-Burgertime-
It's a culinary nightmare as a short-order chef is forced to assemble
giant hamburgers while being chased by evil eggs, hideous hot dogs,
and killer pickles!
-Joust-
Riding upon their flying ostriches, noble knights of yore do battle in
a treacherous arena of precarious platforms, lava-dwelling trolls, and
prehistoric pterodactyls!
-Rush 'N Attack- (maybe not quite classic, but still absurd)
A lone soldier takes on the entire Soviet military, armed only with
his wits and... a knife!?
There are probably lots more equally as looney as these. I think this
is yet another aspect that is lacking in a lot of today's games.
What about other similar games like Crash Bandicoot?
>>There are probably lots more equally as looney as these. I think this
is yet another aspect that is lacking in a lot of today's games.<<
How about Alfred Chicken on the SNES. That was pretty nutty...and bad too.
But I agree. Not only were the games wacky, but the concepts were executed
so well in such a simple space the games remain fun.
Burgertime....it doesn't get any more wackier than that
>-Joust-
>-Rush 'N Attack- (maybe not quite classic, but still absurd)
>There are probably lots more equally as looney as these. I think this
>is yet another aspect that is lacking in a lot of today's games.
-Bubbles-
Become a sentient bubble trying to clean up crumbs and ants from a
sink while avoiding razor blades, roaches, and sentient sponges. Grab
the miniature cleaning lady to use her broom to kill a roach.
-Blue Print-
Your girlfriend is being chased by a bad guy. Run through a
neighborhood looking for pieces of a machine you have the blueprint of
in order to toss balls at him and stop him. If you run into a house
with the wrong piece, a bomb attaches itself to you and the only way
to get rid of it is to jump over a bottomless pit.
-Domino Man-
You've decided to set up a line of dominoes on a sizable chunk of
sidewalk. Push innocent bystanders out of the way so only you are the
one to knock them down. Use a giant domino to knock the pants off
that big bully!
-Donkey Kong 3- (Particularly sillier than the first two.)
A giant gorilla has invaded your greenhouse! Use your bug spray
against him (?!?!) and his army of insects.
Of course, I really like all these games, with the possible exception
of Rush'n Attack.
--
Lee K. Seitz * lks...@hiwaay.net * http://fly.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/
Classic Video Games Nexus Maintainer (fly.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/cvg/nexus/)
Dare to be stupid. Do the Donkey Kong. O- Finger for Geek Code.
Live long and prosper. May the Force be with you. Up, up, and away!
> -Bubbles-
> Become a sentient bubble trying to clean up crumbs and ants from a
> sink while avoiding razor blades, roaches, and sentient sponges. Grab
> the miniature cleaning lady to use her broom to kill a roach.
>
Yeah, thats a weird one, no doubt, I'd also add.....
-Make Trax
As an ambitious *paint brush* you must paint all the floors of the
halls,but watch out for the *fish*(?) in pursuit!! Oh, yeah don't
forget the pesky cats, cars, mice etc.. that will ruin your handywork
by walking on the fresh paint!
Alot of classics had odd goals but thats what made them rememberable,
noticeable and (if done well) fun......
Glenn Saunders wrote:
>
> You don't think Mario 64's premise is silly?
>
> What about other similar games like Crash Bandicoot?
Mario 64 is a sequel (albeit in an indirect manner) to Donkey Kong,
another absurdist classic game that I didn't mention. It shows that
the industry is still feeding off of the creativity of the classic
era.
Crash Bandicoot may indeed have a silly premise, I haven't played it.
But judging from the advertising, there's nothing that outrageously
absurd about the game that really stands out upon first inspection in
the same way that when a person first looks at the game Joust and
goes, "Ostriches?"
Heck, I thought it was preposterous for the chef to assemble a burger by
walking across every single inch of it. Yuck!
-Dan
:Crash Bandicoot may indeed have a silly premise, I haven't played it.
