Arcade computer games with Manong and Sean

Years ago, when computer games were more popularly played with joysticks and tokens bought for give pesos apiece, my brothers and I would find ourselves falling prostrate before our mother's knees, begging her for money so we could go to the mall and play Street Fighter. She'd give us a generous sum of money which we divided among ourselves equally.

But it wasn't fair; I should've been given more. After all, my brothers Ralph and Sean were excellent video game players--they still are. I was the exact opposite. It was as if they had hands whose chief purpose was to turn the joystick in all directions, while mine could only press one button at a time. Their mind-eye-hand coordination was inexplicably amazing; on the other hand, it took me minutes to realize that I had to jump or move to the left or go forward or use this and that power combo.

A sore loser I was.



So picture this: I would wait for hours for them to finish playing because even before Manong and Sean actually lost in their first game, I would have used up all my tokens in all ten games. I'd sit on a monoblock chair beside them, my ears drowned with the familiar noise of children shouting at each other, of that manly voice in the computer shouting "K-O!" when someone was finally defeated, and of exclamations of pride because someone had beaten the master antagonist.

Treat me to the arcade one of these days. Through a miracle, I might just prove myself wrong.