"I love you"

By Phil Day

Akeson and Pac-Man

Back in Australia a friend of mine became interested in the video arcade game The Pit. He didn’t have the actual arcade machine; instead he was playing it on MAME. Michael Ison, the friend of mine, was regularly passing the world record on this little talked about our played game. The arcade version has had no one put a new score on the Twin Galaxies scoreboard since 1985. I like The Pit. I like those odd rare games that few people seem to be bothered to play, The Pit even more so because it is so ridiculously difficult, but it never gets a mention on any ‘top-ten-most-difficult-videogames-ever’ lists (nor does Nethack). I guess The Pit doesn’t get a mention because so few people know about it, so few people played them, and therefore were unable to exploited their subtle nuances of pushing the score up. Eric Akeson, the first ever inductee to the International Video Game Hall of Fame, Ottumwa, Iowa for being the first person to ever reach the split-screen in Turbo Pac-Man, favours rare games like The Pit. But as I got chatting with Akeson, I realised he liked almost everything about video games, with the exception of one thing, but I’ll get to that later, first things first – rare videogames.


I asked Akeson what it was about these rare games he liked so much. 

“Well, look at the perfect scores on Pac-Man, and what’s happening to Donkey Kong. All the patterns on how to play are available on the internet."

Akeson at the end of Pac-Man

Akeson has a valid point. There’s not much left to explore in Pac-Man or Donkey Kong, or many of the other big classic titles; they’re mostly exhausted in what there is to know to get a big score, it’s all bout perfecting what you know. But this isn’t true of a game Akeson particularly likes, and I’d never heard of, Woodpecker. I immediately assumed the game had something to do with the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker, but I was wrong. Not having ever played the game, I’ll let Akeson explain: “You play a mouse, and you are being attacked by birds – woodpeckers. It’s a lot like Pac-Man. The game must be built on Pac-Man programming. Even many of the sounds are the same. But what’s cool about Woodpecker is the dive-bomber. He’s a woodpecker that dives down and tries to hit you. There is also a ‘blow button’, and when you press that button the mouse blows and all the woodpeckers blow off the screen. There’s power pellets, like Pac-man has, but there are only two power pellets. It’s new and fresh to me. It has elements that Pac-man doesn’t, but it does have a split-screen, and I plan to get to the split-screen.”


I went in search of Woodpecker on the Internet, I found next to nothing; nothing on Wiki, but I found a teeny-weeny bit of footage on YouTube. Bits of the game sounded just like Pac-Man, but other than that I couldn’t follow what was really going on. It either looked near impossible to lose a man, or it looked very deadly. I did find a bit about it at klov.com AKA: The IAM (International Arcade Museum). They stated that of their 7,180 members ‘… there are 2 known instances of this machine owned by Woodpecker collectors who are members. Of these, 1 is a conversion in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and one is a set of circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired. … No members have added this machine to their wish list. … This game ranks a 1 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.’


Woodpecker couldn’t be less prestigious, less coveted, or less competitive. (By the way The Pit scored a 7, and two members of IAM were looking to buy The Pit) its lack of appeal could well be indicator of something telling about the game-play. Nevertheless I admire Akeson for wanting to reach the split-screen, for him it all comes back to two things: fun, and beating the computer. He is a true gamer. He simply likes to play games to play them. Especially when they’re fresh to him. I imagined that Woodpecker took pride of place in his game-room alongside other classic titles including Make Trax, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong 3, Popeye, Mario Brothers, Over Drive, Pac-Man, and Lock and Chase - which he only recently finished restoring to its former self.


“My Lock and chase is a first generation cabinet. I’ve done a tone of work to it, and it look’s really nice. I re-painted it, new button, new switches in the joystick, coin mechanics all done with the little green plastic so the light shines through. The coin door looks absolutely wonderful - totally cleaned up, it’s beautiful. Now it’s worthy to go in my game room. Only mint games go in there. I won’t put a piece of shit in there. These things are like a piece of furniture.  I wouldn’t want a nasty old piece of furniture in my house, you know? In my game room I’ve got my certificates and posters, and my Hall of Fame Trophy. It’s a cool little room, and putting a piece of shit game in there it would stick like a sore thumb.”


