Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle

Having been born in 1977, I wasn’t around when my older brother and sister owned the home version of Pong. Shortly after I was born, however, they received an Atari 2600. Also known as the Atari VCS, the 2600 set a new standard for home video game consoles by implementing interchangeable cartridges with games that can be purchased at retail stores. A new business model was born and the Second Generation of Video Games hit the US market.

I don’t remember the Atari too much. It was close to being obsolete when, sometime in 1982, my parents brought home a Colecovision.

Coleco (aka the Connecticut Leather Company) found great success a year later in 1983 with their famous line of freaky-looking dolls called Cabbage Patch Kids. Of course , it was the Colecovision I remembered most fondly. The Colecovision had far superior graphics than the Atari. Many of the games were completely faithful to their arcade counterparts. Two examples were Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. Actually, I only remembering owning 3 games for the Colecovision, and those were two of them. The other is one I played over and over again for a couple of years. It‘s probably my favorite game from before the NES days—Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle.

Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel’s Castle should probably be considered one of the first platformers. The goal was to move from left to right, encountering new screens where the only challenge was to jump over an objects like picket fences, tall grass, stalagmites, and spiders; all while occasionally ducking from the flight path of evil crows and bats. After about 7 or 8 screens filled with these obstacles, you reach a screen where Smurfette is standing on a table. The video game iteration of Gargamel, who is never seen, is apparently even more stupid than the cartoon version because he leaves a perfectly-sized skull next to the table, allowing any average smurf to reach Smurfette. Jump up on the skull, then on the table, and that’s it.

I’m not shitting you when I tell you that you can see everything this game has to offer in 2 minutes. The screen shots I posted here comprise about 30% of the total game. I must have really sucked at video games as a kid because I remember this game to be fairly challenging.

I just found a video of this game on youtube. Now I feel even worse for thinking this game provided even a modicum of challenge. In the video, the guy beats the game in only 1 minute and 40 seconds!

I had kept this old Colecovision, including the games, safely in my bedroom closet till around 1995 when it mysteriously vanished. I can only assume my dad went into my closet and took out a bunch of toys to give to a less fortunate family. At least I still have my old NES.

"Why are you doing this?"

As I approach 30 and suffer failed relationship after failed relationship, I've become less and less concerned with what's socially acceptable for a single, young professional in his late 20's/early 30's. I've begun to look within and spend more time enthusiastically following my own interests without any regard for how it might hurt my dating prospects.

What I'm trying to convey is that I'd like to pretend that it's a normal and well-adjusted thing for a guy my age to be completely enveloped in video game subculture, sometimes at the sacrifice of my social life. Oh sure, you might think it's completely normal, but that's because you probably share my enthusiasm for gaming. Trust me--it doesn't go over so well when an attractive woman my age asks me what my interests are and the answer is "I like to play video games."

It's not that my ex-girlfriends haven't been supportive of my pastimes. Most women that get involved with me know that I lean a bit over on the geeky side, with my love of toys, Star Wars, and games. It's just that when I go to "business networking" events for work, I find that everybody is more interested in talking about real estate, insurance rates, or wine collecting than anything that geeky. Occasionally there's some tech stuff people talk about, but those discussions are usually in the context of how the said technology applies to real estate, insurance rates, or wine collecting. The more I try to relate to my peers at these yuppie meetings, the more I feel dissatisfied with business and the more I think that I should pursue a game-related career.

Which leads me to this blog. Whether I can make any money out of it or not, I want to share my interest in video games with others. I'd rather focus on older games that hold a cherished place in my memory instead of discussing the obvious blockbuster hits. I've been blogging for years on a wide variety of subjects, so let's see if I can stay on track. Many thanks to you for taking the time to visit this page. I always welcome comments, no matter how irreverent they seem.