Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: KevSteele on October 31, 2007, 08:59:36 am
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Yeah, this is uber-nerdy of me, but I finally met my own personal "gaming god," Eugene Jarvis, at this year's Pinball Expo.
For those who don't recognize the name, Mr. Jarvis is the creator of Defender, Stargate, and Robotron (among many other classic vids). He now works at Raw Thrills, and has been responsible for games such as Target: Terror and The Fast and the Furious.
Robotron was the game that defined an era for me. I literally played it until my hands bled. I totally geeked out with meeting Eugene Jarvis, but it was a great personal high for me.
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Very cool! Love the Robotron!
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If you were Eugene Jarvis, wouldn't you wear a shirt around that said, "I INVENTED ROBOTRON! FRICKIN ROBOTRON! ARE YOU KIDDIN ' ME?! RO-BO-TRON! MINE!"
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If you were Eugene Jarvis, wouldn't you wear a shirt around that said, "I INVENTED ROBOTRON! FRICKIN ROBOTRON! ARE YOU KIDDIN ' ME?! RO-BO-TRON! MINE!"
Theres some shirts somewhere that say "Eugene, Eugenius!"
He's a legend
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Also, there was a contest on Retroblast about a year ago for one of those inspirational posters. A couple good ones with Jarvis IIRC.
Saint, did you get this in the Retroblast archive? Seems there are a couple of Gallery errors. Old Link Location (http://www.retroblast.com/gallery/main.php)
I'd love to see and get a few of those.
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If you were Eugene Jarvis, wouldn't you wear a shirt around that said, "I INVENTED ROBOTRON! FRICKIN ROBOTRON! ARE YOU KIDDIN ' ME?! RO-BO-TRON! MINE!"
:laugh2:
Congrats Kev Steele!
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You lucky bastige. ;)
I love that guy for coming up with Robotron. Aaaaah, all the great memories. Thanks E.J.
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Also my favorite game designer. Defender and Robotron are my two favorite games, and Williams is by far my favorite 80's game company.
It was great to see an interview with Eugene Jarvis a couple years ago and see that he was also a really funny dude with lots of great commentary about the era. Seems like a great guy, and you were lucky to meet him!
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Are you talking about the Rob Welkner COTV interview from Sept. 2006?
Here is the 10 minute interview about more recent events, as well as gameplay tips from the man himself on Robotron, and a few others. Great Interview...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1q8b2_cotvep41eugene-jarvis_videogames
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I spoke to him on the phone at Raw Thrills just last week, Top man....
Speaking about Robotron, Defender, Narc, Smash TV and Blaster for about 15mins....
Time for anyone our Eugene ;)
maxmix
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Are you talking about the Rob Welkner COTV interview from Sept. 2006?
Here is the 10 minute interview about more recent events, as well as gameplay tips from the man himself on Robotron, and a few others. Great Interview...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1q8b2_cotvep41eugene-jarvis_videogames
Thats one of them... There is another one where he talks about making Defender and how terrible it was to work with the Motorala super computer (for the time) they programmed it on.
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Yeah, this is uber-nerdy of me, but I finally met my own personal "gaming god," Eugene Jarvis, at this year's Pinball Expo.
For those who don't recognize the name, Mr. Jarvis is the creator of Defender, Stargate, and Robotron (among many other classic vids). He now works at Raw Thrills, and has been responsible for games such as Target: Terror and The Fast and the Furious.
Robotron was the game that defined an era for me. I literally played it until my hands bled. I totally geeked out with meeting Eugene Jarvis, but it was a great personal high for me.
was he freaky?
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So which geek on the picture is you?
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Eugene Jarvis is like Metallica.
Starting off as Awesome - with hits like 'One' & 'Master of Puppets'...
getting mediocre - with the 'Black Album'
and then downright lame - with all else they produced.
Of course, just like Metallica, we will always remember the good old
days, when they were gods, and produced the best stuff
around.
So sad to see the decline tho. No more originality, and games being made
so easy that any 3yr old could beat them.
How does one go from Robotron.... a highly original and insane adrenalin
packed game - to clone shooting & driving games?
Im sure Ill get hated on for this comment. Hate away. Im drunk now,
and thats my excuse :P
Happy Halloween
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Well, he's designing for the arcade market that exists today. At least he stayed with it instead of going over to designing console games. The Golden Age will never be re-visited, but the Cruisin' games were huge hits and Target Terror is also very cool even though the play mechanic has been done 30 times.
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One day, a few years ago, my wife and I were staying at a B&B in Palo Alto, California. We came down to breakfast, and sat down at a table with a middle aged couple.
We made some polite conversation, and it came out that I work with computers. They said "Oh, we have a son who lives here and works with computers, too. He writes video games."
I said, "Oh really? Which games has he written?"
They said, "Oh a few different ones, but his most popular were Defender and Robotron." :o :o :o
My jaw dropped to the table. Those had been my two favorite arcade games, but I never paid attention to who'd written them, so I didn't recognize the name, Eugene Jarvis.
Then they went on to complain about how he was hardly making any money and was living one step above abject poverty. :dizzy:
True story.
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Eugene Jarvis is like Metallica.
Starting off as Awesome - with hits like 'One' & 'Master of Puppets'...
getting mediocre - with the 'Black Album'
and then downright lame - with all else they produced.
Of course, just like Metallica, we will always remember the good old
days, when they were gods, and produced the best stuff
around.
So sad to see the decline tho. No more originality, and games being made
so easy that any 3yr old could beat them.
How does one go from Robotron.... a highly original and insane adrenalin
packed game - to clone shooting & driving games?
