Book: Lucky Wander Boy
Kirk Is
novel that is written with a true classic gamers eye for detail. I
espeically liked the passages from the "Catalogue of Obsolete
Entertainments", the book the main character is working on, has some
wonderfully philisophical musings on Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, maybe
a few others, implying how these games can do for us what past stories,
say the myth of sisyphus, did for ancient cultures, if we'd take the time
to think about it. Heh, in some ways it reminds me a little bit of that
CYBERYOGI guy who used to be around here, though this book talks more
about the metaphorical than the trance-ish.
Here's a segment from the Pac-Man passage:
I suggest that if we, through force of imagination, were to dilate time to
experience it as the Pac-Man does, and increase the resolution to allow us
to read as much into each pixel as the Pac-Man must, we would not see the
identical dots as identical at all. When the microscopic differences in
each pixel are made large, each dot will possess a snowflake's uniqueness,
and the acquisiion of each--no, the experience of each--will bring the
Pac-Man a very specific and distinct joy or sorrow. The dots all rack up
points equally, of course, in retrospect, however, some are revealed as
wrong choices, links in a chain of wrong choices that trace out a wrong
path leading to a withering demise beneath the adorable and utterly
unforgiving eyes of Blinky, Inky, Pinky, or Clyde.
The author even mentions video game newsgroups, though for some reason
chooses to place the action on alt.games.video.classic, rgvc's (much)
poorer cousin. And he goes into great detail about MAME and the need for
ROMs.
A pretty good quickish read, though like some of Coupland's stuff, it kind
of careens to a close, and about halfway through the book you wish there
was more commentary on real games, and maybe even less about the made up
game that is the main character's passion, Lucky Wander Boy. The author
gives a backstory that it was made with a very obscure processor chip,
some wacko Z80 variant enhancement that was soon scrapped and only used
for this one game, which combined with a VERY limited release led to it
never being emulated, which is plausible enough, but then later seems to
have it be both a CRT and a vector based game, which would be more or less
impossible. (it doesn't sound like it's talking about just drawing a lot
of lines in pixels either.) Admittedly, information about the vector
portion is third hand from someone who claims to have passed to the almost
mythical third stage, but still, the main character knows enough about
games to realize what a weird claim it is, but never comments on that
weirdness.
I heard about this book from this slashdot review:
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/11/152225
--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
THE LIVING END Before long the end / Of the beginning / Begins to bend
To the beginning / Of the end you live / With some misgivings
About what you did. --Samuel Menashe
Robert Morgan
>chooses to place the action on alt.games.video.classic, rgvc's (much)
>poorer cousin.
Possibly to avoid a slashdotting-type invasion of our still-active newsgroup?
The alt.* hierarchy is well known enough to the intended audience to give the
mention an air of authenticity, and safeguards us from pranks or what-have-you.
That, or the guy roamed thru Usenet until he found the first group that
sounded "right."
>but then later seems to
>have it be both a CRT and a vector based game, which would be more or less
>impossible.
I dunno, I always thought that using partially mirrored surfaces, it'd be
possible to combine the two into one viewing device. Granted, my ideas were
just to allow the "coolest system ever in the alternate universe in my head" to
have vector or raster graphics where appropriate.
Kirk Is
>>The author even mentions video game newsgroups, though for some reason
>>chooses to place the action on alt.games.video.classic, rgvc's (much)
>>poorer cousin.
> Possibly to avoid a slashdotting-type invasion of our still-active newsgroup?
Heh. I doubt it would be that much of a threat, but it's an interesting
thought.
> The alt.* hierarchy is well known enough to the intended audience to give the
> mention an air of authenticity, and safeguards us from pranks or what-have-you.
> That, or the guy roamed thru Usenet until he found the first group that
> sounded "right."
Yeah. Actually "alt" sounds a bit cooler than "rec", though Usenetters
know that "rec" indicates a group that on average is a bit more serious.
>>but then later seems to
>>have it be both a CRT and a vector based game, which would be more or less
>>impossible.
