet, or plug a futuristic cyberpunk neural plug directly implanted in the neck, and suddenly my body will change shape as an old man.
screen will not watch any more, this time in person, I'll look around for myself, and I'll be that young and fearless rider, which runs into the castle, in search of his lady.
For the last time.
