X the Ball

Back in my hometown there is a famous chinese-owned arcade parlour in the city centre and at times I make my way inside whenever necessary to while away some minutes before meeting up with someone or going to a scheduled appointment. This might come across as something beyond most people's comprehension, but I actually like to just watch people play without the slightest twinge of wondering about spending a single quarter and see how they fare against each other or that darn cpu-controlled opponent that most arcade goers dread (read: Igniz from KOF 2001). The other reason I don't dedicate any portion of my personal cash is that I'm helplessly cack-handed at manipulating that control stick characteristic of most arcade cabinets. It might strike you as something of a surprise, but I am able to actually draw a great deal of motivation by watching video game spawned characters: there's something intangible about them that surpasses conventional fictional characters. Perhaps to me they seem more alive than what they really are, although that may be on account on my having a happy childhood dominated by desires of one day being able to freely indulge in this passion, my performance of yore had been bridled by then current circumstances such as homework, handing in academic papers or studying for tests. I knew that one day that would all be over and then I would have more time at my disposal to go wild doing the things I really wanted. Although as a grown-up i don't aspire to engaging in this delightful activity as I once was, the sweetness of memories remain strong in the upper quarters of the soul, and to this tender side I enjoy paying due support by means of rekindling former moments now and then, mostly through the internet, which has allowed me to happen upon a fortunate amount of peers who also at one point in the past partook in all the wonders offered by classic games.

Yes, this means that I eventually found out that a fully grown up's life is not made entirely of faffing about. Indeed, I'd risk a widely accepted concept that maybe 1% of their functional time awaken from bed should be spared to unproductive activities so they can let off steam. Stepping over this threshold wouldn't bode well as lack of diligence is tantamount to unwelcome episodes of gloom, the kind which is not a wholesome deal to the soul.

Although many deliberately choose to overlook, the main asset of the shop is a pair of arcade cabinets at the back of the premises. They are a host to a myriad of classical games and I can promptly recognise a healthy portion of them. So there are some which I haven't ever see my whole life.. Amidst them are a baseball game that involves monkeys in baseball outfits, Mahjong games that seem as though they were made by some shady software company (even more unbelievable is the fact that I think they were all the same company), space shooters smacking of a futuristic utopia from the 80's and then one day I saw X the Ball.

At first I couldn't make what the game was like as the playing contraption had apparently been set to display a timed looped sequence of the gameplay and in X the Ball's case the viewer was confined to watching the title screen over and over, unless they were willing to shell out enough for a quarter, which I wasn't in the mood to do.

I was curious about that game as it read RARE at the bottom and it included a likeness of the 1990 world cup's mascot. "he might be some sort of secret character!" that was my thought. Some days later I managed to recall the name of the game and proceeded to download it. Even though that was supposed to be a football game by the looks of it, the actual thing turned out to be an outlandish oddity.

X the Ball's intriguing title screen. Image retrieved from http://caesar.logiqx.com/php/emulator_game.php?id=mame&game=xtheball

It's not really a football game in which two 11-player teams need to content for a spherical wind-filled body but a game outright distinct from it that is only centred about football without involving any of its traditional gameplay. The entire point of this game is place X's on the screen where the player judges the ball to be. A static picture of some classic world class match is presented to the player and the ball is missing. It's up to you to use your cognitive skills and correctly assume where it is. You have a total of 20 seconds to place up to 5 X's on the screen where you think the rounded object is or else you lose a life! You have only 1 life by the way so a loss equals instant death. Heck, even if you do manage to stack your X right on the ball's spot your turn will be over after the standings screen fades away (it displays how close you were to the ball and how many tickets your effort was worth.) What the hell are those tickets for anyway?

Image retrieved from http://gamesdbase.com/game/arcade/x-the-ball.aspx