Welcome to Chill City FM – Where you can tune in, unwind, and let the mystery and magic of Chill City transport you.
Chill City FM is a fictional radio station from a bygone era, broadcasting endless vibes to help you escape. From suburban nostalgia and neon-lit 80s ambiance to cozy hideaways, each video offers a unique immersive experience. Chill City FM aims to thoughtfully curate the perfect vibe for every moment, with a hint of sentimental nostalgia and sense of humor. Whether you're studying, working, or simply unwinding, Chill City FM offers a soundtrack for every mood. For those looking to escape the noise of the world, Chill City FM invites you to slow down and tune into a simpler time.
Inspired by my work as a special education teacher—and seeing how calming videos help my students—I blend AI tools and traditional creativity to craft scenes that spark calm, nostalgia, and imagination.
📻 Subscribe for more rad vibes from the city that never sleeps… but always chills.
Chill City FM
🎙️ 🌲 Attention, Adventures In Chill City readers…
The clock is creeping toward midnight, the radios are tuned to Chill City FM, and another strange story is about to unfold here in Chill City.
This week’s adventure finds Rad McFly, Eddie, and Tasha following a mysterious invitation to a quiet house on Timber Drive.
Someone has been watching.
Someone has been preparing.
And hidden among maps, computer screens, and scattered clues lies the first glimpse of a mystery that reaches far beyond a single strange tag painted around town.
So pull up a chair, and let your imagination do the rest.
📖 Chapter 5: “The Wiz Kid” is now on the air.
Another thrilling chapter in the Adventures in Chill City series begins… only on Chill City FM. 📻🌙
⸻
Chapter 5
“The Wiz Kid”
⸻
Rad McFly watched the last minutes of school drag across his Casio watch.
3:12.
3:13.
3:14.
Mr. Fenton was talking, but Rad only cared about the floppy disk message.
614 Timber Drive.
Monday. 4:00 P.M.
Bring Tasha and Eddie.
Come if you want the truth about WIZ.
When the bell rang, Rad was already moving. Tasha waited by the trophy case. Eddie hustled over with his backpack open.
“Were you running?” Tasha asked.
“No,” Eddie said. “Walking with intensity.”
They rode into a neighborhood near Chill City Pines.
614 looked normal.
That was the creepy part. A homemade antenna stuck up from the roof. Black wires ran along the gutter and into an upstairs window. Under the porch roof, a tiny camera followed them.
Eddie stopped. “Nope.”
Before Rad could knock, the door buzzed open. A flat electronic voice crackled from upstairs.
“Come up.”
Eddie looked at Rad. “This is exactly how horror movies start.”
Rad stepped inside anyway. They followed a wire up the stairs to the last room in the hall. Green light glowed under the door. The door opened first.
The room was not much of a bedroom anymore. It was more like a command center. Monitors glowed. Radio scanners crackled and hissed. Cassette recorders, soldering tools, wires, and circuit boards covered every surface. A map of Chill City filled one wall. Pins marked the arcade, the old video store, Pine Street, Chill City Park, and the radio tower on the hill.
Near the window sat the hooded figure Eddie had chased through the rain. The figure slowly turned and lowered the hood.
Rad blinked. He knew her.
The quiet girl from school. The one Rad had once seen fix a jammed printer while Mr. DeMarco stood there useless. Tasha said her name.
“Willow Sinclair.”
Willow lifted a small keyboard device with a speaker attached and typed.
The electronic voice said, “Yes.”
Eddie stared. “You’re WIZ?”
Willow typed again.
“Willow S. It became WIZ.”
Rad looked at the wires, maps, and machines. For two years, he had pictured WIZ as an arcade legend who disappeared. But WIZ had never disappeared. Rad just had not noticed her.
“You got the 999,999 score,” he said.
Willow nodded.
“Maximum score. Two years ago. It opened a hidden diagnostic program inside Video Kid.”
