Escape
Wonder Boy

For those like me who spent their adolescence in the '80s (and I'm not sure if that's ultimately a good or bad thing...), they will have certainly gone through the "big box, coin slot, big screen, joystick, and colorful buttons" phase at the bar near home.

Different times, different way of living life, different music (which I'm not sure if that's ultimately a good or bad thing...), different adventures, endless bike rides, explorations of little woods, and building illegal huts that would inevitably be demolished by the suspicious farmer afraid of squatting, firecrackers, finger-blaster firecrackers, glorious cartoons and battles to slap each other to be the first to write your name (abbreviated to just three letters!) before your friend or the other guy you couldn't stand and had to beat at all costs!

Being thrashed by the older boys for no reason taught you what it meant to respect those with "a few more years," hence "silent and with tail between your legs, eyes down, steps long and well stretched" if you didn't want to take a beating. Different times indeed...

The video game challenges, besides joyfully throwing away tons of 50, 100, 200, and 500 lire coins (with inflation's evolution not proportional to the actual purchasing power of the paltry contents of your wallet adorned with your favorite soccer team or some gay singer or Madonna), also served to create fun moments of gathering and collective meetings, where you could interact and enhance the quality of interpersonal relationships, something that nowadays is unfortunately fading rapidly, among consoles, PCs, increasingly complex games, pasta-cooking and pastry-making cell phones, whistles and bells and rich prizes for everyone (obesity, rudeness, and total lack of respect being the most coveted).

One day, upon entering the magical world of ice cream, chips, famous sugary and colorful sodas, Big Babol, and every sort of divine treat, I saw the magical van arrive, carrying a new box tied with fearsome and perilous elastic hooks with hooked ends, and I thought: "Yessss, damn, I'll be the first to try the new game!".

Downloaded the "package," and loaded the "old junk" destined for another bar to the delight of the kids in the neighboring town, it was just about plugging it in, tweaking a couple of settings, and there you go! (I admired the guy like Platini lying on the grass in protest and he seemed like the God of programmers, only to later realize it was a load of crap setting the options of these "dinosaurs of gaming"). Wiping the drool from my mouth from the eager anticipation, after a brief load time, the miracle appeared:

"Wonder Boy" - A.D. 1986

Recalling the bothersome drooling problem merely from the starting image, which, back then, seemed the top level of graphic awesomeness, and not having the time to wipe it since, hypnotized, I had already inserted all the coins at my disposal with a 360-degree killer glance like a ravenous were-chameleon camouflaged on a stool and chest, ensuring I had plenty of time to try out the new "monster," I began the first game. Immense satisfaction when someone would come by, notice the awesome new game, and ask "How many credits do you have left?" and you, with a sinister joyful glow in your eyes and happiness equal to that of your first erection, would say "Look, it's my first game, I still have 12 left!"

The story itself was innovative at the time, a genuine adventure to free Tanya, girlfriend of the little caveman Tom Tom, kidnapped by a nefarious and despicable wizard, a Drancon. With the help of his scampering little legs and a flint axe, our hero had to tackle a series of levels (don't recall the exact number), each divided into four parts:

Forest with bees, snakes, fires, and frogs, Sea with cunning clouds you must jump on avoiding little octopuses and swordfish, Cave, with blue fire skulls, boulders, fluttering bats, with very treacherous icy parts, Forest (modified), even harder with vile bears laying ambushes and a final boss to smash.

Wonder Boy is definitely one of those (platform) games that made me incredibly nervous, as besides avoiding touching any creature, insect, or such, you needed to grab as much fruit as possible during the level since your energy bar would deplete over time and "eating" was the only thing that could save you from certain doom (with a jump, scamper and descent underground to a hateful music tune). If you happened to break any egg containing the charming scythe-wielding death that would perch on your head, it was really over, energy plummeting as sharply as the Dow Jones in its worst crisis moments. Besides the axe, an ally could find a skateboard that sped up the race against time and enabled considerable jumps (provided you could control it well!) and a magical fairy, also hidden in an egg to break, that made you invulnerable to everything, except falls into a pit or water.

The sound massively increased nervousness and chronic migraine, as a terrifying hypnotic/repetitive lullaby would accompany you from the beginning to the end of the level, changing only in a grim hypnotic/repetitive tone when it was time to face the level leading to the final boss.

Never managed to finish it entirely, it would've taken a mountain of coins back in the day and my finances had to be equally divided between primary goods (chips, ice creams, and colorful sodas) and video games, these then the first experiments in budget forecasting and capital management.

Never managed even when I discovered, with great joy, that there were PC emulators where you didn't need coins, but a healthy dose of patience that, unfortunately, ran out quickly...

This remains a milestone of the "bulky box with double joystick and yellow, red, green, alternatively blue button" period,  one of those games you should have tried at least once in your life, preferably at the right time, as a youngster, in the heart of the '80s, between a hit of Madonna, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Europe, Culture Club, Level 42, Pet Shop Boys, Fine Young Cannibals, Simple Minds, U2, Cure, and the dance of Baltimora, Albert One, Modern Talkin, Off, Den Harrow, Gazebo...

All people who (except for the Cure), according to many, have forever ruined the way of making and understanding music...

Game Over... Continue? 10 9 8 7 .... The coin damn it!!!!!!!!!!!