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Discussion forumReliving my greatest digital triumph
Post #: 316
Post type: Blog post
Date: 2026-01-28 02:06:12.000
Author: Jeremy Reimer
Tags: gaming
The year was 1987. I was in eleventh grade, going to Eric Hamber Secondary in Vancouver. When the weather turned nice, I would sometimes walk home from school. I’d head up to the Oakridge Mall at 41st and Cambie with one destination in mind: Johnny Zee’s Arcade.
Bus fare for students was 55 cents in those days, which gave me two quarters to spend on arcade games. My favorites were R-Type; a side-scrolling space shooter, Rampage; where I got to be a huge monster and destroy buildings, and Bubble Bobble; where I was a much smaller but cuter monster trapping enemies in bubbles I shot from my mouth.
But there was one game that I was completely mesmerized by: Wonderboy in Monster Land.
The arcade cabinet for Wonder Boy in Monster Land
This was an import from Japan that wasn’t even supposed to be released here, but someone had made a bootleg copy of the ROM chips and changed the Japanese characters into English. You played the titular Wonder Boy, an unlikely hero who started the game wearing only a diaper! At the first door, you received your quest:
The translation wasn’t always great. For example, you were told to “take this sword and pill.” The pill looked more like a potion, but it was the most important item, because it could revive up to half your hearts if you died.
It was a platform game that had role-playing elements: defeating enemies gave you gold, and you could use the gold to buy items. These included better armor, shields, and boots that let you jump higher. You could also buy consumable items like fireballs, whirlwinds, thunderbolts, and bombs. You needed them to defeat some of the bosses at the end of each stage. Once you beat the boss, you got a key that opened a gate to the next level.
There was also a neat trick that probably ruined a bunch of joysticks. If you jumped up to collect a secret coin and rapidly moved Wonder Boy back and forth many times while in the air, occasionally you would receive 66, 67, or 68 coins instead of the usual 5 to 10, which felt amazing. This trick was required to get enough money to purchase the best armor and shields.
Every day I would watch people play the game and try to learn from them. Then I would take my two quarters and play this game. Slowly, I got better at beating the bosses.
After a couple of months, I beat the game for the first time. It took about forty-five minutes using a single quarter. I remember a small crowd gathering around me as I played, watching silently until I finally defeated the dragon. I remember the crowd cheering at that point. High fives might have been had. It was a moment of triumph that I could never have in the real world at that time. It felt like winning a gold medal.
Years later, I was able to play the game again using the MAME emulator, and I got to experience some of this joy again. But after playing it once or twice every year or so, eventually I stopped. I was getting older. Maybe reliving my high school glory had lost some of its luster. It also was getting harder to beat the game. Usually I would die on the Snow Kong boss, or even earlier. And if I got to the final dungeon, I always forgot how to navigate the complicated maze.
But recently, I decided to give it another go. Maybe I was feeling a wave of nostalgia. In any case, I put in a virtual quarter and started the game.
It might have been because I was in a good mood, but I played incredibly well. I defeated every boss, even though I had to use my Revival Potion more than once. Fortunately I remembered where to purchase replacements.
Now I was in the final dungeon. The music increased in intensity to match my heartbeat. How would I possibly recall which way to go?
I thought about trying to remember each decision, but I couldn’t. It was a complicated map, and if you chose a wrong path, you’d usually start from the beginning. That was a death sentence, because then you had to fight all the dungeon bosses again with no health replenishment.
This map doesn't even show the whole complexity of the thing
So I decided to just go forward, and not think about it. At all. I’d go on pure feeling. No second-guessing. I’d just “vibe” the navigation, as the kids might say.
And I made every decision correctly.
When I beat the dragon, I felt the familiar rush of victory. I got up and danced around to the ending music as the credits rolled.
I’m getting older, and there’s no way to deny it. It happens to all of us. But even now, sometimes, there’s a way to jump back in time and remember the pure joy you had as a kid. It’s right there behind the dragon, waiting for you to find it.
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