:But judging from the advertising, there's nothing that outrageously
:absurd about the game that really stands out upon first inspection in
:the same way that when a person first looks at the game Joust and
:goes, "Ostriches?"
Perhaps it's because we've gotten used to video games having absurd premises?
What's the premise of your basic shooter - *one ship* is sent against an
entire horde of baddies? And how about Mortal Kombat (I II, III, whatever?
Or that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game? Absurdity is everywhere in the
word of video games.
Having said thatm I'll still habe to give the nod for the most absurd game
concept to Q*bert. I still contend that the designers of that game were on
*something*. :)
--
__ ___ _ _ _ | >>>>> cha...@hubcap.clemson.edu <<<<<
|_)o _ |/ | |_|\_/| / \|_) | '94 BS ChE, '96 BS Chemistry
| \||_ |\ | | | | |_\_/| \ |"So this is it, we're going to die!" --A.D.
Charles E. "Rick" Taylor, IV | http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~charlet/
Burger Time does that for me. It's so bizarre, it's brilliant. Not any
more so than Joust or Q*bert, but it's been a long time since I've played
Burger Time and I'm pining.
--
James Hague
Dadgum Games
/ For info on "Halcyon Days: Interviews with Classic Computer and \
\ Video Game Programmers" see http://www.dadgum.com/halcyon.html /
The following Dig Dug cartoon was a metaphore in a neuronomy text,illustrating
the effect of too much info-trash to the sanity of the cyberage's men:
_---_ __
/ ___\ /__|
+--{* *) {_}
| `----; o===+ >
~_ @<~~~~~~~~~~~T |||
L`--'L /_\ ~~'
^
^ ^ \
| | \
reason info-trash mass-media and old-fashioned
stressy schools
||
||
\/
-^ * *_ _
* * **
/ ____ __
DULL- { )_ /__|
{ NESS! `----' {_}
* **) o===+ >
@ ** <~~~~~~~~~~T |||
\ *_ ** /_\ ~~'
^
|
(bang!)
MAY THE SOFTWARE BE WITH YOU!
*============================================================================*
I CYBERYOGI Christian Oliver(=CO=) Windler I
I (teachmaster of LOGOLOGIE - the first cyberage-religion!) I
I ! I
*=============================ABANDON=THE=BRUTALITY==========================*
How about the classic Mr. Do!...
Apples, cherries and other fruit underground? And what's with
the Sesame-street letter character? Diamonds in apples? Beats the
hell outta razor blades...
"This game brought to you by the letters E-X-T-R and A!"
--
Robert Worne NeXT-OS/2-MacOS 26-52-78-CV-O2-Vec-MV-TI-C64-TG16-SMS-Jag
//------------------------------------------------------------------//
Starving CS Undergrad: "Sorry, I don't do Windows! I'd rather starve!"
//------------------------------------------------------------------//
Visit my videogame collecting site! http://www.primenet.com/~rworne/
I always thought Fantasy Zone was extremely strange - you're a spaceship
with *bird's wings* and *little legs* that gets attacked by enemies
called Moo-Colons and *giant pissed-off blocks of wood* and *angry
conical flasks*....
\
(:-)
/
--
Kirk Is | "I don't want to be friends. I've got friends.
kisrael@ | I want sex! What am I gonna do with more friends?"
alienbill.com | --David Cale, _Don't Let Your Lover Make a Mess Of You_
Have there, indeed, been any NORMAL games?
Driving games, basically, because there really is such a thing as a fast
car.
