Breaking Black Tiger

Ray Timmins

It was about a two mile hike, down hot North Miami suburban streets, through the treacherous stretch of Dog Road, still farther, past the peacocks in one backyard to turn left and make a bee-line to the arcade. This was about 1988, Horace and I made this familiar trek, the perspiration building on our brows, then breaking, flooding our eyes with stinging salty sweat.

“Down to one man, Horace. Can beat Black Tiger in one man.”

“Yeah, right!”

“Telling ya: one man.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it!”

“Oh, don’t worry, friend, you will see it.”

“Ha!”

I had lifted some quarters from my parents’ change dish. I swished the change around in my pocket, rifling through the quarters with eager fingers. I pictured myself playing the game, like I had the night before, beating the final boss, the Black Dragon (and the original title of the game) without losing any men.

“One fucking man, Ho.”

“Bullshit! and don’t call me Ho.”

We arrived at the arcade and went straight to the water fountain in the back. The water was always so cold and refreshing after the hike there. On the way to the fountain we passed Black Tiger, I pointed and mouthed the words “One man.”

He smirked and shook his head.

We made the rounds, playing a few different games, working on various high scores. Horace could be a formidable foe, his gaming skills acute, his nefarious sarcasm cutting. But Black Tiger was mine.

The flirtation was coming to an end. My fingers, my wrists, were loose and nimble now. I was ready. I rounded a corner and took my stance in front of Black Tiger. Horace had just finished playing some game and made his way over. I inserted the token and hit start. I didn’t wait for the opening script to draw out on the screen, I hit the button and dove right into the action. First thing: turn back, break the wall, get the extra time. I was now ready to proceed with the ass kicking.

“Here we go,” I said, turning to Horace.

I smacked up the first enemy, got the zenny coin drop, turned back to Horace, “Ho.”

First level smooth, I smiled and nodded, shook out my hands, the tension in my neck and spine between rounds.

“You’re gonna die this level. Watch!” Horace said, placing a geek hex upon me.

It didn’t work. I jumped and bashed my way through each level, smiling, confident. This arcade rat with a moon face now stood behind me on the side opposite Horace.

I dominated every enemy, dodged every trap, got every hidden item. I swept through each level with ease, oftentimes turning to smile, gloating for my little audience.

“Die! Die!” Horace whispered over and over to me, a sinister look on his face.

There was a moment when I lost it. Call it the zone or what you will, but my focus was momentarily averted from it. Horace was silent. The moon-faced boy was was still, petrified in shock of my deft agility. Level seven, the second-to-last level of the game. There was a broad jump I had to make. Never usually a problem. A slight miscalculation, the jump was short and Black Tiger fell into a pit of spikes, my first man dead.

I stared, shocked, my nostrils flared for a second, then I barked, “I don’t lose!” as my fist bashed the screen in, leaving a huge bifurcated rend down the length of the plastic covering the game’s monitor. First, I looked at Horace, his eyes and mouth were agape. Nothing snarky to say to that, I guess. I turned to the moon-faced boy, said, “You want the rest of this game?” to which he replied, bug-eyed, "No way, Jose!"as Horace and I high-tailed it out of there, leaving via the back exit. I sipped some of the refreshing cool fountain water before popping the emergency exit and escaping behind him.

We stumbled through the parking lot, cracking up.

“Do you think anyone saw us?” I asked.

“That one kid watching.”

“He won’t say anything.”

“Ha!”

“Guess I overreacted a little.”

I returned to the Cloverleaf a couple days later to find that they had replaced the screen shield with a rigid Plexiglas one, nearly half an inch thick. I had to laugh. I popped in a token and played again. There was no one around to see it this time but I beat Black Tiger with one man again. And it was fucking awesome!