I TAINMENT
Wednesday, August 30, 1995 Page 12
Videogames
today lack
challenge
Video games today have really gone
down the proverbial toilet.
Sure, the graphics are great, the
characters look and move realistically
and there’s blood and guts splattering
everywhere.
Other than that...
You need about ten pages of solu
tions and secret moves to make any
progress in a game, and half of the
memory of the game is used for secret
stuff, which translates to even more
gore and violence.
Video games are no longer games
of skill. They are games of knowledge
and memorization of super-combo
moves.
Even pinball isn’t a challenge any
more. With all the multiball features,
super jackpots and kickbacks, gaining
a free game on pinball today is as easy
as dropping in the quarter in the first
place.
Whatever happened to games like
“Missile Command,” “Star Castle” and
“Crazy Climber?” Games that didn’t
test to see if you knew all the secret
moves and combinations, but tested
how good you really were at such
(now outdated) concepts as accuracy
and skill.
The ’70s and ’80s were times for
strategy and reflex as the keys to sur
vival in a video game. The closest
thing we had to a secret in a game was
a “bug,” like that hiding place in the
“Pac-Man” maze or racking up hun
dreds of thousands of points on “As
teroids” by “hunting” for spaceships.
These games weren’t difficult to
figure out, either. Games, today have
up to six buttons and a joystick, while
a game of challenge like “Frogger”
featured the lone joystick. “Donkey
Kong” had one joystick and a button.
Let’s also not forget pinball ma
chines that required skill and accu
racy, featuring drop targets and
rollovers, and NOTHING ELSE! Pin
ball machines like “Eight Ball De
luxe” and “Star Trek” were for people
interested in a challenge, like break
ing a million points (gasp of horror)!
All over Lincoln are the new-gen
eration games. But I try to make at
least one j oumey to Omaha each month
to visit the ’ 80s game room at the Fun
Plex on 71st and Dodge streets.
Therein remain games such as those
listed above, plus other faves from my
far-and-gone days of being the (self
proclaimed) King of Video Games,
such as “Battle Zone,” “Phoenix,” and
“Robotron.”
Brian, my fellow vintage video
game junkie and best friend, and I
already have planned an extended jaunt
Aip to the Fun-Plex the next time he’s
in town, and I’m still searching for
“Star Castle,” “Red Baron” and “Crazy
Climber” machines to eagerly pump
my quarters into.
Until then, I’ll keep heading out to
Shoemaker’s, a truck stop way out on
West O Street, to catch a quick, half
hour game of “Asteroids.”
Game over.
Beltz is a senior secondary education
major and a Daily Nebraskan senior arts
and entertainment reporter.
Bruce Cohen speaks to a UNL students Tuesday at the Temple building Jay Caideron/DN
T fell in love with Loma’
Film, producer glad he filmed in Nebraska
By Kathryn A. Ratliff
Staff Reporter
Bruce Cohen stepped outside his van in Loma
and had a creative moment.
Cohen, the executive producer of “To Wong
Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar,” and
his crew wanted to select the perfect location for
their bold and daring film about three drag queens,
he said—a place that seemed completely in the
middle of nowhere. A town without a post office.
So they came to Nebraska.
“I wanted a place where you stand in the
middle of town in high heels and you know
there’s nowhere to go,” Cohen said. “I fell in love
with Loma.”
Cohen said he had an extraordinary time film
ing in Nebraska, and that after awhile, he began
to feel like a native.
Cohen spoke to students and faculty yesterday
afternoon at the Howell Theatre.
‘To Wong Foo” is the tale of Noxeema (Wesley
Snipes), Vida (Patrick Swdyze) and Chi Chi
(John Leguizamo), drag queens from New York
heading for Hollywood in a 1967 Cadillac con
■»
“This movie’s about groups
expecting one thing of each
other and finding out
something entirely different. "
BRUCECOHEN
Executive producer
vertible.
The Caddy breaks down and the trio gets stuck
in small-town middle America, where their ec
centricity and hair-spray indulgence give the
sleepy town of Snydersville — a place where
drag queens are considered Unidentified Freaky
Objects — something to talk about.
During one weekend, the wide-eyed local folk
get a course in the fabulous. And the queens learn
a valuable lesson about preconceived notions
from the town’s kooky inhabitants,
The picture has a heart, Cohen said.
“It has an important message of tolerance,” he
said. “This movie’s about groups expecting one
thing of each other and finding out something
entirely different.”
The movie premiered at the Stuart Theatre last
night and will be released next week.
The film’s earlier versions already have been
screened around the country, and they are receiv
ing positive response, he said.
“People are getting a big kick out of it —
macho, action-adventure stars like Snipes and
Swayze playing homosexual dragqueens,” Cohen
s&id. “And Nebraskans will see Loma as it’s
never been seen before.”
“To Wong Foo” is due out Sept. 8 from
Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures.
Stockard Charming co-stars along with Blythe
Danner, Arliss Howard and Chris Penn. Beeban
Kidron directed the film.
Cohen has advice for future filmmakers —
which turns into advice for anyone with bright
hopes and aspirations.
“There’s no substitution to going for your
dreams.”
i.. "A ' .
Musicians to reunite onstage in free show
By Jeff Randall
Senior Reporter ” ■ ■ ’
When Brazilian vocalist Marilia Alvares takes
center stage at Westbrook Music Building Thurs
day, accompanist Marcos Krieger will be reunit
ing with his musical past.
Years ago, in Brazil, Krieger and Alvares
performed together regularly. But after leaving
there to study in the United States, Krieger lost
contact with the woman he had accompanied
onstage so many times.
Thursday afternoon’s show and the rehearsals
leading up to it have re-established that contact.
Krieger, who is working toward his doctorate
in organ performance at UNL, said he had been
apprehensive about performing with Alvares
again.
“After five years, I knew we both had changed
dramatically as musicians,” he said. “I wondered
if we could make the interpretation and style
, work as well as it had before.
“But once we started to work together again in
rehearsals, I realized that I had nothing to worry
about.”
Alvares has been singing since the age of four
and has gained massive acclaim in Brazil, her
native country.
That acclaim, Krieger said, was well-deserved.
“She has a very ... classy way of relaying the
meaning of lyrics without compromising any of
the beauty of her voice,” he said. “Being able to
express emotion and retain that vocal quality is a
very rare talent.”
That talent will be displayed, Krieger said, in
Thursday’s program of Spanish and South Ameri
can songs by a variety of composers from the 18th
through the 20th centuries.
The unique elements of Spanish and South
American music are the result of numerous cul
tural influences, Krieger said.
“The combination of African rhythms with
English melodic structures is very complicated,
but both influences work together well,” he said.
The emotional qualities of die Spanish and
Portuguese languages contribute to the power of
the songs? lyrical content, as well, Krieger said.
The combination of these factors — an ac
claimed singer and an uncommon repertoire —
will make Thursday’s performance a once-in-a
lifetime event for music enthusiasts, Krieger said.
The performance will be Thursday afternoon
at 2:30 in Westbrook Musie Building, Room 119.
Admission is free.
“This type of program is very rare in this part
of the country,” Krieger said. “And getting the
chance to hear it performed by such an outstand
ing singer makes it all the more worthwhile.”