"The Kunkel Report": New Column UPDATE!

[digitalpress]

In case you haven't been peeking in to the main page, mister Kunkel's first column for Digital Press is now online!

http://www.digitpress.com/columns/thekunkelreport.htm

Old-skoolers will remember Kunkel both as himself and also as "The Game Doctor".

PS I could use pics of PC "Batman Returns" if anyone has 'em!

Enjoy.

[Arcade Antics]

Great read! Can't wait to see part two.

[Raedon]

great read.. I would have loved to be 19 in 1969. I remember the Superman game on the C64.. it was impossible.

this the game?

http://www.mobygames.com/images/cove...4802297-00.jpg

http://www.mobygames.com/images/cove...4802336-00.jpg

[kainemaxwell]

Very cool article so far!

PS: Joe, check your email.

[digitalpress]

UPDATE!

The conclusion of Mister Kunkel's story about how he got involved with the Batman game is now online.

See link above.

Carry on.

[slapdash]

The conclusion of Mister Kunkel's story about how he got involved with the Batman game is now online.

Kudos to Bill for using the term "Lovecraftian sense of horror". :-)

[Cafeman]

Man, is Digital Press a great site!!!! You even have the Game Doctor writing stuff now!!!

Hey Doc, I liked Batman Returns a lot too, especially those Sega CD racing levels!!! Nah, j/k of course (but I did enjoy that game), I realize that was the one of those other Batman Returns games. I was not a PC gamer and never saw the version referred to in the article.

You know, I was a huge Batman fan when the first film hit , and I was almost 100% satisfied with it, at the time. But now, I really can't watch any of the Batmans anymore, especially the sequels. It seems that you can see the good ideas, and every one of the Bats films have individually cool scenes, but there are too many stupid things, flaws, in each of the sequels. It almost makes me sick when I think of it. I haven't watched the original 1989 Batman for several years, I'm afraid to rewatch it for fear I won't even like that one in this day and age, and thus I keep it in my memory as a 'good' film.

[digitalpress]

UPDATE.

Added today is Mr. Kunkel's review of d.b. weiss' "lucky wander boy". More than a review, really. A full analysis. A good chance for you to catch up with Kunkel's latest work AND a new review of this groundbreaking book.

http://www.digitpress.com/columns/thekunkelreport.htm

[zmeston]

"And Pennyman's high opinion of 2600 refuse such as Yar's Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark is pretty much inexplicable."

HUH?!?!? I'd hardly call either of them (esp. Yars) "2600 refuse".

Has anyone mentioned/noticed a fictional character's snipe at the Classic Gaming Expo in "Lucky Wander Boy"? Page 188:

"'Yeah,' said another guy as he approached us with his cheese-fries belly peeking out from the bottom of his Green Lantern T-shirt, 'a lot of CGers don't see much reason in coming out anymore, except to that mainstream expo in Vegas that was cool when it was World of Atari, but is so weak now. All the newfangled stuff's starting to seep in, and there's media coverage, and you know what that means--'"

"'Van Burnham, J.C. Herz, Zoe Heller--it's all about the big-name chicks now.' Green Lantern #1 chimed in. 'No offense.'"

-- Z.

[kingpong]

"And Pennyman's high opinion of 2600 refuse such as Yar's Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark is pretty much inexplicable."

HUH?!?!? I'd hardly call either of them (esp. Yars) "2600 refuse".

I was quite glad to see Bill's low opinion of Yar's. Yar's Revenge and Adventure are the two 2600 games that have most baffled me over the years when it comes to their popularity. IMO, they are among the worst games for the 2600. Until I started reading r.g.v.c in 1993 I had never met a single person who thought otherwise about those games - each and every person I knew in the early 80s with a 2600 despised those games. Every few months I'll pull out those games to give them a shot, and I always think they're abysmal. At least in the case of Adventure I can place much of the blame on the game being in a useless genre - Yar's is the kind of game I should like, so that's just the game being awful on its own merits (or lack thereof). I'd play Mythicon games for hours on end before I'd play Yar's Revenge.

[zmeston]

I'd play Mythicon games for hours on end before I'd play Yar's Revenge.

HAHA! Now I'm postive you're just joking!
The interesting thing about the Mythicon games is that you don't have to own all 3. Having 1 is good enough, because they're all the same game

I put stock in Bill's opinion for the simple fact that he experienced Raiders and Yars' Revenge at their time of their release, and as a jaded reviewer instead of a wide-eyed kid. He doesn't have 20 years of history or the warm glow of nostalgia clouding his mind.

Or maybe Bill just dislikes Howard Scott Warshaw for ending the Golden Age of Gaming with E.T.

-- Z.

[BillKunkel]

It's funny, but when I originally included Yars in with Raiders, I suspected I might catch some flak. I didn't expect anyone to support Raiders, but I have been totally baffled for years now regarding the retroactively high opinion many gamers have regarding Yars.