She pressed a key. Green words appeared:
VIDEO KID PRIVATE DEMONSTRATION
POWER FAILURE
PLAYER TWO DISCONNECTED
ARCHIVE LOCKED AT 00:15
“Quarter past midnight,” Rad whispered.
“The records mentioned a blackout during the demonstration,” Willow typed. “A teenage tester was identified as Player Two. Afterward, Player Two disappeared. Most files were erased.”
Tasha studied the map. “And the transmitters?”
“The diagnostic program showed a hidden relay network. For two years it was silent. Last week it activated. I tracked the signal and marked each transmitter.”
“With WIZ,” Rad said.
“Yes. Trail markers. Not threats.”
Eddie pointed to the cassette in Rad’s jacket. “And that?”
“I planted it inside Video Kid. I used the maintenance passage and released the coin door remotely.”
“The follow-the-leader message?” Tasha asked.
“Mine.”
“The park payphone? The floppy disk?”
“Mine. I needed you to see the transmitters first.”
Rad frowned. “Why not just tell us?”
Willow looked down. The room went quiet. Then she typed.
“People at school do not listen. They guess. They laugh. They talk over me.”
“I understand everything. I just do not speak the way they expect.”
Eddie stared at the floor. “I wouldn’t have laughed.”
“I probably would’ve said something dumb,” Eddie added. “But I wouldn’t have laughed.”
Willow typed.
“You did yell something dumb.”
Eddie nodded. “That checks out.”
Rad touched the cassette. “What about the voice that said I was running out of time?”
Willow’s face changed.
“Not mine.”
She brought up two messages:
QUARTER PAST MIDNIGHT.
PLAY AGAIN, RAD.
“My first message.”
Then:
PLAYER ONE READY.
PLAYER TWO WAITING.
“My second message.”
Rad stared. “But it said missing.”
“Someone intercepted my transmission. Changed WAITING to MISSING. Added the countdown. Made the arcade machines scream.”
Tasha leaned closer. “Who?”
Willow did not answer right away. Instead, she turned back to the map. Eddie followed her eyes, then pointed.
“Hold up. If you marked all the transmitters, why isn’t that one tagged?”
Rad followed his finger. One pin sat apart, high on the hill above town. The Chill City FM tower. No WIZ tag marked it. No red string touched it. The tower was circled in black. Willow did not type.
“I did not find that one.”
Tasha looked at her. “Then who did?”
The monitor flickered. A label appeared beside the tower.
NIGHT OWL.
The name glowed in white letters. Nobody spoke. A chill crawled up Rad’s neck. WIZ had left a trail through Chill City. But someone else had been watching from above.
Willow’s hands hovered over the keyboard. For the first time since they had entered the room, she looked scared. Then she typed.
“NIGHT OWL altered files during the original blackout. Erased records. Sent unauthorized commands. The same signature is active now.”
Eddie swallowed. “So whoever caused the first blackout is back?”
“Yes.”
Willow slid the cassette into a recorder. Static hissed. Data tones squealed. A warped voice broke through.
“Player Two, move!”
A sharp electrical pop cracked from the speaker. Then silence.
“The final section opens only when the network synchronizes at 12:15,” Willow typed. “It lasts seventy-five seconds. Four controls must activate together.”
Four points blinked on the map.
VIDEO KID.
PARK RELAY.
UTILITY SWITCH.
COMMAND CENTER.
Rad understood. Willow had not been trying to scare them. She had been trying to recruit them. Before anyone could answer, every monitor went black. The radios hissed. White letters appeared.
NIGHT OWL ONLINE
Then:
I KNOW WHO WIZ IS NOW.
Willow went still. A final message typed itself across the screen.
TOMORROW NIGHT. 12:15.
COME AND WATCH CHILL CITY GO DARK.
The monitors snapped off. Afternoon sunlight filled the room again. But Rad knew better.
Somewhere above Chill City, NIGHT OWL was awake.
And tomorrow night, the whole town was going dark.
