Missile Command Documentary

[RayB]

Saw this on TV last night:

http://www.cbc.ca/wilddocs/wd_210207.html

It's not really exciting or all that interesting, but if you're from the classic vid era, it may hold your interest.

[BobA]

I saw about the last half of the show.   Am I to understand that he put all that time and effort into setting a new record and the game messed up?    Didn't he know the game was not 100% or maybe all that play was too much for the game to handle.  Extra cooling in the cab might have helped.

[RayB]

I saw about the last half of the show.   Am I to understand that he put all that time and effort into setting a new record and the game messed up?    Didn't he know the game was not 100% or maybe all that play was too much for the game to handle.  Extra cooling in the cab might have helped.

Here's the thing, back in the day, these machines were designed to run almost 24/7. I remember some arcades that never turned their machines off. Heat's not really an issue either. Did you know that a 386 PC did not even have a fan on the CPU? That's how much heat was a non-issue as recently as early 90's... I think my 486 was the first PC I owned that required a heat sink. Then the Pentium required a heatsink + small fan.

Anyways, what you missed in the first half was the guy gets a machine. He tries it out, in his garage. He plays it for a few minutes, and it resets. Does this over and over.

His buddy who is his "tech" checks the boards and finds that some connectors were loose. Fixes it all up, he starts playing again ("training") and every time he gets to around the 1 million points mark, the game resets.

So fast forward some time, he finds a game board seller online that GUARANTEES the board he buys will have been shopped, and will stand up to the duration he needs.

So he gets that board, and then they take the machine to that Game Galaxy store. (Why? Some publicity thing. The store will buy the machine from him after he breaks the record. + he intends to break the record at the store. So the store will own a piece of game history, so to speak).

So up comes a long weekend, he's all set up for his 3 day marathon to break 80 million, and he starts playing (while recording on video tape). I don't know how many HOURS later, but he hits 30 million, and BAM the game resets.

[shardian]

I will never understand why people will spend DAYS straight playing a videogame, especially one that just repeats over-and-over. I can play for hours on a game that has a good story line and has engaging gameplay (Kingdom Hearts comes to mind), but what the marathon arcade players do is just ridiculous. It is NOT cool to say you can play for 72 hours on one credit on Missile Command.
Just my 2 cents.

[Level42]

I will never understand why people will spend DAYS straight playing a videogame, especially one that just repeats over-and-over. I can play for hours on a game that has a good story line and has engaging gameplay (Kingdom Hearts comes to mind), but what the marathon arcade players do is just ridiculous. It is NOT cool to say you can play for 72 hours on one credit on Missile Command.
Just my 2 cents.

Yeah, those games were never meant to last that long....(That's me, who sucks at most of them )
Anyway, that's what you get when you say "I'm kicking this game's ass". It takes revenge on you with a COLD BOOT ! 

[Texasmame]

I love the eBay spelling - "Missle"

 

[RayB]

I will never understand why people will spend DAYS straight playing a videogame, especially one that just repeats over-and-over. I can play for hours on a game that has a good story line and has engaging gameplay (Kingdom Hearts comes to mind), but what the marathon arcade players do is just ridiculous. It is NOT cool to say you can play for 72 hours on one credit on Missile Command.
Just my 2 cents.

What is the point of any endurace challenge then? Spending 7 days a week training for an athletic competition... Not cool?

Is it cool to be able to say that for the past 25 years, you hold the world score (and endurance?) record in a famous classic arcade game? How about being the person to finally break it after it stood for so long?

Look at all the attention that old lady QBert player got. Should we have derided her passion and accomplishment because it involved moving a joystick around rather than, say, steering a car around an oval track OVER and OVER and OVER... ?

[shardian]

I will never understand why people will spend DAYS straight playing a videogame, especially one that just repeats over-and-over. I can play for hours on a game that has a good story line and has engaging gameplay (Kingdom Hearts comes to mind), but what the marathon arcade players do is just ridiculous. It is NOT cool to say you can play for 72 hours on one credit on Missile Command.
Just my 2 cents.

What is the point of any endurace challenge then? Spending 7 days a week training for an athletic competition... Not cool?

Is it cool to be able to say that for the past 25 years, you hold the world score (and endurance?) record in a famous classic arcade game? How about being the person to finally break it after it stood for so long?

Look at all the attention that old lady QBert player got. Should we have derided her passion and accomplishment because it involved moving a joystick around rather than, say, steering a car around an oval track OVER and OVER and OVER... ?

Touche'.
Still, if I got so good at say, Galaga that I could play for 2 hours straight on a single quarter, I would say to myself "time to move on to another challenge". After I did it once, I wouldn't be able to stomach doing it again other than the occasional fix when I crave it. I guess my non-understanding of this is that I am a Jack of all trades, master of none personality type.

[BobA]

RayB   Thanks for filling me in on what I missed.    I had a feeling that the reset thing did not come out of the blue.  I wonder how many arcade boards of that vintage can go without a glitch now after years of corrosion.   Any socketed chips or connectors have been attacked for years.  How about good old cigarette smoke.  Many old games have a good coating of yellow tinge.

[Tailgunner]

Here's the thing, back in the day, these machines were designed to run almost 24/7. I remember some arcades that never turned their machines off. Heat's not really an issue either. Did you know that a 386 PC did not even have a fan on the CPU? That's how much heat was a non-issue as recently as early 90's... I think my 486 was the first PC I owned that required a heat sink. Then the Pentium required a heatsink + small fan.

I remember burning the everloving ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of my thumb discovering just how hot a 486DX-33 got. A 386 was warm to the touch, the 486 was closer to the eye of a stove.

I'd personally peg the 486DX2-66 as the first processor that needed a fan. I skipped the first generation Pentiums entirely, the DX2 and DX4 chips were faster, considerably less expensive, and since they were a mature design they didn't have the issues early Pentiums did.

[spriggy]

I will never understand why people will spend DAYS straight playing a videogame, especially one that just repeats over-and-over. I can play for hours on a game that has a good story line and has engaging gameplay (Kingdom Hearts comes to mind), but what the marathon arcade players do is just ridiculous. It is NOT cool to say you can play for 72 hours on one credit on Missile Command.
Just my 2 cents.

'Course it's Cool!!  Man... those kind of players were demi-gods in the 80's.. I mean... imagine playing in an arcade, with Mr Demi-God playing Asteroids.. you go home... come back Saturday morning before you and your mates go to see the new 'Goonies' movie.. and the bastard's still playing 'cos the operator left the store open all night and morning just for their highscore challenge!!

Sure some of them repeat... but 2 days ........ man!!!!
Now that's cool!!  .........................   imo anyway....