The Music in Rastan Made You Want to Crush Your Enemies and See Them Driven Before You

To this fifteen-year-old at the time, this fantasy game with an exciting score was best in life.

by Rich Watson 

The 1982 movie Conan the Barbarian, an adaptation of the series of pulp novels by Robert E. Howard, was a sensation during the eighties. The character appeared in other media and inspired spin-offs and imitations.

Rastan was a video game set in a Conan-like fantasy setting. In addition to its superlative graphics, what set it apart from other games was its sophisticated music.

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Gyruss Upped the Awesome Level of Space Invaders By Playing In the Round

This early video arcade game wed the Space Invaders template to the mobility and dimension of Tempest for a more exciting shoot-em-up—set to Bach.

by Rich Watson

I first played video games in the mid-eighties, during junior high school. Enticed by alien adventures in cartoons and comic books, among the first games that attracted me were variations on Space Invaders: Galaxian, Phoenix, Galaga, Gorf. Kill the armada of alien spaceships before they kill you. Simple.

Then in 1983, a new space game provided a greater challenge: it allowed movement in three hundred sixty degrees.

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Five Reasons Why Shea Stadium is Synonymous With the 7 Train

The best way to have gotten to Shea Stadium was via the elevated train that runs through Queens. They had some things in common.

by Rich Watson 

The Shea Stadium site, says Google Maps, is seven minutes by car from the house I grew up in. Because I lived so close, I seldom relied on the 7 train to see my Mets. 

When I did use it, my perspective of the stadium changed. The sight of it, looming through the windows of the train car as it left the 111th Street station, inspired me. It recalled past glories, especially the 1986 championship season. It made me hope for future ones.

CitiField may be the Mets’ home now, but the ghost of Shea and the 7, in my mind at least, remain linked. 

They had a few commonalities.

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