1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,200 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:14,040 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:17,639 Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm La and uh I see 4 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: on the book of Faces that are a good friend. 5 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:25,120 Speaker 1: Justin has left us suggestion. Yes, he said, you mentioned 6 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: them in your Predictions episode, but could you do an 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: episode on f m V games. I think it would 8 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,839 Speaker 1: be a lot of fun. So fm V that stands 9 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:38,080 Speaker 1: for full motion video right right, Those games fantastic Well, 10 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: in order to understand what full motion video is all 11 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: about and the role that they played in video games, 12 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:46,880 Speaker 1: it probably benefit us to just do a quick overview 13 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,239 Speaker 1: of the different types of graphics we saw, particularly in 14 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,560 Speaker 1: early video games. So if you were talking about the 15 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: earliest of computer games, you were limited to either text 16 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: adventures like Zorke that kind of thing, or vector graphics 17 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: two D vector graphics games, which would be more like Asteroids. 18 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:10,720 Speaker 1: So if you ever played the old Asteroids arcade game, 19 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:14,640 Speaker 1: everything with these these very simple shapes, Yeah you're talking 20 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 1: about dots are lines? Yeah, exactly, That's that's what vector 21 00:01:17,560 --> 00:01:21,199 Speaker 1: graphics are. They're based on geometry. You define end points 22 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:25,120 Speaker 1: and then you have little lines drawn between those end points. 23 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: So it's kind of like think of it like, uh uh, 24 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:30,679 Speaker 1: you know, connect the dots. That's essentially what you're talking about, 25 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:33,520 Speaker 1: but in a in a graphics format, so it's pixels 26 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:36,679 Speaker 1: instead of you know, a solid black line from a 27 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: pencil or something. Sure, and all of that being less 28 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 1: graphically impressive perhaps than things like in the case of Zork, 29 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 1: you know, your rich imagination opening entire star fields for you, right, 30 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: you could have any sort of description in a text 31 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:55,440 Speaker 1: based one, and technically the graphics are only limited by 32 00:01:55,440 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: your imagination, I guess. But vector graphics, you know, they 33 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:05,120 Speaker 1: have their their charms. The old old Star Wars arcade 34 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: game where you had a little vector graphics tie fighters 35 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: coming at you still one of my favorite arcade games 36 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: of all time. And it also had the benefit of 37 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 1: not taking up too much processing power. It didn't require 38 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:17,840 Speaker 1: you know, a chunky graphics card in order for it 39 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:20,560 Speaker 1: to produce these pretty simple graphics. Well, that's the whole 40 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: thing with graphics is that they take so much disk 41 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,960 Speaker 1: space and processing power, and that is a problem that 42 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:28,200 Speaker 1: some of these FMV games that we are going to 43 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: start talking about ran into really hard, yeah, really really hard. 44 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: So so next we have sprites. So sprites, of course 45 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:40,480 Speaker 1: not a type of soft drink in this case. No, 46 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:45,400 Speaker 1: also not a whimsical mythological creature. No, though a sprite 47 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:48,919 Speaker 1: could be a whimsical mythological creature within the context of 48 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 1: a video game. But you could have a sprite of 49 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,239 Speaker 1: a sprite. Yes, exactly, you could have a sprite of 50 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: a sprite. So it's a two dimensional animation that's integrated 51 00:02:56,440 --> 00:02:59,080 Speaker 1: into a larger scene, that can move around that larger 52 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,639 Speaker 1: scene completely independently, and it doesn't require you to re 53 00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: render that background. So I think of this kind of 54 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:12,440 Speaker 1: like a like a play because I'm a theater gee. 55 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:14,200 Speaker 1: But if you think of a play, you know, like 56 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: you have a play with a set, and the actors 57 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:18,960 Speaker 1: can move all around that set that doesn't move. The 58 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: set doesn't move the sexually unless something kind of terrible 59 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,680 Speaker 1: it's going on. In that case, that's an exception, But 60 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:28,600 Speaker 1: in an ideal situation, when it's not supposed to move, 61 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: it stays. But you can also think of it as 62 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:33,240 Speaker 1: maybe like a magnet on a fridge or or a 63 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: color form. Yeah, exactly, you can move this this one 64 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: independent piece around without affecting everything else, and that meant 65 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,360 Speaker 1: that you only had to render the background the one 66 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: time and then a little two D animated character. That's 67 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: the only thing it really concentrating on. So it didn't 68 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,400 Speaker 1: require too much processing power to develop once we started 69 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,280 Speaker 1: getting into that. Although the early ones were limited as 70 00:03:55,320 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: to the number of sprites that could be processed on 71 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: screen at the same time, you have an here. The 72 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: Atari hundred only had five, yeah, five moving graphical objects 73 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,280 Speaker 1: on screen at a time. So if you're thinking of 74 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: like I don't know, Donkey Kong Jr. And you're playing 75 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:14,880 Speaker 1: as the main character, you know, in the Arcade version 76 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: you had all these little bitty uh platforms that could 77 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,839 Speaker 1: go up and down and things like that, or monsters 78 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: that could grab you, And there really wasn't too much 79 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,640 Speaker 1: of a limit because the hardware there was just huge, Yeah, 80 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:29,040 Speaker 1: and it was just meant to play that game right. 81 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: On the Atari twenty hundred, which had much more strict 82 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:37,080 Speaker 1: limitations on what the processor could do, you had at 83 00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:40,280 Speaker 1: most five moving graphical objects on screen at any given time. 84 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:43,760 Speaker 1: One of the examples we could give of that, besides 85 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: the one I just mentioned, a Super Mario Brothers and 86 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:49,400 Speaker 1: Nintendo game. Now that that one had obviously a greater 87 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:54,039 Speaker 1: capacity for moving objects. It wasn't limited to the attary model. 88 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:58,360 Speaker 1: But that is another example of a video game you sprites. Now, 89 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:00,400 Speaker 1: there is one other type that I'm I can mention 90 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: really quickly, which are video games that use three dimensional models. 91 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,479 Speaker 1: But that goes that's that's after full motion video. So 92 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:12,359 Speaker 1: three dimensional models very common today, but we're not going 93 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 1: to talk about that because we're really focusing on fm vs. 94 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:19,920 Speaker 1: So what is it. It's when you have recorded up 95 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: some sort of video. Whether it is live action, it 96 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:28,039 Speaker 1: can be animated, doesn't matter, um, but it is recorded 97 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,600 Speaker 1: and plays back as part of the video game experience. 