Loading Ready Read - Video Game Poetry

[Elomin Sha]

I had to take poetry for my Masters Course so I handed a portfolio in on video games since that is all I know. Problem was there is only one published video game poetry as far as I know: Blue Wizard Has Died.
My lecturer knows squat about video games so I had some room to play so I used the history of games as my topic.
I did it on the history fo Video Games, there is some bias from me. I've made references to Loading Ready Run, you can try and find them if you want.

We are all geeks here [Enter Life of Brain reference here] so I won't include the footnotes. Tell me how bad you think it is.

Front cover inspired by LRR: http://fc34.deviantart.com/fs40/f/2009/ ... _Judan.jpg

The History of Video Games
1889-1970: Before the Games

To Man’s first disobedience of stifling boredom
They created simple games from their lives
Riders carrying goat heads, or loosing arrows
Balls passed by the hip confined by nature

Indoor enjoyment settled with the board
Rigid warriors of black and white
A personal army to pretend you are Sun Tzu
New names and armies born for the future

The year 1889 begins the modern tale
Twain’s Connecticut Man has fallen to Arthur
Past jaunts of jousts and slaying beasts encourage minds
In the Land of the Rising Sun its own noble warrior arrives
Yamauchi lays seed to the Marafuku playing cards
And later to ‘leave luck to heaven’
Three simple Kanji, Nin, Ten, Do

From here select few will call on jousting
Between rivals as fighting the beast as one
Across the world new knights arise
Passing their names to new age legends
Rosen markets the service games
The name of SEGA begins
The good times will be astounding

1958, a man with a funny name, Willy Higinbotham
Builds a table-tennis on an oscilloscope
Then moves it to a monitor believes it is nothing new
He does not patent a new creation
1965 Nolan Bushnell has dreams of arcades
Filled with computer games are squashed
The machines cost too much

Baer flustered by his management’s unwillingness
Relooks into interactive televisions
In the years he develops tennis and chase game
Modifies a toy to register different colours his screen aim
Unlike Higginbotham he patents his idea
Magnavox takes on the license for the product
It proves more than the standard tv box
 
1971-77: Let the Real Games Begin

Now the industry takes shape
Nutting and Magnavox start their own builds
Odyssey, the first home game system is unveiled
Bushnell finds it lacklustre and no competition
Bushnell leaves to ‘Go’ form Atari
To create his own army

And place all others into ‘Check’
Harking back to the old boards
From here the true beginning
Up, Pong, down, Pong, Score
The machine breaks
Too many people are playing

Odyssey sells well
As many see it as the only way
For them to own their personal Pong

1976
Telstar cannot be sold father’s day has run cold
Coleco ask the father of games, Baer
For help with their creation so bold
At the last minute he succeeds
And Telstar is launched into the stratosphere

Fairchild heralds the birth of the cartridge
Interchangeable games are now an advantage
To usher the video game into being
And create a new mode of living
For those hapless creatures that do lurk in the night
And wallow in the silence of the bright light

Bushnell laughs to the bank
Selling Atari for 28 mil swank

1977
Atari opens Chuck E. Cheese
Where children can eat and play games that please
Programming VCS is the Christmas must have
The age of the computer is born with ease
And the world becomes smaller with the click of the keys


 
1978-81: The Golden Age

1978
The father of games leaves Atari
And departs his world of Check for half a decade
He stays with his pizzas and makes plenty
Until the time is ready for his return
To make hallowed games that could be played

Swarming games take their toll,
Shortage of coins in the Rising Sun
Ringing down slots abused games now take control
Children of the States go truant
Because of Space Invaders little mutant

In the future it is said that SEGA does
What Nintendon’t , in 81 they do right
A new father, to modern games, Miyamoto
Turns on a great ape to ascend buildings
With a squat Jumpman chases this Donkey Kong
The machine over spills its quarters like water
Nintendo now believe they can do no wrong

 
1982-84: The Great Crash

A myth takes light,
ET returns to a new home
With unwanted others
A financial blight
Buried in New Mexico
Under the barren sands

