It’s not easy being
addicted to video
games. Friends shun
you, relatives take you
off their wills, and
workmates start to
avoid you in the lunch-
room. You become a
social outcast.

About the only solace a
video addict receives is from
other addicts. So I'm writing
this in the hope that some-
one out there will under-
stand my plight.

When I started playing
video games I thought I
could handle it. It began
with a few games of Pong,
then a few quarters of space
invaders. A dollar here, a
dollar there, I‘had the whole
thing under control.

Then, I noticed I was
starting to disguise my
viddying by playing the more
sociall

y acceptable game of _-start.to feel .a dull ache in

pool and sneaking a few
space invaders games in
when no one was looking. I
began frequenting pinball
arcades out of the neigh-
bourhood, so I wouldn't
bump into an acquaintance.

Now I can't wait long
enough to drive elsewhere. I
have to. get satisfaction
immediately, at the closest
video game.

The whole thing would
have resolved itself if the
cappuccino bar in my
neighbourhood hadn't in-
stalled a Defender game. |
innocently approached it
one day and my life has been
a torment ever since.

Defenders is a com-

|” By ERIC EGGERTSON

plicated and frustrating
game that requires you to
guide a space ship around a
planet, zapping alien lan-
ders, bombers, baiters,
pods, and various other blips
on the screen. The landers
float down and try to kidnap
humanoids from the planet
surface, while you attempt
to save the humanoids (and
earn 1,000 points for doing
so). If the aliens make it to
the top of the screen with the
humanoids, they combine to
make a mutant, who speed
around making obnoxious
“noises and shooting bombs
at your ship.

But that’s only the.
beginning. If you make it
through the first wave of
attackers, another wave
materializes and descends
upon your planet. The firing
becomes ferocious. You

your right forearm. After the
game, your knuckles will
show signs of abuse, and you
may be developing a case of
“Defender fingers”. You're
hooked.

As well as being a brutal,
frustrating game, Defender
is also expensive. At fifty
cents a crack, it doesn’t take
many games to go through a
roll of quarters. And if you
aren't very good at blasting
aliens, the games don't last
very long.

I figure I spend about $5 a
week on Defender. It used to
be much worse. For a while
it was more like $5 a day,
until my family threatened to
garnishee my wages to pay

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my debts.

Other Defender "players
‘tell a more tragic story. One
junkie, who. goes by the
initials LDB, was spending
$5 to $10 a day until he got

good enough to make a few
quarters last half an hour.
Now. he

oams “the. city

7

looking for a new Defender
game to try.

I may never get over my
addiction, but I hope to
someday cut my viddying
down to a game a day. I was
getting close to that figure
when the company came oiit
with a modified Defender

COURAGEOUSLY DEFENDING THE UNIVERSE,
one of the fighters for our planet in action at a local
video games emporium. (Eric Eggertson photo)

Eid

eA oY eRe TAREE RR DRONE!

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(604) 687 5545

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| Tel. 985-2131

game, more complicated
than the first. Now the
challenge of the flickering
screen eats away at my
resolve, and the hunger to
fight aliens grows in me.

I only hope I can save my

planet from destruction one
more time.

JANUARY

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It is an awesome
responsibility. One that
addicts like myself fully
understand.

In his other life Eric
ertson is-a North Shore
ews photographer.

NOLLIDAY

No. 104 W. 13th Ave. at Lonsdale.

N. Vancouver

987-7513

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