I must say I was a little disappointed to hear that his Woodpecker isn’t in his game-room, it’s just a circuit board he fits into a cabinet from time to time when he’s keen to play. Its rarity has made it hard to be anything more. However it hasn’t been all bad luck and sweat for Akeson getting the games he likes the most.


“My favourite machine is Make Trax. It came out of a warehouse in its original box brand new. I was the first to ever play it. …. Nintendo machines look great all in a row. I have four in a row. And my D2K (Donkey Kong 2) is like a brand new BMW on the show room floor. Everything is brand new, and there’s no paint runs, beautiful screen, everything works beautifully. An arcade machine like that, from 81 or 82 in mint condition, I couldn’t have anything but a high level of appreciation for these machines. I enjoy refurbishing these things more than playing them … almost.”


But what about consoles, Atari, Super NES,  Xbox and the like?


“I have an Xbox360 and I have Call of Duty, but I got rid of it. I don’t like that violence at all. All that killing didn’t appeal to me, it’s too realistic, so I got rid of it. I went back playing Forza Motor Sport 2 – a racing game. I like House of Dead, it’s really gory, but that’s fun. You’re shooting zombies, which is different to shooting people. Shooting zombies is cartoony.”


We chatted some more about ‘violent games’. Put simply, Akeson doesn’t like violent games. He likes games to be silly-fun: eating ghosts, jumping barrels. He has issues with playing a protagonist that steals a car, mounts the pavement, and runs over innocent citizens. It’s not his interest to stop others playing, he simply chooses not to play it himself.

Akeson in his gameroom with mates John McAllister,
Perry Rogers, and  Dave Shoup.

“I try not to get involved in the politics of video gaming. I don’t give people who want to take things to a negative level the time. … this group of gamers versus this group of gamers. For me it’s about games. I think gamers need to come together and be inclusive. It shouldn’t be the classic guys against the console guys. I’m into the classic, but I also like to play the new school stuff, like the Wii. I think there’s room for everybody to be involved. And the International Video Game Hall of Fame is trying to do the right thing by uplifting the forefathers of games from as early as the 60’s, including the players, and game developers, and all the generations between.  I don’t know if I’m worthy of being an inductee, I know there’s guys who have done bigger and better things than I’ve done. But I appreciate it. Because of it I’ve met many people, many good people, and that’s what it’s about for me – the people. The Big Bang in Ottumwa is an opportunity for that to happen.”

Akeson with his good friend Walter Day

Akeson’s not pretending when he says that gaming is about the people. I’ve met him a few times, and spoken quite a bit over the phone. Which is why I think he’s wrong about not being as worthy as others for being inducted to the International Video Game Hall of Fame. Eric Akeson has to be one of the friendliest, pleasant, and loving guys I’ve ever met. He’s like Yogi Bear – a big friendly fellow I want to hug. He’s a good man with an infectious enthusiasm, and a positive easy going user friendly inclusiveness that gaming has, but could always have more of. I think this is most evident in his description of finishing a stage in another of his favourite games - Fantasy. Akeson told me that when you finish a stage you save a girl, and having saved her she says: “I love you” – I got the feeling that he liked that.


'For I am nothing, if not critical' - Iago

By Phil Day

Just this week Patrick Scott Patterson (video gamer, former pro-wrestler, and Twin Galaxies referee) announced the ‘relaunching’ of PatrickScottPatterson.com. A web site dedicated to video gaming. Among many positives statements about creating greater awareness of video games he wrote the following paragraph:

‘I'm sure there will be critics.  I'm sure some folks reading this right now will think that this is all about me or political gain.  Always seems to be, and anyone who would think that is part of the reason gaming isn't what it could be.’

