Cabinet Of Curiosities

Dolby stared dully at the pinball as it meandered about the machine. It headed for the flippers and she pressed the buttons, sending the ball flying back up the playfield. The pinball machine she was currently playing seemed half-dead, like the soul had been sucked out of it. There wasn't any music or sound effects, and she couldn't tell whether it was muted by the owners for being too noisy or if the sound system had simply broken. The game still had a soundtrack, though - a repetitive thudding noise, courtesy of one of the slingshots. The slingshots were the triangular things just above the flippers seen on most every pinball game, and the left slingshot on this one was on the fritz. It activated over and over, thudding as it thrust at the air, but the ball was nowhere near it. Then, as she sent the ball upward again, it landed in an awkward position and got stuck. Dolby stared for a moment, then gave the machine a nudge and the ball was freed.

In sum: This table had seen better days. It needed maintenance, but Dolby knew it would never get any.

With minimal feedback and the annoyance of the broken slingshot, Dolby didn't play very well. Eventually the ball drained and she didn't really care that it was her last one. She looked at the dot matrix display to see her final score, wanting to write it down for her records, but found she didn't do well enough to make the high score list - and as a consequence, the game simply deleted her score almost immediately, giving her no time to record it. It went straight into the "match sequence" - a perennial pinball feature that awarded free games if a score's final two digits matched the two digits the game chose. Naturally, Dolby lost, but she didn't seem to mind. She shoved her hands back into her pockets, looking sadly at the machine one more time before turning and looking at the rest of the games. Half of them were carnival/midway games of one sort or another, with the goal being to win a prize rather than play a video game. She imagined they were little better than claw machines. The only other two games on offer were a deer-hunting game that asked for a dollar per play and an ancient Ms. Pac-Man machine. Dolby had played Ms. Pac-Man a hundred times, but she approached the cabinet anyway. It was out of order.

Dolby sighed. Even though she wasn't actually there for those days, arcades weren't like they used to be. At least there was still ONE in this city she could count on, though. Eager to leave this depressing excuse for an arcade here in the lobby of a movie theater, she made her way to the one she knew was the best in Las Vegas.

-----

"Are you serious? You're really coming to Kuwahawi?" Dolby asked, looking at her "brother" with a widened eye.

"When am I not serious?" Odyssey droned back. "That girl, Samantha, did a fine job with the King of Beasts arcade, but she has moved on to deal with her own businesses. She does not follow ZF Corporation any more. But they still need an arcade, no? There is a niche to be filled.

Besides," he added, "Las Vegas is a very crowded market for arcades. In Kuwahawi, I imagine many of the natives have never even been to one. I will be a large fish in a small pond, and I will be responsible for introducing untold numbers of people to the classics of the past. A great responsibility, but one I humbly accept."

"But how are you going to move your arcade to Kuwahawi? You have like 300 machines!"

"This arcade is not going anywhere. Mothership is managing it in my stead. The Kuwahawi arcade will be taking advantage of... modern technology... in order to downsize without cutting content."

"Oh-ho, what's this?" Dolby's mood flipped as she realized Odyssey, as stubborn as he could be, was actually adapting himself for change. "Odyssey, cutting corners? Not being 100% accurate to The Good Old Days?"

"Behold." Odyssey said, choosing to prioritize showing off over getting irked from Dolby's teasing. The pixilated Nostalgia Elemental gripped a cover that draped over an arcade machine and dramatically whipped it off, revealing that the machine underneath wasn't a game from the 80s. Rather, it was many of them.

"These compilation cabinets are a boon to getting more game in a smaller space without sacrificing the genuine arcade experience." Odyssey said, clearly excited and in his element despite his voice remaining a dull electronic drone. "With these, I shall be able to host hundreds or potentially even thousands of games in an arcade a fraction of the size. I have a standard cabinet model, a light gun model, a fighting game model, a driving model, and a dance game model. One to three of each and the arcade is populated completely.

And, of course, the coup de grace..."

Odyssey moved to another, larger machine that was also draped in a cloth to hide its' identity. He gripped the cover and pulled it away, and Dolby's eyes widened in astonishment. It was a pinball machine, unrecognizably so... but the backglass, the machine's "head" was simply a large monitor instead of the elaborate display seen on a normal machine. What's more, the playing field was ALSO a screen. A huge, tall screen, to Dolby's disbelief.

"Hundreds of pinball machines in one. The playfield screen utilizes 3D technology to simulate depth. All of the entertainment, all of the sounds, all of the style... all in one cabinet, and no maintenance required."

"Incredible!" Dolby breathed. "You've really thought this through! I'm impressed!"

"The goal is to have available as many arcade games as possible in the smallest amount of machines." Odyssey said, somehow looking very pleased with himself despite his limited expressive range. "...Of course, I will be making a small allowance for genuine vintage machines. I will have two or three in the arcade as a sort of museum piece, to illustrate how far we have come."

"Really? What games are you going to have that aren't on these emulator things?"

"I will definitely have a Space Invaders cabinet, which was graciously donated by that Martian from last year's Brawl. It was the game that kickstarted the arcades into overdrive, even more so than Pong. I will also have Baffle Ball, a very old and very famous 'pinball' game that doesn't even have flippers. Baffle Ball shows us how far we've come."

"Hmm. Good choices for the 'museum' angle, I guess. But you said 'or three'. What's the third one?"

"Ah, that one... that is more of a personal indulgence of mine. You see, there is one arcade game I have spent years trying to acquire for my Las Vegas arcade, and just because I am temporarily moving to Kuwahawi does not mean I am going to abandon the search. If I find it while here, it will be added to the arcade."

Dolby stared.

"...Wait... Oh no, you're still on about that game? I told you, it doesn't exist! It's an urban legend! There's no proof it's real!"

"It's real." Odyssey said stoically. "I can feel it. It is out there, and a copy will be mine. There is no rom dump of it, so these custom machines don't have it... but if I can find an original cabinet and preserve the game, and show it to the world... then my collection will truly be unbeatable."

"Sorry, Odyssey, but this is a wild goose chase."

Odyssey simply started ignoring her, unwilling to believe her in his chase for his "grail". Dolby shook her head, sighing and shrugging her shoulders.

"Polybius doesn't exist."

COMING SUMMER 2017

ARCADEPLOT