Stumbling through Geordie Racer

[davidn]

Frankly I'm not sure how I forgot about this for so long, but here's a video of Geordie Racer, a game that we used to have in school that was full of pigeons. It was based on a television series, also called Geordie Racer, that was also full of pigeons. To the best of my memory, it was about a family of runners who kept pigeons, and they (either the family or the pigeons) foiled a smuggling plot somehow.

What happens in the game naturally bears very little resemblance to this - BBC Micro games were invariably collections of minigames strung together into an adventure and they always took a bit of a condescending attitude towards the player, punishing them severely or chastising them for their stupidity even when the only way to progress through the game was essentially to just pick random numbers and hope you weren’t eaten by a cat or struck by lightning. So here is an opportunity to watch me being confounded by a game intended for eight year olds.

Retrospectively, of course, I can only see this game as an omen of what was to come.

http://youtu.be/BGUSrfVSRZ0

Comments

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

In the interest of giving a slightly fuller answer, I do have to say that, despite the unfair absurdity of it, I can see how it would have been appealing to kids at the time - how it would have been appealing to me, even. Although I mercifully cannot claim to have seen the show, the references to it do seem somewhat arbitrary and thrown in - although the pigeons are amusing.

It's less condescending than Granny's Garden, but somehow worse in the way it'll just gleefully kill you. STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. Okay, maybe you can try something el- STRUCK BY LIGHTNING. Okay, the house seems like a better- EATEN BY CAT. And then MOLESTED BY BAZ. And that's only the first couple of screens! Anyway, as you said, I can't imagine there being any real difference between the fast, strong and brave pigeons - except maybe for the trivia questions.

And the fact that you initially typed "pained" instead of "painting" is very telling, by the way.

Anyway - for all its faults, it's a hilarious game to watch - which is why I don't have a whole lot to say; I'd just be quoting all the funny bits.

[davidn]

Yes, all BBC Micro games seemed to do that... and weren't as generous as this one, usually sending you right back to the start for the slightest wrong move! I suppose it was the way to add longevity, punish the slightest wrong guess...

Baz in the programme looked like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFDd4dOO_F8#t=42s - rather different from the moustachioed Joker that he was translated to in the game! (And even now I can barely understand a word he's saying - the merit of teaching English with a story set in Newcastle is debatable).

(Charn is posted above, don't say I didn't warn you)