The Video Club Memory

It's the end of January, 1999, in Kuwait. A few months ago, you started wearing the hijab. It was your choice; your mother taught you about it, and last September, you got your first period. You decided to start wearing it that day. You turned twelve the following month. Your PC at home is filled with educational games. Magic School Bus. Carmen Sandiego. Barbie. 3D Movie Maker. You don't fully know how to use Winamp, the features are sort of confusing, but you've been learning. You have friends on mIRC and ICQ, you use Lycos to search and Babel Fish to translate. This year, Eid Al-Fitr is quite long; the government loves to take opportunities to extend holidays. At this point, you still don't quite understand the lunar calendar. You think Ramadan and Christmas are always at the same time. It's okay; you still haven't quite mastered Taraweeh prayer either. After all the family visits, your Eid haul is huge. A whole 120 KD! When you go to your mom's friend's house, the idea is for you to play with her daughter, but she's a couple of years older, and at this stage, that matters. Mostly you hang around the dad's office in front of the computer, marvelling at game after game. Your English isn't quite strong enough to grasp the hints and the jokes, but you definitely know you prefer the games with the stories to Sega Bass Fishing. Their dad notices and tells your mom where to buy games. So these are your Eid plans: you get to spend some of your Eid money on games, and then you and your mom are going to have dinner at Prego, the only restaurant that serves bruschetta. [[The Video Club.->The Video Club]]

You and your mother stand in front of The Video Club. The [[door->Enter]] is on the left side, and you can see the entirety of the small shop standing here: two rows of stands, first DVDs, then cassettes. The CDs are in the back. The walls are lined with video tapes. The cashier is in the corner.

There's always loud music playing. You're kind of a nerd, so you don't know what they're playing, and you don't care. Arabic or English, whatever. You don't get the appeal of popular music. Goes with never being taught how to behave in a way that makes you fit in with the popular girls at school. (link-reveal:"Cashier on the right. ")[Your mom says you can pick up whatever you want, but then you'll have to whittle it down to something she deems reasonable when it's time to check out. ] (link-reveal:"Shelves on the left. ")[Rarely anything interesting here. You generally cruise past. Eyes on the prize.] (link-reveal:"Stands on the right. ")[Some cassettes. Some CDs. Nothing you care enough to look at. ] (link-reveal:"Shelves in the back. ")[The good stuff. Disney movies. Local plays. Things like that. If your mom doesn't rush you out, you can browse around here. But first. [[Stairs.->Stairs]]]

In the left corner, you take two steps up, then turn right for the rest of the climb. They're narrow and the carpet is always both dusty and musty. It smells a little bit like cigarettes. The higher you climb --the steps are quite high even for your adolescent gait-- the quieter is becomes, and that's just the way you like it. The final step is on an awkward sort of landing. Just a weird combination of angles and display cases that results in an empty space where the stairs end. You stand here to observe the room. [[Video games.->Upstairs.]]

There's a door on the right, but it's scary. You don't even acknowledge it. It's where the cigarette smell is coming from. The left side of the room is lined with video games. Boxes upon boxes of shiny, shiny games. There's rarely anyone up here to ask, but that's okay. (link-reveal:"You have your list. ")[Circle of Blood.(link-reveal:"^^.^^")[ You'd find out later it was actually called Broken Sword, but your mom's friend's husband had bought the US version. ] Curse of Monkey Island. King's Quest VII. And Magic School Bus, because you're still a fan, and you never found the one about biology. They don't have any of that, but they do have [[other games->Games]] you haven't heard of before.]

(if: ((count: (history:), "LucasArchive1") is 1) and ((count: (history:), "Star Wars") is 1) and ((count: (history:), "Ages of Myst") is 1) and ((count: (history:), "Thief") is 1))[You're running out of time. You like three games. You have to [[decide->decide]].]  (if: (count: (history:), "LucasArchive1") is <1)[[[<img alt="lucasarchive1" src="http://q8geeks.org/pix/25245-the-lucasarts-archives-vol-i-dos-front-cover.jpg" />->LucasArchive1]] ]  (if: (count: (history:), "Star Wars") is <1)[[[<img alt="lucarchivestarwars" src="http://q8geeks.org/pix/110772-the-lucasarts-archives-vol-ii-star-wars-collection-dos-front-cover.jpg" />->Star Wars]]]  (if: (count: (history:), "Ages of Myst") is <1)[[[<img alt="agesofmyst" src="http://q8geeks.org/pix/61359-ages-of-myst-macintosh-front-cover.jpg" />->Ages of Myst]]]  (if: (count: (history:), "Thief") is <1)[[[<img alt="thief" src="http://q8geeks.org/pix/12618-thief-the-dark-project-windows-front-cover.jpg" />->Thief]]]