The new Commodore 64
Inexpensive but powerful
It wins hearts of the old with fun
In future present it charms the new
Inspiring our laughter, it does not bore
With those immortal words
Loading Ready Run

Atari stocks fall as the VCS did not sell
A turn from bad to worse
Mattel sheds its electronics hell
Solely for themselves to build
This paves the way for Nintendo’s
Fast growing Game Boy guild

1984
Warner is scared by the money trail
Leading away from their banks not toward
They turn to Tramiel, forced from his spot
As founder of the Commodores says
“No more consoles, only computers”

Video games start to spiral
A once mighty beast
Slain by its own kind
Too much, too bad a wasting trawl
Companies stop working
The nerds stop clacking
The Gaming Crash is awakening
 

1985-88: The Games Are Back

1985 soured by the past two years
Few are willing to embrace their return
There is little to elate their fears
But Nintendo’s seal of Approval the royal palm
On release of the Famicom
Nintendo’s new child renamed NES
Proves the need of Entertainment Systems

Addictive playing begins again
Dreams are controlled by falling blocks
From the Iron Curtain, Pajitnov unveils simplicity
Tetris has come, seven falling shapes
Form a line, it vanishes start again
Echoed to the music of Type A&B
To the top level rewarded by the flight
Of a space ship reaching the stars

Following the success SEGA joins in ‘86
Behind Nintendo’s NES
And Atari says “Go” again with the 7800
Numbers are bare as Nintendo rides 10-1
Basking in crowd favour
New characters rise up giving gamers a new flavour
Of what is to come, new characters to savour


 
1989-92: Home Market

The trouble about Tetris no one knows who owns it
Tengen believed Mirrorsoft, they did not and lost home sales
On the quiet Nintendo sneaks it away
The game so simple is tough as nails
Combined with a grey/white brick
It’s a game for the boys and the girls
TurboGrafx appears with games on the compact disc

1990 Boot up a new Genesis
Hear the loading company choir “SEGA!”
Hear the ads bolster their creed
To be this good takes AGES,
To be this good takes SEGA
From the Master System before
It’s quite an Altered Beast and needs a seed

A new mascot required to replace
Some Kidd named Alex
A Spiny mouse made of needles storms in
Moving like a blue blur
At speeds going Super Sonic
He takes their sales into space
Originally to be Roosevelt in pyjamas it’s not so moronic

At the end between Genesis and SNES
The war was close to who won out
Nintendo sat atop with the more gold
While SEGA sold the more units
Who won, who lost? You fathom it out

1992
Not many marriages last in business
Nintendo files against Sony for divorce
Calling on allegations of a coming
Adulterous affair
Only Later to remarry with Phillips au contraire
Sparked with hate Sony seek revenge
They begin work on their Playstation
Little knowing they’ll reinvent the market
 

1993-97: 32-Bit Era

In 93 Senators Lieberman and Kohl
Call for an investigation
To Mortal Kombat and Night Trap
Wanting a Fatality to video game violence
The big two rivals make it known
Their next generation machines
Are underway in development

94 ESRB founded to rate games
Britain maintains the BBFC
They will in future cause turmoil
Forgetting that games aren’t films
Now at Year’s End Sony has entered
Showing their own machine
Dark times are ahead for SEGA and Nintendo are to be seen

1995
“Saturnday” marks a start for SEGA’s fall
They release five months early
Developers now off guard with nothing to show
Nintendo fair no better with their Virtual Boy
Semi-portable and drops below target
It is pushed away into a dark cupboard
Rare for Nintendo at the time to fail

Playstation reaches the Americas
Sales go strong, it is lauded by critics
Final Fantasy VII breaks an old facade
That could not be foreseen by mystics
It proves male gamers can cry

 
1998-99: The Modern Age

The Katana is unveiled
To the West known as the Dreamcast
It achieves cult status
But marks Sega’s end
In a few years they bow out

The Pricing Wars begins with Sony and Nintendo
Slashing numbers
One forty nine, One twenty nine
The Public wonder: when will it fall?
Ninety nine is the number that thralls

Pokémon arrives in the states
On the back from Japan
Of hundreds of seizures
Game Boy Red and Blue
Nintendo’s fastest selling games
Branded by creationists immoral
Teaching their children evolution
And controlling animals with badges
“This is witchcraft”
No one listens and they continue to sell

