RCA Squash
Entry posted by Guest
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Jane: "I think my legs have fallen asleep."
Dick: "At least you have legs."
How could they get this one wrong?
The ball looks like it's moving across the screen in skips and jumps from coordinate to coordinate rather than doing that smooth trajectoring that I've come to expect in "Pong"-like games. Even the paddles move in jerky motions -- which probably has something to do with the fact that you control them with the keypads.
At first I thought that maybe it's the first Pong-like game to be displayed in a system with "resolution"? But then I realized, no, the Fairchild VES had blocky resolution and their paddles and balls moved smoothly enough. I have no idea, I just know that this would be the absolute last Pong-clone I would want to play if I wanted to play a game of Pong. The last.
Okay, next entry we'll take a look at . . . well, crap, this just isn't enough to write for an entry. What else can I talk about?
Okay, here's a theory, proposed to me at vgXpo, by a guy named Andy, regarding the RCA Studio II. I'm not quoting him directly, so don't bug him about it if I butcher what he suggested. He said that maybe the RCA Studio II had keypads directly on it and undetachable because the designers thought that couples would be playing videogames together.
I don't think this is a bad analysis. Think about all the ads from the mid '70s related to videogames that seemed to promote them as a path to recreational intercourse? There's a website that has a bunch of arcade flyers and if you peruse that site you can find ads that either display direct male/female contact ("Gotcha") or at the very least showing a male playing a game with a female looking on, very closely. (um, I forget the name of it, Gran Track 10?) I also recall seeing couples in ads for the Fairchild VES and featured on the box of National Semicondutor's dedicated console, "The Adversary".
While the Studio II doesn't have any male/female thing happening on its console box (other than a Mom, Dad and Child, which does imply a the parents had sex at least once), six out of the ten game boxes I have for the Studio II display a couple (always the same couple) sitting together and staring at their TV with a Studio II hooked up to it. While no obvious touching is going on, clearly the message is supposed to be "videogames may be experienced with members of the opposite sex". This is a nice theory, but I'm sure we all know how it's worked out. 
(Damn, I'm really abusing parenthetical commentary with this system. I hope it doesn't become a habit.)
Whew, well that was a little too much thinking for one entry. Next time, I'll complain about Gunfighter/Moonship Battle.
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