Section Z

As you start to collect more and more videogames and really start to understand themes from particular publishers it's easy to understand where certain inspirations come from.

Take for example Section Z for Nintendo. This was, at one time, a very popular game. So much so it was mentioned on an episode of Oprah- NO LIE! But I'll get to that here in a minute.

Anyways both Section Z and Side Arms are developed by Capcom. Both have a similar feel to them although Side Arms had more depth to the game. So it begs the question... did one game inspire the other or vice versa? Could it be that Side Arms was the brain child from the creator of Section Z? Maybe the NES wasn't technically powerful enough to realize the full vision of Side Arms and Section Z was the best the developers could do? If I were to look at the copyrights of the games I could probably solve this mystery... ok ok ok. Enough is enough. What was the scoop on Oprah and Section Z?

In either late 1989 or 1990 the Oprah Winfrey show featured an episode on videogame addiction. The episode being two decades old kinda leaves my memory foggy but I remember a father who Alan Jackson reminds me of complaining about how his wife or kids unplugged Section Z as he was nearing the end of the game. I don't remember if the wife had a shiner or if the kids were turned over to the state, but what ever indignity this man indured by his family pales in comparison to the embarrassment this clown had to feel moaning about his precious Section Z to Oprah. What a loser!