The recent release of A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper wasn't just a re-make, it was a re-re-re-make with previous versions starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March (1937), Judy Garland and James Mason (1954), and Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristopherson (1976). And just like the latest version was recognized with multiple Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Best Actress in a Leading Role, did you know that both the 1954 and 1937 versions were also nominated for the same awards?
When I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, I felt like I was thrown back to my youth. As a child of the 80’s I grew up playing video games. On my Atari. My ColecoVision. My Commodore 64. And, of course, at the video arcade.
So the references in the book to Zork, Pac-Man, Tempest, Adventure, and, of course, Joust (which plays a big part in the book), took me back to my childhood.
I certainly was never a Parzival, but I loved playing Spy Hunter, Zaxxon, Gauntlet (how many times did I hear “Wizard needs food, badly!”), Cyberball 2072, Dragon’s Lair (though I am not sure I ever made it more than a few screens in before dying), and Star Wars. And of course, there were the classics: Pac-Man, Asteroids, Defender, Dig Dug, and on and on.