98 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: Some people refer to games that were really really super 99 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: heavy on fm V as interactive movies, because here's the thing. 100 00:05:40,279 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: If I record something ahead of time and then I 101 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:45,360 Speaker 1: present it to somebody, that person is not going to 102 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 1: have a whole lot of say in what happens. Yeah, 103 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:50,200 Speaker 1: you've got a limited amount of interactivity that can happen 104 00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: when right, it's already it's already gone. Yeah exactly. So 105 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,159 Speaker 1: if I were to have a kind of a choose 106 00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: your own adventure game, let's say it that way, because 107 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:01,279 Speaker 1: that's a that's a perfect example something I would work 108 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:03,760 Speaker 1: with this, But choose your own adventure books, same sort 109 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:05,919 Speaker 1: of thing. Right, You're limited to the choices that the 110 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:09,400 Speaker 1: book lays out, and you're limited to the to the consequences, 111 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:14,279 Speaker 1: which for me invariably involved dying to hold my finger 112 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:16,400 Speaker 1: back on a previous page and say, all right, I 113 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 1: want to try a different way. Now. I have a 114 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:20,120 Speaker 1: whole series of bookmarks whenever I have a choose you 115 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 1: an adventure, but I always I resented the ones where 116 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:26,200 Speaker 1: you would get to the point where you either choice 117 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:28,480 Speaker 1: that you had presented to you would result in your 118 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:30,640 Speaker 1: death and think, no, now I have to go back 119 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,440 Speaker 1: to spots. Oh no, that's my favorite. It's it's the 120 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: branching thing. But that's what a full motion video game, 121 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 1: I mean, like a serious FMV video game was, like 122 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,000 Speaker 1: all right, And I think that when most people think 123 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,080 Speaker 1: of full motion video games, they are thinking of live 124 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: action video Yeah. But but some of them, as we 125 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:51,679 Speaker 1: will discuss, yeah, are actually in fact the earliest ones, 126 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:53,720 Speaker 1: well not the earliest, but some of the earliest ones 127 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:56,919 Speaker 1: really had a lot of animation involved. Yeah, And most 128 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: of these games use optical disc technology, either CDs or 129 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: laser discs and uh. And although I think that the 130 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,240 Speaker 1: production on laser discs, the research for it today right 131 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:09,960 Speaker 1: went back to the nineteen fifties, they weren't really a 132 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: commercial format until the nineteen seventies. Uh. And even then 133 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:16,160 Speaker 1: they weren't really very much of a commercial format. I mean, 134 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:18,520 Speaker 1: even even in the nineteen eighties when you started to 135 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:21,560 Speaker 1: really get into the home theater world, laser disc was 136 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: one of those things that that cool person with way 137 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:26,560 Speaker 1: more money than you had, uh, they owned one, but 138 00:07:26,640 --> 00:07:29,360 Speaker 1: you did not. Um. I mean I remember going to 139 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: parties with with my family. My parents would take me 140 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 1: to some party with some other science fiction or fantasy 141 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:39,160 Speaker 1: authors throwing a weird bash, and they happen to have 142 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:41,920 Speaker 1: a laser disc and they would put on a laser 143 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: disc of one of these full motion video games where 144 00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:47,400 Speaker 1: it would just play out the game as if you 145 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 1: were making all the right choices, so that you could 146 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 1: actually see it from start to finish, and you really 147 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: did watch it like a movie. It wasn't even interactive 148 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 1: at that point. It was just a movie. And then 149 00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:58,400 Speaker 1: at the end it would show you all the wrong 150 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: choices and all the consequences thereof. But anyway, the the 151 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,880 Speaker 1: effect of fm V was really impressive because it allowed 152 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:11,680 Speaker 1: for much much more intense, realistic graphics, sometimes, like we said, 153 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: live action video, which was a huge difference from the 154 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,440 Speaker 1: state of the art in vector and sprite graphics. So 155 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:21,840 Speaker 1: you know, if you were to go into a video 156 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:25,520 Speaker 1: game arcade we used to have those back in the day. Kids, 157 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:28,520 Speaker 1: If you were to go into an arcade and you 158 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 1: saw something like pac Man, which would look impressive next 159 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:35,959 Speaker 1: to something like Asteroids, but then you saw dragons Layer, 160 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: you think this game must come from the future, because 161 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:42,400 Speaker 1: look at it compared to these other games. I need 162 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:44,600 Speaker 1: to put my quarters in that thing, even though it's 163 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:47,079 Speaker 1: twice as many quarters as any of the other machines 164 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:50,480 Speaker 1: in this room. So yeah, the but the idea here 165 00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:53,200 Speaker 1: is that that not only did we have this incredible 166 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:58,440 Speaker 1: graphical uh interface, this this this gorgeous display of whether 167 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,559 Speaker 1: it was video or an you know, live video or animation, 168 00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:05,120 Speaker 1: it also meant that, like we said, you had that 169 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:08,360 Speaker 1: you had to give up some interactivity. And so there 170 00:09:08,440 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: was this constant battle between what is what's the right 171 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: balance where should we have an interactive element versus a 172 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: you know, a really dramatic element. We'll be talking about 173 00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:20,920 Speaker 1: that throughout the rest of this sure, and and creating 174 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:23,880 Speaker 1: game design around that sort of problem is probably tricky 175 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 1: for the for the best of game designers. And I'm 176 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:29,080 Speaker 1: not going to say for the record that all of 177 00:09:29,120 --> 00:09:32,480 Speaker 1: the best game designers were always working on these problems. 178 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: It's a hard thing. And also game designers perhaps are 179 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:39,400 Speaker 1: not known for their video production quality. Yes, it's also 180 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: an important thing to remember that, you know, someone who 181 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,920 Speaker 1: can make a good game may not be someone who 182 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: can direct a compelling sequence, right, So that's hard, y'all, Yeah, 183 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:53,520 Speaker 1: especially if you're talking about using live actors who you know. 184 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,480 Speaker 1: The nice thing about animated characters, if you don't like 185 00:09:56,559 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: their performance, you can throw them away. That's what that's. 186 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:02,959 Speaker 1: That's pair phrasing what Hitchcock said about Disney. The Disney 187 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,240 Speaker 1: was fortunate that if he was displeased with the performance, 188 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: he could just crumple it up and throw it away, 189 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,840 Speaker 1: whereas Hitchcock was somewhat limited by the law on what 190 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:13,320 Speaker 1: he could do. It's I think he did a little 191 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:15,679 Speaker 1: bit of that here and there anyway, but certainly psychologically 192 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,720 