Zombie-steampunk-Disney.

Okay you are going to want to click those top two pictures at least just to really get the surreal vibe off this upcoming game for the Wii that Warren Spector has cooked up.

The reports are saying that the story revolves around the older Disney characters including Oswald, Horace, Clarabell, etc. getting fed up with Mickey hogging all the limelight so they go to war against the 'typical' Disney characters...which results in some serious screwed-up art like above.

Being a Wii game your job is to help use paint to repair the damages that have been done by the rogue 'toons. You'll be using thinner to erase the unruly Disney characters during battles so it will not just be a painting game.

I have no idea how Warren Spector got Disney to agree to this because some of this art is just nightmarish...I mean look at that beach scene with the Seven Dwarf heads...maybe he and John Lassiter are good buddies or something. I can't wait to see a trailer for this thing though.

Warren Spector is respected in the game industry, he has had a hand in Wing Commander, Ultima, Thief, System Shock, and lately Deus Ex. This Wii game is entitled at the moment as Epic Mickey.

It must be Thursday.

What more can you say? Except for hang in there and check out the people playing the actual arcade game.

Box Art Wednesday.

As always feel free to click the pictures to enjoy the art. I included the back of the Taz Atari 2600 cartridge because the creator, Steve Woita, wrote down an easter egg on the back of the box for this fan before signing it.

Thanks to Atariage for the great pics.

"There is no New York...there is only the Village."

Read the last post about Gotcha to learn of Atari Inc. and their 'boob' arcade game but I found this online and flipped out. I've know of the new Prisoner show coming out on AMC for a bit now but here is a nine minute preview...it's too small from where I'm watching it but is that Patrick McGoohan who Jim Caviezel helps?

Gotcha or Atari's bad idea.

Well in 1973 Atari Inc. were flush with their success in the arcades with games like Pong, Pong Doubles, and Space Race. So for their fourth outing they decided to make a game that would appeal to the female crowd. Gotcha is a maze game as you can plainly see from the second picture, the first player is the pursuer which makes the second player the pursued, the pursuer is a square while the pursued is signified as a plus sign.

Now how does one make a 'female game'? Atari decided that instead of joysticks which some groups considered to be phallic in nature...ahem...they removed them and put two pink colored rubber bulges on the console. Take a peek at the top picture, click to make 'em 1973 size. So to go up through the maze the player would squeeze the bulge upwards, etc.

Memos from the Atari Inc. at the time referred to Gotcha as the 'Boob' game. This was an arcade game that was not very well received by the public...at frat houses maybe but not your mother at the bowling alley. After a bit of outcry the bulges were removed and replaced with joysticks...the game still wasn't well received.

This outrage from parents and church groups preceded the anger over Death Race but since no one seemed to like the game it has been all but forgotten.

A big thanks to K.L.O.V. for the pics.

You say Moon Alien and I say Galaxian.

Of course you can click the pictures above for greater detail but this 1980 game of Moon Alien is a pretty much exact copy of Galaxian! I have a feeling this was just released in Japan but at the moment I haven't been able to find too much information on it. I do like the top artwork though...belongs on the side of a van.

Some more Saturday Supercade.

Wow...I thought that last collection of Super Mario Bros. stuff was impressive. This fan seems to like pretty much anything related to Nintendo. I like that Mega Man stuff on the top shelf of the second picture.

Saturday Supercade.

Some people really, really like the Super Mario Bros. universe...though I spy some of that Hedgehog's merchandise in there as well. Click if you dare to see Super Mario Size...I mean it, this one is huge!

Flynn's Update.

Video Game - E3 2009 - Video Game Trailers

Well...Disney decided to move it up a year. Next year instead of 2011.

AWESOME!

Flynn's.

Well, it would seem that the online news sources were correct in the assumption that a Flynn's was opened up around the SanDiego Comic-con area. Watch these vids, though not in front of your children, there are some harsh words spoken by a few of the players. Space Paranoids...I didn't get to play it. Sigh.

On the other hand, check out that awesome light cycle in the third clip, plus the music you are hearing as they walk the halls is from Daft Punk and will be used in the movie as the main theme.

It still must be Thursday.

What more can you say?

Besides, HOLY CROW!

Thanks to Ain't It Cool News for the pics.

It must be Thursday.

What more can you say?

Box art Wednesday interrupted.

