A movie theatre arcade in the city contains a machine that has remained despite all attempts at modernization. Next to the street fighter four machines and the realistic sniper game sits a simple shooter with vector graphics, executed in green and amber, which depict abstract two dimensional shapes. When one is shot, it simply changes colour rather than disappearing. No one is able to figure out the game’s goal, so it sits unplayed and unused in the corner, dusty and ill kept. In fact, when the arcade went over to tokens from change in the late nineties, nobody bothered updating the machine at all.
Find it and start a new game. Shoot the strangely shaped tiles and watch as their colours flick from green to amber to green to amber. The game is goalless and aimless, what matters is your score. As it continues to increase and the tiles continue to change colour, you’ll start to feel light headed. No matter what you do, do not release the joystick until you feel a hand tapping at your shoulder. Turn to look at the person behind you. You’ll find no one there.
That night, however, the game will enter your dreams. There will be more colours, however, all the primaries and secondaries, and the tiles grow in complexity and speed. Eventually it will prove too much for your sleeping mind, and you will suffer a seizure while asleep. When you recover, you will find yourself awake. Machines, from that day forward, will do your bidding. Parking meters will lie for you, televisions and radios will always turn on to the channel you need to hear, and lightbulbs in your home will never burn out.Previous Page: 076 - The Tobacconist
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