--
N i c k B e n s e m a < n i c k b @ p r i m e n e t . c o m >
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
98-KUPD Red Card Holder #710563 WedSpc License #71.0563
>Having said thatm I'll still habe to give the nod for the most absurd
game
>concept to Q*bert. I still contend that the designers of that game were
on
>*something*. :)
>
>
Aw, come on Q*bert is the most awsome game. I just got the emulated
version. It is a game for math freaks. Try to always quit (I can play
forever) with your score being an even multiple of 1000. I admit the
characters are kind weird, but they are less weird that PAC MAN for pete's
sake.
heh.. that game ain't got NOTHIN' on Parodius 2 .. Where else can you fly
a blue Gumby on a paper airplane with a condom shield while being attacked
by evil penguins, killer ballerina panda bears in tutus, or plywood
cut-out Japanese empresses..? Or perhaps you fancy battling a giant
frosting and laser shooting LIPS monster while the theme to "I Dream Of
Jeannie" jams in the background.. Or pilot your baby riding his bottle
at high speeds thru a twisty tunnel while dodging tweety birds waving
flags (watch out for deer crossing too) and facing a boss vehicle made out
of spare parts at the end.. All I gotta say is there's some good weed
circulating around Konami's offices! :)
James Hague <jha...@dadgum.com> wrote in article
<jhague-1804...@c10-rizzo.blarg.net>...
> Charles E. Taylor IV wrote:
> >
> > Having said thatm I'll still habe to give the nod for the most absurd
game
> > concept to Q*bert. I still contend that the designers of that game
were on
> > *something*. :)
>
> Burger Time does that for me. It's so bizarre, it's brilliant. Not any
> more so than Joust or Q*bert, but it's been a long time since I've played
> Burger Time and I'm pining.
>
Robert Worne <rwo...@primenet.com> wrote in article
<5j8g09$s8p$1...@nnrp01.primenet.com>...
I always hoped that the retrogaming movement would inspire people to write
_new_ games that fit right in with the classics. When you see a new
Asteroids clone in 1997, you wonder "Is this nostalgia trip still fun?"
> Crash Bandicoot may indeed have a silly premise, I haven't played it.
> But judging from the advertising, there's nothing that outrageously
> absurd about the game that really stands out upon first inspection in
> the same way that when a person first looks at the game Joust and
> goes, "Ostriches?"
Games like Crash have so many different enemies and levels and things to
do that the absurdity is less concentrated. It's a lot trippier when
you're faced with one surreal world and have to live by its rules.
>I always thought Fantasy Zone was extremely strange - you're a
>spaceship with *bird's wings* and *little legs* that gets attacked by
>enemies called Moo-Colons and *giant pissed-off blocks of wood* and
>*angry conical flasks*....
Oh ho...you want to hear about "Classic Game Absurdity"?
It's funny that Jeff Minter would post to this thread because
you can't any more absurd about a Robotron game where you're a llama
blasting things like Coke cans, burgers, and big toliets. Llamatron
definity deserves a mention here.
Then there's Revenge Of The Mutant Camels where your camel strolls
along a surrealistic landscape shooting at heaven knows what with a
computer control goat jumping around helping you.
These are the best games you can download for the Atari ST and
Amiga,and you can even get them for your PC. If you're reading this
Jeff, thanx for the most flipping best gaming experiences of my
entire existance! :)
<<All solicitation, automatic or manual, is subjected to a fee of >>
<<$500. Any e-mail sent from hotmail.com is grounds for lawsuit!!>>
"And I bloody mean this you herb munching spammers!"
Gone to pet the llamas...
Eric Noss
a.k.a
Mr. Maddog
mailto: MrMaddog (at) Microserve.com
> Oh yeah? How about *baseball*-- any system.
> A digital representation of a game in which a ball is hurled at great
> force, you try to hit it with a stick. if you suceed, you get to run,
> as long as its not caught... I never realized how weird a sport it was til
> I tried to explain it step by step to a german foriegn exchange student
> from germany (ahh, Veronika...)
HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!
Do NOT go there!
--
Matso & Melanie Limtiaco
€€€The Constitution of the United States guarantees every American the right to individual stupidity.€€€
Where am I? alt.flame? Kill the nitpicking on a generally well written
and on-topic post.
ObOnTopic: About Driving games being 'real'-- I was always kind of
bothered by Pole Position's flaming pile of wreckage instant self-
repairing, on track and ready to go. Most driving games have the same
idea, and the ones that don't generally aren't much fun. (Hey,
look at these hot new games "65mph Highway" "Bumper2Bumper" and
"I-90 Traffic Jam"!)
