Peekaboo

   I think it's safe to assume that this is the first game that I have ever played. It requires nothing more than two people. That's it. No board. No T.V. No Coleco-matic 7000 with gyrating rumble pak. Nothing to plug in, and best of all, no mess to clean up afterwards. (Unless, of course, you have to change nappies.) Peekaboo is largely considered a child's game. I disagree. It is a game that can be enjoyed by two people, no matter what age group they belong to. I think this is the greatest thing since... well, actually I'm pretty sure it was around before sliced bread, so i'm just gonna say that it's pretty gol' durn swell.

Peekaboo is played thusly:

   1. Player One places both of their hands over their eyes.
   2. Player One then removes their hands from their eyes, and exclaims "Peekaboo! I see you!" (note: it is o.k. to shorten this to simply    "Boo!")
   3. Repeat until giggly.

Player Two will now follow steps 1-3 above, until either player loses interest. Variations of this game abound, becoming more and more complex as you get older. However, the simplest form of this game can bring delight to the most seasoned player, and can and will definitely bring a smile to their face.

History of Peekaboo:

   It is said that the game Peekaboo dates back to the early 4th century B.C. Alexander The Great, whilst traveling through Egypt, was suffering severe troop loss. The enemy would don the garb of Alexander's troops, and masquerade as his very own men during the night. They would then sneak in and kill Alexander's men, and run off with the camels. Alexander, who was half-drunk more than half the time, didn't know what to do. Then, one day, he came up with a plan, one which won him through this trying time. He would approach his men, cover his eyes with his hands, and then remove them, exclaiming Peekaboo! If they did not respond with laughter, He would immediately disembowel them. He entrusted this method to his most trustworthy lieutenants, all of whom he thought he could trust. Most of them replied with quizzical stares. However, they, in turn, told their most trusted sergeants, and so on and so forth. By the end of the week, more than half the traitors were displayed on poles for all to see, and the Peekaboo! tradition was on it's way to full swing.

Or so I'm told.

A classic (classic? Who am I trying to kid?) coin-op arcade game from 1993, generated by a company calling themselves Jaleco, this is. It was one of those late 80s/early 90s efforts that was rushed out the door by putting gratuitous nudity in a standard arcade game. A bit like Miss World '96 Nude did with Qix, so this does with Breakout. Though thankfully, without the turning pictures. I would probably die of shock if a stolen still from a slasher film screamed at me when I missed the ball amid a tinny rendition of "Let's All Chant" by the Michael Zager Band. GGGNNNNGGGGHH! "YO' BODY, MAH BODY, EVERYBODY MOVE YO' BODY!" Though it would motivate people to play better I suppose.

Well, basically, it's bouncing a ball with a paddle at bricks until they break. At the start, you're given a choice of model. There's 14 folks in total, 10 female and 4 male. As you break bricks you see segments of the picture revealed and unrevealed and when you do clear it, you get a picture of your chosen person in increasing states of undress. Given that this is in wonderful VGA-standard legovision, they're thankfully hand drawn as opposed to photographed. And drawn fairly well, although sometimes the faces go a bit wonky. Most of the models are fairly standard late 80s/early 90s glamour model type stuff (think Samantha Fox), however, my personal favourite is Daniel. He's a ripe slab of 1970s beefcake with an epic porno 'stache and a purple thong. Ohh yeah. However it's all a bit tasteful. There's no genitalia, more's the pity. But there are boobehs. Which I suppose is a good thing really.

But what's it like to play? Hmmm. Not great, I'm afraid. I suspect they spent most of their budget on the drawings of sexy people with their kit off and not as much on making it play nicely. The paddle can't move all that fast and the ball tends to bounce increasingly horizontally. It's also extremely difficult to aim with the paddle as no change of direction is imparted unless you hit the ball with the outside of said paddle, upon where it simply backtracks. There's the usual array of powerups that fall from the bricks and can be caught with the bat, and none of them stack, which is annoying. There's one which enlarges your paddle, another which makes it all sticky, another which makes it shoot, another which slows things down and lets you last longer, another which highlights the sweet spots. Yeah, nothing new there. There's also some bricks which require multiple hits to clear and some other bricks which are indestructible. The ball also has a habit of accelerating way too much on each bounce, and some later stages have entire rows of indestructible bricks which render it a case of total luck to see if you can clear even a single normal brick. Thankfully I had MAME so it was just a case of hammering the 5 key to virtually put additional coins into it, but in a real machine I'd be very annoyed rather.

And I suppose that's all I can say about this really. Oh yes - there's a DIP switch which can turn off the men or even remove the nudity entirely, in which case you've got an inferior Breakout clone.

(IN1312)

Peek"a*boo (?), n.

A child's game; bopeep.

 

© Webster 1913.