A few weeks later, another child friend of mine said that there was a new place where kids would go and rent out Nintendo and Sega gaming consoles per the hour.
The surrounding kids who would frequent called the place “Misis” because when you push the doorbell, it was always the pretty housewife who would open the door and let the little strangers go inside their home.
The more i describe it, the creepier it may sound to some folks. It was the mid 90s in the heart of Manila. Nothing else nefarious going on, honest.
Think of it as an underground den where adults partake in a niche form of entertainment — but with Kids and Videogames.
Though they would sell refreshments (junk food and cola) while you wait your turn to rent.
The first time I was there, I saw 2 Famicoms and 2 Sega Megadrives.
I remember the hourly rate for the Sega was a few pesos cheaper compared to the old place.
photo courtesy of Melvin Melendrez
Me and my little brother tried Alter Beast for the first time.
This was the game that most kids we saw play.
Two macho dudes from Ancient Greece with clothes barely covering their junks, casually walking left and right of the screen as they punch and kick creatures.
Items would show up that powers them up, transforming them into warewolf-like bipeds. The power up also granted them more power and speed, plus a charge attack where their bodies would be covered in light — easily destroying enemies upon contact.
photo courtesy of F Destroyer from YouTube
The gameplay was somewhat similar to the Famicom’s Double Dragon but the characters on screen were 4x bigger and detailed.
Most of the time, our lives would ran out fighting the 1st level boss. The scary voice was bad enough but the appearance freaked me out as a kid. He was literally throwing his face to attack us, multiple times. Talk about a man with a thousand faces.
If we were even lucky, we might reach Level 2 but by that time, our hour was already up. I dont recall ever reaching the boss there but It never bothereed me. The second game was more fun.
Golden Axe 2 was similar in gameplay. It was set in the medieval dark ages.
You can either be a dwarf old man with an axe, a brunette He-man with a master sword, and a She-ra with the sword of protection who also happens to wear a two-piece red bikini. Needless to say, she was too hot for my pre-teen heart to handle.
photo courtesy of VG Junk
Slash away enemies, ride some dinosaur-like monsters, collect magical blue squares. depending how may of these squares you got, you can unleash AoE attack spells.
The dwarf has earth magic.
He-man has wind magic.
Pamela Anderson has fire magic.
This game was more to our speed and skill. I remember reaching the later levels with the hour we had. The more we played, the better and faster we became.
The players of the famicom right next to us dwindled as the days went by. The kids were getting enthralled with the Sega Megadrive.
“We should get more games for this thing”, the husband of the Misis must have thought.
And got more games they did. If Altered Beast was good and Golden Axe 2 was better …
… then we were not prepared to encounter the game they called Bare Knuckle 2.
— to be continued —
— Jhonas “Jho-RPG” Soberon, producer of Timeless Gamers Show