WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Worst Video Games of All Time (Update) 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:15.480 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.200 John Than Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.959 Radio and I love all things tech. It is time 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.320 for a classic episode. This episode originally published on May four. 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.440 It is titled the Worst Video Games of All Time 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:36.519 parentheses update close parentheses. Um. Obviously, since we've had a 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.720 few more contenders, I know some people would probably put 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:44.320 Cyberpunk seven way up there. Uh, depending on your point 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.760 of view. They're they're defenders of that game who say 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:50.879 that there's a very good game there that was marred 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.280 by a rushed release. Um. And there are others who 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.560 disagree with that assessment entirely. So I'm sure I will 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:00.600 have to do yet another update. So maybe at one 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:02.960 point I'll do the Worst video Games of All Time 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.480 updated update. But for now, let's listen to this classic 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:13.160 episode from Enjoy. So there's been this longstanding rumor, elevated 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:16.280 to almost myth status in the video game industry, that 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.800 that Atari, while it was struggling, dumped thousands of video 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.760 games in this New Mexico landfill. Um. The New York 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:25.759 Times even ran a short piece on it in September, 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:28.840 and it's it's a short piece, so I'm just gonna 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.520 read it out because it's a really explains the story 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.280 and is super indicative of what the industry was doing 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.280 at the time. So here we go. With the video 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.280 game business gone sour, some manufacturers have been dumping their 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.640 excess game cartridges on the market at depressed prices. Now, 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.200 Atari Inc. The leading video game manufacturer, has taken dumping 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.600 one step further. The company has dumped fourteen truckloads of 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.520 discarded game cartridges and other computer equipment at the City 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.560 Landfill in Alama Gordon, New Mexico. Guards kept reporters and 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.880 spectators away from the area yesterday as workers poured concrete 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:04.200 over the dumped merchandise, and Atari spokesman said the equipment 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.760 came from Atari's plant and I'll Passo Texas, which was 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.359 used to make video game cartridges but has now been 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:13.640 converted to recycling scrap. Atari lust three and ten point 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.800 five million dollars in the second quarter, largely because of 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.320 a sharp drop in video game sales. That's yeah, point 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.040 five million dollars in a word, that's not that's not 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.320 a yearly loss. So yeah, as you can see, this 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.400 was a huge deal for Atari, and um, you know, 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.240 there are a lot of different things that went into this. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.079 We've covered it before, but just as a quick kind 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.760 of refresher, the things that that led to this decision 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.400 involved too many games on the market, too many consoles 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:44.440 on the market, so you had you had way too 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:46.840 much product out there, uh, and way too many poor 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.200 video games that had been kind of scrapped together really quickly, 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.640 right and and and then with the the ET cartridge 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.400 in particular, which is often cited as not only the 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.600 worst video game of all time but also the reason 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.560 for a video game crash. That's that's a little too simplistic, 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.799 but it did the big contributor because that license cost 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.880 millions of dollars to Atari, and they produced millions of cartridges, 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.760 something like five million copies of this game. And they 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:17.280 didn't sell out at all. They had they had millions 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:21.359 left over, So you just had a no wins scenario. 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.680 I mean, no one wanted the cartridges. They kept getting 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.320 marked down and down and down in the discount bins 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:28.680 at your local toy stores. I mean, I remember these 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.040 days because I had an I had ET the Extra 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:36.480 Terrestrial um so, oh, yeah, I've never played. I had 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.320 the two games that are constantly referred to as being 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.320 the ones that led to the video game crash, where 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:46.520 the the licensed versions of pac Man and ET the 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.720 Extra Terrestrial, and there I had both of those, so 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.000 I can tell you they both were terrible games. They 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.800 were not good representations of their licenses and uh, and 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.920 so they both really did contribute. So uh. Anyway, we 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.640 had this big myth about the you know, this huge 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.160 dumping ground, and there was conflicting information for the longest time, 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.000 like is it actually out there or is it is 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.840 that just urban legend? Well, and since concrete had been poured, 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:16.839 no one was really sure. It made me think for 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.000 a while that maybe the guy who made that decision 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.560 at Atari used to work for the mafia. I want 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:24.119 it dead, I want to bury it in the ground. 