1-Up

When I was six, my family moved from Germany to Georgia. This was something like move #5 in my young military-spawn life, but I was still not happy about it. My mood didn’t improve when I started school mid-year.

One of the challenges I faced was spelling. Having begun my education in Germany, any word with fewer than seven syllables and a consonant to vowel ratio below eleven was incomprehensible to me. My mind just couldn’t get around the business of sounding out words or learning rules for arranging letter order. Plus, southern humidity made my lederhosen itchy. That can be distracting when trying to write s-i-n-k (Waschbecken just rolls off the tongue).

My first grade teacher incentivized students by allowing those with perfect spelling scores to play on her handheld Pac-Man game during recess. That little toy was the first video game I’d seen and I was entranced. The grayscale screen and 8-bit chiptunes wouldn’t hold the attention of a two year old today, but in 1980 that small plastic case was like the promised land to a poor kid.

I decided that I would be helping Mr Man navigate those mazes, nom nom nomming all the way, on the regular. Of course, it didn’t work out like that. It’s hard to concentrate on spelling when you’re picturing the joy of crushing the high score on Pac-Man. Also, it’s hard to do well on tests that you don’t study for, even when you bring yourself to admit that (having lived on a military base) your German abilities were more of a neat trick than an impediment to native language excellence. It was clear that I would have to put in some effort.

After applying myself a little at spelling I soon learned the diminishing duration of power pellets on higher game levels, mocked the falsely ignorant ghost AI, and may have learned a few words too. Interestingly, the same principle seemed to apply in other subjects: there are rewards for learning. As a result, two of my longest standing interests – learning and video games – came together.

At least until I discovered that there was an arcade with Centipede not far from my house…