by MomsAVoxell | 2025-11-18 17:44:48+00:00
I grew up on Scarborough Beach, in Perth, Western Australia, during the 70's. This was basically peak Australian beach culture - everything you could want in a sunny day at the beach - bikini's, surf, sharks, hamburgers, jewellery lost in the sand, the ever shrinking swim suit .. the whole deal. Bike gangs and surf nerds, newly returned from Vietnam, beating each other to smithereens in the baking parking lots while the girls watched on. I can still smell the sun cream lotion, and remember the smell of my Dads hamburger grill, erected in the ruins of the famous 50's "Snake Pit" haunt, replete with ghosts and memories of dances gone by, of rock and roll been and gone, replaced with stoner rock and KISS or Abba, depending on your thing.. I have muscle memory buried deep for the regular cleaning of the onion slicing machine, the giant bottles of mayo I had to refill, every single day. The beetroot stains and the harvesting of the 'crispies' from the competing deep fryer shop, "Peters by the Sea", who sold us kids a pack of the junk for 10c a bag, and which is the only remaining survivor of the era, still slinging buns even today ..

The esplanade in those days was basically a sullen row of shops, one after the other offering beach-goers refreshments and entertainment, luring every customer in with the promise of fun and cheer .. and every single one of those 8 or so shops had a small Cold War going on against the other, for entertainment devices.

At one end, there was an air-hockey paradise with a side row of electromechanical games, one of which was indeed Killer Shark, along with another airplane bombing game that ran on a big map, rolling underneath the camera through which the player would view and send down their 'light bombs' as we kids referred to them, way back then. My first impression of "Germany", as it were, rolling endlessly in some kind of ethereal, hypnotic landscape. Pinballs and stuff too, almost an overwhelming selection of blinking chaos into which to pour coins. Each shop had its speciality - my Dads' place (MINDERBINDERS, in case there are any sand gropers about) specialised in pinball and stag films in a back room, for those who knew the secret handshake.

Killer Shark was great - it was so clearly a mechanical game that you could never beat, but on occasion the odd punter would score a free game or so. Even more of a treat, the proprietors would sometimes start off the games with 20 credits or so, just sitting there, to attract the teens. There was another electro-mechanical, ocean themed game, something like "SPEAR HUNT", which offered players a few snapper and some stingrays upon which to direct their sun-kissed ire, should they have a remaining 20c or two to waste.

I loved that era of my life (was just a boy starting school) .. 1976 .. the brand new "Breakout" appears suddenly, and it immediately soaked up all the coins from the neighborhood. I remember seeing the service guy open up Breakout and all the coins just came pouring out .. and then, slowly, the rest of the strip went video and computer, Space Invaders arrived, and the electromechanical games slowly phased out, becoming ever more unpopular and under-used as the year rolled over.

My first memory of Killer Shark was fun - my last, sadness, as its faded exterior got loaded onto the truck to be replaced by something brighter, flashier, more challenging. Soon enough there were only 'computer games' and pinballs, and all those delicate machines got replaced, one by one. Eventually, the esplanade itself got replaced with a modern monstrosity, and the era ended with the fervent twang of the 80's arriving, power synth chords and all.

But I still remember the squealing joy of a player, spearing themselves a shark, only to be pissing themselves with laughter/fearjoy once the shark 'recovered' and made them face a frontal attack. It was, somehow, cathartic.

Until a real shark showed up in the surf and bit a kids leg off, during prime surf hour.

That made me the computer kid I still am, today.