We're born alone, we Harvest alone, we die alone
I was set on not thinking much of this cheerily morbid little video based on description alone, but some mix of the Byrne and the hammered-home message about the thankless plight and futility in the games we play (and, by proxy, the life we live) won me over pretty quickly.
As Resigned's 'Sir Cucumber' puts it:
I've never believed in much, but in my youth I held a private article of faith that in the extra mode of Balloon Fight if I just kept going a little bit longer, if I just held on, something good would happen. It had to. Or else what was the point?A small part of me still wants to believe this, but I know better now.
Balloon Trip: An Existential Journey [Resigned Gamer, via Free Pixel]
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Chris Furniss
#1 – 9:08 AM December 8, 2008
I think minus world in Super Mario Bros probably set a lot of us on this path. I remember thinking the same thing, that if you toil enough in these impossible games (paperboy, etc) that there was some secret, some extra level or SOMETHING at the end. Back when the world still held magic.
Thanks for the new existential crisis. I haven't evne gotten over my last existential crisis yet. Sheesh.
zachary
#2 – 3:00 PM December 8, 2008
I used to have reoccuring dreams about Balloon Fight, but I couldn't find it in any store or find the name of it online (this was in the olden days of the web). I had convinced myself that I made it up entirely in my dream, and that no such game existed.
Mecha_Zawa
#3 – 9:49 AM December 9, 2008
I love this, it typifies the empty frustration evoked by infinite levels and invincible scenery. The hours (or seemingly so) as a child I'd play against completed games in the hope something would and the sense of loss when I gave up and wondered if I was nearly there.
Damn you Legend of Zelda OoT 100 skulltulas will never be enough.
zachary
#4 – 1:04 PM December 9, 2008
I have to say I'm somewhat surprised to find that I was not alone in playing the same repetitive games over and over or longer and longer in hopes that something different would happen... that I'd unlock something... that I'd find some new secret.
It poses an interesting point: in this era, we could have an exact replica of any old school Nintendo game online in a persistent universe fashion where users or the game developers could continually and forever tweak the conent / add levels / etc.
I wonder what it'd be like to play Mario if there was always a new level you'd never played before... or if you could never be sure what was down any of the pipes -- but everything else about the game engine was the same.
mycroftb
#5 – 1:27 PM March 12, 2009
Warner Music Group filed a copyright claim and got the original YouTube video taken down. This video was the first time I'd really heard the Talking Heads, and I've since gotten a CD of theirs. If the copyright lawyers had acted a little bit sooner, maybe I wouldn't have. Keep fighting the ambiguous fight, lawyers, because while you're not part of the solution, you're making big bucks inserting yourself as part of the problem.
The original site has a backup link on Yahoo Video, so I was able to watch it again.
Brandon Boyer
#6 – 2:48 PM March 12, 2009
Thanks mycroftb -- updated the post with the new Yahoo embed.