I think the point of the thread is not so much what is ABSURD so
much as what is surreal. For example
DINER- Chef kicks giant meat balls over angry food to knock it out, and
to move the meat down to a plate at the bottom of the screen.
Verdict=Surreal
RAIDEN-Single ship blasts way through alien fleet.
Verdict=Merely Absurd
PAC-MAN-Fat yellow guy runs around maze eating pellets while being chased
by ghosts/monsters. Guy eats Ghosts/Monsters when power up by super pill.
Verdict=Surreal
Street Fighter-Martial Arts from around the world kick butt for revenge.
Verdict=Merely Absurd
See what I mean?
jrleek
"Breakout."
Now, although I _LOVE_ the game, you have to admit that it is kinda weird.
Of course, I could drone on and on about the endless absurdness of obscure
games like Professor Pac-Man and Pooyan, but that would be a waste of
time.
>One of the most endearing things about classic games has to be that a
>lot of them have premises that are completely preposterous:
>-Burgertime-
>It's a culinary nightmare as a short-order chef is forced to assemble
>giant hamburgers while being chased by evil eggs, hideous hot dogs,
>and killer pickles!
>-Joust-
>Riding upon their flying ostriches, noble knights of yore do battle in
>a treacherous arena of precarious platforms, lava-dwelling trolls, and
>prehistoric pterodactyls!
>-Rush 'N Attack- (maybe not quite classic, but still absurd)
>A lone soldier takes on the entire Soviet military, armed only with
>his wits and... a knife!?
>There are probably lots more equally as looney as these. I think this
>is yet another aspect that is lacking in a lot of today's games.
Lets think about this..
Fighting games - you beat dozens of enemies, sometimes killing them,
sometimes fighting yourself in a different color, only to get to fight
all of them again in one stage at the end.
Quake - You run around shooting things for no apparent reason inside
building that no one in their right mind would build.
Rob Merritt
The Intellivision lives at http://www.jagunet.com/~robertm/intv.html
The folks doing Mario RPG must have been on some weed too....
"OK, Mario has fought off Bowser, these boss guys here, and Booster.
Here's an idea! Next, let's have them fight... a CAKE! And this cake
will be harder than all the other enemies so far combined! We'll make
it... a GOD-CAKE!"
That has munchies written AL OVER IT!
--
N i c k B e n s e m a < n i c k b @ p r i m e n e t . c o m >
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
98-KUPD Red Card Holder #710563 WedSpc License #71.0563
: Fighting games - you beat dozens of enemies, sometimes killing them,
: sometimes fighting yourself in a different color, only to get to fight
: all of them again in one stage at the end.
: Quake - You run around shooting things for no apparent reason inside
: building that no one in their right mind would build.
Yes, but like some wise person posted in this thread, these are merely
absurd and not surreal. Actually, Quake's universe (as done already in
Doom and Woflensten 3-D the latter of which had the absurdity of very
very square, flat rooms) all spring from the Dungeons and Dragons
'dungeon-crawl' ideal, where 1 roll of a 1d6 brings a wandering monster
into your corner of the dungeon, just because. And these dungeons are
usually very happily placed near some town that has a near endless supply
of magic goods and healing potions...
--
Kirk Is | "Well, we all got misery, but it passes,
kisrael@ | it always passes!"-Mike Feder,New_York_Son
alienbill.com |
: > Oh yeah? How about *baseball*-- any system.
: > A digital representation of a game in which a ball is hurled at great
: > force, you try to hit it with a stick. if you suceed, you get to run,
: > as long as its not caught... I never realized how weird a sport it was til
: > I tried to explain it step by step to a german foriegn exchange student
: > from germany (ahh, Veronika...)
: HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!
: Do NOT go there!
What, you know Veronika too?