Three things caught my attention: ‘critics’, ‘political gain’, and  ‘anyone who would think [the site is all about ‘me’ or ‘political gain’] is part of the reason gaming isn't what it could be.’

In regard to the use of the word ‘critics’ I’m hoping Patterson is using it in regard to negative-prejudices that the video game community has so often received. If so I agree. These stereotypes are wrong in every sense of the word.  But I do think we need critics. I say this because I think critics are valuable. We need critics. The world needs critics. We need people to critique most human behaviors: Japanese waling, home schooling, smoking marijuana, the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld think-tank. We, as thinking and informed humans who share a planet that is more interconnected with other cultures than ever before need to make an effort to evaluate the worth of our practices and the affect they might have on others and the planet we share. If we simply accept on prejudice – “I like it, it must be good” – would be irresponsible. We need critics of all sorts, particularly political critics – political journalism couldn’t be unhealthier than it is right now. It’s as if the ideas of Walter Lippmann regarding objective reasoning in journalism is too honest for today. I say this because big video games titles are now more popular than big Hollywood films. We know films cannot go unchecked. They need to be classified, and so are games as Patterson points out. But if video games with all their popularity, and arguably pervasive culture, are important enough to have serious discussion and the desire to build a historical museum in Ottumwa, then it is important enough to try, I say try, to get it right. This requires criticism. Unfortunately it will also require money.

Powerful individuals who hold the proverbial carrot for the social-persuasion also hold the same carrot for video gaming: Microsoft, Facebook, and the iPhone – to name a few. True, there are many independent video games being made that have proven to popular and a financial successful, but the individuals who created these games would hardly compare to the wealth of the video game platforms they operate on. It is important for any museum not to be entangled with corporate involvement. Fine if they are willing to offer money with a disinterested position, but too often this is not the case with museums and corporate sponsorship. They too soon can become more involved than simply offering financial support; all of a sudden they are calling the shots. (With the Superbowl just over, sometimes it was hard to tell if the event was more about the game with commercials between the breaks, or more of a lead up to the much talked about Doritos and Volkswagen advertisements). Of course these companies would have their own political gain, it would be naïve to think otherwise; it’s hard to think of anything that’s not political today. The air we breathe is political with arguments being fought over the burning of fossil fuels. Open a yogurt and it’s full of politics: the treatment of cattle in the dairy industry; fruit exposed to pesticides; the minimum wages for the packers of the yogurt. Of course Patterson’s website is no different (nor is the one you’re reading this article from), and this is a healthy, provided we – Patterson and I and others – offer varying arguments with critical thinking free of subjective truths and pre-conceived ideas.  But this can’t happen if: ‘anyone who would think [the site is all about ‘me’ or ‘political gain’] is part of the reason gaming isn't what it could be.’

Aspects of the video game world are divided on many things: PC vs. Consoles; Wiebe fans vs. Mitchell fans; Haters-of-Twin Galaxies vs. those-who-believe Twin Galaxies can’t-do-wrong.  Personally, I don’t have any games on my PC and I don’t own a consol. I’m hoping Dean Saglio takes the Donkey Kong World Record, and I know nothing about him other than he is reportedly very skilled at Donkey Kong. I’ve learnt this fro talking to Steve Sanders, Steve Wibe, Hank Chien, and Jon McAllister. Each knows something of Saglio’s game. As for Twin Galaxies, they do an excellent job. Nevertheless, I think some of the tracks they are recording scores on are a glut in the system and only confuse people as to what is truly the Donkey Kong World Record. It is with the hammer or without? I don’t believe things like this can be ignored if the posterity of video gaming is of any value. We need critics, video games are political, and if you don’t agree with me … that’s healthy, it’s important you exercise your freedom of thought, but it’s also important to give your own thoughts some thought too.