(To Be Continued)
2 days ago | [YT] | 80
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Chill City FM
CHILL CITY FM UPDATE 📡
First things first: back in March, Chill City officially turned one year old! I know, we completely forgot to celebrate. But reaching that milestone has given me a chance to reflect on just how far this channel has come.
With every new video, I’ve been diving deeper into the creative process, honing my craft and putting everything I’ve learned along the way into making each visit to Chill City feel as magical and special as possible.
All that is to say: I will always prioritize quality and peak radness over the pressure to release a new video every single week.
These scenes have become more nuanced and ambitious, which means they often take much longer to create. Maintaining a weekly schedule can be difficult, and that’s one of the reasons I like approaching Chill City like a television series… with individual seasons and occasional breaks between them.
My goal for Season 2 was to create 20 episodes, which I think is a pretty respectable run for any great series! Episode 15 arrives next week, and let me tell you… it really became something extra special in more ways than one. I know I say that a lot, but I really do try to push each scene as far as I think it can go.
I’m hoping to bring you 5 more episodes before the season ends. They may not all arrive on a strict weekly schedule, but I’m certainly going to do my best to deliver a full 20 episode season before taking another break. My plan is to align this with the end of summer break, most likely around the end of August, when I return to work as a special education teacher. At that time I will want to focus all of my attention on my students.
After Season 2, I plan to take another short hiatus, so I can begin putting some exciting new features into motion. I don’t anticipate ever taking more than a month off between seasons, but I want to use that time to establish an official Chill City merch shop… with T-shirts, stickers and hats at minimum. As well as the daily Chill City livestream experience I’ve been envisioning.
I’ve also been incredibly stoked about the response to Adventures in Chill City: Quarter Past Midnight. There is definitely more to come as I continue expanding the Chill City universe, and possibly begin developing it into a full series of its own.
There’s a lot to look forward to as we make our way through the remainder of Season 2 and look ahead toward Season 3, currently planned for late October… just in time to begin our journey into fall.
I mainly wanted to let everyone know what’s been going on with me and what’s happening behind the scenes here at Chill City FM.
Thank you all so much for hanging out, supporting what I create and helping turn this channel into such a special community.
And, of course… ALWAYS STAY RAD AND BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER!
Chill City Mayor,
Rad McFly
✌️😎
6 days ago | [YT] | 185
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Chill City FM
Over the weekend, while hunting for ancient artifacts, I managed to pick up an original copy of Disney’s Aladdin for the Sega Genesis. This game absolutely humbled me growing up… every level found a new way to test my patience. I don’t think I ever actually beat it as a kid, but now it’s time to fire it back up and try my hand at finishing the adventure the way I never could back then. Wish me luck… I’m going back to Agrabah!
#RetroGaming #segagenesis #90s VintageGames #90sGaming #RetroGameHunting #90sKids #RetroVideoGames #90s #90sNostalgia #Nostalgia #Nostalgiacore #aladdin
1 week ago | [YT] | 268
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Chill City FM
📡 This is Chill City FM, broadcasting from high above the sleeping streets of Chill City Pines 🌲
It’s time once again to join Rad McFly, teen detective, and his trusty friends Eddie and Tasha, as they follow another trail of clues into the unknown!
A mysterious symbol has appeared across town. A shadowy figure is always one step ahead. And somewhere in the darkness, a dangerous game is already underway.
Who is leaving the WIZ tags… and where will the trail lead next?
Turn down the lights, tune into Chill City on your FM dial, and prepare for the next thrilling installment of the Adventures in Chill City mystery series…
The mystery continues… right here on Chill City FM! 🔦🔎
⸻
Chapter 4
“Follow the Leader”
⸻
Rad tightened his grip on the telephone.
“Don’t move,” he told Eddie.
“I’m standing beside a payphone in an alley in the middle of the night. Where would I go?”
“Knowing you? Anywhere.”
