Atari home console on display at Game On exhibit.
The other weekend, I attended the Ontario Science Centre‘s Game On video game exhibition with my friend, Kaitlin, and my brother, Andrew. The Game On exhibition is a sort of historical excavation of several decades of video games, featuring sketches, examples of vintage console games, handheld devices, concept and character art, and some of the world’s most beloved arcade machines. From Pong to the 3D games of the future, the show had (apparently) 150 playable games.
The exhibit provided a solid history of video game production and marketing. (I had no idea there was a Russian home gaming system that used cassette tapes!) Even better, the rooms were arranged like some giant cross-time arcade. You could play Street Fighter II alongside Combat, Ms. Pacman, Doom and Rock Band. However, some of the more violent (and popular) games (Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, even Operation Wolf) were notably absent. Paying for admission to the Ontario Science Centre meant, in effect, I had unlimited quarters at this particular arcade. (The element of not having to rely on money to continue playing meant I was able to achieve a life-long goal of finishing the game Dragon’s Lair.)
More than anything else, the Game On exhibit made me nostalgic for the age of the arcade. Clearly, video games aren’t going anywhere, but gaming has moved almost entirely inside the home. And while there are still opportunities to interact with others via online multiplayer games, it can’t really replace the weird short-term camaraderie that developed in the old-time arcades. When you were playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the people who were playing Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello were, for the next ten minutes, your best friends and closest allies. Once you ran out of quarters, you might never see them again, but for the duration of the game, they had your back. That kind of strange, temporary relationship doesn’t exist anymore.
While I was roaming around the Game On exhibit, I also made a mental list of my personal all-time favourite arcade games from my youth. If you’re curious, I’ve posted them (with short notes) below:
10. Double Dragon - the travails of Jimmy and Billy Lee form the basis for the first side-scrolling street fighting game that I can remember playing. I still vividly remember (a) the disturbing opening scene of a gang member punching Billy’s girlfriend in the gut, then throwing her over his shoulder and (b) the heartbreaking final battle where (spoiler alert), Civil-War-style, brother is forced to fight brother.
Dirk the Daring, ready for action.
9. Rampage - you can be one of three giant monsters (faux King Kong, faux Godzilla or a giant wolfman) destroying major metropolitan areas. What’s not to like? In retrospect, the inverted morality of Rampage is kind of amazing. I also remember the arcade version being way, way harder than the home version for Sega (which was nearly impossible to lose).
8. Dragon’s Lair - this unusual arcade game was produced by Bluth animation (The Secret of NIMH, All Dogs Go to Heaven) followed Dirk the Daring as he attempts to rescue Princess Daphne from a, well, dragon’s lair. What was most striking about this game is it was a series of cut animation scenes. And whether what followed was a ‘good’ scene or death scene depended on whether you hit the button or moved the controller in the correct direction in time. The end result is a cool little animated tale that you barely get to watch because you’re too busy looking for the flashing button to tell you what to do next. I finished the game during Game On, but it probably would have cost me about $60 in quarters if I’d been paying for it. (Also, Dirk the Daring screams, like, a lot.) Fun fact: this game is apparently one of only three arcade games kept at the Smithsonian!
Player selection screen from Vendetta.
7. Vendetta - full disclosure: I love games featuring two or four people just walking through an industrial cityscape beating up random dudes. (I think these are often called ‘beat-em-ups’ among gamers.) Streets of Rage, River City Ransom, Final Fight – these games are my bread and butter. And Vendetta was my favourite of this ilk. With up to four players, you take to the streets as an ex-prize fighter, ex-wrestler, martial artist or ex-military convict(?), busting the skulls of the members of ‘the Dead End Gang’ from screen to screen. (Remember how Haggar was the mayor in Final Fight? That was weird, right?)
6. Narc - in what I can only assume was a parody of the war on drugs gone wild, you control one of two DEA agents who have seemingly free licence to spray machine gun fire at various drug dealers (some of whom throw hypodermic needles at you!). As the game continues, it takes surreal, Akira-esque turns. By the time you reach Mr. Big, the final boss, he’s just a giant skull spitting tongues out at you. (I vividly remember my friend Jason defeating the game, only to have a projectile from Mr. Big’s dying body fall on him, killing him (and ending the winning game) in the process.
5. X-Men- as a tween, this game was the ultimate in everything. Not only was it a video game about the X-Men, my favourite comic characters at the time, but it was a really good side-scrolling beat-em-up game where you could involve SIX players at once! This was communal arcade playing at its best. Some of the super-powers were weird (why did Wolverine shoot a weird laser thing from his claws?), and I didn’t understand that the plot and characters came from the failed Pryde of the X-Men animated pilot until years later, but this monster game was always a favourite.
4. Operation Wolf - this was that arcade game with two fake Uzis pointed toward the screen. I don’t really remember much about the plot or enemies – rather that I got to shoot a fake Uzi at a screen for several minutes straight.
On the job training in Crazy Taxi.
3. Crazy Taxi - as a rule, I don’t typically enjoy car racing games. (This may be connected to my real-life inability to drive.) But I love Crazy Taxi. You pick up fares and have to get them to their destinations in rapid time, but can’t scare them too much with your erratic driving or they hop out and you lose any money they’d have paid. This is a challenge I enjoy. When I was very young, I harboured dreams of becoming a cab driver for a living – much to the chagrin of my parents, let’s assume – and this video game is a good consolation prize.
2. Golden Axe - this is another one of those arcade games that holds a weird dream-like quality to it. Did I remember it opening with a violent murder? Do you really travel (and fight) on the back of a giant turtle? Also of interest to me: riding fire-breathing dragons and tail-whipping bird-like things. (Obviously, my preferred character was Tyris Flare.)
1. Captain Commando - this was the weirdest of the side-scrolling beat-em-up games, and (thus) one of my favourites. You could choose one of four playable characters. Captain Commando was the leader who had electrical powers; Ginsu was a ninja. But that’s about as normal as the characters got. The others included Mack the Knife, a knife-brandishing mummy dressed like Kid ‘n’ Play, and Baby Head, an infant who controlled a robot fighting suit. I can’t remember the story that follows – just that I loved being a baby in a robot suit punching in faces.
Honorable Mentions: Sunset Riders, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gauntlet (which is a hugely influential game, but I never really got into it), NBA Jam, Street Fighter II, Ninja Gaiden II.
The Ontario Science Centre’s Game On exhibit runs until September 2, 2013.
