Welcome to my new serial Tales of Strange Cyberworlds, a future set of posts that explores strangeness in Video Games.
Being an avid Video Game fan, I have always been interested in both Video Game history and how some games stood out to me. It could be a technical achievement, innovative genre, or something different that triggered my interest. Tales of Strange Cyberworlds is about Video Games that have captured my imagination written in a pulp fiction narrative, a kind of historic-adventure Fanfiction.
The avatar I’ll be role-playing for this narrative is Doc Surge a fictional adventurer similar to Doc Savage, who has developed the Strangervision Computer as a way to to catalog and interact with various Cyberworlds (Video Game platforms) and their sub-worlds (the Video Games themselves).
Those Cyberworlds that grab the attention of the Strangervision are a glorious collection of Video Games that contain game state transmigration (game events that carry over within and between games), genre mashups, meta-textual treatments, player-less win states, and flipped perspectives. You won’t find games that contain hard-core twitch difficulty or genre-typical themes. Tales of Strange Cyberworlds is not intended to be a history of Video Games but it does use history as a path to follow.
Cyberworlds will receive different treatments based on personal affinity and engagement level. The initial engagement is known as an…
• Inspection (I0). Is where a collection of Cyberworlds are classified by platform and/or era and are briefly cataloged to determine the presence of any Strange qualities. Those that have said quality are treated to an…
• Inquiry (I1). Is where the Cyberworld is cataloged with a briefly description and visual tracking. Those Cyberworlds that are of particular interest are treated to an…
• Investigation (I2). Is where the Cyberworld is explored in greater detail including graphical cataloging and description of events. Those Cyberworlds with a compelling and going concern receive a…
• Intervention (I3). Is everything found in a Cyberworld Investigation with added depth, history, and personal recounting. An Intervention is expected to be episodic and will take away from other Tales.Â
So avail yourself to Episode 1, Surge of Strangeness, where the Strangervision computer has been finally built and starts receiving signals from various Cyberworlds…
(P.S. The faux-pulp mag image of Doc Surge sitting at his Strangervision Computer comes from Age of Heroes, Eras of Man and some editing via Paint.net. Also, if you’re so inclined you can download the Powerpoint and see the animated images that help convey the story)
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