There was an arcade game released by Sega back in the 90’s called Eighteen Wheeler. It was a large, sit down style driving game where you drove a big rig from one point to another, trying to hit checkpoints fast enough to keep the clock going.

It was….amazingly fun. It did a good job applying the physics of driving a big rig to an otherwise simple coin sucking racing game. From the heavily stereotyped themed big rigs to choose from, to the bat shit crazy driving you could do on the highways and byways, it was pure fun the way we will never experience in another setting other than an arcade.

But that’s not to say we can’t come close to that fun. After recording the podcast Friday night, I jumped on to APB. I’m still enjoying the game quite a bit (sorry, it’s true) but I had not yet experienced one of those moments worth storytelling. One of those that define an online game for you and helps embed its memory in your skull forever. Friday night, it happened.

I teamed up with podcasting co-host Jason and we ran a handful of missions. The highlight of the night was, for a while, jumping into a taxi we confiscated and running over not one, but two criminals on the way to the next mission location. The hilarity of it was the fact that they were running away from us when we hit the first one, sending him rag-dolling over the car. This caused the other to stop running and look at the situation dumbfounded, giving us enough time to back up and charge at him.

While this was great, it was later that we did something that made me about wet myself from laughing so hard. Yes, it helps that I was drinking.

We had driven to a location for a mission and out of the corner of my eye, I saw her. She was tall, had a big ass, and was green. It was a dump truck. So, in a moment of spontaneity, I yelled, “Hey let’s take that!” into the mic. Jason’s laugh was enough to know the answer was yes.

She was slow but she handled great, and there wasn’t another car on the road that could stop her from taking me wherever I wanted to go. If you hit any other car with that thing, it is not going to be in your way for long. So, we spent the next twenty minutes or so, driving the beast around while still trying to finish missions. Needless to say they weren’t very easy to finish while you’re laughing hysterically at the other cars you’re pushing out of your way.

The best moment for me was when I was charging full bore towards a group of cars, and just happened to see that a criminal was in the process of jacking it. Now, typically you can’t kill other people in the game unless you’re on a mission against them, but….if you happen to make a car explode next to someone….

You can probably figure out the rest.

The next day, I woke up wanting more of that experience. So later, while the kids were in bed, I jumped on and found the truck again, and drove around the city causing mayhem. Not much happened that could top the previous night’s events, but there was one moment that came close. In a fluke of the games physics, I ran into a truck head on, both of us going full speed. I managed the accident without much harm….but sent the other driver about 40 feet in the air. See for yourself…