episode_0021

College students at a PC room who are enjoying their free lives after two exams.

In fact, when you see him sitting in front of the computer, exhausted, it doesn’t seem like he’s enjoying his freedom, but he is a free person.

As the vacation approached its midpoint, cheers erupted from a corner of the PC room.

“Tear down all the Galaga machines!”

“Now our game dominates here!”

“Did you see? Since Yoon-seo is leading, we little lambs just have to follow!”

The new game is finally complete.

“What will you name the game?”

“Oh, right.”

I didn’t even think about the name. The original title is too catchy, but if you’re making a copycat game, the rule is to change the name to some extent…

“[Strikers 2094] How about it? Add the year according to the setting.”

“… Not bad, right?”

Finally, a cross-generation shooter that skips the middle ground is released…

“The aspect ratio of this screen doesn’t match the Galaga game console?”

“…Bring me some plywood and a saw.”

The next generation of shooters appeared the next day.

***

There is a man here.

This guy really likes arcades. He goes there right after class.

But at some point the arcade began to change.

He was so intoxicated with setting records and causing score overflows as easily as eating rice while playing Galaga that he didn’t really like rhythm games packaged as new culture.

It was hard for him to imagine looking favorably on a game that was buzzing, noisy, and so far removed from its arcade roots.

And then one day, when he visited the arcade, he was shocked.

I saw a new game console being placed in the place where the Galaga used to be.

The man was angry.

His expectations that Galaga would continue to exist even though Pong and Space Invaders had already been pushed out by rhythm games were shattered.

At that moment, he was about to turn away from the arcade, saying that he had to find another arcade.

There was something ‘different’ in his eyes.

A music that resonated with the heart of a man, with a feeling of excitement but not being old-fashioned, came out.

What caught his eye was the dynamic image of various types of fighter planes flying in formation that he had never seen before on the screen.

The man stood in front of the machine as if led and put in a coin.

A screen that appears indicating that credits have arrived.

An initial screen appeared, showing several fighter planes lined up as seen from above, with descriptions of their specifications, such as attack power and speed, and even their skills.

I started the game by picking a fighter that looked pretty decent.

The first screen that appears is similar to Galaga.

It looked no different from Galaga with only the textures changed, except that the background kept moving downwards.

‘Is this the end? Is it just a change in appearance?’

But after a while, I realized that this thought was completely wrong.

Power-up items, bombs, and medals that appear when you defeat enemies.

Above all, the player fighter being freed from the restrictions of movement was enough to confuse the man.

A warning sign suddenly appeared in front of the man who was experiencing the changed system.

A huge helicopter with propellers and miniguns on both sides appears immediately after.

Small, fast bullets were fired, different from the slow, rice-shaped bullets fired by other enemy fighters.

But he evaded it with his spirit!

A man who quickly gets through Phase 1, successfully destroying parts of the minigun and avoiding the tantrum pattern, proving that his experience playing Galaga is not going anywhere.

After that, he was shocked.

Mecha. And that awesome mecha came out kicking the huge, falling apart helicopter.

It’s not a humanoid like Gundam.

The mecha, which seemed to claim, ‘I am a practical combat weapon,’ poured out bullets as if showing off its might.

But this too was avoided with spirit!

Pass stage 1 and move on to stage 2.

This time the battlefield changed to the sea.

Battleships and boats were added as enemies, and it was hard to shake the thought that battleships had high health and would be difficult to catch even for men.

But if you have the guts, you can do it!

Although he died once because the battleship kept spewing out bullets, he still had two lives left.

While you’re doing that, the boss appears again with a warning sign.

This boss was a giant battleship.

No, it looks more like a boat or hovercraft than a battleship.

And defeat them quickly!

Even though there were a lot of bullets, it was slow, so he felt like it was easier than Stage 1.

Phase 2 began with the injection of a salt shaker-shaped machine.

But still defeated!

