The very first time I entered through those now hallowed halls that was Showbiz Pizza, I found myself looking on a small group of young boys and teenagers lined up in front of a Bagman arcade game. I had never heard nor laid eyes on the machine before but the manager of the Showbiz had a bullhorn in one hand, which was needed as that wonderful and chaotic sounds of yore, 50+ arcade games going at once was quite deafening, and was declaring the Bagman competition was open.
My father had me go stand in line and I waited my turn while trying to scope out all the arcade games around me. Two of these that stood out in my mind were Congo Bongo and Moon Patrol. Finally it was my turn and the manager hit the start button for me...and I played the game as best I could for being my first time with it. I ended up being 7th in place, and I received 25 tokens as a reward, an older boy won, he won the Bagman machine in fact.
Bagman became one of my favorites. The game was a side scroller and you played a criminal who was running through a mine, avoiding cops, and collecting bags of money while you did so. You could take a ride in a mine cart to avoid the long arm of the law but the carts could kill you as well. Plus you could drop the money bags you were carrying and knock out the cops or you could take a pick-axe to them.
To this day and I can't find any evidence of it, but when you were caught and beaten down by the police, Bagman would curse in french.
2 comments:
I have never, ever heard of this game.
But I would've, if Showbiz hadn't given away the game.
Well, they had three of them in total. Back in the day Showbiz would place their arcade games, the popular ones, back to back. On the bottom level is where they would place the bigger machines, Pole Position, etc., as well as units like Popeye and Donkey Kong Jr.
Guess Jr. was never as popular as his old man.
Post a Comment