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.839 I want to concrete foundation board over it. How it 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.000 how it goes off in my head anyway, I mean, 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.200 maybe he just really hated it that much. But yeah, 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.640 we ended up discovering very recently as the recording of 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.000 this podcast, as it turns out that uh, there was 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.080 truth to the yeah myth confirmed. Okay, So in April 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.280 hundreds of old Atari games, including the infamously terrible et 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.760 We're We're found in this landfill in New Mexico. The 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.160 Dick was part of a documentary series. It's being done 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.479 by director Zach Penn in affiliation with a couple of 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.760 media companies, Fuel Entertainment and Lightbox Entertained, along with Microsoft's 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:07.440 Xbox Entertainment Studios. Yeah, what's what's funny is that Major Nelson, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.479 who is part of Xbox Lives. He's like one of 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.479 the kind of a community liaison type guy, so a 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:17.880 lot of information from Microsoft comes through him and then 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.560 as communicated to the fans. He was actually on the 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:23.360 dig site too. And uh, I'll talk a little bit 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.760 more about that in just a second when we get 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.320 to the super silly part of the story. I'm not 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:32.479 sure which part is. Yeah, there's so many, but this 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:34.440 one in particular because it all has to do with 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:40.080 the way the man wears a construction hat. Okay, alright, So, 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:42.840 so some interesting interesting little factoids around this dig. The 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:45.320 AP was out there and they were talking to folks 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.400 um and and according to them, James Heller, a former 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.200 Atari manager who's also on site for the dig. At 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:55.200 the invitation of the production team, UM said. James Heller 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.159 said that he was charged with finding a cheap way 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:03.159 of disposing for seven and twenty eight thousand game cartridges. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.800 That's that's a lot of cartridges. That's more than I 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.159 had by by a long shot. Uh. And he said 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:13.279 that after a few local kids scavenged games UM and 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.480 he started getting calls from the media about it, that's 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.320 when he decided to pour the concrete, right, because otherwise 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.080 you have you have a recipe for disaster, and that 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.640 kids could be coming out to a landfill get hurt, lawsuits. Yeah. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:27.680 No one wants e T on top of being the 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.919 worst game ever to be the most deadly game to 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.440 have caused like tetanus and things like that. Yeah, that 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.640 would have been a terrible, terrible, pr nightmare. Yeah. He's 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.440 also said that he wasn't aware that there was any 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:41.520 kind of controversy about it, and that he's never come 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.320 out on the record about it because no one ever 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.760 asked him. Huh. Clearly someone who does not go to 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:53.560 the big video game forums. He's clearly not from the internet. Um. Uh. So, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.920 so the city that houses the landfill is giving up 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.000 to the cartridges to the team, and we'll be selling 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.240 the rest. So if you like your own, you can 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.000 get some real new Mexico dirt packed in with your 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.600 your various cartridges. They're they're apparently still playable, some of them, 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.680 I mean some of them are crushed. Yeah, I know that. 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.440 When they first found it, they tested one out almost 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.520 immediately and then said, we're not going to tell you 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:16.520 whether or not it worked. We're going to save that 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:20.280 for the documentary. But but but these are these are hard, 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.280 hardwired cartridges. I mean they're not they're not optical disks 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:27.600 or anything like that. So as long as you haven't 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.640 had too much detritus get into the cartridge, which we 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.760 all know how to solve that problem, yeah, and then 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.200 you're good. Yeah, as long as that's not the case, 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.120 then it should work. And I understand that there was 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:45.280 another person who was talked to about this whole thing, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:49.640 a man who may you might say was burdened with 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.000 terrible responsibility. Uh So, the ap for for this article 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.040 that they did also called eat S game designer one 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.960 Howard Scott Warshaw about the entire debak um, and he 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.679 said that he actually doesn't mind his game being called 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:05.960 the worst game. Ever, he said that he was only 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.040 given five weeks to design, right and test this game 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.040 after legal matters held it up in production of for 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:16.960 getting that license and the holiday shopping deadlines began looming. 