Speaker 1: that's a totally different episode. So we're going to talk 193 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:22,240 Speaker 1: now that's a tech stuff episode and probably not. We 194 00:10:22,280 --> 00:10:26,720 Speaker 1: can talk about some actual examples, including the earliest one 195 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: I could find. I'm not saying this is the first 196 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:33,719 Speaker 1: f m V. Let's call it video amusement, because that's 197 00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:35,440 Speaker 1: what they referred to it as, or at least one 198 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: of the historical sites I visited refers to it as 199 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,559 Speaker 1: a video amusement. You wouldn't really call it a game necessarily, 200 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:44,480 Speaker 1: but it was came out towards the end of nineteen 201 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:46,320 Speaker 1: eight one or the beginning of nineteen eighty two, and 202 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:50,440 Speaker 1: it's called quarter horse quarter horse, quarter horse because he'd 203 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 1: give it quarters. That'd be part of it, but it's 204 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:55,920 Speaker 1: also because it would be a quarter horse race, so 205 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: it was a horse race game. So imagine that you 206 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:02,000 Speaker 1: walk up to an arcade. It's got two screens on it. 207 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: One screen has like the video betting stuff on it, 208 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:07,480 Speaker 1: and it gives you like the odds of all the 209 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:10,480 Speaker 1: different horses that are going to run next race, and 210 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,080 Speaker 1: so you can choose which horse you want to bet on. 211 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:15,160 Speaker 1: You can put how many credits you bet on that 212 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:18,200 Speaker 1: particular horse, and then once you're ready to go, you 213 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 1: place the bet, and then you hear that that all 214 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:25,160 Speaker 1: that and they show the video of an actual horse 215 00:11:25,240 --> 00:11:28,040 Speaker 1: race that happened in the past, and then one of 216 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:29,920 Speaker 1: the horses wins, and you find out whether or not 217 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: one of the horses you you bet on one, and 218 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: if you did win, you get more credits. I don't 219 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: know that it actually paid out, so I don't know 220 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:40,920 Speaker 1: if you ever could really like win money off this thing, 221 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:43,600 Speaker 1: or if it was simply credits that you can play with. 222 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:46,280 Speaker 1: So in other words, you just keep playing the game 223 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: until you're out of credits. I'm not sure if amusement 224 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:53,320 Speaker 1: is the correct word to attach to video in this case. 225 00:11:54,240 --> 00:11:57,079 Speaker 1: It's a video something yeah, something, I mean, maybe I'm 226 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: not maybe I share yeah exactly. So you might first say, well, 227 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:03,920 Speaker 1: wait a minute, if it's if it's video of an 228 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:08,200 Speaker 1: actual horse race, how do you not know which horse wins? 229 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:10,520 Speaker 1: And the way that works out is that they would 230 00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:14,400 Speaker 1: assign different names to the horses that were in the race, 231 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:17,400 Speaker 1: so and it would change each time. So so you 232 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:20,280 Speaker 1: wouldn't know that, you know, the horse with the jockey 233 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:23,560 Speaker 1: on it that's, you know, wearing the little red outfit, 234 00:12:23,640 --> 00:12:25,960 Speaker 1: you wouldn't know what his name was unless you're a 235 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:30,439 Speaker 1: very serious horse race afficionado. It wouldn't even matter. I mean, 236 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:32,160 Speaker 1: it would all be based on the odds, because what 237 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:33,719 Speaker 1: the way this scheme was supposed to work was it 238 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: would actually look at the odds for any given horse, 239 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:41,360 Speaker 1: simulate a race, and then say, all right, here's who won. 240 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:44,280 Speaker 1: And sometimes the long shot wins. You know, that's the 241 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: funny thing about statistics. Okay, alright, so so it's not 242 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: it's not whoever won literally in the video. It's okay, 243 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:54,480 Speaker 1: it's an algorithm and the yeah, exactly exactly, so that like, 244 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:57,720 Speaker 1: you know, the horse's identities were in fact, the video 245 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: was superfluous. The video doesn't matter. Really. What you're doing 246 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,720 Speaker 1: is you're betting on statistics. So you're sitting you're kind 247 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:05,840 Speaker 1: of betting on a on a random roll of the 248 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:08,360 Speaker 1: dice in a in a sense, and you say, I 249 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:10,160 Speaker 1: bet that the dice are going to come up like this, 250 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:12,920 Speaker 1: which you know sounds kind of crazy when you first 251 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:15,600 Speaker 1: described like that, except you realize that the game Craps 252 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:20,080 Speaker 1: is all about that concept. So at any rate, this 253 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:22,760 Speaker 1: was the first example I could find of a video 254 00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:26,760 Speaker 1: amusement using fm V. The next one is probably the 255 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,440 Speaker 1: most famous f m V. I've already referred to it 256 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:32,199 Speaker 1: once in this podcast. Yeah, it came out and it 257 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,679 Speaker 1: is Dragon's Layer. Yeah, Dragon's Layer from Cinematronics. Uh. Now, 258 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:40,160 Speaker 1: this was created with animation from Don Bluth, who was 259 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:43,360 Speaker 1: a former Disney animator. I want to say Oliver and 260 00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:45,760 Speaker 1: Company was one of his, but he also did the 261 00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: Five Old Movies, the Five West um and Secrets and 262 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: them I think as well. So he he was the 263 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,280 Speaker 1: guy who did all the animation for this. You play 264 00:13:55,360 --> 00:14:00,439 Speaker 1: as Dark the Daring a night in shining armor. Uh, 265 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:04,720 Speaker 1: and you're rescuing the Princess Daphne, who is in a 266 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:08,760 Speaker 1: teeny tiny little outfit. This this game probably didn't do 267 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:13,200 Speaker 1: a whole lot for you know, the portrayals, portrayal of 268 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:15,880 Speaker 1: women in video games. Yeah, I think several of the 269 00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:19,200 Speaker 1: things on our list didn't do a whole lot. Yeah, 270 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:23,240 Speaker 1: we're gonna cover some more that are a little to 271 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:30,280 Speaker 1: varying degrees of being upsetting and nineties yeah and today. 272 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,720 Speaker 1: So anyway, Yeah, this this gameplay was limited to a 273 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 1: joystick and button where you would have prompts on the 274 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 1: screen and you would have to hit the joystick in 275 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 1: the right direction or press the button at the right 276 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:45,640 Speaker 1: time in order for you to progress in the story. 277 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 1: So you can think of it in a sense as 278 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:50,840 Speaker 1: every little segment is a chapter break on like you 279 00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:53,440 Speaker 1: know a DVD, and this is a laser disc game. 280 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:56,240 Speaker 1: It was on laser disc. And if you hit the 281 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:58,840 Speaker 1: right button on your on your remote control on your 282 00:14:58,880 --> 00:15:00,960 Speaker 1: DVD player, you get to watch the next part of 283 00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 1: the movie, and if you hit the wrong button, it stops. 284 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:06,080 Speaker 1: That's essentially what this was, except that the you know, 285 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:08,280 Speaker 1: you had four buttons as in the four directions of 286 00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: your joystick, and then the actual button buttons, So five buttons. 