I played hockey for a few years when I was a kid. Being from a tiny town without a lot going on meant I played on house teams at the Saginaw Bay Ice Arena in Saginaw, Michigan. Ultimately it didn’t take, but I have fond memories of going to other ice arenas in the area, playing hockey, and then checking out what arcade games said ice arenas had.
After a while, I realized I could cut all the other stuff out entirely and just play video games at home. So I retired from hockey at 14, two years into my career, and began focusing on research for Skitching the Elephant, a newsletter I would start 25 years later.
Most of the arenas I played in had somewhere between two to five arcade cabinets in their lobbies, an obvious ploy to keep kids busy and separate them from some of their money. I’m sure when the folks at my old stomping ground ordered a cabinet called Hit the Ice, they were certain that the hockey game would’ve been the hot ticket. They were mistaken, however, as it was no match for the three-player Ivan “Iron Man” Stewart’s Off-Road. Maybe the last thing kids wanted was to play video hockey right before or after their actual hockey game. Or maybe Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Off-Road just shreds. I think it’s the latter.
One day while exploring some foreign venue for the first time, I saw a rare sight: an arcade game I wasn’t familiar with. It’s not that I knew every arcade game in the world, it’s just that the handful to be found at these places rarely offered anything that new or obscure to me. Until that day.
What I discovered was 1984’s Tapper, and in hindsight, it’s no wonder it made such an impression on me. It’s like nothing else before or after it.