Robot Claw – Page 803 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

SSS

November 10, 2007

One of the adverts between the songs on the Sigue Sigue Sputnik album Flaunt It is for the SSS computer game, allegedly available “In stores now”. The album was released in August 1986.

The game was apparently never made, and apparently never was any more than a couple of mock up screen shots. Those shots appear, as far as I can remember, in an article in Commodore User magazine, which I had back in the day. I recall they described the (nonexistent, remember) game as a fighting game of sorts, perhaps a rip-off of Karate Champ but in a SSS mode. I can recall one screenshot showing possible combat, and another of a possible ‘character select screen’.

Billy Idol and Andrew Eldritch may have been in the game. Neither are too unlikely given the pedigree of certain members of SSS (ex Generation-X, for instance). Things get weird here, because it’s slightly possible that in a box in our attic is an old Sisters Of Mercy fanzine containing mention of this very game, possibly even reprinting the screenshots. And possibly not.

It’s enticing they may be there. So much so I don’t even want to look.

The wonderful zzap64.co.uk has scans of every issue of that fab magazine. But only scans of 4 issues of Commodore User, and for some reason I am positive the SSS game was only featured in CU. Even so, I pored through many issues of Zzap just now. I found no Sputnik game coverage.

I found these however:

Started Up

November 4, 2007

We turned the heat on today. And then it got slightly warmer, and we didn’t end up needing it. But the cold is fast approaching, and with it the snow and ice.

Here’s a portent, of sorts:

Some moisture had apparently got between the glass panes on the double-glazed freezer doors at a local supermarket. These shots are of the beautiful ice crystals that had formed within. (Yes, I took a photo of a freezer door whilst grocery shopping).

The designs were fractal, and impossibly small at the edges.

The Eye Of Judgment

November 4, 2007

The Eye Of Judgment is a new game for the Playstation 3 that uses the Playstation Eye camera to allow us to play a CCG (collectible card game) on the system while using real cards. To understand what I mean, take a look at these shots:

The rightmost shot shows it the best. The device perched on the left side of the white table in front of me is the Playstation Eye camera. It is looking directly down onto a 3 x 3 grid onto which the game itself is played. When I place my cards on that grid, the camera scans them and places a card on the grid in the game itself, which is what’s happening on the TV.

In these shots I’m playing online against someone. If you look at the screen you’ll see some squares have units in them that are empty on my table – that’s because on his table, wherever in the world he’s playing, he’s got cards down on those squares. The goal of the game is to occupy 5 of the 9 squares. And with 110 different cards, with all sorts of different strengths and weaknesses and various strategies, the game is deliciously complex.

Much like ‘real’ CCGs, you improve your deck by buying booster packs of real cards. Which can then be used in the game. Here’s a picture of one card:

< Ouroboros Dragon The strange black bars on the top and bottom of the card are the barcode picked up by the camera (so it knows what I am playing). The green squares allow it to align which direction the card is facing (direction is important in the game). Unfortunately there is no 'copy protection' on the cards, so anyone can photocopy and print them and the game wouldn't know you were using a fake. But simply owning the cards is nothing if you don't know how to use them. Furthermore, the computer controls the draw in online games, so cheating isn't possible. It's a very fun game (of course two can play offline as well) with speedy play and very, very nice graphics. It seems to be quite a success so far as well, if the inability to find boosters in the stores is any indication.

If you have a PS3 and this game, let me know and we’ll duel together!