287 00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:16,320 Speaker 1: Total exciting stuff, right, And um, I've actually seen some 288 00:15:16,440 --> 00:15:18,960 Speaker 1: versions of this where they had the prompts turned off, 289 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:23,120 Speaker 1: so you had to have memorized it. Totally not fair. 290 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:25,720 Speaker 1: I don't know how you can just watch something with 291 00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:27,680 Speaker 1: no prompts and say, oh, I bet I'm supposed to 292 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,880 Speaker 1: hit left right now. Um. But anyway, that was the 293 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:35,320 Speaker 1: basics for dragons Layer. Uh. And again, you could only 294 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:39,360 Speaker 1: do the actions when the prompts came up. You couldn't 295 00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 1: swing your sword at any given time. You couldn't make 296 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:44,400 Speaker 1: Dirk run to the left or run to the right 297 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,120 Speaker 1: because all of that had already been animated. So you can't. 298 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: You can't control something that's already been set down. However, 299 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:53,800 Speaker 1: it did allow those graphics, as you said before, to 300 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:56,480 Speaker 1: be very impressive for the time. Yeah, and the story 301 00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:00,280 Speaker 1: itself was, you know, this kind of cute ce fantasy story. 302 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:02,920 Speaker 1: So it had a lot of appeal. And it certainly 303 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: was one of those things that if you saw someone 304 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:06,840 Speaker 1: who was really good at this, like they had memorized 305 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:09,000 Speaker 1: the sequence and they were they were able to get 306 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,920 Speaker 1: really far, was entertaining to watch. I. You know, I 307 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:15,040 Speaker 1: could never get past a single screen in this game, 308 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,440 Speaker 1: so I never really got into it. But then I 309 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 1: was also fairly young back in nineteen eight three. It 310 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:23,840 Speaker 1: did happen once upon time, folks, now you being young. Yes, 311 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:28,920 Speaker 1: Also in bally NFL football came out yep, same thing 312 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:32,000 Speaker 1: as uh in a in a sense as the horse 313 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:35,080 Speaker 1: racing game, and that they took footage from an actual 314 00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:39,800 Speaker 1: football game Raiders versus Chargers, and that was what you 315 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: got to watch as plays were carried out, and you 316 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 1: played the part of a coach. So in other words, 317 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:50,160 Speaker 1: you're not controlling any football players, but based upon where 318 00:16:50,200 --> 00:16:52,760 Speaker 1: your team is, like whether they're on offense or defense, 319 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: you would pick the plays that they would do next exactly, 320 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 1: so you would say, all right, well, based upon this 321 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:00,680 Speaker 1: position and based upon the players I have, I want 322 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,520 Speaker 1: this play to come next, and then you choose the play, 323 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:05,960 Speaker 1: and then you'd get a little video of one of 324 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,040 Speaker 1: the plays being carried out, and then you have another 325 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:12,760 Speaker 1: choice to make afterwards, but either either you continue or 326 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:15,760 Speaker 1: you know, there might be a turnover whatever. But there 327 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:18,760 Speaker 1: was something like eight hundred different video combinations for the 328 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:22,360 Speaker 1: whole game, because they used all these different film segments 329 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:26,840 Speaker 1: that could be interchanged based upon whichever play you had selected, 330 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:30,000 Speaker 1: and then it would show you the right uh, the 331 00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:34,040 Speaker 1: right video play. And it was also supposed to really 332 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,560 Speaker 1: take into account statistics as well, so in other words, 333 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:41,760 Speaker 1: you couldn't just memorize a working strategy and play it 334 00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:44,359 Speaker 1: and and impress all your friends, say watch this, and 335 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: then you just do the exact because if you did 336 00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: the exact same pathway, you might have yeah. Um. Also, 337 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:55,600 Speaker 1: these early ones were not on optical disc technology, were they? 338 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,879 Speaker 1: This one in particular was not. The Dragonslayer was on 339 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,080 Speaker 1: the laser disc, but but bally NFL was on a 340 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:07,440 Speaker 1: video disc also known as a capacitance electronic disc or ceed. 341 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:11,399 Speaker 1: Now these used a needle to read that they actually 342 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:16,040 Speaker 1: were grooved, like the vinyl record. Ask your parents, actually 343 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:18,520 Speaker 1: those are back, now, are they are? They are all 344 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:20,920 Speaker 1: the hipster kids like them. Yeah, all right, that's fair. 345 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,160 Speaker 1: I never stopped liking them. That makes me even more 346 00:18:24,280 --> 00:18:29,800 Speaker 1: hipster or cool. Yeah, but I like them when they 347 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:31,520 Speaker 1: were cool, and then when they weren't cool, and when 348 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,600 Speaker 1: they were cool again. But a capacitance electronic disc. I 349 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:36,680 Speaker 1: also had one of those, or my family did when 350 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:38,520 Speaker 1: I was a kid. Uh. We had one that was 351 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: a video player. Wasn't a video game, just a video player, 352 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: and I remember we had Singing in the Rain and 353 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:46,280 Speaker 1: Raiders Raiders of the Lost arc as two of the 354 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:50,159 Speaker 1: movies that would play on this thing. Um. Again, very 355 00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:52,719 Speaker 1: similar to laser disc in the sense that whatever's on 356 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:56,919 Speaker 1: the disc obviously can't change. It's read only, so it 357 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 1: was it was a different way of achieving the same goal. 358 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:07,560 Speaker 1: Then we get Space Ace. That was another Don Bluth game, 359 00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:10,600 Speaker 1: another cinematronic Don Bluth game. You played as Ace, who, 360 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:13,280 Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game, before anything bad happens, 361 00:19:13,359 --> 00:19:16,639 Speaker 1: is a big, old, brawny you know, Flash Gordon style 362 00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:21,120 Speaker 1: space faring adventurer type uh. And then there's a bad 363 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:26,240 Speaker 1: guy named Commander Bof Bof who shoots him with a 364 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,760 Speaker 1: an infanto ray and turns him into a a adolescent 365 00:19:30,800 --> 00:19:34,919 Speaker 1: as squeaky voiced, scrawny adolescent, and then he has to 366 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:38,800 Speaker 1: rescue his girlfriend. Yes, and occasionally he could transform back, 367 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:42,360 Speaker 1: at least briefly, into Ace. This one actually had some 368 00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 1: interesting inner activity in the sense that you could choose 369 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,919 Speaker 1: to become Ace and then move through a level, or 370 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 1: you could choose to remain the scrawny guy and move 371 00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:55,359 Speaker 1: through a level. But depending upon whether you were a 372 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 1: sort of the scrawny guy, you had very different strategies. Uh, 373 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,159 Speaker 1: strategies in the sense of, you know what prompts you 374 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,600 Speaker 1: hit when. But Ace obviously would charge headlong into danger, 375 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:08,880 Speaker 1: whereas the scrawny version of him going around Yeah, exactly, 376 00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:12,879 Speaker 1: But again you were limited to whatever had been prerecorded, 377 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,399 Speaker 1: just like the other versions. It was faster paced than 378 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: Dragon's Lair, so a lot of people said it was 379 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:21,400 Speaker 1: even more challenging since I never got anywhere with Dragon's Lair. 380 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:24,760 Speaker 1: I didn't even bother with Spaces, but I admired the animation, 381 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:28,640 Speaker 1: and then uh, the next one, I have is one 382 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: I never saw. I didn't even know it existed until 383 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,879 Speaker 1: I looked into it on online and I tried watching 384 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:37,760 Speaker 1: a video of it, and it was baffling. It's called 385 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 1: bad Lands. This one was from Konami yep, and it's 386 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,679 Speaker 1: Western themed, as you would imagine with that title. You 387 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:47,879 Speaker 1: played as Buck, who was a cowboy whose family had 388 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: been murdered by bad guys, so you're on a revenge mission. 