Video games, retrospect: Pengo

Self-tutoring about people and events from the past: the tutor mentions the arcade game Pengo.

Pengo came out in 1982, but I didn’t see it until 1985. Its protagonist is a red penguin in a maze, trying to thwart enemies.

Not only did I never play Pengo, I never knew anyone else who did. Nonetheless, Pengo was a popular game. More than one arcade I frequented had it. Sometimes I’d watch someone else play it for half a minute or so. Back then, it looked complicated.

If an arcade that hosted Pengo was in a mall, you could hear Pengo’s music from the corridor a couple of doors either side. Pengo’s music set the mood where it was.

I eventually moved away, never to hear Pengo’s theme music in an arcade again. Yet, it plays in my head when I think back to those days. I wonder how many other people came to recognize it, perhaps not even knowing it came from Pengo, a red penguin trying to progress through a maze.

Source:

archive.org

Arcade Story (YouTube)