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.560 He said furthermore that it's end I quote a tremendous 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.440 honor that, you know, even though it's the worst video 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.640 game ever, that's still being talked about. Well, he also 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.560 was the guy who made the biggest selling original game 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.880 for Atari, which was Yours Revenge. Uh so, Yours Revenge 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.360 was a kind of crazy little game where it's almost 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.520 impossible to explain. Back then, video games were not nearly 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.520 as simple in a way, like even though the the 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.880 graphics were simple and the gameplay was simple, the concepts 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.599 were really high concept crazy things. And these days, you know, 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:54.800 when you see video games, they tend to be variations 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:59.000 on very similar themes, like it's a sandbox game like 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.640 Grand Theft Auto or the Saints Rose series, or it's 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.600 a racing game, or it's a gun game like those 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:09.240 are poor and adventure. Right back in the days of 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.760 the early arcades, like well, first you play as a 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:18.120 donkey who's out delivering pizzas. What But that was normal 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.520 So anyway, Ours Revenge hard to explain it easily, but anyway, 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.120 one of the most popular games of atari ever. So 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.240 it's kind of interesting that the same guy was behind 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:31.439 both titles. Yeah. The other thing I wanted to mention, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.120 we're going to we're going to have a nice little 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.240 flashback in a minute, but before we do that. Uh, 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.880 something else I think is really entertaining is that there's 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.720 some conspiracy theories around this, Like there were some things 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.520 popping up on the Internet suggesting that perhaps this whole 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:51.280 dig was a manufactured story, and in fact, no one 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.439 had gone to New Mexico and no one had actually 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:57.760 found the cartridges because they were never really put there 0:09:57.800 --> 0:09:59.520 in the first place, and the whole thing is just 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.320 to comple cover up. Yeah, there's like a tari truthuris 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:04.760 now this is great? Yeah. So uh And there was 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:06.959 a picture of Major Nelson, this is what I was 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.440 referring to earlier in the podcast, who was at the 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.280 site and wearing a hard hat, and the hard hat, 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.319 you know, sat pretty high up on his head, which 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:16.280 led some people to say, oh, it's been photoshopped on 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:18.079 top of him. He was clearly this was a picture 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.520 of Major Nelson that's been placed so that it's on 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.920 a desert background, and he's got this hard hat photoshopped 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.680 on because it's not saying flat, you know, snug against 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.160 his head. But here's the thing about hard hats. They 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.640 actually have like a little kind of harness that sits 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.160 on your head and they're raised up over the harness 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.760 so that if something does impact the hard hat, there's 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.760 that shot. Yeah. So it doesn't kill you, you see, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.200 just having something harding. Yeah, yeah, I mean it doesn't. 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.800 It doesn't help you if you were wearing something hard 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:47.880 on your head if the force hitting it is still 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.520 enough to cause you injury. So, uh, it's you know, 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:53.440 it may have been that the little harness part was 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.960 a little small for Major Nelson's noggin. I don't know, 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.880 But I don't know. I'm personally, Yeah, it doesn't I'm 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.000 going to call him a fathead. Neither am I. But 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:05.720 but it does mean that I think some people mistakenly, 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.800 either mistakenly or perhaps jokingly. It could have been that 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:13.760 they were joking about it being photoshopped and then other 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.559 proportion in some way. I know the internet is oh 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.079 sure sure. And also some of the very first photos 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.560 that came out of the dig site. Um were taken 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:23.880 on you know, low quality cell phones, and I think 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.760 that everyone I mean, I mean, I was reluctant to 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.880 believe the story until I clicked a few links through 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.000 and really checked around about it, because I was like, oh, 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.400 that's fake. Yeah, I mean, well, there's so many stories. 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:37.440 I assume that everything on is fake on the internet, 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:40.600 except the hell stuff works where everything is amazing pertly. 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.080 But yeah, no, no, I totally understand what you're where 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.560 you're coming from on that one. So we wanted to 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.600 take this opportunity to actually have a little look back 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.199 on an episode that that was recorded years ago, back 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.480 in two thousand eleven. Yeah. So so of course Chris 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.040 Palette is going to be joining us from the vaults 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:03.200 of history, right. So so this is this is what 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.640 some people would call a rerun because we wanted to 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.840 talk about the discussion that kind of led into this 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.719 whole thing when we asked our listeners. This was the 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.240 crowdsourced episode, which we haven't really we haven't done many 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:19.199 of those. We've asked for a listener mail and gotten responses, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.880 and we've done some episodes based upon suggestions, but this 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:25.199 was purely crowdsourced where I put out the question what's 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.800 the worst video game of all time? And then we 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.040 had our listeners right in and we tabulated all the 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.040 votes and it was it was wide open, and this 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.640 is the result. Uh and spoiler alert, the video game 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.400 that we just talked about being dug Up in the 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.920 Desert ends up being number one. So but it's an 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.720 entertaining episode. Listen to it, and we'll have a little 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.600 bit more to talk about once the episodes over with 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:59.600 some other kind of bad video game wrap up, So enjoy. So, hey, guys, 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.800 you know you might remember that Chris and I wanted 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:07.000 to do a crowdsourced episode where we asked our listeners 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.839 to submit to us the worst video game of all time. 