I found the following tidbit in the February 1983 issue of Games magazine:
Rock 'n' roll meets video software, and the result is Journey's Escape, an Atari VCS-compatible cartridge featuring the band Journey. Players lead five computer-animated rockers from concert stage to escape [sic] vehicle, dodging groupies, photographers, promoters and police barricades to the accompaniment of Journey hits like "Escape" [ed. note.: "Escape" was never a single, much less a hit] and "Don't Stop Believing." ... Says Robert Rice, Data Age vice president of marketing, "The youth of America know exactly what they want. Today it's video games and rock 'n' roll."
The tenor of the article suggests that Journey is the first-ever band to be accorded its own video game, making them the true progenitors of Beatles Rock Band. One can only imagine the fights that ensued in America's living rooms over who got to be Jonathan Cain.
What I want to know is, did the game somehow play the real original recordings of the Journey songs?
ReplyDeleteOr was it that kind of jolly tootling synth-ish sound that was in all the old video games?
If the latter, it's only a matter of time before some online wise-acre puts out a remix of "Don't Stop Believin' (Atari VCS Version.)"
Wait, do you have a stack of old issues of =Games=? I loved that magazine when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteMy mother recently sent me a bunch of old comic books and magazines in the course of cleaning out her attic, including about 15 copies of Games from 1981-1983. There were also several dozen comic books from 1971-1975, which my boys have been enjoying, especially the Scrooge McDucks.
ReplyDeleteThe best part was that the October 1983 issue of Games still had a little receipt tucked into it, from someplace called the Aeroplex, dated 9/17/83. I figured out that I bought that magazine at the New Orleans airport on the day I went away to college.