Not content with your games console? David Pollock finds out about old- fashioned arcade games for your home.
--ga_u~. n or £30? .5‘
or some, the idea of a strange looking device
making loud noises in the corner of the living room might be their closest $2.00“ mus definition of aggravation. ~~ - -- ‘ . Or at least an expensive distraction from the telly and the Playstation.
Many gadget fiends. however, would be in hog heaven if they had a real, live pinball machine to call their own, or perhaps an arcade machine as just about the most decadent reminder of their youth imaginable. Or quite possibly a jukebox, if gaming‘s not your bag but you still want to outdo all your mates‘ stereos. We hesitate to put these down to unresolved boyish tendencies. because being a proud geek is, and always has been, an equal opportunities sport.
As collectable as comic books (although not as easy to store. unless you have a garage the size of New Zealand). pinball machines come with many specialised features which often depend on the theme of the machine. These can take as many forms as the designers can imagine (monsters, funfairs, and you‘ll like the look of Champion Pub, even if playability is apparently low) but quite often tie in with movie and television series. For example, Stern Games makes machines based on The Simpsons and The Sopranos (£3495 each from Pinball Heaven). although the most popular at the moment has to be the much in demand Lord of the Rings (£3495, also from Pinball Heaven).
Although you aren‘t looking at much change from a grand and a half for the cheapest decent pinball machine, Williams Amusements does have an early 708 model named Travel Time. listed at £695. Those who’ve joined the digital age (although, of course, many modem pinball machines also include digital features) might be more inspired by an arcade machine. You’ll have to shop around among secondhand selections to find exactly what you want, and also find out whether the machine has been adapted for freeplay or whether you‘ll need a sack of 20 pence pieces.
As an example, Williams recently had a Tekken 2 upright listed on its website at £450. But that‘s the lower end of the market, and Arcade Heaven rates most cabinets around the £4()0—£80() mark. In fact, once you get past the rather annoyingly jargon-heavy nature of its site, Arcade Heaven offers a pretty comprehensive range of options, tellingly informing us that ‘if you can’t fit a machine in your house (or the wife won’t let you!)’ the Supergun is the way forward. For £170, you get pretty much everything you need to play arcade quality games on your TV. including joystick and sound adapters, but not including separate motherboard (£150) or games (around £100 each). Understanding spouse not included either. sadly.
www.pinbal|heaven.co.uk, www.wi|liams-amusements.co.uk, www.arcadeheaven.co.uk
T H ill-.113
LISTS
Obsessive behaviour takes many forms and here one individual has made it his mission to collect. compile and catalogue all the abandoned shopping lists he finds. He reviews them too. For some bizarre reason, it's incredibly interesting. www.redhotscott.co.uk/shop- pinglists
clicking, whirring and
Reviews
XBOX/PSZ DESTROY ALL HUMANS (NO) 000
Oh, please let the developers have another go at this. Spoofing SOs B-movies. comics and bubble gum cards. the imaginative adventures of alien Crypto as he commits intergalactic genocide are packed with gloriously funny moments and such is the polish and presentation that only the Lucasarts games of old rival the laugh count. It’s only when you get away from the stOry. the sight gags and the ever- amusing anal probing that Destroy All Humans begins to c0ugh and splutter like the Martians in War of the Worlds. Though controlling Crypto is easy enough. there is not a huge variety of things to do. And what there is either grows repetitive or. in the case of the psionic powers. becomes mildly irritating. The freedom promised is gradually eroded and. while yOur surroundings look beautiful. they often pop into eXistence as if by magic. But the exuberant and breathless nonsense very nearly papers over the cracks. So please can we have another?
PLAY -
With tidier gameplay. Destroy All Humans could be legendary. (Iain Davidson)
PC
BOILING POINT: ROAD TO HELL (Atari) O
Oh. my sweet momma. this is bad. It is one thing to try for the moon, but if you can't manage to stand on a chair, why bother? The ambition of Box/mg Point is admirable. A tale of a father's love for a daughter acted out in violent vengeance across hundreds of square miles of South America. all of which are free for you to roam through. That's right, a massive map that allows you to walk, drive or fly from one plotted meeting to the next. choosing your own
roots. yOur own
I adventure. Imagine GTA
//l on a grander, more rural scale. Except it doesn't work. The game engine cannot handle this massive freeform approach and glitches are common. Pieces are missing. Animations are terrible. Everywhere begins to look like everywhere else. It is a terrible mess and should only be bought by those eager to own the most over-ambitious project in gaming history.
(lain Davidson)
best art site.
&
PC BATTLEFIELD 2
(EA Games) moon-o
Organisation is rarely a
word used in
conjunction with online games. where teamwork often tends towards the improvised and the ramshackle. FPS, in particular, are shambolic and the original Battlefield titles.
though impressive.
exciting and innovative. often degenerated into a scrum of lone players. Well, Battlefield 2 has found the answer: communication. And carefully controlled communication at that. This is best played with a headset and microphone. Each side in this war has a chain of command that can only communicate with
certain other links in the
STREET ART
This site‘s full of graffiti archaeology on the streets of New York. It shows the development and evolution of graffiti in the same place over the years with some beautiful overlaying techniques. No wonder it won this year's Webby (the web Oscars) for
www.0therthings.com/grafarc
chain. And for some reason. this passing of orders gives them an eerie importance. making people more likely to follow them. Which makes for a gloriously enjoyable and. shock horror, organised experience. As expected. the accompanying graphics and sound are top notch and the usual variety of vehicles to leap into are as powerful as they are difficult to control. Battlefield 2 is what the FPS has been waiting for.
(lain Davidson)
21 Jul—J. Aug 2005 THE LIST 101