You recognize the LucasArts logo from when you played Curse of Monkey Island, which they don't have. But you don't recognize any of the games here. It certainly looks interesting, and you'd be getting many games in this one package. [[This is a maybe.->Games]]

In the future, you'd realize you could have bought this and resold it for a nice sum. But right now, you've never even heard of Star Wars. It looks like every other shooty-pew game cover, and it doesn't interest you. [[Hard pass.->Games]]

You've never heard of this game, but it says 5 million copies sold, so it can't be too bad, right? This box is huge and gorgeous! Look at the back! [<img alt="agesofmystback" src="http://q8geeks.org/pix/61358-ages-of-myst-macintosh-back-cover.jpg" style="max-width: 50%;" />] It's got a Making Of! This is the 90s, you're hungry for Making Ofs. You only ever get to see them whenever KTV2 puts something about how this or that movie was made. [[You want this.->Games]]

Oh. Look at this beautiful box. It stands out. Also, it's literally a game called Thief. (text-style: "subscript")[Squee!] You've been into sneaky stuff lately. Not actually stealing! You're a straight A student. That makes all the thievery stories you've been reading lately all the more deliciously clandestine. Also, it's clearly a grownup game. So dark and mysterious. It's even //called// The Dark Project! But not shooty. Your reflexes are terrible. You were never any good at Sonic, and you didn't even get to try Mario. [[You're gonna buy this.->Games]]

You definitely want Thief. It's too cool to pass up. That leaves you with the LucasArts Archive and Ages of Myst. It's time to (link-reveal:"negotiate.")[ You ask your mom if you can buy all three. She takes a look at the prices. These things run for 20 KD a game. All three is half your eid money. She wants to teach you sound financial sense. The answer is no. You can get two. Will it be [[The LucasArts Archive?->Archive final]] [[Ages of Myst?->Myst final]]]

(if: (count: (history:), "Archive final") is 0)[It's so pretty. And it's by LucasArts. Curse of Monkey Island was hilarious. That's what you wanted to buy anyway, but they didn't have it. You don't really know any of these games.] (else-if:(count: (history:), "Archive final") is >=1)[It's so tempting, there are so many games here.] [[Hmm...->decide 2]]

(if: (count: (history:), "Myst final") is 0 or (count: (history:), "Archive final") is <2)[It's so, so pretty. Look at the journal it comes with. You get two games, but you get a ton of extra stuff. That's definitely a factor. If you could get all three games, you would, but you can't. Besides, you're here for big girl games, and this one looks super mature. Your English vocabulary isn't big enough yet to understand that beneath the cartoonish art, LucasArts games are adult games, too.] (else-if:((count: (history:), "Myst final") is >=1) and (count: (history:), "Archive final") is >=2)[This one is a collector's edition, the box is big and pretty. You can come back for the other one later.] (if: (count: (history:), "Archive final") is >=2)[ [[This is it. This is what you want.->Leaving]]] (else:)[[[Hmm...->decide 2]]]

Will it be [[The LucasArts Archive?->Archive final]] [[Ages of Myst?->Myst final]]

You tell your mom you've made your choice. Little do you know that, though you missed out on some iconic games, the iconic games you did buy would set your taste in games forever and completely ruin your chances of ever getting into shooters. At least not for another ten years, when you finally decide to play Half-Life. 1. For historical purposes. Prego's bruschetta is delicious. Y2K approaches... (text-style: "subscript")[[[Where did the images come from? ->Images]]]

The cover image is from <a href="https://248am.com/mark/kuwait/the-video-club/"; target="_blank">248am</a>. The game images were collected from across <a href="https://www.mobygames.com/"; target="_blank">MobyGames</a>.