In addition to writing books, I have a couple of other esoteric, creative-type hobbies. One such being pinball and arcade machines. I love to play pinball. Something about the kinetic, real-world physics aspect of slapping a ball and hitting targets, some unexpectedly, that I find satisfying. Arcade machines are cool too, but more for a nostalgia reason. Since I am a creative, I couldn't stop at just playing. I tinker too.

Arkanoid is a 1980's breakout style arcade video game where an arrangement of bricks at the top must be hit with a little ball using a paddle that is controlled by the player using a spinner wheel. The modifications I made involved rewriting the code to create different screens.

I did this work sometime around 2001 and actually just found it on my hard drive when I was going through and cleaning up.

If you notice, several of the screens have the names ISSA or JOE on them. They are the names of two of my sons who were 5 and 7 years old, respectively, back in 2001. I gave them the opportunity to design the screens then I altered the computer code to match the drawings they made. I recall it being really cool burning the chips, installing them on the board, and watching the kids' faces light up when they saw their names on the game screen.

Here are images of the original screens and my new screens.

Original 1	Mine 1		Original 2	Mine 2
Original 3	Mine 3		Original 4	Mine 4
Original 5	Mine 5		Original 6	Mine 6
Original 7	Mine 7		Original 8	Mine 8
	NO CHANGE			NO CHANGE
Original 9			Original 10
Original 11	Mine 11		Original 12	Mine 12
Original 13	Mine 13		Original 14	Mine 14
				NO CHANGE
Original 15	Mine 15		Original 16	Mine 16
	NO CHANGE			NO CHANGE
Original 17	Mine 17		Original 18	Mine 18
Original 19	Mine 19		Original 20	Mine 20
	NO CHANGE
Original 21	Mine 21		Original 22	Mine 22
Original 23	Mine 23		Original 24	Mine 24
	NO CHANGE
Original 25	Mine 25		Original 26	Mine 26
Original 27	Mine 27		Original 28	Mine 28
	NO CHANGE			NO CHANGE
Original 29	Mine 29		Original 30	Mine 30