So how are Pete and I meant to entertain ourselves? We sat and pondered this as we ate our pancakes at the local diner (there was no one at home to make us breakfast!!). Thankfully, through the wonder of the Internet, I discovered something amazing: Houston's 17th Annual Arcade Expo.
One weekend a year, 300 pinball and arcade machines are set up in a local hotel ballroom, and after buying your entry ticket you can play on them all, for free, FOR AS LONG AS YOU WANT! It was a sacrifice I was willing to make to keep my son happy.
What we didn't realise was that Star Wars characters would also be wandering around, and Pete's eyes almost popped out when he saw Boba Fett standing by the Asteroids machine. I found entertainment playing the games I never had the coins to waste on when I was a lad - times were tough in Britain back then. I played several rounds of Mr Do (they had one at Swindon Link Center) and Galaxian (Bristol ice rink) and Centipede (Frome swimming pool, upstairs, by the snack machine). I was rubbish at them all.
We dragged ourselves away kicking and screaming after four hours, when hunger intervened. I only wish Hannah could have been here to enjoy it with us...but a pipeline fire in California was probably far preferable to her.
We'll be considerate...by beating all their high scores!
The galaxy's #1 bounty hunter shares a moment with his biggest fan.
Pinball or video games? Such a hard choice.
A Snowtrooper! Very rare.
And now shooting tie fighters on the Star Wars game (I played on one in a hotel in Florida in 1985).
Now here's an obscure piece of video game history: the Nintendo Virtual Boy.
And a selfie from a Game Boy PocketPrinter! Priceless.
A worrying affinity for the Empire.
Turning completely to the dark side.
An Asteroids high score! Actually achieved by someone else, but he left the machine before putting his details in.
And (an ersatz) R2-D2, rebalancing us to the good guys on the way out.
