Stop Wars: Return of the Arcade

Hargrave Arcade's return on International Peace Day, Sept. 21, 2013 was a blast.

With the help of Chalkboards, MonsterVision, The Galagals & other H'Arcade crew, and Austin fans of old school gaming, $625.00 were raised to support the effective efforts of Pass Love Charity Foundation. building quality libraries in rural areas of China to increase literacy among impoverished children.

Jared Blondeau of MonsterVision

Just after sundown, with the house fully transformed into the DIY arcade, we fired up our double-feature of return-themed films, projected on our backyard movie screen made of reused billboard tarp. Between flicks, a two act TX Chip showcase harmonized 8-bit instrumentation with complementary visual backing. The first performance was by MonsterVision: spooky surf chip music accompanied by a mash-up of horror film clips.

MonsterVision was followed by Chalkboards, who took us on a chip-pop voyage of colorful psychedelic lights and homemade science experiments.

Chalkboards

"Chiptunes are a sub-genre of electronic music, usually made using vintage computer hardware chips (hence 'chip' tunes). If you know the themes to Tetris or Super Mario Bros, that's a good starting point for what chiptune sounds can sound like. But chiptunes does NOT mean video game music; they simply use the same computer hardware." 
- Jacob Weiss, Chalkboards

Jacob Weiss & Anna Crain of Chalkboards

After their set, for their major contributions in supporting this event, Jacob & Anna were each presented with the Key to Melrose Place, the first time ever awarded by Hargrave Arcade, a medal even better than the Nobel Prize or MBE because this one was designed to double as a bottle opener.

Hargrave Arcade would now like to award everyone who supported this event with the Key to Our Heart. Many of you came as strangers, but now you are all strange friends.

Hope to see you soon...