What I know about video games would fit on the head of a pin. The two video games I was obsessed with in the '80s are nothing like the complicated, convoluted, story-driven, and often violent sci-fi video games that are out there now.

That's right, I was beyond proficient in Ms. Pacman and not so bad at Donkey Kong either.

I spent one summer in a fly-by-night dinner theater where we acted, built the sets, provided our own costumes, and served the prime rib dinners all over the state. The only thing that saved me was playing Ms. Pacman in every little town we stayed in.

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By the end of the season, I had developed a "tennis elbow" and had to stop playing for a while. But to this day, if I see a Ms. Pacman game, I'm going to play it. But I digress...

Imagine Games Network Southeast Asia (IGN/SEA), according to their website has two mission objectives;

to report on the video games industry in the region as well as to serve as the go-to site for everything video game and anything remotely geek for fans in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Last week they did an interview with a video game creator who is setting his game in South Dakota. In fact, he has set it in Rapid City!

I was curious to find out what other games had been set in our state and according to Wikipedia, there have been five. But after further research, it was clear to me that they indeed do not originate here, nor are the characters residents of South Dakota.

In an interview with Kesh Ganesparan, the creator of Midwest 90: Rapid City, he explained that the inspiration came to him while eating a burger at a friend's restaurant in Malaysia. He decided he wanted to set the story somewhere in the Midwest but didn't know a lot about it.

After a lot of research, he decided on Rapid City, South Dakota because;

It's a very humble but interesting place especially with its native American heritage, the historic Black Hills (which was famous during the American gold rush), and the Sanford Underground Research Facility which is located at the Homestake mine - once the largest and deepest gold mine in North America. In addition, there are also minuteman missile silos buried below the surface nearby to the alien landscapes of the Badlands. All these elements made the perfect recipe for an interesting story and right at the centre of it all is Rapid City. That's why the game is set there. - - Kesh Ganesparan via IGN/SEA

Midwest 90: Rapid City is set in the future at a restaurant with entrees made out of "monster meat", like deep-fried monster eyeballs and fries! However, the mutated South Dakota wildlife monsters also get their revenge on the local humans from time to time.

Mr. Ganesparan says the game has a real "Stranger Things" vibe, so if you love the show, you'll love his game.

For more information see his interview with Dale Bashir on IGN/SEA online.

Sources: IGN/SEA, and Wikipedia

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