Game Talk

Ode to the internet cafe, where my childhood went and never came back

In Mexico City in the 2000s every block had a cyber café. 10 pesos an hour, plastic chairs, a guy who owned it and was somehow always eating. We played Counter-Strike 1.6 and Age of Empires II and screamed so loud the neighbors called our mothers.

My kids now play from their bedroom with a headset and I feel they're missing out on the essential experience of getting kicked out at 9pm by a man holding a torta.