Im sure Ill get hated on for this comment. Hate away. Im drunk now,
and thats my excuse :P
Happy Halloween
well, thats what happens with creativity. when you are young you are most inspired. if its real genius then it wont last forever. had jimi not choked on his own vomit, would he still be creating stunning tunes? or just doing 'hell freezes over' style tours?
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Also my favorite game designer. Defender and Robotron are my two favorite games, and Williams is by far my favorite 80's game company.
It was great to see an interview with Eugene Jarvis a couple years ago and see that he was also a really funny dude with lots of great commentary about the era. Seems like a great guy, and you were lucky to meet him!
Same here, they are my 2 fav games and for the most part Williams made the coolest games IMO.
There was a funny story in a book I bought from Eugene, I think the book was called Arcade Fever. I won't spoil the story but it involved betting and a bar across the street. :)
~telengard
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Thats one of them... There is another one where he talks about making Defender and how terrible it was to work with the Motorala super computer (for the time) they programmed it on.
Here are the interviews (Both Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar) broken up into small parts. These came from the Williams Arcade classics CD back in 1994 or so. That was my first experience with emulation and I was totally and completely blown away. The CD had a little intro where you walked into an arcade and there were some game sounds going in the background. That's where I got the idea to make the arcade ambience sounds.
Robotron:
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=story+of+robotron&search=Search
Defender:
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=story+of+defender&search=Search
These are my favorites: :)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ni_nk8tEx5U
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SI9l2PLX3uQ
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If you have any messages for him.... LMK before tomorrow afternoon (UK Time) I have an email to send him :)
maxmix
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ahofle, those were the ones I was thinking of. Thanks for the links! :cheers:
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How does one go from Robotron.... a highly original and insane adrenalin
packed game - to clone shooting & driving games?
That's easy - you have the market fall out from under your feet. The only arcade games being built anymore are shooting games, driving games, and dance-dance games.
The arcade industry is in severe decline, and the only games that make any money at all are those that provide an experience that can't be reproduced on a home console (hence the games that require custom hardware such as shooting and driving games)
Eugene programmed an amazing number of pinball machines...but pinball's barely breathing now as well. To lay the blame at his feet when his company is one of the few still alive is a bit misguided, IMO.
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Yea. When you think of it like that it's amazing that he is still in it. Pretty commendable. I guess you might expect him to be around decades later after coming out with some of the most well known titles of all time though.
Man that is just depressing though Kev. All the decline and distinction talk. It is the unfortunate truth though I suppose. :(
It will be up to the groups like BYOAC to keep the legacies alive through our restorations & mutations! :)
Yey, we can do it!! We'll just need lots of beer. :cheers:
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Its my belief that the Arcades Died because of Unoriginality, and that
the games were way too easy.
People porting the games to consoles too quickly is also a problem...
however, that was something that any company could control.
The only reason for doing that, would have been that they were
not getting enough sales... because Ops were not buying.. cause
people were not interested in playing those games for very long.
No challenge = no reason to play for long.
No originality = not interested. Been there, done that.
Pinball died (I dont count stern - they suck, and have no competition.
Their New machines cant even hold value while old williams pins values
are going Up) because of the fact that they were designed with
high failure parts... and required way too much maintenance. Ops
dont have time to rip PBs all apart all the time... and anyone who
plays pinball Hates when something does not work on a machine.
To keep games alive in the arcades, more use of cost effective
kits would have done wonders for extending interests. For
example - a game like Race Drivin having 7 more tracks
added to it. While there were kits made... some were released
too long after the main release.. or did not contain enough
content or differences to gain interests.
Having a universal reusable motion simulator cabinet would have
reduced the cost considerably for new games... as only lower
costing kits could have been used, making it easier and more
cost effective to ops. As well as making it a much greater
draw to people to come to the arcades. (as most individuals cant
afford an actual motion cockpit)
Additional technologies could have also been used...
such as stereoscopic 3d glasses helmets, or use of polorized
3d displays. Use of 3d high def sound would have also
added to this. Using 3d mic recordings, high quality speakers,
and multichannel of 4 or more speakers would have helped too.
A rule of no arcade ports for 3 to 5 yrs is more realistic for
ops to regain their investments back.
To be honest, Im more surprised that these Designers / Programmers
dont just go on and develop new games for sale online on their
own (for pc). There are tons of people out there making lackluster
games for PC, and making decent money. Guys like Eugene have much
more experience, genius, and skills to make quality games. (as well as
cult following and high recognizability) Could become millionaires overnight
with the next Classic game for pc.
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To be honest, Im more surprised that these Designers / Programmers
dont just go on and develop new games for sale online on their
own (for pc). There are tons of people out there making lackluster
games for PC, and making decent money. Guys like Eugene have much
more experience, genius, and skills to make quality games. (as well as
cult following and high recognizability) Could become millionaires overnight
with the next Classic game for pc.
You just said he was lame and hadn't made good games in years, now you're saying hes an experienced genius that should make more. Which is it?
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I dont believe I ever used those words - that he was Lame.
While surely, Im not a fan of the recent works... I can not blame him in
totality. He's part of a company, and decisions are not merely his
own.
But even so... Im more inclinded to believe its a misguided outlook on the industry
that is causing the designs to be so generic, easy, and boring.
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I have some related links on my site, one is Robotron and the other is Eugene Jarvis at CAX06 interview.
You can find them here:
http://www.brentradio.com/videos.htm
Brent
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If you have any messages for him.... LMK before tomorrow afternoon (UK Time) I have an email to send him :)
maxmix
BTW All these years back, I forgot to post a photo of what he sent me :) (Been on my Facebook page for ages....)
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/hamish.maxmix?ref=profile (Add me if you want lol)
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v255/241/123/574424011/n574424011_888388_3510.jpg)
maxmix
From here (I do love these old posts lol)
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There's a lot of man-love in that photo
;D ;D
Good work Kev