Rad hung up and called Tasha. She answered on the fourth ring.
“This better be important.”
“Eddie found another WIZ tag behind the arcade.”
A pause.
“I’ll meet you there.”
Rad grabbed his jacket, slipped the Player Two cassette into the inside pocket, and glanced at the map glowing on his computer.
The arcade. The old video store. Chill City Park. Three locations connected by Eddie’s chase. Now the graffiti connected them too.
The rain had faded to a cold mist by the time Rad reached the alley. Tasha arrived moments later. Eddie waited beneath the flickering security light beside the payphone.
“You stayed put,” Rad said.
“I can follow instructions.”
Tasha looked at him.
“Sometimes,” Eddie added.
He led them around the corner. Fresh silver paint gleamed across the brick wall beside the employees’ entrance. WIZ. Nothing else. Just three blocky letters dripping toward the pavement.
“It wasn’t here yesterday,” Eddie said.
“Where are the others?” Rad asked.
“One behind the old video store. One near Pine Street. Two in the park.”
Tasha studied the tag. “That’s the route you took Friday night.”
Rad turned to Eddie. “Tell us again.”
“I caught somebody near the dumpsters. We struggled for a few seconds. They grabbed my jacket, I slipped out of it, and it dropped into the puddle under the light.”
He pointed toward the dark rainwater.
“Then they ran behind the video store, across Pine, through the alleys, and into the park. I lost them near the footbridge.”
“Did they say anything?” Tasha asked.
“No.”
“See their face?”
“No. They were fast, knew every shortcut, and their backpack clanked like it was full of tools.”
The cassette clicked inside Rad’s jacket. All three froze. Rad pulled it out. The reels were not turning.
“That’s what it did before,” he whispered.
They moved beneath the payphone light. Eddie produced a tiny screwdriver. Tasha stared at him. “Why do you have that?”
“You never know when something will need unscrewing.”
Within a minute, the cassette shell came apart. Behind the reels sat a miniature speaker, a battery, and thin wires connected to a metal receiver. Tasha shook her head. “That isn’t a cassette.”
“It is,” Rad said. “Just not only a cassette.”
His Casio beeped.
12:15.
Static crackled from the speaker. Then the mechanical voice from the arcade whispered:
“Follow the leader.”
Eddie looked toward the silver letters.
“Not creepy at all.”
They began with the tag behind the video store. From there, the graffiti led across Pine Street and toward the park. The tags were easy to miss… painted low on a retaining wall, behind a bus-stop bench, and beneath an old street sign.
There were no hidden symbols. Each mark simply led them farther along the route. WIZ had been leading the Video Kid scoreboard for two years. Now WIZ was leading them through Chill City. At the third one, Tasha crouched beside a streetlight.
“Look.”
The metal panel near its base had been removed and replaced. Behind it, Rad’s flashlight revealed a small black box wired into the power line.
“WIZ put that there?” Eddie asked.
Tasha touched the paint beside it. “The box is dusty. The graffiti isn’t.”
Rad understood.
“Somebody installed the box first. WIZ marked it afterward.”
The pattern repeated at every stop: a loosened cover, a fresh cable, a transmitter hidden behind old utility equipment. WIZ was not marking random places. WIZ was marking evidence.
The trail ended in Chill City Park. Mist drifted between the trees, and water rushed beneath the old footbridge. The final tag covered one of its concrete supports. They searched beneath the bridge, along the trail, and around the maintenance shed.
Nothing.
“No note,” Eddie said. “No hidden door. No mysterious figure.”
Tasha glanced at him. “You sound disappointed.”
“I like closure.”
A telephone rang through the trees. Rad turned toward the public payphone near the park entrance. Its receiver trembled against the hook. They ran to it.
Rad answered. “Hello?”
Electronic tones pulsed over the line. Then a mechanical voice said, “Check the coin return.”