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.760 And uh, we didn't give any real parameters about that. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:16.640 We said it could be on any platform, it just 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.319 had to be a video game. And because of that, 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:25.600 it meant that our listeners could literally, uh nominate any 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.440 game ever made. So it's a miracle at all that 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.160 we had enough votes for any particular title to have 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.400 this this podcast, But we actually have the top ten 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:42.480 or perhaps bottom ten worst video games as voted on 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.280 by you the listener so please keep in mind this 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:50.319 is not the opinions of Jonathan and Chris, although maybe 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.400 we'll talk about some of the bad games we've played 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.680 in the past two This isn't our opinion, this is 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:00.120 your opinion. We're just reporting it. Well, I have to 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.800 say that one one person did right in and ask 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.360 us why we would bother recording an episode on this, 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:09.960 and uh, the simple answer is because it's fun. Yeah, 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.360 this was actually really a lot of fun. It was 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:15.439 a lot of work because we had to collect votes 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:20.200 from multiple sources. We collected votes from email, Facebook, Twitter, 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:22.840 and people left votes on my Google Plus account too, 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:26.360 so um, I actually did separate out all the votes 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.640 in a big spreadsheet, so I knew how many votes 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:33.240 came in from which uh particular source and that that 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.280 actually was kind of interesting too, just to see, you know, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.240 what our listeners prefer to use in order to get 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.520 information to us. That was pretty fascinating. That was not 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:43.760 my intent, by the way, when I came. I came 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:46.360 up with this idea on the spur of the moment 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:49.160 and sprung it on Chris just before we started recording, 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.520 and Chris was like, do I have to I have 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:53.200 to record all the votes. I said no, he said, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.440 all right, let's do it. So you know, I'm easy 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.800 like that. Let's let's start off with what would be 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.800 number ten. But actually it was a tie for ninth place. 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.440 So the first two games we're going to talk about 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:08.880 received the same number of votes. And the first one 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.640 that we're going to talk about is dragons Layer, the 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:19.080 arcade game specifically, So for those of you who who 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.480 missed out on the early eighties and the great arcade 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.560 culture of the early eighties, you may not be too 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:29.960 familiar with this game. But it was groundbreaking. Yeah, it was. 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.680 It was a an innovative way of presenting a video 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:38.920 game that had not been attempted before Dragon's Layer. Yeah. Yeah. 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:43.320 Previously we were talking about the different well the difference 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.200 in in vector and raster graphics, and and you know 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.760 there was there were blocky graphics for the most part 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:54.120 at the time, and they had limited animation, limited sound. Yeah. Um, 0:15:54.200 --> 0:16:00.160 but but Dragon's Layer actually featured animation from one of 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:07.000 the industry giant animators, Don Bluth, former Disney animator who 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:09.160 has gone on to you know, with his own company, 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.560 to do many many other titles. In fact, I have 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.040 a Don Bluth title on my iPad? Yeah, which one? 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.960 The new version of Tapper features Don Bluth artwork, so yeah, 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:21.360 because he also you may know some of his work 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.960 from from movies like The Secrets and the Secret of 0:16:25.080 --> 0:16:28.680 Nim Yes, and the Lame Before Time series, Before Time 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:34.200 it was, was it the Five Old Movies too? Yes? Um, 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:38.200 those were Don Bluth films, so somewhere out there, yes, 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.400 thank you. So Dragon's Lair was featured animation from Don 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.280 Bluth and it was published by Cinematronics. Yeah. Yeah, But 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.040 but but how you might say, exactly is this great 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.440 leap in graphics and sound? Because the sound was awesome too. 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:54.680 How how is that possible? Because you know, you're looking 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.640 at other games like Donkey Kong, which you know I 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:00.680 loved Donkey Kong, but you would not call the epics 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.800 advanced or state of the art for the time, but 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:10.359 not now crazy. Yeah, well, they they accomplished this by 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.720 using the laser disc video format, which we've talked about before. 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.960 So the entire game was on laser disc, and there 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.119 was an actual laser disc player inside the cabinet of 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.879 this arcade game. Now, the fact that there it was 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.960 on laser disc was both its its biggest strength and 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:33.240 its biggest weakness. The weakness is that you couldn't create 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:37.760 too much interactivity for the player and the game. The 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:42.040 You know, you couldn't have complete control over the main 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.879 character who do you remember? The guy's name Dirk the Daring, 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:49.800 and he was rescuing a princess Daphne from a dragon 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:55.399 named Singe. And so you couldn't just control Dirk the Daring, 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.560 You couldn't just make him run around and jump and stuff. Instead, 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:01.600 what you would do is you would initiate a video sequence. 