The man began to feel proud as he defeated the giant tank of Stage 3 and the mecha of Phase 2 with only one life lost.

‘Maybe I’m more skilled than I thought?’

And that thought was shattered when I met the boss of stage 4.

To be exact, it’s because of the mecha in phase 2, not the armored train in phase 1.

The man, who was hit by the pattern of firing bullets while having both feet on two railroad tracks, tried to put the coin in again, but…

Pan-

I looked back, flinching at the gaze pouring in from behind.

People who wanted to enjoy a new game with only one machine in it introduced the seat-spinning culture that started with rhythm games to men.

The man felt nostalgic for the first time in a long time when he entered the arcade with his pocket money and played Galaga.

“Oh, that’s not how you do it.”

… it seems to have brought back some not-so-good memories.

Anyway, shooting games have once again made arcades crowded.

Yoo-seop showed it to Yoon-seo as if he was announcing the sales and performed the Samgwigugodurye once again.

Today again, the arcade was bustling with lights on.

…it seemed like it would last forever.

***

Meanwhile, the invisible fight continued.

The Dongjo Ilbo, which had been humiliated once, continued to attack the game, and the Kyunghyang Shinmun continued to counterattack by putting Yoon I-seo forward for over a year.

Yes, for a year.

This debate continued from the intense heat of the summer of 1994 until halfway through 1995.

Since winter break, Yoon-seo and the club members had been in a semi-resting state, focusing on maintaining the arcade and the games, and concentrating on their studies, so everyone thought that there would be no problems as usual.

Yoon Yi-seo is also a third-year student. As expected, her studies were not a big problem for her thanks to the easy lecture content, but her graduation project and thesis were also very meaningful to her.

Her idea was this:

I want to blow up a bomb in academia with my graduation thesis and get a job at a large company, or if I’m lucky, a foreign company!

Master’s or PhD? Graduate school slaves are a bit…

It was an idea that she was able to think of because she had seen the success story of a single graduation thesis in her past life.

Of course, she had no idea that she could drop out of college and go abroad just by replying to one email.

Anyway, she’s been busy with future plans and such, so her interest in the arcade has been waning lately.

That’s why the recent events in the camp that was hostile to the arcade didn’t even reach her ears.

[Launch of the Parents’ Association for Proper Student Education]

Various parent groups (disguised as cultural groups) are launched.

[New Digital Review Regulations Established… Digital Censorship Begins]

Korea’s long-standing tradition, the censorship beam has become mandatory

[Opening of popular culture is Japanese cultural invasion… ‘new imperialistic form of invasion’ blue]

The subculture art style used in BGA was also under pressure from all sides, such as being hit with siege tanks by the old people.

However, Yoon was so busy preparing two papers at the same time that he had no time to breathe.

[Guide to Recruiting for Late Night 100 Minute Debate]

When I received a letter with the above title, I was forced to take action.

“Why do you only do this when you’re busy when I’m trying so hard not to go to debates again?”

Of course, I could have put off the paper for a while…

“No, if I had reincarnated, I would have gotten reincarnated privileges and cliches “Ah, this is a game ” If I do “Ah, Yoon-seo is amazing! “Shouldn’t I do that? ”

It was so unfair. Why can’t I have a hamburger?

Actually, I did receive enough of the reincarnation privileges, but let’s move on for now.

Anyway, if you refuse to invite me to the debate, I can’t imagine how unpleasant the situation would be, with a crazy panel appearing.

I eventually sent a letter of consent and went to the broadcasting station a few days later to hear the same explanation as last time.

Actually, originally I was going to look at other panels and not explain anything…

“Oh my, here we go again.”

“…Why is Mr. Park coming out here…?”

The panel was the same as last time!

Since the topic of this debate was ‘Are games harmful?’, I thought that if I prepared thoroughly like last time, I could win for free.

If we do it right, maybe this will be an opportunity to raise awareness of the game…?

But looking back, this incident, later known as [Arcade Gate], had only just reached its midpoint.