The industry’s old friend Kohl
Praises them for their ratings
Two Floridian senators propose
To ban minors buying violent games

The first six months of 98
Sales are up from the year before
All is not roses for the arcades
Home industry is booming
They are not now that Acclaim
Announce they’re out

99 is a splash for the Dolphin
Working with IBM
They are ready to continue the gaming war
A blast from the past
An unknown Mitchell becomes a hero
Achieves the maximum score
Pac-Man’s 3,333,360
 
In other gaming news
Microsoft lets loose
It is working on its console
A strangely named X-Box
Sony replies with specs
Of their second machine
The aptly named Playstation 2

Shootings at Columbine High
Cause debate on where blame
Can be laid, not on the shooters
But on ‘Those Games We Played’
Never on the guns they used
Gamers are the ones who paid the price
Fans for House of the Dead
Dreamcasts are not allowed to have light guns
For fear of a repeat of teaching
Children how to kill
The media not caring many Gamers
By average are over 35


 
2000-06: A New Era

Playstation 2 launches in Japan
Gamers queue two days in advance
To go home and sit watching
DVDs and playing games
Demand is so high
Not all who wait get one they sob and they sigh

The oldest company needs a Revolution
What they had is a marketing Reggielution
One employee decreed
“My name is Reggie,”
“I’m about kickin’ ass”
“I’m about takin’ names”
“And we’re about makin’ games”

A slight premonition of the future
Kirby’s Tilt ‘n’ Tumble
Move the Game Boy and Kirby moves
The fore runner of the Wii was not a big seller
And the Kirby did crumble

The Dolphin is skewered in a hunt
Developers disbelieve a 2000 launch
Nintendo finally admits it will be later
This is a major downturn to the company
And one of many yet to come
Dolphin becomes the Game Cube
An ugly purple block

2001 starts with a rumour of once enemies
Nintendo and SEGA are in takeover negotiations
Both companies deny this, SEGA says
They are supporting all consoles
Good news for Microsoft
Their black and green box sees first light
But yet more bad news to SEGA
Rumours are abound with their future
They respond but nothing is put to rest

Then despite the rumours news arrives
Hitting all like a bombshell
SEGA are out, no more consoles only games
Fanboys cry but in their minds a little spark
Maybe at last their dreams will come true
Mario and Sonic finally together make their mark



Arcades start to die in the West
Midway company focuses on the rest
Movies have muscled their way in
Becoming games in their own right
Video games have their turn as films
The format disliked by all those in sight

After 23 years a hardcore games company
Filed bankruptcy, SNK are gone now
A niche market slipping away
Hardcore gamers have to deal with the casual way
In which global economies when and how

Close together XBOX and Game Cube released
The industry enters a new era,
No longer the world of four eyed geeks
Locked in their rooms typing at code
It has entered the mainstream

At the end of the previous Gen’s race
Sony at number 1, the new boy makes its mark
Sidling into number 2, Microsoft’s new box
Saigo Ni , Nintendo are left in the lark
In the trend of SEGA, Forecasters predict they will bow out

 
The Present: Current Generation

Marked by each new system
The term is put to question
What is it? What can it be?
Nintendo’s family oriented Wii
Sony’s PS3 powerhouse

Microsoft’s problematic 360
It is a sad affair
For such a simple sight
To cause much despair
Of three red lights
Now marked on this date
A once a powerful machine dies
Now in a pitiful state
So here it lies
As a hulking paper weight

An aptly name Wii
To spark Nintendo’s new Revolution
Decried by fanboys of the net
Laughed at with childish jokes
Does cause injuries by American dolts
Wii-motes thrown at TVs
Forgetting to hold on
In the Mirror’s columns
What would be a wife beating
Covered over by a Wii accident

The PS3 is a lumbering mutt
It’s big and an ungainly sight
Blue-Ray the new standard
Will it blend? We don’t know
It is built like a tank
Proven by the sledgehammer’s might

On release it was not a console
It was turned into a devilish marketing ploy
Sold for more on the fiend eBay
You could not buy three
There would be
None in the living room
None in the bathroom
Or one in the bedroom
The games have come a long way
From square blocks giving points
And a mind bending puzzle
To free roaming worlds
Exploring time and space
Commanding enemy armies
Whilst screaming: “For the horde!”

