Video Game Collecting

The 1984 Olympics were huge and I only took notice at the ripe age of 7 years old because of the game Track and Field.  I didn’t realize that the game would comeback to haunt me 25 years later…. well not so much haunt but to “rediscover”.  Here in Las Vegas at the Pinball Hall Of Fame Museum there is a cocktail Track and Field so getting reacquainted with the game was like bumping into an old friend.  Except old friends rarely make you feel the pains of getting older.

Sure they might make you feel old, but there is a difference in feeling your age versus feeling the pain of your age.  As a kid I could beat down Track and Field all day long and not break a sweat.  Now I break a sweat, bruise my hands, and cripple my knuckles into a gnarled mess just to complete the damn hurdles!

With maybe the exception of the dancing arcade games like DDR there are no current games that takes the players through this kind of brutality.  Slapping the buttons as fast as you can, timing your jumps and your throws…  It doesn’t matter how loud the machine is all you can hear is the slapping of the buttons, the popping of joints, and heavy gaspy breathing between events.

So what makes Track and Field perfect?  The jolt of pure adrenaline you can purchase for a mere 25 cents!

What many people probably considered to be a typo, to me Wizard Of Wor was a masterpiece!  I remember seeing this game in the wild only once.  It was at an Ole’s hardware store.  Think of a Home Depot if it was laid out like a grocery store.  This was back in the ancient 1980′s when arcade games could be found in funeral parlours, emergency rooms, and in church (a story I will save for a rainy day.)  This particular Ole’s had three machines.  Wizard of Wor, Food Fight, and one of those Chicken prize machines where the chicken would spin around, cluck, and out came a plastic egg with a junk prize in it.

As a kid, there was only two things I had remembered about Wizard Of Wor that was very different from any game at the time.  The first was the speech.  The computer voice was eerie.  Where Berzerk sounded robotic and sinister, Wizard Of Wor sounded as though it was recorded by Satan himself.  There was this rhythmic beat which I invented lyrics to, it went something like “You’re-Doomed…  You’re-Doomed…”.

And those poor bastard astronauts were stuck in that maze of hate!  There was no escaping those Worlucks.  I could never beat the first stage as a kid, and being re-introduced to the game as part of the Midway collection on PS2 I was pleasantly surprised at how well the game has held up over all these years.

So what makes Wizard of Wor perfect?  The ability to play two players at the same time cooperative, combined with that damn voice and beat, and the fact that the enemies were weird enough to force a roll of quarters into your pants as you played definately makes Wizard of Wor perfect.  I recently read a review of the Atari 2600 version and was surprised that I never played this gem!  It’s about as perfect as an Atari version can be.

Hey! Here is that chicken machine I mentioned earlier:

Kung Fu has a simple formula – punch, kick, repeat.  With a plot inspired by a Bruce Lee movie its not surprising that this game has the charm that it does.  A variety of enemies, strange bosses, and a very Asian-mystique haunts this game.

I first saw the original arcade version in a Dairy Queen, and the NES version is the only one I know that feels like the arcade version.  I used to borrow the Atari 2600 version from a friend and I loved it.  It hasn’t held up well in the 23 years that have passed since its release, but towards the end of the life of the Atari companies were making desperate attempts to squeeze a few more bucks out of recognizable franchises.  And for a kid who had an Atari and not a Nintendo at the time this was the best I was going to get.

So what makes this game so perfect?  Well specifically to the NES and Arcade versions I’d have to say the music, the colors, the variety of enemies, and the replay value.  Without Kung-Fu we may never have enjoyed Double Dragon, Final Fight, or Streets of Rage.

Jungle Hunt is a perfect game for a variety of reasons.  Rather than over explain the story about it lets just say my exposure to the game in the arcade was Jungle King, but regardless of what incarnation you’ve played its the same game.  Some might consider the game to be similiar to that of Pitfall and on the surface there are some similiarities but in Pitfall you couldn’t swim until the 2nd game which didn’t have the vines.  So perhaps Jungle Hunt can best be described as a hybrid of Pitfall and Pitfall II.  Either way the game is pretty exciting. 

The Atari 2600 version was particularly great.  It’s a fantastic conversion considering the limitation of the hardware.  All four levels are there including the vine jump, gator swim, rock jump, and the rescuing of the hot woman from the natives.

The 2600 port had pretty much everything the arcade had except for the crazed chimps on the 2nd quest that would haunt the vines.  But all the little nuances of the arcade game was definitely there including the paralax scrolling in the jungle giving the illusion of depth.  The rock jump stage had no angle to it but it doesn’t take away from the challenge at all.

So what makes this game perfect?  For me its the fact that the game had a clear objective (rescuing the girl) and a simple plot that worked well as a video game theme.  The gator stage could have been a game in itself had it more enemies.  Taito’s early library were all great hits and no arcade or Atari 2600 could be complete without Jungle Hunt.

Berzerk is a perfect video game for many reasons.  It’s influence on the video game industry still exists to this day, and sadly the newest generation of gamers would probably dismiss this title for being “simple and unimaginative… maybe even boring”  But the truth is quite the opposite.

Sure, your character is a simple stick figure who can run and shoot in 8 directions.  You can die if you are hit by a bullet, wall, robot, or Otto (smiley face).  The robots are not very bright and there is a pattern to the mazes.  So what is so great about that?  Plenty.

First of all the Berzerk inspires the imagination.  I’ve said it a million times that less is more, and in the case of Berzerk the possibilities are limitless.  With almost no story to go by the player cannot help but create their own.  Is the maze a prison, or perhaps a space station?  Was your character sent there, or left behind?  Did you create these robots or did someone else?

Also consider this formula for game design:  Simplicity + Randomness = Infinite Gameplay.  What does this mean exactly?  Well consider a game such as “The Legend Of Zelda”.  I mention this game specifically because the dungeon levels are very similar to playing Berzerk (up to four possible exits per room, random obstacles in the room, enemies try to kill you, and you can shoot (stab) enemies).  But the game play is linear.  You have a very specific story to follow.  Complete a dungeon, obtain items that will help you with the next dungeon, kill the boss, pick up the next piece of the Triforce.  Is there a randomness to The Legend of Zelda?  A little.  The enemies move in random patterns.  So does this mean that The Legend of Zelda has Infinite Gameplay?  No, because you have a specific objective to complete the game.  Berzerk on the other hand is so simple, and the randomness of the robots guarantee that no two games are going to be exact.

Berzerk in design was probably a precursor to many other games that fit a similar gameplay.  Robotron.  SmashTV.  Xybots.  Even Wolfenstein is basically Berzerk, but ’3D’.  Suppose Berzerk was simultaneously multi-player… then it might be considered a precursor to many of the modern FPS’s that are so popular today.