ObThread: A lot of the early games probably turned to surreal environments
because of processor limitations. There's a fine line between 'surreal'
and 'too abstract to make a good game'. You have to make a seemingly
self-consistent universe to make it fun. Marble Madness has a very nice
surreal fantasy feel-- I wonder how it's sequel with the anthropormophized
(yikes) "Marble Man" was...
--
Kirk Is | Ophelia!
kisrael@ | You're breakin' my heart Oh Ophelia!
alienbill.com | You're makin' this dane It's makin' me sick
| Melancholy-- like poor old Yorrick
| who I knew, who I knew
| Makin' love
| in the afternoon and Ophelia
| it's my uncle has come undone
| in my mom's bedroom handing out flowers
| to most everyone
| Ophelia!
| It's changin' my tune Ophelia
| All the slings + arrows I'm worried a lot
| of outrageous fortune about whether to be...
| ...or be not
| --with apologies to the Bard and paul Simon
-and 'too abstract to make a good game'. You have to make a seemingly
-self-consistent universe to make it fun. Marble Madness has a very
nice
-surreal fantasy feel-- I wonder how it's sequel with the
anthropormophized
-(yikes) "Marble Man" was...
-
There was a sequel to Marble Madness?
Where??
In article <5jc3ca$o1t$1...@d2.tufts.edu>,
Kirk Israel <kis...@diamond.tufts.edu> wrote:
>ObOnTopic: About Driving games being 'real'-- I was always kind of
>bothered by Pole Position's flaming pile of wreckage instant self-
>repairing, on track and ready to go. Most driving games have the same
>idea, and the ones that don't generally aren't much fun. (Hey,
>look at these hot new games "65mph Highway" "Bumper2Bumper" and
>"I-90 Traffic Jam"!)
Say what you will about a Ford Galaxie 500... it'll cut right through half
the card on the road today like melted butter. Now THAT would be a game.
Well, it falls in the realm of 'unreleased' or at least 'EXTREMELY rare.'
I've seen an article about it on the web, somewhere, sometime.
Supposedly the game play was muchly the same, a few new enemies and stuff,
and when you finished your marble would morph into 'marble man', who would
do a quick muscle flexing before the next level. Or, errmmm, something.
My memory ain't what it used to be, and seeing as it was never much I'm
worried my zip code's next...
--
Kirk Is | Her face was beautiful, with full cheeks
kisrael@ | and lips: it seemed always on the brink of
alienbill.com | laughter. This fascinated him-- to be on
| the brink of laughter, senses at their most
| and least aware.
: Say what you will about a Ford Galaxie 500... it'll cut right through half
: the card on the road today like melted butter. Now THAT would be a game.
Uhh-- what?
what's 'the card'?
--
Kirk Is | "Free your mind
kisrael@ | and your ass will follow"
alienbill.com | --George Clinton
Lets not forget about Toilet Kids for PCE......
>In article <5jc3ca$o1t$1...@d2.tufts.edu>,
>Kirk Israel <kis...@diamond.tufts.edu> wrote:
>>ObOnTopic: About Driving games being 'real'-- I was always kind of
>>bothered by Pole Position's flaming pile of wreckage instant self-
>>repairing, on track and ready to go.
I was always bothered that you turned into that same flaming pile of
wreckage whether you went head-on into a billboard at 200mph or just
brushed another car's tire at 50mph.
~Philly
>--------------------SPAM-PREVENTING SIG LINE---------------------<
| | |
| Michael J. Stango | "The best way to accelerate a |
| PhillyMJS (at) aol (dot) com | PC-compatible is 9.8 m/s^2." |
| | |
>--------YOU MAY HAVE TO EDIT THE REPLY-TO TO SEND ME MAIL--------<
>Mario 64 is a sequel (albeit in an indirect manner) to Donkey Kong,
>another absurdist classic game that I didn't mention. It shows that
>the industry is still feeding off of the creativity of the classic
>era.
Well that's certainly putting it mildly. Do you think Nintendo would still
exist, were it not for Donkey Kong and all of its derivative games?