> I dunno, I always thought that using partially mirrored surfaces, it'd be
> possible to combine the two into one viewing device. Granted, my ideas were
> just to allow the "coolest system ever in the alternate universe in my head" to
> have vector or raster graphics where appropriate.
Yeah, theoretically possible.
Reflection...or I wonder if there's *any* way an electron beam gun could
be modified to have X/Y controls. I would tend to doubt it, but hey.
--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
"Our research and experience show that there is nothing in life
more fun than the military." --Capt. Mike Doubleday
Robert Morgan
>be modified to have X/Y controls. I would tend to doubt it, but hey.
I've read of a television that was converted to be a Vectrex monitor; there are
pics at http://www.cyberroach.com/cyromag/13/13.htm but I can't find any
articles about the thing.
shadowband
> I just finished "Lucky Wander Boy", an interesting Douglas Coupland-esque
> novel that is written with a true classic gamers eye for detail. I
> espeically liked the passages from the "Catalogue of Obsolete
> Entertainments", the book the main character is working on, has some
The "Catalog of Obsolete Entertainments" was basically KLOV. I fully
enjoyed the first two sections of this book, but I thought the last
section got a little too wacky. It reminded me of my quest for a
marble madness machine back in '93. I had never finished all of the
levels when it first came out, so I set out to find one years later.
Since this was an Atari System I, almost all of them had been
converted to other games. I did finally track one down, bought it,
and completed the remaining levels (in fact, it's still in the
basement).
Anyway, the book should be a good read for RGVCers - not bad since
this was the author's first book.
Kirk Is
> Kirk Is <kirk...@alienbill.com> wrote in message news:<hnZga.14$zy2...@news.tufts.edu>...
>> I just finished "Lucky Wander Boy", an interesting Douglas Coupland-esque
>> novel that is written with a true classic gamers eye for detail. I
>> espeically liked the passages from the "Catalogue of Obsolete
>> Entertainments", the book the main character is working on, has some
> The "Catalog of Obsolete Entertainments" was basically KLOV.
Well, yes and no. Actually, thanks for reminding me about KLOV,
at least for some of the bigger games it does have a lot of detailed
info. (But damn, I miss MAME.DK w/ ROMS...)
The "COE" was a bit less detailed than KLOV in terms of describing the
gameplay, but had a lot of philosophizing that KLOV lacks, which is what
made it interesting for me, the recasting of the scenarios of the games as
new myths and metaphors.
Also, I got the feeling even if it got done, the COE wouldn't be as wide
ranging as KLOV.
> I fully
> enjoyed the first two sections of this book, but I thought the last
> section got a little too wacky.
Yeah, those "replay" sections seemed either lazy or self-indulgent.
Possibly I'm missing some deep metaphor (see, in games you get 3 lives,
and here you get one, but this is fiction so let's have a replay....or
something) Not too sound like a prick, but I think a "begining" author
should stick to normal plot structures and narratives for the first few
books.
> It reminded me of my quest for a
> marble madness machine back in '93. I had never finished all of the
> levels when it first came out, so I set out to find one years later.
> Since this was an Atari System I, almost all of them had been
> converted to other games. I did finally track one down, bought it,
> and completed the remaining levels (in fact, it's still in the
> basement).
For the first time I went to Fun Spot in New Hampshire. I have never ever
seen an arcade with a classic selection like that...it made last year's
Philly Classic selection look small in comparison. (And since my friend
gave me $20 worth of tokens for my birthday-- (and $20 gets you 125
tokens, not just 20 * 4) the games were "free" for me as well--I think I
barely made it through half of my tokens, I guess I'll save them for the
rumor'd New England Classic Gamers meet there.
It was pretty cool having just read that book, and then having access to
all those amazing games in a physical form.
As I'm getting older (it is my birthday after all) and as the "classics"
seem further away from modern technology and as I get more years of
programming experience under my belt (including my in-a-coma attempt at
2600 programming) I look at these games a lot differently, look at their
technological cleverness, their gameplay ideas, their sense of fun.
