PRESS START

Insert coin, watch a new world start One more quarter for a beating heart Neon glow on a midnight street Whole generation moving to the beat

Seventy-two, a hum in a smoky room Two white paddles and a dot, sonic boom Then the invaders came marching down slow Silver in my pocket, yeah, I’m ready to go Ghosts in a maze and a high-score chase Three red letters say I own this place

Insert coin, watch a new world start One more quarter for a beating heart Neon glow on a midnight street Whole generation moving to the beat

Sticky-floor kingdom, pizza-box throne Every kid a legend till the bus rolls home Blistered-up thumbs like a badge of the brave Twenty-five cents for the rush I crave Cabinet light like a bonfire glow Feed the machine and don’t let go

They said it’s a fad, said it wouldn’t last Just a flash of light, gonna fade real fast But I hear it call through the arcade door.. One more, one more, one more

Insert coin, watch a new world start One more quarter for a beating heart Neon glow on a midnight street Whole generation moving to the beat

Insert coin, watch a new world start One more quarter for a beating heart Neon glow on a midnight street Whole generation moving to the beat

The glow spills out on the street tonight A new world runs on quarter light

The gold rush came like a fever dream Every company chasing that quarter stream A thousand cartridges rushed out the door Shovelware stacked to the rafters in the store Nineteen eighty-three and the shelves won’t move An empire of hype with nothing left to prove

The crash came quiet, then it came loud Price tags falling like a funeral shroud Heroes of the arcade age face down in the dirt Nobody counts the cost, everybody hurt Trucks rolling west through the desert night.. Bury it deep, in the desert ground

They swore the story ended here Screens go dark and the crowds all clear

Concrete poured on a million dreams New Mexico moon on the landfill seams The suits walked off, said the game was done Called it a toy that had lost its fun But legends don’t rot where the vultures crowd.. Bury it deep, in the desert ground

Far to the east there’s a light that grows A little grey box, and nobody knows

Ten years of thunder gone under the sand Joysticks rusting in a wasted land But a heartbeat taps beneath the tomb Eight small bits in a factory room Whatever they buried won’t stay down.. Bury it deep, in the desert ground

The desert keeps what the market drowned But you can’t keep a good game down

Out of the east came a system reborn A robot and a light gun leading the storm They wouldn’t even call it a video game Entertainment system, brand-new name Front-loading grey with a spring inside Blow off the dust, let the cartridge slide

Power light flickers red.. Hold your breath, press ahead

From the ashes of a buried age A grey machine lit a brand-new stage Two buttons and a cross of steel Taught a doubting world how to feel Count it down now, three, two, one The 8-bit resurrection has begun

Side-scrolling kingdoms where a hero runs Secret warp zones under pixel suns Passwords scratched on a notebook page Whole neighbourhood crowding round the stage Pass me the pad when you lose a life One more level before dinner time

Power light flickers red.. Hold your breath, press ahead

From the ashes of a buried age A grey machine lit a brand-new stage Two buttons and a cross of steel Taught a doubting world how to feel Count it down now, three, two, one The 8-bit resurrection has begun

From landfill dirt to the living room The heartbeat came back louder than the tomb Every lounge room glowing TV blue The old coin slot became a cartridge groove

From the ashes of a buried age A grey machine lit a brand-new stage Two buttons and a cross of steel Taught a doubting world how to feel Count it down now, three, two, one The 8-bit resurrection has begun

The glow moved home and multiplied Two players standing side by side

Playground gospel, choose your creed The plumber’s castle or the hedgehog speed Sixteen bits and the stakes get tall Chalk-line battle by the handball wall My mate swears his does what yours don’t Trade you my lunch for a go, you won’t

Console war, pick a side Schoolyard pride gone worldwide Sixteen bits of thunder roar Everybody’s soldier in the console war

Blast processing, marketing line Kids quoting ad-speak like holy design Spinning stages, checkpoints chime Every Christmas morning a new front line Magazines feeding the fire for fun Rumours of a level where nobody’s won

Console war, pick a side Schoolyard pride gone worldwide Sixteen bits of thunder roar Everybody’s soldier in the console war

Fatalities land on the evening news Senators shaking their polished shoes Ratings on the boxes as the war grew old Two great armies, one story told Then a new contender crashed the gate A disc in a tray whispering checkmate

Drop the cartridge.. spin the disc History pivots on a laser kiss

Console war, pick a side Schoolyard pride gone worldwide Sixteen bits of thunder roar Everybody’s soldier in the console war

The old war faded like chalk in rain Brothers in arms on a different plane We fought for logos, fought for pride Turns out we were on the same side Every soldier just wanted to play Save your salutes for the games, okay

Console war, pick a side Schoolyard pride gone worldwide Sixteen bits of thunder roar Everybody’s soldier in the console war

War is over, screens still bright A third dimension calls tonight

The flat world cracked and the walls fell away Polygons rising in a rough display Triangle mountains with fog on the far side An analogue stick and a camera ride First step forward in a rendered field Sixty-four reasons the future’s real

Load the disc, hear it spin.. A whole new axis pulling me in

Third dimension, walk right through The screen’s a window and the world came true Every angle hiding something more Turn the camera, find a door

