ROOM 07 · OPEN ALL NIGHT · NO COINS, NO ACCOUNTS, NO HIGH SCORES
THE ARCADE
A grape carpet, a marquee, and cabinets standing on it playing to nobody. Walk up to one. Every machine in here is a room of its own behind the glass — they share a body and a carpet, the way cabinets in an arcade do, and nothing else.
The cabinets
- QUILL DRIFT Loose quills drift across a dark field. Steer Esmx the Porkypine and they join the mane on contact — the only verb this one has, because a porcupine cannot throw a quill. PLAY →
- OTTERLY ADORBS An otter, a kelp bay, and twirls, somersaults, dives and fish at feeding time. Floating on your back fills nothing up, which is the point of it. PLAY →
- PENGUIN PEBBLING A shore, some pebbles, and neighbours with nests. Carry something over and give it to somebody. Nothing is counted and nothing is owed back. PLAY →
WHAT EVERY MACHINE IN HERE WILL NOT DO
- None of them will time you. No clock, no lives, no score, no streak, no best-ever, and nothing you can fail.
- None of them will chase you. There is nothing in any of these games trying to beat you, take anything back, or arrive while you are not looking.
- None of them will make a noise. Not one, ever, at any setting. An arcade that is silent by choice seemed better than one that is silent until it isn’t.
- None of them will remember you. Nothing is stored, nothing is sent, and closing the tab is the whole of quitting.
- Nothing moves until you press start. Each screen is dark when you walk up to it, which is the same consent the jukebox two doors down runs on.
Each cabinet also has refusals of its own, written on its own page, because they come out of what that particular game is about.
THE DIAL AND THE SPEED KNOBS
These do different jobs. The dial governs the room — the glow behind the cabinets, the marquee bulbs. Each cabinet has its own speed knob, and the player holds that.
The dial picks the knob’s starting position — Slow if you arrived on Gentle — and then stops having an opinion. All three speeds are here at every dial setting. A Gentle that quietly handed you a different game would be the “lite version” mistake with a joystick on it.
HOW LOUD DO YOU WANT IT?
Starts wherever your device says. Nothing moves, flashes, or plays until you say so — and nothing in this room makes a sound at all.