If She Never Said "Brb, My Mom Has To Use The Phone" And Then Fired Up This Pinball Game While Waiting To Get Back Onto The Internet, She's Too Young For You Bro

I don't see pinball machines very often. There's a bar around the corner from the office that has a couple, but I've never played them. I feel you never really see pinball machines in the wild. Maybe they are a lost relic, or maybe you never saw many pinball machines to begin with at all, I'm not sure. Regardless, last night I went to Barcade- it's exactly what you'd think it is, a bar with arcade games, and immediately had flashbacks of Space Cadet pinball. It used to be on every computer and I would play it every day after school. I can still hear the sounds it made in my head. I would sit on the family computer for hours on end, Away Message up on AIM, just smashing those pinball flippers. And now every time I see a pinball machine I'm flown back in time to simpler days of dial up internet, having to say "brb" when your mom or dad had to use the phone, and playing that pinball game. Also that skiing game where the Abominable Snowman would eat you for no reason.

What are my main takeaways from Barcade? I have a few:

1) Donkey Kong is hard as fuck. If you haven't watched the documentary "King of Kong" go do that right now, and then go play Donkey Kong. It's not even fun! I can't believe how good those guys are at it.

2) Holding a handfull of tokens is a lost feeling we don't experience too much anymore. I think like 10 people will get this reference, but there used to be an arcade called "Flickers" in Chatham Mall where we would go every once in a while and you would have to get tokens and there's something about the token system which is a lost art. 

3) A lot of dates making out. It was like something out of an 80's movie. People just making out on Frogger n shit. Was quite a scene I didn't expect.

4) Back to pinball...pinball is awesome. I fucking crushed this Stranger Things game and I don't think I've played pinball in at least a decade. I didn't even know I was doing well, I was just flipping away, hitting the ball, and next thing you know,

Now I'm fairly sure they probably reset the scores every day or week or something, but that was cool. That was my first time playing it and then I played like 10 more times and didn't get over 20 million. And now I think I'm addicted to pinball? Can we get an office pinball machine?

Anyway, go check out Barcade and try to beat 119 million in Stranger Things pinball. 

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PS: RIP AIM. The best communication platform to ever exist.