ROM OK? RAM OK?: New World Records set by Hank Chien & Andrew Laidlaw

By Phil Day



Last month saw a new Donkey Kong World Record set by Hank Chien, and a new Galaga world record set by Andrew Laidlaw. This interests me. So I interviewed them both. However, having done an article on Donkey Kong and Galaga last year I didn’t feel I needed to ask too much about why they played and how they played and so on, especially so considering both players have previous held these world record before, and I’m sure they’ve have already commented so much on those questions. So we talked about the future of their World records and the games in which they cored them on – both Donkey Kong and Galaga being as good as three decades old now. You’re probably thinking these games are doing well to still have an interested playing public. If so, you’d be right. Both titles are available on iPhone. Donkey Kong has had many incarnations into other games. And Galaga was revamped as Galaga Legions for the Xbox in 2008, and KLOV.com asked its readers to give their opinion on their favourite arcade games. Pac-man came in at number 1, followed by Galaga, then Donkey Kong. KLOV’s poll interested me, even more so having spoken to Chien and Laidlaw. Let me try and explain why.


Pac-Man, as a competitive game for international high scores, is dead. Billy Mitchell killed it in 1999 with a perfect score of 3,333,360 points. Since then another five people have equalled his score. But it can’t be beaten. Some have reached Mitchell’s score in less time than Mitchell, but i don’t think Mitchell ever tried to do it as fast as he could. And what does it really matter if someone does it quicker. They don’t’ get extra points. But those who have equalled his score are clearly as good as Mitchell at Pac-man. Nevertheless, we will ever see the score grow.


On the 19th March 2011 we may witness the death of Donkey Kong at Richie Knuclez arcadein New Jersey. Billy Mitchell, Steve Wiebe, Dean Saglio, and Hank Chien are, reportedly, all going to be there. Chien recently told me that he’d be there for sure, but he doesn’t think he’ll be trying to top his score. His score of 1,068,000 is 3,500 points higher than Wiebe’s, and 5,200 points higher than Mitchell’s. Saglio dosen’t have a score on the board for Donkey Kong ‘Hammer allowed’ (What are these other bogus tracks like no ‘hammer allowed’?), but Saglio does have a score of 1,136,400 points on Donkey Kong MAME (MAME is the acronym for ‘multiple arcade machine emulator’; software that allows home computers to run arcade games.) Saglio’s MAME score is 68,400 points above the Hank Chien’s. More interestingly both Chien and Weibe believe the MAME version of Donkey Kong is identical to the arcade game. If this is true, how does Saglio manage to get so many more points the top contenders? Who better to ask than Chien.


Chien talked to me about ‘point pressing’ in Donkey Kong. Spots in the game where a player can rack up points somewhat comfortably. He also explained that the most amount of point pressing is available on the most dangerous stages. Chien said:


“It’s all about the Barrel Board”


Barrel Boards? There are 22 stages in Donkey Kong – number 22 being the infamous ‘kill screen’ where the game simply shuts down. Within these 22 stages there are four different maps, or ‘boards’ as they are known. These boards have no official names, but they have become known as: The Barrel Board, Elevators, The Pie Factory, and Rivets. The names indicate a bit about their game play and each board plays quite differently. So much so that the donkey Kong World Record, according to Chien, seems to be coming down to who can squeeze the most points out of the barrel board – the most famous board - the board where we see Donkey Kong hurling barrels down at Jumpman (now known as Mario). Having spoken to Steve Sander and Steve Wiebe on this too, I’m sure they’d agree. I have seen a little of Mitchell’s game on the Barrel Board. I’ve watched his Jumpman jump three barrels then run down a ladder to jump them again. Because every time Kong releases a barrel the clock is counting down. There are a finite number of barrels being released. If you don’t jump the barrels, or smash them with the hammer, then you’re throwing points away. Unfortunately the barrels are random, very random. They don’t’ fall comfortably, and even with the predictability of the descending aliens in Space Invaders. Instead they behave like a pineapple being bowled down the stairs. So, for world champions like Chien, depending how the barrels behave will determine what chance he has of maximizing his best skills into a top score – luck plays a big part at World Record high scores for those few extra hundred points. The Twin Galaxies score board reflects this. Wiebe and Mitchell both have 99+% of Chien’s world record score. But Chien’s score is 93.9% of Saglio’s score. Still good, but in the Donkey Kong World Champion elite club it is arguably (easily arguably) along way away. Another way of looking at it is by comparing Chris Enright’s score to Chien’s. There is only 205,200 points between Enright (ranked at number 10) and Chien’s World Record score, remembering Saglio’s score is 68,400 points above Chien’s. But saglio’s is all on MAME, and Mitchell hasn’t been playing a full game for his Donkey Kong World Records. He get’s his scores with Jumpmen to spare, and walks away – legend. Maybe he won’t in March. Either way, every time a new World Record is set, it’s another nail in the coffin for Donkey Kong. But Galaga is different – kind of.


