Hangman, APF, 1978

1978

Entry posted by Guest January 25, 2006

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Hangman/Tic-Tac-Toe/Doodle, APF, 1978

I'm sure you are all aware by now, that I consider an electronically conducted game of Hangman to be one of the most formative highlights of any child's upbringing. To see a child realize that the simple failure to correctly guess a random word could lead to a virtual yet grisly death . . . well, it's just amazing. I love to see their face light up as they begin to abuse their power. They'll start to punch in guesses like "Z" and "Q" followed by a relentless string of other improbable consonants, all contributing to the assembling of some poor soul for a hanging. A soul depending upon literacy to save them. A literacy that will never come.

The noose awaits.

This is the nicest rendering of Hangman that I've seen in six years (1972 to 1978) of chronogaming. This man wears a hat! He's got hands and legs! He's multicolored! The problem I had with this game is more to blame on my controllers. They tend to double-input. So, if you want to type in the number "1" for the letter "A" you might get the number "11" and get the letter "K" instead. Yes, it gets on your nerves, but only if you care about getting the word right.

This is the complete man just before hanging. He seems to be raising his arms in triumphant joy at having been "completed". "Hey, look, y'all! I've got all my arms and legs! Whoo-wee!"

I suppose an important component of any Hangman game is just how varied and challenging the words are, right? Well, screw that! I'm really only interested in the presentation of the hanging.

I like how his face becomes discolored and his hat droops when he dies. It's a shame they couldn't show the interim period of pointless struggle between the floor dropping and the moment of death. I guess that's something to look forward to as technology improves.

Tic-tac-toe and Doodle are also on this cart? I honestly didn't spend much time with them because Doodle isn't a game and Tic-tac-toe is filled with so many intricacies and nuances that I could spend a lifetime exploring it. Why even start?