By Todd RussellBefore getting to today’s article, yesterday during the (NO) Blue Monday Show, we created a Facebook page for PGM, here is where it’s at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573525923659
As I grow older, I become fonder of games from the past. Might sound cheesy, but your brain is a peculiar thing: you can all of a sudden recall things from dozens of years ago that you haven’t recalled, like some fog is being lifted.
Here’s what I remember about the game Omega Race:
That’s a Commodore VIC-20 game cartridge. It’s the very first game I remember playing with a cart when I got a VIC-20 in my room. The VIC-20 was my first home computer. Can close my eyes, insert that cart and then start playing that game all over again and again. I also remember the packaging that looked like this:
It’s cool they called the VIC-20 the “The Friendly Computer”, a detail I didn’t remember.
Neuroscience still isn’t completely understood. How the brain really works remains a large mystery. In 2015, a study cracked some of the puzzle of how this works inside the human mind.
“In the new study, researchers were able to show how the hippocampus binds together the diverse elements from an event to form a singular and holistic memory. During memory recall, the brain recalls an old memory by piecing together various components via a pattern that forms a cohesive remembrance of things past.” – The Neuroscience of Recalling Old Memories | Psychology Today
I saw and played the arcade version of Omega Race, in all its vector-based glory, but not nearly as much as the VIC-20 version. Omega Race is a little bit of an Asteroids knock-off with elements of Star Castle and this week our PGM group is score chasing: Season 3 Week 25: Omega Race + Galaga ’88 – How to Join Us, Play, Beat Your Personal Best – PlayGamesMore.
This was the only vector graphics game that Midway ever made. Since Warner Bros. owns Midway, it would be awesome to see some kind of modern update of this game, but alas, I don’t think it’s coming. Warner Bros. hasn’t done much with their Midway games. Much of anything new, anyway, as they couldn’t/didn’t/wouldn’t continue a licensing deal with Antstream Arcade, see: Breaking: Antstream Arcade Losing Warner Bros. / Midway License. From what I recall about the deal, according to Antstream it was down to the terms. I’m not sure how much licensing 45+ year old games should cost in licensing these days, but it shouldn’t be much.
Maybe Atari will try and buy this from Warner Bros and do something in their Recharged series? They bought Berzerk and Frenzy not long ago, as well as some of the Intellivision stuff.
Omega Race was the first PC game I recall playing over and over again. It was a real thrill trying to beat my previous personal best. Another game cart on VIC-20 we had was Radar Rat Race. Beyond those two games, the brain is fuzzy what we had, but hopefully, I won’t forget playing those two games.
What was your first played PC game at home? Do you remember? Do you ever have experiences like this where you remember playing a game from long in the past once you play a little bit of it, but otherwise had forgotten it?
Pong on the Atari 2600 was the first real game I remember playing. Soon after, mu Atari 2600 included pinball, Adventure, basketball and a few others. My fondest memory and favorite game was Yars Revenge. The hours I spent on that game and broken joysticks that were replaced are etched in my memory forever.
Howard Scott Warshaw did Yar’S Revenge! And also ET. There’s a movie on digging up the ET carts where HSW just breaks down when he sees those carts unearthed.