389 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 1: And it was done in a style that looked very 390 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:59,040 Speaker 1: much like um uh eneme you know. Uh. Back when 391 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: I was when I would have played this, uh, it 392 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:05,119 Speaker 1: would have been an interesting experience at a science fiction 393 00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:07,199 Speaker 1: convention because I could see this fitting right next to 394 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 1: the anime room. It is so evocative of that style. 395 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:16,280 Speaker 1: But it had a single control, which was a giant button, 396 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,199 Speaker 1: just just one button, and you had to hit that 397 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:22,639 Speaker 1: button exactly when you needed to. And this one didn't 398 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,400 Speaker 1: have prompts and no, you just had to know when 399 00:21:25,440 --> 00:21:27,040 Speaker 1: to hit it and if you hit it too early, 400 00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:28,840 Speaker 1: you died, and if you hit it too late, you died. 401 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:33,240 Speaker 1: If you didn't hit it at all, you died. Yeah, 402 00:21:33,359 --> 00:21:35,920 Speaker 1: So it was a weird you know, like like if 403 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 1: you faced off against a gunfighter and the gunfighter hadn't 404 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:42,199 Speaker 1: started to draw yet and you fired your gun, you 405 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:44,479 Speaker 1: the game would you would lose a life because you 406 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:48,840 Speaker 1: had broken the law. You could only fire after they 407 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:50,919 Speaker 1: had started to draw, but before they pull the trigger. 408 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:54,600 Speaker 1: So it was that really you know, delicate timing that 409 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:56,119 Speaker 1: you had to have. And again it was just the 410 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: one button, so no joystick or anything on this thing. 411 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:02,120 Speaker 1: I've watch the play throughs of it, and I couldn't 412 00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:04,640 Speaker 1: tell what was going on because it looked like there 413 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:08,000 Speaker 1: was no transition between one scene in the next. There 414 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:10,760 Speaker 1: was a moment literally the guy was in the street 415 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:15,000 Speaker 1: in an old western town. He uh shoots just in 416 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 1: time to avoid getting hit by a guy who's up 417 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,040 Speaker 1: on a on a like on a second story floor, 418 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,800 Speaker 1: shooting through a window. And then the next sequence he's 419 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: riding through the desert on a horse and avoiding rattlesnakes, 420 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,400 Speaker 1: and there was no transition between the two, like there's 421 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,400 Speaker 1: no just shoot a guy riding on a horse. Yeah, exactly, 422 00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,240 Speaker 1: Like now the town is no longer there, He's just 423 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: in the middle of the desert. And I can't tell 424 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:41,040 Speaker 1: if that was just the way the video had been edited, 425 00:22:41,119 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: or if that in fact was into surrealism exactly, like like, well, 426 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,920 Speaker 1: you know what, life is weird and sometimes you can't 427 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,639 Speaker 1: explain their causality is not necessarily at at play in 428 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:57,040 Speaker 1: this universe. Sometimes towns turn into snakes, That's true. Sometimes 429 00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,639 Speaker 1: they do. Warning for all of you, just words of 430 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:02,480 Speaker 1: wisdom to live by. Other games that came out in 431 00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:07,600 Speaker 1: four You've got Ninja Hayatai, which I could be completely 432 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:11,920 Speaker 1: wrong in the pronunciation of that uh. Eshes are ron Melia, 433 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: Cobra Command, That One's Way, and Thayer's Quest uh, and 434 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,679 Speaker 1: all of them were essentially interactive animated movies. Cobra Command 435 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,359 Speaker 1: was interesting. It was a helicopter game and it actually 436 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,359 Speaker 1: had vector graphics on top of the video that you 437 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,400 Speaker 1: were watching, where you have a little vector graphics cross 438 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:33,920 Speaker 1: hairs that you can actually move around the screen, which 439 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:36,879 Speaker 1: was way more interactive than some of these other games. 440 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:39,679 Speaker 1: I mean, you were still like, you know, the enemies 441 00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:44,000 Speaker 1: could only come at you from preordained uh spots. But 442 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:47,440 Speaker 1: I mean I suppose technically it's not that different from 443 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,680 Speaker 1: it's from algorithm that's building it as you go. Yeah, 444 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:52,840 Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of a lot of 445 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:56,560 Speaker 1: video games like especially classic video games, rely on patterns, 446 00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,720 Speaker 1: and if you recognize the patterns, then you can be 447 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:01,280 Speaker 1: really good at those games. Yeah, and Super Mario Brothers. 448 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:04,359 Speaker 1: There's Gumbas only come when does are going to come exactly? 449 00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:07,119 Speaker 1: They never come differently, Donkey Kong, same thing, you know, 450 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:09,359 Speaker 1: all those sort of things where you you once you 451 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: recognize the pattern, you can start to uh Exploits probably 452 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:15,199 Speaker 1: the wrong word that you can. You can anticipate and 453 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:17,359 Speaker 1: react and and make sure that you are in the 454 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,920 Speaker 1: right position all the time. Um. But it was interesting 455 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,919 Speaker 1: that it had a little more interactivity. Then there was 456 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:28,680 Speaker 1: Casino Strip, which was a card game with the live 457 00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:31,640 Speaker 1: action video segments of various quote unquote strippers who had 458 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:36,800 Speaker 1: shed clothing as you played. I don't know how far 459 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,320 Speaker 1: this game would go. And this is arcade game, folks, 460 00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 1: this is not I'm not talking about a computer game. 461 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:46,719 Speaker 1: This was a cabinet that had two monitors. One monitor 462 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,800 Speaker 1: is your card hand and the other monitor which is 463 00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:53,560 Speaker 1: above the first one. So it's yeah, yeah, so you 464 00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: have the live action models up there. Um. I would 465 00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:01,640 Speaker 1: imagine since this would probably be in some stinny public 466 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: venue that maybe it didn't get any more racy than 467 00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,919 Speaker 1: say underclothes, sure, sure, or you know, possibly even that 468 00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:11,080 Speaker 1: it was sold mostly to say casinos or some other 469 00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:14,720 Speaker 1: adult entertainment venues. Yeah, I don't know if you if 470 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:18,200 Speaker 1: you in fact have played casino strip or own one, 471 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:21,600 Speaker 1: you can let us know how far did this thing go. 472 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:25,399 Speaker 1: I honestly did not want to research further because I 473 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:29,239 Speaker 1: was at work, and there's there are limitations that I 474 