> Anyway, the book should be a good read for RGVCers - not bad since
> this was the author's first book.
Agreed. I think it's close to a must for every literate classic gamer.
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QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
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Robert Morgan
They have ROMs. You just have to register as a user and log-in.
shadowband
My feeling is that the author didn't quite know how to wrap up the
book. He probably wrote a bunch different endings, but couldn't
commit to any one of them - hence the replay portion of the book. He
also pulled the replay stunt in the off-site meeting "chapter" of the
book. As you mentioned, we are probably missing some deep metaphor.
I actually have a theory as to what the author was attempting, which
is very deep, but I don't want to go into a spoiler here. The readers
will have to come to their own conclusions.
>
> > It reminded me of my quest for a
> > marble madness machine back in '93. I had never finished all of the
> > levels when it first came out, so I set out to find one years later.
> > Since this was an Atari System I, almost all of them had been
> > converted to other games. I did finally track one down, bought it,
> > and completed the remaining levels (in fact, it's still in the
> > basement).
>
> For the first time I went to Fun Spot in New Hampshire. I have never ever
> seen an arcade with a classic selection like that...it made last year's
> Philly Classic selection look small in comparison. (And since my friend
> gave me $20 worth of tokens for my birthday-- (and $20 gets you 125
> tokens, not just 20 * 4) the games were "free" for me as well--I think I
> barely made it through half of my tokens, I guess I'll save them for the
> rumor'd New England Classic Gamers meet there.
I'll have to make a trip up there at some point. I did visit a few
classic arcades a number of years ago in the hampton beach area - you
can't beat the old classic games.
Kirk Is
>>(But damn, I miss MAME.DK w/ ROMS...)
> They have ROMs. You just have to register as a user and log-in.
Do they? Dangit, I sent them money once, I should look into it.
(I remember my first time seeing .DK-- my instant reaction was
"Donkey Kong Country has its own TLD?")
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QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
PROCRASTINATION "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness
always pays off now." --Demotivators, http://despair.com
Kirk Is
> Kirk Is <kirk...@alienbill.com> wrote in message news:<mtDha.17$zy2...@news.tufts.edu>...
> My feeling is that the author didn't quite know how to wrap up the
> book. He probably wrote a bunch different endings, but couldn't
> commit to any one of them - hence the replay portion of the book. He
Yeah, it might be the sign of an author in over his head on his first
novel.
> also pulled the replay stunt in the off-site meeting "chapter" of the
> book.
Yeah, but that made more sense, the narrator was likely imagining the near
future.
> As you mentioned, we are probably missing some deep metaphor.
> I actually have a theory as to what the author was attempting, which
> is very deep, but I don't want to go into a spoiler here. The readers
> will have to come to their own conclusions.
Why don't you post your thought in ROT13?
(every character moved 13 over in the alphabet, interested Usenetters
repeat the process to see the original text. You can cut and paste text
into http://rot13.com to get the new text if your newsreader doesn't
handle it for you.)
>> For the first time I went to Fun Spot in New Hampshire. I have never ever
>> seen an arcade with a classic selection like that...it made last year's
> I'll have to make a trip up there at some point. I did visit a few
> classic arcades a number of years ago in the hampton beach area - you
> can't beat the old classic games.
Like I said, I was amazed by the selection of games there.
It made me feel less bad about missing Philly :-)
--
QUOTEBLOG: http://kisrael.com SKEPTIC MORTALITY: http://kisrael.com/mortal
Robert Morgan
>(I remember my first time seeing .DK-- my instant reaction was
>"Donkey Kong Country has its own TLD?")
Heh. I never thought about the "dk" thing before.
I'm not sure how mame.dk registration works now- if it requires a donation or
not- but if you can remember your old username/password, you should be fine.
Try http://www.mame.dk/profile/resendpassword.phtml if you can't remember it.
Non-logged-in users are unable to download still (just checked this one out
m'self).