GAME MUSEUM & PIZZA & DNB
Celebrating Daniel's birthday one week earlier.
Daniel's birthday is on March 14. I'll be away in Zürich that day for my choir performance, and then I'll be in Bern the following day. The day before that is my B2 test. Thus, celebrating a week earlier seemed appropriate.
I planned the perfect Daniel day this past Saturday:
A normal day
I tend to stress out when we have to go somewhere, so this planned part of the day was more for me rather than him. I wanted it to feel like a normal day so I can feel relaxed. We didn't make any reservations for the game museum nor for dinner. I decided to leave it up to fate. Our backup plan for everything was, if it doesn't work out, we'll just come back home and watch something on YouTube or play some games. No big deal. So I took my time getting ready.
Gameorama
Gameorama is a playable game museum in Lucerne. You pay for an entry ticket of CHF 20 and can play all the games for up to 2 hours. If you have a student ID, you get in for free!*
*One time, one of the employees assumed I was a student because of my youthful presence, but when I said alas, I am old, he let me in for free anyway because he said he was in a good mood.
What kind of games, you ask? Mostly retro games on all sorts of consoles! It's essentially an arcade, but the best part is, you can play any game for an unlimited time. As a child, I rarely went to arcades because I wasn't very good at gaming, which meant spending more money. (I was a very risk-adverse kid.) So this type of arcade—I mean, museum—is perfect for me.
Daniel had scored 4 free entry tickets because he donated his PS4 to the museum last year. We live fairly close by which is why we rarely go, because we think, "It's right around the corner so we can go whenever!" and so we never end up going. We'd only gone to the café† twice in the past two years, but hadn't managed to go to the museum.
† Here you can play boardgames for an unlimited time, as long as you buy a drink or a snack from the café.
We ended up ready to leave for Gameorama at 17:00 rather than the intended 16:00. The DJ set wasn't until 22:00, so I figured it didn't matter. Usually it's quite busy at Gameorama on a Saturday, but the weather was really great, so most people went into the mountains or something. There were a fair amount of patrons but it wasn't crowded, which I liked.
Pinball wizard
The first floor contains a bunch of pinball machines, from ancient ones (there's one from the 1900s, like the first pinball ever), to a modern version with a digitized screen. I usually skip this area, but I thought I'd spend some time here first. I think we were there for a good 20 minutes.
I had to start with my favorite Batman movie.
I tried out this Grand Prix one because it was vacant. It was fun seeing the ball act like a little race car.
This one was harder compared to the others and not as fun because there weren't as many glitzy mechanics.
The AC/DC digital pinball machine. Had to give it a go. It was kind of confusing, mostly because the "start" mechanic was different than the others.
I'm trying to break out of this "if I suck, I won't even try" mentality. That's probably why I skipped pinball all this time. So I forced myself to push through that feeling, and I had a lot of fun! It was so cool seeing all the different mechanisms of each machine. Since it's unlimited (like, it doesn't reset to zero), the scores have already been stacking from previous players. Another reason it's pointless to focus on winning.
All the games
Upstairs has everything else. There's even a mini wooden chalet that features Swiss-made games, like Farming Simulator. I usually end up there (it's so soothing to drive the tractor around), but skipped it this time to play with Daniel.
Swiss games are proudly displayed in this chalet!
This used to be outside of the hut, but it makes sense it would be located in here.
There's a table with more modern PCs playing some sort of Age of Empires game, and then a table filled with ancient computers! I didn't take pictures of everything, because I want to share a little bit each time I come here.
I remember these floppy disks!
Another Commodore with a game I couldn't figure how to play. (But Daniel figured it out.)
You can even play handheld consoles from years past. (They're stuck to the table so nobody can steal them.)
The one handheld I had (also in Kiwi!), which got stolen in my teenaged years along with the Pokémon game in it. Lol at my face.
The console area is quite popular and has a variety of games from various years and systems. There was a group playing Guitar Hero and last time I played Portal 1 by myself for at least 45 minutes. This time, we played a few rounds of Dead or Alive, but I got tired of it so we played one round of Smash Bros. 64 before I wanted to move on again.
