I forgot these games existed, especially Mach Rider. I never even knew anyone who had it, whereas I had a friend who had Gumshoe. He never wanted to play it though, which is weird, because it sounds fun.
Gumshoe is incredibly hard, which is probably why your friend never wanted to play it. Even pushing the Zapper up against the screen isn't enough to help your progression there.
Yes, Mach Rider must have been another low-seller because I was never exposed to it. I might have seen it for sale at Toys R'Us though; it doesn't feel quite as obscure to me as DK Jr. Math, which I think I'm ranking as the most obscure NES black box title.
I also owned Gumshoe, but it was the least-played of my three Zapper titles (Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley). I think this is partly because the game legitimately scared me as a 5-6 year-old. Could it have scared your friend too?
But now I'm trying to piece together what was scary about it. The way certain threats jump out and the music changes? The general stressfulness of moving your character? I definitely pushed the Zapper right up to the TV to play it. The consequences of a missed shot were too high to leave it up to chance. But maybe being so close to the TV made it scarier?
Funny enough, the one other game that I remember scaring me as a kid was Deja Vu (which was a one-time rental). I was fascinated by it but couldn't play it except in the daytime with my parents right there. Maybe I always had a tendency to get pulled into noir themes long before I knew what noir was, even if Gumshoe is halfway between a legitimate noir theme and a Hunter S. Thompson drug trip. I was also a huge fan of "Garfield's Babes and Bullets".
I'm surprised that both of you knew someone who owned Gumshoe?! I'd never heard of it until I started my Questicle march many years ago.
Out of curiosity, did pushing the Zapper up against the screen help you at all, or were you too scared to get very far? I'd say Gumshoe is overall a fairly stressful game, whether you're a kid or not.
Deja Vu is one of my favorite NES experiences. I loved the mystery of it, but I never got very far either. I'm looking forward to revisiting it for the Substack!
So I had to look up "Garfield's Babes and Bullets" and wow, the TV landscape for kids was a lot different back then. "Sam Spayed," haha.
I think pushing the Zapper to the screen did help me progress, but I never beat the game. On my best run ever, I might have gotten 2 of the 5 gems. I mean, it scared me, but in a mostly good way.
But remember, I rented every Zapper game that the rental store had, in pursuit of that one truly great Zapper game that I thought must exist. I don't think they had Gumshoe, so I must have asked for it as a Christmas gift. And I did play the start of it a lot, just never made it too far. For the record, I didn't know what the word "gumshoe" meant for many years, I thought the character must have gum stuck on his shoe and that's why he prefers to fly through the air.
That's weird about "Sam Spayed" -- I don't think you ever see it spelled, so I always assumed it was just "Sam Spade". Which I immediately thought was the coolest name for a character ever. I read "The Maltese Falcon" in middle school (for a book report) and only then realized that wasn't any brilliance on the part of Garfield's writers-- they just lifted the name of the protagonist! They likely just had it as "spayed" in the official script for copyright purposes.
I forgot these games existed, especially Mach Rider. I never even knew anyone who had it, whereas I had a friend who had Gumshoe. He never wanted to play it though, which is weird, because it sounds fun.
Gumshoe is incredibly hard, which is probably why your friend never wanted to play it. Even pushing the Zapper up against the screen isn't enough to help your progression there.
Yes, Mach Rider must have been another low-seller because I was never exposed to it. I might have seen it for sale at Toys R'Us though; it doesn't feel quite as obscure to me as DK Jr. Math, which I think I'm ranking as the most obscure NES black box title.
I also owned Gumshoe, but it was the least-played of my three Zapper titles (Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley). I think this is partly because the game legitimately scared me as a 5-6 year-old. Could it have scared your friend too?
But now I'm trying to piece together what was scary about it. The way certain threats jump out and the music changes? The general stressfulness of moving your character? I definitely pushed the Zapper right up to the TV to play it. The consequences of a missed shot were too high to leave it up to chance. But maybe being so close to the TV made it scarier?
Funny enough, the one other game that I remember scaring me as a kid was Deja Vu (which was a one-time rental). I was fascinated by it but couldn't play it except in the daytime with my parents right there. Maybe I always had a tendency to get pulled into noir themes long before I knew what noir was, even if Gumshoe is halfway between a legitimate noir theme and a Hunter S. Thompson drug trip. I was also a huge fan of "Garfield's Babes and Bullets".
I'm surprised that both of you knew someone who owned Gumshoe?! I'd never heard of it until I started my Questicle march many years ago.
Out of curiosity, did pushing the Zapper up against the screen help you at all, or were you too scared to get very far? I'd say Gumshoe is overall a fairly stressful game, whether you're a kid or not.
Deja Vu is one of my favorite NES experiences. I loved the mystery of it, but I never got very far either. I'm looking forward to revisiting it for the Substack!
So I had to look up "Garfield's Babes and Bullets" and wow, the TV landscape for kids was a lot different back then. "Sam Spayed," haha.
I think pushing the Zapper to the screen did help me progress, but I never beat the game. On my best run ever, I might have gotten 2 of the 5 gems. I mean, it scared me, but in a mostly good way.
But remember, I rented every Zapper game that the rental store had, in pursuit of that one truly great Zapper game that I thought must exist. I don't think they had Gumshoe, so I must have asked for it as a Christmas gift. And I did play the start of it a lot, just never made it too far. For the record, I didn't know what the word "gumshoe" meant for many years, I thought the character must have gum stuck on his shoe and that's why he prefers to fly through the air.
That's weird about "Sam Spayed" -- I don't think you ever see it spelled, so I always assumed it was just "Sam Spade". Which I immediately thought was the coolest name for a character ever. I read "The Maltese Falcon" in middle school (for a book report) and only then realized that wasn't any brilliance on the part of Garfield's writers-- they just lifted the name of the protagonist! They likely just had it as "spayed" in the official script for copyright purposes.
Just imagining someone grabbing their VCR to record their little level
I wonder how many homes across America have old VHS tapes filled with random stuff like that. Fascinating!