Maya had heard whispers of it, but never believed it was true. But here, in front of her, was a creepy old arcade machine, shining blue and white and yellow in the darkness as though it was lit up with a spotlight. The rest of the room was darkness and Maya looked back back to the way she had come in, just a rectangle of light and sounds that was the doorway to the outside world.
This machine was rumoured to randomly appear before gamers, giving them just one chance to win the grand prize, a golden ticket to exchange for whatever they could think to ask for. Maya wasn’t exactly a pro gamer, she’d been coming to the arcade in the months since it’s grand opening in the shopping centre near her home. Arcades were cool again, apparently, and she’d been dropping in to play the occasional shooter, fighting game or DDR, and that’s where she had overheard the talk about this game. It had happened to a friend of a friend of theirs, always in a different arcade. Most stories said they lost the game, but some won and asked for something impulsive like a year’s supply of chocolate or a Playstation 5.
Could she win? Maya took a step toward the machine and it seemed to get brighter, another step and it intensified again. How much brighter could it get before it blinded her? It didn’t seem to hurt her eyes at all, just took over her entire vision, every sense filled with the retro machine. It was faintly bleeping and the screen buzzed, the metal panel cold to the touch. Her hand slid over the three red buttons, the joystick.
Text on the screen flashed in front of her and she stepped back in surprise.
Insert coin to begin
Coin? Did she have one of those? She came to the sudden realisation that she had been absentmindedly flipping a copper coin between her fingers.Where had the coin even come from? It was warm from the heat of her hands as if she’d been holding it the whole time, and looking at it closer, she could see the coin had her face stamped on it. She felt the slightest hint of dread, maybe the game wanted a piece of her.
Returning her gaze to the screen, she saw there was some much duller text underneath.
Turn back to forfeit game chance
Forward or backward? Play or forfeit. She didn’t even know what the game was, how could she choose? Was this dangerous? Why had that thought even popped into her head, it was just a game. But … where was she, even? What room had she walked into? She didn’t actually remember coming in…
Maya glanced back at the open door again and took a deep breath, returning to the console. She flicked the joystick a few times, and then noticed the second set of controls. This was a two player game? Was it a competition?
The name at the top of the machine lit up with words that hadn’t been there previously ‘Smash Fighter.’
“Okay then,” Maya mumbled to herself. Not the most creative of titles.
The text on the screen flashed and glowed brighter than before, growing in size and seeming like it would burn through the screen.
INSERT COIN
It actually seemed a little impatient, somehow. She clenched the coin in her fist, knowing she’d already made her decision, but needing the push for that last step forward.
Enough thinking, she shoved the coin into the slot and waited.
Another player appeared next to her, and she jumped.
“Where did you come from?”
“Don’t waste time!” The new girl didn’t look away from the screen, and was already moving the joystick and pushing buttons. “Play.”
One small blonde avatar in the game was inside a room, punching and kicking shadowy henchmen coming from the corner of the screen. Another brown haired girl that was obviously her avatar stood outside the door, doing nothing as the timer in the top right of the screen ticked down seconds.
Okay, there was no time to stand and think. Maya grabbed the controls, firmly in command. Move, punch, kick, kick, punch. She was in the zone, taking out goon after goon as they swarmed into view. The KO count in the left went up as the timer on the right went down, and then the 8-bit room was empty. First room clear.
In the space of a blink, Maya was standing in the middle of a well-lit room, arcade screen no longer in front of her.
She froze, scanning the room with just her eyes.
A frustrated sigh from beside her reminded her that she wasn’t playing alone.
“Come on, girly.” the other girl grabbed her arm and attempted to drag her forward.
“Wait, where are we?” Maya asked, pulling back.
“Inside the game, and the timer is still going. We can’t hesitate.”
“Wait, I need to fight? I don’t know how to fight, I’ll lose.”
Positioning herself in front of Maya, the other girl leant forward so their foreheads were touching. She took a deep breath and Maya followed suit.
“You should still be able to feel the controls in your hands.”
With a jolt, Maya realised she could still feel them, like she was in two places at once. She tipped the joystick sideways and also moved easily to the left.
“Weird,” she said, looking at her hands.
The other girl grabbed her hand this time. “No time to think!” she said with a grin, pulling Maya onwards to the next room.
Maya grinned too, running along with her.
The next room flooded with black-cloaked bad guys. More cannon fodder. Punch, kick, kick, punch. Maya could feel the controls under her hands, but also feel the impact of her hits on other bodies. It was exhilarating, and she actually laughed.
A shiny patch on the ground caught her eye, and Maya reached down into it. A bat materialised in her hand.
“Ooh, ooh. Throw it to me!” the blonde girl called out when she noticed. Maya tossed it, and the girl let out a whoop as she swung it forward, letting out a thunderous blast of a special move. The room was empty again.
“Wait.” Maya grabbed her arm as the other girl headed towards the next room. “Who are you?”
“Ah…” the girl lowered her head. “Sarah.”
“And why do you know so much about this game, I thought people could only play it once.”
“Yeah, everyone … except me.”
“Are you … trapped here?” Maya felt the dread from earlier coming back.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry!” Sarah waved her arms around in a panic. “You can’t get stuck here, it’s just me.” Realising what she just said, Sarah held up her hands. “Let’s not dwell on that though. Let’s keep playing. You want to win, right? You want the prize? We’re running out of time.”
“If you win, do you get out of here?”
“Sure, let’s go!” Sarah held the bat in front of her and charged towards the next room.
Maya was about to follow when she noticed a shimmer in front of the doorway to the previous room. “Sweet.” She reached for the item and then sprinted after Sarah.
More mooks surrounded Sarah – this time thugs with bandanas. It seemed the bat would only take out three fighters in the new room when she swung it in an arc in front of her.
