I've been thinking about clocks because of something that happened to me about a week ago. I was in my game room (all retro game collectors need one), playing NES Wizards & Warriors. I've played through that game dozens of times before – my best friend had it growing up – yet somehow, this time I missed the "Axe of Agor," the game's most powerful projectile weapon. One of the game's later bosses is a lumbering zombie thing whose menace is somehow undercut by his Barbie-like pink coloring. This guy goes down easy enough when you have the axe, but without it, you're pretty much toast.
Like I said, I've beaten this game dozens of times before and I wasn't about to let Barbie Zombie humiliate me this time, especially not after I'd already spent about an hour getting to him. So I kept on battling, over and over. Eventually I did manage to best him and complete the game. I felt pretty proud of myself until I realized how late it was. I ended up getting to bed about an hour later than normal, and was pretty tired at work the next day.
Afterward it occurred to me that I had no way of knowing what time it was because there was nothing in my game room to tell me. Obviously I need to put a clock in there. But what kind of clock should it be? Any old clock can tell you the time, but if a clock's going in my game room it should match the retro gaming theme.
At first I thought I'd just get one of the amateur custom-made video game clocks that are available cheaply on eBay. A search for "video game clock" turns dozens of these. That's still an option, but most of them look kind of dinky to me. I'm not sure I'd be proud to have one of these hanging on my wall, even if there's a picture of Mario on it.
The awesome Pong Clock from Sander Mulder is no longer available, but it would have been too expensive anyway.
More searches turn modern retro-themed clocks like this one shaped like Pac-Man, but it seems awfully big. Shelf space is usually at a premium in game rooms. And anyway, it's modern. A retro-game room seems like it needs a retro clock. The Virtual Pac-Man Museum lists several vintage Pac-Man timepieces, but these aren't cheap these days. One of those Paxxon Pac-clocks is currently on eBay for over $100.
I got to thinking: most of my game systems are from the '70s and '80s; maybe my clock should be too. But that leads to a new conundrum: now I have two decades of clock designs to choose from. But I think I can limit it. I want something that's not TOO big – which is sometimes asking a lot from vintage electronics – and something that looks period. That means woodgrain.
I don't know if a clock can look more '70s than the VTG Kmart Digital AM/FM Radio Flip Clock:
For a more '80s aesthetic, I could go for the Soundesign 3691-C Alarm Clock Radio. I'm pretty sure I actually owned one these in the '80s. But ironically it doesn't really look that different than some clock radios made today:
Or, I could get a product clock from the era. I don't collect Coca-Cola merchandise, but I love drinking the soda, and this Coke clock from the '70s wouldn't look that out-of-place in a retro game room. Unfortunately it's rather large at 18"x12":
I'm still undecided; I need to think about it more. I'll post whatever I end up going with.
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