I can indeed testify that when it came out -- especially since it was originally supposed to be the 2600 version of the classic coin-op "Star Castle" -- it was universally loathed. But then, the same thing happens with movies. Some of them flop on release yet build up a coterie of support as nostalgia sets it.

HSW seems like a very nice fellow, but as a 2600 game developer, he is probably my least favorite creator.

As to some of the earlier comments I haven't responded to:

* I'm really sorry about the C64 version of Superman. I know it sucks. But if you can somehow get your hands on the Amiga or Atari version, I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

* As I suspected, nobody every actually played the "Batman Returns" PC game. Phew, what a relief!

* I intended to mention the "shot" at CGE that one of the characters takes in LWB, but of course it isn't really a shot. It's the typical reaction of certain fanboy types against anything that becomes successful. The thinking seems to go like this: If more than 50 people show up, the event must have sold out. So, in actuality, I took it as a signifier that CGE has officially Made It.

Finally, thanks again to everyone who reads -- and especially those who write in about -- my column on this site and my piece on Tetris that I wrote for gooddealgames.com. It's been a real kick to write this stuff, especially now that I'm teaching classes on game design at UNLV and may even wind up working for a game development group for the first time in years (not counting a brief contract stint at Westwood working on the terrible "Earth & Beyond" -- sure to be a column subject itself in the near future itself).

--Bill Kunkel

[Kid Ice]

I can indeed testify that when it came out -- especially since it was originally supposed to be the 2600 version of the classic coin-op "Star Castle" -- it was universally loathed. But then, the same thing happens with movies. Some of them flop on release yet build up a coterie of support as nostalgia sets it.


--Bill Kunkel

Wow, I'm surprised by that. All my friends loved that game. It was one of those games that EVERYBODY had; a staple like Pitfall or Space Invaders. I wasn't a huge fan of it at the time, I admit, but it has grown on me.

I think a big part of the appeal of that game was that it was an original Atari action game, not an arcade version or a licensed game. I wasn't even aware of the Star Castle thing until a few years ago, and quite frankly, there wasn't a big demand for a home version of Star Castle in my neighborhood.

I don't remember what the word was in EG. The game never won any awards or anything?

ICE

[stonic]

I put stock in Bill's opinion for the simple fact that he experienced Raiders and Yars' Revenge at their time of their release, and as a jaded reviewer instead of a wide-eyed kid. He doesn't have 20 years of history or the warm glow of nostalgia clouding his mind.

I still play Yars and RotLA on occasion - not because I was 'enamored' by them 20 years ago, but b/c I still find them to be good games. Besides, I seriously question the statement that Yars was "universally loathed". I can't imagine that EG (or any other mag) gave it a bad review at the time. Yars was THE game to have back then amongst everyone I knew, and even now it's still found on most people's top-10 lists. No disrespect to you Bill, but I would easily wager that non-Yars fans are in the minority.

[BillKunkel]

I can absolutely assure you that neither Yars nor RotLA ever won any awards at EG. The reaction that I remember on Yars was: "THIS is what they did with Star Castle?" Frankly, I think it's Star Castle that is being low-rated; it was an extremely popular coin-op in its day and very popular among the cognescenti. The fact that Atari purchased the Star Castle license (and a coin-op license, at that time, was EXTREMELY valuable, not to mention expensive) and then didn't use it -- "Yar" in fact, was a reference to Atari honcho Ray (spelled backwards) Kasar -- really tells us much of what we need to know about the game.

Yar was mostly hated for its awful graphics -- that ragged multi-color line running down the middle. If I can locate the original EG review, I'll reprint it in a future posting.

As for "Raiders" it simply reprocessed the code from another piece of crap -- the infamous E.T. -- albeit to slightly better effect.

In any case, I probably should've left out my personal hard-ons for those games and stuck with the book, since that was what I was really writing about and there has been virtually no response to LWB itself.

And hey, I never thought I'd live long enough to see people actually defending these late-era 2600 games. Unless I've developed a case of Alzheimers, these games were among the major disappointments of the Atari era. But by now, there are probably readers out there ready to tell me how fantastic the SwordQuest series was.

Best,
Bill

[zmeston]

In any case, I probably should've left out my personal hard-ons for those games and stuck with the book, since that was what I was really writing about and there has been virtually no response to LWB itself.

My perception of LWB, alas, is that its prose is simply too challenging for many of its potential readers. Hell, a lot of the gamers I know can't be bothered to thumb through 12-page instruction manuals, let alone sophisticated novels. We live in an era of gaming in which a profane idiot calling himself "Seanbaby" writes for the hobby's most venerable magazine, which sums up the lowered expectations (and abilities?) of current gamer/readers as well as anything.

It also doesn't help that protagonist Pennyman's "Catalogue" descriptions are WAAAAY over the top, as when he calls Pac-Man "the first existential videogame" and compares Pac-Man's appetite to elements of Marxism. That's not deep -- that's just damn silly.

-- Z.