Galaga deosn’t have the problem of a kill screen, or point pressing. And the stages are as good as identical, with the exception of challenging stages, but you can’t lose a life on a challenging stage, so they are no threat; the strategy to Galaga is quiet simple, Laidlaw puts it best:


“Stay alive”


I suppose you could say this about all video games. But Galaga has no real tricks to beating it. There are things that are good to know, they’re pretty obvious, you’d learn them within in minutes of play. Galaga is a more like Ten Pin Bowling that way. After a couple of throws you know not what to do. Don’t put it into the gutter o the left or the gutter on the right. Stay in the middle and hit the pins. Of course from there it can be fine tuned, which is what Laidlaw has done, but unlike Ten Pin Bowling (or Pac-Man) there is no perfect score.


Galaga is counting to some zero point crunch time (and if it is we have no idea where that end score is). But the problem with Galaga is Laildaw’s new score: 4,525,150 points. To equal his score you have to average about 900,000. But this is not quite true, you really need to average about 1.1 million over four men due to the advantage of ‘doubling up’ your ship (Galaga allows players to have tow ships joined. This doubles their fire-power, but it also doubles their size as a target for the enemy aliens). Laidlaw has laid down the law: A million points per double-up or don’t bother. I’m quite sure that someone can pass Laidlaw’s score. Laidlaw believes this too. The problem for that person will be dedication. Reaching 100,000 points on Galaga isn’t so easy for a new player. It doesn’t even seem to be so easy for older players of these games who know them so well. I don’t think the game is harder than other games, for example, I don’t think it is harder than Donkey Kong. Laidlaw is a good friend of Wiebe’s. Wiebe has suggested they teach each other on their expertise. Laidlaw thinks he could teach Wiebe how to play and win at Galaga, but doesn’t think Wiebe could teach him how to play and win at Donkey Kong – and Wiebe’s a teacher. Laidlaw believes they’re simply too different from each other, that the type of animal that is attracted to Donkey Kong is nothing like the type of animal that is attracted to Galaga. I have to admit, Donkey Kong torments me to no end. And then there is all that fiddly point pressing – I just couldn’t be bothered (and I’m hopeless at it). Laidlaw thinks that someone who has the skill-set to manage point pressing on ‘the barrel board’ should be comfortable with managing a Galaga stage with comfort. I agree, but something is keeping people at bay from putting up their scores on this popular game. For example, Donald Hayes and John McAllister. In my opinion, Hayes and McAllister are the top two classic arcade video game players in the world. And between them they rank on the top ten games listed on KLOV.com as follows:


1st: Pac-Man (Hayes)
29th Donkey Kong (Hayes)
5th Star Wars (Hayes)
10th Ms. Pac-Man (Hayes)
2nd Dig Dug (Hayes)
1st Asteroids (McAllister)
3rd Defender (McAllister)
2nd Tron (Hayes)
1st Centipede (Hayes)