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:32,560 Speaker 1: have upon me that I placed upon myself. I should say. Yeah. Now, 475 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:34,920 Speaker 1: although if you look at any of our search histories, 476 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:38,119 Speaker 1: I'm sure that, um yeah, I don't think any of 477 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,160 Speaker 1: us come out squeaky clean just based upon the stuff 478 00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:43,360 Speaker 1: we talk about. I mean, certainly Robert and Julie are 479 00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:45,480 Speaker 1: probably in a lot of trouble somewhere. You know, they 480 00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:50,639 Speaker 1: lead the way. So four that was kind of like 481 00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 1: the first rush of FMV games, But after that it 482 00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:56,680 Speaker 1: started to die down a little bit, partly because these 483 00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:58,920 Speaker 1: things are really hard to make. I mean, it's it's 484 00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:01,560 Speaker 1: a lot of pre pre action to get all the 485 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:03,720 Speaker 1: different sequences and then to lay it out so that 486 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,200 Speaker 1: it actually becomes a game. It's you know, you would 487 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:08,359 Speaker 1: think that being able to build a video game with 488 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,920 Speaker 1: all those assets and not having to program in the 489 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,520 Speaker 1: to code in the animation for everything that needed to 490 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:18,439 Speaker 1: happen would be a shortcut, but it's not. It's a 491 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,720 Speaker 1: lot of production. Anyone who's ever done any production animation 492 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,199 Speaker 1: obviously takes a really long time because it's a very 493 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 1: arduous process. But Lauren and I can tell you from 494 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:31,400 Speaker 1: shooting video that a video you see online that may 495 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: take to three minutes can sometimes be forty five minutes 496 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,920 Speaker 1: to an hour to to make, sometimes longer depending upon 497 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:40,439 Speaker 1: how how complex it is. Oh sure, the day that 498 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:44,240 Speaker 1: we dropped blood on me in the studio, fake blood. Nonetheless, 499 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,280 Speaker 1: that videos she took four hours for four and a 500 00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:50,680 Speaker 1: half minute video. How long were you covered in sticky 501 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:54,080 Speaker 1: fake blood? Basically the entire four hours? So yeah, if 502 00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:55,560 Speaker 1: you guys don't know what we're talking about, you need 503 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,640 Speaker 1: to look at brain Stuff. Yeah, brain Stuff show dot com. 504 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,719 Speaker 1: It's a whole video series where lots of your favorite 505 00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,160 Speaker 1: health stuff works folks go on on video and explain 506 00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,320 Speaker 1: different concepts. Yeah, this was blood for science. Yeah, so 507 00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,959 Speaker 1: it was you know, we weren't just dumping blood on her, 508 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:14,800 Speaker 1: that was that was the excuse. I mean, we were talking. 509 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,159 Speaker 1: But anyway, anyway, we don't want to spoil everything, go 510 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:21,159 Speaker 1: check it out. Yes, um so, so yeah, we didn't 511 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,280 Speaker 1: see a lot more until the nineteen nineties, although for 512 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:28,679 Speaker 1: for perspective, here was the year that that guidelines were 513 00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:32,560 Speaker 1: laid out for the creation of data CDs. Previously, compact 514 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:37,720 Speaker 1: disc format was a solely audio data format and so 515 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:39,920 Speaker 1: um so, that's when Phillips and the other kids who 516 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,240 Speaker 1: were working on developing that kind of thing started getting 517 00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:46,200 Speaker 1: into full data, getting video in there and uh so, 518 00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 1: and began the very slow process of that being adopted 519 00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:53,560 Speaker 1: as a commercial format for the home consumer. If you 520 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,440 Speaker 1: wanted to do something like this, uh and you were 521 00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:00,080 Speaker 1: using an old PC, you'd be limited to uh the 522 00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:02,919 Speaker 1: discs and flappy disk could only hold a very tiny 523 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,120 Speaker 1: amount of video data. Video data is data hungry, which 524 00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:08,639 Speaker 1: is why those optical laser discs were ideal for it. 525 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,560 Speaker 1: They could store a lot more information than say a 526 00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 1: hard coded processor, because that's what most arcade games are. 527 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:17,520 Speaker 1: They have a hard coded ROM chip, which is read 528 00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:20,360 Speaker 1: only memory. Most of them have one of those hard 529 00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 1: coded ROM chips as part of a uh, an entire 530 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:26,879 Speaker 1: slide that goes right into the arcade machine. And some 531 00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,119 Speaker 1: of them you can swap out for other games. Other times, 532 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:31,280 Speaker 1: you know, you've got a cabinet that's just dedicated to 533 00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:33,119 Speaker 1: a game and that's all you've got. You know, you 534 00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:34,960 Speaker 1: would have to essentially rebuild it if you want to 535 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,360 Speaker 1: put anything else in there. So yeah, very much under 536 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:41,680 Speaker 1: heavy limitations. And it wasn't until we started getting to 537 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: this point where you could theoretically create a compact disc 538 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:46,440 Speaker 1: that would have video on it, and even then it 539 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,080 Speaker 1: would take a few years. Meanwhile, we get up to 540 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,240 Speaker 1: and that's when full motion video games started to make 541 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:55,960 Speaker 1: kind of a comeback, mostly due to a company called 542 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 1: American Laser Games, which were they really game called Mad 543 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,920 Speaker 1: Dog McCree, and this one was a live action video 544 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 1: Yep Cowboys, yep, good old uh shooting bad guys. You 545 00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:14,080 Speaker 1: had a gradually o prospector who was mostly the narrator, which, 546 00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:16,880 Speaker 1: by the way, if you were not fast enough, he 547 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:20,240 Speaker 1: would get shot and you would lose the benefit of 548 00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,680 Speaker 1: having the grizzly old narrator help you along the way. 549 00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:24,960 Speaker 1: It was one of those games where if you did well, 550 00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:27,480 Speaker 1: you got hints on how to progress, and if you 551 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:30,120 Speaker 1: didn't have those hints, it would make the game much 552 00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:34,320 Speaker 1: more difficult to go through. But the concept was that 553 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,600 Speaker 1: you are playing a cowboy known only as a stranger, 554 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,280 Speaker 1: and you have to rescue the mayor's daughter, which standard 555 00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:47,800 Speaker 1: issue right once again, the damsel in distress. You're the big, 556 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,320 Speaker 1: brawny hero going to rescue her. You had a gun controllers. Yes, 557 00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,120 Speaker 1: it was a light gun, so in fact that this 558 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:55,800 Speaker 1: one was a little different from the ones that was 559 00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:59,160 Speaker 1: just a button or a button and a and a joystick, 560 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,240 Speaker 1: and this one you had a light gun, so it 561 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:04,800 Speaker 1: would detect when you were pointing the gun at the 562 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:06,959 Speaker 1: screen when you pull the trigger, and whether or not 563 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,560 Speaker 1: it was pointing at the right position on the screen 564 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:13,000 Speaker 1: for it to count as a hit. So the interactivity 565 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:15,240 Speaker 1: was a little bit better in the sense that you're 566 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: actually doing stuff right if you if you don't shoot 567 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:21,800 Speaker 1: the right spun the screen, you don't progress um as 568 00:30:21,840 --> 00:30:24,480 Speaker 1: opposed to you know, just hit a direction and watch then. 569 00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:28,960 Speaker 1: So not that much different from other light gun games 570 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,600 Speaker 1: that would follow things like House of the Dead or 571 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: Time Cops or any of those other light games that 572 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,760 Speaker 1: would follow in the arcade um. And again this is 573 00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,320 Speaker 1: one of those games where it differentiated itself from the 574 00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:43,040 Speaker 1: home video game market, one by using live action and 575 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:45,640 Speaker 1: two by the light gun. Uh. These are the things 576 00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,960 Speaker 1: that arcades were investing in because it was getting harder 577 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:51,240 Speaker 1: and harder to compete against home video games systems like 578 00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:55,800 Speaker 1: the Nintendo system and the rising, the rising marketing computer games. 