The call disconnected. Eddie reached into the tray beneath the phone and pulled out a plastic sleeve. Inside was a three-and-a-half-inch floppy disk. A white label across the front read:
FOR RAD ONLY.
“Good thing I didn’t find it first,” Eddie said.
“You just did,” Tasha reminded him.
Twenty minutes later, they crowded around Rad’s computer in the attic. Rain tapped the windows while the floppy drive hummed and clicked. Green letters appeared.
SECOND PLACE SCORE?
Tasha folded her arms. “Someone knows exactly who they’re dealing with.”
Rad typed:
641300
The screen went blank. Then an address appeared:
614 Timber Dr.
Rad recognized the neighborhood. It was only a few miles from Chill City Pines.
Below it was a time.
MONDAY. 4:00 P.M.
A final message typed itself across the screen.
BRING TASHA AND EDDIE.
COME IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH ABOUT WIZ.
Eddie leaned closer.
“So it’s a meeting.”
“Or a trap,” Tasha said.
Rad removed the disk and studied the three letters on its label. WIZ had spent days leading them across Chill City. Tomorrow, they would learn why.
To Be Continued…
#ChillCityFM #AdventuresInChillCity #RetroMystery #80sNostalgia #RetroFiction #YoungAdultMystery #VintageAdventure #MysterySeries #SynthwaveStory #Chillwave #RetroAesthetic #NeonNoir
1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 70
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Chill City FM
I thought it would be cool to share these game screen stills u made for my latest video “Unsolved Mystery”. The computer screen is so small in the scene, I wanted to share them here, because they look SO rad… and making these screens is what gave me the idea for the “Adventures In Chill City” mystery series. I’m not sure how far I’ll take it yet, but I definitely plan to keep going with this and put together a more full length game experience that’s featured more prominently in a future video.
#AdventuresInChillCity #ChillCityFM #RetroGaming #80sNostalgia #PixelArt #VintageComputer #CRTAesthetic #GreenScreenMonitor #RetroMystery #Synthwave #RetroAesthetic
2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 259
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Chill City FM
The clock may have stopped at quarter past midnight, but the mystery was only beginning.
In the latest installment of Adventures in Chill City, we pick back up with Rad McFly and the gang as they search for answers after the strange events at the Chill City Arcade. A missing player, a mysterious cassette tape, and three letters that refuse to stay buried:
WIZ.
The clues are piling up, the shadows are getting closer, and someone in Chill City knows more than they’re willing to reveal.
The adventure continues in this week’s all new story:
UNSOLVED MYSTERY
_____
Chapter 3
Unsolved Mystery
Rad McFly never watched Unsolved Mysteries for the spooky music or the shadowy reenactments.
He watched for the mistakes.
“Wrong,” he said, pointing at the television with the corner of his Hardy Boys book. “The window was locked from the inside. Whoever disappeared didn’t climb out.”
He casually flipped through the pages, searching for where he had left off.
Thunder rolled over Chill City Pines.
Rain tapped steadily against the slanted windows of his attic loft bedroom. The room sat above the garage of his parents’ house, with a perfect bird’s-eye view of Chill City… almost like a private headquarters. Across the room, Rad’s IBM PS/2 desktop computer hummed on his desk. On its green monochrome screen waited a game he had been designing himself: Adventures in Chill City.
It wasn’t much of a game yet. Mostly just maps, typed clues, and simple blocky figures moving through locations around town. The arcade. Chill City High. The old video store. The park. The radio tower on the hill. Rad used it to keep track of the strange things that happened in Chill City. Lately, he had been adding new locations faster than he could solve the mysteries connected to them.
Outside the window, the red light atop the Chill City FM tower blinked beyond the rain-soaked trees. Rad glanced at his Casio calculator watch.
11:47.
Tomorrow was Monday. Another week at Chill City High. Another five days of teachers reminding him that the science lab was not a crime scene, the library archives were not his personal investigation files, and students were not supposed to question the principal about the locked room beneath the auditorium.
