Retro Game of the Day! Journey
Journey by Bally Midway, released in 1983. Game designed by Marvin Glass and Associates.
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Time may not have been terribly kind to the Journey game, but as a kid this blew my mind. Whoa! Digitized photos of real people in an arcade machine? Whoa again! MIDI versions of actual rock 'n roll songs? What deviltry was this?
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An obvious cash-in on a popular trend, the game was a collection of minigames (guide each band member to collect his missing instrument, from different planets). The game culminates in a rock concert, while an actual cassette player inside the machine (!) plays a looped version of "Separate Ways" (and the player controls a roadie who must fend off groupies).
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Yes, this game had it all - I have never heard of a cassette deck in an arcade machine before! I also would assume this was the first well-known game to make use of digitized characters, a technology developed for a different game which was cancel due to, er, test players flashing inappropriate body parts at the built-in camera. Or so it is said.
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Journey - not a wonderful game, but one I remember as being quite eye-catching back in the day, and definitely something of a curiosity which a few of us remember from way back when!
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