The high barriers between rivals
That could divide families in two
Broken down to work together
Or have their mascots brawl
It was such a long time ago
Many cried it a dream
Now it is real, fanboy faces can now beam

Today video games is now a time where
Imagination should be free
But producers and target markets control what is played
Forgetting what games are meant to be
In the words of the immortal Bard: “a time to stop and stare”.

 
Bits and Bytes

Egypt

It’s hot, it’s hot, and it’s very very hot
October’s Egypt is bloody hot
The sun swims the blue sea sky
For the longest time of the year
It’s hot, it’s bloody hot

Travelling by train to Cairo
To see the pyramids
Instead on the way we see
Children playing on the rubbish hills
It’s a very sad sight on holiday

The worn golden pyramids
Used as goal posts by local children
I may not like them doing it
But it’s their history
At least I get to watch

Riding on donkeys for an hour
Watching the rising sun at Luxor
Heading for the Valley of the Kings
Passing over, under and through the mountains
Walking on the graves of those passed

Leaving the hotel you are swarmed
By those who go out of their way to help
If you go for a pizza beware the green pepper
You’ll walk around with ice in your mouth
To cool your burning tongue

It is hot, it’s always hot
You’re glad to get home
To be away from the sun
Then you find out back home
It is cold, it’s very very cold

 
Three Cliffs

I remember once, walking on the Gower sands
The afternoon sun falling down into the tranquil sea
Long tufts of marum were blowing atop the cliff’s hard edge
The golden sun pierced by the rocky points
There, my son on the highest crest, waving
Sitting above the climbers who used their gear
Why do my legs feel weak?
He is going down the lethal way!
 
Lost In the Woods Needs to be read along with Saria's Song from Ocarina of Time

I turn left
I turn right
Where should I go now?
I’m completely lost
So very lost

In and out
Where to now?
It’s a bloody maze
I hate being here
I’m in a daze

I am lost, I’ve been down every path
It all looks the very same to me
All I have stuck in me is my wrath

How do I leave?
Running?
Walking?
Skipping?
Weeping?
I hate it here

There’s a flute
What’s this song?
It is guiding me
There is something wrong
Who is there?

Stumps of trees
Dancing kids
They play with the breeze
Want to play with me
They want to play

I cannot play I must go in fear
My friend, she is still waiting for me
She is far but I feel she is near

Though I cannot
See her
Touch her
Hear her
Find her
Help her
I know she’s here

I must go
I must run
Deeper in this maze
There is no one here
I must go where?
 
Ghouls N' Ghosts

Impossible
Frustrating
Why do we play you?
The end is only the beginning

 
Are You Still There?

Was this a triumph?
I’m stating it myself as ‘a huge success’
I am empty of all my distress
At the start all I’d say was: ‘humph’

I remember the things we did learn
But it tore me to pieces
My seat is now full of creases
So it must go for a burn

My choice was painful and bizarre
So I give you this cake, it is delicious and moist
I give, you take; hopefully my marks this will hoist
No, the cake was a lie ha, ha

I have to leave now so I get up and run
As I cannot think of another rhyme
This is out of data so I can release this on time
I have more projects that has to be done

[kkief02]

haha that's awesome Elomin

[Evil Jim]

Video Game History:

This is murder to read as a poem. You would have been better off grouping the lines together as paragraphs & turning it into an essay. There appears to be no detectable meter & the rhymes - in the few parts that do rhyme - seem halfhearted at best. Punctuation would definitely help sort out some of the timing. Stanza length seems to be random (with anywhere from 2 to 15 lines per stanza) & at some 58 stanzas long it really wears on the reader's patience.

There's great potential here to be video game epic. You've got tons of background information but it needs to be condensed & reworked into a more digestible form. Without rhythm or rhyme, reading it is like being shaken around in a horse cart traveling down a bad road & at its current length it needs to roll a lot smoother to keep your reader into it.