579 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 1: So how do you set yourself apart? Well, let's get 580 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:02,760 Speaker 1: some hokey actors to play some live action cowboys. The 581 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:04,880 Speaker 1: best actor in this, by the way, in my opinion, 582 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,400 Speaker 1: was the guy who played the Undertaker. That that's the 583 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 1: character you would see every time you either got shot 584 00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: or you shot a citizen. Um, you would either of 585 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,280 Speaker 1: those things counted as the loss of a life, and 586 00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:18,760 Speaker 1: you would then have a little visit with the Undertaker, 587 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 1: who would say some sort of vaguely creepy and condescending 588 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,120 Speaker 1: thing about your performance, and then you would continue on 589 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: then the game until you ran out lives. Um, vaguely 590 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:32,160 Speaker 1: creepy and condescending commentary from digital characters is one of 591 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:34,200 Speaker 1: my favorite things about video games. You have to say, 592 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: so that's pretty quality. But yeah, American laser games made 593 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 1: a whole bunch of other stuff in the In the 594 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:45,520 Speaker 1: relatively recent feature from exactly, um they did they did? 595 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:48,840 Speaker 1: Who shot Johnny Rock Gangster. That was a gangster game, 596 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,800 Speaker 1: made an old style like gangster style game. Oh, none 597 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,240 Speaker 1: of these new styles. Not not gangsta. It wasn't gangster. 598 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:01,840 Speaker 1: It was gangster. Space Pirates, oddly enough, it was about 599 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:05,920 Speaker 1: Home Shopping Network. It was actually sci fi pirates. And 600 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,360 Speaker 1: it was about space Pirates. Okay, And and this and 601 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 1: this one cracks me up. Gallagher's gallery. Yeah, Now, are 602 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:17,719 Speaker 1: you familiar with the comedic genius known as Gallagher? Not 603 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: the comedic genius known as Gallagher, But I'm aware of 604 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: a comedian as Gallagher. I have had the pleasure of 605 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:27,480 Speaker 1: meeting Gallagher yea at c e S because he's now 606 00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: a gadgets commentator. Guy, did he smash anything in your presence? 607 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,440 Speaker 1: He did not have the sledge oomatic with him, which 608 00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:37,479 Speaker 1: is probably for the best for everyone who was at 609 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:40,080 Speaker 1: ce S. He may have had it in his room, 610 00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:41,920 Speaker 1: he just didn't bring it out on the show floor. 611 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:44,600 Speaker 1: It seems like a bad place for it. Yeah. But Gallagher, 612 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,520 Speaker 1: if you do not know, he's a guy, he's known 613 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:51,000 Speaker 1: for two things. Kind of silly sort of stream of consciousness, 614 00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:55,200 Speaker 1: absurd humor, like like just weird jokes about things like 615 00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:58,520 Speaker 1: language that kind of stuff. And then also the sledge oomatic, 616 00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:02,480 Speaker 1: where he would, uh, he would pitch a gigantic sledgehammer 617 00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: as if it were a new consumer product that was 618 00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: only good for destroying whatever it was put in front 619 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,200 Speaker 1: of it, and usually it but end with a watermelon. 620 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:14,160 Speaker 1: That was the big one. And so Gallagher's gallery took 621 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:22,480 Speaker 1: advantage of the stratospheric comedic genius of Gallagher. And you 622 00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:25,880 Speaker 1: were playing as a someone who was holding a toy 623 00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:29,320 Speaker 1: gun it wasn't supposed to be an actual gun um 624 00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 1: and firing at various things that Gallagher wanted you to shoot. 625 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:35,480 Speaker 1: He would actually prompt you, and you know, you'd see 626 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:37,800 Speaker 1: a scene with a lot of stuff in it, and 627 00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:39,920 Speaker 1: you were only supposed to shoot whatever it was Gallagher 628 00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:43,160 Speaker 1: wanted you to shoot and leave everything else alone. Uh, 629 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:45,920 Speaker 1: makes perfect sense. I really hope they do make a 630 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:49,360 Speaker 1: sequel for the what I consider to be the spiritual 631 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:54,600 Speaker 1: successor to Gallagher, Carrot top Um. That would be probably 632 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:57,960 Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't even mention that. It's probably. If you 633 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,600 Speaker 1: say his name three times, I think you're right. I 634 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 1: think you're right. I never I never look into the 635 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,080 Speaker 1: mirror and say it um. So yeah again, all of 636 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,600 Speaker 1: those games used a light gun as the controller. You 637 00:34:08,640 --> 00:34:11,560 Speaker 1: would have to reload your gun by aiming off screen 638 00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:13,799 Speaker 1: and pulling the trigger. I hear, by the way, if 639 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,200 Speaker 1: you ever do encounter one of these old of games 640 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,520 Speaker 1: from this company, that if you hold the light controller 641 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,520 Speaker 1: gun upside down, I'm talking about the actual arcade games, 642 00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,600 Speaker 1: it will automatically reload whenever you pull the trigger, so 643 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:29,080 Speaker 1: you don't have to aim off screen. But let us 644 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:31,839 Speaker 1: know about this that that sounds important. Yeah, I want 645 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:33,799 Speaker 1: to go try this and write us in. So if 646 00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,520 Speaker 1: you can just just remember to hold the gun upside 647 00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:39,000 Speaker 1: down the entire time while firing. I have not tried this. 648 00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:40,919 Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I used to play this game, 649 00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:43,440 Speaker 1: the Mad Dog McCrea game, all the time in the arcades, 650 00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,320 Speaker 1: and I was pretty good at it. I mean I 651 00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: could get about halfway through. Uh, pretty good for me. 652 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,279 Speaker 1: I could get about halfway through the game before I 653 00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:54,800 Speaker 1: would have to continue. And once I got about the 654 00:34:54,800 --> 00:34:58,400 Speaker 1: halfway point, uh, it got the difficulty wrapped up so 655 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:01,399 Speaker 1: quickly that I just don't know how. Yeah. I've seen 656 00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,160 Speaker 1: people play through it though, and it's probably not that hard. 657 00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 1: It was just harder than I could handle. Uh. These 658 00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:09,759 Speaker 1: A bunch of these were also released for the three 659 00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:13,000 Speaker 1: d O home game system when it did come out 660 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:19,520 Speaker 1: at the incredibly low price of six hundred and nine dollars. Yeah, 661 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,680 Speaker 1: it was really expensive. I think we might have mentioned 662 00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: it in one of our console episodes. The three d 663 00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:29,719 Speaker 1: O was an incredibly ambitious game console. You can think 664 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 1: of it as a predecessor for things like the Xbox 665 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,240 Speaker 1: three sixty in the PlayStation three and now the current 666 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:39,160 Speaker 1: generation of consoles as well, and that it was supposed 667 00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:42,200 Speaker 1: to be an entertainment center as well as a video 668 00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:45,880 Speaker 1: game console. But it was also so expensive and the 669 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 1: games were not considered terribly um compelling or or what's 670 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:56,839 Speaker 1: another word good, So it didn't do so well. But yes, 671 00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:00,840 Speaker 1: three d O was the other market beside it's arcade machines. 