BEg2 ch27 video games

Thu Apr 7 12:07:48 UTC 2022

I really wasn’t a big fan….you needed two people to really play, but I know people loved it because (1) it had actual plastic guns, and (2) there was a pedal you stepped on to take cover, which was a novel idea. But I never liked rail shooters.

HOWEVER, the title “Time Crisis” has nothing to do with time travel. It referred to the game mechanic where you had a limited amount of time to achieve your goals. You worked for the CIA or some fictional analogue, and fought waves of terrorists/SPECTRE type baddies. However, now that I think about it, there was some evil corporation named something like Yoyodyne?

OK, just clicked the link you provided: NEODYNE! Ha ha ha! And yes, there were rockets!

I think there were eventually more than two iterations. But like all Japanese games, each one got weirder and weirder.

—Quail

PS: Don’t get me started on “Dragon Age!” The *fucking* Electric Knight…

From: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 7:59 AM
To: Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
Cc: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: BEg2 ch27 video games
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<mailto: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<mailto:pynchon-l-bounces at waste.org>> on behalf of Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com<mailto:michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>>
Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 12:57 AM
To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org<mailto: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
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