Journey (1983 video game)
| Journey | |
|---|---|
 Arcade flyer of Journey |
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| Developer(s) | Bally Midway |
| Publisher(s) | Bally Midway |
| Designer(s) | Marvin Glass and Associates |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Journey is an arcade game released by Bally Midway in 1983, following the success of the albums Escape and Frontiers by the rock band Journey. Bally/Midway decided to ride this wave of popularity and created an arcade game based on the band. The release was intended to coincide with a US tour by the band, and to meet this deadline a second team of developers (Incredible Technologies) were drafted in over the Christmas period to finish the game.
The featured members of the band are: Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Steve Smith, Jonathan Cain and Ross Valory. Although they have cartoon bodies, the faces of the members are shown as black-and-white photographs, taken of the band while on tour. The photo technology was originally to be used in another game, which would take photos for the high scores. However, the game in question failed location testing when one player flashed the camera.[1]
The game starts out with the player choosing one of five planets to travel to. Each planet features a minigame starring one of the Journey band members, with the objective of collecting his musical instrument (or, in the case of Steve Perry, a microphone).
Once the instruments are collected Journey performs a concert. During the concert sequence, an edited, looped version of "Separate Ways" is played through a cassette player inside the machine. The nature of these units mean that very few of the arcade cabinets are still in good working order, which could explain why the game is quite scarce at this point, rarely being seen at arcades. While the concert sequence is being performed, the player takes control of Journey's roadie, a large man whose object is to keep the fans from rushing the stage by placing himself in front of one of three entrances to the stage. Once the fans do rush the stage (which is inevitable, as they move faster and more aggressively as gameplay continues), they run off with the band's instruments, and the game thus starts at the beginning again.
In the "Connect" section of the June 2007 issue of Game Informer magazine, Journey was number 9 on the "Top 10 Worst Licensed Game Ideas (ever)".
The band had previously appeared in a 1981 video game for the Atari 2600, titled Journey Escape.
[edit] References
- ^ Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 174–175. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
[edit] External links
- Journey at the Killer List of Videogames
- Extensive resource on the arcade game
- Arcade Collector Chris Alcott's Journey Game
- Journey at GameFAQs
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