Sorry to break with my usual box art uploading for this Wednesday's blog but I have received information that more than makes up for it. It would seem that a few online journalists that have a hand in gaming have been sent packages. The packages are labeled as being from an organization calling itself, Flynn Lives.

Of course they are referring to that almost mythical man, Kevin Flynn, who in the 1980's almost single handily revolutionized the gaming world. I remember reading about that fabled arcade of his, Flynn's, where all of Encom's greatest hits were sucking down the quarters. Vice Squad, Matrix Blaster, Light Cycles, and of course the classic Space Paranoids. These legendary games were given places of high honor at Flynn's.

Then of course Kevin Flynn was let go in 1981 by the CEO of Encom, Ed Dillinger, some claiming that it was a dispute over being given credit for the games he was creating for the company. Though he was rehired in 1983 and became Vice president of Creative Development. With his release of the arcade game, Tron, he lead Encom to becoming the most successful video game company in the world.

Then in 1985 at the top of his game he retired from Encom to create "a digital frontier that will reshape the human condition." Nothing was heard from him until 1989 when it was reported that the genius had just...disappeared. Of course Encom has continued to grow in profit and size but without Kevin Flynn...it is just a souless corporation.

However, this post is about that package that was received. Two tokens from Flynn's arcade were within it and well as a note with two web addresses scribbled upon them:

http://homeoftron.com/

http://www.flynnlives.com/

By clicking on the bouncing grid bug, you get a timer and some cryptic instructions on where to meet...since the San Diego Comic-Con is just now starting I will assume it is directions to a location there...could they be opening a new Flynn's there?! Perhaps like a modern day Willy Wonka, Kevin Flynn will finally reveal himself...I just hope he hasn't become all Howard Hughes with long fingernails and collecting his own urine.

Classic arcade game equipment.

These items besides your obvious Levi jeans were what you needed to make the grade at your local arcade. Gaze upon these relics of old and remember the glory that was to be had while you strode through the throngs of lesser arcade players wearing this ensemble. It has been whispered in the shadowy corners of arcades worldwide that if one were to put in a quarter or token in an Atari machine while wearing the official jacket...one would get an extra life immediately.

This has nothing to do with the rumor back in the day that the Goverment was kidnapping top game players and taking them to a Helicarrier...even I knew that one wasn't real.

Zeke? Zelda?

That last picture is of Zookeeper world record holder, Shawn Cram, who managed to successfully guide Zeke the Zookeeper to a point total of 35, 732, 870. He is now an official Twin Galaxies referee.

Zookeeper was another game that I found at Games People Play, same spot where I fell in love with Crazy Climber and a pinball game called Mars: God of War...as well as the now infamous incident with my father failing at anger suppression, venting his rage towards the Star Castle machine.

The story of Zookeeper is that a monkey has absconded with Zelda, Zeke the zookeeper's main squeeze. To slow down the zookeeper, the monkey has unlocked all the cages of the zoo, and its Zeke's job to keep the animals caged up in the center of the screen by repairing any brickwork/walls that are damaged by the rampaging animals trying to get out.

If an animal busted lose then Zeke had to quickly get over to the open area and brick it up, while also jumping over to avoid the escaped beast. Luckily a net will appear from time to time and if Zeke can touch the animal with the net they are sent back to the center of the screen. Every animal within the center at the end of the level will garner you a large bonus. This is the first stage.

The second stage is a platform jumper where Zelda finds herself tied to a coconut tree and the monkey that kidnapped her is hanging by its tail throwing coconuts down to the bottom of the screen where Zeke must jump up on moving platforms and avoid the coconut barrage. He can pick up additional items like...sundaes...to get a bigger score.

The third stage is an escalator level, where animals in cages are released all at once to bull rush Zeke. Traveling from right to left and then on the second level left to right, if you succeed in avoiding the animals and their electrified cages you are rewarded with a kiss from Zelda and an extra life. With each of these levels they add an additional escalator until you reach the top of the screen with four of them.

Stylin' Saturday Supercade.

Can you get more stylin' than Jeff Bridges and a highly sought after View-Master pack?

Still some Saturday Supercade.

While I may not have had much access to new Arcade game info by way of magazine, Joystik being the only one I knew of and its publication schedule was peculiar, I at least had Starcade to keep me up on what was out there in the arcades.

Still Saturday Supercade.

