Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 27 -- Virtualizing the Imagined: Underground River Games
From the author of Winnie-the-Pooh., A.A. Milne, in his
collection of essays, If I May (1921),
Just before the war I came across the ideal game. I
forget what it was called, unless it was some such
name as "The Prince's Quest." Six princes, suitably
colored, set out to win the hand of the beautiful
princess... The Blue Prince, who is now leading,
approaches the ninety-sixth milestone. He is, indeed,
at the ninety-fifth. A breathless moment as he shakes
the die. Will he? He does. He throws a one, reaches
the ninety-sixth milestone, topples headlong into the
underground river, and is swept back to the startingpoint
again
It's something for an Edwardian parlor, perhaps.
Below are results from Reading at Risk, A Survey of Literary Reading in America, Research
Division Report #46, National Endowment for the Arts (2004).
Trends in Book and Literary Reading, Percentage by Group
Age 1982 1992 2002
18-24 59.8 53.3 42.8
According to the 2008 Pew Internet Project's Teens, Video Games, and Civics, 99 percent of
boys and 94 percent of girls play video games. Younger teen boys are the most likely to play
games. Boys play more often than girls, but 35 percent of daily gamers are female.
The once-readers of the works in Chapters 16 and 17, or even 19-23, are today playing video
games.
The Games We Play Today
Unlike previous chapters dealing with literature and the arts, this chapter is about the present
where we invent virtual worlds to make seem real that which we've only imagined.
We will begin with a few early video games, the type in which the layout was that of a vertical
plane in which the character moved to the left or right and up or down. As screenshots vary with
hardware platform and edition, we make no pretense of showing the latest release of our
examples. It's a fluid business in a rapid-fire universe.
The collaged screenshots from King's Quest (top) and Super Mario (bottom) illustrate how easily
an underground river can be incorporated into a virtual world.
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