8-Bit Agonies: Vigilantes and Ms. Ciccone
I've written here before about context (or lack thereof) and back-story (or lack thereof) in vintage arcade games. The relative complexity of contemporary gaming may necessitate lengthy in-game tutorials, 100 page instruction manuals, online walkthroughs/FAQs etc., but back in the day the message was starker and simpler: "3 lives. Bad guys. Try not to die". Back-story and context were intellectual luxuries you could ill afford as you tried to dodge screenfuls of alien ordinance on, say, R-Type. Real war may be a lot like this.
Occasionally, however, context-setting pre-game screens were so memorable as to overwrite recall of the games themselves. Take Irem's Vigilante. I only dimly remember the in-game action (standard, Double Dragon-esque, side-scrolling, ass-whupping fare), but have vivid memories of this.
To teenage boys in 1988 this was pretty provocative stuff. Gangs could (as was their wont) kidnap daughters and girlfriends of digital heroes as much as they liked, but not Madonna. Not Madonna in her fun, vibrant and fleshy days. Not Madonna back when she seemed (to pre-pubescent lads & lasses) the custodian of all the universe's carnal knowledge. Not Madonna before she'd met William Orbit and started sounding like a bored robot.
July 18, 2010
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