672 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:06,560 Speaker 1: At this time, we see another game called Time Traveler, 673 00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:08,560 Speaker 1: and I played this one too. I played a lot 674 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:12,360 Speaker 1: of crappy video games when I was a kid. Um, 675 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,879 Speaker 1: time Traveler was a little bit uh you know how 676 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:17,759 Speaker 1: I was talking about how the light gun games set 677 00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:20,479 Speaker 1: it apart from the home market. Time Traveler they also 678 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:24,160 Speaker 1: tried to set apart their their arcade machine from what 679 00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:26,839 Speaker 1: you could get from a home Mark home computer game 680 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:31,680 Speaker 1: set up by having a quote unquote holographic display. Now 681 00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 1: it wasn't a real holographic display. They had a curved 682 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:38,359 Speaker 1: mirror and they used projection so that it looked from 683 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:42,640 Speaker 1: your perspective like the Yeah, they looked like three dimensional 684 00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:47,440 Speaker 1: holographic figures, kind of like the chess pieces in Star Wars. 685 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:49,719 Speaker 1: So it looked like that was what was going on, 686 00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:52,440 Speaker 1: but it was really all trickery. And because you know, 687 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,359 Speaker 1: you had to stand in a certain place because that's 688 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:58,360 Speaker 1: where the controls were, they knew where the player was 689 00:36:58,360 --> 00:37:00,719 Speaker 1: gonna be, so it made it easier to design this 690 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:03,640 Speaker 1: game around that. It was released by Sega. It was 691 00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:05,959 Speaker 1: designed by Rick Dyer, who was the guy who also 692 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:10,480 Speaker 1: designed Dragon's lair Um And uh yeah, it was you know, 693 00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:13,920 Speaker 1: basic shooting him up game. You played another Cowboy because 694 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:17,920 Speaker 1: that was really popular apparently. Yeah, I don't remember cowboys 695 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,600 Speaker 1: paying that huge in the early nineties, but I think 696 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:22,799 Speaker 1: for one thing, it just made a compelling kind of 697 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:29,040 Speaker 1: protagonist to follow. His character was the Marshall Graham. I 698 00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:31,239 Speaker 1: don't think he was a Marshall, No, just his name 699 00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:34,000 Speaker 1: was Marshall. His name was Marshall and he was fighting 700 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:38,719 Speaker 1: the evil scientist volcre Vocal, which is you know, typical 701 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 1: of a Western val Sorry it's Almos. It's almost as 702 00:37:42,920 --> 00:37:46,440 Speaker 1: good as Commander Um. But yeah. You had to fight 703 00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:49,480 Speaker 1: him through time, and time would be seven different levels 704 00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:52,360 Speaker 1: that were uh, dating all the way back to prehistoric 705 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:54,920 Speaker 1: times to the future. You had some choice about which 706 00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:58,640 Speaker 1: era you would visit next um and you could get 707 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:03,280 Speaker 1: some interest sting other elements to it, like time reversal cubes, 708 00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:06,240 Speaker 1: which would be something that we would see used in 709 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:08,480 Speaker 1: in other formats and other games. The idea being that 710 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,640 Speaker 1: you could actually reverse a small segment of time and 711 00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:14,400 Speaker 1: try a failed action again, rather than having to waste 712 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,400 Speaker 1: an entire life and start the level over like in 713 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:21,080 Speaker 1: like in BioShock there's chambers there, yeah, or like in 714 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:23,640 Speaker 1: a Prince of Persia sense of Time, where you could 715 00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:27,440 Speaker 1: you could reverse the last few seconds. The the goal 716 00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:29,560 Speaker 1: here was that, you know, you would have a whole 717 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:33,759 Speaker 1: sequence of events that would unfold in video, and you 718 00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:36,080 Speaker 1: couldn't really just PLoP the player down in the middle 719 00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:39,320 Speaker 1: of it. You essentially you would have divided up times 720 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:42,160 Speaker 1: just again like DVD chapters, and you couldn't just go 721 00:38:42,239 --> 00:38:44,279 Speaker 1: into the middle of a DVD chapter, you had to 722 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,760 Speaker 1: go to the beginning. So this way it could rewind 723 00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:50,359 Speaker 1: it to a specific point within that little segment, as 724 00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:53,279 Speaker 1: opposed to having you play the whole segment over. Yeah. No, 725 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:57,640 Speaker 1: especially since saved games were not a huge part of 726 00:38:57,640 --> 00:38:59,680 Speaker 1: the industry at this point in time, and this one 727 00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:01,960 Speaker 1: was an arcade games, so you were just stuck with, 728 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,680 Speaker 1: you know, feeding more and more coins into this machine, 729 00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 1: which I did because I was dumb, you know, Lauren, 730 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:14,759 Speaker 1: when we started this podcast, I had no idea that 731 00:39:14,800 --> 00:39:17,879 Speaker 1: we'd still be talking an hour and nine minutes later. 732 00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:23,240 Speaker 1: Me neither, because I don't see the future. Yeah, very well, anyway, 733 00:39:23,280 --> 00:39:26,520 Speaker 1: my future glasses are broken. So we decided after we 734 00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,520 Speaker 1: recorded an epic episode of Epic Nous that it makes 735 00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: sense for us to end here where we're talking about 736 00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:34,919 Speaker 1: kind of the end of the arcade era for full 737 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:39,240 Speaker 1: motion video, and then we can transition into the era 738 00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:42,960 Speaker 1: of the home video game networked for our next episode 739 00:39:42,960 --> 00:39:45,920 Speaker 1: and talk about all new levels of terrible F and B. 740 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,480 Speaker 1: So listeners, stick with us. We're going to in our 741 00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:52,279 Speaker 1: next episode talk about home video games, and you know, 742 00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:54,799 Speaker 1: you sewer shark fans out there. Don't worry, We're going 743 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:57,759 Speaker 1: to get you covered. And if you guys have suggestions 744 00:39:57,800 --> 00:39:59,799 Speaker 1: for any other topics you would like to hear us 745 00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:02,040 Speaker 1: talk about in the future, send us an email our 746 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,840 Speaker 1: addresses tex stuff at how stuff works dot com, or 747 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,360 Speaker 1: drop us a line on Twitter, Facebook or Tumbler or 748 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:10,799 Speaker 1: handle it. All three is tech stuff hs W. We'll 749 00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:16,080 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon for more on this 750 00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:18,760 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works 751 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:28,880 Speaker 1: dot com.