Thursday, February 17, 2011

"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.










4 comments:

  1. I hate to engage in overly extensive hyperbole -- but this truly was an awesome article. Thank you for lifting the lid off the wonder of video games, and the distinctive way in which people can experience them on a very personal level, yet in a wink-and-nudge knowing way because we all recognize the magic. The power of gaming really is the people, and this piece is a fabulous retrospect to illustrate that.

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  2. Great work per usual Phil. You are correct, Eric is a great guy, and is more than deserving of all the accolades he has recieved. You should both be commended.

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  3. Eric is a standup guy and IVGHOF couldn't have picked a more humble person to the first class.

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  4. Eric is a great guy and has fast become a good friend, both of which made the article easy to write.

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