Fortunately, Rad rarely listened. Neither did his best friends.
Tasha noticed details everyone else missed. She could glance around a room once and tell you what had been moved and who was lying about it.
Eddie could talk his way into, or out of, almost anywhere. He also knew every shortcut, storm drain, maintenance tunnel, and unlocked back door in Chill City. If there was a way inside somewhere, Eddie could usually find it.
Together, the three of them had solved plenty of mysteries. Their newest case, however, was far from solved.
Nearly two days had passed since their strange night at the Chill City Arcade… the beginning of a case they had already started referring to as the Quarter Past Midnight case.
Eddie had vanished that night after noticing a mysterious figure hanging around the back of the arcade and chasing them through the back door. By the time Rad and Tasha reached the alley, only his jean jacket was left behind, lying in a puddle beneath the security light.
When Video Kid’s countdown reached zero, every machine in the arcade released the same piercing electronic shriek before going dark. Seconds later, the games rebooted as though nothing had happened. Mr. Donnelly blamed a power surge.
Rad knew better.
Later, Eddie told them what happened.
He caught the figure near the dumpsters, but after a brief struggle, the stranger grabbed Eddie by the jacket. Eddie slipped out of it and kept chasing, leaving the jacket behind in the rain. Eddie chased them behind the old video store, across Pine Street, and through the alleyways and shortcuts he thought only he knew.
The trail ended at Chill City Park. One moment, the figure was running toward the old footbridge. The next, they were gone. Rad and Tasha were already searching for Eddie when he returned to the arcade… soaked and out of breath, but unharmed. Eddie never did see the figure’s face…
Rad moved over to his desk and slid open the top drawer. His eyes shifted nervously over the cassette tape he’d retrieved from the Video Kid cabinet that night at the Chill City Arcade. He’d been tinkering with it nonstop. They had tried it in three different tape players, but it had never repeated the message it had somehow played inside Rad’s pocket.
You’re running out of time.
Rad suspected the figure had drawn Eddie away from the arcade for a reason, but Rad had no idea why. And he had a feeling the case was just heating up…
Just then, the telephone rang. Rad looked toward the beige touch-tone telephone on his desk. It rang again…
Nobody called the house this late unless something was wrong. He tossed the book onto his bed and picked up the receiver.
“Hello?”
At first, he couldn’t hear much over static. Then came Eddie’s voice.
“Rad?”
Rad leaned against the desk. “Where are you?”
“The old payphone in the alley behind the arcade.”
“At almost midnight on a school night?”
Rad checked his watch.
11:48.
“I told my mom I was studying with you,” Eddie continued.
“You’re not studying with me.”
“I know. That’s why you have to answer the phone if she calls.”
Rad sighed. “Why are you back at the arcade alone after what happened?”
Eddie went quiet. When he spoke again, his voice had dropped to a whisper.
“Because I found a clue.”
Rad turned toward the map of Chill City glowing on his computer. It was dotted with locations from every mystery they had investigated. He wondered which case Eddie meant… or whether they had just stumbled into a new one.
“Well, I’ve been seeing graffiti popping up all over town. On walls, bus stops, the back of the old video store…”
“What kind of graffiti?”
“That’s the weird part. It always says the same thing.”
Rad tightened his grip on the receiver.
“WIZ”, Eddie said. “Just those three letters.”
Thunder rumbled over Chill City Pines.
“How many have you seen?”
“Five since Friday. And there’s a new one behind the arcade. I’m sure it wasn’t here yesterday.”
“Did you tell Tasha?”
“Not yet. I wanted to call you first.”
“I think we should look into it,” Eddie said.
Rad reached for the keyboard and marked the Chill City Park on the map.
“So do I.”
(To be continued…)
2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 161
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Chill City FM
Last week, I introduced a new component of Chill City with the first chapter of Quarter Past Midnight, and I’ve been really excited to take this idea even further!
The next chapter, “Player Two,” continues Rad McFly’s strange night at the Chill City Arcade…
and the mystery is only getting started.
