no interest reviews of the no audience underground

/I have an English friend and we share lots of bad habits. Listening to harsh music at very loud volume. Wearing band tee-shirts past the age of 30. Collecting vinyl records no-one else would want to buy. Writing record reviews. And playing vintage videogames. My friend took me to this Game On exhibit @ the Barbicans - London, with all those 1970-1980s arcade machines you could play for no money (yes!!) till exaustion. It was brilliant but I came outta here with a headful of wonders.
/I wonder why I had to kick a 6-year-old out of the machine to play Star Wars for half an hour (was it 'feel the force, Luke' 8-bitwan Kenobi said?), while I waited 5 minutes to play Tony Hawk Pro Skateboarding for 5 minutes and was handed the... The what? Now how do we call these... 10 buttons and triggers, two or three joysticks, bright colors, looks like an alien scorpio. Anyway, I was handed the GameThingTM by an 18- year-old and fuck you teenies I was much better at it than he was, not being a youngster and all (and I’m sure you don't have to say I picked up the only game I have at home, truth hurts sometimes).
/I wonder why I sticked so much longer in front of thin green/blue lines drawing clumsy spaceships firing at clumsier invaders for no appearent reason (ah yes: 'they want to invade our world', why would anyone want to invade our thrashcan is another worthy thing to wonder about) than I do now in front of 'realistic looking' (??!) multilayered multicouloured multidimensional flying arsenals (press Caps+F5+rightctrl+f for this extra special supercheapofire that turns your enemies into a mixture of fudge, raw oysters and hot chocolate then forces others to eat it).
/I wonder why everything was 'laser' when I was a kid (and if it was super-advanced-technology, then it was 'lazer') and everything is 'virtual' nowadays. Virtual reality, my foot. I prefer laser-reality, Cause there's probably some Gravitar arcade machine still working somewhere out there (and there wasn't at Game On, curses). 'Virtual' laserly-sucks.
/I wonder why I really didn’t give a damn about first floor and modern technology and stayed mostly in the first room, where the genuine machines were (and the Tron was out of order, too bad).
/I wonder why the humming low boopboopboop of Asteroïd still means something to my heart and I could recognize it before even seeing the machine at Game On (and spending the next hour playing it) whereas 5.1 means to my heart as much as a pen to a lobster. I think I know why. It's because the game was in my mind. Now that it's all there on the shiny screen, 'emphasis on gameplay' 'new surround sound effects' 'enhanced enemy AI' 'bright and different 3D panoramic vision' or whatever, it's not in ME anymore. I don't feel more like an actor playing those RPG games than I did playing Tempest. The game is a lot more difficult and sure requires 2145712544 hours training before you learn to pick up your first weapon, but it's all a bloody swindle. They SAY you're an actor but the only thing you do is push the buttons again, not dream or imagine anything cause it's all pre-imagined for you. Tempest didn't pose as Art, Tempest didn't pretend to enhance your imagination. Tempest (or Penguin, or Pac Man, or Defender, or Missile Command, or write your favourite here ________ for god’s sake) was simple and fun and that was it. Played it for half an hour and basta!, back reading. Or maybe not, maybe I stayed there and played it all afternoon since I loved that game. Can’t remember.

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/I have an English friend and we share lots of bad habits. Listening to harsh music at very loud volume. Wearing band tee-shirts past the age of 30. Collecting vinyl records no-one else would want to buy. Writing record reviews. And playing vintage videogames. My friend took me to this Game On exhibit @ the Barbicans - London, with all those 1970-1980s arcade machines you could play for no money (yes!!) till exaustion. It was brilliant but I came outta here with a headful of wonders. /I wonder why I had to kick a 6-year-old out of the machine to play Star Wars for half an hour (was it 'feel the force, Luke' 8-bitwan Kenobi said?), while I waited 5 minutes to play Tony Hawk Pro Skateboarding for 5 minutes and was handed the... The what? Now how do we call these... 10 buttons and triggers, two or three joysticks, bright colors, looks like an alien scorpio. Anyway, I was handed the GameThingTM by an 18- year-old and fuck you teenies I was much better at it than he was, not being a youngster and all (and I’m sure you don't have to say I picked up the only game I have at home, truth hurts sometimes). /I wonder why I sticked so much longer in front of thin green/blue lines drawing clumsy spaceships firing at clumsier invaders for no appearent reason (ah yes: 'they want to invade our world', why would anyone want to invade our thrashcan is another worthy thing to wonder about) than I do now in front of 'realistic looking' (??!) multilayered multicouloured multidimensional flying arsenals (press Caps+F5+rightctrl+f for this extra special supercheapofire that turns your enemies into a mixture of fudge, raw oysters and hot chocolate then forces others to eat it). /I wonder why everything was 'laser' when I was a kid (and if it was super-advanced-technology, then it was 'lazer') and everything is 'virtual' nowadays. Virtual reality, my foot. I prefer laser-reality, Cause there's probably some Gravitar arcade machine still working somewhere out there (and there wasn't at Game On, curses). 'Virtual' laserly-sucks. /I wonder why I really didn’t give a damn about first floor and modern technology and stayed mostly in the first room, where the genuine machines were (and the Tron was out of order, too bad). /I wonder why the humming low boopboopboop of Asteroïd still means something to my heart and I could recognize it before even seeing the machine at Game On (and spending the next hour playing it) whereas 5.1 means to my heart as much as a pen to a lobster. I think I know why. It's because the game was in my mind. Now that it's all there on the shiny screen, 'emphasis on gameplay' 'new surround sound effects' 'enhanced enemy AI' 'bright and different 3D panoramic vision' or whatever, it's not in ME anymore. I don't feel more like an actor playing those RPG games than I did playing Tempest. The game is a lot more difficult and sure requires 2145712544 hours training before you learn to pick up your first weapon, but it's all a bloody swindle. They SAY you're an actor but the only thing you do is push the buttons again, not dream or imagine anything cause it's all pre-imagined for you. Tempest didn't pose as Art, Tempest didn't pretend to enhance your imagination. Tempest (or Penguin, or Pac Man, or Defender, or Missile Command, or write your favourite here ________ for god’s sake) was simple and fun and that was it. Played it for half an hour and basta!, back reading. Or maybe not, maybe I stayed there and played it all afternoon since I loved that game. Can’t remember.