‘Ave it argh
James Cameron may have been working on Avatar for over a decade, but even back when he started, the idea of exploring (and frequently destroying) strange new worlds with the use of controlled characters was not a new concept. Back in those days though, we just called them computer games.
So, and feel free to join in, here are a few of my favourite avatars from the ancient days…
1. Eddie Honda
Sure, he was a little tubby, and not exactly quick on his feet, but when I became Honda-san I was a pretty mean fighter. It seemed that for the greatest degree of success, all I had to do was mash one of the buttons on the gamepad repeatedly until my avatar performed the hundred hand slap move.
2. Rick Dangerous
I could have picked Sonic, or even Mario, for my platform related adventures, but for some reason Rick captured a special place in my heart. Perhaps it was because I could play with him on my ZX Spectrum +2, treading where the blue spiky one and the jumping Italian stereotype did not. Plus, those trippy colours probably were addictive on some level.
3. Bub (but not Bob)
One of the most important things you need to know about your avatar is that they are going to do what you want them to. There’s no point in having one if it is going to go wandering off of its own accord or start jumping randomly… Maybe I had a buggy version of Bubble Bobble, maybe my second joystick port was a bit dodgy… or maybe Bob was a poor excuse for a blue, bubble blowing dinosaur.
4. Link
As far as interfaces for controlling your avatar go, none will ever compare to the N64. I was in Hyrule! I was riding Epona! I was battling giant boss monsters! I was wandering around for hours trying to solve a puzzle because I’d missed an apparently obvious switch earlier in the dungeon.
What do Ken and Ryu like to get from the takeaway?
Hadoken chips.
/b
Excellent, that… a Streetfighter joke that is both British and a little bit Northern too.
earthworm jim and Sergeant Cortez from timesplitters – both way too funny.
I so nearly put Jim in my list!
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What about the Shoal?
SWEET!!!
Ah, the hundred hand slap. Bastion of the unskilled and cheap player. Or so I would exclaim whenever I lost.
At the moment my favourite retro digital avatar would have to be “you”. As in “You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.”
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Oh my god. I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Gah, why does my nerdiness only reside on one level? It’s hard to be a geek when you don’t know about most of the NORMAL geeky things.
Ack the N64’s controller was a trainwreck. THERE WAS NO WAY TO HOLD IT WHERE YOU COULD HIT ALL THE BUTTONS!
I never got into fighting games until the 3D era with Virtua Fighter and Tekken and Soul Edge. Mitsurugi is my usual choice in Soul games but every one I’ve played I’ve beaten with all the characters. I usually play as Sarah in VF and Nina in Tekken, they’re basically the same character.
Conversely I only really liked Sonic in the 2D era. I played Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 but I don’t think the gameplay translated. Sonic has a unique attack style, though, jumping into his enemies. I think I’ll design a game concept where you play as a guy who wears a suit covered in three-foot long spikes and just runs into adversaries.
I like the Space Marine from the original Doom. I love the face he’d make when you’d use the chainsaw, it always perfectly reflected the face I was making because those pink things had pissed me off to the point that I was using the chainsaw.
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Alex the Kid….now theres ana vatar….with my Master System II, I didn’t even need a cartridge for that one, is was hard wired into the console! Ahhh..the days of the directional “pad” and buttons 1 and 2…… *starts humming the song*
Also…Bub?? Is his namme actually Bub? And is there ANY possible relation to Wolverine? Because that would be hilarious….
Umihara Kawase, a gamer’s game and a gamer’s girl.
For those not familiar with the game you can find info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umihara_Kawase
Suffice to say I think that this game is nothing short of stellar and I used the heroine for the prototype ‘jvgfanatic girl’ for my website oh-so-long ago. Her bungie cord fishing rod was the ultimate transportation mechanism and her uber anti-fish-odour backpack rocked.
Jazz Jack Rabbit? Anyone?
Gah, I should go write my girlfriend an email and process some of these photos.
Greetings from Gascoyne Junction, my home for the next 5-6weeks. If you don’t know where it is, it is precisely half way between Woop Woop and fuck knows, which puts it squarely in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere.
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Aww, you sound unhappy about being in bum-fuck nowhere…*comfort hug*
Also, is it sad that one of the first things I noticed in your comment is that you say “gah” too? >.<
Not so much unhappy as frustrated. I miss my girl and I am annoyed at my inability to do certain things out here.
I like gah, it is a good word.
Ben´s last blog ..Unknown Lizard
>I miss my girl and I am annoyed at my inability to do certain things out here.
Those of you with a dirty mind may wish to commence sniggering now.
/b
Bugger, I was beaten to it.
Ben´s last blog ..Unknown Lizard
*snigger*
Thank you.
/b
I just realised that missing my girl and inability to do certain things, sounds wrong. They should be considered seperately and not in context with each other.
Ben´s last blog ..Unknown Lizard
i played all of the ultima games, even ultima online.
wow that was a long time ago.
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Rick, from SPLATTERHOUSE (1-3, remake).
you know, ’cause I’m a lil sick.
Wow, my gf looks like April from TMNT, the 80’s version, not the modern ones.
How cool is that?
Including the yellow all-in-one?
I’m working on that. I’ll have to see a tailor or seamstress.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to boast, just I was shown a pic of April (not that one, a much saucier one) and I was stunned at the resemblance.
Ben´s last blog ..Unknown Lizard
Sure is quiet in here.
What is every one doing?
Me, I am still 1000km north of Perth in the bush. Found some fossils today, chased some emus a few days earlier. Only 25 or so days left before I return to the “civilised” world.
So, interesting news anyone?
Ben´s last blog ..Emus
Don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve had swine ‘flu…
Better now though.
Chasing the Emu sounds like some sort of drug euphemism. Do you have photos of your fossils?
Don’t bother calling that helpline- all you’ll get is crackling.
/b
I know a few ppl who have had that recently.
No photos of the fossils yet, need to take some time to set the camera up and do it properly. We are coming into wild flower season very soon, so my camera is set up for that. I can’t do lens changes in the field, there is far too much dust.
How was the virus? As one of the relatively few ppl that have had it, how do you feel?
Ben´s last blog ..Emus
Ah, dust… enemy of anything made of polished glass. I’ll be keeping an eye out though.
As far as viruses go it was pretty mild. Two days of feeling terrible, headache, sore throat and aching bones… that’s about it. My sub-six month old nephew handled it like a champion too, creating the phrase, ‘ a baby could handle it’.
Obviously, looking at the news reports, not all babies can handle it.
And Beemoh, as an NHS employee, I can confirm that crackling is due to an absence of NHS staff as they aer all off with the ‘flu… still it should mean immunity for when the full wave hits as the schools and students return in September.