Elevator Action World Record

As I mentioned in my previous Elevator Action post, Taito did an excellent port of this game to the NES. It was so well done, that Taito added screen shots of the arcade game to the back of the box:



Arcade screen shot (notice the pink bar at the top and the credits at the bottom)


NES Elevator Screen Shot, no pink bar!


It was common in the industry for game companies to "fib" on their boxes and show arcade screen shots for what was clearly not going to be an experience that even came close to the arcade counterpart. I remember reading somewhere about Street Fighter II being released for the Sinclair with a disclaimer that the actual game would look nothing like the screen shots presented on the box.

Anyways, I started to pick apart the scoring, then I looked up the manual on http://www.nintendoage.com/ and just my luck the manual lists all of the scoring... duh! You get the most points by jump kicking an enemy, especially if the lights are out.

But I did learn something new, apparently there is a 2nd enemy in the game: a security guard! I still haven't seen this character so I can only assume he appears on much later levels of the game.

The current Twin Galaxies world record for this game is 73,400. A casual game for me recently was about 16,000, with about 8000 points per level. In theory I'd only have to make it to the tenth round to accomplish the Elevator Action World Record, however you get a 1000 point bonus multiplied by the level number at the completion of each level. So it might be possible to get it by completing the 8th stage.

In addition to picking apart the points I also made some determination on how the AI works. It's completely random which is good and sucks at the same time. It's good in that you can have an awesomely fantastic game if luck is in your favor, or it can suck if the randomness is so unpredictable that it reaches a point where the game is impossible to advance. Games with random elements ultimately become endurance contests and generally require patience over skill. Speaking of endurance contests... all of this Elevator Action doesn't mean I've given up on the Popeye record... I still work on that pretty often, but I'm to the point on Popeye where its purely an endurance contest more than anything else.

Elevator Action

By becoming satisfied with my Burgertime accomplishment I've decided to find a new game to pick apart. This wasn't easy since there are so many games to conquer. But after much deliberation I've settled on Elevator Action.



I was first exposed to this game in the arcade around 1985, specifically at Wonder World. Wonder World (or WOW for short) had an arcade between it and an Albertson's grocery store. There I played many classics inclusing Rastan, Speed Rumbler, Eyes, Time Soldiers and Choplifter. It also had Elevator Action, which of course is where this story begins.



As an imaginitive child who sought meaning in all things I tried to decipher what Elevator Action was really about. Sure it's easy to say that its about a spy stealing files in a sky scraper while avoiding thugs. At least I think they were thugs, they all work black hats. But perhaps your character is the thug. If you had a right to these files then why are you stealing them? Long story short, I thought the game was about Watergate. What do 8 year olds know about anything anyways?



That connection stuck in my head for a few years until I saw the movie Die Hard. If you've lived in a cave, Die Hard is about a New York cop visiting his estranged wife at a Christmas party in the fictional Nakatomi building in Los Angeles. While relaxing in a guest room terrorists enter the building, take the party goers hostage and for the next two hours the NYC cop dispatches terrorist after terrorist on the different floors of the building. Much of the action takes place on stair wells in elevators and on top of elevators. Visually there are a lot of similarities between Elevator Action and Die Hard, so I like to believe it was the inspiration for the movie.p even though it's probably not.



Anyways the Nintendo version of Elevator Action is an excellent port of the arcade game. The sound is off only slightly but everything else including the AI and Taito font are in there.



One thing I like in particular is that there are only three ways to die. You can get crushed by an elevator, you can fall down a shaft, or you can take a bullet from a thug. Amazingly, since you have complete control over two of those its hard to believe you would die frequently, but you do! Unlike many games that kill you if you touch an enemy, Elevator Action lets you touch the enemies, just don't let them shoot you!



Another neat element are the lights that you can shoot out and send crashing to the floor. (even in Die Hard the cop shot out the spot lights). Drop one of these fixtures on a thug and the next building he protects better have a ramp for his wheel chair.



One last thing this game has that needs to be mentioned is the suspense it stirs. When you go in a red door to steal files you do not know when you will re-emerge. All the while thugs start crowding the hall way, and often times you'll need to be ready for some fancy shooting to kill those sons of bitches. Further, you need to wait for elevators. If Guitar Hero simulates what it's like to play a guitar then Elevator Action certainly simulates waiting for an elevator. Just don't cut one before stepping off of one!