Journey: Escape.

[Aswald]

Remember this arcade game?

It was unique in that it used a sort of "digital photography" for the band members' faces.

But did you know that this technique was originally supposed to be used to "photograph" your face?

The idea was this: you'd get a high score, then pose in front of the camera so your face would appear next to your score.

Of course, the obvious happened: people making rude or obscene gestures at the camera. So, the idea was abandoned.

Interesting trivia, ideas that just never made it, even though the idea itself was good.

[Pantechnicon]

Interesting anecdote...naturally people would abuse such a feature, but no worse than putting DIK or FUK as your initials, I guess. And this was a rock and roll game, after all.

But the idea seems somewhat implausible given the technology of the day. I'm curious how the image files of the high scorers would be edited and stored. Eeprom? 1MB hard drive? Not much to work with back in 1981.

I'm not saying I don't believe you, Aswald. But I'd really love to see some sort of documentation on this. Do you perhaps know of a web resource that might have documentation or pics of the cab with, say, a prototype camera system?

[NE146]

Hmmm... I've read this in several places (that the technology was originally meant to take a pic of the user to use in the game). But I'm not sure exactly where.. whether it was in an old magazine article during the game's time, or just somewhere else on the web.

I'm wondering if references to the ability to capture faces for use in the game were referring to the potential of the technology itself rather than putting that specific functionality within Journey the arcade game... and that Journey just utilized the technology to capture the band's faces. I'll take a look at some old mags because I have a good idea of what issues the game was mentioned.. :hmm:

[FooFighter]

Interesting anecdote...naturally people would abuse such a feature, but no worse than putting DIK or FUK as your initials, I guess. And this was a rock and roll game, after all.

But the idea seems somewhat implausible given the technology of the day. I'm curious how the image files of the high scorers would be edited and stored. Eeprom? 1MB hard drive? Not much to work with back in 1981.

I'm not saying I don't believe you, Aswald. But I'd really love to see some sort of documentation on this. Do you perhaps know of a web resource that might have documentation or pics of the cab with, say, a prototype camera system?

Ummmm. actually before you doubt him read this :)

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=J&game_id=8242

[Aswald]

Well, all you have to do is look at images of the game itself. The "photos," if you will, were in black and white, and they were small- just like the faces of the band members:

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=J&game_id=8242

Hey- KLOV backs up this story, too! Nifty!

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

And furthermore, it's another Ralph Baer invention (of Odyssey 1 and Simon fame); according to his book, the play-testing of the digital-photo-in-lieu-of-high-score-initials idea ended when someone mooned the camera. Apparently nobody at Midway wanted to mess with the idea after that...

Proof yet again that crack kills.

[eightbitonline]

ralph baer never ceases to shower us with genius.

[NE146]

Ummmm. actually before you doubt him read this :)

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=J&game_id=8242

Well yknow, KLOV sometimes has it's inaccuracies.. basically due to the fact that most anyone can submit their "info".

Although I'm not disputing this particular one.. :P

[Pantechnicon]

Well, all you have to do is look at images of the game itself. The "photos," if you will, were in black and white, and they were small- just like the faces of the band members:

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=J&game_id=8242

Hey- KLOV backs up this story, too! Nifty!

I know the game. I understand that those are B&W digitized pics of Journey. No disputes there. I was just questioning the idea of how an arcade cab like this (in 1981) would have used some sort of integrated camera on the machine and in the arcade and all that.

Naturally a legend like Ralph Baer would be the one to dream up with something like this...15 years ahead of Gameboy camera and 20 years ahead of the EyeToy :hail:

Yes, KLOV backs up the story but it seems all you did was essentially repeated what they wrote. More info would definitely be welcome. Let's see what NE146 digs out of his old magazines.

[Arcturius]

...idea ended when someone mooned the camera. Apparently nobody at Midway wanted to mess with the idea after that...

Proof yet again that crack kills.

LOL It was bound to happen sooner or later though having a camera on an arcade is always asking for the old buttocks/breasts to pop out once in a while.

[I Am Humanoid]

Originally, this game was not to have the band Journey in it. It would have a digital camera (created by Ralph Baer, the creator of the Magnavox Odyssey home console systems) that would take a picture of the player's face and put it on the character. After some people used unmentionable parts of their body as character heads during tests, this was dropped

They should have never dropped the idea.

Would people do such a thing in a public arcade in 1983?

Think about it.

You ever see those picture booths that make stickers?

Same analogy.

Would the picture be saved in some way so that

others can see it on an *attract screen*

or was the picture to be used only one time

during gameplay and deleted?

Ralph should have grabbed his crotch,

stepped up to the plate

and swung for the fences with his idea.

[I Am Humanoid]

Double post - pardon me.

[Aprilsrain]

I thought you were talking about the *band* Journey and their album Escape when I first saw this. LOL

[Aswald]

Well, all you have to do is look at images of the game itself. The "photos," if you will, were in black and white, and they were small- just like the faces of the band members:

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=J&game_id=8242

Hey- KLOV backs up this story, too! Nifty!

I know the game. I understand that those are B&W digitized pics of Journey. No disputes there. I was just questioning the idea of how an arcade cab like this (in 1981) would have used some sort of integrated camera on the machine and in the arcade and all that.

Naturally a legend like Ralph Baer would be the one to dream up with something like this...15 years ahead of Gameboy camera and 20 years ahead of the EyeToy :hail:

Yes, KLOV backs up the story but it seems all you did was essentially repeated what they wrote. More info would definitely be welcome. Let's see what NE146 digs out of his old magazines.


Until I looked there yesterday, I had no idea that they did back up the story. I had heard about this back when Journey: Escape came out over 20 years ago. It seemed plausible, because of the way the faces looked.

It's interesting to note that many things we take for granted today in fact existed long before. "Digital Photography," on-line gaming (among 2 or more people!), for example, ordering games over the telephone ("downloading games"), voice-recognition, and so on, all did exist back in those days, but it was often expensive (by today's standards, especially), or little-known, or just didn't really go anywhere back then.