I know it seems like I've all but vanished from this forum, but yesterday reminded me of a personal anecdote…
I remember when I was about 11 my family and I were doing our usual thing down in Disney World staying at the Shades of Green resort. We would often eat at the restaurant/sports bar in the hotel which had an arcade inside of it. My brother and I would spend a oodles of time on the VIRTUAL ON cabinet, but there another machine that was the big hotness for us (and for 1996 in general), Killer Instinct.
I didn't really know how to play a whole lot but I remember watching this older dude at the machine pulling off some of the more complicated moves with Cinder (who would end up being my second favorite character next to Thunder) and being fascinated because, hell, I'd never seen anyone else pull off those moves with as much finesse as the computer and it's not like the cabinet had any move lists on the board like you'd see on a Tekken machine. Despite being as untalkative as I was, I had to go up to this guy and ask "How did you do that?"
And he was pretty cool about it, He gave me one of his tokens, let me play a round with him and he showed me all the right combinations with which to do Cinder's special moves and in that same match I was able to get an 8-hit, or the game labels it, a MONSTER COMBO in on him. It was awesome, this random guy taught me more advanced stuff in Killer Instinct which would carry over when me and Sean would play the hell out of the SNES version later down the line.
Fast forward fifteen years, I'm at MAGfest, I see these two kids on a Mortal Kombat 2 machine, doing the most basic things you do to play that game. I jump in after one of them looses, pick Sub-Zero and use his trademark Ice projectile, end the fight with a FATALITY and immediately after the kids are laughing and asking "HAHA WHOA! How did you do that!?" I had that moment where I felt like "that guy". The old mentor imparting wisdom of the a younger generation after showing them how to shoot ice as Sub Zero, Acid as Reptile, and a spear as Scorpion, showing them just how to play the games I remember so fondly.
That was also my "Holy shit I am getting old" moment.
Thanks for the warm birthday wishes everyone, I couldn't be happier with any other friends, family, People I know from the Internet.
And remember while you walk down you're own paths in life, stand on the opposite side of the screen hold LP press back, back, down, forward and release LP.
