I’ve been browsing eBay again and having flash backs to my days as an long haired, waster, arts degree undergraduate.

The temptation to splash out on an original Mortal Kombat II arcade machine is quite high. Admittedly, it’s already at £50 and hasn’t reached the reserve (which will no doubt be a couple of hundred quid) and aside from under the stairs, I can’t think of anywhere in the house I could put it. I also can’t think of anywhere on the planet I could keep it that my spouse would approve of but that’s another matter.

However, for all the nostalgia of having an original arcade box of the jeu du choix of my student days, one can’t help but wonder how much you’d actually get out of it. I used to be able to finish the whole game at university and I’m sure I could with a little practice now. There’s always the two player option but then again, I have both Mortal Kombat: Deception and Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance on the PS2 (and may see if MK:Armageddon has come down in price) which takes care of my head to head needs. And let’s not forget MAME for when I want to try out the orignal MK2 on my PC.

Potentially greater replayability would perhaps be gotten from a pinball machine. I’ve never yet found a decent PC simulation of a pinball machine but that’s mainly because the attraction of playing an actual machine is very extistential: a PC simulation doesn’t bathe you in the glow of lights, doesn’t let you grip the sides of the machine or gently caress the flipper buttons. No matter how well it’s programmed, a virtual pinball will never have that satisfying weight and feel of a solid metal one.

There was only ever one pinball machine I got to grips with and that was the Star Trek: TNG pinball machine. There was one in the student union and one in my regular pub that I later worked at. As such, there were plenty of occassions to play it and to get to know it and get to know it we certainly did with three of us regularly racking up multi-ball after multi-ball and earning free-balls left right and center. Those were heady days of pinball passion.

Fortunately for me, the £1250 opening bid on an original ST:TNG pinball machine listed on eBay is enough to convince me that trips down memory lane are never worth taking.