Actually, I quite liked it. I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective. Interesting rhythmic devices too, which seemed to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the humanity of the poet's compassionate soul, which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to sublimate this, transcend that and come to terms with the fundamelntal dichotomies of the other, and one is left with the profound and vivid insight into whatever it was the poem was about!

[the amativeness]

Actually, I quite liked it. I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective. Interesting rhythmic devices too, which seemed to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the humanity of the poet's compassionate soul, which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to sublimate this, transcend that and come to terms with the fundamelntal dichotomies of the other, and one is left with the profound and vivid insight into whatever it was the poem was about!

Thief.

[Jillers]

I don't read epic poems...

[Elomin Sha]

Video Game History:

This is murder to read as a poem. You would have been better off grouping the lines together as paragraphs & turning it into an essay. There appears to be no detectable meter & the rhymes - in the few parts that do rhyme - seem halfhearted at best. Punctuation would definitely help sort out some of the timing. Stanza length seems to be random (with anywhere from 2 to 15 lines per stanza) & at some 58 stanzas long it really wears on the reader's patience.

There's great potential here to be video game epic. You've got tons of background information but it needs to be condensed & reworked into a more digestible form. Without rhythm or rhyme, reading it is like being shaken around in a horse cart traveling down a bad road & at its current length it needs to roll a lot smoother to keep your reader into it.

Actually, I quite liked it. I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective. Interesting rhythmic devices too, which seemed to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the humanity of the poet's compassionate soul, which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to sublimate this, transcend that and come to terms with the fundamelntal dichotomies of the other, and one is left with the profound and vivid insight into whatever it was the poem was about!

Actually it is a video game epic. It was proven when I wrote an attempt on the Red Alert series for Command & Conquer that individual poems wouldn't work. Too much explaining would be needed.
I just copy an pasted from my work.

Please note: I AM NOT A POET. I HATE POETRY.
Thanks for the kind words by the way.

[Master Gunner]

Middle of exam week is not a good time for me to analyze poetry. So all I can say is this: Read Rime of the Ancient Mariner again, even up your stanzas, and stick to an even meter throughout. Right now it reads like a bunch of little parts stuck together, you need to bring it together so it all reads like a single epic.

[Elomin Sha]

Middle of exam week is not a good time for me to analyze poetry. So all I can say is this: Read Rime of the Ancient Mariner again, even up your stanzas, and stick to an even meter throughout. Right now it reads like a bunch of little parts stuck together, you need to bring it together so it all reads like a single epic.

I've never read Rime of the Ancient Mariner, besides knowing it is an Iron Maiden song. To be honest I wasn't too fussed on how it was set out, I had someone look it over and it seemed fine to them (Some one who did a degree in English). I just want any mark that will allow me to pass.
Thanks for the tip I'll have look over but I've never been one for meters or iambic pentameter, can't get my head round them.

[Master Gunner]

You should read Rime of the Ancient Mariner, it's actually epic, and quite enjoyable. It also got me through the romantic poetry section of my English Exam easily, because it's actually good enough to remember. No way I was going to remember anything from Tinturn Abbey or Songs of Innocence, no matter how much I looked at them, but I can remember most of Rime without having looked at it in months.

[Elomin Sha]

Nice, I'll give it a go.

[Evil Jim]

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a great poem. You can read it here. Just try not to think of the theme song to Gilligan's Island while reading.

[Elomin Sha]

Thank you, I think I've only heard LRR sing Gilligan's Island at DB but I wasn't paying attention to it, so I'm safe there.

[Valandil]

Actually, I quite liked it. I thought that some of the metaphysical imagery was really particularly effective. Interesting rhythmic devices too, which seemed to counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor of the humanity of the poet's compassionate soul, which contrives through the medium of the verse structure to sublimate this, transcend that and come to terms with the fundamelntal dichotomies of the other, and one is left with the profound and vivid insight into whatever it was the poem was about!

Vogonity.

[Evil Jim]

Elomin is a Vogon??!

[Elomin Sha]

Go to Tim's Vogon Recital and see my response to a true Vogon, you'll see I'm not one.