Neither have a score on Tempest (it is ranked at the bottom with Centipede), nor do they have a score on Galaga Tournament. I don’t understand. Hayes has the world record on Centipede and can complete a perfect game of Pac-Man. McAllister has the world record on both Asteroids tournament setting and marathon, he also has the world record o Robotron: 2080. These guys could nail Galaga to the wall – I’m sure of it. What’s weirder is the popularity of Galaga – number two on KLOV’s list, and it is still being manufactured with Ms.Pac-Man by NAMCO. Yet it only has 12 submitted scores on Galaga Tournament. Yet all but one of the top ten Donkey Kong scores (from a total of 81) on the Twin Galaxies scoreboard was submitted within the past four years. What’s Galaga dying from? I hope not.

Pac-man is dead and buried, and I believe Donkey Kong is being bled to death by its top players, which is fair enough. People are out and out to destroy that game. But I’d hate to see such a popular and simple game like Galaga slowly die without the dignity it deserves.


Regardless, congratulations to Second Time Donkey Kong World Champion Hank Chien, and congratulations to Second Time Galaga World Champion Andrew Laidlaw.

Social Snobbery in PC Gaming

By Phil Day

The internet provides a rich taxonomy of what a gamer is. There are casual, competitive, and professional gamers, and there are newbie’s and so on. From what I can understand, these classifications are accurate enough, what I’m interested in is why some people see a hierarchy in those terms:


A gamer, MF (aka – Masked formatter), has been interested in video games for nearly 30 years. He played his first FPS (First Person Shooter) in 1996, the game was Doom. MF was late in playing Doom (it was released in 1993). In the game MF, like everyone else who played Doom, controlled a nameless space-marine on Mars shooting alien-demonic hordes (very ordinary plot, but perfect for a video game). To do this MF needed to use the keyboard and the mouse. The left mouse button fired the space-marines gun; the right mouse button moved the marine forward. The ‘<’ key moved the space-marine left, and ‘>’ turned moved him right. The ‘space-bar’ made the space-marine jump. Moving the mouse positioned the head of the space-marine. This way the MF could have his space-marine running in one direction while looking in another direction to shoot a monster. This was all fine until another FPS game by the name of Quake was released, and a gamer by the name of Thresh started beating everyone at it.


Thresh (Dennis Fong) is to FPS games what Shane Warne is to cricket, or Bobby Fischer is to Chess. But there was something different about how Thresh played these games. He didn’t use the same keys to control his space-marine. Thresh didn’t use – what is now universally known in the gaming community as – ‘Classic Doom Controls’. Instead, Thresh used the keys w, a, s, d, the space-bar, and the mouse and its left button – this configuration of key commands became know as WASD. ‘w’ for forward, ‘a’ for left, ‘d’ for right, and ‘s’ for back. The mouse was used for steering head movement, and the left mouse button for firing weapons.


Thresh didn’t invent this configuration, but he did employ it to beat his opponents. Its success was – so it is believed – on reducing stress on the mouse. Classic Doom Controls caused more activity on the mouse which is what is used to aim the gun, so pressing two buttons – often simultaneously – can cause minor unwanted movements on the mouse, and therefore reducing accuracy. Thresh’s soon became a gaming superstar with win after win. And his status has had a lasting affect on the gaming community and in turn video game designers. Before long, the default settings for FPS games were the WASD key. This wasn’t good for MF.


MF had become adjusted to Classic Doom Controls and never made the switch, even now he still plays all FPS games (including Counter Strike, DOD, and Left 4 Dead) with the Classic Doom Controls. But I suspect there is a stubborn affectation in his defiance to use WASD keys. He likens it to a left handed golfer being forced to use right handed golf sticks, which is acceptable, but there is something else there that he won’t quite admit. But I think I know what it is.


I overheard MF talking to a gamer friend of his (who goes by the gaming name of Madmilko). Madmilko made the remark that MF had ‘all screwed up controls’ –the snide remark carried the implication that MF’s controls were the cause of errors in there co-operative gaming. But MF’s quip to Madmilko’s sledging couldn’t have been better. He replied: ‘Newbie.’


