ARCADE ACTION

ARCADE ACTION

THE MONTH'S WINNERS

(Arcade Action's winning games, listed in order of popularity are the 10 most-pJayed games in the country as V/DfOT goes to press.)

P. GREGORY SPRINGER

1. POLE POSITION

2. MILLIPEDE

3. Q* BERT

4. POPEYE

5. JOUST

6. TIME PILOT

7. MR. DO

8. FRONT LINE

9. MS. PAC-MAN

10.BABY PAC-MAN

POLE POSITION—I really shouldn't have had that last beer, but, what the heck, it's Sunday, nice day for a drive, just hop right in here and take a spin around the track. Dum-de-dum-dumdum, and off we go...Seems to be some heavy traffic out today, I'm taking my time, lots of billboards along this stretch, you'd think they'd try to Beautify Japan a little. There's a Dig-Dug sign, an Atari ad, a U.S.A. travel map (have to go there some year). Maybe I should start speeding up a bit here. Whoa! This baby really moves. Here comes a corner. Yeeeeeeeee-ow! Oh, ! think I'm gonna be sick! Slow down again, gee. Maybe I'll even pull off the road. No cops are around. Drive on the grass a while. Hey, this is a gas! Here comes that billboard again. Am I going around in circles, or what? You know, I bet I could squeeze under that Centipede sign. Just drive right up to it...Stop a minute. Sure, we can go under that. Ease down on the pedal, and.,. Blooiecrasnhhhhhhh$%"$%#$%#$%#$. What! My ranking is 297? Listen, I'm just glad I can still walk. Let me out of here.

POPEYE—You can't really blame Brutus. He slides in on bent knee, begging for the heart of the heroine, Olive Oyl, and she snubs him outright. I'd be mad, too. As sailors are known to frequent the sea, this neighborhood floats over water, very precariously. When Brutus falls, the earth itself moves laterally with earthquake intensity. When Popeye falls, in his scurry to curry the favor of the lady and the flavor of lettuce, he simply splashes into the drink. It's too bad Popeye can't one on one with tne hulking Brutus, slugging it out. With spinach, or course, he always wins, but without it, he turns toil. He's henpecked on the other end of the scale, too. If he misses one of Olive's love tokens, she tells him a thing or two, pointing to the broken heart at the bottom of the board, and waggling her finger. And do his friends help? Nah. Overweight Wimpy munches burgers on the down side of a teeter-totter, while Swee'pea floats idly above dangling from a balloon. The life of a sailor sure is a rough one, and not a tavern (only carry-out} or a health food store in sight.

MILLIPEDE—The creepy-crowlies just got creepier. We always knew there were more cockroaches hiding behind the screen, and here they come. In Millipede, the centipede's friends (spiders, falling fleas, and horizontal scorpions) are joined or replaced by the insidious earwig, swarms of weaving dragonflies, diagonally zipping mosquitos, a beetle who slides down the side and bottom of tne board, killer bees, and an inchworm who isn’t worth many points but who, when shot, causes the entire action of the board to turn into slow-motion, Sam Peckinpah squash ballets. Only you, the player, can move at regular speed and pick off those remaining vermin-heads. And although it’s been outlawed in the real world, DDT bombs extinguish all the critters at triple the points. As they say in show business, this game's got legs.

Q * BERT—Now let's see. I need something subtle to coordinate with this long orange nose. How 'bout some deep blue? A few leaps here, and there, and now a touch of flesh-colored pink. Hmmm. Not bad. Oh, but what about that snake Coi-

ly? His purple clashes with everything. And he's so rude, always chasing guests. Of course, 1 can always hide out in the Rainbow Disk. Yawn. On second thought, yellow would be nice. I'll paint the entire space with yellow. Ugg! That green beast is tracking through again, i'll just have to go back up and re-do the entire room. Oh-no! Wrong-Way! Get away from there. Who spilled the applecart? I'll get you, you think you're Slick! There, now just this one corner, and, voila! A perfect yellow decor. Wonderful. It simply flashes with beauty. Hmmm...On second thought, maybe beige would have been right all along.

JOUST—The flapping Anti-Gravity game introduces prehistoric enemies one by one. The Lava Troll is a relatively ineffectual slob, who hangs out in the burning mire and grabs the tail of any passing ostricn. The Bounder is your basic working-stiff jouster, just out for a rumble. The Hunter has more dedicated aims in mind; this guy's a serious headbanger. Tremble in the path of the resurrected Shadow Lord, whose lance pierces with precision. Finally, there's the erratic Pterodactyl, whose glide over the floating rocks is punctuated by screeching attacks, deadly, nigh invincible, unpredictable. Joust has few competitors or imitators for its fantasy world. The sounds of flapping and flying make up the music of the game. The eerie landscape echoes silences from a forgotten past. Even after the game ends, remaining eggs hatch Into the predatory fighters, buzzards pick them up, and life goes on in the mythical predawn history screen.

TIME PILOT—Why do I alwavs sing Eric Burdon while playing this game? "How high can you fly? You never, never, never reach the sky..." Fact is, Time Pilot (not Sky Pilot] does resemble a space battle on acid. You start at the turn of the century, fighting rickety biplanes and zeppelin motherships, and—If you’re good—end up in Outer Galactia, battling space saucers amid floating asteroids. As a central, static time pilot, your fighting ship has 360 degree mobility, but is tethered to the center of the screen. Kinda like having one leg tied to the corner of the boxing ring. Kinky. Remember, you must down 56 enemies and shoot the mothership seven times before you can time warp to the future. And try to save the falling guys in the parachutes, okay? It's a long drop to the bottom of the screen.