Scholars have debated (and still debate) when the Classical Period of Video Games begins and ends--some insist it begins with Pong; others claim wildly and implausibly that the C.P. only ended with the advent of Grand Theft Auto III. By "Classical," I mean the period beginning with Super Mario Brothers and ending with the introduction of the SNES (Sweet New Excellence Success).
Robotocism during the C.P. is (from here on, we shall insist upon the present tense when discussing these games, which are still today fixtures in the hearts and minds of children, immature college students, and basement nerds) preeminent in games such as those of the Mega Man series and Base Wars. Why robots? Why hybrid men-robots? Is Mega Man a post-apocalyptic vision? Where is it set--some robot world? Albequerque, NM (which I believe stands for "No Men"--so, is it some sort of robot-haven? Someone (or thing) must be governing NM, but I suppose not a man [read: person].)? We just don't know. One obvious possible reason for the pre-eminance of robotocism during the CP: robots are easier to draw and animate than people. They never have hands, for example, which have a lot of moving parts (fingers).
To answer these questions and others (which the game play does not answer), we should probably consult a text. Since the dawn of time, nothing has been a more reliable source of information than the printed word. Some would insist upon the senses and empiricism as THE major source of information about the world. Wrong. The senses deceive us constantly. Proof: I had a dream the other night in which I was captian of the high-school football team. But the fact is, I'm not captain of any high school football team, and I never was. And yet, I believed the dream was reality: I experienced real-ish sensations. So we just can't rely on the senses. We need some sort of text.
But what text? The instruction manual for Mega Man 2? Well, that would tell us a lot about gameplay and such, but (in all likelihood) wouldn't answer our penetrating Robotocist inquiries. We're stuck, then, right? Wrong! We have this.
-Chris
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4 comments:
I think it is truly disheartening that so many in today's world consider games like Halo and World of Warcraft the absolute pinacle of video gaming without consulting the ancient texts of Super Mario Bros. and the Mega Mans. I think that a New Reformed Tradition movement needs to start in which people enjoy the newer lineage of video games but respect and CONSTANLY CONSULT the old texts. Starting your video game experience with XBOX 360 and Playstation 2 games is a flawed ideology. This is just not how video game appreciation comes about.
Also how to you reconcile the fact that Super Mario Bros., which started the Classical Period, does not feature any robots, but instead italian men and dinosaurs? I would be intrigued by your answer.
Your comment about the absence of mechanical men in the CP staple Super Mario Bros. is a good one. However, I urge you to consider Super Mario Bro. 3 in which Bowzer fights Mario from a reversed helicopter atop his dark castle. I would also ask you to consider the guns that fire bullets at Mario.
inner party member, those are some very noteworthy and important observations. However, I would like to point out that Bowser utilizes his reverse-helicopting flying clown machine in Super Mario World for the SNES and not Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. In the SMW fight, Mario utilized wind up semi-robotic enemies to kill bowser. The cannons are certainly a predicament. Since there are no observable cannon operators, we must conclude that they are autonomous machines. However, if cannons operate in the Mushroom Kingdom as they did/do in the real world, they certainly cannot be considered robots. Hopefully with the realease of a new Mario chapter, Super Mario Galaxy, for the Wii this fall, some of the great Mario Bros. mysteries can be solved.
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