Show and Tell: Adam’s Favorite Video Game
Adam doesn’t play many video games, but he does have an affinity for one particular one from his youth. For this week’s Show and Tell, Adam shares his love for the classic arcade game Millipede and gives a demo of the cabinet he has set up in his workshop!
21 thoughts on “Show and Tell: Adam’s Favorite Video Game”
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The cabinet art is from Arabian, a game I do not know.
I was never any good at arcade games, as a kid they were just too expensive for me to play enough to get any good at, so I stuck with PC games (on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum).
Now that Adam is describing his history with the game again it’s now settling in how he never got into games despite his interests and inner “gamer” spirit as it were. If his testimony is correct then he never grew up playing household console and computer games (Atari 2600, 800, Intellivision, C64 etc.) and had fleeting experiences with it whenever an arcade cabinet would pop up. Of course this is right around the post Atari crash which signaled a break for a lot of people seemingly not invested in video games as a medium, despite their persistence through these years.
As such I think the distribution of people within this cohort, teenagers in the mid-1980s, that got into video games is lower (i don’t know how much lower off hand) than teenagers in the 1990s for whom the NES launching in 1985 would be a gargantuan influence, alongside the Gensis in 1989 and SNES in 1991. In its impact on a generation and how much it gets referenced as a starting point, I would argue the NES was as relatively meaningful to video games culture as Star Wars was to science fiction fans.
Of course arcades would be incredibly important but in the context of having video games in the home I think game consoles would have a significant impact in solidifying video games as part of socialization for a generation of kids around and mostly after Adam’s.
He probably got a really high score as soon as they were done filming.
That’s pretty much how these things work out..
It’s one of those fast-twitch games where you only do well when you disconnect your mind and play on an instinctual level. If you’re conscious of being filmed and thinking about trying to perform well, you’ll have a difficult time getting into the “zone.”
TRON the movie was a huge influence on me. I was 13 and sold my CB radio gear to buy a Sinclair ZX-81 (in kit form). I knew how to solder already (thanks to MAPLIN electronics here in the UK) and built my first computer.
Magazines were full of exotic looking computers from the US that cost a fortune, Apples, Compaqs, IBMs. At school, my math teacher asked me to bring it in and demonstrate it to classes, state schools didn’t have such things. But I learned everything about it. Before I left school I had worked on 3 published games (just not very good ones).
But when I saw TRON at the cinema (I went to every showing for a week) I wanted to find and play a TRON video game. There was one that I knew of in the whole city, in a pub that minors like me were not allowed in, but I snuck in anyway. I played the hell out of that machine when I could. The game itself wasn’t fantastic, a series of 4 repeating mini-games, the highlight being the simple ‘snake’ light-cycle game. But the cabinet was pure theater, a work of art. Decorated with fluorescent graphics and black-lights to make it glow, a translucent cell background and music/fx from the movie.
When that machine was taken away I was heart broken. On every family holiday after that, at every seaside town we visited, I would conduct a search of all the possible arcades for a TRON machine. Never finding one.
So when I got my first PC, inspired by TRON and the light cycles I learned everything I needed to code 3D graphics. Hand plotting the co-ordinates for a light-cycle on graph paper, entering the data culminating in my first fully realised 3D game. Many years later I’m still developing 3D simulations and tools.
As for the TRON machine, I never found one I could realistically afford. I’ve just completed an oak veneered MAME cocktail cabinet which is both a talking point for visitors and practical as a table. I now plan on finally building a full upright TRON replica. Hopefully I can complete that before it’s game over. Just because.
What did you think of the Tron movie remake?
Ninefingers
Well….I didn’t hate it.
It wasn’t a re-make as such, more a sequel. A remake might have been better.
My wife took me to the first showing at the Bradford IMAX here in the UK and it’s fair to say I had certain expectations. This was tempered with the funeral of my eldest brother the day before who was also a keen science fiction fan. So I remember that day vividly. There was a live TRON twitter feed in the lobby and a green-screen TRON photo-shoot to entertain the waiting crowd.
As a style piece it was pretty. The music excellent. The message about the conflict of free information is very much a problem of our time but I wasn’t expecting such a dark tone running all the way through. As a story I felt it was not so great. Not enough (of the real) Jeff Bridges, the CGI Bridges creeped me out (a prime example of the uncanny valley). I did come away entertained and it left me thinking about what I saw for several days after which is better than most movies I see. Pity all the tie-in games were TERRIBLE.
Disney’s TV series TRON Uprising had some good story-lines, the artwork on that series was fantastic. It’s fair to say some good things came out of the movie. I can’t remember the name of the lead technical artist on that show but he has a blog featuring some of his work and it’s simply stunning.
But the movie, to summarise in the words of Christopher Walken, “needs more cowbell”.
I’ve got a Tron upright. It needs some work but is such a great game. I think if I were going to build a replica I might go the route of the original intention and include Discs of Tron in there as well as a multi-game cabinet. Just an idea.
It’s really hard to play well and talk at the same time. That’s probably why Adam didn’t do that well at the beginning.
my goal in life is to be adams friend
!982 & the Tron arcade game. A teenager and his quarters were soon parted!
First arcade was Space Invaders… but MrDo! was my game later on… Not a great game but that is what they had in the café where I grew up in Sweden… and many coins got lost in that machine… : ) Still love the music and the graphics… : ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Do!
As a kid, I don’t know how much money I poured down the Tron game at our local arcade.
But it was a lot..
Haha wow that’s about how good I am at most arcade games, and I work at a pinball and arcade repair company, you’d think I would be great or something. I’m actually pretty ok at pinball though!
Ninefingers yeah, and he was trying to talk at the same time. Things like that never work out for me.
That game was the best!!!!! At some point, I am going to buy a vintage one for my game room. Oh, that and the Star Wars game!
Years ago, I remember seeing a vintage 1983 Atari Star Wars game for sale at a local shop for $250.
It was in immaculate working condition. And, for some silly, stupid reason, I passed on it.
If I only knew then what I know now.. 🙁
Don’t you hate that!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some one needs to hurry up and invent a time machine! LOL! Adam???????/
That’s fantastic. They are quite hard to find in the UK. I would certainly go the route of having it as a multi game cab. Started collecting parts already. If my last cabinet project was anything to go by it’ll be a 10 year build. Worth it though.
My game Adam has always been Stargate Defender I have all the boards but needs to be set up .I plan on doing a custom tabletop version with a swivel Predicta style monitor .someday.
Thats really Cool!!