Example #287 of globalization in action. Walking through town the other day I heard a sound that I could immediately identify on its own but refused to believe I was hearing in the current context. It seemed to be coming from a tin roof structure walled off from the street by an oily sheet, surrounded by a whole lot of people doing nothing. I figured it was a figment of my imagination, an accidental confluence of audible inputs that brought back a childhood memory. Then I heard it again from the tin shack, unmistakable for any American between the ages of 20 and 40 – Mario in a warp tube.
Forgetting everything I was supposed to be doing at that point, I made a direct line for the shack where I found two boys with a beat up TV playing the original Super Mario Brothers. Turns out there is a cottage arcade industry here, kids being charged 50 francs (about 12 cents) to play until they hit game over. Well, with 50 francs on the line I can assure you these kids play as if its life and death, knowing absolutely every nuance to the game – secret stars, level warp, invisible coins – and do not let anything distract them from the mission at hand. Not even the white man speaking broken French in astonishment that here he is in West Africa going through an unbelievable bout of cognitive dissonance can draw their attention.
And you know what, fair play to the person who figured out he could make some francs as long as the power doesn’t go out. Now if I could figure out the Nagot for Super Tecmo Bowl…
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment