Living the High Life

Video Game Diary:

Yesterday Blake, Kris, Scott, Kim, Evan, Tillman and I got together and played some classic video games.

We started off with Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom for the Atari 2600 In Buck Rogers, the player controls a spaceship that must destroy ships and avoid obstacles. Unfortunately, Buck never makes an appearance. The only real resemblance to the Buck Rogers license is the game's outer space setting.

Blake has a notable high score on Buck, 713,995, Level 11. The game was also released for the Atari 5200, Atari XE, Colecovision, Intellivision, MSX and Sega Master System, as well as some computer systems and is a port of the 1982 Sega coin-op.

Next we played Jungle Hunt for the Atari 2600. The game is comparable to Pitfall, although I found the game to be far more sophisticated than Pitfall. The game consists of four scenes.

The player is required to perform carefully timed jumps from vine to vine towards a crocodile-infested river. There, you must keep your oxygen supply in check while either dodging the reptiles or knifing them for bonus points and in scene three, dodging and ducking boulders is the name of the game. Your final task is to jump over the native warriors who have captured your girlfriend while their spear is down. In the end, the four screens start repeating, getting tougher...


After everyone had a turn with this gem of a cart, Tillman had a chance to play the game and was frustrated with scene two, the afore mentioned deadly jungle river. Blake ensured him that this scene was difficult because "those gators are hungry, they've had nothing but fish to eat for 10,000 years!"

Next, we played Wall Street Kid for the Nintendo Entertainment System...

In Wall Street Kid, you're given $500,000 and the goal of successfully investing in stocks. The first challenge is to earn enough money to purchase your uncle's castle before it is sold to restore the family name-time is of the essence! You must also balance your job, girlfriend and still get plenty of exercise. Most of the game is spent in your office buying and selling stocks. However, you can leave your office to go on a date with your "Sweet Heart" to a picnic, shopping, or a local carnival. You can also work out by going swimming or hiking. The time management is strict and difficulty may be a factor in your enjoyment of the game.

Tillman later expressed that this was his favorite game we played that evening. (You can tell Tillman I said he needs to grow some! -ed.)


Next up was Journey to Silius for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in 1990. It was produced and developed by Sunsoft. The game is an edited version of Raf World, a Famicom game featuring a different main character. The game was originally supposed to feature the Terminator license, but Sunsoft lost the rights. (this game blew me away with its great presentation, music and graphics. Another great side-scroller adventure for your NES!-ed.)That was the end of our evening of classics. Goodnight, folks!

- Matthew Taylor, gamebot