Newbie is one of the worst insults a gamer can receive (only second to ‘Noob’).


Another gamer friend of mine, Requiem (his gaming name), was the entertainment editor for PC Active, and a contributor to PC Powerplay and Hyper Magazine, and is also a gamer snob. As he put it, “I’m a self confessed computer game snob”. He believes that those who play consoles are casual gamers, who he holds in contempt; contempt because they are not looking for the ‘better’ gaming experience. He says, “[Console gamers] usually play simplistic games that require less skill or understanding of gaming.” Therefore he sees himself, and other PC gamers, as connoisseurs. PC games deserving of the equivalent of Michelin stars while consoles are more like your fast food restaurants, saying, “they’ll tie you over, but you wouldn’t eat them if you had another choice”. He went on to argue that the cause of poor gaming in consoles is two-fold: poor controls, and poor players.


Requiem does have a point when it comes to controls. Console don’t have a mouse, and if you need to move left then right, there is a marked time difference between moving a toggle or joystick from left to right than there is from simply pressing the ‘a’ key to hitting the ‘d’ key – and at a competitive level those nanoseconds are going to cost. I agreed, but this was only true in regard to games like FPS, I didn’t think this would the case with fighting games like Tekken in the arcade or on a console, or platform games like Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. He agreed. He also thought both those games were excellent titles on consoles, particularly Super Mario World, but he felt this best illustrated his point. “You wouldn’t want to play them on a PC, the same logic applies with FPS and RTS games. Why would you want to play them on a broken system [meaning the console controls] when you have a one that is more suitable?” I can follow his logic; some games require particular controls. Missile Command wouldn’t have been so good with a joystick, and Pac-man wouldn’t have been so good with a trackball. No argument there, but his argument only supported that idea that the PC had more suited controls to FPS and RTS games. Requiem then presented his position on console gamers. Basically, he believes, they lack depth of play.


Requiem argued that even the successful games on consoles (like Tekken and Super Mario World) don’t offer the depth of play that FPS and RTS games offer. At this point I felt like saying that neither of them offers the depth of play that Chess offers. So I enquired about the success of Nintendo’s Wii instead (which as of 30/9/09 has sold 56 million units world wide) suggesting that it’s success could be due to the innovative console controls which employ infrared technology and a range of other devices, including a pulse oximeter, asking the gamer to physically move their whole body to play. I also asked about the success of APPS games (application games) for the Apple’s iTouch and the iPhone, could it also be due to the innovative controls where games are played by simply touching or titling the screen. Requiem believed this could be the case; regardless these gamers were only playing for short bursts of time, usually to alleviate small times of boredom. Real gamers, he suggested, allocate time to play, and they play competitively against their opponents, be they person or computer, and they play to win – not simply to fill in time. And it is this that concerns him most. He fears that as consoles grow and dominate the market, games will have to suit that biggest part of the market, and the result will be shallow games – games that are equivalent of bubblegum pop.


I couldn’t help but ask myself that if I were interested in video games and they were a source of entertainment for me, and I wanted to play what the latest video games had to offer; wouldn’t I have to own a console? Since I don’t own a console, and I don’t have any games on my PC, and I don’t own an iTouch or iPhone (I don’t even own a mobile phone), I thought it would be better to ask Requiem:


“With the popularity and financial success of consoles, how long will it be before you are forced to buy one if you wish to play the latest games?”


His answer: “I already have a PS3.”


What Requiem is saying may be true, I’m not sure. I have played FPS and RTS games, and I believe that games that preceded these – like Pong (I’m not joking), and Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Galaga, and Tetris all offer a depth of play that is still relevant, so much so that if it wasn’t for Robotron: 2084 we might not have Left 4 Dead – not only that, but I have to ask myself: Is Left 4 Dead an improvement on the game play of Robotron: 2084?