Laserdisc Tom
ColecoVision To iPhone Games – Part 16
In this ongoing look at significant moments in the history of video game design, we have already taken a look at Bungie’s Halo & Halo 2, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Nintendo’s Metroid and several others. The goal of this series is to go beyond simple gaming magazines and iPhone Apps reviews, and take a closer look at what defines memorability and quality in game design. In this sixteenth part of the series we will examine some more of those classic moments where video game designers undoubtedly got it right and delivered a memorable, enduring and progressive gaming experience.
Mad Dog McCree (Arcade) – This light-gun, laserdisc based arcade hit from the early 1990s was progressive in many ways. Interestingly, it was one of the very first arcade titles to charge a full dollar to play. In an era where even fifty cent games were a rarity, Mad Dog McCree was certainly testing the financial limits of the typical arcade gamer. That aggressive pricing strategy was, however, more than merited due to the unique experience the game provided. Arcades across the world had never seen a game like MDM before, as the characters and settings in the game were made up of real people in actual locations. Taking place in the Old West, MDM put the player in the shoes of an unnamed cowboy – The Stranger – on a classic mission to save the damsel in distress.
MDM begins with an instructive tutorial, to give the player a sense of the style of game play that awaits them and a chance to master the games reloading maneuver. As the story unfolds, the player must successfully complete various shootouts and gunfights in order to proceed. The only interface the player has with the game is through a handgun, which serves to heighten the immersion factor immensely. All decisions in the game are integrated so as to allow for the choices to be seamlessly made with the handgun, and movement through levels is taken out of the player’s hands to ensure that all they need focus on is gunning down the bad guys. This process was made all the more arduous depending on the particular difficulty setting of the game. While most arcade locations were set at a more forgiving level, some less merciful arcade managers saw fit to crank up the difficulty levels and force the players to truly channel their inner gunfighter.
MDM deserves a spot in this pantheon of progressive video games because it was one of the very first titles to prove that video games need not strictly reside in the world of pixels. If the laserdisc had not allowed for such quick seek times, the game simply would not have worked. Instead it reacts almost instantly to player input and creates a rewarding, nearly real-time interactive experience. Arcade players the world over were stunned at this technical accomplishment, and the game’s staggering financial take only cements this notion.
MDM deserves praise because it absolutely defines the term ‘progressive.’ The game was the polar opposite of just about every arcade game of the time, yet still managed to deliver a quality gaming experience. For pushing the envelope into an entirely new universe, forever changing what people expected of video games and, perhaps most importantly, bringing new types of players to the video gaming space, MDM deserves its place in this series and among the all-time greats.
About the Author
Frank Taylor writes on behalf of AppsPatrol. He recommends you visit AppsPatrol for your iPhone App Reviews and iPhone Game Reviews.
tom ridgewood’s laserdisc den: coco?
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[VHS]Peter Pan(Fully Restored 45th Anniversary Limited Edition) (Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection) [VHS] $5.95 Actors: Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, Heather Angel Directors: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Jack Kinney, Wilfred Jackson Writers: Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, J.M. Barrie, Joe Rinaldi Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, THX, HiFi Sound, NTSC Language: English… |
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Take the Highway Live [VHS] $19.98 … |
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Bob Dylan – Hard to Handle (With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) LASERDISC Bob Dylan – Hard to Handle (With Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) LASERDISC… |
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[ Laserdisc ] National Lampoon’s Animal House — John Belushi … |
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Mission: Impossible – Laser Disc $9.00 The front cover shows a blue-faced profile of Tom Cruse behind a fainted-line image of a world. The back cover has five scene clips; Tom Cruse as Ethan Hunt, Von Voight as Jim Phelps, Tom in an action scene flying through glass, and Tom in the vault suspended on wires. “Tom Cruise ignites the screen in this runaway smash hit that “holds you on the edge of your seat before blasting you out of it” (… |
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Apollo 13 Letterboxed Laser Disc $8.99 Based off of real events of one of the worst NASA tragedy’s. In 1971, NASA plans to send out people to the Moon for a lunar mission. They have chosen astronauts Jim Lovell, Frad Haise, and Jack Swigert. They have launched into outer space successfully, however, a slight fault from inside the space module caused an explosion that turned the exploration into a test for survival for the crew of Apoll… |
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Wyatt Earp Laserdisc Extended Play… |
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Queens Logic (Laserdisc) This laserdisc for those of you that don’t know, it’s the huge DVD. That is before they made new technology and now they’ve practically gone extinct… |
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Signed Pulp Fiction Laser Disc Cover By John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tom Roth, Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Bruce Willis and Quentin Tarantino $585.00 Signed Laser Disc Cover Signed By John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tom Roth, Amanda Plummer, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Bruce Willis and Quentin Tarantino comes with powers collectibles coa and matching holograms… |
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Signed Toy Story (Tom Hanks / Tim Allen) Laser Disc Cover By Tom Hanks and Tim Allen $143.00 Signed Laser Disc Cover Signed By Tom Hanks and Tim Allen comes with powers collectibles coa and matching holograms… |