I hope you enjoy the next installment of Adventures in Chill City! 🔎 🔦
———
Chapter 2
“Player Two”
The coin door on the front of the Video Kid cabinet swung open.
Rad and Tasha stared at it.
“That’s not supposed to do that,” Tasha whispered.
“Old machines do weird things.”
“Old machines don’t know your name.”
Rad couldn’t argue with that.
He crouched in front of the cabinet. Inside, past the metal coin box and a jungle of dusty wires, something reflected the glow of the screen.
Rad reached toward it.
Tasha grabbed his wrist. “Maybe we shouldn’t touch anything.”
“You’re the one who brought me over here.”
“I brought you over here to look. Looking and reaching into haunted video games are two completely different things.”
Rad pulled his small flashlight from the inside pocket of his letterman jacket and clicked it on. The beam revealed an object wedged behind the coin mechanism.
A cassette tape.
Rad carefully worked it loose.
It was a plain black tape with a handwritten label stuck across the front.
PLAYER TWO
Below that, written in faded blue ink, were three letters.
WIZ
Tasha leaned closer. “That tape has been in there for two years?”
“Maybe longer.”
“Or somebody put it there tonight.”
Rad glanced over his shoulder.
The arcade was still crowded, but nobody seemed to be watching them. A couple of older kids battled at Street Fighter II. Mr. Donnelly, the night manager, stood behind the prize counter reading a newspaper. Somewhere near the entrance, a pinball machine rang out with a new high score.
Everything looked normal.
That somehow made it worse.
“We need a tape player,” Rad said.
“Eddie has one.”
“Where is he?”
Tasha’s expression changed.
“I thought he was with you.”
Before Rad could answer, every game in the arcade went silent.
The music stopped.
The arcade screens glitched.
Even the lights above the prize counter blinked.
For one long second, Video Kid was the only machine still running.
Its screen glowed electric blue across Rad’s face.
The message had changed.
PLAYER ONE READY.
Then another line appeared beneath it.
PLAYER TWO MISSING.
“Tasha,” Rad said quietly.
“I see it.”
From somewhere behind the back wall came a heavy metallic bang.
Then another.
Rad stood and aimed his flashlight toward the narrow employees-only hallway beside the restrooms. The door at the end of it was slightly open.
A shadow moved across the gap.
“Eddie?” Tasha called.
No answer.
The Video Kid cabinet made a cheerful little chime.
Rad looked back at the screen.
A countdown had appeared.
10
9
8
“What happens when it reaches zero?” Tasha asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Great. That’s comforting.”
They hurried toward the hallway.
The flashlight beam bounced over faded movie posters, stacked soda boxes, and a mop bucket with one crooked wheel. The door at the end led to the alley behind the arcade.
Rad pushed it open.
Cold rain blew against his face.
The alley was empty.
Almost.
Eddie’s jean jacket lay in a puddle beneath the flickering security light.
Tasha rushed forward and picked it up.
“Eddie!” Rad shouted.
His voice echoed between the brick buildings.
No answer came.
The cassette tape clicked inside Rad’s pocket.
Not shifted.
Clicked.
Like someone had just pressed play.
A faint, scratchy voice whispered from inside his jacket.
“Rad…”
He froze.
The voice continued.
“…you’re running out of time.”
From inside the arcade, Video Kid’s countdown reached zero.
And every game in the building screamed.
(To Be Continued)
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 100
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Chill City FM
Happy Friday Chill City! ✌️ I thought I’d try out this neat little concept I thought up for introducing and teasing tonight’s video releasing at 7PM CST. I had so much fun cooking this up, I might just have to keep the story going. So here you go….
“Quarter Past Midnight”
Chapter 1
“Video Kid”
Rad McFly knew three things about the Chill City Arcade after midnight.
One: the change machine ate dollar bills like it had a personal grudge.
Two: the soda from the machine by the restrooms always came out warm.
