HAMPTON, N.H. - It seemed to take only a few moments. A roaring blaze fueled by hurricane-force wind gusts blowing off the coast of this seaside community ripped through a decades-old wood-framed hotel early yesterday, dancing from building to building until it consumed a whole block on the popular Hampton Beach waterfront.
By early yesterday, five buildings on Ocean Boulevard had been reduced to rubble, and a rising mist of ash mixed with spray from the Atlantic Ocean to produce a foul smell of destruction. Fire officials estimated that the blaze caused millions of dollars in damages on the coveted beachfront property.
One of the buildings that was destroyed was the Happy Hampton arcade, devourer of many young Jay G quarters and one of the many places the younger Jay G honed his mad gamer skillz... Countless hours were spent outrunning evil enemy agents, gunning down various monsters, and brazing the (virtual) elements as the world of electronic entertainment grew from infancy. It was an infrequent reward, a fistful of quarters and an hour or so to kill; a world filled with names like Namco, Bandai, and Sega dominating the nascent video scene.
Home consoles, starting with the Atari 2600 and then the original 8-bit Nintendo, would signal the death-knell for console gaming. Having a whole world of video games available without leaving the house doesn't bode well for arcade settings, and I hadn't thought about a video arcade in decades. Reading this story brought back memories long buried, of an earlier, different time.
Goodbye, Happy Hampton arcade...
That is all.
3 comments:
Sad but true Jay, and the 'companionship' of the other gamers, always waiting to jump your score...LOL I peice of history now remembered only in the mind and the surviving pictures...
Damn. The name isn't familiar but I'm sure I spent time in there as well. When I was a wee lad we'd vacation up at Hampton Beach every summer. When I got a little older we switched to Cape May, NJ, and older still, Narragansett.
But Hampton Beach was my first true arcade experience.
FYI, if you buy the Rampage game for Wii it comes with the original arcade game. I got mine used for not much, but even if I spend a few hundred on it, I'd have spent less to buy that game than I did in the arcade just to play it.
Midway needs to release the Spyhunter arcade game for the Wii somehow!
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