Maya approached from behind her with her new equip: power gloves. The smirking thug she punched went flying backwards and took out two more of the same-faced enemies. Their bodies fell to the floor and disappeared, and Maya let out a whoop.
“How many more rooms are there?” She asked Maya as she punched a second guy.
“After this room: two.” Sarah swung for another triple KO combo.
Focusing back to the arcade room, Maya took a second to glance at the timer in the top right of the screen at the timer, then over to the KO count on the top left, and underneath that number was the number 3.
Three more rooms, three special powerups.
“I’ve never actually seen those gloves before,” Sarah said as she roundhouse-kicked the last thug of the room and an extra two minutes was added to the timer for the start of the next level.
“I guess you had to go backwards a bit to see them, and you’re usually moving forwards, aren’t you.”
“Yeah, I’ll know for ne–” Sarah stopped herself mid-sentence. “Next time I play a game, I’ll look out for things behind me.”
Maya frowned, but didn’t mention she had noticed the slip up.
“Well,” Sarah gave a big smile and took Maya’s hand. “We’re making good time, onto the next room!”
The next room was robots. They were powerful, and there were no KO combos happening in this level.
Punch, punch, a robot went down, punch punch.
The opponent Maya took on made a massive swing of its steel arm, and although some of her previous enemies had gotten a few shots in, this one took Maya by surprise as she flew backwards and into the ground, stunned.
“Maya!” Sarah bonked the attacking bot on the head before it could get in another hit, and she reached out backwards with a hand to help Maya up again, swinging her bat wildly in front of her with the other hand to give them some extra time.
“I think it’s time I started to dodge…” Maya’s vision was blurring between the arcade and the metal room in front of her. She tried to steady herself, letting Sarah have her hand back. “... Or… it might be time for something stronger.”
Focusing on the arcade controls, Maya launched her combo. Punch, punch, special move. She crouched and smacked the floor. The whole room shook with an earthquake and the robots fell prone, some of them disappearing, but others holding out. Maya jumped forward, grabbing onto Sarah before she could topple to the floor.
Sarah in her arms, Maya felt like the hero.
“You were holding that one back for the right moment then?”
“I wanted to impress you.” Maya winked.
“Well, you got it. I’m impressed. Now just let me go so I can finish them all off.”
The bat was highly effective against prone bad guys, and Sarah made short work of them, and they were ready for the moment of truth: the boss room.
When the two girls entered, the room was quiet. “What kind of boss is in here?” Maya whispered.
“Uh, you’d have to see it to believe it.” Sarah replied at a normal volume.
The floor and walls of the room started to shake and there was the sound of booming footsteps past the door ahead of them. The rumble stopped for a second, then the whole wall splintered open, revealing a robot double their size.
The boss monster had a black robe, the hood down, and a bandana on its head over a silly goon face.
Maya expelled all of her tension into a short cackle, and Sarah shot her an I-told-you-so look, then they both steeled their expressions and turned their attention towards the final stage.
“I’m starting with the earthquake, and we’ll save my last shot for if we get into trouble.”
As the strange robot-goon was letting out an anachronistic animal roar, Maya powered up and let loose her shockwave. The boss wobbled, but didn’t fall. Although what did fall was the rest of the wall and the ceiling, leaving the boss dazed.
The two girls launched themselves in the opening, Maya with a flurry of punches, and Sarah getting out slow but powerful swings of the bat.
The boss didn’t seem to know who to attack at first, but it was just a matter of time before he made a huge sweep with his arm, going for the both of them. They jumped to the side in opposite directions and continued on the offensive.
It was the second attack, aimed directly as Sarah wound up for another hit, that connected and sent her flying. Maya wanted to check on her friend, but also knew the best way to help was just to defeat the boss.
She took a deep breath and focused more into the controls. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap with the buttons, left, right, left, right punching, then a flick of the joystick to the side to dodge a swing from the boss’s arms. Maya was so engrossed in fighting, she suddenly realised that it had been a long time and Sarah had not returned. With a quarter health bar left, it seemed like this was the right time to use her last trump card.
Maya powered up the combo and let it loose right into the metal stomach of her foe.The shockwave ran throughout his body, and Maya finally had the freedom to turn and check on Sarah. She was holding her bat aloft, it glowing with a red light that let off sparks.
The two girls grinned at one another, and Sarah charged forward, letting her special move fly.
Back in the arcade room, the lights all came up suddenly, flooding Maya’s vision and flinging her whole consciousness back into the room.
Where it had been complete darkness before and during the game, now the room was all light, which was still its own kind of eerie. Completing the creepy vibe, there was a golden ticket draped over the control pad buttons.
Maya looked to her left and right, but Sarah was nowhere in sight. She spun around and upon seeing no one, she grabbed the side of the machine. Sarah was supposed to come back with her, that was how this was supposed to work. Maya considered ignoring the golden ticket and just leaving, but she had come so far.
With a sigh, she picked up the ticket, and in the corner of her eye, a long desk materialised: the prize desk. It was a familiar counter, a glass case with various useless knick-knacks lit up to make them look attractive, and behind the counter more glass display cases with expensive prizes. Nothing in the cases was recognisable, they were blurry almost-items. An imitation of the real thing, and only for show.
As she approached the desk, a hooded figure stepped forward. They didn’t speak, but the hesitant way they had their face turned away inside the cloak made Maya realise she already knew who it was.
“Sarah?”
The hooded figure didn’t respond, and Maya slammed her palms on the glass case, the golden ticket shining as it seemed like all of the lights pointed toward it.
“I’m exchanging this golden ticket for you, Sarah.”
The person behind the counter faltered and let down her hood.