[BillKunkel]

I agree that Pennyman is over the top, but that's what makes him such a compelling character to me. If he were your typical game fan, who would want to read about him? It's the way Pennyman has neurotically fastened onto these games and transmogrified them into Roar-Shock Tests for his own psyche that kept me reading.

Much of the greatness of the classic games we all love were molded by their technological limitations. This visual simplicity allowed us to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations -- those 2600 games were almost like radio when compared to the TV of today's CGI-candy.

I used to love the Odyssey2 videogames that would feature maybe 10 pages of backstory on an interplanetary war that set up a game comprising a couple of octagons and a bunch of dots.

I think your criticism of the Pac-Man/Marx comments are a little unfair, though. I felt at that point in the review Pennyman was simply reeling off the standard symbolism that has long been discussed with regard to the socio-cultural significance of the game before getting into his own take on the world "behind the glass.".

And while many of Pennyman's reviews are overblown, I think they're more often on-target send-ups of the sort of pseudo-profound essays which have appeared in "cinema" periodicals for decades. You haven't lived until you've read some half-assed intellectual citing the influence of James Joyce on the films of Mario Bava or somesuch exercise in literary masturbation.

Alas, your comments regarding the unwillingness of game players to read are, all too sadly, true. Because whether you like the book or hate it, with the possible exception of "Microserfs", have any mainstream novels even looked at the electronic gaming culture, much less really dug into it? I don't think so.

It's depressing to think that when a book comes along that does brace this subject -- to very favorable critical reviews from the mainstream critics, btw -- we fans of these very games can't bother reading or discussing it.

--Bill

[Arcade Antics]

But by now, there are probably readers out there ready to tell me how fantastic the SwordQuest series was.

Nope, no worries there. SwordQuest's pointless, random torture will always be universally loathed.

[zmeston]

Much of the greatness of the classic games we all love were molded by their technological limitations. This visual simplicity allowed us to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations -- those 2600 games were almost like radio when compared to the TV of today's CGI-candy.

My favorite "Catalogue" excerpt in LWB is the Double Dragon entry, in which Pennyman echoes your opinion:

"When we play these games, the sketcky visual detail forces us to fill in the blanks, and in so doing we bind ourselves to the game world. Even more, we participate in its creation, we are a linchpin, a cocreator, crucial to the existence of the game world as it is meant to be experienced. Without our participation the Classic game is nothing, it devolves into exactly what the gloss-junky detractors see--and they see it precisely because they refuse to put forth the mental effort required to round out the vision."

I've never read a better description of the appeal of classic gaming.

And while many of Pennyman's reviews are overblown, I think they're more often on-target send-ups of the sort of pseudo-profound essays which have appeared in "cinema" periodicals for decades. You haven't lived until you've read some half-assed intellectual citing the influence of James Joyce on the films of Mario Bava or somesuch exercise in literary masturbation.

Well, see, now I've revealed myself as an unsophisticated reader. Heh. Knowing that the "Catalogue" entries are satirical makes them infinitely more entertaining. Lines like "It is difficult to ignore the similarities between Donkey Kong (the creature) and the demiurge of the Gnostic heresies" are, when placed into the proper perspective, comedy gold.

It's depressing to think that when a book comes along that does brace this subject -- to very favorable critical reviews from the mainstream critics, btw -- we fans of these very games can't bother reading or discussing it.

It is, however, a thrill for me to discuss this book with my game-journalism hero. (Hell, I'm amazed I made it this far into the thread without sucking up.) I just gave LWB a glowing write-up in an upcoming issue of PSE2, so I'm doing everything in my limited freelance-weasel power to convince gamers to read it.

Perhaps if Seanbaby reviewed the book for EGM and talked about the brief sex scene, sales would take off.

-- Z.

[stonic]

The reaction that I remember on Yars was: "THIS is what they did with Star Castle?"

Sounds as if your dislike for Yars stems more from the fact that it's simply not Star Castle. I'd have to agree with Warshaw's decision - if a straight port of Star Castle was attempted on the VCS, it would have sucked big-time.

Yar was mostly hated for its awful graphics -- that ragged multi-color line running down the middle. If I can locate the original EG review, I'll reprint it in a future posting.

You of all people should know that good gameplay doesn't depend on good graphics "Awful graphics" describes the majority of the VCS catalog! (unless you're a younger gamer, in which case that describes all of them).

As for "Raiders" it simply reprocessed the code from another piece of crap -- the infamous E.T. -- albeit to slightly better effect.

Not true. Raiders was done before E.T. (according to Howard himself), so if anything, E.T. might use some Raiders code (which actually it does, since the Indy character is hidden in the game.) It's possible the code used to play the theme songs in each is very similar.

Btw, here's the link to the HSW interview on DP: http://www.digitpress.com/archives/arc00131.htm

But by now, there are probably readers out there ready to tell me how fantastic the SwordQuest series was.

Maybe....but I'm not one of them! lol