Journey (arcade game)

Infobox VG| title = Journey


developer = Bally Midway
publisher = Bally Midway
designer = Marvin Glass and Associates
engine =
released = 1983
genre = Action
modes = Single player
ratings =
platforms =
media =
requirements =
input =

"Journey" is an arcade game made by Bally Midway in the 1980s. In 1983, the release of the "Frontiers" album brought the band Journey to the forefront of 1980s rock music. Bally/Midway decided to ride this wave of popularity and created an arcade game based on the band. The game was intended to be released to coincide with a US tour by the band, and hence a second team of developers (Incredible Technologies) were drafted in over the Christmas period to finish the game.

The featured members of the band are: Steve Perry, Neal Schon, Steve Smith, Jonathan Cain and Ross Valory. 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 flashed the camera. [cite book |title=The Ultimate History of Video Games |last=Kent |first=Steven L. |authorlink=Steven L. Kent |year=2001 |publisher=Prima Publishing |location=Roseville, California |isbn=0-7615-3643-4 |pages=174-175 ]

The game starts out with the player choosing one of five planets to travel to. Each planet features a minigame starring one of the Journey band members, with the objective of collecting his musical instrument (or, in the case of Steve Perry, a microphone).

Once the instruments are collected Journey performs a concert. During the concert sequence, an edited, looped version of "Separate Ways" is played through a cassette player inside the machine. The nature of these units mean that very few are still in good working order, which could explain why the game is quite scarce at this point, rarely being seen at arcades.

In the "Connect" section of the June 2007 issue of "Game Informer" magazine, "Journey" was number 9 on the "Top 10 Worst Licensed Game Ideas (ever)".

ee also

Other videogames featuring musicians:
*"Journey Escape"
*"Michael Jackson's Moonwalker"
*""
*"Winterheart's Guild" (starring Sonata Arctica)
*"Revolution X" (cameo by Aerosmith)
*"Space Channel 5" (cameo by Michael Jackson)
*"" (cameo by David Bowie)
*"" (cameo by Phil Collins)
*""
*"" (cameos by Slash, Tom Morello and Bret Michaels)
*""
*""

References

External links

*KLOV game|id=8242|name=Journey
* [http://www.journey-tribute.com/journey/resources/arcade/ Extensive resource on the arcade game]
* [http://www.zfcamaro.com/ArcadePictures/Games/Journey.html Arcade Collector Chris Alcott's Journey Game]