Dead or Alive. I didn't like it; it felt like I was moving in slow motion.
Smash Bros. 64 also felt very clunky and slow to play. Also not all the characters were unlocked.
The birthday man on his throne of games.
"Let's play chess!" exclaimed Daniel.
"No!" I had replied, but since it was his birthday, I conceded. We ended up having to time our rounds because I took too long to decide on my moves. We were there for close to an hour. I lost big time and was upset about it.
Before we started playing. This is a marble chess table that has drawers included! Very beautiful. I wonder where they find these things.
Arcade machines
This is probably the most fun part of the museum, getting to experience an arcade without having to use up actual coins. They have all sorts of games like racing, shooters, and even Chinese and Japanese rhythm games. (I wanted to play the taiko drumming game, but it was always occupied!)
Fatal Fury 3 is the latest addition to the museum. Daniel was elated.
I redeemed my chess loss by beating Daniel's ass in Fatal Fury 3, which I won't shut up about because he's a fighting game expert. I worked up a sweat because I button-mashed like my life depended on it. We played some more games including a motorcycle racing one (fun, but also very sweaty), Bomberman, analog Pong (that was cool!), and then I declared I was done and wanted to leave. I watched Daniel play a round of Crazy Taxi and this really cute cat game before we left for dinner. We were just shy of 2 hours.
Watching Daniel play one round of Crazy Taxi.
A really cute pixel cat game called "Alley Cat" published in 1984 by IBM. The original was for Atari 8-bit computers. (Source)
Disco Pizza
This is Daniel's favorite pizzeria because they specialize in Detroit-style pan pizza. While I do enjoy this place, my intestines don't, so I only agree to eat here on special occasions. As soon as we entered, I saw my colleague, Muffler, eating with a large group. He greeted us and said he was sitting with the other DJs for the night's event. What a coincidence! But for some reason, I had a feeling I'd run into him here.
Daniel and his deep-dish pizza.
I always order a Napoli-style pizza. I LOVE MASCARPONE!
I ate 7/8 of my pizza before surrendering. Half a year ago, I would've pushed myself to finish it all. But my intestines have been acting up lately and I didn't want to risk it. Plus, I knew Daniel would eat my final slice, so no food was wasted.
Jungle/DNB night
We arrived shortly after 22:00. Muffler was already there, but it was so loud that I quickly gave up on having a conversation, so we just introduced ourselves to his girlfriend. I bought myself a whiskey sour and Daniel his birthday gin and tonic. Muffler and his friends were busy talking. I didn't have the social battery to push through all the noise just to make small talk, so Daniel and I simply enjoyed the music.
The only picture I took of the night because I was too busy dancing.
I'd never seen Muffler play, so I didn't know what to expect. When it was his turn, his friends jumped onto the dance floor. He mixed more atmospheric instrumental music with DNB and had some really great drops. I felt like I was on at the top of roller coaster, anticipating the fall. At one point Daniel looked over at me and laughed, because I was head-banging. (And my neck paid for it the next morning.)
I danced nonstop for 2 hours. My knees were screaming and pleading with me to take a break, but I love dancing so I pushed through the pain. Halfway through, Daniel shouted in my ear, "Can we leave after his set?"
"Let's see what the next DJ is like first!" I shouted back.
But as soon as I said those words, my toes felt like they were going to break off. So I agreed that we could leave after this.
When Muffler's set ended, I walked towards his girlfriend and exclaimed, "Das war sehr toll!" ("That was really cool!")
She smiled and replied, "Oh, you're going home?"
I beamed back, "Yeah!"
Soon after, Muffler joined us and I told him that I had so much fun dancing and to invite us to his next gig. I worried he couldn't hear me so I made sure to vigorously gesture my two thumbs up. He said that he'll invite his girlfriend to our next German coffee meet up, so I'm not entirely sure if he heard what I said, but we were all smiles, and that's what mattered.
We got home after midnight, my knees burning. Daniel played Arc Raiders while I rested on the couch and eventually fell asleep. I don't think I'm made for late night outings anymore, but it's still fun once in a while.
Oh, and here's Muffler's Bandcamp, if you wanna check out his music!