Week 2 Practical: Digger (1983 video game) Review

From http://www.digger.org/instruct.html

Review on Digger (1983)

Old, but challenging! Digger is a fun computer game to play back in 1983. Developed by Windmill Software, this arcade game follows the elements from Mr. Do! and Pac Man and can be played by either single or two.

Playing as a digging machine, you are tasked to collect emerald treasures buried deep underground. You can move left, right, up and down, and unlike Pac-Man where the maze is a dead end, you have the ability to create tunnels horizontally and vertically, in order to reach the treasures. However, you must avoid subterranean creatures which will hunt and pursue you around every corners you make. Each level will end and you get advanced to the next stage when all the emeralds have been collected. If an enemy touches you, you lose a life and when you are out of lives, it is game over.

You may encounter bags of gold that can serve as a help by pushing or burrowing underneath them to block or destroy enemies after falling on top of them or a hazard when it drops on you. You may score 25 points for each emerald collected but more points can be rewarded based on killing an enemy (by setting gold bags on them as well as shooting fireballs at them) or collecting the gold that was exposed after dropping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digger_(video_game)

Like Frogger and Pac-Man, Digger instils instincts of survival and fear to the player, prompting him/her to take up the challenge (to collect the treasures) while evading the danger posed (the monsters chasing the digger) to the player. As the player collects the emeralds in order to ‘get out’ of the stage, a strong urge of greed happens to be generated as the number of points the player gets rewarded gets accumulated. There is a bonus instinct of revenge when the player gets to briefly chase and destroy the monsters in a limited time when the digging machine collects a cherry, similar to how Pac-Man gets a power-up and chase its enemies. The player will feel a sense of excitement once he/she has played through and completed a level, and being rewarded with points obtained from emeralds, gold and killing monsters does spark joy.

Because it is an original game back in the retro generation, the graphics in Digger are pixelated and coloured dull, but they are still visually appealing to me for their unique designs. The music for the game is catchy as hat of the arcade, even though it is originated from other sources such as the classic ‘Popcorn’ for the main background music and an excerpt of ‘The Funeral March’ when the player loses a life. What is interesting is that the game score is customised to use pulse width modulation, something that was advanced in the year the game was published.

Although Digger does not exist in the arcade anymore, it can still be played via the internet for free, along with remakes of the original produced for other platforms. It may not be as popular as Pac-Man, but the game is overall entertaining that motivates players to beat through every level.

Week 1 Practical: Video Games: The Movie Review

Review on Video Games: The Movie

by Edmund Phoon Jian Cheng

Picture Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Video_Games_-_The_Movie.jpg

Video games are here, and they are here to stay, says Sean Astin, the former Lord of the Rings actor who now narrates this documentary Video Games: The Movie.  The 2014 show, written by Jeremy Snead as his first feature film, summarises the topic of how it plays and came to be an important role in the entertainment industry. When watching the 1 hour and 40 minute film, there are some informative facts about video games we have never learnt before, which makes it a great educational video. However, it appears that the documentary has its own flaws in terms of content usage, probably to the eyes of many enthusiastic gamers and non-gamers.

Video Games: The Movie comprises of the history, culture, creation and future of the games, with each chapter introduced accompanied by a quote from certain key characters (including Nikola Tesla and John. F. Kennedy). The show begins with various statistics of number of gamers, their age, how often gamers play, game purchases and the use of parental control, before it moves to a chronological timeline that depicts the birth and evolution of video games from the retro age (e.g. Pong and Space War) to the modern era, with each year event consisting of a new invention of the console and the games released on their respective years based on the type of platform used. The show then moves on to addressing the culture and creation of the games, discussing the development of storytelling (which in turns increases the complexity of the type of gameplays made), the social interactions and feelings of gamers, problem solving, and controversies of violence in gaming. Along the way, there are interviews with company leads (e.g. Nolan Bushnell, the co-founder of Atari) and developers, publishers and consumers who discuss about video games and share their opinions. What makes the film interesting is that it managed to get hold of archive footages of the commercials advertising the old game products and its consoles to be featured under the ‘History’ chapter. The documentary is also made more enjoyable to watch, when some of our favourite and classic video games we know today (e.g. Mario, Pac Man, Sonic, Tomb Raider and Warcraft) are displayed. The film ends off with the implementation of virtual reality that might replace the traditional game consoles over the next generation in regards to the topic of the future of video gaming.

While Video Games: The Movie serves as a learning experience, its organisational structure of content is problematic to most viewers. Yes, the chronological timeline is necessary, but because of the separate chapters and the film's certain key points, most of the focus jump too quickly and often from one point to another rather than sticking to first to the end. This makes it difficult and frustrating for viewers to catch up with the topic in depth. Another drawback is that the show did not make clear indication of its main target audience, despite the fact it does showcase the type of ratings for video games. Anyone can be viewing the documentary, but several parts of the film discuss the controversial topic on violence in the games and showing fairly bits of violence in games, that can be disturbing to young children. The film also tends to overuse multiple footages, both old and new alike, to form montages which takes up some length of the movie, as if they are showing off the awesomeness in video gaming. These could have been replaced with more information that explains on several aspects such as the new game consoles Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 4 that are shown on the timeline and are only briefly mentioned in the documentary.

I may have spent less time on playing video games nowadays which reduces my interest of doing so, but that does not dissuade me from watching the film. In fact, it has given me a brief insight and understanding of how the games are made and how they have created an impact in our lives. Other than the poor narrative structure and over-usage of videos that bring about the setbacks, this documentary still deserves credit for the large amounts of effort Snead has put in for casting the participants of the show to be interviewed, the inclusion of old footages that gives the nostalgic feeling, and the director's sharing of the necessary information that appeals to most viewers and are worth knowing.