Journey (1983 video game)

Journey is an arcade video game released by Bally Midway in 1983. Rock band Journey had enjoyed major success in the early 1980s, and Bally/Midway decided to ride this wave of popularity by creating an arcade game based on the group. Its release was intended to coincide with a US tour by the band.

Journey
Arcade flier
Developer(s)Bally Midway
Publisher(s)Bally Midway
Designer(s)Marvin Glass and Associates
Programmer(s)Richard Ditton
Elaine Ditton
Artist(s)Scott Morrison
Composer(s)Elaine Ditton
Steve Meyer
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single-player
Arcade systemBally Midway MCR III

This game uses digitized photographs of the members of the band: Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Steve Smith, Jonathan Cain, and Ross Valory.

Gameplay

The objective of Journey is to reunite the members of the band with their instruments (and singer Steve Perry with his microphone). Each band member is representend as a digitized photograph placed on a cartoon body and is the protagonist in a minigame about reaching their instrument, then returning to the band's ship without running into an obstacle.

Once all of the instruments have been collected, the band performs a concert while a looping excerpt from the band's song "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" is played by a cassette player inside the cabinet. The player controls Herbie, a bouncer whose job is to prevent fans from rushing the stage. If a fan sneaks past the bouncer, the crowd steals the band's instruments, and the player must reacquire the instruments again in harder versions of the previous planet challenges. The game continues in this fashion until the player runs out of lives.

Development

Although they have cartoon bodies, the faces of the members are shown as black-and-white photographs taken of the band while on tour. The photo technology was originally to be used in another game, which would take photos for the high scores. However, the game in question failed location testing when one player engaged in exhibitionism.[2]

Reception

In its June 2007 issue, Game Informer magazine named the game number 9 on its "Top 10 Worst Licensed Game Ideas (ever)".

See also

References
  1. "Journey arcade video game by Bally Midway Mfg. (1983)". arcade-history.com.
  2. Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. pp. 174–175. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
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