And three: nobody, absolutely nobody, beat the high score on Video Kid.
Not anymore.
Rad stood just inside the arcade doors, rainwater dripping from the cuffs of his camouflage cargo pants and pooling around the toes of his Nike sneakers. His red and white letterman jacket was damp across the shoulders, but he barely noticed. The place was too alive for him to care.
Even this late, the arcade buzzed with activity, and somewhere near the snack counter, somebody groaned in defeat as Magneto wiped out another brave squad.
It was the kind of noise Rad loved best.
But tonight, there was something different underneath it.
Something weird.
Something nervous.
“Rad!”
He turned.
Tasha hurried toward him from the row of racing games, her curls bouncing around the collar of her purple windbreaker. She had that look on her face… the one that usually meant somebody had either found a clue, started trouble, or both.
“You need to see this,” she said.
Rad glanced past her. “If Eddie got caught spray painting in the alley again, I’m not bailing him out.”
“It’s not Eddie.”
That got his attention.
Rad followed her through the maze of cabinets, past Double Dragon, Street Fighter II, and the ancient Dragon’s Lair machine that only worked if you kicked the side just right. The deeper they went, the darker the arcade seemed to get, until they reached the back wall.
That was where Video Kid stood.
This legendary cabinet was a thing of local lore. It was older than most of the games around it, with faded side art and a control panel worn smooth from years of sweaty palms. A cartoon kid with lightning-bolt sunglasses grinned from the marquee, holding a joystick in one hand and a skateboard in the other.
Rad had spent half his summer trying to beat that game.
So had everyone else.
Nobody came close.
Not since the mysterious player with the initials WIZ had taken the top spot two years ago and disappeared from Chill City like yesterday’s newspaper. Most people had given up on playing the game by now. But not Rad.
Rad looked at the screen.
The high-score table glowed electric blue.
1. WIZ — 999,999
2. RAD — 641,300
3. TAD — 612,050
4. ACE — 588,900
Rad frowned.
“That’s the same score,” he said.
“Look closer,” Tasha whispered.
Rad leaned in.
Below the leaderboard, where the game usually flashed INSERT COIN, a new message blinked in crooked green letters.
QUARTER PAST MIDNIGHT.
PLAY AGAIN, RAD.
Rad felt the noise of the arcade fade behind him and a cool sweat form on his brow.
He checked his coveted Casio calculator watch.
12:15.
A cold little chill ran up the back of his neck.
Then, from inside the Video Kid cabinet, something clicked. Not the normal click of old wiring or a stuck speaker.
A real click.
Like a lock opening…..
(To Be Continued)
1 month ago | [YT] | 195
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Chill City FM
The Nintendo PlayChoice machine was one of the coolest sights in arcades, pizza joints, and mall corners back in the day… giving you a chance to play NES classics on a timer before you ever owned them at home.
Fun fact: The PlayChoice-10 was first introduced by Nintendo in 1986, letting players choose from a rotating lineup of up to 10 games in a single machine… basically a sampler of pure 80s magic.
There was something special about hearing that countdown timer ticking while you tried to beat a level just one more time.
👉 What was YOUR go-to PlayChoice game?
👉 And where do you remember discovering one for the first time… arcade, restaurant, mall, somewhere else?
Drop your memories below… let’s take it back. 👇✨
#Nintendo #PlayChoice10 #RetroGaming #80sArcade #NES #ChillCityFM #80sNostalgia #Nostalgiacore
1 month ago | [YT] | 180
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Chill City FM
Been using my summer break wisely so far by surrounding myself will all my favorite things. Channeling some nostalgic inspiration as i work on some new content. Don’t ever let anyone tell you to “grow up”. It’s that magic of being an 80s kid that makes Chill City what it is! Stay rad everyone! ✌️😎
#nostalgia #nostalgiacore #80sNostalgia #retro #retrogaming #nintendo #80sVibes
1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 317
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