Memory cards and a rumble in hand Tomb-deep temples in a haunted land An orchestra swelling off a compact disc Cinema moments I could never have missed Blocky faces crying real tears Stories growing up with us through the years

Load the disc, hear it spin.. A whole new axis pulling me in

Third dimension, walk right through The screen’s a window and the world came true Every angle hiding something more Turn the camera, find a door

We used to look at worlds through glass Now we walk inside them while the hours pass Yeah mum, I heard you, up soon.. Just one more temple, one more moon

Third dimension, walk right through The screen’s a window and the world came true Every angle hiding something more Turn the camera, find a door

Out in the study a tower hums Keyboard clicking, here it comes

Green fields loading on a midnight screen A thousand strangers where the wolves had been Roll a hero, pick a name Nobody out here looks the same

Guild chat glowing while the kettle sings Raid at nine, so check your rings A nurse from Perth and a kid from Leeds Holding the line while the warlock bleeds

Voices in the headset, worlds apart Same map, same fight, same beating heart Strangers turning into crew Logging on because they need you Servers humming through the night We live always online

Achievements popping like a midnight flare Friends-list names that were always there Some I never met in the flesh at all Still the first to answer when I call

Voices in the headset, worlds apart Same map, same fight, same beating heart Strangers turning into crew Logging on because they need you Servers humming through the night We live always online

Call it lonely if you like, from where you stand Forty voices counting down feels pretty grand The wall between the wires and the real Got thinner every year, and that’s the deal

Voices in the headset, worlds apart Same map, same fight, same beating heart Strangers turning into crew Logging on because they need you Servers humming through the night We live always online

Log off slow as the sun comes round Tomorrow the world fits in your palm, safe and sound

The coin returns in golden skin Tap the glass and drop it in Free to start but pay to stay The old coin slot learned my name today

Screens in our pockets, games on the bus Three stars and candy, minimum fuss Billions now playing who never had before Grandma runs a farm and she’s topping my score The barriers fell and everyone’s in That part’s beautiful, where do I begin

The coin returns in golden skin Tap the glass and drop it in Free to start but pay to stay The old coin slot learned my name today

Then the meters came and the timers too Wait six hours or a dollar gets you through Loot in a crate with a rainbow shine Odds in the small print, blurry by design The arcade wanted quarters, sure, that’s true At least the quarter told you when it was through

I’m not here to burn the whole thing down Play your candy on the train to town Just remember what the coin was for.. A ticket to a world, and nothing more

The coin returns in golden skin Tap the glass and drop it in Free to start but pay to stay The old coin slot learned my name today

The coin returns in golden skin Tap the glass and drop it in Free to start but pay to stay The old coin slot learned my name today

Out past the storefront’s neon glow A bedroom light burns soft and low

One desk lamp and a second-hand chair Day job done, now the real work’s there No committee and no marketing suite Just an idea and a drum-machine beat Two long years of nights on a single screen Chasing down a game that nobody’s seen

Upload the build with a shaking hand Launch-day morning and nothing goes as planned Then a streamer laughs and the numbers climb Ten thousand wishlists by dinner time Pixels placed like a handwritten word.. Made in a bedroom, heard round the world

The big towers watched the small stars rise Roguelikes and farm plots taking the prize Ten-dollar wonders outshining the grand A whole new canon drawn by hand

Now the shelves are full of solo dreams Hand-drawn worlds and stardust themes A million makers where ten once stood The engines are free and the tools are good Any kid anywhere can be heard.. Made in a bedroom, heard round the world

Fifty years back it took a factory line Now it takes a laptop and time

So light the lamp and trust your gut Finish the build, mate, no matter what Somewhere tonight the next one starts Small hands wiring up giant hearts The oldest story, freshly stirred.. Made in a bedroom, heard round the world

And by the keyboard, catching light A headset waits for us tonight

Fifty years from a coin and a dot Look how far the little signal shot Strap the headset, worlds in the round Haptic thunder and spatial sound AI partners running at my side Every era loaded for the ride

New game plus, carry it all Every save state, every fall Neon, cartridge, disc and cloud Fifty years and still this loud Same old fire, brand-new skin Press start, begin again We never quit, we just restart One more level in my heart

Kids ask me why I still hold on To a scratched-up quarter, shine long gone It bought me a world when I was small Turns out it went and paid for them all Every screen since owes that spark A silver seed in the arcade dark

New game plus, carry it all Every save state, every fall Neon, cartridge, disc and cloud Fifty years and still this loud Same old fire, brand-new skin Press start, begin again We never quit, we just restart One more level in my heart

It was never the hardware, never the specs Never the teraflops or the vector effects It was always that moment you lean to the glow And somebody whispers.. one go, one more go

So here’s to the landfill and here’s to the labs The bedroom coders and the console ads The wires, the lobbies, the worlds we grew Whatever loads next, we’ll play that too

New game plus, carry it all Every save state, every fall Neon, cartridge, disc and cloud Fifty years and still this loud Same old fire, brand-new skin Press start, begin again We never quit, we just restart One more level in my heart

The screen fades in, a prompt appears Same two words for fifty years.. Press start