Retro Gaming Culture

By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

A few weeks ago, I watched some of the Xbox Business Update and I’m so excited for the new Indiana Jones game, “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.” The gameplay looks stunning.

When I was a little kid, I loved the Indiana Jones franchise. There was a roller rink not far from my house, and when I would finish my homework, I would sneak out and go there to play the “Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom” arcade game. I would play “Temple of Doom” for about an hour if I had enough quarters saved up. I would hog the game; I wouldn’t let anyone else play if I was there. It was in the corner of the roller rink, so it was sort of hidden.

In the mines, when I’m running up and down the different levels, I always wanted to make sure that I freed every slave child I could. Although, I never understood how Indy’s bullwhip unlocked the cages that they were trapped in. I thought it was strange that when you freed a slave child, you got points; and some were worth more than others. I believe the more you saved the more the point totals increased. The blades coming up out of the rocky ground didn’t help when you are freeing slaves and attempting to take out Mola Ram’s men. A version of Mola Ram could just pop up in front of you when you were least expecting it.

The conveyor belts were sometimes hard to maneuver, but I enjoyed descending the large slides that took you to another level of the mines. Mola Ram’s henchmen, or, the Thuggee, were slippery adversaries when Indy must climb up and down the ladders in the mines.

I never liked the rail-car chase scene in the film “Temple of Doom,” but it was one of my favorite parts of the home and arcade game. You had to have sharp reflexes to bullwhip Mola Ram’s henchmen and gain points as you darted down the narrow tracks.

The 1984 film frightened my friends, but I admired how edgy and violent some of the scenes were. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas pushed gore and violence to an imaginative place. “Temple of Doom” was one of the first films to receive a PG-13 rating. I still don’t see how the ritual, human sacrifice scene didn’t get the movie an instant R-rating. I remember my friends finding that scene disturbing. The arcade game shares the dark tone of the film.

I bought the game for my Atari, but it was never the same as playing the fun arcade game.