Nathan Nelson

We didn’t have all that XBox 360 nonsense in my day, son. We had Roadblasters.

// June 17th, 2009 // diary

Roadblasters. The best arcade game I ever played (maybe Wipeout’s in my top five). I like racing. Racing and shooting things is even better.

To play Roadblasters you had to go to an amusement arcade that smelt of chips and had sticky carpets, and hand your money over to a woman with a fag welded to her bottom lip to get the change to play. AND it wasn’t a pound a go. Roadblasters? 20p. Games consoles back then? Colour telly inside a chuffing great chipboard cabinet, thank you. Pixels big enough to choke a cat.

You with your high-definition consoles and your Halos and your Ghostbusters. No wonder kids are fat these days. Playing arcade games in their own living rooms. In my day you got exercise at the amusement arcade just running away from nooligans or sprinting up and down the beach on a blue Slush Puppie sugar rush.