Everyone on the west coast went to Santa Cruz yesterday, so naturally we joined them. This meant that a 40 minute drive actually took 90 minutes. Then we had to find a carpark, which was not easy. But eventually we succeeded, and made our way to the shore.
That’s the pier there (or ‘wharf’ as they call it), and the less popular side of the beach. We walked to the end of this pier, filled with fisherpeople, souvenir stores, restaurants and homeless guys. We had a nice lunch in a restaurant with a view, although B & L looks like they weren’t having much fun:
Must be my company 😉
At the end of the pier, Bernard’s mood had clearly not improved:
It’s almost like he was faking it isn’t it? 😉
Bernard took a panorama of the wharf on his phone. Strangely, I seemed to end up in it multiple times. Once again, it’s almost as if this was done on purpose!
As you walk along the wharf, you can hear suspicious sounds emanating from underneath. At several points mysterious stairs lead to platforms underneath, where visitors can view the source of the sounds. They look like this:
California sea lions! Cute little buggers; this photo was taken by noodling my camera around a chain link fence. I was about 2 feet from this guy, who I suppose could have nipped my fingers off in a millisecond had we not become fast friends on sight!
After we’d spent enough time out on the wharf to guarantee beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had sunburned my cheeks and the top of my head, we started back toward the shore and the Santa Cruz boardwalk.
As you can see the crowds were quite large. The lines for the rides were particularly long, and in most cases in the open, hot sun. Needless to say, I joined none of them. Lakshmi headed for the sand, while Bernard and I zoomed toward the principle reason we’d headed to Santa Cruz – the arcade 🙂
We had a tournament! The rules were simple: Play games that gave scores, and for each game won (ie. higher score) that person got a point. The overall winner would be the one with the most points. The following fifteen games were played: Track & Field, Soul Calibur 2, Strikers 1945, Kung Fu Master, Tempest, Dragons Lair, Pac Man, Street Fighter Alpha, Tetris, Asteroids, Ripleys Believe It Or Not (Pinball), an old-timey arcade light-gun game, Panic Museum, a very terrible DC comics fighting game and one other I can’t recall.
Kung Fu Master is still fun. It had been aeons since I last played it!
Strikers 1945 is an awesome shooter. If I lived in Santa Cruz I’d play it all the time. I wonder if AW recalls the time he and I beat this on two player in a tiny little arcade in the Randwick mall?
The overall results of the tournament was 13-2 in my favour. The Schmitz arcade legend it seems survives in only one of us these days ;P
So effortless were my victories in most of the games that when it came to Pac Man, in which I went first and set a score that Bernard deemed undefeatable, we agreed if he scored 25% of my total he would win. Even then I prevailed! In fact on one of his lives it was almost like he was demonstrating the absolute shortest path possible into the jaws of the red ghost 🙂
Note the advanced “one hand leaning on the cabinet” pose I adopted for Pac Man!
Right after I had beaten Bernard in SF Alpha, a guy who had been watching joined in and challenged me. He was about my age and (I suspect) planning to impress his younger daughter who was wit him. In Bernard’s words, here is what happened:
“What happened? Well he was destroyed! (laughing) He didn’t stand a chance. He was destroyed. He didn’t seem to enjoy it at all. (laughing) He was destroyed pretty decisively. I think you perfected him actually on the first round.”
The guy returned for a second game, in which I played sub par to give him a chance, but rapidly defeated him again. He looked crestfallen. Such is the fate of all who challenge a master 😉
You’re wondering which of the two games Bernard was victor in? Well the first was Track & Field. Were I a sore loser I may be inclined to mention I may have prevailed had my jump button actually worked. But the other game? It was this arcade light gun game.
Bernard beat me convincingly in this game. 20 shots were provided for a dollar. I hit 7 targets, he hit 15. He actually played the game three times and did well in each. Had our tournament consisted of 15 rounds of this, the results would have been reversed 🙂
It seems you have a knack for becoming fast friends on sight with various forms of wildlife!
Btw your brother has a very Fear and LoathIng type look going on!
Nope, don’t recall that co-op mission. When you’ve conquered as many videogames as I have… Jokes. The arcade of which you speak is, of course, long gone. It became a cafe, then a homewares joint, then a store that sold gear for babies/toddlers, and now it’s a Dick Smith. The only specific memory I have of the place is that some dude who worked there assured me I wouldn’t finish “Gauntlet Legends” on my own. No doubt he has regretted that foolish statement every day since.