I like Donkey Kong Jr. but I do not know if I would tile a shower to resemble him...it makes me happy though people do this kind of stuff.

Saturday Supercade.

Click the picture to make Sept. 25th size!

Pengo.

The Sega corporation in 1982 released this little gem to the arcades across the nation. My first experience with the game like the classic Defender was at the supermarket chain Food 4 Less...it was also the first time I saw a young woman flip off an arcade game.

Pengo is a red penguin whose task is to finish each level by either crushing all the roaming Sno-Bees by pushing ice blocks to smash them or the joining of the three diamond shaped blocks together. In emergency situations to escape the Sno-Bees, Pengo, could break through blocks of ice...of course the Sno-Bees could do the same by punching through them.

There are only 16 levels in the game with the 17th starting over and ramping up the difficulty. In my research I found there is an easter egg, in attract mode, push the two joysticks to up, press the two action buttons and one button of start game, and it will show the credits of the game. After a few seconds, the game will reset.

Also the Twin Galaxies website reports that Rodney Day of Canberra, Austraila has held the world record score for Pengo since August 13th, 1983. The winning score is 1,110,370 points. This score has also been recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records.

It must be Thursday.

Forgive the lateness of the post but I am quite under the weather. This arcade game comes from Japan, Taito produces it, yet I can find no name for it. It seems to have to do with a Magic: the Gathering type of card game.

What more can you say?

Box art Wednesday.

As I've lamented in previous posts...they do not make box art like this anymore. Click of course to make 5200 sized!

Art break: Pac-Man

Thanks to the fine folks over at Deviantart I've been able to capture these three images of Pac-Man. I've yet to find more art covering the last post of Mr. Do!

The top pic is a sculpture made entirely out of cans...looks to me to be cat food and tuna cans. The second picture is surely an embarrassing situation where Pac-Man has failed to chew his pellets properly. Which leaves us with what might be the most frightening image of Pac-Man I've ever seen.

What can you do, Mr. Do!

In 1982, Universal Distributing of Nevada, released a game that at first glance seemed to be merely a Dig-Dug clone. However the game Mr. Do! was something far more enjoyable perhaps than its arcade 'sibling' Dig-Dug.

I remember playing this for the first time at Showbiz Pizza, it was banished to the area where Popeye, Donkey Kong Jr., and Pole Position where kept. I suppose it might have been on the top floor when Showbiz first opened but was pushed downward as newer games like Congo Bongo and Moon Patrol arrived.

Mr. Do! is a circus clown whose task to finish each level is completed by either collecting all the cherries on screen or by killing all the monsters. This is how I played it when I was a youngling, kill the creatures and move on, not worrying about the score. To get the high scores you needed to collect the cherries, eight in a row would net you a bonus of 500 points.

Instead of a pump like Dig-Dug possessed to keep the monsters at bay, you had a Power Ball that could be thrown at the beasts, destroying them but taking longer and longer to reappear in your hand. If you missed a monster, perhaps if it was behind a fallen apple the Power Ball would not reappear and you had to go pick it up yourself.

Instead of boulders like in Dig-Dug the land of Mr. Do! has apples in the ground. While you can tunnel under them and let them squish the red beasts chasing you, unlike Dig-Dug, if you let it fall from a short height you could push the apple around and use it to set up the monsters so you might crush them all in a row. Of course Mr. Do! could be killed in the same way, sometimes the monsters would move the apple around to crush you beneath.

Whenever you received 5000 points a letter from the word EXTRA would appear in a tougher blue monster, one that could also dig through the ground destroying cherries if it touched them as it tried to reach you. If you defeated the beast you received the letter, collect all the letters and spell out EXTRA and you ended the level and received a cut scene as well as an extra life while being serenaded by the theme from Astro Boy.

I had a really hard time finding any suitable pictures of the Mr. Do! game, in fact the upper most picture is from Mr. Do's Castle, released in September of 1983. I like the Asian title of this game better, Mr. Do! versus the Unicorns.

Time for some game related art.

I was lucky enough to find this site online, http://nicecarvings.com/, where a young woman by the name of Melissa Jones carves signs and various other items like the above arcade characters. I am rather partial to the Dragon's Lair and Dig-Dug artwork myself but the Donkey Kong and Burgertime carvings are very nice...the jury is still out though on her Moon Patrol work.