Editor's Note: I feel a little dirty after reading Brett Bates's bathroom gaming adventures. At least I just washed my hands. Let's hope Brett did, too! -Michael
Last week I flew from San Francisco to Orange County for my sister's high school graduation. Per usual, I arrived at SFO an hour and a half early (it's less stressful that way), and with my extra time I decided to take care of some, um, pressing business in the men's restroom.
As I sat there contemplating the tile pattern on the floor of my stall, I had the urge to pull my iPod Touch out of my pocket and squeeze in a quick game of Peggle. You see, I never got around to playing the PC version, so iPod Peggle has been a fresh experience for me -- and wow, everything I've heard about it is true: It really is digital crack. I had spent the previous evening blasting through Adventure mode, getting all the way to the final Master Levels before being stumped by Stage 11-3 -- otherwise known as that-insanely-difficult-one-with-two-warps-and-a-spaceship. I tried and retried that stage for at least half an hour before grumpily tossing the iPod on the couch and calling it a night.
Suffice to say, I still had Peggle plinking around my brain the next morning. So I did something I'm a little ashamed to admit: there, in the SFO men's room, I whipped out my iPod to try to beat that damn level.
On my first few attempts, I managed to whittle down the stage to one orange peg, but calculating first the angle of the ball as it entered the warp and then the location of the spaceship when the ball warped out proved too much to nail that final peg. I could feel frustration welling up inside me -- not something you really want to have happen on the toilet.
So I took a deep breath, told myself I'd give it one last shot, and booted up the level. By the final ball there were two pegs left -- on opposite sides of the board, natch. With a sigh, I half-heartedly aimed for one of the pegs and fired. The ball zipped through the warp, ricocheted off the wall, hit the first orange peg, took a loooong bounce over a few blue pegs...and hit orange peg number two dead-on! It took every ounce of willpower to refrain from singing aloud the "Ode To Joy" sample that plays after you complete a stage; some part of my mind thankfully realized that doing so would've drawn a few unwelcome stares and probably put me on the terror watch list.
Walking out of the restroom with a visible bounce to my step, a thought occurred to me: That was the strangest place I've played a videogame. And I don't think I've ever been so ecstatic after using the bathroom.
So, Bitmob community: What's the weirdest place you've played a game?
