BEg2 ch27 video games

Thu Apr 7 11:58:51 UTC 2022

Can you tell us about Time Crisis 2, since time is a major thematic motif
in Pynchon?

On Thu, Apr 7, 2022 at 7:55 AM Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
wrote:

> This *is* my field of expertise, as I spend a large part of the 1980s in
> arcades! But really, only two brief comments:
>
> 1. There was definitely smoking in many arcades. I don’t know about 2001,
> as by then they were passing from the scene, transforming into hipster
> nostalgia bars. But back in the day, most machines were actually covered
> with cigarette burns, melted or scorched into the cabinet.
>
> 2. Zaxxon was my game, I was pretty good at it. I also loved Tempest. But
> fucking Robitron—again Pynchon shows some inside knowledge, as Robitron was
> a pretty difficult game that had a cult following.
>
> —Quail
>
>
>
> From: Pynchon-l <pynchon-l-bounces at waste.org> on behalf of Michael Bailey
> <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
> Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 12:57 AM
> To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Subject: BEg2 ch27 video games
> (Decidedly not my field of expertise - extra info, anecdotes, trivia
> welcomed warmly)
>
>
> They went looking for arcade games, in derelict shopping plazas, in
> riverside pool halls, in college-town hangouts, in ice-cream parlors tucked
> into midblock micromalls. Horst couldn’t help noticing how the places had,
> most of them, grown more ragged since his time, floors less swept,
> air-conditioning
> not as intense, smoke* thicker than in the midwestern summers of long ago.
> They played ancient machines from faraway California said to be
> custom-programmed by Nolan Bushnell** himself. They played Arkanoid*** in
> Ames and Zaxxon**** in Sioux City.
>             They played Road Blasters and Galaga and Galaga 88, Tempest and
> Rampage and Robotron 2084***** which Horst believes to be the greatest
> arcade game of all time. Mostly, wherever they could find it, they seemed
> to be playing Time Crisis 2.******
>
>
>          Or Ziggy and Otis were. The big selling point of the game was that
> both boys could play at the same machine and keep an eye on each other,
> while Horst went off on various commodities-related chores.
>
>   “I’m just gonna zip in this bar here for a minute, guys. Some business.”
>
>   Ziggy and Otis continuing to blast away, Ziggy usually with the blue
> handgun and Otis the red one, jumping on and off the foot pedals depending
> on whether they need to seek cover or come out shooting.
>
>
> Notes
>
> * smoke? Who’s smoking in the arcades? True, Kansas didn’t pass indoor
> smoking ban till after this time, & Missouri held out even longer…in 2001,
> video arcades may have been smoky in the Midwest I guess…
>
>
> ** Nolan Bushnell
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_Bushnell
>
> Founder of Atari (always thought from the name it was a Japanese company -
> but “Atari” is a “check-like position in the Japanese game Go.)
>
> And Chuck E. Cheese.
>
> He used his profit from selling Atari to buy the former mansion of coffee
> magnate James Folger
>
> Bushnell’s Aphorism is famous:
> All the best games are easy to learn and difficult to master. They should
> reward the first quarter and the hundredth.
>
> ***Arkanoid - vintage 1986 block breaker “save the starship” game
>
> **** Zaxxon vintage 1981
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon
>
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isometric_video_game_graphics
>
> pilot a ship through fortresses
> “Isometric shooter” a step towards 3-d
>
>
> ***** Road Blasters (1987)
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoadBlasters
> Drive an armed sports car in rally races
>
> Galaga (1981)
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaga
> Destroy enemy forces & avoid enemies & projectiles - features tractor beams
> (cool!)
>
> Galaga 88 (1987) - better graphics
>
> Tempest - (1981)
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(video_game)
> 3d, different level layouts, & featuring a “Superblaster”
>
> Rampage - (1986)
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_(1986_video_game)
> Player(s) inhabit up to 3 monsters wreaking havoc on 128 days in cities
> across North America from Peoria to Plano Illinois - if they make it to
> Plano, they get a “megavitamin boost” healing them and adding a point
> bonus, whereupon the game resets to day 1 for up to 5 times. Memory limit -
> developers doubted anyone’d make it through 768 levels.
>
> Robotron 2084 (1982)
>
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotron:_2084
>
> “The aim is to defeat endless waves of robots, rescue surviving humans, and
> earn as many points as possible….
>
> “A two-joystick control scheme was implemented to provide the player with
> more precise controls, and enemies with different behaviors were added to
> make the game challenging. Jarvis and DeMar designed the game to instill
> panic in players by presenting them with conflicting goals and having
> on-screen projectiles coming from multiple directions.
>
> “Robotron: 2084 was critically and commercially successful. Praise among
> critics focused on the game's intense action and control scheme. Though not
> the first game with a twin joystick control scheme, Robotron: 2084 is cited
> as the game that popularized it.”
>
> ****** Time Crisis 2 - (1997)
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Crisis_II
>
> “The game incorporates the same mechanics of its predecessor, with some
> minor changes, but with the addition of co-operative two-player gaming. The
> game's story focuses on the efforts of two secret agents, Keith Martin and
> Robert Baxter, as they attempt to thwart the efforts of a industry mogul's
> plan for world dominance.”
>
> Much newer than the others, this one also features a plot.
> The blue handgun is on the left, the red one is on the right:
> https://tinyurl.com/ayjeje9h
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>