Video Game Collecting

1993. Las Vegas. 9th and Fremont Street. The Western Hotel and Casino… Growing up in Las Vegas you had the advantage of abundant arcades. While the rest of the nation’s arcades disappeared in the mid to late 80′s their departure was slower from the Las Vegas valley because casinos had to have some place to dump the children of gamblers.

This wasn’t a bad thing for me per se, but almost every Friday night I’d go with my grandmother to The Western and play in their dinky arcade into the wee hours of the morning.

Their game selection was fairly weak. While the rest of the nation enjoyed Super Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2 they had a Road Blasters cockpit, VS Dr. Mario, Rygar in a converted Star Wars cabinet, a dilapitated Pac Man, some weird Capcom or Konami side scroller, and in the center of the filthy chaos was DJ Boy. Prior to The Western I had never seen DJ Boy in the wild. I remembered ads for it on SEGA Genesis but that was all I knew about it.

Every review I’ve read or watched about DJ Boy rates it as a terrible impossibly difficult game with ugly graphics a stupid plot and out and out -a waste of silicon. But in typical SalzMafia fashion I disagree. Let me set the scene…

The Western is located east of downtown Las Vegas. It’s technically the last casino on Fremont street until you reach the Boulder Strip. The property is surrounded by hourly hotels (which competed directly with The Western’s 16 bucks a night special), liquor stores, and empty lots. The casino caters to an unusual clientele: mostly locals with a mix of day laborers, retired people, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, and other weirdos. The place was always popular and crowded because the slots were cheap and loose. Everyone smoked it seemed and a thick layer of ash was everywhere. The front entrance opened to Fremont street and the slightest breeze carried the stale cigarette smoke into the streets. Spend 30 seconds or longer in the place and you’d leave to go shopping for shampoo and an oncologist.

Anyways, the place was miserable. And the attracts sound and music of DJ Boy was a welcomed break from the clank clank clank of penny slots and the frequent oxygen wielding fossil who was choking up chunks of lung. Wolfman Jack narrated the game and if you don’t know who he was all you need to know is that he was a syndicated radio DJ many many years ago. In his gruff wolf-like voice he’d yell DJ BOY! On the screen was a vampire with bats. It seemingly had nothing to do with the game but I later learned the vampire is based on a DJ in Japan.

So I’d drop my quarter in and start the game. What an interesting opening. You are a guy wearing dated roller skates break dancing when suddenly some thugs steal your boom box. And in typical Double Dragon fashion you set out to rescue your precious tape deck! Awesome!

Some of the screens scroll automatically and some are static. The first stage takes you through the harbor and past street cars where a hot woman tossed sticks of dynamite at you. A large variety of enemies would work you over as you’d kick the crap out of them. The game is surprisingly filled with racist ennuendo and toilet humor – especially the bosses. This was toned down on the Genesis version.

The real gem was the music. Fast beats that kept pace with the action. To me I thought the graphics were excellent. The enemies were not proportional to each other and it looks like the designers didn’t consult with each other when making the characters in the game, but it and the urban scenery looks good together.

I want -nay… I NEED this game. There is only a Genesis version that I am aware of. I’ve read reviews that lead me to believe that it’s an incomplete conversion, and that much of the story and character design has been changed.  This could be true, but I wouldn’t know because I DON’T HAVE A COPY… yet.