Larry Rosenthal's Oops vector game and Boxing Bugs...
Kyle S.
Video Game Superstars" or something like that, that tells the story on
the very last pages of Larry Rosenthal (I think - I could be wrong)
building a vector game in a homemade cab called "Oops!". The game was
described as an "adult" game, featuring a "contraceptive cream
applicator" that protected an egg from impregnation from sperms. I
remember the book mentioning that if the player scored anything less
than 100%, the game would end, and the screen would flash the word
OOPS!!!!
Okay, so tonight, I'm checking out www.ionpool.net, and the story
about the War of the Worlds game, but the last paragraph caught my
eye... (pasted below)
**Cut to: 1981. I'm in Chicago working on "Reactor." Back at
Cinematronics,
they've finished selling "Armor Attack," my last game for them and, I
believe, Scott Boden's "Solar Quest." From what Scott tells me, they
dug out
every game they had on the shelf and in development and ported them to
their
new color vector system. All of these were shown at the 1982 game
show,
including "Boxing Bugs" which was an attempt to do a "cute" vector
game.
(The game play was a corruption of another game, not cute, that Scott
had
been working on.)**
I wonder if Boxing Bugs is the "corruption" of the "not cute" vector
game Oops which they would have "dug out from the shelf"? Since you
protect a central position and shoot a weapon out at attckers in
Boxing Bugs, it sounds like it may have some connection to Oops, at
least in concept... anybody know about this, or am I out of my
flippin' gourd once again?
Kyle :^)
Tom McClintock
> I wonder if Boxing Bugs is the "corruption" of the "not cute" vector
> game Oops which they would have "dug out from the shelf"? Since you
> protect a central position and shoot a weapon out at attckers in
> Boxing Bugs, it sounds like it may have some connection to Oops, at
> least in concept... anybody know about this, or am I out of my
> flippin' gourd once again?
No. In another e-mail, Tim told me that Scott B. was working on a game
called Outpost, which was later turned into Boxing Bugs. I got the
impression Outpost was never finished, but I could be wrong.
tm
Kyle S.
I suspected it was a long shot, but hey, it seemed logical...
BTW, anybody know the whereabouts of the Oops machine(s)? Any pictures
anywhere? I have a horrible feeling it's rotting in some forgotten
warehouse, after being converted to a Jailbreak, and then later a
Street Fighter 2...
Kyle :^)
to...@mgcap.com (Tom McClintock) wrote in message news:<8f3afde6.02031...@posting.google.com>...
Keith Smith
> game Oops which they would have "dug out from the shelf"? Since you
> protect a central position and shoot a weapon out at attckers in
According to Vectorbeam programmer Dan Sunday, Oops! actually turned
into Star Castle. Some eMails from him were posted to the vectorlist
mailing list a few years back in which he claimed credit for creating
Star Castle.
Not really true, of course. Tim Skelly does acknowledge that he saw
the initial prototype that led to Star Castle while on a visit to
Vectorbeam but he and Scott Boden made significant changes in the game
(including moving the player from outside the ring of walls to inside
of it.
Larry Rosenthal did built one working Oops! prototype which he
installed in a Berkeley area arcade after leaving Vectorbeam. I think
he may have thought about selling it to another company, but by this
time there was little room for independents in the industry (I think
the Alpin book mentions this).