huh this really brought up some memories I had locked away.
While my parents were getting divorced after the 2008 economic crash in mid-Michigan, my grandpa would take us out to dinner every weekend, I guess to try to distract my siblings and I. We would usually go to some local go-kart place or an arcade before dinner.
One time, my grandpa decided to take us to a new arcade. It was close to his work, and in a little two-shop strip mall thingy. They're very common in the sprawl that is the white flight Detroit suburbs that cover the southeast. Usually those buildings will change hands a lot, and there could be anything in there, from a sub shop to a dentist's office. The building was squat brick, with a dark angular roof. There were woods surrounding it with a few run down houses, and across the street was a lake and a half developed luxury subdivision. It was November, so the trees were leafless, and the bulldozed development was frozen, both by the bitter air and the economic disaster.
We went into the arcade, and it wasn't really what we were used to. It was just lines of old machines, mostly pinball. Most of the places we went to usually were very child focused, and I liked games where you had to shoot with a laser gun or skee ball. I though pinball was old and boring. I didn't want to cause any trouble, so I pretended to be excited, my grandpa paid the fee to get in, and I ran off while papa watched my younger siblings.
I tried out a few machines that I recognized the IP from, like a Jurassic Park or an old James Bond. I don't think I liked them very much, and kept wandering deeper into the arcade.
A little while later I spotted the black and white spiral. All the other machines were flashy and lit up and ringing and making noise, but this one stood out. It was silent. Monotone. Nearly nothing on it except for the spiral decorations. I walked over and put some quarters in.
I got lost playing the machine. It's really hard to remember any specifics, but there are a few things. The machine barely made any noises. The spiral design eventually begins to spin as your score gets higher. And it felt like someone was there with me, watching me play. I was afraid to turn around and look, as the place had been mostly empty and I never heard someone walk up. But I knew she was watching.
Eventually I lost the game, and ran out of quarters. The game made me really dizzy from looking at the spirals, and papa had to carry me out as I kept tripping. I also got some really bad food poisoning from dinner that night, I think we had tacos. My mom took me to the dr the next day, but the sick had mostly gone away.
We never went back to that arcade again. My parents finished splitting up and we moved away from papa so we no longer saw him as much.
So that's my memory of the game. I'd say it was probably somewhere close to Howell, MI. I could probably find the place if I went home and drove around for a bit, but I live far away now so that's kind of out of the picture. Maybe someone who lives close could find it and let me know if it's still there?