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.560 Because again this is recorded on laser disc. There's only 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.120 so many variations of Dirk's movements that can be recorded 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.960 on a single laser disc. So what your input into 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.119 the arcade machine would translate to is was that the 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:18.760 correct button to press or direction on the joystick to 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.200 push in order to trigger the next sequence to further 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.360 the storyline. Yeah, so you for example, you might be 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.119 having to jump, and you did have to jump at 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.520 one point, and if you, you know, move up, that 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.320 might be the right thing to do. If you move left, 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.600 you die. If you do nothing, you die. If you 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.320 if you push the sword button, you die. If you 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.160 push Yeah, so in other words, there'll be one correct 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.280 response to a particular moment in the story, and sometimes, uh, 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:51.439 there'd be like a little flash that would indicate this 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.720 is when you do something. So for a lot of 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.720 the game, you're you're just watching, You're just you're you're 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:00.480 watching a movie. And then occasionally in the movie there's 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.040 a moment where you have a chance to put in 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.080 an input, and if you put in the wrong one, 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.119 the movie is over. And so that was probably what 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:09.960 cost a lot of people to vote for Dragons Layers, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.320 that it almost feels like less of a game and 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:14.720 more of a film. It's just a film that you 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:16.520 don't get to see the end of it unless you 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.000 happen to shift in your seat at just the right 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.360 moment so the film will continue. And also I would 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:24.160 like to point out this was one of the first 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.359 games I can remember that cost two credits or fifty 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.639 cents to play. And also remember that a lot of 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.879 them had two monitors because they were so popular that 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:38.480 people would try and gather and cram around the system. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.160 Because if someone knew how to play it, if someone 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.520 had memorized the sequence of movements they had to do 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.480 to get through a particular part of the game. You know, 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.640 most people didn't have the time or energy or change 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:54.840 to learn all that, so they just like to watch 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.919 the game because again, it was like a movie. I 0:19:57.960 --> 0:19:59.359 saw a lot of our kades that would put a 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:01.719 second monit he that was mounted on the top of 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.960 the cabinet so that you could see what was going 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.560 on without having to be right up on whoever is 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:13.480 playing the game. So anyway, that was tied for ninth place. Uh. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.760 And the other one was a game on the Nintendo 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:22.600 Entertainment System which was Back to the Future. And I 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.000 have never played this because I didn't own an any s. 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.720 From what I read, we're going from beautiful graphics and 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:36.760 and sort of poor gameplay to horrible graphics and gameplay. Yeah, 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.280 Back to the Future is just one example of a 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.639 licensed title, and by licensed, I mean it's something that 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:47.040 already existed that a video game publisher purchases a license 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:49.919 from the license owner to be able to create a 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.800 game based on that. And as far as Back to 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:58.440 the Future goes, the basis was really pretty uh difficult 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:00.880 to spot, especially in that stage. Like in the very 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:04.200 first stage, you are going down a street and the 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:06.960 way the view is it's an over the head view. UM. 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:10.040 The street is laid out so that the top of 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.560 the screen is where you're you're headed to the bottom 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:15.760 of the screen is where you are, and you're moving 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.520 your your character around Marty McFly. You're moving Marty McFly 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:22.280 down the street. You're trying to avoid enemies and pick 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.719 up little alarm clocks. And it's only by picking up 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:28.840 enough alarm clocks that you're allowed to move to the 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.520 next stage. And so you're also you also have a timer, 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:34.600 so if you don't pick up enough alarm clocks within 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.280 the time limit, then you lose. If you get hit 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.080 by an enemy, you lose. If you run into an obstacle, 0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:43.080 you lose. UM. You would eventually be able to pick 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.720 up a bowling ball, which would let you shoot enemies 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.040 because of course you remember that great scene and Back 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:51.359 to the future where Marty McFly picked up a bowling 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.440 ball and then shot someone with it. Um, who could 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.520 forget that scene that never happened. Uh. And then you 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:00.840 can also get a skateboard, which I least that was 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.639 featured in the film. But with the skateboard, what that 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:05.600 would mean is that you would move through the the 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:08.879 you would move through the level faster, which meant the 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.400 poor gameplay became excruciating the poor gameplay because you're going 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:16.600