Polybius 1981

In the Summer of 1981 my Father came to my room and told me that he had a surprise for me. I was eleven years old and was on holiday from school. I went downstairs rubbing my eyes and saw the cabinet arcade machine stood in the middle of the living room. It was black with blue bubble lettering. Polybius. My Dad told me that he had it sent over from the United States. From Portland. It was at this moment that my Mother came downstairs. She was instantly against the idea of the machine being in the house at all. My Dad managed to convince her that it would just be there for the morning. He winked at me. He then turned the machine on at the wall and opened the coin mechanism with a key and pressed the credit button a few times. As the bubble writing came on screen the music was the usual plodding electronic tones ending in a high pitched meltdown. I looked at my Dad and he gestured for me to play. He kissed my Mother and I started to play. The maze I entered was a light green colour.  It span occasionally in a hypnotic way. I guided the red spaceship into the maze and the kaleidoscopic spinning effects made me feel sick. After an hour playing I had gone through about ten credits. My Mother looked concerned like I was becoming addicted. She told my Dad to get his van and take the game to his arcade. I shouted NO and moved the spaceship into the maze once more. After three hours I couldn't stop playing. The colours. The sounds. The constant failing at the gameplay. The whispering voices coming from the game. All made me want to possess the cabinet. After two days and nights constant playing my Dad was furiously taking notes on a yellow pad. The machine kept beeping as my Dad cut the plug off the cabinet with a carving knife. The numbers 35 34 31 54 12 24 45 18 came on screen along with a low frequency pulsing vibration that made me throw up on the carpet. My Dad shouted at me as sparks started to fly out of the back of the arcade game. He pulled me out of the way of the machine's screen as the glass exploded. My Mum had gone to my Grandmas so she couldn't see what was happening to her house. The machine was spraying sparks out like a bunch of roman candles. The fire in the living room seemed to be out of control now. My Dad was shouting for me to go outside as he wrestled ineffectivrly with the cabinet. I just got out of the house in time to see the whole house along with my Father lost to the flames.