Hello and welcome to Dominik’s Little Old Purple Column the 29th of its kind, it’s a videogames and tech podcast coming to you from the mind of an ageing manchild trying to make sense of modern gaming while looking (mostly) fondly back on the good old days, all of this from the east side of Canada. With a lovely theme tune.
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GET GORF MY LAND!
I have been thinking once more, as is my wont, about that glorious early 80s arcade game era, where it seemed that every single game that came out was a quantum leap in either gameplay or control methods. One of those games was Gorf. It was a quantum leap in gameplay because it built on the space shooter success of Space Invaders and Galaxians by basically stealing them and putting them as two levels in a five level shoot em up game. I don’t know quite how they got away with doing this, seeing as it was Midway who released Gorf and Bailly who did Space Invaders and NAMCO who did Galaxians. Maybe it was aa simpler time where nobody gave two shits and they were like -sure you can take bits from our game, just get me a couple of cans from the buffet car next time we’re on the same train together. Or something like that.
One of the other levels, Laser Attack, was basically two Galaxians mini groups of aliens with lasers then there was another level called Space Warp which was actually the only truly original level: it had wee guys chuffing it out in a circular fashion from a wormhole. They moved really fast and 10 year old Dominik kacked himself at this bit. Ditto the final level: The Flag Ship. A big bastard which traversed the screen and you had to shoot bits out of its forcefield before sticking one right in a tiny slot of weakness in it as it descended lower and lower so again that was kinda like another wee idea from Space Invaders. So even though it borrowed heavily this was the first game I ever saw with five different games in one, that was pretty special.
But what made it even cooler to me was that it had the most fabulous control stick ever. It was enormous. A wee bit like a GamesMaster Golden Joystick in shape but, to my memory anyway, it was approximately forty foot high with a big red panel on it that lit up. There was also something wonderfully solid about the Gorf joystick probably the most impressively reliable heft in a joystick in that decade, if not ever. And the final bit of glorious wonder in GORF? It spoke to you! It had synthesized speech. And it was great when you completed the five stages and went up a level to hear it change from addressing you as Space Cadet to Space Captain. I know it doesn’t seem a big deal in 2022 but in 1981 it was witchcraft. So much so that in some parts of Scotland they burned Gorf machines in a large wicker man as a sacrifice to the old Gods.
And on that historical bombshell, that is it for the free version of the column podcast this week. If you want the rest of the juicy stuff you will have to subscribe for the PAID PALS version which is like 4-5 times the length of this. And you get to enter the Domments Section. And the archive. And know that you are supporting my efforts to maintain a Dominik Diamond arseprint on the sands of gaming time. Otherwise, I’ll see you for the free version next week. Until then keep it little, keep it old, keep it purple. And here’s your theme tune again. Just cos.
Dominik's Little Old Purple Column #29 FREE VERSION